十一月二十二日
以色列爲得妻服侍人，爲得妻与人放羊。（何12：12）
雅各曾对拉班这样叙述他的劳苦：“我在你家这二十年……被野兽撕裂的，我没有带来给你，是我自己赔上。无论是白日，是黑夜，被偷去的，你都向我索要。我白日受尽干热，黑夜受尽寒霜，不得合眼睡着，我常是这样。”我们的救主在世时的生活比这更加劳苦了。只要他一息尚存，他仍看守他的羊群：“凡你所赐给我的，我都保守了他们，幷没有一个丧失的。”（参约17：12）他的头满了露水，他的头发被夜露滴湿。他的眼不打盹，他整夜爲他的民祷告，有时爲彼得祈求，有时爲其他门徒流泪代祷。任何牧人若像耶稣那样辛苦，那末就是凄冷的露宿荒野、仰观繁星也不会发怨言了。他所以这样劳苦服侍，爲的是要得到他的佳偶。
“寒山和夜色，见证了他祷告的热情和迫切；
冷漠和荒野，知道了他的试探、争斗和大捷。”
从属灵的方面来看拉班叫雅各负羊群的全责是很有意义的一件事。被野兽撕裂的，雅各必须医治；若是死了，他自己必须赔上。耶稣不也是这样爲他的教会劳苦吗？他不也是这样保守一切交付于他的人，作他们的赔偿吗？看看辛苦的雅各，你就可以看到他所预表的主：“他必像牧人牧养自己的羊群。”
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.”
