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.” 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?” 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.” So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. (Genesis 30:1-5)
When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. (Genesis 30:9)
Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah eventually bore 12 sons and 1 daughter to Jacob. Here is a handy chart to illustrate which woman bore each of the children. Notice that King David and the Lord Jesus would come through Leah’s line.
What a contrast these two sisters were. As we mentioned last week the sisters were in competition for Jacob’s love. Each of 
the sisters would look to a different source for her help. Leah would look to God when she realized that she would never gain the affection she craved from her husband. Rachel would depend on her own resources.
Rachel had Jacob’s love from the beginning. Did he love her because she was so beautiful, like his own mother Rebekah and his grandmother Sarah? He wouldn’t be the first man to become smitten over a pretty face.
But beauty isn’t everything. Rachel’s relationship with her sister was affected by her jealousy when Leah conceived and she didn’t. The two sisters would fight and go to extremes in order to get children. Rachel had Jacob’s love but she wanted more. She wanted to have children for herself. She even yelled at Jacob about it and he in turn got angry with her. We have no indication from the Bible that Rachel prayed to God as Leah did. Rachel became bitter.
And this is not the only indication that Rachel may not have loved God as much as Leah. When Jacob saddled up his wives and family and left for Canaan, Rachel stole the household idols from her father.
Most of the people in the ancient world worshiped false gods, so it is not surprising that Laban had his own collection. What is surprising is that Rachel would wish to take them with her when she moved away. What could she be thinking? Hadn’t her husband explained to her that they only worshiped Yahweh? It doesn’t seem as though Rachel trusted in God alone. She wanted to have the household idols for extra protection.
Further evidence of her less than stellar character is what occurred when Laban found out that Jacob had sneaked off without saying goodbye (Genesis 31:22). Laban went after Jacob and spoke carefully to him when he caught up with him. He explained that he could understand that Jacob may have longed to go back to his own home. But he asked Jacob, “Why did you steal my gods?” Jacob denied the charge and told Laban he could search everyone and the one who stole Laban’s gods would be put to death.
Rachel resorted to deception rather than surrender the idols. She hid them under a saddle and sat on it and pretended to be in the “manner of women” so that Laban would not touch her. Laban did not find his gods of course and eventually he and Jacob parted as friends, making a covenant between their families (Genesis 31:44).
Rachel’s story reminds us that only a relationship with God will provide us with happiness. Husbands and children are blessings, but we should not put so much emphasis on them that we forget God. Rachel was spoiled and selfish. Her most serious problem however was that she turned to physical means, by giving her maid to Jacob for children, rather than trusting in God alone.
Let’s not be too hard on Rachel. It must have been hard for her to get all excited about her wedding day only to find out at the last minute that the man she loved was given to her sister. She would never be Jacob’s only wife. Then she had to share his attention with not only her own maid, but also the hated Leah’s maid. As time went on, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah would bear children for the man Rachel loved while she remained barren. Finally God would give her two children and in bearing her second son she died. What a tragic end.
Jacob loved Rachel from the moment he saw her but he did not love Leah. He respected Leah and he paid enough attention to her to get four sons early on in their marriage. Leah hoped that by giving Jacob so many sons he would come to love her.
When Jacob’s love was not forthcoming, Leah turned to God for comfort.
Leah knew that she was not beautiful like her sister. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. Her character was beautiful because she remained a faithful wife and mother. Leah knew that God loved her. She had seven children in all, four sons and one daughter of her own, and two more sons by her maid. Many people like Jacob may be impressed with the outer appearance, but God looks on the inward appearance of the heart. We should be more concerned with our relationship with God than with impressing others. Leah is remembered as a godly wife and mother of patriarchs. It is her inner beauty that we should imitate.
What about those poor maids, Bilhah and Zilpah? No one asked them whether or not they would like to be used as surrogate
mothers. The Bible does not record their feelings, only that each obeyed when her mistress commanded her to sleep with their husband in order to get children. Bilhah and Zilpah became Jacob’s concubines.
This is not the first time that we see this custom of giving the maid or slave to the husband when the wife seemed barren. Recall that Sarah gave her maid, Hagar, to Abraham. Out of the union of Abraham and Hagar came Ishmael. But Isaac was the child of promise eventually born to Sarah and Jesus would come through his line. The two tribes would part and be at enmity with each other. Ishmael’s heirs would not inherit the promise.
In this story however, the twelve sons of Jacob would inherit the Promised Land together. It did not matter that there were four mothers involved. Though Bilhah and Zilpah were not given the position as wives, their children were adopted as the children of Rachel and Leah and Jacob and treated with equal love. Bilhah and Zilpah would forever be honored as the mothers of four of the tribes of Israel.
The four mothers continued to have good relationships with each other. We are told only one further story concerning one of the maids. Many years later Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son by Leah “went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel (Jacob) heard about it” (Genesis 35:22). It seems that Bilhah remained an obedient servant to the end of her days. It is sad to see that she was still being used.
How can we relate to Bilhah and Zilpah? When there are things that happen in our lives that we have no control over, we can still trust in God. God may bring wonderful things out of our troubles as He did for Bilhah and Zilpah. They were faithful and are named as two honored women among God’s people in the Old Testament.
