“Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.”
(Genesis 19:16-17, NASB)
Two daughters, sisters – one was stunningly beautiful and the other, we are only told had weak eyes. Another translation says, “There was no sparkle in Leah’s eyes …” (NLT).
Perhaps Leah was always being compared to beautiful Rachel and this had taken the sparkle from her eyes. Whatever the reason, we can surmise she was often overlooked or rejected.
One only has to read the account of Leah and Rachel, and the deception which surrounded their marriage to the same man, to understand that Leah was cast aside. She was not the wife of choice even though she was glad to be chosen.
Leah brings many lessons for us to learn:
- God sees us when others look past us.
- God loves us when others may not.
- God responds to our cries when others don’t hear us at all.
But this time there was another lesson hidden in this familiar story …
Scripture tells us that “Leah’s eyes were weak”.
We don’t always see what is right and good and just. We don’t always see clearly, even when it is right in front of our eyes. We tend to see what we want to see as we see through a filtered lens. Our eyesight is weak.
May the eyes of our heart be opened to see what the Lord desires for each of us.
I pray that the eyes of your heart
may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His
calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints.”
(Ephesians 1:18, NASB)
Photo by @felipepelaquim on Unsplash
Yes, I pray for discernment and eyes wide open when the situation is hard to tell where God is leading.. Great scripture reminder. This is a favorite story.
ReplyDeleteWe are ever in need of discernment and in increasing measure I am finding. Glad you stopped by!
DeleteI love Leah's story. When we experienced secondary infertility all those years ago, I went to the barren women to learn from them about a God who heard their cry. No Leah wasn't barren - but what I did learn that though she had "weak" eyes, with every child she bore, she drew closer and closer to God - and found her fulfillment in Him - until she "saw" with her spirit so much more than Rachel did. Praying that God continue sharpening the eyes of my soul to see the things He would have me see!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone has ever done a book on secondary characters in the Bible, like Leah and Joseph, the father of Jesus, and Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. We tend to pass over them for the main event, but there is so much to learn from them.
ReplyDeleteI love that verse. I definitely need the eyes of my heart enlightened, and I pray that especially for loved ones who don't know Jesus yet.