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The Unloved Wife - The Word About Women

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Getting Started...

The Ministry of Motherhood

  • Feb 25, 2021

The Ministry of Motherhood

Women’s Work

  • Feb 23, 2021

Women’s Work

The Truth About Mary Magdalene

  • Feb 18, 2021

The Truth About Mary Magdalene

The Good News Girls

  • Feb 16, 2021

The Good News Girls

Compassion for Women

  • Feb 11, 2021

Compassion for Women

Distracted with Much Serving

  • Feb 9, 2021

Distracted with Much Serving

No Throwing Stones

  • Feb 4, 2021

No Throwing Stones

She Was a Sinner

  • Feb 2, 2021

She Was a Sinner

The Eternal Thirst Quencher

  • Jan 28, 2021

The Eternal Thirst Quencher

The Laws of Love

  • Jan 26, 2021

The Laws of Love

Follow Him

  • Jan 21, 2021

Follow Him

Daughter, Your Faith Has Healed You

  • Jan 19, 2021

Daughter, Your Faith Has Healed You

In His Service

  • Jan 14, 2021

In His Service

Share in Their Joy

  • Jan 12, 2021

Share in Their Joy

Highly Favored One

  • Jan 7, 2021

Highly Favored One

The Value of a Woman

  • Jan 5, 2021

The Value of a Woman

See You in 2021

  • Nov 20, 2020

See You in 2021

In God’s Hands

  • Nov 19, 2020

In God’s Hands

A Disposable Woman?

  • Nov 17, 2020

A Disposable Woman?

A Bearer of Bad News

  • Nov 12, 2020

A Bearer of Bad News

A Wicked Queen Mother vs A Godly Princess

  • Nov 10, 2020

A Wicked Queen Mother vs A Godly Princess

A Heart for Hospitality

  • Nov 6, 2020

A Heart for Hospitality

The Willing Widow

  • Nov 4, 2020

The Willing Widow

A Wretched Woman

  • Nov 2, 2020

A Wretched Woman

Wicked Women

  • Oct 30, 2020

Wicked Women

Missed Opportunity

  • Oct 28, 2020

Missed Opportunity

How To Spot A Mother

  • Oct 26, 2020

How To Spot A Mother

A Wicked Thing

  • Oct 23, 2020

A Wicked Thing

Grace in the Genealogy

  • Oct 21, 2020

Grace in the Genealogy

Victim or Adulteress?

  • Oct 19, 2020

Victim or Adulteress?

A Relationship Ruined By Resentment

  • Oct 16, 2020

A Relationship Ruined By Resentment

Beauty, Brains, and a Blessing

  • Oct 14, 2020

Beauty, Brains, and a Blessing

Giving Back To God

  • Oct 12, 2020

Giving Back To God

Crimes Against Women

  • Oct 9, 2020

Crimes Against Women

When Women Are His Weakness

  • Oct 7, 2020

When Women Are His Weakness

Raising A Leader

  • Oct 5, 2020

Raising A Leader

A Redeemer

  • Oct 2, 2020

A Redeemer

A Dedicated Daughter-in-Law

  • Sep 30, 2020

A Dedicated Daughter-in-Law

A Woman With a Weapon

  • Sep 28, 2020

A Woman With a Weapon

The Leader of a Nation

  • Sep 25, 2020

The Leader of a Nation

The Faith of an Outsider

  • Sep 23, 2020

The Faith of an Outsider

The Daughters of Zelophehad

  • Sep 21, 2020

The Daughters of Zelophehad

The Prophetess

  • Sep 18, 2020

The Prophetess

A River Rescue

  • Sep 16, 2020

A River Rescue

The Temptress

  • Sep 14, 2020

The Temptress

The Double Standard

  • Sep 11, 2020

The Double Standard

A Daughter Defiled

  • Sep 9, 2020

A Daughter Defiled

Stolen Statues

  • Sep 7, 2020

Stolen Statues

The Unloved Wife

  • Sep 4, 2020

The Unloved Wife

A Meddling Matriarch

  • Sep 2, 2020

A Meddling Matriarch

Beyond Redemption?

  • Aug 31, 2020

Beyond Redemption?

A Salty Warning

  • Aug 28, 2020

A Salty Warning

Oppressed Yet Blessed

  • Aug 26, 2020

Oppressed Yet Blessed

The Mother of a Nation

  • Aug 24, 2020

The Mother of a Nation

The God Who Sees

  • Aug 21, 2020

The God Who Sees

Beautiful but Barren

  • Aug 19, 2020

Beautiful but Barren

Past Messages
BTBAplatform+ShannonLenz
ShannonSep 4, 2020 1:00 pm GMT

The Unloved Wife


Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, He enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.


Genesis 29:30-32


For context read Genesis 29

 

The story of Leah and Rachel breaks my heart. Here are two sisters torn apart by the customs of the land and their own father. Genesis 29:20 makes it clear from the very beginning that Jacob only had eyes for Rachel. It says, “So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” It was customary at that time for men to pay a dowry to the family of his bride. Jacob did not have the money so he worked seven years just to be able to take Rachel as his wife!

 

But then, the sisters’ father, Laban, gets involved. He tricked Jacob by giving him Leah rather than Rachel. When Jacob discovered he’d consummated a marriage with the wrong sister, he got angry. Laban claimed that the custom of the land was that the older sister gets married first, though he’d failed to mention this all along. Laban’s motivation was most likely another seven years of free labor from Jacob in exchange for Rachel’s hand.

 

It may look as though Laban was looking out for the rights and welfare of his eldest daughter, and that may have been his intent but his treachery gives his greed away. In reality, Laban was condemning Leah to a marriage with a man who did not love her. And later, Leah found herself locked into a childbearing competition with her sister. We don’t know if the sisters had a close relationship prior to these events, but we do know that the fallout of their father’s decision caused both of his daughters a significant amount of pain and ruined their relationship.

 

Leah’s pain was being the wife that Jacob never wanted. But verse 31 gives us this picture of hope for Leah. “When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, He enabled her to conceive.” God cared about Leah and He blessed her with sons.

 

But Leah’s pain is still evident in the names that she gives her children. “Reuben” because “the LORD has seen my misery”, “Simeon” because “the LORD heard that I am not loved”, “Levi” because “now my husband will be attached to me because I have borne him three sons”. Despite the fact that God had blessed her three times, the longing for her husband’s love was still apparent. She wanted him to love her so badly.

 

God must have done a work in Leah’s heart by her fourth son, though. Genesis 29:35 says, “...This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.” Somehow, she went from bitterness and pain to seemingly accepting the circumstances and choosing to praise the LORD for His gift of another son.

 

And this gift of another son is more than that. Judah would be the son of Jacob found in the genealogy of Jesus. The unloved wife was not just blessed to bear four sons. She was blessed to be the mother of the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Jesus’s ancestors.

 

The WORD about women is that we are not unloved. We are loved and blessed by God. Sister, I know many of us are feeling unloved, unwanted, unfavored. Can I encourage you to say, “this time, I will praise the LORD”?

 

Reflect

Have you ever felt unloved and unwanted by others? How has God shown you that He cares for You in the midst of Your pain?

 

 

Pray

Lord, thank You for hearing me, seeing me, and blessing me even in the midst of my pain. I know that I am not unloved or unwanted by You. Amen.

We look forward to your comments and questions below!

If you want to share this Bible reading plan with friends and family, here is the link:
https://bttb.org/word-about-women

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Sue
a year ago
I will praise the Lord 🙏

God has recently been reminding me to meditate and speak out that I am God's daughter.
👍
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