Genesis 30:22-24

2009.Jan.09 14:30

A Son for Rachel

Read Genesis 30:22-24 | Full Chapter

Finally, God remembered Rachel–he answered her prayer by giving her a son. "God has taken away my disgrace," she said. "I'll name the boy Joseph, and I'll pray that the LORD will give me another son."
(Genesis 30:22-24, CEV)

Near the bottom of Wikipedia page on Jacob there’s a handy chart of his children mentioned in Biblical account.

Rachel has had two surrogate sons by Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali. But in her race against her older sister, Leah is clearly winning. Or whatever. I know I’ve said it before about this story, but how do we humansget so messed up? Finding value in number of sons? WTF is up with that? And it’s clearly not just these two who have in history been wrapped up in that particular absurdity.

Sigh.

Anyway, Rachel finally gets her son, whom she names Joseph. He’s number eleven in the cycle (Rachel will also bear the twelveth (sp?), Benjamin). Joseph will be the son to take up the central thread of the story, although all of Jacob’s sons get included in Israel, unlike Isaac/Ishmael, and Jacob/Esau in which the recipient of the promise is designated to be only one son (the other sons do get consolation prizes). So Joseph’s importance will not be in being the sole heir, but in bringing all the heirs into Egypt.

So, anyway, back to Rachel. She feels that Joseph’s birth takes away her disgrace of barreness. But as with her mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law, the barrenness ended with the birth of a chief son. Patience, patience, eh?