Slices
Prepare
Take the psalmist’s words to heart: ‘I have calmed and quietened myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother’ (Psalm 131:2).
Bible passage
Jacob’s children
31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 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.’
33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.’ So she named him Simeon.
34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.’ So he was named Levi.
35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.’ So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.
30 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I’ll die!’
2 Jacob became angry with her and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?’
3 Then she said, ‘Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.’
4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, ‘God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.’ Because of this she named him Dan.
7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, ‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.’ So she named him Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, ‘What good fortune!’ So she named him Gad.
12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, ‘How happy I am! The women will call me happy.’ So she named him Asher.
14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.’
15 But she said to her, ‘Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?’
‘Very well,’ Rachel said, ‘he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.’
16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. ‘You must sleep with me,’ she said. ‘I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.’ So he slept with her that night.
17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, ‘God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.’ So she named him Issachar.
19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, ‘God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honour, because I have borne him six sons.’ So she named him Zebulun.
21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, ‘God has taken away my disgrace.’ 24 She named him Joseph, and said, ‘May the Lord add to me another son.’
Explore
This could so easily be the plot of a twenty-first-century soap. Leah lives with the pain of being unloved, Rachel with the pain of childlessness. Jacob enjoys sexual activity without offering genuine affection. He shows little understanding of Rachel’s or Leah’s pain. And we can only guess at the feelings of Bilhah and Zilpah. This is dysfunctional family life at its worst.
But it is not beyond redemption. The beautiful words ‘God remembered Rachel’ do not mean that he had forgotten her. They mean that at this point in the story God chose to intervene and show grace to Rachel. Why then and not earlier we cannot know: there are things we do not understand about how God works and sometimes we have to trust without knowing all the answers. The names of all these sons are familiar to us as the tribes of later Israel. We begin to see that the promise to Abraham is for the long term. The mention of Judah brings to mind one who will be known as the ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah’ (Revelation 5:5). We can rejoice that, out of the pain and difficulty that we see here, Jesus will come to deal with the sin, deceit and failure of humanity, to stand with the lonely, the hurting and the marginalised.
Respond
Think of someone you know who is wondering what God is doing. Pray that God will ‘remember’ them.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Job 41,42; Philippians 3
Pray for Scripture Union
April–June 2026 Bible reading guides go to press in the next week. Pray for the staff as they make final corrections to the publications and thank God that material written so far in advance often speaks so relevantly to the readers.
