“Genesis 30:22-24”

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

“Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.' She named him Joseph, saying, 'May the Lord give me another son.'”

---End of Scripture verses---

“Then God remembered Rachel...” (verse 22) As God had remembered Noah confined within the ark before He caused the waters of the Flood to subside (Genesis 8:1); and as the Lord had remembered Abraham and spared his nephew Lot from the overthrow of Sodom (Genesis 19:29); so God remembered Rachel in her state of dejection and barrenness. I know I have been overly critical of Rachel's attitude and behavior, but she no doubt experienced prolonged feelings of deep desperation because of her childlessness. Some of you know firsthand the overwhelming sorrow associated with the inability to have children. Those emotions would only have been greatly intensified in this ancient Near Eastern culture because of the stigma associated with the heartbreak of infertility. It was a great source of humiliation for a wife in a society where childbearing was critical for her family's prosperity, her sense of personal worth and the cultural view of her as a liability to her husband and the community. Ellicott commented on Genesis 30:1, where Rachel exclaimed to her husband, “Give me children, or else I die!” the following: “There is an Oriental proverb that a childless person is as good as dead; and this was probably Rachel’s meaning, and not that she should die of vexation.”

But the Lord “remembered Rachel” in her intolerable condition. It was not as if God had “lost sight” of her and had “forgotten” her existence or circumstances. It was just that finally, in His own perfect timing and for His own good reasons, He chose to direct His attention toward her and bless her with that for which she had longed more than anything else. “God gave heed to her and opened her womb.” The Lord had heard her pleas and answered her prayers and granted her requests. “Rachel’s long barrenness had probably humbled and disciplined her; and, cured of her former petulance, she trusts no longer to 'love-apples,' but looks to God for the great blessing of children. He hearkens to her prayer, and remembers her. (Comp. 1 Samuel 1:19.)” (Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers)

“So she conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.'” (verse 23) “The reproach of barrenness with which she was reproached among her neighbours; and perhaps by her sister Leah, and indeed it was a general reproach in those times; and especially, it was the more grievous to good women in the family of Abraham, because they were not the means of multiplying his seed according to the promise, and could have no hope of the Messiah springing from them.” (Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible)

“She named him Joseph...(verse 24) “The two Hebrew words 'asaf and yosef,'taken away' and 'add,' provide a double etymology for the name, the first looking back to the past years of shame and anguish, the second looking forward to an even great measure of joy.” (Nahum Sarna) Joseph was the long-awaited for blessed fruit of the womb of Jacob's beloved Rachel. He was “the son of” Jacob's “old age” and he 'loved Joseph more than all his sons” (Genesis 37:3). Of course this favoritism would present it's own set of family problems, but Joseph turned out to be the most excellent man of faith of all the sons of Israel (Jacob). Upon the birth of her long overdue firstborn son, Rachel exclaimed in her great appreciation and exuberance, “May the Lord give me another son.'” Of course the Lord would bless her with yet another son, Benjamin. She could not have known at the time that she would draw her last breath while delivering this final labor of love.

Please read Genesis 30:25-30 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

- Louie Taylor

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