Genesis 30:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Rachel does not wait upon God. She has got her own way of solving the problem. Neither she, nor Jacob, have much horror at this solution. He loves her, but currently she is hard to live with, and so it is perhaps a matter of, anything for an easy life. Also by now they are conditioned; they are, weakened morally by their polygamous situation. If two wives are acceptable, then why not three? The reference to Bilhah bearing a child on Rachel’s knees is said by some to refer to a procedure that took place in the adoption process, but as Aalders comments, it is probably meant more literally than that. It is a metaphor that Rachel has invented to say that Bilhah’s act of giving birth, will be counted as Rachel’s giving birth, and the child will be marked up to Rachel’s tally in the ongoing competition with her sister. It was only two generations back that Sarah had resorted to the same means of giving Abraham a son via Hagar, and much grief had followed that subterfuge. This step was very similar, but Rachel argued that she would build up Jacob’s family by this means. In his great grace, God turned this sin into the means by which the twelve sons of Jacob were born, who became the foundation of Israel. God overrules evil for good according to his sovereign plan.