In Gen 29 beginning with verse 31, = the baby-boom section.
Jacob is under discipline for being in the wrong geographical location and for taking two wives and then late two more or four in all.
She named her first son Reuben which means "behold a son." -- He was the firstborn and should have received the birthright according to Deu 21:15-17.
Every son who comes from Rachael and Leah will be named by them as though God was favoring one over another.
ACT 10:34 And Peter opened his mouth and said: Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons,
Reuben will forfeit this right by committing incest with one of Jacob's wives mentioned in Gen 35:22, her name is Bilhar.
Gen 35:22 And it came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel heard of it.
Simeon means the "One who hears" or "God hears".
Levi means to joined or attached.
Leah thought that having a third son would definitely cause Jacob to feel attached to her.......but that didn't work.
Judah means "let Him be praised" and thus she became the ancestress of David and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The domestic distractions that Jacob now must deal with all because he refused to wait upon the Lord and upon the Lord's timing.
Rachel vents her jealousy against her sister and her anger against God.
"If I ever have children, I'll die!"
Rachel was not satisfied with Jacob's love and attention, she wanted sons.
Envy is grieving at the good of another.
One child would not be enough because Leah has more than one and Rachel wants to have more than Leah.
I want you to notice all the competition that is taken place in Jacob's homes.
One woman is not content because she wants to be loved more, the other is not content because she wants children.
Jacob knew that God had withheld children from the woman that he loved and gave them to the one he did not, Leah, and this was a part of his discipline.
If you're wondering why God is still blessing Jacob with children, it is because of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. We call that blessing because of association.
GEN 25:21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Jacob does what his grandfather Abraham did in Gen 16:4, he goes and has sex with a slave girl and marries a third time....as if he doesn't have enough problems!
He will end up with four wives from her and 70 children.
Leah - 33
Rachel - 14
Bilhah - 7
Zilpah - 16
Human solutions enter into this family rather than trusting in the Lord.
Dan - which means judge or vindicator or He has vindicated me.
She imitates the hypocrites around today in the sense that she thinks God is on her side and not her sister's and that God has come through for her rather than Leah.....your typical "I will see you at my Father's judgment seat" attitude!
Naphtali means my wrestling or my struggle.
Notice the tension between the two women thanks to uncle Laban's deceitful plot and Jacob's stupid decisions.
This is now his fourth wife and you can see that he really has problems.
He has two sisters fighting with each other for supremacy and now in the middle of their fight he has two more wives.
One thing we can say about Jacob, he was a very busy man.
GEN 27:11 "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.
Note that Rachel's plan is backfiring.
On Leah's part instead of her worrying about whether or not Rachel is catching up, she should be thanking God for the four children that God already gave her.
The text of the Torah argues that the name of Gad means luck or fortunate, in Hebrew, deriving from a root meaning cut or divide.
Leah is thinking that she was fortunate or lucky and that God took her side by cutting her sister off and cutting or dividing Rachael off from God.
She continued the struggle by giving Jacob her servant Zilpah as a secondary wife.
When Zilpah bore a son to Jacob, Leah considered it good fortune, and named the boy Gad, meaning "good fortune, fortunate."
Notice how both sisters keep naming their sons after God as if God keeps on changing sides!
I want you to see what a mess Jacob has gotten himself into just because he listened to his mother, deceived his father and refused to wait upon the Lord.
The easy way of course would be to perceive, metabolize and apply Bible doctrine. The hard way is making the wrong choices in life and not being patient.
The apostle Paul learned one of the magnificent lessons and great benefits of waiting upon God is the privilege of shifting the load, from us to Him.
PSA 25:3, David said Indeed, none of those who wait for Thee will be ashamed;
ISA 64:4 For from of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, Neither has the eye seen a God besides Thee, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
You experience a shift in the load, from your shoulders, to the shoulders that were designed from eternity past to bear these things, that is the shoulders of the Lord.
Furthermore, learning to wait upon God, as Paul did, also brings in a shift in perspective, you begin to see things from the divine viewpoint and divine timing rather than your own.
The unseen power of God comes in as opposed to the seen weakness of man.
When we wait upon the Lord and upon His timing we will find ourselves to be in the minority.
EXO 23:2 "You shall not follow the majority in doing evil,
MAT 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.
MAT 7:14 "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.
MAT 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen."
REV 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world;
Job, who after experiencing the soars from his head all the way down if you can imagine to his feet, the ulcers on his skin and the loss of family, and all the things that we prize and he prized, and called dear.
There is Abraham, who left his hometown of Ur at the age of 75. He died according to the scriptures at the age of 175 and still didn't find the city that he left to find, whose builder and maker was God.....and we studied about him.
100 yrs of waiting for God, who was pleased simply to teach Abraham through the discipline of time, to great lesson for the servant to trust the master.
There was Joseph, whose life was marked by waiting for a decade and a half in prison, unjust treated, unjustly accused, unfairly.
He was released from slavery only to be put back into prison, for another 13 years before he was relieved and promoted to prime minister.
There is Moses, who at the age of 40, was at the prime of manhood, he was the brightest star of Egypt, he was the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was certainly heir apparent.
He lost his prestige, his reputation and he was, according to Josephus, he was also a great military leader.
He went into the desert and was forgotten and he worked for his father-in-law.
He lead the sheep in that Midian desert for forty years.
There was Samson, Samuel, there is Gideon, there is Yephath, there are the prophets, most of whom lived, never to realize their dream or their personal desires and wants.
There is that silent period, called the Inter-testament period, where we don't know a lot. 400 years between those two great covenants.
HEB 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.
JOH 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater {works} than these shall he do; because I go to the Father."
Waiting is the rule, rather than the exception.
Waiting on God is resting, instead of worrying.