Brethren, let's be turning to
Genesis chapter 29. Jacob, probably more than any
of the other patriarchs, and by that I mean specifically Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, he provides us a picture of divine grace. This man, We see this man's sin
and we see how this man operates in the flesh and Jacob has a
lot of conflict in his life and I can identify with that and
with Jacob you can probably trace all of his troubles and conflicts
back to something that he did in the flesh. Something that,
some works that he did, something that he was a part of, that the
Lord used for his good. But he had conflict because of
his works and what he did. And It really shows us the grace
of God, the electing grace of God, and how he sovereignly saves
whom he will. Because Jacob is shown, the scriptures
really show us what kind of a man Jacob was. But the Lord, as I
said, used it for his good, but he delivers. Jacob from death. He gives Jacob
life in himself, and he teaches Jacob. He leads Jacob, and he
teaches him, and he brings Jacob to serve him, to serve the true
and living God, and he makes him a faithful servant of God.
When Pharaoh asked him about himself many, many years from
here, he said, few in evil have been the days of my life. And he didn't speak so highly
of himself then, but he trusted God. He learned to trust the
Lord. And Jacob is a child of God. And what the Lord does for his
children is he's going to teach us. He's going to chasten us.
He's going to do what we have need of as it pleases him. And it's always for our good.
Hebrews chapter 12, It says in verse 6, For whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now we are told of Christ that
though he were a son, yet learned he obedience through the things
which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. And so it is that through our
suffering we are taught to look to him who is made unto us the
author of our eternal salvation. The Lord makes him and shows
us that by experience through our sufferings and through our
trials and troubles, he's stripping us down of what we are in the
flesh and our vain confidences in the flesh and He is turning
us to look to Christ, to see our all in Him. And he makes
us to serve Christ, to serve him rather than our own flesh. And back in Hebrews 12, 7, he
says, if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? And he's not saying if you endure
the chastening, then you'll be a son. He's saying if you're
going through chastening, if the Lord is chastening you, it's
because you are a child of God. It's because you are His Son.
And that's why you're being chastened of the Lord. He teaches us now. We don't wait until then to find
out. He reveals Himself now. And just
as it pleased Him for His Son, His darling Son, who is perfect
and sinless, holy, spotless, to suffer, so we suffer. in the
Lord for our good. And it turns us from serving
this flesh in this world to serving the true and living God. And
that's something that, as you look at Jacob, it becomes more
and more evident in his life. And so when the Lord chastens
his people, it's because he purposes to have you serve him. He's turning
you to serve And one of the things that we see in the scriptures
is that we're first made sons. We are adopted as sons and daughters,
and then we serve the Lord. We only serve God in His household. I mean, all the world serves
Him. It serves his purposes. But we serve the Lord as sons
and daughters of the true and living God. And so first he makes
us sons and daughters by sovereign electing grace. He puts us in
the household. He brings us into the household
through the adoption of Christ. And then he makes us to serve
him in his body. This world is completely opposite.
They think, well, if you serve God, then he'll make you a son
or a daughter. Then you've earned that right
to be a son or daughter of God, but the Lord says it's entirely
different. The order of operation is completely
different. We're first made sons, and then
we serve, and then we serve willingly, and we're taught through chastening,
through sufferings, through trials, we're taught He is the true and
living God. He has drawn us to Himself. He's
going to have His way with us. And we're going to be made willing.
We are made willing in the day of His power. And He draws us
sweetly, wonderfully. Anytime He's broken you of some
wicked thought or some sin and turned you away from death, He
makes us to rejoice in what He has done. Though it's contrary
to the flesh. and it can be painful to the
flesh. That's only because of our own ignorance and hardness
of heart and stiff neck. But it shows and it reminds us,
Lord, I really do need your grace, because I would never turn to
you. And if anything depended on me, I must surely die and
perish in my sins. But if it be of you, Lord, I
see. I see what you do and what you're doing, and it's all to
the glory and praise of your name. Even the Apostle Paul testifies
of this as well in this order of operation. We're made sons
and then we serve. Paul said it this way, he said,
whose I am, I'm the Lord's, whom I serve. I was made his and now
I serve him. That's how he does it. We are
made sons and daughters and then we serve. And so, as we look
at Jacob, we'll see that the Lord did this very thing. In
fact, actually, he did this, when you think about what happened,
he was, the Lord revealed himself to Jacob as he went out from
his father's house. He was in Bethel before he even
left Canaan. And God gave him this following
promise. In Genesis 28, verse 15, the
Lord said, behold, I am with thee. and will keep thee in all
places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this
land, for I will not leave thee." And so what follows here as he
goes off to Padana Ram, there in Syria, as he goes off there,
there's a time of service, there's a time of chastening, there's
a time of learning, there's a time of being Brought low everything
this man was and desired and thought he would have when he
was back at his dad's house in Isaac's tents. Now it's all going
to be different for him and Pat Ann. And he's going to learn. The Lord's going to teach him. But through this, we also see
pictures of us and we see pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in Jacob's
life. And that's really what we're
going to focus on this morning, more than the chastening here.
We're going to see a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ here
when Jacob arrives in Paddan Aram, in Syria there. And we're
told in Hosea 12, this is the prophet Hosea, chapter 12, verse
12, Jacob fled into the country of Syria and Israel served for
a wife. And for a wife, he kept sheep. And that's a picture of the good
shepherd. This is what Jacob did, but it's a picture of our
good shepherd who served for a wife. And so we'll see that
as we go, as we look more at Jacob, Lord willing, we'll see
how that he's a picture of Christ who served willingly for his
wife, whom he loved. But today we're gonna look at
Jacob watering the sheep. Jacob waters the sheep. So this
chapter begins in verse one, Genesis 29 verse 1, then Jacob
went on his journey and came into the land of the people of
the east. Now if you have a King James
Bible and you have a margin in that Bible, then look there and
you'll see that the words, instead of went on his journey, it could
be translated lift up his feet. Lift up his feet, meaning Jacob
lift up his feet and came into the land of the people of the
east. And what this is saying to us
is Jacob is a new man. Jacob's not the same man anymore. He's led of the spirit. He walks
by faith in the new man. He's trusting, he's believing
the promise of God, who said, I'll never leave thee. I won't
depart from you. I'm going to do all these things.
You think about it, when he left his father's tents, and he arrives
in Luz that night, and he gathers some rocks for his pillows, he
was heavy with sorrow. He had a burden. Jacob is not
like his brother Esau, a man of the field. Jacob is a man
of the tents, and now he's sleeping out under the stars in the wilderness
there with a rock for his pillow, and he's banished from the house.
Not because Isaac said get out, but he had to leave under pretense
of a different story. He had to leave because Esau
was going to kill him. Esau was going to put him to
death because not only did he take the birthright from his
brother, but he also deceived his father and obtained the blessing. And Esau was angry. And he decided,
he comforted himself with the thought that when my father dies,
I'll put Jacob to death. I'm going to slay him. And so
he had to get out of there, even though it probably wasn't his
first desire there. But there in Luz, he goes to
sleep on a rock. We saw the picture of the gospel
there. But he awoke from that dream,
having that promise of God, behold, I am with thee. I will never
leave thee. I'm with thee. And then he left
Bethel, the house of God. It was renamed from Luz, which
I believe means separated. And now he's in the family of
God. And he, at the house of God,
heard the promise of God. And he's a new man. And this
journey, the rest of his journey, which was, as I understand, about
500 miles on foot, was an easy journey. It was an easy journey. And he arrives there in the east
now. And the Lord tells us these words because it's an encouragement. He lift up his feet. He was walking
as a new man now. He was changed because the Lord
had given him that promise. And our Lord declares to us the
promise of what he's done for us in Christ. And He makes us
new creatures in Christ so that we're not walking in the flesh
by the strength of the flesh and according to the will of
the flesh, doing the works of the flesh to try and please God. No, we walk in Christ as new
creatures. Christ pleases God and we're
led of His Spirit and we walk by faith. in him Hebrews 12 1
saying wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses the cloud of witnesses of of Jacob and
David and Abraham and Isaac, but even the cloud of witnesses
of our brethren who believe today. We're surrounded by a great cloud
of witnesses. He says, let us lay aside every
weight and the sin, which doth so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us. And again,
Hebrews 12, 12, wherefore lift up the hands which hang down
and the feeble knees. God has made us sons and daughters,
and he deals with us as with sons and daughters. And all that
comes upon us, all that, the trials, the difficulties, the
afflictions, the sorrows, it's all given to us by the hand of
God for our good. And he attends it all with his
grace and his power. And he uses it to turn us from
dead works that cannot save and from serving this flesh and world
to serve the true and living God. And he does it wonderfully,
wonderfully. He does it gloriously. And so
he does this for us as it's needful for us, just as Paul said, for
we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. really
is made very evident and plain to us in Jacob. Now, there's an account here
which is where we're going to focus on today. There's an account
here which is relayed and the way it's worded is very curious.
And you know when you look at it, you're knowing this is speaking
of Christ. It's so peculiar that it speaks
of what Christ has done for us and for his bride. So let's begin
this passage in verse two. And he looked, and behold a well
in the field. And lo, there were three flocks
of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered
the flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. Now Jacob had just been told
when he was in Bethel, the house of God, he had just been told,
in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth
be blessed. In thee, in thy seed, Jacob,
all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And here we
have these three flocks. And I believe these three flocks
are representative of Noah's sons. Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Why? Well, we're told in Genesis
9, 19 that it tells us that these are the three sons of Noah. And
of them was the whole earth overspread. All the families of the earth
come from Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And here's these three flocks
waiting at the well, waiting for that cool, refreshing water
of that fountain. waiting for that rock to be removed.
Verse three, and then there were all the flocks gathered and they
rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep and
put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. And so the sense is what we see
here is that only when that stone is rolled away can the sheep
drink of that fountain. If that stone remains there on
the mouth of that well, there is no refreshing. All those sheep
are waiting, waiting for the Christ to be revealed, waiting
for salvation, waiting for that rock to be rolled away that they
may come and partake of that fountain. So that's just true.
Especially in this day, they're waiting. This is still a mystery,
and they're waiting for the day that the Son of God would come
in human flesh, the Christ, the promised seed of God, of the
woman, to come and to take away our reproach. and to take away
the enmity, and to deliver us from our sin. Now, Jacob asks
three questions of the shepherds at this well. Three questions,
all right? So verse 4, Jacob said unto them, my brethren,
whence be ye? Where are you from? And they
said, we're of Haran. And verse 5, he said unto them,
know ye Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, we know him. And
then verse 6, he said unto them, is he well? And they said, he
is well. So he asks these three questions,
simple questions, and gets three simple answers. And yet, after
this third question, when they had answered discreetly before,
now it opens up. Now it opens up, and they say
this time, and behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the
sheep. Now, when I read that, I just
couldn't help but think of what our Lord said. What he says to
us, ask, seek, knock. Ask, seek, and knock. Jacob asked
three questions. He asked to know where they were
from. He sought to know whether they knew Laban. And then he
got real personal, knocking on the door. He's saying, is he
well? Is he well? And then it opened
up to him. And then he found that which
he sought for, and he saw Rachel. Rachel, the daughter coming with
the sheep. And it just, again, is an encouragement
to us. As our Lord said in Matthew,
ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Our Lord has a purpose in everything
he does. He's sovereign. He's able to
bring to pass all things. And so through these simple inquiries,
these simple questions, it then all opened up, and Jacob discovered
that which I seek. to fulfill the will of my father
who sent me here to find a bride, it's accomplished. And the Lord
tells us, seek him, ask. He'll reveal himself to you.
Seek him. He'll show you his grace. He'll show you his will and purpose.
Knock, and he'll open the door, and he'll bring you in, and he'll
sit down and sup with you. And you shall feed of his goodness,
of his riches, and of his store. And so, we see that our Lord
encourages us, don't turn away, don't turn to this world, trust
him and seek him. You shall find that which you
seek in looking for salvation, looking to the Lord. He draws
you, he declares this word to draw his people, to turn them
from their dark ways to the true and living God. Now Jacob, Still
speaking with the shepherd, says in verse 7, he said, lo, it is
yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered
together. Water ye the sheep, and go and
feed them. And they said, we cannot. We can't do this thing. We can
until all the flocks be gathered together, until they roll the
stone from the well's mouth, then we water the sheep. And there's something that, just
the way that's worded, it's mysterious, but there's something in the
way that's worded that foretells of all the nations waiting for
Christ to be revealed, waiting for Christ to come. All of creation groans for the
sons of God to be revealed, because it means that Christ has come.
that his redeeming grace, that his work of redemption has been
accomplished and he's blessing his people and sending that glorious
gospel out and delivering them from darkness. But they say,
we cannot. We cannot do it. And we're not
told why they had to wait. It doesn't say why they had to
wait. They just confessed, we cannot. And they were required
to wait until someone else came and rolled that stone away. They
didn't even roll it away. They said until they roll it
away. And that stone is a picture. It's a shadow. It's a type, a
picture of the law, which sat upon the mouth of the fountain. And until that promised seed
should come, which is the Son of God, the Son of Man, God in
the flesh, they could not partake of that fountain. And that's
where we are by nature. We can't partake of that fountain.
The law prevents us. The law blocks it. The law does
not give us anything free, because we must be perfect. partake of
that. And so we wait upon God. the Lord Jesus Christ who would
come in the flesh, be manifested in the flesh, justified in the
spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on
in the world, and received up into glory. Our Lord came and
He satisfied the law. He is the very righteousness
of God for His people. And He came as the spotless Lamb
of God, and He fulfilled all the will of the Father, and went
to that cross, having proved that he is the Christ, having
demonstrated that he is the fit sacrifice for his people, and
he went to that cross willingly and died for his people to roll
away that stone, to cast that stone off which blocked the fountain
and kept us, prevented us from drinking of that fountain, but
once he did, Then that fountain was open. It was open to sinners
to come and to drink. And so we see Jacob here as a
type of Christ who for his bride went to that cross in service
to her as the servant of God to serve her, not to be ministered
unto, but to minister to those he came to save. He did this
as the servant. And he rolled the stone away
and gives free access to the fountain. Free access to the
fountain. Now there's no more wait. There's
no more wonder. We know who salvation is. We
know who the true and living God is. We know who the Savior
is, whom the Father has sent. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he is the fountain of grace, open for his people. That law,
that stone, which blocked it, is rolled away. And the spirit
and the bride say, come. The father says, come. The son
says, come to the fountain. I've done everything. I've provided
all for my people. And that's what we see there,
verse nine and 10. While he yet spake with them,
Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And
it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban,
his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's
brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the
well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's
brother. And so When he saw Rachel, he
loved her. He loved her. And he went and
rolled that stone away for her. It didn't matter what the shepherds
said. It didn't matter what they thought
or what was holding them back. Christ went and did that which
prevented his sheep from partaking of that well. And so this is
what Christ has accomplished for his people, for his bride
whom he loves. He did this in opening the fountain
for his people. And in our Lord, we're told that
mercy and truth have kissed, have met together, are met together
in righteousness and peace, have kissed each other. On the cross,
our Lord obtained mercy for his people according to truth. Everything
Jacob had done was shady and dark, and that's what we do by
nature. It's shady and dark, but everything
Christ does is according to truth, and nothing was hidden. It was
all done in the light. He spoke what the Father sent
him to do. He was very plain who he was, and he went and did
it. And he justly redeemed his bride
in perfect righteousness, and so obtained peace for us with
holy God. It had to be righteous. It had
to be perfect, because we have no righteousness. And He did
it. He did it and obtained peace and eternal redemption for us.
And with those blessings, our Lord reveals them to us in a
holy kiss. In a holy kiss, speaking truth
in our hearts, comforting our hearts, saying, it's finished.
That which is needed to be done, it's finished. I've done it all. There's nothing left for you
to do. It's accomplished. Your redemption is accomplished.
You're mine. You're mine. And he reveals that
in our hearts. And so Jacob had delivered them. When he rolled that stone, Jacob
here is picturing, he delivered them from that law. They were held under an ordinance.
We can't remove that stone. We can't take that stone away. It's custom. We have to wait
for them to roll it away. I don't know if he was pointing
to layman's people or what, but they couldn't do it. Or whether
they lacked the strength for it or what it was. When Jacob
went there and moved it, we don't hear anything more about the
stone and it blocking the well. Just like our Lord and what he
did for his people. Colossians 2.14 says, when he
was on the cross, he was blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he took it
out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Whatever was blocking. Whatever prevented you and I
from coming to the true and living God and standing before his throne
faultless. Whatever prevented us from coming
boldly to the throne of God, it's all been removed and put
away by the blood of Christ. And he's given us entrance into
the presence of holy God, accepted of him without fault, without
stain, without blot, nothing. It's all been put away by the
Lord Jesus Christ. He bore the whole thing. And
that being accomplished, verse 11, Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted
up his voice and wept. That's a kiss of joy. That's
a kiss that all that was necessary to be done is done. There's rest
now, there's peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jacob here,
he's rejoicing because he realizes that which the father sent him
out of the tent to do, he's done it. He's done it, he's met her. He's met the bride. He sees the
one whom he loves and he's rejoicing that his God has given him success. And there's something too in
just the constant reminder that it was Rachel, his mother's brother. Rachel, I'm sorry, it was Rebecca,
his mother's brother, the brother. There's something in that because
we see that Christ is the seed of woman, right? And for the
children of that woman, those that were given to him by the
father before the foundation of the world, those children,
those are his people whom he laid down his life for and accomplished
their redemption, right? who carried our Lord she traces
her her lineage back to to who to Adam right and Laban you will
see not today but we'll see that Laban is a is a tricky man and
Jacob's act by nature is a lot like Laban and Laban is just
like him and they he gives it right back to Jacob all that
that Jacob did and in his father's tent, but Mary, she was born
of corrupt seed. Mary was a sinner just like you
and I, but the Holy Ghost overshadowed her, and the Holy Ghost formed
Christ in her womb, and so he's meaning that he's not the seed
of man. He's not born of corrupt seed
like you and I. He's born of the incorruptible
seed of God. He is God. He's God in the flesh. He redeemed us who are sinners
and unable to save ourselves. This is what Romans 3 says Romans
3 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood. God's wrath is turned away. Christ
is the propitiation, meaning He's turned the wrath of God
away from us. And He bore that wrath in our
place, in our stead, to declare His righteousness for the remission
or forgiveness of sins that are past through the forbearance
of God. to declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. And so this is how we're made
sons and daughters. We must be sons and daughters
in order to serve the true and living God. This is how we're
made sons and daughters, through the blood of Christ who redeemed
us. And because he redeemed us, we
are adopted into the family of God, adopted sons and daughters,
called to serve the true and living God, called to know him,
and we, by his grace and spirit, enter into fellowship with God,
to know him. Now, just in closing here, verse
12 there says, and Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's
brother, and that he was Rebecca's son. And she ran and told her
father. It's a picture there of what
Christ does, what he's redeemed his bride, and then he goes and
speaks to her and reveals who he is. That's what Christ does
for each of us. He reveals to us who he is. And then we go and we tell those
of our household. We don't know who the elect are,
But when we're speaking, those who hear it are those of the
household of God, those who are the redeemed of the Lord, who
will hear and rejoice in that same good news that we rejoice
in. And that's what we see. It came
to pass, verse 13, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his
sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and
kissed him and brought him to his house. And he told Laban
all these things. That's what Christ does. He tells
you these things because you're His people. You're His child. You're His bride. He delights
to tell you what He has done, being sent to the Father to save
the bride, to accomplish this work for you, as it is this day,
by His grace and power, not yours, not mine. It's all what Christ
has done. And Laban said to him, surely
thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space
of a month. And that's what our Lord does.
We are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh by his grace and
power. And he abides with us. He abides
with us until he comes again and brings us to ever be with
him. All right, Rachel didn't stay
behind, and the other brides that, all those that were Jacob's
bride, they didn't stay there, they all left. And that's what
the Lord does for us. We'll all be with him soon one
day, brethren. So we'll stop there with that
picture, but it's a glorious picture of what our Lord has
done for us in rolling away the stone of the law and opening
that fountain to us freely. freely, to drink of His blood,
to partake of His body, to know the true and living God in free
grace, free, sovereign, almighty grace. Amen.