(Genesis) Genesis 29:11-14

And then we find in verse 11, and this has always been a strange verse to me, and Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. And frankly, kissing that girl, and why he should weep, it's difficult for me to understand, other than I'm of the opinion that this boy had had a lonely trip all the way from the moment he left home. He spent that lonely night at Bethel, but he's still trading the next day, and he'd had a lonely trip.

You must remember that from Bethel he had to go up by the Sea of Galilee, he had to go up into Syria, and he had to cross that desert there. I suppose he had many experiences along the way. And now to find out that he's arrived at the place he's going, because he knew nothing about it before.

And when he got there, he becomes very cocky, of course. He greets these men in a matter-of-fact way as if he'd known them all their life, asks them questions, and then he rolls the stone away, and whether it was time, I doubt it, but he did. And I imagine that he's so welled up with emotion that when he greeted this girl, Rachel, and he kissed her, and he wept, I suppose that that would be the only way that you could explain it.

But I'm sure the next time that he did, he didn't weep. Now verse 12, And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother. And you notice father's brother actually means nephew.

The Hebrew does not make a lot of the distinctions that we make today. We've got it reduced down to whether a person is a kissing cousin or not. Well, in that day, they didn't have it.

If you're related, you're related, and that means you're a brother. And that's the way that it's translated here, and quite properly so. But he is actually his nephew, that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son, and Rebekah was the sister of Laban.

And she ran and told her father. And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house, and he told Laban all these things. I imagine that he had quite a bit to talk about, the trip that he had made, how he'd left home, and how, I'm not sure, but what he entertained him at dinner with the story of how he tricked his brother, how he got the birthright, and how he got the blessing, how he used trickery to do it, and how clever he was, and probably about that night at Bethel.

Well, he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. Laban was convinced now this was his nephew, and he says, You're my relative, come in, make yourself at home.

And he abode with him the space of a month. Now, he's there for a month. And what happens? Well, he's not working.

He's, after all, the nephew that's come from a far country, and he's come over to visit his uncle. And I suppose that he felt like he ought to have free board there, and during that time, why, he's been courting this girl, Rachel. At least he's certainly been casting his eyes in that direction.

And I think she was casting her eyes in his direction.