Two nice (Thanks to resources, American Bible Society, and Discover the Word) pieces to summarise the children of Jacob and the Leah, Rachel angle.
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From http://bibleresources.americanbible.org/resource/jacobs-children-and-their-mothers
The Name. The Hebrew word for “Israel” means “one who wrestles with God” or “May God join in the struggle!” The second meaning implies “May God defeat the forces that oppose God and the people of God.” The name “Israel” was given to Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebekah and grandson of Abraham and Sarah, after Jacob wrestled with someone who seemed to be a human but later turned out to be God (Gen 32.22-32). Later, Israel's twelve tribes were named for the sons of Jacob (Israel) and for two of his grandsons (see Gen 48,49).
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http://www.revisedenglishversion.com/Genesis/49
Genesis Chapter 49 
Jacob’s Last Words1Jacob called to his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.
2“Assemble yourselves and hear, you sons of Jacob,
3“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might,
5“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
8“Judah, your brothers will praise you;
13“Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea.
14“Issachar is a strong donkey,
16“Dan will judge his people
18I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.
19“A troop will press on Gad,
20“Asher’s food will be rich.
21“Naphtali is a doe set free
22“Joseph is a fruitful vine,
27“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.
2“Assemble yourselves and hear, you sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
3“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might,
and the beginning of my strength,
excelling in dignity and excelling in power.
4Boiling over as water, you will not excel,
because you went up to your father’s bed;
then defiled it. He went up to my couch.
5“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
their swords are weapons of violence.
6My soul, don’t come into their council;
my glory, don’t be united to their assembly.
For in their anger they killed men.
In their self–will they hamstrung cattle.
7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce,
and their wrath, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
8“Judah, your brothers will praise you;
your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons will bow down before you.
9Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion,
as a lioness; who will rouse him up?
10The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs;
to him will the obedience of the peoples be.
11Binding his foal to the vine,
his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
12His eyes will be red with wine,
his teeth white with milk.
13“Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea.
He will be for a haven of ships.
His border will be on Sidon.
14“Issachar is a strong donkey,
lying down between the saddlebags.
15He saw a resting place, that it was good,
the land, that it was pleasant.
He bows his shoulder to the burden,
and becomes a servant doing forced labor.
16“Dan will judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17Dan will be a serpent in the way,
an adder in the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that his rider falls backward.
18I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.
19“A troop will press on Gad,
but he will press on their heel.
20“Asher’s food will be rich.
He will yield royal delights.
21“Naphtali is a doe set free
who bears beautiful fawns.
22“Joseph is a fruitful vine,
a fruitful vine by a spring:
his branches run over the wall.
23The archers have severely grieved him,
shot at him, and persecute him,
24but his bow remained strong;
the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
(from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),
25even by the God of your father who will help you,
by the Almighty who will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies below,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26The blessings of your father have prevailed
above the blessings of your ancestors,
above the boundaries of the ancient hills.
They will be on the head of Joseph,
on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.
27“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.
In the morning he will devour the prey.
At evening he will divide the spoil.”
28All
these are the 12 tribes of Israel. And this is what their father spoke
to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing.
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From: https://discovertheword.org/?p=5964
Monday, November 26, 2012
IDEA: Envy doesn't get us what we lack, but it does make us miserable.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand the self-defeating nature of envy.
"Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with envy." Does that ring true?
If we think about it, we realize that envy makes us miserable.
I. We see this in the misery of two sisters who each envied the other. Their story is found in Genesis 29–31.
Jacob (fleeing the wrath of his brother, Esau) married both daughters of his uncle Laban. But his marriage to the elder sister, Leah, came not by choice but by trickery (Genesis 29:16-30
).
Leah, the pawn in someone else's trickery, must live out her life married to a man who did not love her, did not choose her, did not want her. Every day she faced the fact that her husband loved her younger sister, not her.
Rachel, the younger sister, appeared to have everything going for her except her ability to bear children. Leah, her older sister, seemed to have no problem getting pregnant. Every day for more than a decade she heard the sound of her sister's children outside her tent, and she yearned for a child of her own.
The rivalry between the two sisters existed because each one wanted what the other had.
Leah wanted Jacob's love, expressed in the naming of her sons:
"Now therefore my husband will love me" after firstborn Reuben's birth (Genesis 29:32).
"Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved. He has therefore given me this son also" after Simeon's birth (Genesis 29:33).
"Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons" after Levi's birth (Genesis 29:34).
"Now I will praise the Lord" after Judah's birth (Genesis 29:35).
"God has given me my hire, because I have given my maid to my husband" after Issachar's birth (Genesis 30:18).
"God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons" after Zebulun's birth (Genesis 30:20).
"Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, 'Give me children, or else I die!' " (Genesis 30:1).
Jacob became angry with Rachel, insisting that her problem wasn't his
fault. When Rachel saw Leah's son Reuben bringing mandrakes (love
apples) to his mother from the field, she bargained with Leah for them,
hoping that the "magical" fruit would enable her to conceive. Leah
retorted, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband?
Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" (Genesis 30:14-15). But even the mandrakes Leah gave Rachel (in exchange for sleeping again with Jacob) did not produce a son for Rachel.
II. Envy does not solve our problems or get us what we want. It makes us blind to what we have and miserable about what we lack.
Rachel conceived only when "the Lord opened her womb," not before. Her envy of Leah in no way changed her barrenness. It merely made her miserable.
Leah had to find contentment in the sons she bore. Her marriage did not change. Jacob loved Rachel most, even at the end of her life. When preparing to meet Esau and his 400 men, Jacob put the maids and their children first in line, then Leah and her children second, and Rachel and Joseph as far back as possible to protect them. Leah never knew the affection from Jacob that she yearned for.
Horace has called envy "the worst of all tortures" because it changes nothing but merely makes us miserable.
IDEA: Envy doesn't get us what we lack, but it does make us miserable.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand the self-defeating nature of envy.
"Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with envy." Does that ring true?
If we think about it, we realize that envy makes us miserable.
I. We see this in the misery of two sisters who each envied the other. Their story is found in Genesis 29–31.
Jacob (fleeing the wrath of his brother, Esau) married both daughters of his uncle Laban. But his marriage to the elder sister, Leah, came not by choice but by trickery (Genesis 29:16-30
).Leah, the pawn in someone else's trickery, must live out her life married to a man who did not love her, did not choose her, did not want her. Every day she faced the fact that her husband loved her younger sister, not her.
Rachel, the younger sister, appeared to have everything going for her except her ability to bear children. Leah, her older sister, seemed to have no problem getting pregnant. Every day for more than a decade she heard the sound of her sister's children outside her tent, and she yearned for a child of her own.
The rivalry between the two sisters existed because each one wanted what the other had.
Leah wanted Jacob's love, expressed in the naming of her sons:
"Now therefore my husband will love me" after firstborn Reuben's birth (Genesis 29:32
)."Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved. He has therefore given me this son also" after Simeon's birth (Genesis 29:33
)."Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons" after Levi's birth (Genesis 29:34
)."Now I will praise the Lord" after Judah's birth (Genesis 29:35
)."God has given me my hire, because I have given my maid to my husband" after Issachar's birth (Genesis 30:18
)."God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons" after Zebulun's birth (Genesis 30:20
)."Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, 'Give me children, or else I die!' " (Genesis 30:1
).
Jacob became angry with Rachel, insisting that her problem wasn't his
fault. When Rachel saw Leah's son Reuben bringing mandrakes (love
apples) to his mother from the field, she bargained with Leah for them,
hoping that the "magical" fruit would enable her to conceive. Leah
retorted, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband?
Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" (Genesis 30:14-15). But even the mandrakes Leah gave Rachel (in exchange for sleeping again with Jacob) did not produce a son for Rachel.II. Envy does not solve our problems or get us what we want. It makes us blind to what we have and miserable about what we lack.
Rachel conceived only when "the Lord opened her womb," not before. Her envy of Leah in no way changed her barrenness. It merely made her miserable.
Leah had to find contentment in the sons she bore. Her marriage did not change. Jacob loved Rachel most, even at the end of her life. When preparing to meet Esau and his 400 men, Jacob put the maids and their children first in line, then Leah and her children second, and Rachel and Joseph as far back as possible to protect them. Leah never knew the affection from Jacob that she yearned for.
Horace has called envy "the worst of all tortures" because it changes nothing but merely makes us miserable.
