Sisters Relationships: Sweetness or Squabbles?

Here are some sister sets whose stories appear in the Bible. How do their experiences mirror those of today's female siblings?

Never Cross your Sister

First, consider the sisters relationship between Leah and Rachel way back in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Leah was older, but Rachel was the beauty of the two.

Jacob, the grandson of Abraham who was later renamed "Israel," fell for Rachel, but when he married her, her dad switched Leah into the marriage tent.

Now, either he was pretty drunk or it was awful dark, but Jacob didn't realize the switch until the next morning.

Poor Leah! What a way to get off to a bad start in marriage! Jacob went ahead and married Rachel, too, who became his favorite wife, but since Rachel couldn't have children and Leah could, it caused a huge amount of rivalry between the two.

Later, when the Law of Moses was given, it included a rule that a man could not take sisters as wives because they would become rivals and be unhappy.

So rule number one: don't go after the same man as your sister!

Let her be Herself

In the New Testament book of Luke, we see another set of sisters, Martha and Mary. These ladies were friends of Jesus, but their personalities were very different.

Martha was the perfect homemaker and hostess, while Mary liked to think instead of work. When Jesus was visiting, Mary was listening to him while Martha was fixing the meal, and Martha actually complained to Jesus about it.

That was a mistake! Jesus let Martha know that Mary was using her time more wisely than Martha!

So rule number two: let your sister be herself and leave well enough alone!

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