So, this is a very interesting story from the Bible. Perhaps it has some relevance to what is happening today. The God of the Bible is referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This particular story is about Jacob. I’ll summarize it and make an application, but you can read the whole story in Genesis 29.
Basically, Jacob wanted a wife and found a young woman at a well, named Rachel, the daughter of Laban. He worked out an arrangement with Laban to work for seven years in order to take Rachel as his wife. After seven years, the day arrived for him to get married. He married, and in the morning, he woke up to quite a surprise. Instead of Rachel being his wife, it was her older sister, Leah, who was the one he actually married. Don’t ask me how Jacob missed that one. When Jacob went to Laban for an explanation, Laban said that it was not right to give the younger before the firstborn. So Jacob agreed to work for another seven years to have Rachel as his wife, which he did.
Although unwanted and unloved, Leah gave birth to six sons to Jacob. If you are aware of some biblical history, you know that Jacob went on to have twelve sons which eventually became the twelve tribes of Israel. Two of the sons born to Leah were named Levi and Judah.
Here’s my point: God has always had a big plan in mind, a plan that has been unfolding throughout human history. God was establishing His holy nation, through the seed of Abraham, and Jacob’s twelve sons were the ones who formed the twelve tribes of Israel. Through Levi, the priests would come. Through Judah, the kings would come. Do you see where I’m going? Even though Jacob initially received Leah, whom he did not want, it was through her, that God received what He wanted —the kings and the priests.
There is a lot going on in our world, hard things, challenging things, and things that we really don’t want, on many levels. I get it. But if we zoom out the lens a bit, we might begin to realize that God is still working out His plan today, like He has been faithfully doing throughout all of history. God will get what He wants, even though the unwanted circumstances happening today are ones that we might not particularly desire. God wants a pure and spotless bride ready and prepared for His Son. If we allow the hard and difficult things we are going through to give Him that, it’s a win, no matter what.