Don’t You Know God is No Respecter of Persons?

Genesis 30:1, NKJV

Don’t You Know God is No Respecter of Persons

It’s mind-boggling that Leah was described as “tender eyed, but Rachel was described as beautiful of form and appearance,” yet Leah’s younger sister was envious of her (Genesis 30:1) Leah was envied by her little sister because she was fruitful; she had had four sons for Jacob. Rachel was barren; she had had none. Having a child should never be a measuring device for determining womanhood. In Bible times people were insensitive to women who had no children and considered them cursed. In our culture today a woman may not be considered cursed, but there exists an attitude of disregard for a woman’s feelings, her singleness, her health, or even her choice to have a child or not.  

God is no respecter of persons, and under no circumstance does He ever love one of us more than another. He saw that Leah was unloved so He showed her love by opening her womb. Leah misunderstood God’s generosity, and after each of the first three sons, she longed the more for her husband’s love. After number four, she declared “Now I will praise the Lord.”

Leah stopped bearing for a period of time. Then she and Rachel competed with having children for Jacob, including giving their maids to him to wife. Because of their hurt, anger, and insecurities, they put their maids, who had no say, in the drama. Leah had six sons and one daughter; Zilpah, her maid had two sons; Rachel had two sons, and Bilhah, her maid had two sons. God is all-knowing and always purposeful. ^8”For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55). Leah’s fourth son, Judah, is the tribe through which David and Jesus the Messiah descended. God is no respecter of persons. In every situation He will use whosoever He chooses to accomplish His purpose. Know without a doubt God is the one sure constant in our messy lives: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Give God glory!