Whom Do We Truly Love; And How Do We Show It

Whom do we truly Love, and how do we show it

DBF 12/30/01

A. Jacob’s love for Rachael

First Meeting with Rachael

First meeting with Laban

B. Jacob’s Labor for Rachael

Diligence of Jacob

Deception of Laban

Genesis 29:1-30

Remember your first love, Oh the beauty and wonder of it. Oh that he or she might love you as much as you loved them. So many songs “Young Love, ABC, And they called it Puppy Love, and the list goes on. Do you remember what it was that attracted you: eyes, hair, voice, smile…

Chances are those of us who have matured past this first love stage have been married for some time—not normally with our first love.

Most of us are taken by a physical characteristic of our first love. This would be called a physical attraction, what the word “Eros” would describe. To many in the world this is the only love that they know or have experienced. This love is one of selfishness, one that is very controlling in nature, and one that is seldom reciprocal.

Jacob’s love for Rachael

We will see Jacob brought to tears by Rachael, have you ever experienced something this overwhelming.

This is what we might have experience the first time you realized the magnificence of the grace that was bestowed upon you when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that given by our Heavenly Father.

Genesis 29

First Meeting with Rachael

1Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east. 2And 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. 3And thither 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. 4And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. 5And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. 6And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. 7And 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. 8And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.

9And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep: for she kept them. 10And 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. 11And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. 12And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son: and she ran and told her father.

Jacob travels here to the ancestral homeland of his mother Haran, north of

Canaan, to see his uncle Laban and to find a wife at the request of his mother. At the time of Jacob’s appearance Laban had no sons, and this is a problem in continuing your family line and protection of your assets.

When he arrives in the area of Haran, he runs across a group of Shepherds who were waiting to water their flocks. He asked where they were from and they said, "From Haran." Jacob says, "Do you know Laban? They said "Why, Yes we do. In fact, here comes his daughter Rachel now." Rachel, a Shepherdess, was coming out to water her flocks. Jacob was smitten by the girl’s beauty and it was love at first sight. Shepherds didn’t water the flocks until everyone was there. One of the reasons for this was because there was a big stone that covered the well. Presumably they waited until they had help to move it and help to move it back. When Rachel arrives in a typical male macho move, Jacob moves the rock on his own to impress his cousin. He helps her water the flock and then they head home.

We also see a change in Jacob as a result of the promise of God. Jacob is not now quarreling with his brother Esau for one-upmanship, we will see Jacob give himself totally in service soon, to gain the hand of his beloved. A worldly version of what we see in Jesus Christ’s giving his life to secure our eternal salvation.