Re-orienting our giving

Genesis 30:1–2 KJV 1900

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

This passage just drops open with three very apparent pitfalls when we are met with disappointment. Especially when we are disappointed with God.

It has been a couple of months since we were looking at this story, but the last time we were here, I tried to point out that both Rachel and Leah inappropriately equated God’s love with them being able to have children. This wasn’t resolved at all in chapter 29 and we see it intensify to outlandish proportions in chapter 30.

We dwell on the absence of perceived blessing.

I say “perceived” here not because a child wouldn’t really have been a blessing. It most certainly would have been. Just not in the way that Rachel was looking at it. Remember that Rachel was already blessed. She was just wrongly assuming that having a child was the pinnacle of God’s favor.

I hope, child of God, that you see your place in His Kingdom as a sufficient sign of His favor. We are often tempted to coerce and manipulate particular things out of God’s hand by our giving. But it is your sure position in Christ that should give you all the comfort you need in that regard. We give because of who He is, not because of what we want.

We sinfully covet the blessing of others.

Rachel envied her sister. Failing to focus on your position and turning your eyes to what you believe to be absent will inevitably lead you to cast your gaze on everyone around you who has what you want. The downward spiral that comes from this is absolutely tragic.

The dynamic of this family was never to be emulated. From this point on we rarely see anything but strife and conflict. Rachel took her eyes of of God’s position, and the position He had given her and all she could see was that of someone else.

We place inappropriate demands on people or things that have no power to give us what we really need.

At the end, Rachel makes an incredibly absurd request that Jacob give her children. And when she does, she crashes into the reality that who she is really angry with is God. And that her affection is conditioned upon receiving a particular blessing.

It is ridiculous that she would think Jacob had control of this, but our reason very easily goes out the window when we are looking inward and outward instead of upward.

I believe that it is worth meditating on these things before we give so we are not tempted to fall into the same traps. Is your affection conditioned on a particular blessing of God. Is your offering becoming a rolling of the dice or the pulling of a lever in hopes that maybe, finally you might get what you want from God?

For the next few moments, remember what it is that you have already been given and orient your offering towards a reflection of praise for who God is, and what He has already done.