Читать книгу Who is this Rock? - Garrett Soucy - Страница 6

Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well. Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well; and see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!” He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.” But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. (Gen 29:1–12)

Still on the run, but changed by his vision at Bethel, Jacob has found his way to the home of his mother’s brother, Laban. In the providence of God, as he is seeking his uncle, he comes across a group of shepherds. He hears they are from Haran, and asks if they know Laban. One of the shepherds says, “Look, there’s his daughter now,” and his cousin Rachel approaches. This girl was not simply one of Laban’s daughters; she was the one for whom Jacob would end up working fourteen years, in order to marry.

There is a well of water with a stone over the opening. There are three flocks of sheep set about the well. Historians have noted that, due to the precious scarcity of water, this tradition of waiting until a number of shepherds had gathered was customary.3 Clearly, however, it was not a custom with which Jacob was familiar. But this gathering of the flocks ensured that this huge rock, which would generally require more than one man to move, didn’t need to be manipulated multiple times.

One of the first things we notice is that the stone is functioning as a valve to the life-giving stream. As the rock is adjusted accordingly, the water will be accessible or not. What was the timing of this event? It was plainly positioned in relation to the gathering of all the sheep that had up until that moment been scattered. One can hear Jacob protesting the awkwardness, in his own mind, of this fullness of time.

A convergence is taking place here, unbeknownst to either Jacob or Rachel; but a thing to which we as readers are privy. How providential is the timing here. We know that we are seeing the hand of God orchestrating the intersection of Jacob and Rachel. Now, in order to comprehend some of the profundity of providence, we have to ask the questions that will develop our sense of context. In doing so, the lines will begin to gain texture.

Jacob and Rachel are both endeavoring on their own quests of sorts. Rachel is seeking someone to roll the stone away, and thereby to help her preserve her family. Jacob is seeking a family to house him, and thereby to protect him from the deathly wages of his own sin. Interestingly enough, they each find fulfillment of their quests in one another. Jacob rolls away the stone, eventually marries Rachel, and thereby blesses the house of Laban on a number of fronts. Laban houses Jacob, but even greater than that, gives him his own house by marrying his daughters to him. Of course, Jacob is given sanctuary, and his life is spared from the vengeful machinations of his brother, Esau.

The curious junction of Jacob and Rachel, in the most tactful of romantic films, would still be seen as contrived. How could two people, searching for one another, but not knowing it, stumble upon one another with such seemingly unavoidable chance? In the romantic film they would employ the intervention of kismet, the gods, serendipity, or the unavoidable magnetism that allows the heart-seeking missile of love to always find its target.

Thankfully, we are spared the violins, because the truth is that this romance itself is merely an analogy for higher love. The finest moments of eros are those in which agape is signified. The story only concerns Jacob and Rachel finding one another in a secondary way. The real story, as is always the case with the gospel, is not found in the dialogue between the two main players, but in the environmental prop that seems to have drawn them together: the stone on the well. How easy it would be to miss this. The truth is that there is a stone that mediates the access to the water, by which they will all live. It is the stone and the water that has brought the shepherds, the sheep, Rachel, and even Jacob to conference together at this place and time. There is no fate or destiny in any of it, whatsoever. It is the sovereignty of God, and it is the depth of his design into which we are inquiring.

Jacob is new to this area, and is learning the ways. We are told that he notices precisely how many flocks of sheep are gathered there, awaiting, whether the sheep know it or not, the rolling of the stone, so that they might drink, and, by drinking, live. Here is where the signification of Christ begins to emerge. Is there any reference in the New Testament to anything else likened to three flocks of sheep, waiting for the stone to be rolled away?

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:1–3)

Just as Jacob is surprised at the timing of the watering of the flock, when no one would expect it, so the rolling away of Jesus’ stone catches the three women off guard who have come to embalm the body. Here are three lambs, knowing that the One who called himself the Living Water lay behind the rock. But they know they cannot move the stone. Nevertheless, they come to this place in order to honor the Lord, but first, they must move the stone. Why come, without the means to move the stone? It is a sign of faith, just as every migration to the watering hole was an act of faith on Rachel’s behalf. What have they come to the stone to do? They must have intended to wait. Perhaps, they would implore the Lord to send someone. And, remarkably, the Lord had already sent someone.

Jacob notes that the schedule of the watering does not make sense to him, and yet the shepherds acknowledge that the timing is determined by the ingathering of the sheep. In every way, it is often said that the timing of God is a crucial part of his purpose. In Galatians 4, we read that the sending of Christ into the world was in accordance with the fullness of time, apparently being meted out by a heavenly clock.

Many people have conjectured as to the nature of why the Roman occupation of Israel may have been the perfect season of human history for the Christ to be born, but the truth is that we don’t know what made the time full. In both the resurrection of the Christ, and the first meeting of Jacob and Rachel, it is appropriate to note that in accordance with God’s sovereign oversight, the rock would be moved and the sheep would receive life-giving water. This is true, whether or not we can answer the question, “Why now?” The real lambs are the people who will drink of the real and living water. This is even signified in the translation of Rachel’s name: “ewe.”

As noted, the orchestration is almost unbelievable, and yet it is absolutely believable because it is an arrangement made by the Eternal. In the New Testament, one of the most pointed explanations of God’s timing is given in reference to the work of Christ and his bringing together the things of heaven and the things of Earth. This means that Christianity is not Gnosticism. It is not a spiritual reality that is no earthly good. On the contrary, it is a spiritual reality that is Earth’s only hope:

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (Eph 1:7–10)

Not only this, but the gospel of Christ proclaims the news that he has also brought together two profoundly different people in order to make one people. The Gentiles and the Jews were like a people who were far off, and a people who were nearby. They were brought together in order to make a brand-new people:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Eph 2:13–19)

Perhaps we could think of Jacob and Rachel as a type of this Christ-wrought union. The first indicator that this might even be possible would be in the etymology of their names: Rachel and Jacob. Rachel, in addition to being a shepherdess, as we are told, has a name that means “ewe.” Jacob, on the other hand, means something like “cheater.” Imagine if the union were called out strictly by the definition of their names: “Little Lamb, you’ll be paired up with the deceiver.” It’s counterintuitive, to say the least. And yet, this is clearly the plan of God. He would, undoubtedly, make a people for himself, from this union, and give it a new name. This is the inception of Israel which we are viewing.

One can’t help but wonder if Jesus had this story of Jacob and Rachel in the back of his mind when he commissioned Peter to tend his lambs. “Look,” we can imagine him saying, “The stone is rolled away and water is available, freely for all who thirst. Water Rachel’s sheep. Tend my lambs.”

Jacob’s love for Rachel, at this point, is vicarious. He does not know Rachel personally. He is not weeping and kissing her because he has longed to be with her, or because he is smitten upon first sight. She represents the sanctuary he has sought. She represents a successful completion of the trajectory he had been sent on by his mother. He is in the fold of his family and he is safe. In a world where family meant obligation and sacrifice, he can expect not to die, but to live. We see this love played out in his desire to not only greet Rachel, but to care for the flock of sheep belonging to his kin as well.

As we shall see in the following chapter, if Paul can say about Horeb that the rock which followed the Israelites was actually, in a spiritual sense (and the fullest sense) Christ, then we should expect to see signs of him amongst his people both before and after Horeb. When Rachel and Jacob, the little lamb and the deceiver, both drink from the same well—the life-giving water which the heavy stone made available, upon being rolled away—they show us a picture of the gospel. They are two people whose names represent two very different things. They have been brought together in such a way that only God could receive praise for its having been accomplished. The stone is rolled away, and provision is made for the sheep.

The message has been the same for thousands of years. Every time we celebrate the resurrection, we are proclaiming this message that Rachel must have sung to her father, upon returning home: “The stone was rolled away, and our kinsman has done it.”

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

3. Jamieson et al., Commentary on the Whole Bible, 32.