Morning By Morning #327

Israel [or Jacob] served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep.

Hosea 12:12

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

“Jacob was angry and took Laban to task,” saying, “I have been with you for twenty years now…I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes” (Gen. 31:36, 38 – 40).

Yet even more wearisome was the life of our Savior here on earth. Like Jacob, He watched over His sheep and ultimately gave us this account: “I have not lost one of those you gave me” (John 18:9). His hair was wet with dew and “sleep fled from [His] eyes” as well, for He spent an entire night in prayer wrestling for His people. One moment Peter needed His pleadings, and soon thereafter another of His children claimed His tearful intercession.

No shepherd sitting beneath the cold skies and looking up at the stars could ever utter more legitimate complaints due to the difficulty of his tiresome labor than Jesus Christ. He certainly had reason to complain if He had chosen to do so, based on the extreme severity of His mission to redeem His bride.

Cold mountains and the midnight air,

Witnessed the fervor of His prayer;

The desert His temptations knew,

His conflict and His victory too.

Isaac Watts, 1674 – 1748

It is interesting to consider the spiritual parallel of Laban requiring all the sheep from Jacob. If the sheep were “torn by wild beasts” and killed, he had to pay Laban for them, and he always stood as the pledge or security for them, guaranteeing a complete flock. And wasn’t the mission of Jesus for His church the work of one who was under His Father’s legal obligation to bring every believer safely into the hand of Him who had committed them to His care? When we see Jacob laboring so diligently, we see a type of Him who was to come—Him of whom Isaiah said, “He tends his flock like a shepherd” (Isa. 40:11).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

If we view the Old Testament with spiritual eyes, it is impossible not to see Jesus on every page. Over and over again we see stories prefiguring the coming Messiah, such as in today’s devotion with the story of Jacob and Laban. Yet these are but a shadow of our precious Savior.

For example, Paul wrote of feasts and observances required in the books of the law, saying, “Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Col. 2:16 – 17). And the writer of Hebrews said, “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves… Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:…‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God’” (Heb. 10:1, 5, 7).

Look for Jesus as you read your Bible. You will find Him on every page.