Mothers of the bible-Rachel and Leah (part 3)

                                     Genesis 29-A very short tale of two sisters: Rachel and Leah 

 Jacob inadvertently married Lea when he wanted to marry her sister Rachel. Rachel was Jacob's favorite wife and the mother of  Benjamin and Joseph.

Jacob worked seven years for her father Laban (which was his uncle) so that he could marry Rachel. She was very beautiful and he had fallen in love with her. However, unbeknownst to Jacob, her father gave him the youngest daughter Leah instead of Rachel. When he found this out the next day, he confronted Laban. Laban told Jacob to finish  Leah's bridal week and then he could have Rachel because it was not their custom for the youngest daughter to marry first. And Rachel was the youngest daughter. Labon said that then Jacob could have Rachel and work for him another seven years. And so Jacob did.

However, Leah began having his children and Rachel could not. She prayed for God to give her a child. Finally, Rachel became very jealous of her sister and demanded that Jacob give her a child.

Rachel ended up giving her servant to Jacob so that she would have babies for her, and her servant did.
Years passed before Rachel herself gave birth to Jacobs children. And she ended up dying during childbirth later.

What was life like for women in the times of Rachel and her sister Leah? Here is just a brief look at some of the ways they lived.

1. When a bride married, she expected to receive a gift from her father. It might be money or goods such as land or cattle etc.
2. The women of the time were smart, strong and independent. When they wanted something, they almost  always got their way.
3. They did many things within their clans because, without them, their clan could not be managed and they knew it. 
4. They were not kept in the home. They moved about society freely.
5. They were active in religious matters.
6. They performed tasks together and were involved mostly with any that affected the household.
7. They made the major decisions of their households. 

That is just a short list of what their world held for them in those days. For more info you can follow the following links. 

http://www.womeninthebible.net/bible-extras/family-work-religion/ or
http://www.womeninthebible.net/bible-people/rachel_bible/

It would seem to me, that starting with Eve and continuing on, the fact that women could get what they wanted from their men lives on through today. Did they have a women's lib of sorts? Maybe, not to the degree it is today. Women today demand their rights and some of those rights are very unbiblical. Reading more about their roles back then, just makes me wonder about it. They did work within their homes. No doubt they worked very hard and life for them was not easy. They didn't go off to an office in that day. But they knew what they wanted and how to get it. Interesting, isn't it?

Thanks for coming by. Have a wonderful day!