RACHEL


A. "AND JACOB KISSED RACHEL AND LIFTED UP HIS VOICE AND WEPT" - GENESIS 29:11
  1. The story of Rachel and her relation to Jacob, her cousin is full of heart- touching pathos:
    1. It was love at first sight by Jacob
    2. We have no way of knowing what the true attitude of Rachel was - at least she did not resent Jacob's warm approach
  2. One cannot help but see providence in the story of Rachel from the very beginning:
    1. The meeting of Jacob and Rachel at the well's mouth was not pre-arranged by either one of them - no more than Rebekah planned meeting Eliezer, the servant of Abraham - Gen. 24
    2. This fact alone makes the story of Rachel most interesting to study - to gather from it precious truths for the soul
B. RACHEL IN WHOM ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY WERE BLENDED Scripture References: Genesis 29; 30; 31; 33:1-7; 35:16-28; 46:19,22,25; 48:7; Ruth 4:11; I Samuel 10:2; Jeremiah 31:15; Matt. 2:18 Meaning of Name: The word "Rachel" comes from the word "ewe": - the weak ewe that needs tender care by the Shepherd - Luke 15:5; her name seems to indicate that Rachel needed their special tender care Family relations: Rachel was the daughter of Laban, the son of Bethuel and Rebekah's brother. Rachel became the second wife of Jacob her cousin and the mother of Jacob's two youngest sons, Joseph and Benjamin
  1. Rachel's romance:
    1. This writer believes that Rachel's romance with Jacob was totally providential
    2. He, who knows the end from the beginning guided both Jacob and Rachel to meet at the well's mouth - Gen. 29:1-14
    3. God is still the author of true love and marriage, even if the world at large ignores this fact - Gen. 2:18-20; Matt. 19:1-3; Gen. 6:1-6
  2. Rachel's beauty:
    1. The Bible says that she was beautiful - Gen. 29:17
    2. Also, the Bible says that Rebekah was very fair and attractive - Gen. 24:16
    3. Rachel was beautiful in form as well as in her natural charm - one cannot help to see why Jacob loved her on first sight
  3. But her beauty was blended with bitter disappointment and tragedy:
    1. Her father gave Leah to Jacob for a wife in her place - with the feeble excuse that it is not proper for the younger one to marry before her older sister
    2. Too, Rachel was barren for sometime while Leah, her sister, bore six children to her husband
    3. The Lord, finally, blessed her and she bore Jacob a son whom they named Joseph - that brought joy to both
    4. The tragedy came when Rachel died in childbirth - when Benjamin was born
C. HIGH POINTS IN THE STORY OF RACHEL
  1. God had predestined her marriage to Jacob
    1. It was not necessarily her beauty, but the predestination that she should become the mother of the Saviour of the family of Jacob, and also the father of Egypt - Ps. 105:16-20
    2. Rachel became the ancestor or progenitor of the mothers at Bethlehem whose children were slain by Herod - Matt. 2:18
    3. Too, she became the example of the godly mothers who lose their children in death - Jer. 31:15-17
  2. But best of all, Rachel became the symbol or type of the New Jerusalem, the mother of us all:
    1. That is what Paul tells us - Gal. 4:21-28
    2. When she awakes in the first resurrection she will see that her labors were not in vain
  3. But all other human beings:
    1. Rachel served, secretly the idols of her father - at least in her early relation to Jacob - Gen. 31:34
    2. Somehow hereditary sins are hard to break with, at least one believes that she got rid of them at Bethel - Gen. 35:1-6
    3. Rachel's life was rich and useful, and she is in a way the symbol of the Jewish nation the pride of the descendants of Jacob


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