How did you get your name? Were you named for a family member? One of my grandchildren is named after a street in Little Rock. True story. I asked my mom who knew everything how they chose my name, but she could not remember. Dad said they named me after an actor named Alan Ladd and then gave me his own middle name as my middle name. Consequently, I go by Duane.
Rachel blamed Jacob because she had no children. Listen to the anguish and anxiety in her words, “Give me children or I die.” Having children was more important than anything in the world to her. Jacob, missing his cues, attributed her infertility to God. We know the Lord enabled Leah to conceive. Was he preventing Rachel? Remember in the Old Testament especially, God is thought to be the prime cause of all things. For instance, the Bible says he hardened Pharaoh’s heart and that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Which was it? God does not cause everything in our lives. Our sin for example. God does not cause that. But God allows things to happen or they would not happen.
Like Sarah before her, Rachel had a plan: she would give Jacob her servant girl Bilhah. Ideas, both good and bad, run in family systems. When Bilhah conceived and bore a son, Rachel named him Dan to signify the Lord’s vindication. Her second son through Bilhah received the name Naphtali because Rachel felt victorious in her competition with her sister. How did Bilhah feel about this? We do not know.
What do we learn when we read these stories? People in ancient times dealt with challenges like childlessness just as people do today. They felt pain and competed with others just as people do today. People who had less power were forced by powerful people to do things that they might not have wanted to do. Behind the scenes, though, God is working. Dan and Naphtali were not mistakes. But God still intended to enable Rachel to bear her own children, as well.
Pray for the people in your family, by name today. God brought them into the world. We receive the joy of blessing them in his name. Each person we meet was created in the image of God himself. Shouldn’t we love them?
