[Tuesday's Devotional] - Sisters

Laban may have thought he did the right thing by Leah, but there was a lot of fall out following his little scheme. (See Genesis 29 and 30)

Leah was extremely jealous of her sister. Only a week after Leah’s wedding to Jacob, he married Rachel. Picture the two of them sharing a husband, competing with each other for his attentions. Imagine Leah’s resentment! She knew Jacob loved Rachel more and hadn’t wanted to marry her in the first place. Sibling rivalry on a grand scale!

But in one crucial area, Leah had the advantage over Rachel.  Leah gave birth to four sons while Rachel had no children. Leah thought Jacob would love her because she gave him male heirs. Rachel grew angry and jealous and hatched a scheme. She gave her servant girl to Jacob to have children for her and two sons were born. Leah retaliated and gave her servant girl to Jacob and she had two further sons. Later, the sisters did a deal so that Leah had time with her husband, resulting in two more sons for Leah.

Finally Rachel had her own baby, Joseph, and several years on, died giving birth to her second, Benjamin. The final count was Leah (and her servant) 8, Rachel (and her servant) 4. (Jacob repeated the mistakes of his Father in Law Laban and showed favouritism to Joseph, leading to a whole lot more problems – more of which later..)

I am pleased to say I got on well with my own sister, six years my junior, and still do. Even though I don’t think we had a huge amount in common as children, our lives have unfolded in similar ways with both becoming teachers and having two girls and a boy each. But there are many families where sisters just don’t get along where there are constant sources of friction and tension, arguments and ugly scenes.

Often our families are the greatest test of how we behave as Christians. Many of us would attest to the fact that It is often more difficult for us to be loving towards family members than those outside the family.

 

Pray for your sister if you have one, or for two sisters you know who don’t get along.

Mairi Mowbray