Praise Toward the Sunrise
“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.”Genesis 29:35 (KJV)
Leah had a hard life. She was the unloved wife, and her first sons were named for her pain. But when her fourth son was born, something changed: “and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah.”
Generations later, when Israel camped around the tabernacle, God set the tribes in order. “And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch.” Praise faced the sunrise.
And from Judah came the King. When John the Baptist was born, his father Zacharias sang about what was coming: “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness.” Malachi had promised that “the Sun of righteousness” would “arise with healing in his wings.”
From a hurting woman’s praise to the camp facing the sunrise to the dayspring from on high. God was writing toward Christ the whole time.
Read it yourself
Read Genesis 29:31–35. What did Leah name her first three sons, and why?
What would it look like for you to say, like Leah, “Now will I praise the LORD,” even in a hard season?
Lord, you are the dayspring from on high. Even in my hard seasons, now will I praise you. Amen.