January 10 – Reading 10

JANUARY 10 – Reading 10

by John Pra | January 10

“LOOKIN’ FOR LOVE”
(Genesis 29:1 – 31:55)

So Jacob … loved Rachel more than Leah. … [Rachel] envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” – Genesis 29:30a; 30:1b

This hit song hit the top of the charts in 1980 and summarizes the pursuit of every human heart. 

I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, Lookin’ for love in too many faces,
Searchin’ their eyes, Lookin’ for traces of what I’m dreaming of.
Hoping to find a friend and a lover, I’ll bless the day I discover another heart
Lookin’ for love.

We find this longing of the heart played out in the ongoing drama of Jacob’s life – the war of two wives.  Leah and Rachel are both vying for the heart of their husband. Leah has Jacob’s children but wants his love. Rachel has Jacob’s love but wants his children.

What seems to be little more than a soap opera script has historic and eternal implications. Here are a few things we can glean:

• God sees and hears His people. Both Leah and Rachel testified to this fact.
• God doesn’t forget or forsake us. After many years, and Leah bearing six sons for Jacob, God remembered Rachel and gave her a son.
• God’s ultimate plan is infinitely bigger than the part that we play and our circumstances. God promised to make a great nation of Abraham and his descendants, and it is through the many sons that Leah and Rachel bore that God would form the 12 tribes of Israel and eventually send His Son, Jesus, to be born.

This is both a sad and a beautiful story. It reveals the heart of God and his special compassion and love for the loveless. God is at work for the downcast, afflicted, forgotten, and forsaken.

Pray for…

• The ability to find true fulfillment and identity in God’s unfailing love, rather than seeking approval or worth from people or circumstances.
• Those who feel unloved, forgotten, or afflicted, that they may experience God’s compassion and His presence in their lives, just as Leah did.
• Healing in broken relationships, asking God to replace envy, rivalry, and bitterness with unity, peace, and love, as seen in the dynamic between Leah and Rachel.
• The ability to surrender personal struggles and desires to God, trusting in His greater purpose for your life, as He worked through Leah, Rachel, and Jacob to fulfill His promise to Abraham.