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If you want to take your Bibles in turn, we’re going to be in Genesis chapter 29 this morning is where we will start. Genesis 29. Andy told me last week that I was a little academic. So hopefully it won’t be quite so academic this week. It’ll be a little bit more in the story that we are reading. Genesis 29, beginning in verse 1 will read down through verse 14 to start with. Says then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well. Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.” He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well, and see, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with a sheep.” He said, “Behold, it is still high day. It is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the sheep and go pasture them.” But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep.” While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. Now, as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother’s brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebecca’s son, and she ran and told her father. And as soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house, and Jacob told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh,” and he stayed with him a month.

So chapter 29 begins with the word “then.” Then what? After what happened? Well, last week we looked at chapter 28 and beginning in verse 10 of chapter 28. God had met with Jacob at Bethel. Jacob’s running for his life. He’s afraid that his brother Esau is going to kill him. Esau wants to kill him. And so he’s taking off. His mother and his father have sent him to Padan Aram to Laban, the brother, rather, of Rebecca. And so as he’s going, God meets him there in a dream and promises him that he is going to receive the blessing that God had promised to Abraham and to Isaac before him, and then adds to that a personal promise that God would bring Jacob back to the land that he was leaving. He was going to come back to the land of promise. Verses 2 and 3, as Jacob goes on this journey, he rises from that place at Bethel and heads, continues on, towards his mother’s family. We meet some shepherds. He gets to a place where he sees a well, and wells are significant meeting places in the Bible, and here is no different. He comes and he meets these shepherds at a well, and then we get a little bit of background as to how these shepherds operate. When all of their flocks get together, then they move the stone, and then they start drawing water to water their sheep. But they’re just laying around here in the middle of the day. There’s apparently a flock that’s waiting to come. And Jacob initiates conversation with these men. He says, “Where are you guys from?” And they say “Haran,” which is exactly the place that he is wanting to get to. This is where Abraham’s family is from. It’s where Rebecca’s family is from. He’s trying to get to this place, and he has made it