Give Me God!

“Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah…When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren…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!’” Gen. 29:30-31, 30:1.

This is a story that will have your head reeling. Take the time to read Genesis 29:14 – 30:22. These were two sisters who fought for the love of their husband after he was tricked by the sisters’ father into marrying both girls. Jacob originally was working for their father in an effort to marry Rachel. When his appointed work obligation had been fulfilled the father placed the condition onto Jacob of marrying Leah first. This set in motion the creation of a false god for whom both sisters would worship. One sister was determined to provide sons for Jacob in an effort to win his love and adoration. The other sister who had Jacob’s love was determined to have children to establish her desire for family. Both sisters had exalted their obsession for something greater than God to rule their minds, hearts and decisions. Both ended up building families through any means for which they could create. Leah built idols to worship out of her ‘lack of’ and Rachel built idols to worship out of her ‘fullness.’

At any point in life, we could be Leah or we could be Rachel. When we are living life miserably because we lack something, we are tempted to create a way to obtain that void through our own means instead of waiting on God. We make decisions trying to fill that void which comes up empty and hollow. On the contrary, when we have everything we want and are living life in fullness it is easy to get dissatisfied and self-focused on what everyone else has or is doing. God becomes less than our desire to seek what we do not have or tightly secure what we wish to hold onto.

Whether motivated by ‘a lack of’ or ‘a passion to hold onto’, we cannot say these fateful words, ‘Give me…or I’ll die!’ When we live our lives with a frantic longing for something other than God we will birth circumstances that God never intended on us parenting.

Every passionate plea regarding our lives should be ‘Give me God!’”