A family Reunion

Genesis 29:1-14

Is it as hard for you as it is for me to picture Jacob as anything but a young man maybe in his thirties, but that is not the case, Jacob is around seventy-five at this time.   He has traveled close to five hundred miles in search of his mother’s people, and has come to a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside it.  The first thing Jacob notices is the large rock on the well’s mouth and he was told by the shepherds, that they were waiting for all the flocks to arrive before removing the rock and when they were all watered they would put the stone back on the well.

As we read more of the chapter, we have this record of Jacob asking the shepherds where they came from and they replied Haran.  His next question is; 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 has obeyed his father and mother and has found the family of his mother, and he has also found that Laban has a daughter.  Often, we call that “luck” but what a bad word for a Christian to use; God was leading Jacob.   It can also be imagined that over the years Jacob has heard many accounts of Laban from his mother; now he is standing looking at the daughter of his mother’s brother.

It may also be assumed that the shepherds were very young because it took several of them to remove the stone on the well, but it is of interest that Jacob, after seeing Rachel began to act more like a manager than a stranger.  Picking up in verse seven, we have this account; “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.”

It is also of interest to see the actions of Jacob when Rachel arrived; have you heard the term “love at first sight” it would be an appropriate use of the term, in this case.  Beginning in verse ten, “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.”  I bet Rachael is a little impressed, one man doing what took several of her shepherd friends to do, but she was totally unprepared for what Jacob did after that.  Verse eleven states, “Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.”  It’s hard to imagine if it was his kiss, or this man who has just watered her flock, or his weeping that startled her more.  It was the custom of that time that only relatives would kiss one another, and because she did not know this man, it must have taken her by surprise, and then to see a man weeping was a definite shock.

Scripture does not give us any clue as to how long it took Jacob to get control of his emotions, but at some point Jacob tells Rachel, “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.”  Rachel had also heard the stories of how Rebekah had left with Abraham’s servant to go marry his son Isaac and although it had been over one hundred years since she had left her family, it was big news.  It was also big news for Laban, verse thirteen gives this account, “As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.  Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and flesh!”  And he stayed with him a month.”  I call that a family reunion!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice