sheep know it or not, the rolling of the stone, so that they might drink, and, by drinking, live. Here is where the signification of Christ begins to emerge. Is there any reference in the New Testament to anything else likened to three flocks of sheep, waiting for the stone to be rolled away?
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:1–3)
Just as Jacob is surprised at the timing of the watering of the flock, when no one would expect it, so the rolling away of Jesus’ stone catches the three women off guard who have come to embalm the body. Here are three lambs, knowing that the One who called himself the Living Water lay behind the rock. But they know they cannot move the stone. Nevertheless, they come to this place in order to honor the Lord, but first, they must move the stone. Why come, without the means to move the stone? It is a sign of faith, just as every migration to the watering hole was an act of faith on Rachel’s behalf. What have they come to the stone to do? They must have intended to wait. Perhaps, they would implore the Lord to send someone. And, remarkably, the Lord had already sent someone.
Jacob notes that the schedule of the watering does not make sense to him, and yet the shepherds acknowledge that the timing is determined by the ingathering of the sheep. In every way, it is often said that the timing of God is a crucial part of his purpose. In Galatians 4, we read that the sending of Christ into the world was in accordance with the fullness of time, apparently being meted out by a heavenly clock.
Many people have conjectured as to the nature of why the Roman occupation of Israel may have been the perfect season of human history for the Christ to be born, but the truth is that we don’t know what made the time full. In both the resurrection of the Christ, and the first meeting of Jacob and Rachel, it is appropriate to note that in accordance with God’s sovereign oversight, the rock would be moved and the sheep would receive life-giving water. This is true, whether or not we can answer the question, “Why now?” The real lambs are the people who will drink of the real and living water. This is even signified in the translation of Rachel’s name: “ewe.”
As noted, the orchestration is almost unbelievable, and yet it is absolutely believable because it is an arrangement made by the Eternal. In the New Testament, one of the most pointed explanations of God’s timing is given in reference to the work of Christ and his bringing together the things of heaven and the things of Earth. This means that Christianity is not Gnosticism. It is not a spiritual reality that is no earthly good. On the contrary, it is a spiritual reality that is Earth’s only hope:
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (Eph 1:7–10)
Not only this, but the gospel of Christ proclaims the news that he has also brought together two profoundly different people in order to make one people. The Gentiles and the Jews were like a people who were far off, and a people who were nearby. They were brought together in order to make a brand-new people:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Eph 2:13–19)
Perhaps we could think of Jacob and Rachel as a type of this Christ-wrought union. The first indicator that this might even be possible would be in the etymology of their names: Rachel and Jacob. Rachel, in addition to being a shepherdess, as we are told, has a name that means “ewe.” Jacob, on the other hand, means something like “cheater.” Imagine if the union were called out strictly by the definition of their names: “Little Lamb, you’ll be paired up with the deceiver.” It’s counterintuitive, to say the least. And yet, this is clearly the plan of God. He would, undoubtedly, make a people for himself, from this union, and give it a new name. This is the inception of Israel which we are viewing.
One can’t help but wonder if Jesus had this story of Jacob and Rachel in the back of his mind when he commissioned Peter to tend his lambs. “Look,” we can imagine him saying, “The stone is rolled away and water is available, freely for all who thirst. Water Rachel’s sheep. Tend my lambs.”
Jacob’s love for Rachel, at this point, is vicarious. He does not know Rachel personally. He is not weeping and kissing her because he has longed to be with her, or because he is smitten upon first sight. She represents the sanctuary he has sought. She represents a successful completion of the trajectory he had been sent on by his mother. He is in the fold of his family and he is safe. In a world where family meant obligation and sacrifice, he can expect not to die, but to live. We see this love played out in his desire to not only greet Rachel, but to care for the flock of sheep belonging to his kin as well.
As we shall see in the following chapter, if Paul can say about Horeb that the rock which followed the Israelites was actually, in a spiritual sense (and the fullest sense) Christ, then we should expect to see signs of him amongst his people both before and after Horeb. When Rachel and Jacob, the little lamb and the deceiver, both drink from the same well—the life-giving water which the heavy stone made available, upon being rolled away—they show us a picture of the gospel. They are two people whose names represent two very different things. They have been brought together in such a way that only God could receive praise for its having been accomplished. The stone is rolled away, and provision is made for the sheep.
The message has been the same for thousands of years. Every time we celebrate the resurrection, we are proclaiming this message that Rachel must have sung to her father, upon returning home: “The stone was rolled away, and our kinsman has done it.”
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
3. Jamieson et al., Commentary on the Whole Bible, 32.
Chapter 4
“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Exod 17:6)
A solar eclipse is an event in which the brilliance of the sun is obscured by the presence of that rock we call the moon. The difference between a solar eclipse and this event in Exodus 17 is that this rock in question functions as a vehicle by which God is seen, not one by which he is obfuscated.
Israel has just experienced hunger in the wilderness and subsequently been given bread from heaven. Now, they have come to Rephidim, which means “places of rest,” but rest eludes them because of their thirst. Combatively, the people become obstinate and argue with Moses.
So, with petition in hand, Moses approaches God imploringly as to what he should do. God tells him to take the staff, the one with which he had struck the Nile River, and strike the rock at Horeb when God’s presence rests upon the rock. There is a connection between the Nile River and this rock at Horeb, but in order to sufficiently investigate it, one should first understand a simple principle.
Speaking of the Old Testament, Augustine said, “it was then the time for concealing the grace, which had to be revealed in the New Testament by the death of Christ,—the rending, as it were, of the veil.”4