The Day "Praise of God" was Discovered

It happened this way.  Old Testament Jacob who successively married two daughters of Laban, one because he loved her, the other, because she was the older and it was required the older be married first.  Of course, Jacob didn’t know this local law and did not find out until the morning after the marriage was consummated that he had been presented with the older sister as his wife, whom he did not love.  To marry the woman he loved, Rachel, it was required Jacob serve Laban in an indentured relationship for seven more years.  Yet, in this instance, though Jacob must serve seven additional years, he was able to bring Rachel “into his tent” as wife, one week after he had married Leah. 

Jacob viewed this older sister, Leah, with antipathy perhaps for the whole of their married life, providing the foundation for a very dysfunctional family.  Still, God is sovereign and worked His will even in this circumstance.  This sovereignty manifest itself with Leah able to bear children, particularly sons, while Rachel was kept barren.

Each son born to Leah was given a name reflective of her state of mind in her relationship with Jacob.  Son #1, Reuben, literally means “See, a Son”, thinking Jacob would love her for giving him a son; nothing doing.  Son #2, Simeon, literally means “I am unloved”, or, more precisely “hated”; the reality of her relationship with Jacob is bearing down heavily upon her.  Son #3, Levi, literally means “attached” so she said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons” (Genesis 29:34); sadly, nothing changed.  However, Jacob remained conjugally fully charged and this bore fruit in the birth of son #4, Judah.  At this point a significant attitude change happens in Leah.

Whereas with the birth of the first three sons Leah had looked to Jacob for love and acceptance, she made a critical attitude shift with the birth of this fourth son saying, “Now I will praise the Lord” (Genesis 29:35), and called her son, Judah which simply means “Praise”.  This shift was monumental in its consequences.  Coupled with the dying prophetic words of Jacob, “The scepter [symbol of kingship] shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people” (Genesis 49:10), Leah’s naming of this son determined Israel’s dynastic line and from Judah would come the King of kings, the Savior of the world, even the Lord Jesus.

Concerning Leah’s attitude shift it is noteworthy that hers is the first instance of “praise to God” mentioned in the Bible.  Yes, where there had been notable moments of worship, particularly with Abraham, there is no mention of “praise to God”.  And of her offspring, none, absolutely none, was a greater “praise say-er” than King David.

About 470 years later after Moses had the people of Israel recount the “Blessings for Obedience” and the “Curses for Disobedience” in Deuteronomy Chpt. 28, he concluded with these ominous words, “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of all things; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you” (Deut. 28:47,48).

This puts a premium on “praise to God” which incorporates joy and gladness for the abundance of all things.  If you are a “believer” and have found life to be extra difficult, you may be running a “praise deficit”.