十一月二十二日
以色列爲得妻服侍人，爲得妻與人放羊。（何12：12）
雅各曾對拉班這樣敘述他的勞苦：“我在你家這二十年……被野獸撕裂的，我沒有帶來給你，是我自己賠上。無論是白日，是黑夜，被偷去的，你都向我索要。我白日受盡幹熱，黑夜受盡寒霜，不得合眼睡著，我常是這樣。”我們的救主在世時的生活比這更加勞苦了。只要他一息尚存，他仍看守他的羊群：“凡你所賜給我的，我都保守了他們，幷沒有一個喪失的。”（參約17：12）他的頭滿了露水，他的頭髮被夜露滴濕。他的眼不打盹，他整夜爲他的民禱告，有時爲彼得祈求，有時爲其他門徒流泪代禱。任何牧人若像耶穌那樣辛苦，那末就是凄冷的露宿荒野、仰觀繁星也不會發怨言了。他所以這樣勞苦服侍，爲的是要得到他的佳偶。
“寒山和夜色，見證了他禱告的熱情和迫切；
冷漠和荒野，知道了他的試探、爭鬥和大捷。”
從屬靈的方面來看拉班叫雅各負羊群的全責是很有意義的一件事。被野獸撕裂的，雅各必須醫治；若是死了，他自己必須賠上。耶穌不也是這樣爲他的教會勞苦嗎？他不也是這樣保守一切交付于他的人，作他們的賠償嗎？看看辛苦的雅各，你就可以看到他所預表的主：“他必像牧人牧養自己的羊群。”
November
22
“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.”
