Read:
In the ancient world, women were only half a step above slaves in status, power, and acknowledgement. This was true of all ancient cultures. But God changed that. We have seen already in this reading plan that the first person to give God a name was a slave girl, Hagar. The promise of salvation was given to Eve, when God promised one of her descendants would save the world. That was fulfilled through a woman, Mary. And women were the first to see the empty tomb where Jesus was laid after he was crucified. It’s clear that God values women.
But the rest of the ancient world didn’t hold women to the same value. Marriage and children were a woman’s only protection against poverty.
Leah should have been happy, knowing that her first three children were her protection against poverty if her husband died before she did. But she wasn’t happy. All she wanted was to be loved. But her husband preferred another woman. (Her own sister, no less!) The names she gave her first three children reflected her deep unhappiness: Rueben means “the LORD has seen my misery”; Simeon: “because the LORD knows I am unloved”; and Levi: “perhaps now my husband will love me.”
Sadly, Leah’s circumstances didn’t change. Her husband never showed her love. But Leah’s heart changed. Her faith changed. Look at what she named her fourth son, Judah: “this time I will praise the LORD.”
Maybe your circumstances won’t change any time soon. Maybe you don’t have the power to change them at all, and you feel overwhelmed and hopeless. Maybe the only thing you can control, or need to control, is your own response. Can you still praise today? Remember what Hagar knew: God sees you. Remember what Jeremiah knew: God is faithful, loving, and merciful. Then do what Leah did and say, “This time I will praise the LORD.”