Love at first sight. Jacob
is conversing with shepherds at the well, a place of community for this
group. They are waiting together for all
the shepherds who use this well to arrive so that all can water their flocks
together. Jacob, however, determines
that he will be Rachel's hero and when she arrives he removes the covering from
the well so that she may immediately care for her flock. He informs her as to his identity, kisses her
and weeps aloud, God has been good to send him directly to her, just as He had
done with his father's servant many years before. Laban, his uncle, runs to meet this young
man, kisses him in greeting and rejoices over, “Surely you are my bone and my
flesh!” Now where have we heard such
words before? Genesis 2 when Adam first
sees Eve, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…" Jacob's love for Rachel is such that he
willingly works for seven years to obtain her, a different situation from when
the servant took Rebekah to marry a man she had never met. Laban has sorted out the potential for
personal enrichment now, he won't let this opportunity be lost.
To be "of God" is to be more than one created in
His image, it is to be one in Spirit with Him.
Jesus draws a distinction between being of God and not of God and the
distinction matters. Those who are of
God hear His word. That is, they hear
it, receive it as true and respond accordingly.
Those not of God reject the word as from God. In this way, those of God are received as His
bone and flesh. The response He received
to these words prove what Jesus has already said is true, they are not of God,
"Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” What a bizarre thing to say, they
"know" He is a Galillean don't they?
They have refused to believe for that very reason. Jesus only denies He has a demon, He doesn't
separate Himself from the Samaritans, He has brought them into the fold at the
well. They ask a similar question to
that Samaritan woman, "Are you greater than our father Abraham?",
whereas she had asked if Jesus was greater than their father Jacob who had
given them the very well where she met Jesus.
His answer to them is the same as His answer to the woman, "Yes, I
am." He was before Abraham, just as we are told in the first sentence of
John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word…" Abraham, Jesus says, rejoiced for His coming,
just as Jacob rejoiced at Rachel's coming to the well.
One of the big issues in the early church was this one about
what was acceptable to eat. Jewish dietary
law prohibited certain foods, shellfish and pork for instance. When Gentiles began to be a part of the church
there was a problem in that they were now being judged based on that portion of
the Law. In Acts 10 we read the story of
Cornelius and Peter when Peter received a vision from the Lord that these laws
were being repealed. Paul is dealing
with the problem of a mixed crowd of Jews and Gentiles in the church and says
not to allow food to become a division between them. The critical thing is to know and understand
just what the kingdom of God is, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter
of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit." There we find harmony,
brotherhood, sisterhood, the church itself.
We are one in Christ, not in the Law, in Him we are bone and flesh
together.
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