From Bethel (the gate of heaven experience) and the understanding that God was with him, Jacob continues on his pilgrimage to find a wife from his own kind. The confidence that Jacob must have had knowing who was behind him (not Esau, his brother chasing him, though he was, but God who had commissioned him) and knowing who was above him (the movement of the angels ascending and descending on heaven’s stairway), this gave him a state of readiness. He was ready to find his family. He was ready to find his wife. He was ready for extraordinary feats of strength, of which we will read now.
“Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well. 4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Harran,” they replied. 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?” “Yes, we know him,” they answered. 6 Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?” “Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” 7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.” 8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.” 9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. 12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father. 13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. 14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.” (Genesis 29 v 1-14)
If you like a love-at-first-sight story, then here it is.
Can you picture it? Jacob arrives at a sealed well and sees the flocks and the shepherds gathering. They wait till there is at least enough of them to collectively lift the stone away from the well. Jacob, upon learning that the shepherds are from his family town of Harran, asks about Laban, his uncle. It seems perfect timing because at the same time, Laban’s daughter and Jacob’s cousin, Rachel, arrives with Laban’s sheep. In v10, we have a wonderful few words, ‘When Jacob saw Rachel …’
That was it.
The one who was known in his family as a deceiver steps forward into the public gaze and, with extraordinary strength, rolls the stone away so that Rachel can water the flock.
Tears flow as he kisses Rachel. It seems a bit strange, doesn’t it? I presume this was okay with her! She has just discovered her cousin, and he is weeping loudly and kissing her. The emotion is moving, even for us as we read and imagine the scene. Especially as Rachel gets Laban to meet Jacob, and the whole story is shared.
In this ordinary place, something of the divine happened.
When we know an open heaven, when we know the activity of heaven is closer than others think and when no place is ordinary, that we have renamed it Bethel, the house of God, the gate of heaven, then we also know that any day, even today, can be a divinely appointed day.
Many seem stuck with an attitude of ‘we cannot’. Like the shepherds who thought they had to wait for more help before they could roll the stone away. They were stuck, thinking the stone was too heavy to roll away. However, love can shift strongholds.
I am thinking of another stone, aren’t you?
So many are stuck in their life. Stuck behind their own customs and way of doing things. Stuck because life is too difficult to change. But love came and rolled away the stone. And everything changed …
Missions Paul 