But "the top of the ladder reached to heaven." It formed the medium of communication between heaven and earth; and "behold the angels of G.o.d ascending and descending upon it,"--striking and beautiful picture of him by whom G.o.d has come down into all the depth of man's need, and by whom also he has brought man up and set him in his own presence forever, in the power of divine righteousness! G.o.d has made provision for the accomplishment of all his plans, despite of man's folly and sin; and it is for the everlasting joy of any soul to find itself, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, within the limits of G.o.d's gracious purpose.

The prophet Hosea leads us on to the time when that which was foreshadowed by Jacob's ladder shall have its full accomplishment. "And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle, out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies; I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my G.o.d." (Hosea ii. 18-23.) There is also an expression in the first chapter of John, bearing upon Jacob's remarkable vision; it is Christ's word to Nathanael, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of G.o.d ascending and descending upon the Son of man." (Ver. 51.)

Now, this vision of Jacob's is a very blessed disclosure of divine grace to Israel. We have been led to see something of Jacob's real character, something, too, of his real condition; both were evidently such as to show that it should either be divine grace for him, or nothing. By birth he had no claim; nor yet by character. Esau might put forward some claim on both these grounds; i. e., provided G.o.d's prerogative were set aside; but Jacob had no claim whatsoever; and hence, while Esau could only stand upon the exclusion of G.o.d's prerogative, Jacob could only stand upon the introduction and establishment thereof. Jacob was such a sinner, and so utterly divested of all claim, both by birth and by practice, that he had nothing whatever to rest upon save G.o.d's purpose of pure, free, and sovereign grace. Hence, in the revelation which the Lord makes to his chosen servant, in the pa.s.sage just quoted, it is a simple record or prediction of what he himself would yet do. "_I_ am.... _I_ will give.... _I_ will keep.... _I_ will bring.... _I_ will not leave thee until _I_ have done that which _I_ have spoken to thee of." It was all himself. There is no condition whatever. No _if_ or _but_; for when _grace_ acts there can be no such thing. Where there is an _if_, it cannot possibly be grace. Not that G.o.d cannot put man into a position of responsibility in which he must needs address him with an "if." We know he can; but Jacob asleep on a pillow of stone was not in a position of responsibility, but of the deepest helplessness and need; and therefore he was in a position to receive a revelation of the fullest, richest, and most unconditional grace.

Now, we cannot but own the blessedness of being in such a condition that we have nothing to rest upon save G.o.d himself; and, moreover, that it is in the most perfect establishment of G.o.d's own character and prerogative that we obtain all our true joy and blessing. According to this principle, it would be an irreparable loss to us to have any ground of our own to stand upon, for in that case G.o.d should address us on the ground of responsibility, and failure would then be inevitable.

Jacob was so bad, that none but G.o.d himself could do for him.

And, be it remarked, that it was his failure in the habitual recognition of this that led him into so much sorrow and pressure.

G.o.d's revelation of himself is one thing, and our resting in that revelation is quite another. G.o.d shows himself to Jacob, in infinite grace; but no sooner does Jacob awake out of sleep, than we find him developing his true character, and proving how little he knew, practically, of the blessed One who had just been revealing himself so marvellously to him. "He was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of G.o.d, and this is the gate of heaven." His heart was not at home in the presence of G.o.d; nor can any heart be so until it has been thoroughly emptied and broken. G.o.d is at home, blessed be his name, with a broken heart, and a broken heart at home with him. But Jacob's heart was not yet in this condition; nor had he yet learnt to repose, like a little child, in the perfect love of one who could say, "Jacob have I loved." "Perfect love casteth out fear;" but where such love is not known and fully realized, there will always be a measure of uneasiness and perturbation. G.o.d's house and G.o.d's presence are not dreadful to a soul who knows the love of G.o.d as expressed in the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Such a soul is rather led to say, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth." (Ps. xxvi. 8.) And again, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." (Ps. xxvii. 4.) And again, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord." (Ps. lx.x.xiv.) When the heart is established in the knowledge of G.o.d, it will a.s.suredly love his house, whatever the character of that house may be, whether it be Bethel, or the temple at Jerusalem, or the Church now composed of all true believers, "builded together for an habitation of G.o.d through the Spirit." However, Jacob's knowledge, both of G.o.d and his house, was very shallow, at that point in his history on which we are now dwelling.

We shall have occasion, again, to refer to some principles connected with Bethel; and shall now close our meditations upon this chapter with a brief notice of Jacob's bargain with G.o.d, so truly characteristic of him, and so demonstrative of the truth of the statement with respect to the shallowness of his knowledge of the divine character. "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If G.o.d will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my G.o.d; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be G.o.d's house: and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee." Observe, "_if_ G.o.d will be with me." Now, the Lord had just said, emphatically, "I _am_ with thee, and _will keep thee in all places_ whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land,"

&c. And yet poor Jacob's heart cannot get beyond an "_if_;" nor, in its thoughts of G.o.d's goodness, can it rise higher than "bread to eat, and raiment to put on." Such were the thoughts of one who had just seen the magnificent vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with the Lord standing above, and promising an innumerable seed and an everlasting possession. Jacob was evidently unable to enter into the reality and fulness of G.o.d's thoughts. He measured G.o.d by himself, and thus utterly failed to apprehend him. In short, Jacob had not yet really got to the end of himself; and hence he had not really begun with G.o.d.

CHAPTERS XXIX.-x.x.xI.

"Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east." As we have just seen, in Chap. xxviii., Jacob utterly fails in the apprehension of G.o.d's real character, and meets all the rich grace of Bethel with an "if," and a miserable bargain about food and raiment. We now follow him into a scene of thorough bargain-making.

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." There is no possibility of escaping from this. Jacob had not yet found his true level in the presence of G.o.d; and therefore G.o.d uses circ.u.mstances to chasten and break him down.

This is the real secret of much, very much, of our sorrow and trial in the world. Our hearts have never been really broken before the Lord; we have never been self-judged and self-emptied; and hence, again and again, we, as it were, knock our heads against the wall. No one can really enjoy G.o.d until he has got to the bottom of self, and for this plain reason, that G.o.d has begun the display of himself at the very point at which the end of flesh is seen. If, therefore, I have not reached the end of my flesh, in the deep and positive experience of my soul, it is morally impossible that I can have any thing like a just apprehension of G.o.d's character. But I must, in some way or other, be conducted to the true measure of nature. To accomplish this end, the Lord makes use of various agencies which, no matter what they are, are only effectual when used by him for the purpose of disclosing, in our view, the true character of all that is in our hearts. How often do we find, as in Jacob's case, that even although the Lord may come near to us and speak in our ears, yet we do not understand his voice or take our true place in his presence. "The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.... How dreadful is this place!" Jacob learnt nothing by all this, and it therefore needed twenty years of terrible schooling, and that, too, in a school marvellously adapted to his flesh; and even that, as we shall see, was not sufficient to break him down.

However, it is remarkable to see how he gets back into an atmosphere so entirely suited to his moral const.i.tution. The bargain-making Jacob meets with the bargain-making Laban, and they are both seen as it were, straining every nerve to outwit each other. Nor can we wonder at Laban, for he had never been at Bethel: he had seen no open heaven with a ladder reaching from thence to earth; he had heard no magnificent promises from the lips of Jehovah, securing to him all the land of Canaan, with a countless seed: no marvel, therefore, that he should exhibit a grasping, grovelling spirit; he had no other resource. It is useless to expect from worldly men aught but a worldly spirit and worldly principles and ways; they have gotten naught superior; and you cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean. But to find Jacob, after all he had seen and heard at Bethel, struggling with a man of the world, and endeavoring by such means to acc.u.mulate property, is peculiarly humbling.

And yet, alas! it is no uncommon thing to find the children of G.o.d thus forgetting their high destinies and heavenly inheritance, and descending into the arena with the children of this world, to struggle there for the riches and honors of a perishing, sin-stricken earth.

Indeed, to such an extent is this true, in many instances, that it is often hard to trace a single evidence of that principle which St. John tells us "overcometh the world." Looking at Jacob and Laban, and judging of them upon natural principles, it would be hard to trace any difference. One should get behind the scenes, and enter into G.o.d's thoughts about both, in order to see how widely they differed. But it was G.o.d that had made them to differ, not Jacob; and so it is now.

Difficult as it may be to trace any difference between the children of light and the children of darkness, there is nevertheless a very wide difference indeed,--a difference founded on the solemn fact that the former are "the vessels of mercy, which G.o.d has afore prepared unto glory," while the latter are "the vessels of wrath, fitted (not by G.o.d, but by sin) to destruction."[18] (Rom. ix. 22, 23.) This makes a very serious difference. The Jacobs and the Labans differ materially, and have differed, and will differ forever, though the former may so sadly fail in the realization and practical exhibition of their true character and dignity.

Now, in Jacob's case, as set forth in the three chapters now before us, all his toiling and working, like his wretched bargain before, is the result of his ignorance of G.o.d's grace, and his inability to put implicit confidence in G.o.d's promise. The man that could say, after a most unqualified promise from G.o.d to give him the whole land of Canaan, "IF G.o.d will give me food to eat and raiment to put on," could have had but a very faint apprehension of who G.o.d was, or what his promise was either; and because of this, we see him seeking to do the best he can for himself. This is always the way when grace is not understood: the principles of grace may be professed, but the real measure of our experience of the power of grace is quite another thing. One would have imagined that Jacob's vision had told him a tale of grace; but G.o.d's revelation at Bethel, and Jacob's actings at Haran, are two very different things; yet the latter tell out what was Jacob's sense of the former. Character and conduct prove the real measure of the soul's experience and conviction, whatever the profession may be. But Jacob had never yet been brought to measure himself in G.o.d's presence, and therefore he was ignorant of grace, and he proved his ignorance by measuring himself with Laban, and adopting his maxims and ways.

One cannot help remarking the fact that inasmuch as Jacob failed to learn and judge the inherent character of his flesh before G.o.d, therefore he was in the providence of G.o.d led into the very sphere in which that character was fully exhibited in its broadest lines. He was conducted to Haran, the country of Laban and Rebekah, the very school from whence those principles, in which he was such a remarkable adept, had emanated, and where they were taught, exhibited, and maintained. If one wanted to learn what G.o.d was, he should go to Bethel; if to learn what man was, he should go to Haran. But Jacob had failed to take in G.o.d's revelation of himself at Bethel, and he therefore went to Haran, and there showed what he was,--and oh, what scrambling and sc.r.a.ping!

what shuffling and shifting! There is no holy and elevated confidence in G.o.d, no simply looking to and waiting on him. True, G.o.d was with Jacob,--for nothing can hinder the outshinings of divine grace.

Moreover, Jacob in a measure owns G.o.d's presence and faithfulness.

Still nothing can be done without a scheme and a plan. Jacob cannot allow G.o.d to settle the question as to his wives and his wages, but seeks to settle all by his own cunning and management. In short, it is "the supplanter" throughout. Let the reader turn, for example, to Chap.

x.x.x. 37-42, and say where he can find a more masterly piece of cunning.

It is verily a perfect picture of Jacob. In place of allowing G.o.d to multiply "the ringstraked, speckled, and spotted cattle," as he most a.s.suredly would have done, had he been trusted, he sets about securing their multiplication by a piece of policy which could only have found its origin in the mind of a Jacob. So in all his actings, during his twenty years' sojourn with Laban; and finally, he most characteristically "steals away," thus maintaining in every thing his consistency with himself.

Now, it is in tracing out Jacob's real character from stage to stage of his extraordinary history, that one gets a wondrous view of divine grace. None but G.o.d could have borne with such an one, as none but G.o.d would have taken such an one up. Grace begins at the very lowest point.

It takes up man as he is, and deals with him in the full intelligence of what he is. It is of the very last importance to understand this feature of grace at one's first starting; it enables us to bear with steadiness of heart the after discoveries of personal vileness which so frequently shake the confidence and disturb the peace of the children of G.o.d.

Many there are who at first fail in the full apprehension of the utter ruin of nature as looked at in G.o.d's presence, though their hearts have been attracted by the grace of G.o.d, and their consciences tranquillized in some degree by the application of the blood of Christ. Hence, as they get on in their course, they begin to make deeper discoveries of the evil within; and, being deficient in their apprehensions of G.o.d's grace and the extent and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, they immediately raise a question as to their being children of G.o.d at all.

Thus they are taken off Christ and thrown on themselves, and then they either betake themselves to ordinances in order to keep up their tone of devotion, or else fall back into thorough worldliness and carnality.

These are disastrous consequences, and all the result of not having "the heart established in grace."

It is this that renders the study of Jacob's history so profoundly interesting and eminently useful. No one can read the three chapters now before us and not be struck at the amazing grace that could take up such an one as Jacob; and not only take him up, but say, after the full discovery of all that was in him, "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel." (Numb. xxiii. 21.) He does not say that iniquity and perverseness were not in him. This would never give the heart confidence,--the very thing above all others which G.o.d desires to give. It could never a.s.sure a poor sinner's heart to be told that there was _no sin in_ him; for alas! he knows too well there is; but to be told there is no sin _on_ him, and that, moreover, in G.o.d's sight, on the simple ground of Christ's perfect sacrifice, must infallibly set his heart and conscience at rest. Had G.o.d taken up Esau, we should not have had by any means such a blessed display of grace; for this reason, that he does not appear before us in the unamiable light in which we see Jacob. The more man sinks, the more G.o.d's grace rises. As my debt rises in my estimation from the fifty pence up to the five hundred, so my sense of grace rises also, my experience of that love which, when we "had _nothing_ to pay," could "frankly forgive" us all. (Luke vii. 42.) Well might the apostle say, "it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace: not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein."

(Heb. xiii. 9.)

FOOTNOTES:

[18] It is deeply interesting to the spiritual mind to mark how sedulously the Spirit of G.o.d, in Rom. ix. and indeed throughout all scripture, guards against the horrid inference which the human mind draws from the doctrine of G.o.d's election. When he speaks of "vessels of wrath," he simply says, "fitted to destruction." He does not say that G.o.d "fitted" them.

Whereas, on the other hand, when he refers to "the vessels of mercy" he says, "whom _he_ had afore prepared unto glory." This is most marked.

If my reader will turn for a moment to Matt. xxv. 34-41, he will find another striking and beautiful instance of the same thing.

When the king addresses those on his right hand, he says, "Come, ye _blessed of my Father_, inherit the kingdom _prepared for you_ from the foundation of the world." (Verse 34.)

But when he addresses those on his left, he says, "Depart from me, ye cursed." He does not say, "cursed of my Father." And, further, he says, "into everlasting fire, prepared," not for _you_, but "for the devil and his angels." (Verse 41.)

In a word, then, it is plain that G.o.d has "prepared" a kingdom of glory, and "vessels of mercy" to inherit that kingdom; but he has not prepared "everlasting fire" for men, but for the "devil and his angels;" nor has he fitted the "vessels of wrath," but they have fitted themselves.

The word of G.o.d as clearly establishes "_election_" as it sedulously guards against "_reprobation_." Every one who finds himself in heaven will have to thank G.o.d for it; and every one that finds himself in h.e.l.l will have to thank himself.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

"And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of G.o.d met him." Still G.o.d's grace follows him, notwithstanding all. "Nothing changeth G.o.d's affection." Whom he loves, and how he loves, he loves to the end. His love is like himself, "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." But how little effect "G.o.d's host" had upon Jacob may be seen by his actings as here set before us. "And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom." He evidently feels uneasy in reference to Esau, and not without reason. He had treated him badly, and his conscience was not at ease; but instead of casting himself unreservedly upon G.o.d, he betakes himself to his usual planning again, in order to avert Esau's wrath. He tries to _manage_ Esau, instead of leaning on G.o.d.

"And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto _my lord_ Esau; _thy servant_ Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now." All this bespeaks a soul very much off its centre in G.o.d. "My lord," and "thy servant," is not like the language of a brother, or of one in the conscious dignity of the presence of G.o.d; but it was the language of Jacob, and of Jacob, too, with a bad conscience.

"And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed." But what does he first do? Does he at once cast himself upon G.o.d? No; he begins to manage. "He divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape."

Jacob's first thought was always _a plan_; and in this we have a true picture of the poor human heart. True, he turns to G.o.d after he makes his plan, and cries to him for deliverance; but no sooner does he cease praying than he resumes the planning. Now, praying and planning will never do together. If I plan, I am leaning more or less on my plan; but when I pray, I should lean exclusively upon G.o.d. Hence, the two things are perfectly incompatible; they virtually destroy each other. When my eye is filled with my own management of things, I am not prepared to see G.o.d acting for me; and in that case prayer is not the utterance of my need, but the mere superst.i.tious performance of something which I think ought to be done, or it may be asking G.o.d to sanctify my plans.

This will never do. It is not asking G.o.d to sanctify and bless my means, but it is asking him to do it all himself.[19]

Though Jacob asked G.o.d to deliver him from his brother Esau, he evidently was not satisfied with that, and therefore he tried to "appease him with a present." Thus his confidence was in the "present,"

and not entirely in G.o.d. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." It is often hard to detect what is the real ground of the heart's confidence. We imagine, or would fain persuade ourselves, that we are leaning upon G.o.d, when we are in reality leaning upon some scheme of our own devising. Who, after hearkening to Jacob's prayer, wherein he says, "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children," could imagine him saying, "I will appease him with a present." Had he forgotten his prayer? Was he making a G.o.d of his present? Did he place more confidence in a few cattle than in Jehovah, to whom he had just been committing himself?

These are questions which naturally arise out of Jacob's actings in reference to Esau, and we can readily answer them by looking into the gla.s.s of our own hearts. There we learn, as well as on the page of Jacob's history, how much more apt we are to lean on our own management than on G.o.d; but it will not do; we must be brought to see the end of our management, that it is perfect folly, and that the true path of wisdom is to repose in full confidence upon G.o.d.

Nor will it do to make our prayers part of our management. We often feel very well satisfied with ourselves when we add prayer to our arrangement, or when we have used all lawful means and called upon G.o.d to bless them. When this is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans, inasmuch as we are leaning upon them instead of upon G.o.d. We must be really brought to the end of every thing with which self has aught to do; for until then, G.o.d cannot show himself. But we can never get to the end of our plans until we have been brought to the end of ourselves. We must see that "all flesh is gra.s.s, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field." (Isa. xl. 6.)

Thus it is in this interesting chapter; when Jacob had made all his prudent arrangements, we read, "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." This is a turning-point in the history of this very remarkable man. To be left alone with G.o.d is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways. We can never get a true estimate of nature and all its actings, until we have weighed them in the balance of the sanctuary, and there we ascertain their real worth. No matter what we may think about ourselves, nor yet what man may think about us; the great question is, What does G.o.d think about us? And the answer to this question can only be heard when we are "left alone." Away from the world; away from self; away from all the thoughts, reasonings, imaginations, and emotions of mere nature, and "alone" with G.o.d,--thus, and thus alone, can we get a correct judgment about ourselves.

"Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him." Mark, it was not Jacob wrestling with a man; but a man wrestling with Jacob; this scene is very commonly referred to as an instance of Jacob's power in prayer. That it is not this is evident from the simple wording of the pa.s.sage. My wrestling with a man, and a man wrestling with me, present two totally different ideas to the mind. In the former case I want to gain some object from him; in the latter, he wants to gain some object from me. Now, in Jacob's case, the divine object was to bring him to see what a poor, feeble, worthless creature he was, and when Jacob so pertinaciously held out against the divine dealing with him, "he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him." The sentence of death must be written on the flesh,--the power of the cross must be entered into before we can steadily and happily walk with G.o.d. We have followed Jacob so far, amid all the windings and workings of his extraordinary character,--we have seen him planning and managing during his twenty years' sojourn with Laban; but not until he "was left alone," did he get a true idea of what a perfectly helpless thing he was in himself.

Then, the seat of his strength being touched, he learnt to say, "I will not let _thee_ go."

"Other refuge have I none: Clings my helpless soul to thee."

This was a new era in the history of the supplanting, planning Jacob.

Up to this point he had held fast by his own ways and means; but now he is brought to say, "I will not let _thee_ go." Now, let my reader remark, that Jacob did not express himself thus until "the hollow of his thigh was touched." This simple fact is quite sufficient to settle the true interpretation of the whole scene. G.o.d was wrestling with Jacob to bring him to this point. We have already seen that, as to Jacob's power in prayer, he had no sooner uttered a few words to G.o.d than he let out the real secret of his soul's dependence, by saying, "I will appease him (Esau) with a present." Would he have said this if he had really entered into the meaning of prayer, or true dependence upon G.o.d? a.s.suredly not. If he had been looking to G.o.d alone to appease Esau, could he have said, "I will appease him by a present?"

Impossible: G.o.d and the creature must be kept distinct, and will be kept so in every soul that knows much of the sacred reality of a life of faith.