Judah: Yahweh be Praised
Scripture Reading: Genesis 29:35
“And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.”
Judah: Yahweh be Praised
We see the travail of Leah who gave birth to a son, presented him to Jacob, and felt with all that having a son invokes positively in a man, that he would embrace her and give her the love due a wife. But he did not and she was ridiculed. She felt totally unloved, but God heard her situation and gave her a second son, whom she named Simeon, which means “hearing.” When having a second son did not change Jacob she conceived and gave birth again. Because she had now borne him three sons, she thought surely Jacob would love her, surely he would be attached to her, but she was mistaken. By the time she had the fourth son she knew better. She turned to God, the one who should be praised and said, “Now will I praise the Lord.”
Many women are trying to please men who cannot be pleased. A person is not going to love you just because you are nice. If they do not have the capacity to love you they cannot love you. I know someone who will love you. And if you mature in Him by manifesting Rueben to Him, He will hear you by manifesting Simeon to you. And if you hear Him and respond to His call and attach yourself to Him in the order of Levi, as you produce again He will cause you to be a praise.
Leah, who was ridiculed in earlier verses, has now become a mother of praise because she produced Judah, meaning, “Yahweh be praised.” She turned her face from man to God and my prayer for you today is that you and I will turn from men to God. Praise the Lord because there is nothing you can do for man that will cause him to be pleased with you. God is pleased at every point. The only constant that Leah had was the love of God at every turn. By the fourth child she had caught the revelation, the veil had been lifted, her eyes could now see that she did not need to strive for Jacob’s love. She knew she could turn to the one who made it possible for her to conceive again after every disappointment. This time she said, “now will I praise the Lord,” and gave birth to Judah, which means, “God be praised.”
Have your challenges turned you to the place where you can say “God be praised?” Or are you still hoping for someone who did not love you in the first round, who did not care in the second round, who did not even bother to come and name your children in the third round, to change his mind by the fourth round? By then Leah knew better and she turned to praise the Lord. My question to you is have the challenges and rejections in the world caused you to go into depression or have they turned you to praise the Lord? When you are lonely enough, you will know how to praise God. Leah had experienced aloneness so much that by the time the fourth child came it did not matter to her what Jacob did or did not do. This time she just said I am going to name this child for the praise of God, because my efforts are no longer to reach man, they are in appreciation of the faithfulness of God. She said “Now will I praise the Lord.” and she called her child Judah which means “Yahweh be praised.”
Have you come to Judah in your life or are you still hovering around Reuben, Simeon, and Levi? I want to emphasize that you cannot be an effective Levi without becoming a Judah. If you are really attached to the living God, then praise will come forth. Leah was looking for a connection and she had found that connection in naming her child Levi. Amongst the children of Israel, the Levites were the priests and ministers. You cannot be joined to God without having praise, without coming out with that utterance, “now will I praise the Lord.” I pray that your challenges become stepping stones for you so that God will take you to the realm of Judah, “Yahweh be praised.” May you get to that beautiful place of praising the Lord. And from there it gets exciting because you now have the right focus. Leah’s vision was blurred in the beginning but by the time she got to Judah she was a praiser.
Are you a Judah, a praiser yet? Have you become joined, attached to God? Have you become a son of God? Are you hearing God, praising Him? I pray that the praise of God will become something you do from the depth of your heart because you now recognize that it is the perfect thing to do in your circumstances, in Jesus’ name.
Prayer Points:
No one can praise God without a connection with Jesus and so I want to speak to that one who has not given his or her life to Jesus. It is time to say, “Dear Lord Jesus, I surrender my life today. Write my name in the book of life and give me the grace to praise the Lord in the order of Judah, in the name of Jesus.” May you also be able to say, “now will I praise the Lord.” May Judah manifest in your life in Jesus’ name. Amen.
