But, alas! here is where we fail, if one may speak for another. Under the plausible and apparently pious formula of using means, we really cloak the positive infidelity of our poor deceitful hearts; we think we are looking to G.o.d to bless our means, while, in reality, we are shutting him out by leaning on the means, instead of leaning on him.

Oh, may our hearts be taught the evil of thus acting. May we learn to cling more simply to G.o.d _alone_, that so our history may be more characterized by that holy elevation above the circ.u.mstances through which we are pa.s.sing! It is not, by any means, an easy matter so to get to the end of the creature, in every shape and form, as to be able to say, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." To say this from the heart, and to abide in the power of it, is the secret of all true strength. Jacob said it when the hollow of his thigh was touched; but not till then. He struggled long ere he gave way, because his confidence in the flesh was strong. But G.o.d can bring down to the dust the stoutest character. He knows how to touch the spring of nature's strength, and write the sentence of death thoroughly upon it; and until this is done, there can be no real "power with G.o.d or man." We must be "weak" ere we can be "strong." "The power of Christ" can only "rest on us" in connection with the knowledge of our infirmities. Christ cannot put the seal of his approval upon nature's strength, its wisdom, or its glory: all these must sink that he may rise. Nature can never form, in any one way, a pedestal on which to display the grace or power of Christ; for if it could, then might flesh glory in his presence; but this, we know, can never be.

And, inasmuch as the display of G.o.d's glory, and G.o.d's name or character, is connected with the entire setting aside of nature, so, until this latter is set aside, the soul can never enjoy the disclosure of the former. Hence, though Jacob is called to tell out his name, to own that his name is "Jacob, or a supplanter," he yet receives no revelation of the name of him who had been wrestling with him, and bringing him down into the dust. He received for himself the name of "Israel, or prince," which was a great step in advance; but when he says, "Tell me, I pray thee, thy name;" he received the reply, "Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?" The Lord refuses to tell his name, though he had elicited from Jacob the truth as to himself, and he blesses him accordingly. How often is this the case in the annals of G.o.d's family! There is the disclosure of self in all its moral deformity; but we fail to get hold practically of what G.o.d is, though he has come so very close to us, and blessed us, too, in connection with the discovery of ourselves. Jacob received the new name of Israel when the hollow of his thigh had been touched. He became a mighty prince when he had been brought to know himself as a weak man; but still the Lord had to say, "Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?" There is no disclosure of the name of him who, nevertheless, had brought out the real name and condition of Jacob.

From all this we learn that it is one thing to be blessed by the Lord, and quite another thing to have the revelation of his character, by the Spirit, to our hearts. "He blessed him there;" but he did not tell his name. There is blessing in being brought, in any measure, to know ourselves, for therein we are led into a path, in which we are able, more clearly, to discern what G.o.d is to us in detail. Thus it was with Jacob. When the hollow of his thigh was touched he found himself in a condition in which it was either G.o.d or nothing. A poor halting man could do little: it therefore behoved him to cling to one who was almighty.

I would remark, ere leaving this chapter, that the book of Job is, in a certain sense, a detailed commentary on this scene in Jacob's history.

Throughout the first thirty-one chapters, Job grapples with his friends, and maintains his point against all their arguments; but in Chapter x.x.xii. G.o.d, by the instrumentality of Elihu, begins to wrestle with him; and in Chapter x.x.xviii. he comes down upon him directly with all the majesty of his power, overwhelms him by the display of his greatness and glory, and elicits from him the well-known words, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Chap. xlii.

5, 6.) This was really touching the hollow of his thigh. And mark the expression, "mine eye seeth _thee_." He does not say, "I see myself"

merely; no; but "thee." Nothing but a view of what G.o.d is, can really lead to repentance and self-loathing. Thus it will be with the people of Israel, whose history is very a.n.a.logous with that of Job. When they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, they will mourn, and then there will be full restoration and blessing. Their latter end, like Job's will be better than their beginning. They will learn the full meaning of that word, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help." (Hosea xiii. 9.)

FOOTNOTES:

[19] No doubt, when faith allows G.o.d to act, he will use his own agency; but this is a totally different thing from his owning and blessing the plans and arrangements of unbelief and impatience. This distinction is not sufficiently understood.

CHAPTERS x.x.xIII. x.x.xIV.

We may here see how groundless were all Jacob's fears, and how useless all his plans. Notwithstanding the wrestling, the touching the hollow of the thigh, and the halting, we find Jacob still planning. "And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost." This arrangement proved the continuance of his fears. He still antic.i.p.ated vengeance from the hand of Esau, and he exposed those about whom he cared least to the first stroke of that vengeance. How wondrous are the depths of the human heart! How slow it is to trust G.o.d! Had Jacob been really leaning upon G.o.d, he never could have antic.i.p.ated destruction for himself and his family; but alas! the heart knows something of the difficulty of simply reposing, in calm confidence, upon an ever-present, all-powerful, and infinitely gracious G.o.d.

But mark now the thorough vanity of the heart's anxiety. "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him; and they wept." The present was quite unnecessary,--the plan useless. G.o.d "appeased" Esau, as he had already appeased Laban. Thus it is he ever delights to rebuke our poor, coward, unbelieving hearts, and put to flight all our fears. Instead of the dreaded sword of Esau, Jacob meets his embrace and kiss; instead of strife and conflict, they mingle their tears. Such are G.o.d's ways. Who would not trust him? Who would not honor him with the heart's fullest confidence? Why is it that, notwithstanding all the sweet evidence of his faithfulness to those who put their trust in him, we are so ready, on every fresh occasion, to doubt and hesitate? The answer is simple: we are not sufficiently acquainted with G.o.d. "Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace."

(Job xxii. 21.) This is true, whether in reference to the unconverted sinner, or to the child of G.o.d. The true knowledge of G.o.d, real acquaintance with him, is life and peace. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John xvii. 3.) The more intimate our acquaintance with G.o.d, the more solid will be our peace, and the more will our souls be lifted above every creature dependence. "G.o.d is a rock," and we only need to lean our whole weight upon him to know how ready and how able he is to sustain us.

After all this manifestation of G.o.d's goodness, we find Jacob settling down in Succoth, and, contrary to the spirit and principles of a pilgrim life, building a house as if it were his home. Now, Succoth was evidently not his divinely-appointed destination. The Lord had not said to him, "I am the G.o.d of Succoth;" no; but "I am the G.o.d of Bethel."

Bethel, therefore, and not Succoth, should have been Jacob's grand object. But alas! the heart is always p.r.o.ne to rest satisfied with a position and portion short of what G.o.d would graciously a.s.sign.

Jacob then moves on to Shechem, and purchases ground, still falling short of the divine mark, and the name by which he calls his altar is indicative of the moral condition of his soul. He calls it "El-elohe-Israel," or "G.o.d, the G.o.d of Israel." This was taking a very contracted view of G.o.d. True, it is our privilege to know G.o.d as our G.o.d; but it is a higher thing to know him as the G.o.d of his own house, and to view ourselves as part of that house. It is the believer's privilege to know Christ as _his_ head; but it is a higher thing to know him as the head of his body the Church, and to know ourselves as members of that body.

We shall see, when we come to Chap. x.x.xv. that Jacob is led to take a higher and a wider view of G.o.d; but at Shechem he was manifestly on low ground, and he was made to smart for it, as is always the case when we stop short of G.o.d's own ground. The two tribes and a half took up their position on this side of Jordan, and they were the first to fall into the enemy's hand. So it was with Jacob. We see, in Chap. x.x.xiv., the bitter fruits of his sojourn at Shechem. There is a blot cast upon his family, which Simeon and Levi attempt to wipe out, in the mere energy and violence of nature, which only led to still deeper sorrow; and that, too, which touched Jacob still more keenly than the insult offered to his daughter: "And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled _me_, to make _me_ to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and _I_ being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against _me_, and slay _me_; and _I_ shall be destroyed, _I_ and my house." Thus it was the consequences in reference to himself that affected Jacob most. He seems to have walked in constant apprehension of danger to himself or his family, and in the manifestation of an anxious, a cautious, timid, calculating spirit, utterly incompatible with a life of genuine faith in G.o.d.

It is not that Jacob was not, in the main, a man of faith; he a.s.suredly was, and as such gets a place amongst the "cloud of witnesses" in Heb.

xi. But then he exhibited sad failure from not walking in the habitual exercise of that divine principle. Could faith have led him to say, "I shall be destroyed, I and my house?" Surely not. G.o.d's promise in Chapter xxviii. 14, 15, should have banished every fear from his poor timid spirit. "I will keep thee.... I will not leave thee." This should have tranquillized his heart. But the fact is, his mind was more occupied with his danger among the Shechemites than with his security in the hand of G.o.d. He ought to have known that not a hair of his head could be touched, and therefore, instead of looking at Simeon and Levi, or the consequences of their rash acting, he should have judged himself for being in such a position at all. If he had not settled at Shechem, Dinah would not have been dishonored, and the violence of his sons would not have been exhibited. We constantly see Christians getting into deep sorrow and trouble through their own unfaithfulness; and then, instead of judging themselves, they begin to look at circ.u.mstances, and to cast upon them the blame.

How often do we see Christian parents, for instance, in keen anguish of soul about the wildness, unsubduedness, and worldliness of their children; and, all the while, they have mainly to blame themselves for not walking faithfully before G.o.d in reference to their family. Thus was it with Jacob. He was on low moral ground at Shechem; and, inasmuch as he lacked that refined sensibility which would have led him to detect the low ground, G.o.d, in very faithfulness, used his circ.u.mstances to chastise him. "G.o.d is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." This is a principle flowing out of G.o.d's moral government,--a principle, from the application of which none can possibly escape; and it is a positive mercy to the children of G.o.d that they are obliged to reap the fruits of their errors. It is a mercy to be taught, in any way, the bitterness of departing from, or stopping short of, the living G.o.d. We must learn that this is not our rest; for, blessed be G.o.d, he would not give us a polluted rest. He would ever have us resting _in_, and _with_ himself. Such is his perfect grace; and when our hearts wander, or fall short, his word is, "If thou wilt return, return _unto me_." False humility, which is simply the fruit of unbelief, would lead the wanderer or backslider to take lower ground, not knowing the principle or measure of G.o.d's restoration. The prodigal would seek to be made a servant, not knowing that, so far as he was concerned, he had no more t.i.tle to the place of a servant than to that of a son; and, moreover, that it would be utterly unworthy of the father's character to put him in such a position. We must come to G.o.d on a principle and in a manner worthy of himself, or not at all.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

"And G.o.d said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there." This confirms the principle on which we have been dwelling. When there is a failure or declension, the Lord calls the soul back to himself.

"Remember therefore _from whence thou art fallen_; and repent and do _the first works_." (Rev. ii. 5.) This is the divine principle of restoration. The soul must be recalled to the very highest point; it must be brought back to the divine standard. The Lord does not say, "remember where you are;" no; but "remember the lofty position from whence you have fallen." Thus only can one learn how far he has declined, and how he is to retrace his steps.

Now, it is when thus recalled to G.o.d's high and holy standard, that one is really led to see the sad evil of one's fallen condition. What a fearful amount of moral evil had gathered round Jacob's family, unjudged by him, until his soul was roused by the call to "go up to Bethel." Shechem was not the place in which to detect all this evil.

The atmosphere of that place was too much impregnated with impure elements to admit of the soul's discerning, with any degree of clearness and precision, the true character of evil. But the moment the call to Bethel fell on Jacob's ear, "Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange G.o.ds that are among you, and be clean and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make thee an altar unto G.o.d, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." The very mention of "the house of G.o.d" struck a chord in the soul of the patriarch; it carried him, in the twinkling of an eye, over the history of twenty eventful years. It was at Bethel he had learnt what G.o.d was, and not at Shechem; hence he must get back to Bethel again, and erect an altar upon a totally different base, and under a totally different name, from his altar at Shechem. This latter was connected with a ma.s.s of uncleanness and idolatry.

Jacob could speak of "El-elohe-Israel," while surrounded by a quant.i.ty of things utterly incompatible with the holiness of the house of G.o.d.

It is important to be clear in reference to this point. Nothing can keep the soul in a path of consistent, intelligent separation from evil save the sense of what "the house of G.o.d" is, and what becomes that house. If I merely look at G.o.d, in reference to myself, I shall not have a clear, full, divine sense of all that flows out of a due recognition of G.o.d's relation to his house. Some there are who deem it a matter of no importance how they are mixed up with impure materials in the worship of G.o.d, provided they themselves are true and upright in heart. In other words, they think they can worship G.o.d at Shechem; and that an altar named "El-elohe-Israel" is just as elevated, just as much according to G.o.d, as an altar named "El Bethel." This is evidently a mistake. The spiritually-minded reader will at once detect the vast moral difference between Jacob's condition at Shechem and his condition at Bethel; and the same difference is observable between the two altars. Our ideas in reference to the worship of G.o.d must, of necessity, be affected by our spiritual condition; and the worship which we present will be low and contracted, or elevated and comprehensive, just in proportion as we enter into the apprehension of his character and relationship.

Now, the name of our altar and the character of our worship express the same idea. El-Bethel worship is higher than El-elohe-Israel worship, for this simple reason, that it conveys a higher idea of G.o.d. It gives me a more elevated thought of G.o.d to speak of him as the G.o.d of his house than as the G.o.d of a solitary individual. True, there is beautiful grace expressed in the t.i.tle, "G.o.d, the G.o.d of Israel;" and the soul must ever feel happy in looking at the character of G.o.d, as graciously connecting himself with every separate stone of his house, and every separate member of the body. Each stone in the building of G.o.d is a "lively stone," as connected with the "living stone," having communion with the "living G.o.d," by the power of "the Spirit of life."

But while all this is blessedly true, G.o.d is the G.o.d of his house; and when we are enabled, by an enlarged spiritual intelligence, to view him as such, we enjoy a higher character of worship than that which flows from merely apprehending what he is to ourselves individually.

But there is another thing to be remarked in Jacob's recall to Bethel.

He is told to make an altar "unto G.o.d, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother." He is thus reminded of "the day of his distress." It is often well to have our minds led in this way to the point in our history in which we found ourselves brought down to the lowest step of the ladder. Thus Saul is brought back to the time when he was "little in his own eyes." This is the true starting-point with all of us. "When thou wast little in thine own eyes," is a point of which we often need to be reminded. It is then that the heart really leans on G.o.d. Afterwards we begin to fancy ourselves to be something, and the Lord is obliged to teach us afresh our own nothingness. When first one enters upon a path of service or testimony, what a sense there is of personal weakness and incapacity!

and, as a consequence, what leaning upon G.o.d! what earnest, fervent appeals to him for help and strength! Afterwards we begin to think that, from being so long at the work, we can get on by ourselves,--at least there is not the same sense of weakness or the same simple dependence upon G.o.d; and then our ministry becomes a poor, meagre, flippant, wordy thing, without unction or power,--a thing flowing, not from the exhaustless tide of the Spirit, but from our own wretched minds.

From ver. 9-15, G.o.d renews his promise to Jacob, and confirms the new name of "prince," instead of "supplanter;" and Jacob again calls the name of the place "Bethel." At verse 18 we have an interesting example of the difference between the judgment of faith and the judgment of nature. The latter looks at things through the hazy mist with which it is surrounded; the former looks at them in the light of the presence and counsels of G.o.d. "And it came to pa.s.s, as her soul was in departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin." Nature called him "the son of my sorrow;" but faith called him "the son of the right hand." Thus is it ever. The difference between the thoughts of nature and those of faith must ever be wide indeed; and we should earnestly desire that our souls should be governed only by the latter, and not by the former.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

Furnishes a catalogue of Esau's sons, with their various t.i.tles and localities. We shall not dwell on this, but pa.s.s on to one of the most fruitful and interesting sections in the entire canon of inspiration, viz.:--

CHAPTERS x.x.xVII-L,

On which we shall dwell more particularly. There is not in scripture a more perfect and beautiful type of Christ than Joseph. Whether we view Christ as the object of the Father's love,--the object of the envy of "his own",--in his humiliation, sufferings, death, exaltation, and glory,--in all, we have him strikingly typified by Joseph.

In Chapter x.x.xvii. we have Joseph's dreams,--the statement of which draws out the enmity of his brethren. He was the object of his father's love, and the subject of very high destinies; and, inasmuch as the hearts of his brethren were not in communion with these things, they hated him. They had no fellowship in the father's love, and they would not yield to the thought of Joseph's exaltation. In all this they represent the Jews in Christ's day. "He came to his own, and his own received him not." He had "no form nor comeliness in their eyes." They would neither own him as the Son of G.o.d, nor King of Israel. Their eyes were not open to behold "his glory,--the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." They would not have him; yea, they hated him.

Now, in Joseph's case, we see that he, in no wise, relaxed his testimony in consequence of his brethren's refusal of his first dream.

"And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren," and they hated him yet the more.... "And he dreamed yet another dream, and he told it to his brethren." This was simple testimony founded upon divine revelation; but it was testimony which brought Joseph down to the pit.

Had he kept back his testimony, or taken off aught of its edge and power, he might have spared himself; but, no: he told them the truth, and therefore they hated him.

Thus was it with Joseph's great Ant.i.type. He bore witness to the truth--he witnessed a good confession--he kept back nothing--he could only speak the truth because he was _the_ truth, and his testimony to the truth was answered, on man's part, by the cross, the vinegar, the soldier's spear. The testimony of Christ, too, was connected with the deepest, fullest, richest grace. He not only came as "the truth," but also as the perfect expression of all the love of the Father's heart; "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He was the full disclosure to man of what G.o.d was. Hence man was left entirely without excuse. He came and showed G.o.d to man, and man hated G.o.d with a perfect hatred.

The fullest exhibition of divine love was answered by the fullest exhibition of human hatred. This is seen in the cross,--and we have it touchingly foreshadowed at the pit into which Joseph was cast by his brethren.

"And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now, therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit; and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams." These words forcibly remind us of the parable in Matthew xxii. "But, last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir, come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him."

G.o.d sent his Son into the world with this thought, "They will reverence my son;" but alas! man's heart had no reverence for the "well-beloved" of the Father. They cast him out. Earth and heaven were at issue in reference to Christ; and they are at issue still. _Man_ crucified him; but _G.o.d_ raised him from the dead. Man placed him on a cross between two thieves; G.o.d set him at his own right hand in the heavens. Man gave him the very lowest place on earth; G.o.d gave him the very highest place in heaven, in brightest majesty.

All this is shown out in Joseph's history. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him; but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty G.o.d of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel;) even by the G.o.d of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb; the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." (Gen.

xlix. 22-26.)

These verses beautifully exhibit to our view "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." "The archers" have done their work; but G.o.d was stronger than they. The true Joseph has been shot at and grievously wounded in the house of his friends; but "the arms of his hands have been made strong" in the power of resurrection, and faith now knows him as the basis of all G.o.d's purposes of blessing and glory in reference to the Church, Israel, and the whole creation. When we look at Joseph in the pit and in the prison, and look at him afterwards as ruler over all the land of Egypt, we see the difference between the thoughts of G.o.d and the thoughts of men; and so when we look at the cross, and at "the throne of the majesty in the heavens," we see the same thing.

Nothing ever brought out the real state of man's heart toward G.o.d but the coming of Christ. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin." (John xv. 22.) It is not that they would not have been sinners. No: but "they had not had sin." So he says in another place, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin." (John ix. 41.) G.o.d came near to man in the person of his Son, and man was able to say, "this is the heir;" but yet he said, "come, let us kill him." Hence "they have no cloak for their sin." Those who say they see have no excuse. _Confessed blindness_ is not at all the difficulty, but _professed sight_. This is a truly solemn principle for a professing age like the present. The permanence of sin is connected with the mere profession to see. A man who is blind and knows it, can have his eyes opened; but what can be done for one who thinks he sees, when he really does not?