Genesis 30
Rachel vs. Leah
A Battle For Children

V.1 “Give me children or I die”

1. Exaggeration
or
2. Threat

V.2 Jacob’s reaction

Col 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

V.3 A common practice but a big mistake

Ex:
1. Slavery
2. Gendercide

LA Times 1994 "Where killing baby girls 'is no big sin'."
“Lakshmi already had one daughter, so when she gave birth to a second girl, she killed her. For the three days of her second child's short life, Lakshmi admits, she refused to nurse her. To silence the infant's famished cries, the impoverished village woman squeezed the milky sap from an oleander shrub, mixed it with castor oil, and forced the poisonous potion down the newborn's throat. The baby bled from the nose, then died soon afterward. Female neighbors buried her in a small hole near Lakshmi's square thatched hut of sunbaked mud...in some hamlets of ... Tamil Nadu, murdering girls is still sometimes believed to be a wiser course than raising them. "A daughter is always liabilities. How can I bring up a second?" Lakshmi, 28, answered firmly when asked by a visitor how she could have taken her own child's life eight years ago. "Instead of her suffering the way I do, I thought it was better to get rid of her."

3. Gender selected Abortions
4. Homosexuality

What may be common may not be right

• BilhahDo we always turn first to God with our problems?

See Gen. 25:20-21 cf; 25-26

V.4-6 “Dan”- He has vindicated.

V.7-8 “Naphtali”- Struggle

V.9-11 “Gad”- Good fortune.

1. A legitimate feeling
Or
2. Named after the false God, Gad.

Isa 65:11 "But as for you who forsake the LORD and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, 12 I will destine you for the sword,
and you will all bend down for the slaughter;

V.12-13 Asher- How happy

Prov 24:17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, 18 or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him.

V.14-16
“Mandrakes”- Aphrodisiac/fertility herb

Song 7:13 The mandrakes send out their fragrance...”

V.17-21 Issachar, Zebulun and Dinah (34)
Gen 46:7 He took with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters

Rachel, “Oops!”

Ps 33:10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

V.22-24
Wait for the LORD

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

•Psalm 27

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,