Broad meadows

”I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things from of old-“ Psalm 78:2. When Jesus came teaching in parables he would sometimes tell you what each symbol means, such as the parable of the sower, but others he would leave undefined. Where the Bible does give definitions of those symbols you can insert them in biblical accounts and come up with some surprising prophetic insights.

The passage I will be examining is Genesis 29:1-3, 7&8. I didn’t find this result from following a set of symbols, but was preparing to teach from John 4 while Genesis 29 was part of my daily reading. What I am attempting to do is no different than what Joseph did in interpreting Pharoah’s dream or Daniel doing the same for Nebuchadnezzar, but instead of dreams I’m interpreting biblical accounts in the same way. So let’s look at the passage.

“Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. There he saw a well in the field, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.”

. . .“Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
“We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.” Genesis 29:1-3,7&8.

The reason I mentioned John 4, if you don’t already know, is that this is the account of the woman at the well. In this account, Jesus introduces the concept of of “living water” , the Holy Spirit as defined in John 7:38-39 which says, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Sheep are often referred to as people in scripture. So with just those two definitions, let’s plug them into the story.

The three flocks of sheep represents 3 people groups that will lay claim to the God of Abraham (the living water), and that is what happens in history. Three world religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but only one grants the Holy Spirit (that is, truly represents the one true God) and that is the one where (Jesus’) stone is rolled away. In this way, Jesus is clearly prophesied as the promised Messiah, but you can also see Islam and thus Muhammad, a religion that began about 600 years after the crucifixion of Christ prophesied in the first book of the Bible. Truly amazing.