What we know for sure is that Jacob never wanted Leah in the first place.\u00a0 His eyes, his heart, and his devotion were all for Rachel\u2019s affection and her hand in marriage\u2026not Leah\u2019s.\u00a0 Leah got caught up in the crossfire simply because for her father, Laban, it was a business transaction really \u2013 a quite cruel one.\u00a0 He\u00a0reasoned that\u00a0it was \u201cnot the custom\u201d to give away the oldest daughter before the youngest one. (I\u2019m not buying it).\u00a0So Jacob married them both!\u00a0 At this point, it was really his only option if he wanted Rachel.<\/span> What we know for sure is that Jacob never wanted Leah in the first place.\u00a0 His eyes, his heart, and his devotion were all for Rachel\u2019s affection and her hand in marriage\u2026not Leah\u2019s.\u00a0 Leah got caught up in the crossfire simply because for her father, Laban, it was a business transaction really \u2013 a quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
It was God, not Jacob,\u00a0who really showed grace and mercy to Leah by opening her womb, while Rachel was barren.\u00a0 Rachel became so envious of Leah that she gave her maid, Bilhah, to Jacob.\u00a0 It hurt Rachel so much that she said she would, \u201csurely die\u201d. But Leah just kept those babies coming, one after another.\u00a0 When she stopped bearing children, she gave Jacob her maid, Zilpah.\u00a0 What a crazy competition!\u00a0 Here\u2019s the kicker, Leah wasn\u2019t all that innocent or nice in the story.\u00a0 She quietly taunted Rachel. When Reuben, Leah\u2019s son, found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother, Rachel asked for some of the mandrakes.\u00a0 They were coveted, rare, and valuable. So, the two ladies\u00a0bargained for Jacob\u2019s affection for the evening \u2013 the mandrakes in exchange for\u00a0Jacob.\u00a0 Why were these mandrakes so important?\u00a0 They were considered to be a fertility herb of the ancient Middle East.\u00a0 Now, we\u2019re getting somewhere.\u00a0 After that evening, Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son\u2026and then a daughter.\u00a0 Guess what? Then Rachel bore Jacob a son, Joseph, finally after years of barrenness.\u00a0 And he\u00a0<\/span>really<\/strong>\u00a0loved Rachel now!<\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span>Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"