You.

So she gave him her servant Billa as a wife. Genesis 30, verse four Rachel, like her sister Leia, was also a victim of circumstances that were not her own making.

The ideal love story with Jacob that.

She had envisioned had been soiled by her father's cruelty. On her wedding night, her father refused to allow her to embrace the man who had worked seven years for the privilege of marrying her, sending her older.

Sister Leah to him instead.

Forced to share her husband with her sister, Rachel had to deal with feelings of anger, frustration, and disappointment. When her sister began having children. While she remained barren, Rachel also had to deal with feelings of jealousy and inadequacy.

Give me children or I'll die, she.

Cried to her husband. There were moments of happiness in Rachel's life. Of course, she knew without doubt that her husband, Jacob, loved her. Her emotional needs, as well as her.

Physical needs were in many ways being met.

But the one point of utter despair.

In her life centered on her inability to bear children, a despair so dark that she made the drastic decision to.

Share her husband with yet a third woman, her servant Bila, with the intent.

Of adopting the child born to this.

Woman in order to raise a family.

As with Leia, it is impossible not.

To feel great sympathy for Rachel because.

She, too, faced many frustrations, not all of which were her own fault. Those who have themselves experienced shattered dreams can painfully identify with Rachel. Like her, despair has led many of us to take desperate, drastic measures to resolve the pain and the frustrations in our lives. We must note, however, that Rachel's efforts to help God out, no matter how.

Pure her motives and intentions might have.

Been, simply resulted in further complications. At that time in her life, Rachel had not yet learned to wait patiently for the Lord, and running ahead of him, solved nothing and gave little more than shallow satisfaction. Trying to help God out with our own schemes always ends up badly. So while we may find it easy.

To relate to Rachel and understand her act of desperation, we must be very careful that we learn from her mistake.

Rather than simply repeating it.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to [email protected] have a great day, and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.