- Don’t cry, it’s just a stupid bug!
- But it’s hurt! Look, its leg got crushed by a stone. Let’s take it with us and pray, God will make it better.
- If God can fix bugs, then maybe God could get us some rain, so I don’t have to walk the sheep so far and have that huge rock rolled off the wellhead to water them.
---------------------
The night is still; only the veils that cover her from head to toe make a slight swishing sound as she is led toward the tent. Father has told her not to say a word. She will try her best. Surely, if she is a good wife, he will come to love her for who she is.
---------------------
God hears her
silent weeping. She had a head start of seven days before he began spending his
nights with Rachel. It wasn’t enough to prove herself worthy; it wasn’t enough
to open his heart. She yearns for affection the way an open wound yearns for
salve. But perhaps this child will make a difference, and he will no longer
hate her. She names the boy: “Now my husband will love me.”
After another
son, and then another, she still thinks, maybe now.... But he comes only to
mate so she will continue bearing strong sons, the way sheep are bred for their
good lines.
---------------------
It’s like a
competition between them to see who can make more children. When sister gives
him Bilhah to impregnate and her own body needs rest, she has to offer up
Zilpah. And so it goes. Jacob does the rounds among them. Finally she becomes
fertile again, and after six sons ... surely now!?
Then her good
fortune ends. The seventh child is female. She grieves for her daughter.
---------------------
She does not
mind leaving Haran, and leaving behind her inheritance, if that is what it
means. But Rachel is upset at having to leave a few items behind, beautiful
dresses, the crockery.
-
Rachel, don’t! Father will figure out you took the idols, and he’ll be angry!
We have enough. Come, let’s go. We will start over, make a new life for
ourselves elsewhere, for our children, and for dear Jacob.
---------------------
Laban is raving,
going from tent to tent, upending cushions and children, looking everywhere.
Jacob, innocent of this particular theft, tries to placate him by promising to
kill whoever took the household gods. Rachel sits on the camel cushion and
starts to rise, then sits back down and says sweetly, “Dearest Father, my Lord,
forgive me for not getting up, the period of women is upon me.”
---------------------
When Rachel
dies, all Leah’s hope dies too. He weeps and acts as if it were her fault, as
if she hadn’t been there to help, holding her sister’s hand, putting a wet
cloth on her burning forehead.
He never looks
at her again, he never comes to her tent again. At meals, even when she has
prepared his favourite dishes, he is silent.
Does he not
understand? Rachel was her sister! She loved Rachel from the day she was born,
small and pale and beautiful.
Comments
Post a Comment