The Two Sister’s

Its amazing to see siblings born and brought up in same home later manifest two characters and end up in different destinations. Salvation is a personal choice and experience. It cannot be transferred, inherited nor borrowed. Let us learn from lives of two sisters, one from Old Testament and one from New Testament.

Genesis 29:16-17, “Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.  Leah had weak^[a] eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful.”  Leah and Rachel grew up together in one home. Laban was their father and both enjoyed the blessings of the same home. Later, when Jacob came there to escape the wrath of his brother Esau, both were presented to him, though Jacob had chosen Rachel. As per the tradition of the land, Jacob then had to accept both of them into his lives but both were treated in different ways.

Leah had weak eyes and hence was not in favor of Jacob’s eyes. Rachel’s beauty caused Jacob to be more attracted towards her. Leah’s weak eyes was not her own creation neither was Rachel’s beauty was work of her own hands. Yet they had to go through consequences of God given bodies.

Man’s favorism and God’s justice : Gen.29:30 says that Jacob loved Rached more than Leah. V 31 says that God saw Leah being hated and opened her womb while Rachel was barren. Inspite of being loved less by her husband, Leah faithfully continued to love Jacob and put her hope in the Lord that one day she would receive the love of her husband. God showed mercy to Leah in return for the rejection and made her mother of many sons, one after other.

When God Himself seems to have made certain differentiations in His creations, let us bring it back to Him and hope in Him instead of handling it in our own wisdom. Sooner or later, the Lord’s mercy and justice wipes every tear and He manifests His glory and purposes even through the differentiations. God caused the hatred and rejection of Leah turn around to her favor from heaven. Rom.8:28 says that ALL things happen for good for all who love the Lord. Not a single thing is excluded.  Leah brought her God given weak eyes and lack of love of her husband back to God, who turned all of these around for good. Leah trusted God . His mercy  made her mother of six sons of Jacob, who later formed half of the vast congregation of Israelites, God’s own people.

Rachel was beautiful. She gained  much love of her husband, but envied her sister. She tried competing with her by having kids using her maids. Later  God blessed her womb, but yet, she strayed away from the living God. She hid the images of heathen gods, stole them from her father’s house and told lies to hide it. (Gen. 31:19, 31-35).  She hid them even from her own husband (Gen.31:32). Idolatory had gripped Rachel’s heart so much so that dwelling with a God fearing husband could not deliver her. Just as salvation is our personal choice, idolatory is one’s deliberate choice.

Leah and Rachel grew up and lived together but reached different destinations of eternity. They enjoyed all the blessings together under the same roof but the attitude and response to God and men made one walk on the narrow way leading to eternal life, while the other on the wide way to destruction.

Luke 10:38-39, “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.”

Here we see another two sisters, Martha and Mary. Both loved Jesus but differed in approach on same. Martha expressed her love for Christ by trying to do much for Him. In the process, her focus shifted from Christ to the work. The work which was termed as service or ministry which is the outflow of love, now became assignments done on compulsion grounds. This further lead her to comparison and murmurings.

Mary sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said. She expressed her love for Christ by giving His Word undivided attention. This filled her heart with His Word, enabling her to be silent when her sister Martha blamed her of not helping her. She also won encouragement word from the Lord who said, “ Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Our love for  God is best expressed when we do His will and its His will that we spend enough time in His presence praying and hearing from Him from His Word. This alone is the foundation of a strong relation with God. Anything we do for God without having a strong relation with Him, is only a religious activity which the heaven does not accept.

Martha and Mary grew up together and had the blessing to know the Lord together. But one focused on relation with the Lord which transformed her heart. The other focused on religion which does not transform heart.

Through the lives of these sisters, let us realize that its not the circumstances, families to which we are born, homes where we grew etc that decides our destination with the Lord. It’s our response and attitude to these which paves our way ahead. May we have the heart to bring all the seemingly injustice done to us back to the Lord, who ultimately turns all for good. May we have the heart to prioritize our relation with God over all other activities of life.

GOD bless us all.