The Community’s Most Shared Reading
Open Your Bible
Genesis 30:1-24, Genesis 35:16-20, Psalm 98:1-3, Hebrews 4:16
BY Rebecca Faires
For Day 4 of our 2019 Wrapped plan, we asked our Social Media Manager to uncover the community’s most shared reading of 2019. This reading comes from our summer study, Women and Men in the Word: Old Testament and tells the story of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, and her struggle to bear children for him.
Women and Men in the Word: Old Testament Day 12 | Rachel
Laban really gave his daughters a raw deal. He tricked Jacob into marrying Leah, sentencing both of his girls to one truly heartbreaking marriage. Instead of enjoying sweet accord between husband and wife, both women got crowded into a bitter, vengeful squeeze of marital misery. One wife is just the right number of wives, but one man, two sisters, and their maidservants to boot is a cramped relationship for sure. Indeed, the normal strains of marriage are quite enough without having to engage in a fertility contest with your own sister—a fertility contest that Rachel was losing. The stats were 10 to 0 against Rachel before Joseph was finally born.
Once a month, my husband goes out for an evening with his friends to discuss literature. But by the time he gets home at 10pm, I’ve had quite enough of sharing him with others. Marriage is a tight circle of two. Rachel and Leah were both denied the sweet intimacy that can only exist when two people are alone in a marriage. They likely both felt forgotten by their husband and by God. And forgotten is a feeling that we can all identify with. People will absolutely forget us. Terrible marriages, absent parents, distracted friends, and even children can pass over us as they forge ahead in life.
But there is One who does not forget. God remembers His people. God remembered Rachel (Genesis 20:22). And in Scripture, when it says that God “remembers” someone, it means that He is going to intervene and help. When God remembers, He takes action (Genesis 9:15; 19:29; 30:22; Exodus 2:24, 32:13; Psalms 25:6–7; 74:2). Even though Rachel seems to only be asking Jacob for help, it is God who remembers Rachel. He remembers, He listens, and He opens her womb (Genesis 30:1,22).
In the weirdest and most uncomfortable situations—in the deepest, saddest days—God remembers and listens. It goes without saying that His action may not be what we are asking for or what we think the situation requires, but in His sovereignty, He listens and remembers His people.
Rachel died in childbirth when Benjamin was born. She fought with Leah for her entire married life. She didn’t get to grow old with the man she loved. It was Leah’s son, Judah, whose descendants formed the line of Christ. Rachel’s life probably did not turn out at all like she had hoped. But she was remembered by God.
Life isn’t about us and what we are doing. It is easy to forget that just because things have not gone as we hoped, that does not mean that we are forgotten or abandoned. Indeed, God builds His kingdom even amidst our dashed expectations.
56 thoughts on "The Community’s Most Shared Reading"
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“God builds His kingdom even amidst our dashed expectations”. Amen. Needed to hear this.
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This was exactly what I needed to read this morning! It is so Amazing how the Lord works !
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2The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. -
“God remembered” This is something I’ve been holding on for the past year and it keeps returning to me through different scripture, different people, and different methods. My husband and I have had a craving for deep Christ-centered friendships since leaving college, knowing that’s what God wants for us and reading about it over and over in the Bible, but it being out of grasp. A few months ago, I read a post by Lisa Jacobson where she talked about having a similar experience for so many years. She said that now that she is through it she sees that the season of loneliness was used by God to draw her to himself. That gave me so much hope! God sees me! God remembers me! And, even if not on this side of eternity, He will fulfill His promises!
And, since then, the small group we are in has started to get deeper! People who had been keeping each other at arms length are starting to let each other in, pray for one another, and comfort one another! We still have a long way to go, but Praise God!
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someone that i used to know well, mocked me for my faith today. what they think doesn’t matter, yet it still stung when they mocked me. this reading reminded me, that God’s glory is being made known to the nations, His salvation is being revealed, and i have received it with rejoicing, but not everyone will, and i can’t change the way they receive it, but i can chnage the way i react. what a reminder to rejoice, even when i am the only one.
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In my current struggle with recurrent miscarriage, this was exactly what I needed today. Thank you for the reminder that God sees and remembers me even in dark seasons.
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Life never gets as rosy as we want it to be. The beautiful children we long for and raise before God turn their backs on him and pursue worthless things. Yet our Lord is sovereign and loves them more than me, and so I entrust them to him every day, knowing my prayers do not go unheard. I may not live to see it Lord, but may you bring them home to you in the end.
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Thank you, Jennie. This is indeed a comfort.
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I have been praying for healing in the relationship between my husband (stepfather) and son (17) and asked for prayer through church as well. I was feeling impatient about it last week… as in… this would totally glorify you and be a good thing, why won’t you heal it God? I was feeling unseen and ignored. On Monday my husband and I were at the zoo (a christmas gift to him) and a woman named Sherry came to me and started speaking Truth over me…She was a surprised as I was at the way God appointed our meeting… but she spoke and I received a Word from the Lord… He wanted me to be seen and known in the most obvious of ways…
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