Daily devotion – God sees you in the shadows
Psalm 127: 1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Psa 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
The Jews looked upon parenthood as a stewardship before God, and this was especially the case for Jacob. For his descendants would multiply “as the stars of the heavens and and the sand which is upon the seashore”, Gen 22:17
God would make Jacob the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
But because this would involve four different women in building this family, Jacob would have one problem after another!
The man who had grown up in a divided and competitive home – Genesis 25:28 – would himself create a divided and competitive family.
Jacob love Rachel more than he did Leah, and he gave Rachel more attention and affection. The fact that Leah bore Jacob six sons and a daughter, reveals however that Jacob fulfilled his marital duties toward her. But Leah knew Jacob’s heart was for Rachel her younger sister.
Here beautifully we see the Lord recognizing Leah’s sad heart and so He blessed Leah with conception. Whilst Jacob was working fourteen years to pay for two wives, only one of those wives was bearing children.
Leah’s being second fiddle in the home drove her to depend upon the Lord.
“Psa 27:10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”
It appears that Leah was the more spiritual of the two wives. For at the birth of Jacob’s first son, Reuben, meaning ‘see a son’, Leah was saying, “The Lord has seen my misery”, Genesis 29:32.
Let us never forget that God is watching over us all in our trials. His heart and compassion for Leah, shows yet again, His love for those who are ‘overlooked, neglected and cast aside’.
Mat 12:20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.
If you identify with Leah today, take hope from God’s Word and know the Lord will bless you, even though you are in the shadows!