January 9, 2006
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I was reading in Lynn Gail’s site about Leah today, http://www.xanga.com/LynnGail
She talked about the rejection that Leah must have felt when she was so rejected by Jacob. It recalled to my mind an exercise I did in the Beth Moore Bible study called the Patriarchs, We had to list all the offspring of Leah and Rachel and their comments. I am going to share those here.
Reubin – Mom -Leah “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now. Made by Leah
Simeon – Mom -Leah Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son also. Made by Leah
Levi – Mom -Leah – Now this time my husband will become attached to me because I have born him three sons – Made by Leah
Judah – Mom – Leah = Now I will praise the Lord – Made by Leah
Dan – Mom – Bilhah – God has judged my case and He has also heard my voice and given me a son – Made by Rachel
Naphtali – Mom – Bilhah – With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed – Made by Rachel
Gad – Zilpah – A troop comes – Made by Leah
Asher – Zilpah – I am happy for the daughters will call me blessed – Made by Leah
Issacher Leah – God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband. Made by Leah
Zebulon – Leah = God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have born him six sons. – Made by Leah
Dinah – Leah (No comment made, Dinah was a girl, sigh)
Joseph – Rachel – God has taken away my reproach, the Lord shall add to me another son. Made by rachel
Looking at the first four statements of Leah, you can see how Leah’s mindset changed.
Surely my husband will love me now – Reuben
I am unloved – Simeon
I will be loved because of what I did – Levi
He doesn’t love me, so I will praise the Lord – Judah
Beth Moore goes on to say:
“The name Judah means praise. Leah finally-if temporarily- progressed to a place where God became the only sense in a senseless spiral, and she gave Him praise. If only Leah could have remained in the mindset of praise for all she had instead of returning to misery for all she lacked, how different her life would have been! Instead, she did what you and I have also done at times. She allowed circumstances (Rachel’s children through Bilhah and her own inability to conceive) to eventually catapult her back to the old mindset, and she picked up her familiar obsession again.”
“Haven’t we had similar experiences? Has God ever brought you through a very painful process where you were finally able to think victoriously Then over time did something happen to catapult you back into the old cycle of defeated thinking? Have we lost ground we worked so hard to gain? Let’s regain the freedom we lost! Our liberator has not changed. Beloved, let’s allow God to show us our deepest desperation is for Him. The troubled child of desperation is obsession, but the healthy child of desperation is devotion. Our desperation will birth something. What will it be?”
I have to tell you that for me it is so easy to spiral back to the old desperation, and much harder to hold onto what I have achieved. Praying this year will birth more devotion and less obsession in me.
Have an awesome day!
Heather
Comments (16)
good post. Have you done many of Beth Moore’s studies? I have the opportunity to meet her last week. Such a blessing.
I have wondered about the pain of Leah many times over the years…how good to see this progressing to Joy. I have GOT to read some of Beth Moore…her name keeps popping up.
blessings…jim
Have an awesome day!
heather…thanks for stopping by and commenting…….. good post……… so true how we get victory then fall back inot that old rut….kinda like those in the bible wandering around in the wilderness all those years mumbling and complaining and GOD blessing them and they still continued in that same ole rut…….. creatures of habit we are! blessings…T
Ouch! I needed that.
i know it must sound easy somehow, but i think it’s easy for us to spiral downward, because we simply cannot self-sustain life you know?
Isolation is the breeding ground for depression and obsession! That’s why the gifts God entrusts are to pour out like a River of Life. . . and the Water the River pours out is actually the Saving Life of Jesus Christ. . . an outflow of spontaneous Life. If we live in Him and move in Him and have our very being IN HIM . . . we will FEEL the need to pour out His Life. If we don’t — and self-focus instead, we become bloated and we burst out of our pure spirit-life and end up polluting our spirit-life with the debris of our uncrucified self-life. . . and the mingling for the flesh and spirit is not pure delight! We begin to take the way of all flesh. . . and sin disrupts the flow of His Life and we then must repent and be restored and take back what ground we have lost when the enemy distracted us by our self-interest preoccupation with our personal maladies which Christ came to replace by His life.
Give us that upward climb to focus on. . . the freedom to rest in Him and enjoy Him and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is actually a God-thing for Him to use the broken stuff of our lives in turning what Satan intended for evil into GOOD for us and for God!
heather, thank you for all of your sweet encouragements. be blessed, joy=)
I always felt sorry for Leah,she was with a man who didnt love her,had children by him,knowing the whole time he wanted to be with her sister.Then Rachel is so highly praised,because of her outward beauty? Rachel had to wait for Jacob all those years,so do we give her credit for her patience? What Beth Moore said is true,we fall back into our misery,and dont look at Gods blessings. I never cared for rachel ,or should I? Leah gave 10 men out of the 12 tribes of Israel.Maybe because Joseph was the best.
Great post and thanks for your comment to me. Your words are so true. I think we all fall into that cycle of being defeated – but we have to remember that is the enemy’s plan for us – so we have to remain in God’s word so we are not so easily deceived.
We are going to see Beth Moore in February in Birmingham – I cannot wait! It is my first time to see her in person although I do feel as if I know her from all the video lessons.
Have a blessed week! <>< Melody ><>
Wow! What a great post! That was food for thought and much appreciated. Thankyou. We think, ‘Poor Leah’, but I believe she was first to find that though her flesh and her heart faileth, God was the strength of her heart, and her portion forever. (Ps. 73:25) Through many trials that are seemingly meant for bad, we find good. That is God’s way. Earthly joys will soon be past…
Heather that was tremendous! I have to say…I felt this one in a rather unspiritual matter …at first glance..because that is the latest place of slipping back to an old mindset I could think of right off the bat…my ability to lose 22 lbs and then gain half of it back…all in the course of 4 months… !
I will undoubtedly find a more spritual use for this as I thnk about it…
Thanks for the life preserver!
I need to apply this…not just to the above but to alot of things that my mind seems to want to revert back to…when it seems I am making headway!
bless you!
Kerri
“Of course you may subscribe to my site” and thank you.
I have been delving into the depths of the meanings of words for nearly 35 years now and have found that when one focuses on the definition rather than the name, that person literally ascends forth from the grave into present-day now. – For instance, Jacob caught my heel the other day, giving me pause enough to allow me to witness the glory of a magnicent sunrise. Aaron, the deliverer of hope, stopped by my mailbox yesterday with an unexpected check, which was an answer to prayer. – They have been freed their bonds of death and allowed to become a part of my world. – Their name is long dead, but their definition lives, and will live, foever.
Thanks again, Heather
GJ
Glad you came by my xanga site. Thanks for your encouragement. I enjoyed your post…I love the fact that God can transform us by renewing our mind. Our teeth will rot, our bones will shrink, our skin will pale and wither, yet our minds are renewed!
You are such an encouragement. Thank you. God Bless you.
Hugs,
Patty
Heather, I read Lynn Gail’s site and then came to yours and it is something how I knew the story of Leah and Rachael and never looked upon it in that way and then you added what she was feeling through what she named her children and it really completed the whole story. God Bless Lisa