Genesis 29:31-30:24: The Source of Our Identity

Genesis 29:31-30:24: The Source of Our Identity

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Genesis, and today the next passage we come to is Genesis 29:31 through 30:24. It says,

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” 33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. 34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. 35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing. 1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher. 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. 19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!” 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word. And we pray what Jesus prayed in John 17—sanctify us in the truth, your word is truth. We understand, from this, that your Word isn’t just true but the very standard of truth itself. So please use your Word by your Spirit to sanctify Your people. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

If there’s one thing that the majority of people in our society are confused about, it’s the subject of personal identity. There seems to be an identity crisis of epic proportions in American society right now. People are desperately trying to answer the question, “Who am I?” And then, growing out of that, “Do I matter? Like, is my existence significant or meaningful in any way?”

Historically, and in many non-Western cultures today, a person’s identity was defined by a variety of external factors such the person’s relationships to their family, to their local community, and to God. But now, the prevailing mindset is a lot different. Almost across the board, a person’s identity is understood to be something that’s derived not from others or from God but from within that person’s heart. The cultural message comes through loud and clear: don’t worry about what anyone else thinks of you. Just be who you are. Discover yourself and then express yourself regardless of what other people say. Because you don’t need the affirmation of others. The only person’s affirmation you need is your own. 

I mean, just think about the kinds of speeches you typically hear at graduation ceremonies. This is the time of year when most graduations take place, so many of you may have graduation speeches still fresh in your minds. And chances are that the speech you heard—or that you’ve heard in the past—can probably be summed up in a series of all-too-predictable slogans. “Follow your heart.” “Chase your dreams.” “Be true to yourself regardless of what anyone else says.” All of these slogans arise out of the way the vast majority of people today view their identity. They view it as something that comes from within them and that’s defined almost exclusively by their own intuitions and desires. 

So, we might ask, how’s that working out for people, overall? And based on the sharp increase in the number of mental health issues reported in recent years, it would seem that it’s not working out very well. Now, I’m sure there are a number of reasons for all those mental health issues, but it’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which the way we view ourselves isn’t a significant contributing factor to this country’s mental health crisis. And there are several reasons for that, which have been helpfully summarized by Tim Keller in his book Making Sense of God. Keller lists four reasons, but I’ll just give you the two I’ve found to be the most helpful. Two reasons why the modern approach to a person’s identity is problematic. 

First, it’s unstable. The fact is that our desires are constantly changing and are often in conflict with one another. That means any sense of identity that’s derived from those desires is going to be incredibly fragile. So, you can “be yourself” this year, but then, when you try to “be yourself” next year, your “self” might be significantly different. And, as that continues from year to year, you’ll eventually get to the point in your life-long journey of self-discovery and “being yourself” that there’s no sustained sense of “you” left. Even after numerous years, it’s still impossible figure out who you are because your sense of “you” keeps changing. It’s paper-thin and incredibly unstable. 

Then, secondly, the modern approach to a person’s identity is also problematic not only because it’s unstable but also because it’s crushing. You see, it’s no longer enough to merely be faithful in what you do. In order to have a strong sense of personal identity, you now have to achieve a certain level of success. This might mean achieving a certain level of education, rising to a certain level on the corporate ladder, making a certain amount of money, being accepted and respected by a certain elite group of people, obtaining a certain number of followers or likes on social media, making a certain level of impact through social activism, having a body that’s sufficiently attractive or that has a particular look, meeting that special someone and getting married, or raising children who turn out in a certain way or achieve certain things. 

And, again, it’s not just that you want these things. You actually need these things in order to have a sense of personal identity and to have worth as a person. But just think: what happens if you find your identity in your career but then aren’t able to progress in your career as much as you’d like or even find yourself out of a job for whatever reason? What happens if you find your identity in the pursuit of various social causes but discover that, no matter how hard you work, things in society never seem to get much better? What happens if you find your identity in motherhood—or fatherhood, for that matter—but somehow end up with kids who are making terrible decisions in their lives? What happens to your identity in all of these situations? Well, it’s shattered, right? If you fail to any degree in what you’re pursuing, you’re pretty much worthless as a person.

Can you see how crushing that is? And the ironic thing is that, even though you might say you’re just “doing you” regardless of the opinions of others, you’re actually more dependent on the validation of others than ever before. Not only do you have to be successful in your pursuit, others have to view you as successful. And that means your sense of identity is even more vulnerable and fragile, which makes the burden of it all even more crushing. 

And that’s what we see happening in our main passage of Scripture this morning in Genesis 29-30. Leah and Rachel are seeking to find their identity not in God or God’s promises or God’s will but rather in their ability to gain a higher social status for themselves and be more loved by their husband through having lots of babies. 

Now, just to remind you of the background here, Jacob desired to marry Rachel and agreed to work for his uncle Laban for seven years in order to pay off her dowry. However, Laban tricked Jacob into first marrying Rachel’s older sister Leah and then agreed to allow him to marry Rachel for seven additional years of work. So now, Jacob has two wives—Leah and Rachel. Yet, it’s kind of obvious that he loves Rachel more. 

By the way, one thing to note is that polygamy is recorded in the Old Testament but never condoned. In fact, it’s consistently painted in a distinctly negative light—as we can clearly see not only in this passage of Scripture but throughout the Old Testament. Polygamous relationships are consistently presented as a recipe for misery and disaster. 

So, let’s see how things play out in Genesis 29-30. Look first at Genesis 29:31-35: 31 When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” 33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. 34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. 35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing. 

Now, when the text says in verse 31 that “Leah was hated,” it’s best to interpret that in the sense of “hated” not as we’d typically use the word but rather as “unloved.” The previous verse, verse 30, makes that clear when it states that Jacob “loved Rachel more than Leah.” Yet, God sees how Leah has been set aside and disregarded, and he has compassion on her. So, he opens her womb and enables her to bear four sons. In that culture, that would have elevated her social status significantly. 

Not only that, it’s also worth noting that two of her sons mentioned here, Levi and Judah, would eventually become the fathers of the priestly and kingly tribes of Israel. Israel’s priests would all be from the tribe of Levi, and Israel’s kings would be from the tribe of Judah. Furthermore, if you fast forward several additional centuries, the Messiah himself would be born in the tribe of Judah. That means Leah’s blood would one day flow in Jesus’s veins. God chose the despised Leah above the favored Rachel to be the one through whom the Messiah would enter this world.  So, maybe you sometimes feel overlooked, pushed aside, disregarded, forgotten, or unloved. Never forget that God sees you, that God loves you, and that God has incredible plans for you. 

We then learn in the next chapter, Genesis 30, that Rachel really struggles with the fact that Leah has had four children, while she hasn’t had any. And Rachel says something to Jacob that’s very revealing about her own heart and sense of identity. Look at Genesis 30:1: When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Think about what Rachel’s really saying there. “Give me children, or my life won’t be worth living anymore.” Can you see how her whole sense of identity and worth and purpose in life revolved around having children? Without that, she might as well die. That’s the meaning of her words there. 

And because she’s so desperate for children, the subsequent verses record how Rachel resorts to offering her servant Bilhah to Jacob as what basically amounts to a stand-in wife. This ungodly practice was unfortunately somewhat common in ancient culture. It was employed back in Generis 16 when Sarah was barren. Sarah offered her servant Hagar to her husband Abraham so that the couple could have a child that way. And there’s also mention of this practice in other ancient texts. The custom seems to have been that children born the substitute wife were regarded as belonging to the primary wife. It was kind of like an ancient form of surrogacy. That’s why, if you notice in verses 6-8, Rachel is the one who names the two children born by Bilhah. 

So, in response, Leah’s like, “Well, two can play at that game.” Look at verses 9-13: 9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” so she called his name Gad. 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women have called me happy.” So she called his name Asher. 

So, talk about a dysfunctional family. This family has issues. You can almost picture a scoreboard in your head with Team Leah on one side and Team Rachel on the other. Team Leah gets four children, then Team Rachel gets two children through Bilhah, and then Team Leah gets two more through Zilpah for a total of six. So, the score’s now 6-2 with Team Leah in the lead. 

Surprisingly, things then get even more dysfunctional and downright ridiculous in verses 14-16. Look what it says: 14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. 

So, things are really getting ugly here. In response to Rachel’s very reasonable request of Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes,” Leah replies, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Ouch. Notice how she refers to Jacob as “my husband”—not “your husband” or “our husband” but “my husband.” Obviously, Leah’s seething with bitterness. 

Not only that, it also seems as though Rachel, as Jacob’s favorite, may have had control over which wife or servant-wife would get to sleep with Jacob on any given night. Notice in the second part of verse 15 how Rachel agrees to allow Leah to sleep with Jacob that evening—as if that was a privilege that was up to Rachel to grant. So, I don’t know what kind of a system Jacob had set up, but it definitely seems to have favored Rachel. Again, what a picture of the brokenness and dysfunction of this family. I mean, this is some genuine reality show material we find here in Genesis 30. The pettiness, the drama, the whole situation is more appropriate for a reality show than for one of the patriarchs of the Bible. 

And, again, it just goes to show us that comparing yourself with other people and finding your identity in that comparison is a recipe for a miserable life. Leah’s jealous of Rachel’s favored status, Rachel’s jealous of Leah’s six children, and both of them are miserable. Good thing they didn’t have social media, right? They’d be even more miserable, I’m sure, as they compared themselves with other people. 

The story then concludes in verses 17-24 with Leah having three more children—two boys and a girl—and Rachel finally having a child of her own, not born through Bilhah. Yet, again, the main problem in this entire passage is that both Leah and Rachel are finding their identity in what they can do and achieve. In their minds, their worth as human beings is directly tied to how many children they have—and not just to the number of children considered on its own but to the number of children considered in comparison to the other. And you can see their twisted thinking come to the surface in some of the statements they make, such as in verse 1 when Rachel states that she might as well die if she doesn’t have children or in verse 13 when Leah identifies her foundational source of happiness in life as the fact that she’s had numerous children.

And as we survey this passage as a whole and consider the negative way in which all of these interactions and events are presented, it becomes clear that God created us to find our identity in something more than what we do or accomplish in our lives. And I believe that’s the main principle for us to glean from this passage—the main idea. God created us to find our identity in something more than what we do or accomplish in our lives.

And we discover what that “something more” is in many other places throughout the Bible—and especially in the gospel message itself. Through the gospel, God gives us an identity that’s received rather than achieved. If you’re taking notes, that’s another key point you can write down. Through the gospel, God gives us an identity that’s received rather than achieved. 

You know, in the minds of the characters in Genesis 30, as well as in the prevailing cultural mentality today, identity is seen as something that has to be achieved. But, as we’ve already discussed, that’s a crushing burden to have on your shoulders. In the end, it ends up enslaving you. You become a slave to whatever it is that you’ve set your heart on pursuing. Instead of just wanting to accomplish or achieve something, you need to accomplish or achieve it in order to have any sense of personal worth. You need to get into that degree program, you need that promotion, you need that salary, you need that number of social media followers, you need to accomplish that social cause, you need to have that attractive body, you need to have an incredible romantic relationship with someone, you need your kids to turn out a certain way or achieve certain things. And if you fail to any degree, that’s it. Your entire identity crumbles to the ground. 

And even if you end up achieving a good portion of what you originally set out to achieve, your identity’s still vulnerable because it’s based on your own shifting desires and perspectives and also on you continually receiving validation from other people. So, regardless of how successful you are or how much you excel in a certain area, your identity’s always paper thin. Imagine going up in a hot air balloon that’s made of tissue paper. That’s how thin your identity is if it rests on what you manage to accomplish and achieve. Just about anything can poke a hole through that tissue paper and bring your entire identity and sense of worth crashing to the ground. 

But what if there’s a way to find our identity not in ourselves but in God? Like, how amazing would that be? How amazing would it be to have an identity that’s durable enough to withstand the most difficult challenges you’ll ever face in life? How amazing would it be to have a sense of personal worth that’s absolutely secure and not dependent on you being successful enough in your pursuits or receiving enough validation from other people? That’s precisely what God offers us in the gospel—an identity that’s received rather than achieved. 

The gospel is the message of how God sent his own Son Jesus to come to this earth and rescue us from our sins. The sobering fact is that each one of us has sinned and that we deserve to be punished for our sins for all eternity. God is a perfectly just God, and that’s what his justice requires. 

However, God also loves us in a way that’s beyond anything we could ever comprehend. And in his love, God the Father sent Jesus his Son to come to this earth, live a perfectly sinless life, and then die on the cross in our place and for our sins. In other words, all of the punishment we deserve was poured out on Jesus so it wouldn’t have to be poured out on us. He suffered it all so we wouldn’t have to. Then, after that, Jesus resurrected from the dead so that he’s now able to rescue everyone who will put their trust in him to do so. That involves us renouncing our trust in our own efforts to get right with God and instead putting our trust in Jesus alone as the only way we can be forgiven of our sin and be made right with God and gain entrance into heaven. 

And it’s also through this gospel message, and the larger story of the Bible, that we find our true identity—an identity that’s received rather than achieved. And to elaborate on that, here are six aspects of the identity God imparts to us. This is who we are. 

First, we’re bearers of God’s image. Genesis 1:26 teaches that, when God created us, he made us in his image. That means we resemble God in certain ways and were made to reflect his own qualities and character. So, right here at the outset, we see that an accurate understanding of ourselves begins with an accurate understanding of God—his goodness, his power, his wisdom, his love, and everything else that makes him so wonderful. If we want to know ourselves, then we have to first know the God in whose image we were made. Not only that, the fact that we were created in God’s image also implies that we were created to have a relationship with God. We have a purpose, and that purpose is to know God and enjoy God for all eternity. 

And this aspect of our identity is actually something that’s true of everyone in the world, not just Christians. However, these next five aspects of our identity are only true for those of us who have put our trust in Jesus.

If we’ve done that, then the Bible says that we’re also saints. That’s a second aspect of our identity. In Romans 1:7, Paul addresses his letter “to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints,” implying that every Christian in that church was a saint. Paul also says the same thing about the Christians of Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica in his letters to all of those churches as well. So, every Christian is a saint in the sense that we’re forgiven of our sins and holy in God’s sight. The thing that defines us isn’t the sins of our past but rather the very righteousness of Jesus himself. So, even though we might still struggle with certain sinful tendencies as Christians, our identity is no longer “sinner” but rather “saint.” 

Then, third, not only has God changed our status from sinner to saint, he’s also transformed our hearts so that we’re what the Bible calls a new creation. That’s the third aspect of our identity—a new creation in Christ. We’re told in 

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” God’s made us into a new person with new desires, new affections, new priorities, and a totally new outlook on life. 

Moving forward, the fourth aspect of our identity is that we’re beloved children of God. And this may very well be the most astounding aspect of the new identity we’ve been given in Christ. God hasn’t just forgiven us of our sins; he’s actually adopted us into his own family and as his own children. 1 John 3:1 declares, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” And as God’s children, we’re dearly loved with a love that never fluctuates—because it’s based not on our performance or on how good of a Christian we manage to be on any given day but rather on the perfect standing and merits of Jesus. That means God loves us just as much on our worst day as he does on our best day. It also means we can go through life with nothing to prove and no one to impress—because our identity isn’t rooted in what others think of us but rather in the way God loves us and has adopted us as his own children. 

Not only that, a fifth aspect of our identity is that we’re members of the body of Christ. The “body of Christ,” by the way, is a metaphor the Bible uses to refer to the church. In 1 Corinthians 12:27, Paul says to the Christians of Corinth, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” This means that, when you’re saved, you’re saved not only in a relationship with God but also into a relationship with other Christians. You’re a part of the Christian family. You’re included in something and belong to something that’s so much bigger than just you. 

Then, a sixth and final aspect of our identity is that we’re citizens of heaven. Philippians 3:20 tells us, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” So, even though we still, for the time being, continue to live on this earth, we don’t ultimately belong here. Instead, both our citizenship and our destiny are in heaven. That means, even while many of the things in this world might seem uncertain, we have a future that couldn’t be more certain. We may not know what tomorrow’s news headlines will be, but we do know that our eternal future will be. And our present identity is inseparably bound up in that future hope. 

So, if you’re a Christian, this is who you are. These six truths are what define your identity. So, take a moment and think about what you’ve been looking to for your identity. What one or two things have you been seeking to use to construct an identity for yourself? Now, renounce those things and embrace the identity God’s given you. You’re a bearer of God’s image, a saint, a new creation in Christ, a beloved child of God, a member of the body of Christ, and a citizen of heaven. Embrace that identity. And if you’re not yet a Christian, these things I just listed are who you can be if you’ll embrace Jesus and the new identity he offers you.  

Understand that the more you seek to construct an identity for yourself through your own desires and accomplishments, the more empty you’ll feel and the more insecure you’ll be. Just think about Rachel and Leah back in our main passage in Genesis. Neither one of them really ended up satisfied, did they? Rachel longed for something she never obtained, which was to give Jacob more children than Leah gave him. And Leah was winning the fertility competition by a long shot, but it was never enough for her. She was never free from the crushing weight of having to create an identity for herself through her own accomplishments. And, on top of that, Leah was never able to gain the favor and recognition she so desperately craved from Jacob. 

So, it really doesn’t matter how successful you are or how much you excel in whatever it is that you’re looking to for your sense of personal worth and identity. If you fail to obtain the things you’re pursuing, your sense of identity will obviously be shattered. But even if you succeed in obtaining them, your sense of identity will still be paper thin and incredibly fragile and ultimately dependent on what others think of you. 

But God offers you something so much better. Through Jesus and through the gospel, he offers you an identity that’s received rather than achieved. In Matthew 10:39, Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” That’s the great paradox of the Christian faith. It’s not until we “lose” our lives in the sense of renouncing our pursuit of an identity apart from God that we finally “find” our lives—along with our sense of identity and worth—in Jesus Christ. Will you embrace Jesus today and the identity he offers you that’s unshakably secure and eternally satisfying?