HELEN SANDERS
12-8-2025
LEAH – PART 3
A LOVELESS MARRIAGE

As we continue our study of Leah, we find her in a hard situation. Jacob had requested Rachel to be his bride, but Leah’s father tricked Jacob. He had Leah come for marriage. Of course, she had a veil on, and Jacob did not know he was deceived.

I find it interesting how Jacob reaped what he sowed. He had been influenced by his mother to trick his father into giving him the blessing rather than the first-born Esau. Now, he wakes up to find that he had been tricked. The bride he loved was not the bride that he was given.

Laban, Leah and Rachel’s father, told him that the oldest had to marry first, but that he could also have Rachel as his wife if he worked for another seven years for him. He told him that he must give Leah her “week” as wife and he would then have Rachel also.

Giving Leah her week meant that she would have sexual relations with Jacob first before he could have Rachel as his wife. After Leah’s week, he then was given Rachel.

Jacob hated what Laban had done to him, and he also hated Leah. We see this in Genesis 29:31 where it says, “And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.”

Leah conceived Jacob’s first-born son, Reuben. She hoped this would turn Jacob’s heart to love her, but it did not happen. She then had Simeon, Levi, and Judah. She then stopped bearing sons for a season. [Genesis 29:32-35].

Rachel was barren, and complained to Jacob. She offered Jacob her maid, Bilhah, to have children through her. Bilhah conceived and had Dan, and then had Naphtali.

Leah gave Jacob her maid Zilpah to also have children by her, and Zilpah had a son named Gad, and another named Asher. No matter how hard Leah tried to be loved by Jacob, it never happened. She conceived another time and had another son, Issachar. She then had a sixth son named Levi. Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

The hatred stirred up by Jacob against Esau was now happening with Laban and Leah. Although Leah was an innocent victim, a part of her father’s trickery, she could not change the heart of Jacob. God remembered her by giving her seven children, and would have a plan for one son that would change the world. We will learn more about that plan tomorrow.