ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Tusite Fepueli 14, 2023

The Unloved Wife שנא

KO E UAIFI LI‘EKINA

GENESIS 29:30-31

SO JACOB WENT IN TO RACHEL ALSO, AND HE LOVED RACHEL MORE THAN LEAH, AND SERVED LABAN FOR ANOTHER SEVEN YEARS. WHEN THE LORD SAW THAT LEAH WAS HATED, HE OPENED HER WOMB, BUT RACHEL WAS BARREN.

GENESIS 29:30-31

Pea ne ‘alu foki kia Lesieli, pea ne ‘ofa foki kia Lesieli ‘o lahi ‘ia Lia; pea ne ngāue foki kiate ia, ‘o toe fitu ta‘u atu. 31 Pea ‘i he ‘afio‘i ‘e Sihova ‘oku fai ha fehi‘a kia Lia, na‘a ne fakafanau ia; ka ka pa‘a pē ‘a Lesieli.

Jacob, the trickster, had himself been tricked by Laban. Now he had two sister wives, in a sort of marriage love triangle. But as the short story writer 0. Henry once quipped, such triangles "are always isosceles-never equilateral." And Leah's corner of that triangle was small indeed. We're told both that Jacob "loved Rachel more than Leah" (which implies he loved her some) and also that God saw "that Leah was hated" (which suggests Jacob didn't love her at all). The verb sane ("hate") probably carries the connotation here of "unloved" or "unchosen." Whether she was "hated" or "loved less," however, probably made little difference to Leah. All she felt was frozen out of a marriage she never asked for in the first place.

When commenting on this passage, Martin Luther notes that God especially cares for those who are despised and thrown away, as Leah was. God gathers such people. To him they are precious and holy. Come unto me, Jesus might say, all you who are unloved, unwanted, thrown away like garbage, for I will treasure you. He welcomes all of us into his beloved family.

Fill us with your love, heavenly Father, that we may know and love you, through Christ.