No 3
(The 12 Tribes)
The Lord works things out quite
ironically sometimes, especially concerning His chosen people, the Jews. A very good example is Jacob, whose name was
later changed to
We will now look at how he "struggled" to find a suitable
bride.
As we know, Jacob wanted Rachel for his
bride, but the Lord had other plans.
God wanted to bring forth from Jacob, the twelve tribes of
Jacob worked seven years for the hand of
Rachel and when the seven years were up,
Rachel's father, Laban gave Jacob Leah instead of Rachel (deceit) saying
that Leah was the first born and therefore must be the first one to get
married. Jacob had to work another
seven years to get Rachel and he did just that.
During that time, Leah bore Jacob four children: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. Rachel, when she saw that she was unable to
bear children (temporarily) she was jealous of her sister so she gave Jacob Bilhah,
Rachel's handmaid and Bilhah bore two children to Jacob: Dan and Naphtali. Now Leah, through envy when she saw that she
could no longer bare children to Jacob, she gave him her handmaid, Zilpah who
bore two sons for Jacob : Gad and Asher. After that, Leah bore three more children to
Jacob: Issacar, Zebulon and Dinah.
But where was Rachel all this time? She was looking on and God finally opened her
womb (Gen 30:22) and she bore Joseph and a while later, Benjamin; who was born
just as Rachel died.
This is, of course, a brief overview and
we will be looking at some of the tribes in more detail as our studies
progress; for the moment suffice it to say that The Twelve Tribes of Israel
were established through Jacob and that the Lord had plans for each tribe.