• MEDITATE: WHY, GOD?

     

    When Life Is Unfair

     

    Rachel, Leah – and God

    Rachel, whose story appears in the Book of Genesis, seemed to have everything. She was beautiful, loved, and married to the man of her dreams. Unfortunately her husband Jacob was tricked into marrying her sister Leah as well (they did that then), and trouble began.

    Jacob did not love Leah, but despite this she bore him many sons. The rivalry between the two sisters was bitter, and made worse by their father Laban, a devious and unscrupulous man. Rachel’s older sister Leah was jealous of Rachel’s beauty, and competed for Jacob’s love.

    In the context of that time, Rachel could not escape her family. She could not, like a modern woman, leave home and strike out on her own. She was trapped.

    Then she died in childbirth. One damn thing after another.

    But she is one of the great Bible heroines – so what can we learn from her story? (You can read it at BIBLE WOMEN: RACHEL.)

    Bible Text

    ‘Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said,’”God has taken away my reproach”; and she named him Joseph.’  Genesis 30:22-24

    The story of Rachel can be found in the Bible at:

    1. Rachel meets Jacob at the well, Genesis 29:1-14
    2. Leah and Rachel marry Jacob, Genesis 29:15-30
    3. Rachel has a son, Joseph, Genesis 29:31-15, 30:1-24
    4. Rachel and Leah leave with Jacob, and Rachel takes the sacred household deities, Genesis 30:25-43, 31
    5. Rachel has a son, Benjamin, and dies soon after, Genesis 35:16-30

    Question: Why, God?

    Rachel had terrible, unsolvable trouble in her family – and maybe you do too.

    Don’t be a Polyanna about it: if you have real problems, it’s only fair you acknowledge them.

    But think too about the good things you have. Think about the laughter and jokes you’ve shared with your family, the love you’ve given them, the things you’ve achieved in your work. You can be proud of what you’ve done.

    The truth is, there is no answer to the question ‘Why, God?’ We don’t understand God’s unfolding plan, and we never will. But we can find some peace by

    • accepting what happens as God’s will
    • working to change things for the better, whenever we can
    • giving ourselves a pat on the back for what we have achieved, and not dwelling on ’what if’…

    Meditation Exercise

    Do you remember the quote from Aeschylus that Robert Kennedy used the night that Martin Luther King was shot?

    ‘He who learns must suffer, and even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.’  (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 179)

    If you can, spend a little time thinking through the following points:

    1. Acknowledge the pain you’ve had in your life. There’s been some bad things happen to you, and they have left their scars.
    2. Think about Rachel’s story. Read and think about the Aeschylus quotation above. Have you gained wisdom or understanding through your own suffering?
    3. Is it possible that some good things came out of your sadness?
    4. Try to let your suffering go. The events that caused it are a part of you, but they are in the past. Why should they spoil the present?

    See BIBLE WOMEN: RACHEL for her full story