Anger

 Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"
Genesis 30:2 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.30.2.ESV

Jacob and Rachel's response to their infertility stands in marked contrast to that of Jacob's parents Isaac and Rebekah. When his parents struggled to conceive, his father prayed, and God graciously answered his prayer. Jacob and Rachel seem more like his grandparents Abraham and Sarah in this regard.

When they struggled to produce a child together, Sarah hatched the Ishmaelite Hagar plot. Similarly, when Rachel struggled to produce children, she gave her servant to Jacob to have children on her behalf. She had melodramatically demanded that Jacob give her children, or she would die.

There's truth in Jacob's response. Yet essentially his reply is that of a father abdication responsibility. Instead of praying like his own father, he metaphorically shrugs his shoulders.

Ultimately it is God who grants the miracle of conception. We know about the nuts and bolts. Yet whilst we provide the ingredients, it is God who forms the child- body, soul, and spirit- in the womb.

'Father God, may those seeking to conceive cry out to You for favour. Forbid that we should seek to take matters into our own hands. In Christ Jesus' name, amen'

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