Genesis 30: 1-8: “And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.”
Even though Rachel was loved more than Leah, she was unhappy that she didn’t have a son. She longed to have a child of her own so that she could gain a measure of independence. In the beginning God made Eve from Adam and then God said that a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh. There is no room in God’s equation for three people being joined together and becoming one flesh, just two. After Jacob married Leah they were joined together into one flesh but Jacob still chose to marry Rachel, this didn’t make it possible for him to be joined to Rachel as well even though she was joined to Jacob after their marriage. Jacob was a more selfish person and he was angry with Rachel because she was caught in an emotional wilderness. However, Jacob blamed God for the problem and didn’t accept any responsibility himself. In the end Rachel took her slave girl and told Jacob to have children with her. In the laws of those days the children of the slave girl would actually belong to Rachel so she chose this ancient method of surrogacy. She had two surrogate sons and then she felt some security. However, these boys were both slave boys and she still didn’t have her own son. In the short term, however, she felt a sense of triumph because she had been fighting against her sister for her husband’s attention and now she had sons to take her mind away from her emptiness of soul.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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