Spurgeon: November AM
* 11/22/AM
"Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep."
--Hosea 12:12
Jacob, while expostulating with Laban, thus
describes his own toil, "This twenty years
have I been with thee. That which was torn
of beasts I brought not unto thee: I bare the
loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it,
whether stolen by day, or stolen by night.
Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the
frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes." Even
more toilsome than this was the life of our Saviour here
below. He watched over all His sheep till He gave in as
His last account, "Of all those whom Thou hast given me
I have lost none." His hair was wet with dew, and His locks
with the drops of the night. Sleep departed from His eyes,
for all night He was in prayer wrestling for His people.
One night Peter must be pleaded for; anon, another claims
His tearful intercession. No shepherd sitting beneath the
cold skies, looking up to the stars, could ever utter such
complaints because of the hardness of his toil as Jesus Christ
might have brought, if He had chosen to do so, because
of the sternness of His service in order to procure His
spouse--
"Cold mountains and the midnight air,
Witnessed the fervour of His prayer;
The desert His temptations knew,
His conflict and His victory too."
It is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual parallel of Laban having
required all the sheep at Jacob's hand. If they were torn of
beasts, Jacob must make it good; if any of them died, he must
stand as surety for the whole. Was not the toil of Jesus for His
Church the toil of one who was under suretiship obligations to
bring every believing one safe to the hand of Him who had
committed them to His charge? Look upon toiling Jacob, and you
see a representation of Him of whom we read, "He shall feed His
flock like a shepherd."