Author Archives: womenfromthebook

Before we move on to the next pair of sisters, Martha and Mary, we will revisit the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel by posing a few questions and considering some interesting facts.

How much time elapsed before Jacob took his family back to his homeland?

In Genesis 31:41 Jacob says to Laban, “Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock.”  It seems likely by the time they left, Leah’s older sons were teenagers and Joseph under the age of ten.

As Jacob’s family grew in size, where did they live?

Genesis 31:33 indicates each of Jacob’s wives and handmaids had her own tent. Laban searched through each one looking for his stolen idols. I assume the children lived with their mothers.

Did other instances of jealousy trouble this family?

Genesis 31:1 opens with Laban’s sons fretting about the possibility of Jacob draining off their father’s wealth. It was enough of a concern to cause Laban’s disposition toward him to change, and the Lord instructed Jacob to return to his homeland. Even Leah and Rachel got into the mix, wondering about their inheritance. Tension filled the air.

Rachel stole her father’s idols before they left, and hid them in her camel saddle. The Woman’s Study Bible note regarding Genesis 31:19 comments these were “teraphim,” small household figurines possibly used for divination. Some ancient records of contemporary law connected ownership of the household idols with inheritance rights. It may be Rachel took matters into her own hands, trying to insure she and Leah would have rights to their father’s estate.

Did Jacob ever grow to love Leah?

The Bible does not specifically say, but the following scriptures may give some indications.

In Genesis 31:31 Jacob worried Laban would take back his daughters by force. He obviously cared for them both, but was this a matter of love, possessions, or both?

The Reunion of Jacob and Esau (1844 painting by Francesco Hayez) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Later Jacob braced himself for the first meeting with Esau in twenty years. Not knowing what to expect, he developed a specific plan of approach toward his brother and his band of 400 men. The maidservants and their children would go first; Leah and her brood followed; and Jacob, Rachel and Joseph came last. In the case of co-wives, one always enjoyed most favored status, and it is obvious here that Rachel still held that rank.

For further consideration

Scripture reveals a couple of intriguing facts about this family. I find both tinged with a certain irony.

First, Leah was the wife interred in the ancestral cave at Machpelah, near the bones of Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 49:31). At death Jacob would join her. Rachel died earlier in childbirth in route to Ephrath (Bethlehem) and was buried along the way—forever separated from the man who loved her (Genesis 35:18-20).

The second concerns the descendants of these sisters. Leah’s line traces to David (and eventually to Christ) through Judah and Rachel’s to Saul through Benjamin. 1 Samuel bears witness that vestiges of their sibling rivalry endured, only this time it worked in the lives of two kings.

It is bad enough for two sisters to love the same man, but when they end up  married to the same man at the same time, drama is sure to follow.

Seizing the day

Jacob was no ordinary man: He was a twin, his mother Rebekah’s favorite, and destined by God to become the father of the tribes of Israel. Though he is called “mild” in Genesis 25:27, he was devious—a trait that would come back to haunt him. He and his mother tricked his twin Esau out of his birthright and his blessing.  A brother’s love turned to hatred, kindling a desire for vengeance and murder.

Fleeing the wrath to come

At Rebekah’s fearful insistence, Jacob fled for his life. As a herdsman skilled in tending and breeding cattle, he had no penchant for the chase like his brother. Now he found himself in Haran seeking sanctuary from Laban, his uncle, until Esau’s anger cooled.

He surveyed the scene before him: three flocks of sheep lying in a field by a stone-covered well, their shepherds waiting for others to arrive. He stepped forward and carefully asked some questions. Where are you from? “Haran.” Do you know Laban son of Nahor? “Yes. In fact, here comes his daughter Rachel to water her sheep.”

Smitten

He moved forward, pushed the rock aside, and helped Rachel perform her daily ritual, introducing himself as her relative. Scripture does not say what Rachel thought as she ran to her father with news about the stranger/relative who assisted her. However, it does record Laban’s jubilation as he welcomed his sister’s son. It also records Jacob’s reaction to this young woman who was “beautiful in form and appearance.” He loved her (Genesis 29:18), and wasted no time in offering a proposal of marriage.

Tricking the trickster

As Jacob had plotted with his mother to deceive Isaac, it is likely that Laban conspired with his elder daughter, Leah, in matters of matrimony. The custom of the land dictated she be wedded first, but Laban had a problem. His firstborn did not meet the beauty standards of the day.

Commentators offer a mix of reasons: Leah had blue eyes. She had cow eyes (her name means “cow”). She was teary-eyed from crying so much. I like Clarke’s assessment of her chief recommendation—her “soft and beautiful eyes.” Rachel, however, had the whole package—a fine face and a fine figure.

Jacob Talks with Laban (illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Laban realized he could have the best of all worlds and with a little finagling, marry both Leah and Rachel to the same man. Great People of the Bible and How They Lived suggests at the time he only had daughters, and marriage to Jacob would assure a capable son-in-law to take over the family holdings (Reader’s Digest, 1974, page 54).

Paying the price

Jacob worked diligently for seven years to pay off the bride price. The night finally arrived when his beloved entered his darkened tent, her face hidden behind the traditional veil. Only the harsh glare of morning’s light revealed the cruel trickery: It was Leah, not Rachel, who occupied the marriage bed. Jacob demanded an explanation to which Laban calmly offered a practical solution: Work seven more years, and he could have them both.

What next?

A week later, Jacob had not one but two wives, and faced a long stint of labor in order to satisfy another bride price. Now his challenges really begin.

(Part 2 to follow.)

This week we begin our series on Bible sisters. I’d like to set the stage with the following quotes from Deborah Tannen’s You Were Always Mom’s Favorite!:

“Sisters are inevitably compared to each other, because they are often together and, in any case, are thought of together. Each one’s character or personality tends to be described in contrast to the other’s. …And comparison is never far from competition” (page 4).

“From the moment they’re born, girls are judged by appearance. How pretty is she? (and in our own heads, How pretty am I?) sometimes seems to trump all others….Appearance cuts so close to women’s core sense of value that comparisons in this domain are especially pernicious” (pages 33-34).

Tannen’s comments set the emotional backdrop for our first pair of sisters: Leah and Rachel.

Sometime ago I strolled through our local Barnes and Noble bookstore. When I paused at the sale section, a bright pink cover caught my eye, and then its title: You Were Always Mom’s Favorite! It now resides on my bookshelf.

Cover via Amazon

What an insightful title! How many times had my sister and I bantered with that exact phrase, especially when our mother was present? The author, Deborah Tannen, explores one of the most powerful and perplexing relationships: being sisters.

When I began this blog, I made a list of potential topics. After reading Tannen’s book, I added Bible sisters. Do you know there are at least five sets of these sibling types, and a couple of maybes?

Next week we’ll delve into this fascinating topic.

Thanks for stopping by. A journey of discovery is always more enjoyable in the company of friends.

Before leaving the topic of hospitality, two more examples come to mind. Both are in the Old Testament and both involve anonymous women—one a widow and one apparently a person of means.

The widow of Zarephath

Things were not good in the nation of Israel. King Ahab committed a great sin and married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians. She brought with her a pagan religious system complete with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (I Kings 18:19). Her husband allowed the idolatrous system to exist and even thrive.

English: Ahab was king of Israel and the son and successor of Omri (1 Kings 16:29-34). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Herbert Lockyer says, “Baal had no more dedicated devotee than Jezebel” (All the Women of the Bible, “Jezebel”). Full of religious enthusiasm she sought to convert all Israel by attempting to exterminate the worship of the true God.

“The pagan religion imported by Jezebel horrified devout Israelites, and it also found many new followers….for centuries the Israelites themselves had often given in to the temptation to blend the Lord and local gods into a single cult. Within a few years, many of the people of Israel had embraced paganism” (Great People of the Bible and How They Lived, Reader’s Digest, 1974, page 207).

Deliver the message and go!

As a result fear and religious turmoil prevailed, and more importantly, God was highly displeased with Israel. As a result He sent his prophet Elijah to deliver a stern message to King Ahab: “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). Anticipating a murderous reaction, the word of the Lord instructed Elijah to flee to the safety of the Kerith Ravine where there was water, and where he would be miraculously fed.

Eventually even the brooks and tributaries of the Jordan dried up. The Lord told Elijah to move on to Zarephath, a Zidonian town in the very homeland of his furious adversary, Jezebel. “I have commanded a widow there to provide for you” (verse 9).

Not enough to spare?

Now picture this non-Israelite widow as the prophet of Israel’s God approached and requested the customary amenities of hospitality: water and bread. Imagine the distress in her voice as she replied, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug” (verse 12). These meager amounts represented a last meal as she and her son prepared to finally succumb to starvation.

Elijah pledged if she filled his request for precious sustenance, she would never run out of flour or oil as long as the drought lasted. What a test of faith! She took him at his word, prepared him some food, and lived to experience the miraculous “hospitality” of God, just as He had promised.

The Shunammite woman

Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there” (2 Kings 4:8-10)

What a different set of circumstances for Elisha to encounter. Here we have a prominent woman in the community voluntarily extending hospitality to him as a holy man of God. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary mentions that this woman was well-to-do, literally in the Hebrew, “a great woman.” (See 2 Kings 4, Note 8.) The Note continues, “Being a pious woman, her concern for the prophet was purely spontaneous and bears the impress of a genuinely godly sense of hospitality.” Her home became a frequent way station for Elisha as he traveled the countryside.

Let’s compare

It’s interesting to consider the actions and reactions of these two women. Both extended hospitality. However one did so by request and the other voluntarily out of her plenty. One complied with certain misgivings, thinking she was sure to hasten impending starvation; and the other acted out of an innate sense of respect and altruism, having no threats of looming consequences.

Both enjoyed the Lord’s graciousness. The widow and her son avoided death by starvation. But later her son became ill and died; the distraught mother came to Elijah asking why? Elijah turned to God in passionate prayer, and her son’s life was mercifully restored.

English: Elijah Resuscitating the Son of the Widow of Zarephath (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The prominent woman had at least one ongoing sorrow: She was childless. As a result of her generous ministering to Elijah’s needs, God miraculously granted her a son. Like the widow, her son, too, got sick and died. Elisha followed Elijah’s example, placing his petitions for mercy before the Lord. God heard, and the woman’s son enjoyed life once more.

My hope

It is my hope that these series of posts will add a new dimension to Bible reading by alerting readers to the many subtle threads of hospitality woven throughout the fabric of its pages. We have only touched the surface.

Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to the men coming from who knows where?

With an insulting dismissal, Nabal confirmed he was a foolish, shortsighted and contemptible man. In a time when hospitable treatment of others was a duty, and those in need of food and shelter had a right to request it, Nabal flouted the courtesies expected of a rich man.

A sacred duty

“It was believed to be a sacred duty to receive, feed, lodge and protect any traveler who might stop at one’s door” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, “Hospitality”). Hospitality is rooted in scripture: The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God  (Lev.19:34).

In the time of Nabal “any lack of civility or kindness to a guest meets severe reprobation” (Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, “Hospitality”). This proved true for Nabal because his selfishness ended in death. Were it not for the bravery of his wife Abigail, Nabal would have died by the sword rather than from heart failure.

The arrogance of a very rich man

Nabal was a rich man. He had three thousand sheep, a thousand goats and many servants. David and his men resided in the wilderness where Nabal pastured his sheep. Without taking anything for themselves, they protected Nabal’s sheep and herdsmen. At the festive time of sheep shearing, David expected some hospitable acknowledgment of their efforts. As strangers who aided Nabal’s business, David requested a donation of food for himself and his men. David’s appeal was “the epitome of courtesy” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 755), asking only for what Nabal might spare (I Samuel 25:8).

Nabal had plenty to spare–cash from selling wool and provisions for the shearing festivities. And Nabal knew David, at least by reputation. His shepherds commended David’s men. These men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. Night and day they were a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep ear them (I Samuel 25:15-16).

Mending offenses

Stung by Nabal’s arrogance, David prepared to avenge himself. Having been informed of her husband’s rash behavior, Abigail acted without hesitation and averted David’s anger. At the time, did she understand the power of hospitality to change someone’s perspective? Was she a practiced giver-of-hospitality? Did she know by nature the essentials necessary to turn David from revenge?

David and Abigail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She delivered a large gift of food accompanied by an attitude of humility and self-sacrifice. David was “stopped in his tracks” by the size of her offering: dressed sheep, two hundred loaves of bread, wine, bushels of roasted grain, hundreds of cakes of dried fruit. Abigail also met David’s needs for respect and appreciation. She spoke to him of God’s purpose (I Samuel 25:26-31) and that placed her generosity in the best context. ♦ Mary Hendren

***

Abigail’s actions still resonate today as examples of courage, wisdom, and artful hospitality.

While many of the threads of New Testament hospitality are rather inconspicuously woven into the fabric of larger accounts like Luke 10:25-37, the Old Testament gives several examples where hospitality comes off in a bold pattern. One of these is found in Genesis 18:1-16. It is the account of Abraham and his three special guests.

The pattern

As the scene unfolds, Abraham is sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day and sees three men nearby. Immediately the rules of hospitality kick in:

• He greets them and invites them to stay.
• He offers them water so they can wash their feet.
• He offers them food.
  

  Abraham Receiving the Three Guests (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   

Once they accept, Abraham enlists Sarah to make cakes out of “fine meal,” arranges to have a “tender and good” calf killed and cooked, and then, as a gracious host, serves his guests under the welcoming shade of the terebinth trees. Once their repast is finished, Abraham fulfills his final duty by seeing these strangers on their way.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia describes this vignette as “an exquisite example of the etiquette of hospitality” (article, “Hospitality”).

Pattern repeat

His nephew Lot responds to two angels in much the same manner (Genesis 19):

• He sees them and bows before them.
• He issues an invitation to put them up for the night.
• He offers them water to wash their feet.
• He makes them a feast.
• He acts as their protector (although in a way I find hard to comprehend).

And repeats

Here are several other examples for further consideration:

• Genesis 26:28-30  Isaac provides food and lodging.
• Genesis 29:13  Laban welcomes Jacob.
• Exodus 2:18-20  Jethro scolds his daughters for lack of hospitality.
• Job 31:32  Job says he opened his door to the traveler.

 ***

While the principals in the above accounts are men, there are several examples of hospitable women in the Old Testament. Mary Hendren will be introducing us to one of them in our next post. Her name is Abigail.

As I sift through a treasure trove of information on hospitality, especially in the Old Testament, I focus on something that has somehow eluded me in times past. I’ve found it in two separate scriptures:

• Deuteronomy 10:18  “He [God] administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.”
• Psalm 146:9 “The Lord watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and the widow….”

A comment from the JewishEncyclopedia.com article, “Hospitality,” lends even greater acuity:

“The ‘ger,’ the sojourner who lived with a Hebrew family or clan, was assured by the Biblical law not only of protection against oppression (Exodus 23:9) and deceit (Leviticus 19:33), but also of love from the natives (Deuteronomy 16:14), who were to love him even as themselves (Leviticus 19:34)….”

God Himself loves the stranger and keeps him under His special protection. By His actions He models the scope, depth, and meaning of true hospitality.