And Bilhah Rachel's maidservant again conceived, and bore Jacob a second son.
In Genesis 30, Bilhah has a second son. She was Rachel's servant, given to Jacob because Rachel could not have children. One line of family record holds an impatient plan, two rival sisters, and a name a whole tribe would carry. Why did God write it down?
Rachel could not bear children, so she arranged a substitute. One writer points out that she was copying a plan already tried in the family — a plan that had failed.
We too often resort to a humanly conceived substitution, as Rachel did in verse 3. Sarah had done the same in giving Abraham her handmaid by whom to have a child. Rachel ought to have known that this did not work out as Sarah planned, but she thought, as Sarah did, that the children of Bilhah, her handmaid, would be hers... Bilhah also had a second son, whom Rachel named Naphtali, meaning "my wrestling," because of Rachel's wrestling with her sister Leah. All of this struggle is a picture of the struggle of Romans 7. That struggle only stirs up the evil passions of our hearts, instead of subduing them, as we try to do.
The second birth settled nothing. One writer names the feeling behind Rachel's plan, then sets her beside Hannah, who met her own trouble at home in a different spirit.
One understands too well, too sadly, why Rachel should view her own childlessness and her sister rich in children with resentment. Self worked in her. It blinded her to this: her sister did not have Jacob's heart, and Rachel alone had it. It was envy — that base feeling which cannot endure another, even a sister, having what she had not... How different from Hannah! She was sorrowful under Peninnah's taunts, and even under the high priest's wrong judgment of her. She made no ugly complaints against her husband. She wept and prayed and made a vow to Jehovah, and the God of Israel heard her.
The names Rachel chose show what was going on inside her. But the same writer does not leave the story with her.
The names Rachel gave the sons of Bilhah expressed the state of her soul, and her attitude toward her sister. Dan and Naphtali do not tell us of grace, but of satisfaction in winning points of strife on her own part... Every wrong has its effect among men and its judgment before Himself. But it is God's right to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, the called according to purpose. He at least is good and does good, whatever man has to mourn.
Commentators differ over the name. One hears only Rachel's rivalry in it. Another asks whose strength a wrestler leans on.
Naphtali means "a wrestler." In a spiritual sense he is no longer a carnal wrestler trusting in his own power, but a mighty wrestler for God. That is what he is in the mind of God, and in the sense of his sonship as belonging to God. He represents that spirit of power of man with God, the weak with the mighty One.
Bilhah bore the child, but she did not name him. One writer notes this, and what became of the tribes that came from the two servants.
Here we have the origins of the tribes in these sons, and Leah and Rachel named them. The handmaids did not name their own sons, and the four tribes descended from these do not appear to have made any particular mark in the nation's later history.
A verse like this can look like family bookkeeping. One writer explains why God kept it in Scripture.
We have man as he is, as nowhere else: the truth is told us that we may know ourselves as well as God. So it matters that inspired light falls on what man's proud selfishness looks down on as mere family quarrels. To the believer these accounts are full of healthy instruction. They also carry a witness of God's concern and compassion.
- Wrestling begins. Rachel had no children, and that turned into envy. Envy produced a human plan instead of a prayer — the same shortcut Sarah took before her.
- Wrestling names. Rachel called Bilhah's second son "my wrestling." The names she chose record her struggle with her sister, not her confidence in God.
- Wrestling exposed. God kept the story so we can see ourselves. Scripture shows man as he is, and shows God's compassion inside what looks like a mere family quarrel.
- Wrestling redirected. Another writer reads the same word as strength drawn from God, not from self: not a wrestler trusting his own power, but a weak man mighty with the mighty One.
- Wrestling overruled. Every wrong has its effect and its judgment. Yet God works all things together for good to those who love Him. Out of this tangled household came the tribes of Israel.
And Rachel said, Wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed; and she called his name Naphtali.
Rachel has no children of her own, so she gives Jacob her servant Bilhah. She then names Bilhah's second son from her fight with her sister — a fight she claims to have won, and calls God's.
One commentator sees Rachel repeating a mistake Sarah had already made, and reads the whole scene as a picture of an inner struggle:
Sarah had done the same, giving Abraham her servant to have a child by her. Rachel ought to have known that this did not work out as Sarah planned, but she thought, as Sarah did, that the children of Bilhah, her servant, would be hers. Bilhah had a second son whom Rachel named Naphtali, meaning "my wrestling," because of Rachel's wrestling with her sister Leah. All of this struggle is a picture of the struggle of Romans 7. That struggle only stirs up the evil passions of our hearts, instead of subduing them as we try to do.
Rachel had Jacob's love; Leah had the children. Rachel turned on her husband — the opposite of Hannah, who took her rival's taunts to God in prayer:
It is easy to understand, and sad, why Rachel looked at her own childlessness and her sister's many children with bitterness. Self worked in her and blinded her to her sister's lack of Jacob's heart, which she alone had. It was envy, that low feeling which cannot bear another — even a sister — having what she had not. It broke out in unreasonable and irreverent complaining to her husband, as if her barrenness were his fault... How different from Hannah! She was sorrowful under Peninnah's taunts, and the high priest misjudged her too. She made no improper complaints against her husband. She wept and prayed and made a vow to Jehovah, and the God of Israel heard her.
The ESV reads "mighty wrestlings." Older translations give Rachel's phrase as "wrestlings of God," and the name she uses there is Elohim. Leah had used the name Jehovah when she named her sons. One writer reads the shift of divine names in these two chapters as deliberate:
Notice the beauty of Scripture in the use of the divine names in these chapters. In the case of Leah (Genesis 29), who was hated compared with Rachel, Jehovah as such stepped in with His special regard for her sorrow. She expressed this in the name of her firstborn son, Reuben, and His hearing of her in her second, Simeon... but Jehovah has praise when she bore Judah. In Rachel's case (Genesis 30) there is no such expression at first of confidence in Jehovah's compassionate interest. In disappointment of heart she gives Jacob her maid. When Dan was born, she accepts it as the judgment of Elohim, and at Naphtali's birth she speaks of His wrestlings.
Rachel says she has prevailed. The same commentator weighs what her sons' names really record, and what God does with the whole story:
The names Rachel gave the sons of Bilhah expressed the state of her soul, and her feeling toward her sister. Dan and Naphtali do not tell us of grace, but of satisfaction at winning points in a quarrel... But every wrong has its effect among men and its judgment before Him. And it is God's prerogative to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, the called according to purpose. He at least is good and does good, whatever man has to mourn over.
The same name can carry a very different meaning. One writer takes Naphtali the wrestler in another direction:
Naphtali is the next one, representing the mighty man of vigour and of valour. Naphtali means "a wrestler" — and in a spiritual sense he is no longer a merely human wrestler, trusting in his own power, but a mighty wrestler for God. That is what he is in the mind of God, and in the awareness of his sonship as belonging to God. He represents that spirit of the power of man with God, the weak with the mighty One.
- Wrestling named. Naphtali means "my wrestling." The boy's name records his mother's contest with her own sister.
- Wrestling motivated. Envy drove it. Rachel could not bear her sister having what she lacked, and she blamed Jacob for what only God could give.
- Wrestling misnamed. Rachel claimed God for her fight. Leah had spoken of Jehovah's compassion; Rachel's words show no such confidence.
- Wrestling exposed. These names speak not of grace but of satisfaction at winning points in a quarrel. The fight stirred up the heart's passions instead of subduing them.
- Wrestling redeemed. God still makes all things work together for good. The same wrestler's name can stand for a mighty wrestler for God — the weak leaning on the mighty One.