November 22, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep." — Hosea 12:12 · KJV

Jacob, while arguing with Laban, describes his own toil this way: "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." More toilsome even 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; soon another claims His tearful intercession. No shepherd sitting beneath the cold skies, looking up to the stars, could ever make such complaints of the hardness of his toil as Jesus Christ might have made, had He chosen, of the sternness of His service in order to win His spouse. Cold mountains and the midnight air witnessed the fervor of His prayer; the desert knew His temptations, His conflict, and His victory too. It is sweet to dwell on the spiritual parallel of Laban requiring all the sheep at Jacob's hand. If they were torn by beasts, Jacob must make it good; if any died, he must stand surety for the whole. Was not the toil of Jesus for His church the toil of One who was under a surety's obligation to bring every believing one safe to the hand of Him who had committed them to His charge? Look on toiling Jacob, and you see a picture of Him of whom we read, "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd."