7 And Bilhah Rachel's maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. 8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. 10 And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. 12 And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher (Genesis 30:7-13).
The story seems to just get worse by the sentence. There is jealousy and unfaithfulness and yet as we now know God uses this ‘far from perfect’ family to bring hope to the world. How counterintuitive are God’s actions at times. But this is the gulf between God and Man. What we should realize is that it is only mercy that has allowed the human race to continue and it is by mercy that we are saved. So it is God that shows restraint with us and in fact goes to extremes to restore us to a proper relationship. But we should not look to our current actions as the standard, but rather to standards of the God that created us. For while we were originally the standard bearer; in the beginning pure and in the image of God, we must wait for the restoration of all things to be returned to this original design.
The story seems to just get worse by the sentence. There is jealousy and unfaithfulness and yet as we now know God uses this ‘far from perfect’ family to bring hope to the world. How counterintuitive are God’s actions at times. But this is the gulf between God and Man. What we should realize is that it is only mercy that has allowed the human race to continue and it is by mercy that we are saved. So it is God that shows restraint with us and in fact goes to extremes to restore us to a proper relationship. But we should not look to our current actions as the standard, but rather to standards of the God that created us. For while we were originally the standard bearer; in the beginning pure and in the image of God, we must wait for the restoration of all things to be returned to this original design.
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