Word of Encouragement (03/29/2022)

This short passage does not contain any prayer; Rachel’s prayer is just implied. But it says something about the way God answered her prayer. So, let’s reflect on what it has to say about prayer.

We are told that God remembered Rachel. It sounds as though God had forgotten all about Rachel until this moment. We know that cannot be true for an omniscient God. If God forgot anything, He would no longer be all-knowing and therefore no longer be God. This, then, is a biblical way of signaling that God was about to act on behalf of Rachel: in the Bible, God’s act of remembering is always followed by His action. When God remembered Noah, He stopped the rain. When God remembered Israel, God sent Moses to deliver them from their slavery in Egypt. So, when the Bible speaks of God remembering someone, it is not about God’s mental, intellectual activity; it is talking about God’s covenantal activity.

We should be comforted to know that God does not forget about His people, ever: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isa. 49:15). As you can see, if God never forgets about us, it is not only because He is omniscient but also because He loves us deeply and intensely, more than moms love their nursing babies!

Then, why did God remember Rachel just then? This was after ten sons and one daughter were born to Jacob through Leah and her maid, Zilpah, and Bilhah, Rachel’s maid. And we read from the Bible how intense the conflict was between Leah and Rachel over the years. Even though we do not have any account of Rachel’s prayer for children, it is not difficult to imagine that she did indeed pray, considering how much this had distressed her. And we are told in v. 22, “God listened to her...,” which suggests that she did pray for children.

It was not that God heard her for the first time at that time; He had heard her heart-felt, piteous prayers all along. What is more, God had known all along that He would grant her two sons—Joseph and Benjamin. And it would be through Joseph that He would rescue Jacob’s family from the coming famine. Why did He hold out for so long? Certainly, it was not to make her suffer unnecessarily. When God’s answer to our prayer gets delayed for a long time, it is easy to perceive God as unfeeling and unmerciful. But let’s think about it from this perspective. When you have something you know your child would be ecstatic about, isn’t it so hard to wait till you can give it to him, whether for his birthday or Christmas? Could it be that God’s desire to bless us is so much greater and more intense than our desire for it? After all, He is the kind of God, who decreed our eternal salvation before we asked for it even if it would cost Him His only begotten Son! How can we doubt His love for us and His desire to give us all that is good? If God should “delay” His “remembering,” it is for His perfect timing. Let us wait for His perfect timing with patience and hope as we persist in prayer.

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