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."
