The Scourge Of Racism
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Rachel, the mother of Israel, has much to instruct aspiring great women of God in the image of Christ. She was central in last week’s Mother’s Day post as she was too, when the Lord first led me to write about her back in January of this year.1 Unfortunately, the positive lessons Rachel has to teach are from her less than admirable character and bad behavior. Her historical appearance in the Bible serves as a cautionary tale for all women, but especially those that are Christians and would live on purpose to please God and do His will as is the heart of the aspiring great woman of God in Christ’s image.2 Rachel is famous in Israel because of God’s acknowledgment and in spite of her.3
Rachel bore Jacob two sons: Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph grew up to become an outstanding example of a spiritually gifted aspiring strong man of God, ruler (under Pharaoh in Egypt) and deliverer of Israel in the image of Christ. From Benjamin’s seed came Israel’s first king, Saul. Like too many men today Christian or not, Jacob was initially enraptured with Rachel’s beauty, not her character. As it turns out, it appears that Rachel’s descendant, Saul, and his half-hearted commitment to God, contrary and independent spirit originated with her in the biblical narrative;4 being displayed first in her choice to shepherd sheep among predominantly males.
Examine Genesis 24:1-28 and 29:1-12 to compare Rachel’s assertive insertion into what was typically a male vocation (she had brothers--Genesis 31:1) to the servant’s heart of her aunt Rebekah in her youth who was also “beautiful,” but carried out the usual tasks women had in those days (NKJV).5 She clearly had been accepted and was respected by the males because they waited for her as part of the community rules for when flocks could be given water. However, as is the case for guilty females in today’s feminist driven world where Rachel’s assertive insertion into the traditional occupation of males is applauded, that spirit reveals some deeper, underlying character flaws of sin.
Accustomed to having her way since clearly her father, Laban, permitted Rachel to be a shepherdess despite having wealth enough to give maids to his daughters when they married Jacob and sons that did not require it, she was also envious, demanding, impatient, competitive, self-willed, selfish, self-deceived in attempting to make God a party to sin and conniving (Genesis 30:1-8, 14-16). Though she had prayed to Him for children and was heard in His timing with the birth of her firstborn, Joseph, she hoped would lead to another son (Genesis 30:22-24), Rachel did not exalt God in gratitude or truly reverence Him thereafter seeing as she stole her father’s idols (Genesis 31:17-21).6
Whatever Rachel’s motives for stealing her father’s idols, the act not only made her a thief, but also one that did not highly regard the living, “only true God” her husband, Jacob, spoke to and heard from as did her father (Genesis 31:2-16, 22-29; John 17:3, NKJV). Wicked in idolatry with her father, Rachel became a deceiver as he demanded to know who had stolen his idols he searched for she had hidden and prevented their discovery underneath her (Genesis 31:30-35). She clung to those idols while hearing of Jacob’s encounter with angels and name change along with seeing the result in his body after wrestling with “a Man” he identified as “God,” (Genesis 32:1-2, 22-32, NKJV).7
If Israel did not know about the idols Rachel stole from her father before this point, he most certainly learned about this after he commanded all his household to “put away the foreign gods” and collected the idols in preparation for leading them to meet with God at “Bethel,” (Genesis 35:1-15, NKJV). Rachel’s last act of selfishness was as she died naming her child translated, son of my sorrow, which Israel changed (Genesis 35:16-18). No doubt, he was heartbroken as before and at her death he saw the woman he had loved so deeply in true spiritual, moral and ethical character that over twenty years had never changed while he drew closer to God and did. Not in the family plot of his fathers, but a marked grave near Bethlehem by herself he buried Rachel (Genesis 35:19-20).
Rachel’s lessons for every aspiring great woman of God in the image of Christ should be heeded. First, outward beauty impresses men, but not God. Second, separated from God as a sinner, you are inwardly grotesque and dead in spiritual death! There is no make-up or pretense to hide the real you that will eventually show through. Third, Rachel was so close, but failed to reach out and come to know God as did her husband so she could be transformed inwardly in character.8 No one who comes to truly know God remains the same! For this cause, if you want a life blessed of God, well lived with a godly husband and family, then press into and submit fully in all obedience to Christ (Proverbs 31:30; Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:1-10, 4:17-24; 1 Timothy 2:8-15; 1 Peter 3:1-6).
1 See the January 15, 2023 post, Rachel’s Children Live!, under the category, Instruction.
2 I am led by the Lord to first introduce the aspiring great woman of God in the image of Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. More biblical details and instruction about her are later presented in a companion women’s group study. Get a Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Edition of the book as well as the Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
3 As noted in my January post, Rachel had standing with God because the patriarch, Jacob, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham loved her deeply. Her burial off a major north-south connecting road near Bethlehem gave rise to the Lord using her in two prophetic instances (Jeremiah 31:15-17; Matthew 2:16-18).
4 Read 1 Samuel 9-15 to see the character and ways of Rachel’s blood descendant, king Saul, God rejected.
5 In her later years Rebekah refused to patiently wait on God to work out the prophecy of Jacob’s family standing and convinced him to follow her lead in using subterfuge to gain it with his father’s blessing. This created a murderous family rift and she never again saw Jacob as outcomes. After those days, she disappears from Genesis being only mentioned when her nurse died and as buried in the family plot with Isaac near its end (Genesis 25:19-28, 27-28:5, 35:8, 49:29-31).
6 In Rachel’s defense, she had only the superficial knowledge of God retained in the years following Noah’s flood and as her father and other spiritually duplicitous Mesopota- mians, practiced syncretism (Genesis 11:1-9).
7 The “Man” is plainly a pre-incarnate appearance of Jacob’s future Descendant, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ!
8 Character matters to God! The Lord leads me to write about the character He seeks to construct in His great women in my book, group study and exclusively in the Strong Man Store, the Audio Resource, The Character Of The Great Woman Of God available on CD or for Download. The character God builds in both His aspiring strong man and great woman begins with faith and humility which if Rachel had had, her fame would have been so much nobler and eternally excellent as well as worthy of imitation.
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