16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. 18 Jacob loved Rachel.
Genesis 29:16-18
Through the Bible: Genesis 27-29
Leah, I’m sorry for you. You were the third wheel in a love story that wasn’t meant to include you, and you never had a chance at a love story of your own.
The Bible is vague on what it was about you that Jacob didn’t love. The only description of you is that “your eyes were weak” (Genesis 28:17). What does that even mean? The Hebrew word rach could mean delicate. Could mean soft. Could mean gentle, or tender. The only clue we are given that is wasn’t a good thing is that it was immediately followed with “but Rachel was lovely.”
You were unloved simply because you weren’t someone else. “The heart wants what it wants,” right? “It’s not you, it’s me.” Heard that one before, I’ll bet.
And how often have you heard about your younger sister getting the looks in the family? “Rachel was lovely.” Rachel was the one with the good figure. Rachel was the one who caught the eyes of all the boys. Rachel was the one your father knew he would get a good price for. But your eyes were “weak.” You were the one your father would probably sell for a loss.
Modern translations of the Bible have done you no favors, dear sister. One [the Amplified Bible] says you were dull looking. Another [the Contemporary English] says your eyes didn’t sparkle. One [the International Standard Version] says you were rather plain.
Some attempt kindness, saying your eyes were attractive, or even lovely [Good News Translation]. Still, every single translation follows up whatever it has to say about your eyes with “But Rachel…”
Rachel was beautiful. Rachel had a good figure. Rachel was shapely. Fair. Lovely. Well-favored.
Will comparison ever not sting? Will women forever be burdened with the idea that there is always someone they are less than?
What was it like for those few hours on your wedding night, before Jacob knew he had been tricked by your father? Did you lie in the dark, with your new husband, and think in that moment that you were finally loved? That you would never again have to hear “but Rachel?” Or did you go in knowing that you were the pawn in a cruel bait-and-switch?
What was it like to wake up to your husband’s disappointment? Did he see you in the shaft of sunlight and blurt out “No…But Rachel…”?
Maybe you fell in love with him during the seven years he thought he was working for your sister Rachel. You thought, “How happy he seems! He acts as though these seven years are only days” (see Gen. 29:20). How was he for the next seven years, when he came home to you at the end of each day? Was there resentment in his eyes? Did those seven years seem like fourteen?
Unloved Leah, will there always be women who realize after the honeymoon that marriage wasn’t the fairy tale they thought it would be?
Dear sister, you never wanted to be the patroness of the unloved and unwanted. You didn’t ask to be remembered this way. It wasn’t your wish to be despised and rejected.
But take heart, rejected Leah. One day you will give birth to Judah.
One day, Judah’s descendant David will use that same word that was used to describe your eyes to describe himself:
And I was gentle [rach] today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are more severe than I.
2 Samuel 3:39
One day Ezekiel will use that same word to describe the coming Messiah:
22 Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one [rach], and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
Ezekiel 17:22
One day Isaiah will write of the Messiah that he would grow up as a tender root that had been plucked out of the ground (Isaiah 53:2).
And, dear Leah, this Messiah will likewise be despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 52:3).
The man of Sorrows was the son of David.
The Son of Judah.
The Son of Leah.
Oh, despised bride, rejected wife, daughter of Laban; Woman of sorrow, grandmother to the Man of Sorrows; tender, Leah, gentle Leah, and weak Leah– no more are you rejected. No more are you despised. Weeping endures for the night, but joy comes in the morning!
Daughter, arise. Your Bridegroom comes (Matthew 25:6).
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