Today’s Reading: Genesis 29:16 – 30:2

Then the elders and all the people at the gate said (to Boaz), “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. Ruth 4:11-12

The final chapter of Ruth’s story concludes with this declaration. The elders of Bethlehem give Boaz a blessing. Cheers to Boaz who will marry Ruth!! We hope that Ruth be great like Rachel and Leah, the mothers of the family of Israel! We wish for you that your family might be like Perez, the child of Tamar! Hurray for Boaz!

Boaz knew these stories. These women were his ancestors and their lives were a part of his history. But what about Ruth? Did she know these stories? Did she know about the lives of these women in the family tree of which she was now to be a part?

May the Lord make you – Ruth – like Rachel and Leah. Two sisters who birthed twelve sons who would become the fathers of a great nation. Two sisters married to the same man. But a love story of a different kind…

You probably know the story, too. Jacob is the deceptive brother who conspires with his mother to steal a blessing from his father. Once he receives the stolen blessing he runs for his life from his brother who is bent on killing him. Jacob’s flight ends with Laban, the uncle with two daughters. The younger of the two is beautiful and Jacob loves her. Uncle Laban gives this daughter’s hand to Jacob in exchange for seven years of labor – seven years that fly by for the young man in love. But the uncle deceives the deceiver and puts the older daughter in the wedding bed. Surprise! Jacob wakes to find he is married to a sister he doesn’t love. A quick bargain with the tricky uncle seals a second marriage with the younger daughter, and now Jacob has two wives. Two sisters. One loved, and one not.

Leah, the unloved sister, is the first to bring children to the family of Jacob. The names she gives her sons tell the story of her heart. The first – Reuben – the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now. The second – Simeon – Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too. And then a third son. This one – Levi – Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.

But listen to the name of the forth son born to the unloved Leah. This one is Judah – This time I will praise the LORD.

Do you see the heart of the unloved sister? Surely my husband will love me. Surely he will become attached to me. But no.

This time I will praise the Lord.

The younger sister, Rachel, struggles, too. The Lord cho0ses to bless the unloved sister with children, but Rachel’s blessing is to be the love of her man. But no. Rachel is not satisfied with love alone, and so she burns with jealously over the babies given to Leah. In anger she blames her husband. Give me children or I’ll die!

Jacob’s anger fires back. Am I God who has kept you from having children?

As this (love?) story unfolds, a sort of contest ensues, and two sisters give their maids to the one husband who now builds his family through four women. And eventually the family will include sons from Rachel’s own womb as well.

Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.” Genesis 30:22-24

And God does add one more son, a son given to Rachel as she dies. As Rachel breathes her last breath, she names this son Ben-Oni, which means son of my trouble. But Jacob renames his youngest son Benjamin – son of my right hand.

It is through the twelve sons born to four women – and one man – that God will build the nation of Israel. And it is this blessing the elders extend to Boaz at the city gate:

May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel.