The son-bearing contest and flock-increasing contest described in this chapter are perfect examples of people attempting to take control of their own lives while simultaneously trying to build a relationship with God. It doesn't work...something has to give.
Rachel here is beginning to grow desperate to bear a child. She's the wife Jacob wanted, mostly for her physical attractiveness, but it is Leah he married first and she is the one who has been wronged by Jacob's preference for her sister. Rachel doesn't seem to believe that God has anything to do with this, but that Jacob does, so she angrily demands that he give her a son or she will die (kill herself out of shame and desperation, perhaps?) . Jacob will lose the woman he's so attracted to if she doesn't bear a son. She hasn't been promised one by God the way Sarah was, but she is driven to envious distraction at the fact that Leah has several. In order to take control of the situation, both Leah and Rachel bring surrogates loyal to their cause, their maids, into the contest with disappointing results much the same way Sarah did.
Leah and Rachel name their children spiteful, gleefully smug names that reflect their attitudes at the births of the boys, with the exception of one...Judah. Judah is named when his mother has begun to believe that God has blessed her with these sons, not as prizes in a contest, but as gifts from Him. She says "Finally, this time, I'll praise God." and names him Judah, "praise the Lord" Even though Rachel's son Joseph would grow up to become a good, Godly man and a force in the history of the patriarchs, it was Judah whose tribe would be blessed with the world's redeemer. Joseph himself is named in both relief and somewhat selfish demand, "may god add more!" His mother is happy to have him but is hungry for more.
Rachel and Leah are both worthy of respect as the two mothers of the tribes of Israel, the ones who made Jacob's promised nation a reality, but between the two, Leah is the only one who has that momentary spark of understanding in the midst of the Sons Contest. Rachel continues to sulk, growing more and more bitter. If only she could understand that both of the sisters would bear important sons in Joseph and Judah, and that the fates of the two boys would depend on each other. God uses both Joseph (whose sons Ephraim and Manasseh would found the dominant tribes of the Northern Kingdom, the Lost Tribes) and Judah (who would band together with Benjamin to form Judea) together to advance His people...but in the end, Judah, the praising one, would be the road that leads to the Savior.
Jacob's sins and (not quite sinful) mistakes, his deceitfulness, his steadfast insistence on marrying Rachel the Hottie in addition to Leah instead of forgetting about her, and his willingness to be bought, are not enough to stop God or His plans. Like a river that flows around a rock in its way, God makes his plans happen in and through the bad choices his Chosen make. He receives the fruits of every bad choice he makes, with wives who fight and compete bitterly the same way he fought and competed bitterly with Esau, a father-in-law and wives who consider him a hireling to be bought for a pretty woman or a bunch of mandrakes the same way he bought his brother's birthright for some stew, and a father-in-law and sons who trick him the same way he tricked Isaac.
I'm amazed at God's ability to work through all our choices, even trickery, to give us what He promises. Jacob's deft zig-zagging with the sheep and goats makes him very materially wealthy despite all of Laban's attempts to...forgive me...screw him. Laban knows that he might try to breed the rarer colored animals to make more for himself, so Laban takes them away. Jacob then tries a little lucky trick to get the normal colored animals to produce the rarer colors anyway. Laban tries to take some of the rarer colored animals anyway despite the earlier agreement and Jacob gives him some, but only the weaklings. In the end, his wiliness has made him a really really rich man. Is this God's doing? Maybe. Will Jacob reap what he has sown with his trickery? If there is sinfulness in it, yes, absolutely.
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