Rachel

In my Sunday School class, I am teaching the girls about women of the Bible. Yesterday, we learned about Rachel. It's kind of funny, I've been in church for 19 years (my whole life) and never have I thought of the story of Jacob and Rachel from her point of view. Check it out:
Rachel and Jacob were in love and Jacob, because he had no money, offered to work seven years for Rachel's father in order to be able to marry her. From this point on, as children in Sunday school, we learn that Jacob slaved away working seven years for Rachel. After seven years he was given permission to marry her. They had the wedding, it was beautiful, but the next morning Jacob woke up, not to Rachel, but to her less-attractive sister, Leah. So Jacob works hard another seven years, blood sweat and tears, and finally marries Rachel, the love of his life.
However, I want you to look at this story from Rachel's point of view (bear with me here). Rachel is out taking water to her father, the sheep herder. She finds him speaking with a young man, an attractive young man. His name is Jacob and he is running away from home. She catches his eye, he smiles at her. Jacob begins working for her father, she finds excuses to see him, before long, they are in love. But Jacob has no money to offer Rachel's father for her hand in marriage, so he strikes up a deal. He will work seven years if Laban will allow him to marry his daughter.
Over the next seven years Rachel prepares for the wedding. She picks out her bridesmaids and their dresses; she begins working on a quilt for their new home, she gathers advice from the ladies in the house. Finally, the day arrives, it has been exactly one year. This is the day Rachel will marry the man she loves. Laban, Rachel's father, comes into the room. He pulls her aside to talk to her, give her the fatherly wedding day speech. It is then, that things begin to change. He is not giving Rachel the wedding day speech, on the contrary, he is telling her this will not be her wedding day after all, but her sister's.
Can you imagine how Rachel must've felt? She waited seven years! Seven years for a promise from her father that he was now taking away from her! Yes, Jacob had worked hard for seven years, but Rachel had planned and prepared. Her heart was set on this day, and all for nothing.
If you know the rest of the story, you know that Jacob soon realized he had been tricked and worked another seven years for Rachel. However, even after they married, life was not great for Rachel. She was unable to have children while her sister Leah had many children. When Rachel was finally able to conceive, she gave birth to a son named Joseph. Joseph was favored, but his brothers hated him and sold him into slavery; Rachel believed her only son had died. Years later, Rachel had another son, Benjamin, and she died during childbirth.
Now, why would I tell you this seemingly horribly sad story? Because, though Rachel went through so much in her lifetime, God had a purpose for her pain. Jacob, through Leah, Rachel's maidservants, and Rachel, gave birth to the twelve tribes of Israel. Not only that, but Rachel's son Joseph, went on to work in the palace of Pharoah, and in the end, saved his people from starvation after interpreting Pharoah's dream.
Just think about it, had Rachel married Jacob after seven years, when she thought she would, there would be no twelve tribes, there would be no Joseph.
God's timing is not our timing. Yes, He cares about us so much and does not want to see us suffer, but He also sees the big picture when we can't.