part0090

Key Verse : "Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, 'Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.' So he was named Levi."

In her ongoing struggle to win her husband’s affection, Leah gave Jacob a third son, mentioned in Genesis 29:34, and his name was Levi. When he was born and since Rachel still had not given Jacob any children, she believed that her husband would finally become attached to her, but of course, that did not happen. To make matters worse, Levi grieved his father, in Genesis 34:1-31, by helping his brother, Simeon, slay the Shechemites after they had agreed to undergo the Jewish circumcision. Therefore, in his latter days, Jacob spoke harshly against both sons, in Genesis 49:5-7, by saying that they had terrible tempers and that they were very cruel.

Levi caused his father some aggravation with the Shechem incident, but God still used his ancestors to do mighty works in Israel. During the later years of his life, Jacob and his sons had moved to Egypt in order to survive a terrible famine. However, after they had all died, their families remained in Egypt, and they eventually became slaves to the Eqyptians. In Exodus 6:16-20, about four hundred years later and while still slaves in Egypt, Amram and Jochebed, both of the family of Levi, gave birth to Moses, and God used him to lead the Israelites out of their bondage. Moses was a descendant of Levi, and he had been God’s man during a very critical time in Jewish history.

On another occasion, in Numbers 1:47-53, God told Moses to put the Levites in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony. They were to take care of the tabernacle, and they were also to offer sacrifices for the people and for themselves. Consequently, even though Levi was born of Jacob’s less preferred wife, Leah, and even though he had caused his father some trouble with Shechem, God still used his family to do mighty works in Israel.