# 279 No Room For Reproach

The Book of Genesis

Day 279

Ge 30:23 And she conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach."  24 So she called his name Joseph, and said, "The LORD shall add to me another son."

Finally! Rachel bears a son, and she thanks God for taking away her reproach. The word reproach means “shame, disgrace.” Rachel was the target of much scorn, contempt, and taunting from the fertile Leah because of her barrenness. Now, with a son given to her by God, this stigma would be removed.

You know, we need to fight this tendency to point the finger at the barren woman as if to say something must be wrong with her because God has not opened her womb. We also need to fight the scorn and contempt often aimed at those on the other end of the spectrum….those with large families! We often point the finger at them as if to say that something is wrong with parents who willingly bring that many children into the world.

Do you see where the reproach comes from in these matters? It comes from men, not from God. It wasn’t God who was reproaching Rachel for her lack of children, and God certainly doesn’t reproach the Leah’s of this world for the sake of their large families. How could He? If He reproaches them for their fertility or lack thereof, He reproaches Himself, because He is the one who has the power to open or close the womb.

If there is any reproach from God in the matter of child bearing, it would be when we decide to take matters into our own hands. When we decide who will live and who will die. De 32:39 says,  'Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.”

There is no room for finger pointing and reproach against our fellow men when the truth of that statement hits home. There is only room for humble acknowledgment. “Yes God, have Your way with me. For there is no other God, but You.