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 Savior 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 fervor 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 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 suretyship 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."
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