Desperate housewives.

by John Stallings

I’m not a fan of the T.V show by the same name but with the little I do know I think it’s interesting that again Hollywood has stumbled into Bible territory. From what I’ve been able to learn, there are four women on the T.V show. Each has her particular personality, set of interests & layers of desperation. But where desperation is concerned, like the fellow said; what’s new?

In Genesis 29 & 30, we have a Bible story about four women & I’ll guarantee you they are more desperate than the T.V ladies. In all candidness, the T.V show is a tame PBS presentation compared to the story before us.

Most of their desperation has to do with the issue of child-bearing.

For a little background, in the days when these women lived, there were no Social Security programs to keep people from falling through the cracks of society. To put it bluntly, if a woman had no children, in her old age she was probably going to be a street beggar. Now we can proceed with at least a modicum of knowledge of why these women were so desperate.

Let’s start with Rachel. As chapter 30 opens she’s extremely desperate because she has no children. Listen to her;--And when Rachel saw that she bare no children, Rachel envied her sister; and she said unto Jacob, give me children lest I die. One thing we learned from reading the preceding chapter, (chapter 29) is that Jacob loved Rachel more than her sister Leah. Ouch! That’s gotta hurt. You can almost see what’s coming here. The narrative tells that when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. Oh, Yeah! Now we’ve got a fight going.

And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel; and he said, am I in God’s place who hath withheld from thee the fruit of thy womb? Vr.1-2

Next we have Leah. When Leah saw that she’d left childbearing she took Zilphah her maid & gave her to Jacob to wife. And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son. And Leah said, a troop cometh & she called his name Gad.

Now Leah starts some real baby-having & pops out four boys, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, & Judah. All this action makes Rachel jealous & angry so she offers her maid BILHAH to Jacob so that she too may have a child. Bilhah gives birth to two sons, Dan & Naphtali. Not to be outdone, Leah who had ceased childbearing offers her maid Zilphah to Jacob in order to have more children. Through Zilpah, Leah is able to have two more sons, Gad & Asher. Leah has three more children with Jacob, Issachar, Zebulun, & Dinah. Finally God remembers Rachel, opens her womb, & she bears a son for Jacob. His name is Joseph.

Rachel, Bilhah, Leah, & Zilphah, --were desperate housewives. Bilhah & Zilphah were maids/slaves. I’m sure their desperation had to do with at some point gaining their freedom to live lives on their own & have husbands of their own.

If you’re a Bible student you know that this sort of scenario isn’t unusual, it started with Abraham & Sarah. They too were desperate. And then the clan of Jacob & Esau were also equally desperate.

One thing that puts a little “pepper in the gumbo” is that these people were vagabonds & tent-dwellers. Wouldn’t you say that made them even more desperate?

We can understand why the T.V people would put a series like this on the air. They are in the business of making money. But why in the world would God put this “soap-opera” right in the opening chapters of His Word? Once you think about it, the answers simple. Who else would there be for God to work with were it not for desperate people? Haven’t you noticed we’re all desperate? A famous Sage said—“most of us live lives of quiet desperation.” How true those words are.

After all, what would you call it when we go to the airport & take off our shoes for inspection? Has anyone considered how hard it is for stout people to take their shoes off? Look at our divorce rate. What does it tell you? We are a desperate people.

Desperate is who God’s people are. We are all desperate in some way or another. The Bible is full of desperate people. They are the only ones available to God. If God didn’t use desperate people there’d be no one else to use.

Think of how God is so caught up in this narrative with the issue of children being born. In this day of Abortion on demand, do you think God has changed His attitude about life? This story seems to me to show that at the heart of God is the gift of birth & life. But these lives don’t exist in a void without struggle. It seems that in the chaos of life is where God reveals His love, hope & promise.

Aren’t you glad we have a God who blesses us right in the presence of conflict? He moved into dysfunction to bring about the birth of Israel’s children & enable goodness & greatness to emerge.

As I finish writing this blog, I have a feeling that it will go straight into the hearts of many, who like me, can very easily identify with the chaotic, messy, dysfunctional, desperate side of life.

Maybe I’m wrong.


Blessings,


John