In Gen 29 = the baby-boom section - the 12 tribes of Israel are beginning to be born and the principle is that God is moving in spite of Jacob's sins not because of Jacob's sins.
Reuben = "behold a son." -- He was the firstborn and should have received the birthright according to Deu 21:15-17.
Simeon = the "One who hears" or "God hears". Apparently she had been praying to God for another son and when God gave her another son, she named him after God.
Levi means to joined or attached.
Judah means "let Him be praised" and thus she became the ancestress of David and our Lord Jesus Christ.
This does not mean that she was barren, it means that she stopped insisting on her physical rights as a wife and let Jacob give all his attention to Rachel.
Notice 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.
Rachel was not satisfied with Jacob's love and attention, she wanted sons.
She did not consider that it was good that God who was in charge.
One child would not be enough because Leah has more than one and Rachel wants to have more than Leah.
One woman is not content because she wants to be loved more, the other is not content because she wants children.
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.
He should have done what his father did in GEN 25:21 which says 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
Once again human solutions rather than divine solutions enter into this family rather than trusting in the Lord.
Dan - which means God has judge me to be the right one in this situation and that God has vindicated me.
Under the pretext of praising God, she does God wrong by rendering Him obedient to her desires.
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.
She is saying I have wrestled with my sister and I have prevailed.
Even though she stopped having children, she observed what Rachel had done.....which was to give Jacob one of her maids or servants.
Zilpah has now become 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.
Leah figures, "Well if Rachel wants to play that game and cheat and use her slave girl then I'll do the same.
MAT 7:12 "Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
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 name Gad means luck or fortunate deriving from a root meaning cut or divide and so Leah is saying in effect that God took her side by cutting her sister off and cutting or dividing her 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!
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.
Asher means "happy" or "fortunate.
She cares about what other women think of her......what a mistake.
You have never seen jealousy and envy in action as great as you see it in other women.
You have never seen arrogance and insecurity like you see it in man.....manifested most of all by bitterness.
And this is why concerning the married man we read in COL 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.
Leah says I am going to name the next son Asher "For women will call me happy."
This is why the word for blessed or happinesses in the Hebrew is the Hebrew word Asheri.
It is totally vain to care about the approbation and recognition of others.
"Our Lord was crazy;
He was a glutton;
He was an alcoholic;
He has lost His senses;
He has a demon;
He is insane;
He loves harlots and prostitutes;
He is a liar;
He is a deceiver;
Our Lord did not care what others thought about Him but Leah did.
The mandrakes Reuben found and brought to his mother, are in the nightshade family - a plant resembling the Belladonna, a beet-like root which are believed by the Orientals to be an aphrodisiac and to possess the property of aiding conception.
In the ancient world Hebrew they were called love-apples or the May-apples.
Rachel had haunted Jacob not to sleep with Leah and that was bad enough. However, Leah thinks that giving Rachel mandrakes would simply add to the problem.
These two women are playing with Jacob for Leah said she would give the mandrakes to Rachael on the condition that she would tell Jacob to sleep with Leah.
Speaking of mandrakes or fruitcakes, Jacob fits the bill!
Jacob with the news of her bargain with Rachel.
She goes out to meet this man who made God's hall of fame in Heb 11 and she hired him for sex and the cost was mandrakes and this idiot says "Oh, alright" and he goes into Leah and has sex with her.
Picture Rachel eating mandrakes to try and get sexually stimulated and pregnant while Leah is in bed with Jacob and once again she conceives.....so much for the mandrakes.
She named the boy Issachar, meaning "he is a reward," or "he will bring a reward."
She named the boy Zebulun, meaning "honor" or "exalted dwelling."
Under the doctrine of numerology, this was Leah's sixth son, six being the number of man
God is for monogamy which means one man for one woman whereas polygamy is having more than one woman for one man.
GEN 35:23 the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's first‑born, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun;
GEN 35:24 the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;
GEN 35:25 and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid: Dan and Naphtali;
GEN 35:26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan‑aram.
LUK 16:18 "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery."
Polygamy violates the divine law of right man and right woman, Gen 2:24, ECC 9:9, 1Co 7:17.
Gen 2:24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
ECC 9:9 Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life,
1CO 7:17 Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And thus I direct in all the churches.
Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel, plus two mistresses. He always had trouble with his sons.
African culture has always had polygamy. Arabs limited polygamy to four wives. People of India have been polygamous. Polygamy was practiced in Japan until 1880.
No man is designed physically or mentally for polygamy. It destroys your sex life according to pro v, the more experience, the worse the physical love.
No one should have understood the problems of polygamy more than Solomon and David.
Polygamy is noted as a sin and a historical fact, but never condoned. It is specifically forbidden. Those who practiced polygamy were never free from discipline, trouble, or misery.
Polygamy causes everything from incest and murder to rape and violence as illustrated by David's polygamy, 2Sa 13.