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19 Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 And Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons." So she called his name Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach." 24 So she called his name Joseph, and said, "The Lord shall add to me another son." ~ Genesis 30:19-24
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 30 where we have been observing the growth of Jacob's family through his two wives and their two concubines. Even though they all fed the flesh quite a bit, in the end the will of God came to fruition. In our last study we learned that Rueben had found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah who in turn used them to manipulate both Rachel and Jacob. Even though Rachel had been given these superstitious mandrakes, they still did not work because it was a year later and she still had not had any more children.
In v.19-20 of today's passage we read, "19 Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 And Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons." So she called his name Zebulun."
Leah named her next son Zebulun which means "to honor." This sixth and final son of Leah is mentioned only five times in the Bible. With the birth of Zebulun, Leah exclaimed, "God has endowed me with a good endowment." Leah named her sixth son such hoping that with his birth, she would receive from Jacob the honor she so long had desired. No matter what we do, we may never receive the honor from people that we desire. Despite Leah having given Jacob six sons, we see no hint that Jacob ever honored her as he did Rachel.
Since she had born six sons, Leah was certain that Jacob would love her in the way that she desired to be loved. We all have two love languages, a dominant one and a recessive one. If we are not being loved according to our love language, we will not feel loved. So, it behooves us to know our partners love languages and to love them accordingly. While it’s impossible for us to be perfect at anything, we can learn to fluently speak our partner’s love languages. If he or she needs lots of physical touch or gifts to feel loved, then we need to share lots of hugs or to give gifts.
With that said, only God can satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. The deepest longings of our hearts will not be satisfied by anything that can ultimately be taken away from us. There is nothing that this world can offer us that has the capacity to bring us ultimate satisfaction. Many believe they will find satisfaction and rest through the love of others like our spouse but even they fall short from time to time. In the end, the longings of our hearts can only be satisfied by our Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we're convinced that He is enough, we will finally experience the contentment we have all sought for so long. It is out of this posture that we recognize that even every trial, loss, or disappointment, can be turned into blessing, only if we allow the One whom we are depending upon to define us.
In v.21 of today's passage we read, "Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah."
Then, Leah gave birth to a daughter. In those days, when a woman had a son a great party was thrown. But when a daughter was born, there was no party. And, since they had no ultrasounds, they didn't know the gender of the baby beforehand. This was not a custom the Jews garnered from God. God values both boys and girls. The Jews had gotten to this place of only valuing boys because God had long promised a Messiah who would come as a male and every Jewish woman dreamed that she would give birth to the Messiah. This is why they were so focused on having a son because they were secretly serving the self life.
Of the daughters born of Jacob, only Dinah whose name means "vindicated" is mentioned. Dinah was mentioned by Moses because she will become a key character in the story of Jacob's family later on in Genesis 34. With Dinah's birth Leah felt vindicated by God. The name Dinah can also mean "judged" which is what the Lord Jesus was when He hung on the cross. He was judged and we were vindicated. God vindicated everyone who has been so desperate to be loved by someone who wouldn't love us the way we wanted to be loved, only to realize it wasn't that person's love we really needed. The Lord Jesus was judged so that we could see and experience the Father heart of God.
In v.22-24 of today's passage we read, "22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived and bore a son, and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.' 24 So she called his name Joseph, and said, 'The Lord shall add to me another son.'"
Rachel understood that in order for us to access God's blessing there had to be judgement of our sin. So, God gave Rachel Joseph which means "add" a subtle message that underscores that subtraction can sometimes be addition. In taking away her reproach, God showered Rachel with His grace. And, now, for the first time in the biblical narrative, Rachel invoked the covenant name of the Lord, YHWH. Rachel had come to the point that she chose to forsake feeding the flesh or the world of fighting, manipulation, superstition, and envy, and she entered into a covenant relationship with the Lord whereby she would be defined by the Lord.
