Genesis 29:31Plain English VersionJacob didn’t love his wife Leah. He only loved his wife Rachel. And God saw that Jacob didn’t love Leah. So God felt sorry for Leah, and he let her have kids. But Rachel couldn’t have any kids. See the chapter |
Abram and Sarai lived in that Canaan country, and after they were there for 10 years, they still had no kids. Sarai had a woman from Egypt working for her, called Hagar. She was Sarai’s slave. That means Sarai owned Hagar, and Hagar had to do everything that Sarai told her to do. Sarai was sad because she had no kids, but she got an idea about how to get a baby for herself. So she said to Abram, “God has stopped me from having my own kids. But listen. I want you to sleep with Hagar, like she is your wife. You see, she belongs to me, so if she has a baby, that baby will really belong to me.” So Abram did that, just like Sarai said.
But Leah’s sister Rachel still wanted to have her own kids. And God was good to Rachel, and he gave her what she wanted. Before this time, Rachel didn’t have any kids, but then God let a baby start growing inside her. Rachel had a baby boy. Then Rachel said, “I used to feel shame, because I didn’t have any kids. But now, God gave me a son, so I don’t feel shame any more.”
You see, you have to love me more than you love your own father and mother. Then it is all right for you to be my follower. And you have to love me more than you love your own son or daughter. Then it is all right for you to be my follower. If you don’t love me like that, you are not the right person to be my follower.
And Jesus told them another picture story. He said, “You can’t work for 2 bosses at the same time. If you try to do that, then you will only like one boss, and you will always work properly for him. But you will not like the other boss, and you will never work properly for him. You see, you can’t have God as your boss, and money as your boss, both at the same time.”
Then God promised to look after Abraham, and Abraham agreed to follow him. God told Abraham that his mob had to do a young man operation on all their boys, to show that they agreed with God. After that, Abraham had a son called Isaac, and 8 days later Abraham did a young man operation on him. After that, Isaac grew up and had a son called Jacob, and he did that operation on him too. And Jacob did the same for his 12 sons, and those 12 men became our grand-fathers that lived a long time ago.