CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 29:1. Went on his journey.] Heb. Lifted up his feet. (See Psalms 74:3.) The idea is that he journeyed with alacrity. Rashi, the Jewish commentator, says, “his heart was elated, and his feet felt light.” Came into the land of the people of the East. Mesopotamia, east of Palestine.—
Genesis 29:2. A well in the field.] “This well is apparently not the same as that in Chron. Genesis 24:11, etc. It seems to be further from the city, and different in its management. This well is closed by a large stone, which is only removed at the assemblage of the flocks and shepherds in the evening.” Alford.—
Genesis 29:5. Laban, the son of Nahor.] He was the son of Bethuel, but, according to the usage of the Heb., he is called the son of Nahor, though only his grandson.—
Genesis 29:6. Is he well?] Heb. “(is there) peace to him?” Not only health, but also general welfare and prosperity.—
Genesis 29:7. High day.] Heb. “Yet the day is great.” i.e., a great part of the day yet remains. “As it was yet too early to gather the flocks into their stalls for the night, Jacob, who was well versed in pastoral life, was at a loss to account for the fact that they were not watered and turned again to pasture instead of wasting a good part of the day idly about the well. After being watered and allowed to rest themselves awhile in the shade, in the middle of the day (Song of Solomon 1:7), the flocks were usually turned out again to feed till sunset.” (Bush).—
Genesis 29:8. We cannot.] A moral inability is intended. The idea conveyed is that it was not permitted—it was contrary to usage. This commonly understood rule may have been agreed upon in order to secure a fair distribution of the water.—
Genesis 29:14. And he abode with him the space of a month. “He remained this length of time before any fixed arrangement was made for wages.” (Jacobus.)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 29:1-14
JACOB’S EXPERIENCE ON HIS JOURNEY
I. That God’s presence with him made his duties and his troubles light. Jacob had just left Bethel, where the Almighty had granted him so encouraging a vision, and where he devoted himself to God by so remarkable a vow. Many a weary journey still lay between him and the place of his destination. He would have to encounter danger, uncertainty, and fatigue. But now since he has been at Bethel he walks with life and strength renewed. “He lifted up his feet”—proceeded on his journey with feelings of alacity and joy to which he had long been a stranger. The sorrows of the first day’s march are described at length, but the experience of the remainder of this long and wearisome journey is briefly and simply told. The inspired historian dispatches the four hundred miles in a single verse. “Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the East.” He who casts his burden upon the Lord ceases to weary himself, and finds that even labour is rest and pain is sweet.
II. That Providence was still his guide. All his life through Providence had guided him, but he knew it not as he ought to know. Now, even in the most ordinary and likely events of life he learns to trace the hand of Providence. The incidents of this history are simple, and, for the most part, they are such as would have happened to any ordinary traveller. Jacob arrives at a well, a company of shepherds assemble for the purpose of watering their flocks. Jacob enters into conversation with them in the free and unrestrained manner of those early times. He asks them whence they are, and finds that they happen to know Laban, his uncle. They tell him that Rachel, Laban’s daughter, is coming with the sheep. Jacob suggests to the shepherds that it is too early to gather their flocks, probably using this as an excuse that he might meet Rachel alone. Rachel comes up in the meantime, Jacob is struck with her appearance, for she “was beautiful and well favoured.” The purpose of his journey and of all his strange experience is now revealed. Providence brings to this spot the very woman who is designed to be the wife of Jacob. Surely he could not fail to see that even through all the strange trials of his journey, and through the most untoward events, the will of God was being accomplished.
III. That God’s gracious dealings with him called for gratitude. Jacob was deeply touched by the kindness of God; and while he embraced Rachel, he “lifted up his voice and wept.” They were tears started by the remembrance of his faithless misgivings, but they were also tears of joy at the thought that his difficulties were at an end, and that the great object of his mission had been gained. Jacob makes bold to announce himself and his message, for he was confident of the mercy of God and of the strength of His Holy Covenant. (Genesis 29:12-13.) He is altogether a changed man now, and gives proof that he had passed through a great spiritual crisis by acknowledging God in all His ways.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 29:1. He went lightly on his long journey. “The joy of the Lord” was Jacob’s “strength.” It became as oil; wherewith his soul being supplied he was made more lithe, nimble, and fit for action. Let us pluck up our feet, pass from strength to strength, and take long and lusty strides towards heaven. It is but a little afore us; and a ready heart rids the way apace.—(Trapp.)
The way before us may be long and wearisome. There may be much to vex and distress us, but if we serve Jacob’s God the consolation of Jacob will be ours. The rest of our journey will be passed over easily, and the history of it may be told in few words—“They went on their journey, and they have entered into the land.”
Genesis 29:2-3. This is but a slight indication of all that these early shepherds were to their flocks, for in truth they were very different from what they are among us. The shepherds of that time looked upon their sheep as friends; they shared the same dangers as their sheep, and often risked their lives to procure sustenance for the sheep, and, as ever, danger intensified their mutual affection.—(Robertson.)
Genesis 29:4-6. Jacob, on making inquiry, learns that Haran is at hand, that Laban is well, and that Rachel is drawing nigh with her father’s flocks.—(Murphy.)
Genesis 29:7-8. We have here a conception given us of the church as a family. All had a right to move the stone from the well, and take water therefrom, at any hour of the day; but they agreed only to open it once a day, and then take sufficient for the wants of the day, otherwise the well would have been left uncovered, for the stone was too heavy to be so frequently moved on and off for everyone separately, and the consequence would have been that the well would have become impure and the water dried up. The family is the type both of the church and nation; and without the concessions, love, and consideration of a family, both church and nation lose their characteristic principles.—(Robertson.)
Genesis 29:9-11. Again, it is a unity of variety required to form a church, for so it is in the family; it is not composed of all brothers or all sisters, all parents or all children, but of all four united in their variety. “Surely thou art my bone and my flesh.” (Genesis 29:14.) Manifestly here is the sacredness of family ties; Jacob had never seen Rachael before, but when he heard she was the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, he felt drawn to her by a mysterious power, “and Jacob,” we read, “kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept.” (Genesis 29:11.) Even so are Christians united to Christ and to one another in a spiritual manner.—(Robertson.)
The sight of the daughter of his mother’s brother affected him. The tears shed on this occasion must have arisen from a full heart. We cannot say that the love which he afterwards bore to Rachel did not commence from his first seeing her. But, however that might be, the cause of his weeping was of another kind: it was her being “the daughter of his mother’s brother,” that now affected him. Everything chat revived her memory, even the very flocks of sheep that belonged to her brother, went to his heart. Nor did he wish to be alone with Rachel, but that he might give vent without reserve to these sensations.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 29:12-14. Rachel’s eager, cordial reception of him, and the simplicity of her joy in carrying home the news, all remind us of Rebekah in the previous history.—(Jacobus.)
Sudden tidings of good excite the feelings. Such is the joy of salvation when the soul recognises her true relationship to God the Redeemer.