A Sunday morning sermon by Pastor Brett Deal. I think the deeper we step into the story of Leah, the more we find a mirror image of ourselves. We all long to be seen, especially by those closest to us, and we all want to be heard. It can be deeply frustrating when we feel our words are falling flat all around us, unheard. We all want to be held, not just physically, but emotionally. We understandably want secure attachment. Our earliest disconnections happen in childhood. Although the Bible does not give us a full biography of Leah and Rachel’s upbringing, it does give us a clear image of their father Laban. He’s a trickster just as much as his son-in-law, grifting his way through life. You see this first glimmer of gold-fixed eyes when Abraham’s servant came looking to find a wife for Isaac. The sight of silver and gold and a caravan of camels had Laban off his feet and running toward this finance-securing opportunity (Genesis 24). When we find Laban again years later, it doesn’t seem to appear that He has grown past his desire to build up his wealth or bend others to his own financial advantage. When Jacob expressed interest in marrying Rachel, Laban leapt at the chance to get more than what was culturally expected. He saw the desire in the young man’s eyes, and although the bride price at the time (remember this was a heavily patriarchal society) was equivalent to two or three years of labor, Laban locked Jacob in at twice the price! Then, when the wedding night finally came, switching Rachel with Leah, he doubled his already exorbitant fee. He wrote checks for himself in the lives of those who should have been the most precious to him. Beloved, it is understandable why Leah would have deeply longed to be seen, heard, and lovingly held by her husband, knowing the kind of childhood and youth she’d experienced in the house of her father. But, Jacob didn’t have the love to give that Leah longed for. All the same, Leah kept trying, praying for a secure attachment with her husband, even naming her third son, Levi, which means attached. Leah was on a long journey of discovery each of us will walk. In the end, Jacob doesn’t change, but Leah does. In her sustained place of prayer, God was showing his beloved daughter, He always saw her, heard her, and held her close.
