Rachel was the younger daughter of Laban and the wife of Jacob. Jacob — a type for Christ — first meets her
at the Haran well. This is another type
of the bride being taken from those who draw from the well, which is the Word
of God.
One of two brides
Jacob served seven years
to be able to marry Rachel, just as Christ has come first as a servant, prior to marrying
His bride. Laban deceived Jacob and gave
him his other daughter, Leah, because it was the right of the firstborn. Leah represents Israel (the firstborn, which
will be dealt with first) and the bride of God the Father. Rachel typifies the
bride of Christ. (Arlen Chitwood)
Jacob had to serve two
periods of seven years to claim his bride.
Jesus will also complete two periods of time before he claims His bride:
first as prophet and second as our High Priest in Heaven. (Arlen Chitwood)
Jacob had to work another
seven years to marry Rachel. He
preferred Rachel and God favored Leah by giving her children. When Rachel could not conceive, she gave her
handmade Bilhah to Jacob and she bore Dan and Naphtali. Then Rachel became pregnant with Jacob.
A perplexing mystery
When Jacob and his family
ran away from Laban, Rachel stole her father's household gods (teraphim) and concealed them when he searched her tent.
Scripture does not explain why she stole them. Did she want to prevent
her father from practicing idolatry? Or is
Scripture telling us that even a bride of Christ can be tempted by idols of
this world?
You have it reversed. Think, who did Jacob love first?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: Rachel! So she represents Israel.
But who is more fruitful?
Answer: Leah! She represents the Bride of Christ.
Who will be taken as a bride first?
Answer: The Church, at the Rapture! (Again, this is Leah, the fruitful one, taken first).
When will God take back His adulterous, sinful wife (Israel)?
Answer: At Christ's second coming when he reveals himself as the Messiah to Israel.
What is the time period between the taking of Leah as a bride and Rachel?
Answer: 7 years
What is the time period between the taking of the bride of Christ, the Church, (the Rapture) and the second coming when Israel is redeemed as the wife of God?
Answer: 7 years! (The Tribulation - the period of Israel's punishment and then sheltering)
No, you have it reversed. Rachel represents the Church, heavenly Zion. Christ loved the Church first. He redeemed the Church as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. The Church was no afterthought. In the book of Ephesians, Paul tells us that the Church was the eternal purpose of God from the beginning of creation.
DeleteLeah had weak eyes, just as fleshly Israel was blinded. Moses had to put on a veil to keep the Israelites from gazing into his face, and to this present day, the veil remains, and Israel in the flesh is not able to see the glory of Christ.
Leah, as Israel gave birth to children first. Rachel, at first barren, bore more children, because she gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin, both types of Christ. When heavenly Zion travails, she gives birth to her children.
God married Old Covenant Israel, then divorced her for her unfaithfulness. God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, married spiritual Israel, the Church, made up of both believing Old Covenant Israel and believing Gentile.
Typology is symbolic. Seven is not literal. Where is "Israel's punishment, then sheltering" in your typology? Rachel is not sheltered. She dies in childbirth, but in her travail, gives birth to a nation in one day.
Finally, Rachel meets Jacob at a well. The well has a stone, and the shepherds cannot water their flocks until the stone is removed. The well is a picture of Christ, and also of a barren Bride. The stone was rolled away from the tomb at Jesus resurrection, and Living Water of the Spirit was poured out. The well also symbolized Rachel, who is barren. Once the stone is removed, out of her will flow rivers of living water. She will give birth toot only spiritual fruit, but spiritual children who bear spiritual fruit. Jesus met another woman at a well, a Samaritan women, a picture of the Church, out of whom the Spirit would flow.
Throughout scripture, whenever you see a well, a woman, and a man who provides water, it is a picture of Christ and the Church.
p.s,
DeleteYou are not "just another sinner saved by God's grace..." You are a new creation in Christ. The old is GONE, the new is come. You were once a sinner, in Adam, but now you are a child of God in Christ, a partaker of His divine nature, a dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit. God does not dwell in sinners. He dwells in the most holy place of His Temple, the Church.
Leah represents veiled Israel. Paul says when anyone turns to the Lord the veil is of the Law is removed. When Jacob implanted his seed in Leah, the veil was removed, just as the veil is removed when Christ plants his seed in us. Israel Israel had to be saved first. "To the Jew first, and then the Gentile." Israel was called to be a light to the Gentiles, but many don't understand that "not all who are descended from Israel are Israel," and that "though the Israelites be like the sands of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved." Contrary to Dispensational teaching that claims Israel has not been given the New Covenant, the early Church was the believing remnant of Israel who brought the Gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth (the Gentiles). Contrary to what most believe, Laban gave Leah and Rachel to Jacob at the same time, after the first seven years, and before the second. In the typology, there is no "rapture" pictured. Jacob remains married to both until Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin. And both Rachel and Leah, as well as Jacob, are "tribulated" by Laban, a type of antichrist. The barrenness of the women represents the failure of the Law to produce fruit. Only those born of the Spirit become fruitful. If anything, the typology shows that Rachel bears fruit in the second period of seven years, which parallels Benjamin coming to Joseph in the second year of the famine (of Leah). The famine is a famine of the word because of the apostasy, the falling away. The Church becomes a Harlot just as Israel had when Christ came first, and out of the Harlot a remnant is saved through the labor pains of tribulation at His second coming.
DeleteI am in agreement. Rachel represents the gentile Bride and Leah the Jewish Bride. Jehovah's Bride and Christ's bride. Rachel God had to redeem the Jewish bride first before the Gentile bride and surely this is evident by the 70 years of Daniel for the Jews and the 7 church ages for the Gentile that came after. Further, Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh demonstrate the moving of the blessing from the Jews to the Gentiles in the incident where Jacob, upon blessing the two sons of Joseph, crossed his hands thereby making the Elder serve the younger. The crossing of hands shows the cross of blessings from Israel to the nations through the Cross of Christ.
DeleteIsaac is THE type of Christ, and Rebecca is THE type of the church. Taken from the world, to meet Isaac, and return with him to his fathers house. Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebecca, and returns to the house of Laban, ( In the world) beginning a new series of events. Jacob is clearly always linked to National Israel..
DeleteYou have it reversed. Think, who did Jacob love first?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: Rachel! So she represents Israel.
But who is more fruitful?
Answer: Leah! She represents the Bride of Christ.
Who will be taken as a bride first?
Answer: The Church, at the Rapture! (Again, this is Leah, the fruitful one, taken first).
When will God take back His adulterous, sinful wife (Israel)?
Answer: At Christ's second coming when he reveals himself as the Messiah to Israel.
What is the time period between the taking of Leah as a bride and Rachel?
Answer: 7 years
What is the time period between the taking of the bride of Christ, the Church, (the Rapture) and the second coming when Israel is redeemed as the wife of God?
Answer: 7 years! (The Tribulation - the period of Israel's punishment and then sheltering)
I had this thought tonight as I was reading! I looked up what their names mean. Leah = gazelle which were OK for food since they are kosher. They are a hunted animal. Rachel = ewe. Leah became pregnant and had a son. Israel had a son, Jesus. Leah is the older daughter. God married Israel before He divorced her when Moses threw down the tablets.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think part of what y’all aren’t seeing is there’s the house of Judah/Jews who y’all are calling Israel. Then there’s the house of Israel, the northern 10 tribes who became the gentiles and eventually the church. In the days after Solomon Israel was split, the house of Israel, the northern 10 tribes and the house of Judah, the southern 2 tribes.
ReplyDeleteHow it means that as we have no the word shepherdess in the new testament it Rachel as shepherdess represents a church as christians are sheep.
ReplyDelete