Scripture Daily

Context No. 2908 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 29:6-12: in context

6He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.” 7He said, “Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.” 8They said, “We can’t, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we will water the sheep.” 9While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them. 10When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. 12Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.

Jacob, arriving in Haran after fleeing his brother, comes to a well where shepherds are waiting to water their flocks. When Rachel arrives with her father's sheep, Jacob goes over, single-handedly rolls the heavy stone from the well's mouth, and waters the flock. Then he kisses Rachel, lifts up his voice and weeps, and tells her he is her kinsman, Rebekah's son. She runs to tell her father.

It is a tender scene at the start of a long, complicated story. Jacob the schemer, on the run from his brother's anger, meets his future wife at a well, and his first act is service, rolling away by himself a stone the other shepherds waited to move together, and watering her flock. Then he weeps, overwhelmed at finding family at the end of a lonely road. God is quietly at work in an unremarkable meeting at a well, letting the fugitive find, in a stranger, the beginning of home.

Can I trust that God is at work in ordinary encounters, weaving his providence into what looks like a chance meeting?

Sources