Putting It Together
Now I'll try to bring this to its promised conclusion describing the Holy Spirit's work in the believer. The women in these allegorical stories represent relationships. They describe our view -not God's view- of the relationship between God and us. And the sons describe the resulting fruit of those relationships. With that being said, here we go.
Rachael depicts the perfect agape love relationship between God and us (otherwise known as grace). The beauty is what He will see in us at the end of our physical life -based on what we will become when the Holy Spirit has finished with us. Right? Absolutely not! Wrongly, we think that until we get to heaven, He must be relating with us as immature children who only know how to live fleshly lives. So we try to please Him by doing this or that, seemingly following rules or principles. Leah represents a relationship of legalism.
Leah and Her Fruit
The Christian life typically begins as a religious experience. Religion is quite good at teaching how bad we are –sinners, dead in our trespasses. The benefit gained through this relationship is that we realize that God sees that we feel empty, unloved, and lacking reason and purpose for life. The first fruit of trying to relate to Him through legalistic actions is expressed by Leah's first son Rueben (the Lord has seen my affliction).
The next step (fruit of the legalism) is to begin hating what we are –beings controlled by sin. We want to be good so that we are pleasing to God. Our cry to Him is shown through Simeon (the Lord has heard that I was hated).
What follows (the next fruit) is the revelation that God loves us anyway. He chose to join us in our earthly lives saying that He will never leave us nor will He give up on us. Levi is that next son and his name means joined together. Remember, Levi was the first high priest. He was the mediator –the bond that joined God and man.
When we understand how bad we are and compare that with how much He loves us anyway, our response (fruit) is an outpouring of praise to our Lord and Savior. Judah means I will praise the Lord. All of this (Leah's) fruit results from a relationship to Him founded on trying to please Him based on what we think is right.
Bilhah and Her Fruit
The next phase of spiritual growth is typically one of fear, although some call it reverent respect. Rachael's maidservant, Bilhah shows that with her name. It means timid or fearful. While Rachael represents a relationship totally based on love; Bilhah represents a relationship where God's perfect agape love has not quite been realized. This relationship is shown in daily life as we desperately want to experience that abundant life that we hear so much about. The abundant life can't happen while the relationship is based on fear. Yet, we go through a period of fearful living –worried that we can not please God. Remember, this is our view of the relationship; it's not reality. (Take a look at 1 John 4:18.)
The first fruit from a fearful relationship is realized when the Holy Spirit reveals that we have been already been judged and declared innocent by The Judge. It is no longer our works that make us pleasing in His eyes. Dan's name explains it: We have been vindicated –declared to be without any guilt -justified.
Nonetheless, there is a still a struggle that goes on within our minds as we continue trying to be religious –legalistically following what we think are the important moral principles. However, the Spirit shows us another result of this relationship (fruit): No matter how hard that we work at being good, we still can't be pleasing to God. Rachael named her next son Napthali. It means I have struggled with my sister (legalism) and I have won (grace). Legalism produces fear. Napthali hints that legalism is coming to an end.
Zilpah and Her Fruit
As we submit to Him, we become like a fragrant drop of perfume. Zilpah means perfume drops. To God, submission is often referred to as the pleasant odor of incense. Submission comes when we reach the end of our rope and realize that we have nothing to offer besides a willing body.
It is in that state of submission that we find ourselves helpless that begin to see the His blessings. It is also then that we can see that blessings are a result of His grace rather than of our own efforts. Gad (good fortune) foretells of God's blessings of grace.
Our response to His blessings is joy. Asher means I will be happy. It's a description of the fruit from a relationship based on humility. Happiness, or joy, follows recognition of the work that He is doing within us -especially during our life struggles.
The Last of Leah's Fruit
Until we finish with religion and rely totally on God, we continue to think of ourselves as sinners saved by grace instead of being new creations in Christ. (The former is self-focused; the latter is God focused.) Remember, Leah is a legalistic relationship. We start out relating to God first through legalism (Leah), then through fear (Bilhah), and progress to humility (Zilpah). Just when we feel like we've reached the goal of becoming a mature Christian, legalism appears once again. This is shown by a continuation of Leah's fruit.
Fruit that is born from being under the Law is self-centered, self-edifying, self-righteous and self-defeating; it's just about self. That is the state in which legalistic Christians remain. They look forward to what will come, but do not experience the abundant life on earth. Issachar's name implies looking forward to a future reward –living in heaven, new bodies, no tears, crowns– all of the good things.
During that phase of life, people think more about themselves than they ought. They wait for the end of this human life and the start of the new one to come. Zebulun means hesitating or waiting; it also means my husband will treat me with honor. This is very similar to Issachar (future reward). Both are focused on the trouble free future life in new bodies rather than bringing glory to God in this life.
The thing that holds us back from living an abundant life is fear of judgment –judgment about how we have kept His statutes, regulations, laws, precepts, principles, etc. It's also fear of being judged by other believers as to how good of Christians we are. To overcome this fear requires relating to others through God's unconditional love. That leads us to the last of Leah's children -Dinah
As a woman in this allegory, Dinah also describes a relationship. Her name explains the next step in of growing up in the faith; it means justice -specifically God's justice. God is just -perfectly fair- and He already past sentence on sin and already handed down the death penalty for sin. Furthermore, His Son paid it in full. It is essential for us to accept all of what was that entails –the penalty of mans' sin is death and it was totally paid for. But the part that is so often forgotten is what His gift is –it's righteousness and eternal life for every believer. We no longer have to strive to be good or better than others. Resting is God's care is sufficient because He has justified us. Fearing God can be a thing of the past once it's understood that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Rachael and Her Fruit
The goal of knowing God and relating to Him as the beloved bride of Christ is demonstrated through Rachael (a relationship of grace).
Through this relationship of grace we can learn the depths of some of the Scriptures we memorized long ago. You know them: God no longer counts our sins against us; our sins are as far from us as the east is from the west; we have been made us heirs with Jesus; we are covered in His righteousness. The first fruit of an unconditional loving relationship (that's what grace is) is explained through Joseph. His name means He has taken away my disgrace.
One of the phrases often repeated, but not well understood is "die to self"; another is "die to the law in order to live for God." Rachael's last child (her final fruit) demonstrates those phrases. When Rachael was dying in childbirth she named her son Ben-Omi which means son of my troubles because his birth caused her death. But her husband Isaac named him Benjamin; and that means son of my right hand. In order to die to self, we have to quit trying to be legalistically obedient. It's only then we can be beneficial to God –His right hand.
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