As the riots break out around the country, it seems that we need a lot more Bible and a lot more Jesus. People are upset today and destroying police cars, burn down auto parts stores and looking electronics to deal with it. That’s a clear sign of sin nature. We are all born that way. But the Lord Jesus came to show us a better way, a way to have peace in the middle of the storms of life. He also came to give us a new spirit, the Holy Spirit of God to live in us so that we know how to deal with trouble without making more trouble. I pray that everyone who reads this would feel His power today, would believe His Words today and receive Him and run towards Him for the rest of your life!
In my reading this morning, I came across the story of Jacob meeting Rachel for the first time. He had come to town to find a wife from among his relatives. It was important to his family that he not marry anyone who served another God. That didn’t totally work out because this many generations removed from Abraham’s parents, some of the family had started keeping household gods. This ended up sending Rachel to an early grave sadly but that isn’t the part of the story that I’m looking at today.
Where is Jesus? That’s the question in these Bible studies and there was a lot of Jesus to look at in these chapters. But today I want to look at the stone being rolled away. So Jacob comes into town looking for the family; to find a wife. He shows up in the middle of everyone waiting around near the well. They apparently do this everyday, they all meet up at mid day and move a huge rock from the mouth of the well. Then the sheep drink and go back out to pasture. It’s a stupid system but it’s their system.
Jacob starts asking them why they are using such a stupid system instead of all watering the flocks one at a time. Then he saw her face and now he’s a believer. It was Rachel and he liked the looks of her. The men of the town didn’t want to move that stone too often because it sucked, the thing was heavy. But Jacob jumped up and moved it by himself, because he wanted a girl. So where’s Jesus?
The phrase ‘roll the stone away’ gives it away. The other time that the stone was rolled away in the Bible is when they found Jesus’ empty tomb. So what’s the story mean here? What did this event in history tell about Jesus? The practice of gathering the flocks the way they did in that place may have been dumb, but it was also peculiar. This wasn’t the normal way that shepherds did things. Let’s match it up to the story of the rest of the Bible.
The water is the Holy Spirit and all of the sheep need it to survive. But one thing had to be accomplished in order for the sheep to drink. The stone had to be rolled away. The problem was that no one could do on their own. No one was strong enough. But for a bride! One man was strong enough. Are you seeing it? The bride is the church. That’s the motivation Jesus coming, doing what needed to be done so that the sheep could drink and He could have His bride.
It’s a simple little story and there are little stories and histories all through the Bible that point to Jesus. Many people think that Jesus fulfilled a certain number of prophecies in the prophetic books but He fulfilled the entire Bible from front to back. The whole thing is about Him, every little story, every little action is prophetic and pointing directly to Jesus. He wants us all to drink from that well, He wants us to join the flock, He wants us to become the bride that He worked for. There’s another story in here about Jacob working for Rachel and getting stuck with Leah her ugly sister. That’s an important one too, maybe next 90 days through I’ll talk on that one.
Today’s reading was Genesis 29-40 if you want to jump in there and read along. Always look for Jesus on every page. The Holy Spirit is the interpreter and Jesus is the key that unlocks the meaning of every story. God bless you guys.
Practice Outlaw 