"Gather at the Mouth of the Well"

Genesis 29:7-8 NIV

“‘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.’”

Jacob came to find a wife in the country of Paddan Aram “from among the daughters of Laban,” his mother’s brother (Genesis 28.2). Upon his arrival he met some shepherds who gathered their sheep at an unorthodox time. At midday sheep should have been grazing in the fields, not meeting at the local water hole. Jacob encouraged the sheep herders to water their flocks and quickly go back out to the pastures where they belonged.

His fellow herdsmen explained the local shepherd’s code... All flocks were required to be present and accounted for before the stone could be “rolled away from the mouth of the well.” This rule may have existed because…

 -----1).. the stone was too heavy to move without everyone’s assistance, or perhaps…

 -----2).. the well was community property and water rationing was monitored by all stakeholders.

Jacob discovered there was an abundance of water behind the rock for every shepherd and sheep who needed it. 

There’s still plenty of water for thirsty sheep. The rock was rolled away... permanently!

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his

innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7.37-38 NASU

When Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea took His body and “placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb” (Mark 15.46). Very early on the following Sabbath, some women discovered “that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away” (Mark 16.4). From that day, the living water has been made freely and abundantly available to every thirsty soul who gathers at “the mouth of the well.”

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning

and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from

the spring of the water of life without cost.”
Revelation 21.6 NASU