CONCLUSION This story that we looked at is not just a record of a bunch of crazy people. God had Moses write this down because it is the record of how the twelve tribes of Israel came into being. As the nation is about to walk into the Promised Land after years of exile in Egypt and the wilderness, they would be reminded of where they came from two sisters trying to have more children than each other and fighting over the love of Jacob. Not exactly an amazing origin story. In fact, it is quite sad. But Moses will remind the people, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers..” (Deuteronomy 6-8). And it is through this nation, specifically Leah’s son Judah, that the Messiah Jesus would come. We might be tempted to look at Leah, Rachel, and Jacob and judge them. But imagine what events in your life, if it were viewed from an outsider, might be a turning point in your life. If you’re an unbeliever today, know that God saves people that make a mess of their lives through sin. There is no sin so great that he has not overcome and will not forgive. So come to him today. Pray to God, even now, and ask him to forgive you. Ask him to take your sin-ridden life and redeem it for his sake. If you are a Christian wife and have a Jacob for a husband, whether you feel like a Leah or a Rachel, remember not to take things into your own hands. Serve the Lord and honor your husband and trust that God will hear you and listen to you. God does not call you to be a doormat but he does call you to be honorable. If you are a Christian husband or a young man, hear this. God has called us to be a one-woman man. That means, we have one wife. We don’t let our eyes wander to every woman that has a pulse. We guard our eyes and minds. Like Job, we say, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” As a single man, you practice self-control until God gives you the one woman. May God help us as we strive to live lives that are holy and pleasing to him.