14
¶ And Reuben went in the days of wheat
harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother
Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes.
15 And she said unto her, Is it a small
matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son’s
mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for
thy son’s mandrakes. 16 And Jacob came
out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou
must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And
he lay with her that night. 17 And God
hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son. 18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire,
because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.
19 And Leah conceived again, and bare
Jacob the sixth son. 20 And Leah said,
God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me,
because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. 21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and
called her name Dinah. 22 And God
remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. 23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said,
God hath taken away my reproach: 24 And
she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.
In these passages we have been shown a great example
of God’s permissive will. We have seen events occur that God did not
specifically command or ordain but we see the actions and reactions of human
beings and how God wove their free will into His will that a people should be
formed whom He would enter in at a singular point in history as the Son of God,
God in the flesh, who was and is Jesus Christ.
Mandrakes were, according to some authors, thought to
be useful for stimulating fertility as well as for having an aphrodisiac
quality. This was a purely humanistic and superstitious belief which, like
others of man then and now, God simply ignores. Here, we are told of the
argument between Rachel and Leah regarding mandrakes. Yet, it is only when God
chooses to acknowledge or hearken unto Leah that she conceives. God cares not a
whit for your rabbit’s foot, whether you think wearing your socks inside out is
lucky, or for any other lucky charm you carry from your heathen ancestors. His
will shall be done regardless of such accouterments. Do not mistake the mention
of something in the Bible for God’s approval or for any power on its part. It
merely reveals the incomplete and imperfect understanding of the Bible’s
characters, similar to our own in many cases.
God heard Leah and gave her Issachar, meaning that God
has paid Leah. He is sort of like her payment for giving up the mandrakes, in
her thinking. She then gave birth to Zebulun, named so because God had lifted
her up and given her a plentiful dowry with which to bless her husband.
Finally, she gave birth to a daughter named Dinah.
Although it is not evident from the text Dinah’s name has a similar meaning to
Dan’s in it being judgment.
Rachel is not forgotten. We’ve seen this use of the
word remembered before, if you
recall, in comments on 8:1.
And
God remembered Rachel does not say, in this context, that
God forgot about her but that God revisited her, brought her back into play,
turned His attention to her. In pre-1611 dictionaries something remembered was
something worthy to be mentioned, thought about, or spoken of, not as it is
often today, something I had forgotten but has now come to mind.
Joseph’s name means that Jehovah, which is what LORD
is with all capitals, has added, which is evident by the context.
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