Genesis 30.1-8-Rachel's Maid Bilhah Gives Birth to Dan and Naphtali
Wednesday July 5, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 30:1-8-Rachel’s Maid Bilhah Gives Birth to Dan and Naphtali
Lesson # 173
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 30:1.
On Sunday morning we began a study of the birth of Jacob’s children, which is recorded in Genesis 29:31-30:24.
Genesis 29:31-30-24 is basically a study of love, sex, marriage and children and sounds like a “soap opera,” with Jacob hopping from bedroom to bedroom and his wives competing with each other for his love and affection.
Unlike today’s modern soap operas on television, the soap opera found in Genesis 29:31-30:24 is not designed to entertain us or encourage us to sin but rather, quite the opposite, it is designed to encourage us to live righteously before the Lord.
On Sunday morning, we studied Genesis 29:31-35, which contains the record of Leah bearing Jacob four sons whose names are Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah.
This evening we will continue with our study of the birth of Jacob’s children by noting Genesis 30:1-8, which gives us the record of Rachel’s maid Bilhah bearing Jacob two more sons, Dan and Naphtali.
Genesis 30:1, “Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die.’”
“Jealous” is the verb qana (anq) (kaw-naw), and to be “jealous” is to desire to have the same or the same sort of thing for oneself and so therefore, Rachel is jealous of Leah in the sense that she desires to have children just like Leah.
Jealousy is a mental attitude sin directed toward another, which is resentful, intolerant and suspicious of another’s success, possessions or relationships and is vigilant in maintaining or guarding something.
Rachel was jealous of Leah in the sense that she desired to have children like her and was resentful and intolerant and suspicious of Leah and her success having children and she was also guarded over her relationship with Jacob and did not tolerate Leah and considered her a rival.
Jealousy is included in the list of sins produced by the old sin nature in both the believer and unbeliever (Rom. 1:29; Gal. 5:21; Titus 3:3; 1 Pet. 2:1).
Rachel was not satisfied with Jacob’s love and affection and attention and wanted sons just as Leah was having them.
She blames Jacob for her problem of not be able to get pregnant since she fails to understand that children are a gift from the Lord.
Psalm 127:3, “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.”
The Lord had prevented her from getting pregnant in order to test her faith and to teach her perseverance and produce endurance in her (See Jeremiah 20:12; James 1:2-4).
Rachel is impatient with the Lord and the fact that Rachel gives Jacob her maid Bilhah demonstrates that she is not operating in faith at this point.
The Lord prevented Jacob from having children with Rachel in order to teach them about perseverance in prayer, which is the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances (See Matthew 7:7).
At this point in the narrative, Rachel is not persevering in prayer but is taking things into her own hands and trying to solve her problems independently of the Lord.
The fact that Rachel was barren gave the Lord an opportunity to demonstrate His power in her life (See Jeremiah 32:27).
Rachel’s demand of Jacob that he give her children reveals that Jacob has been reduced to a stud in the rivalry between Rachel and Leah.
Her statement “I’ll die” expresses her extreme grief over the matter of being childless.
Even though she is the object of Jacob’s love and affection and attention, she does not consider life worth living without children.
Ironically, she dies giving birth to Benjamin (See Genesis 35:16-19).
The sight of Leah’s children filled Rachel with jealousy.
Rachel’s jealousy of her sister Leah is rooted in her social disgrace as a barren wife.
Gordon J. Wenham, “It was a serious matter for a man to be childless in the ancient world, for it left him without an heir. But it was even more calamitous for a woman: to have a great brood of children was the mark of success as a wife; to have none was ignominious failure” (Word Biblical Commentary series, Genesis 15—50; Waco: Word Books, 1994).
She wants to gain respect and publicly to validate her marriage to Jacob.
Ironically, Rachel is jealous of a sister who has been pawned off to a husband who does not love her exclusively.
Each woman wants what the other has and neither treasures what she has been given for its own value.
Rachel’s demand of Jacob to give her children is ridiculous since he has proven himself to be fertile in that he has fathered four boys with Leah at this time.
It is also unreasonable since the Lord must enable Rachel to get pregnant and He has not seen fit to do so at this time in her life for reasons we have noted earlier.
Genesis 30:2, “Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’”
Jacob deals with Rachel’s impatience by being impatient with her.
Jacob’s anger is not justified and therefore, is not “righteous indignation” as the Lord Jesus Christ displayed with the Pharisees in calling them “hypocrites” and “white washed sepulchers that are filled with dead men’s’ bones” (See Matthew 23:13-29).
Even though Jacob’s response to Rachel’s demands is accurate theologically, it was misapplied and was motivated out of frustration, impatience with her and a lack of compassion for her situation rather than love.
Jacob’s response is a classic example of a believer “not” speaking truth in love to someone.
Ephesians 4:25, “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE OF YOU WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.”
His response demonstrates a lack of sensitivity to Rachel’s situation of not having children, which as we noted was calamitous for a woman in the ancient world and brought on public ridicule from other women.
Jacob should have been compassionate towards her by offering words of encouragement and speaking truth to her in love and not in frustration.
Colossians 3:12-13, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
Unlike his father Isaac who interceded in prayer for his wife Rebekah to get pregnant, Jacob does not follow his example demonstrating that he is a spiritual child at this time.
Genesis 30:3, “She said, ‘Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children.’”
Rachel deals with her problem of being barren just as Sarah dealt with the same problem, namely, by employing a concubine.
Just as Sarah resorted to a custom acceptable in her culture, though contrary to God's will, to secure an heir for Abraham (cf. 16:1-2) so Rachel does the same in order to secure a child for Jacob.
On the contrary, Isaac prayed that God would open Rebekah's womb and waited (25:21).
Rachel and Jacob followed the example of Sarah and Abraham.
The people in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s culture regarded a concubine as a secondary wife with some, but not all, of the rights and privileges of the primary wife so in effect Bilhah became Jacob’s concubine.
Not only was using a concubine an option, but in Hurrian culture husbands sometimes required that if their wife could not bear children she had to provide a concubine for him.
This custom helps explain why Jacob was willing to be a part of Rachel’s plan that seems so unusual to us and though using a woman other than one's wife was a custom of the day it was never God's desire (2:24; Matt. 19:4-5).
Rachel is not trusting in the Lord at this point in the narrative since she chooses to solve her problem of being barren by following the custom of the cosmic system of Satan in that day in offering her maid Bilhah to Jacob in order to produce children for her.
Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”
Rachel’s command “go in to her” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse and demonstrates that Rachel was demanding immediate action from Jacob and was “wearing the pants” in the marriage and was out of the will of God since the wife’s responsibility is to be obedient to her husband (Eph. 5:22-25; Col. 3:18; 1 Pet. 3:1-7).
At this point in the narrative, Rachel is a contentious woman.
Proverbs 25:24, “It is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.”
The phrase “that she may bear on my knees” signifies that the child that Bilhah will bear for Jacob will be adopted by Rachel as her child.
Nahum Sarna commenting on this expression makes the following comment:
“The key to this phrase lies in a symbolic gesture, widely attested in Near Eastern sources, especially Hittite, as well as in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. The placing or reception of a child on or by the knees of another signifies legitimation, whether in acknowledgement of physical parenthood or by adoption. This practice is again referred to in the Bible in Genesis 48:12 and 50:23 and in Job 3:12. Its origin is in the idea of the knee as the seat of generative power” (The JPS Torah Commentary, pages 207-208, The Jewish Publication Society).
Genesis 30:4, “So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.”
The statement “Jacob went in to her (Bilhah)” reveals that Jacob had failed not only spiritually by operating in unbelief but also failed in his authority in the marriage as Rachel’s husband.
His response should have been no and he should have explained to Rachel in love that the Lord would give her a child in His timing.
Notice that Jacob and Rachel are never said to consult the Lord in prayer because they have decided to take things into their own hands.
Genesis 30:4 records that Rachel gave Bilhah to Jacob “as a wife” whereas Genesis 35:22 describes Bilhah as Jacob’s “concubine.”
This apparent contradiction is reconciled when we understand that a concubine was considered in Abraham’s day to be a “second-class wife,” acquired without payment of bride-money and possessing fewer legal rights.
In the Old Testament period, a concubine was a legal wife but one of secondary rank and she could be sent away with a small gift.
Therefore, the children of a concubine did not have the same legal rights as the wife and so the inheritance would go to the child of the wife rather than the concubine.
Genesis 30:5, “Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.”
Genesis 30:6, “Then Rachel said, ‘God has vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.’ Therefore she named him Dan.”
Rachel’s use of the term Elohim, “God” demonstrates her awareness that God has sovereignly intervened in her life by enabling Bilhah her maid to get pregnant by Jacob.
Rachel’s idea worked according to plan and Bilhah conceived and bore a son who Rachel named “Dan.”
The name “Dan” (/D*) (dawn) means, “God has vindicated me.”
Notice that Rachel does not consider the birth of Dan merely as a blessing from the Lord but rather as the justice due her as a hopeless victim.
On the surface, it appears that Rachel is spiritual by giving credit to God for Bilhah’s pregnancy but in reality Rachel is using the Lord’s name in vain since the use of concubines by God’s people to solve barrenness in contrast to waiting on God is never authorized by God.
She ascribes the success of her plot to God, but in reality God did not give her the child based on her prayer but rather He gave her the child as a result of his permissive will since the directive will of God rules out concubines but the permissive will permitted the birth of this child.
How could God bless the ugly vindication of a jealous woman over her sister?
Rachel must have had very little idea Who she was talking about.
She says that the birth of Dan was an answer to prayer but she is in error since God would never answers a prayer that is against His will and Rachel’s use of a concubine rather than waiting on God to solve her problem of barrenness was against the will of God (See 1 John 5:14; James 4:3).
Genesis 30:7, “Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.”
Genesis 30:8, “So Rachel said, ‘With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.’ And she named him Naphtali.”
The name “Naphtali” explains Rachel’s naming of the first child “Dan,” which means, “God has vindicated me.”
The name “Naphtali” (yl!T*p+n^) (naf-taw-lee) means, “my wrestling” indicates that Rachel viewed her relationship with her sister Leah to be like a wrestling match.
“With my wrestlings I have wrestled” in the Hebrew text literally reads “wrestlings with God, I have wrestled (with my sister)” since the Hebrew contains the noun naphtulim, “wrestlings,” which is followed by the noun Elohim, “God” and the verb pathal, “to wrestle.”
Rachel’s statement means that she wrestled in prayer with God to give her a child through Bilhah in order to be victorious over Leah.
Of course, God did not give Bilhah a child based on Rachel’s prayer because it was offered with wrong motivation and was against His will but rather God gave Bilhah a child based upon His permissive will.
The statement made by Rachel on the occasion of the birth of Bilhah’s second son is reflective of her true spiritual state at this time since it appears that she saw herself in a great wrestling match, not with God, but with her sister.
She states that she has triumphed over Leah by Bilhah giving birth to Naphtali.
This is a ridiculous statement by Rachel since how can two adopted sons win out over four of Leah’s sons?
Therefore, Rachel’s statement in Genesis 30:8 indicates that she erroneously believed that God was on her side with the birth of these two boys, Dan and Naphtali and has given her the victory over her sister Leah.
