1. This book is divided into two parts; and indeed we might say the entire Bible falls into these divisions: First. The origin of the universe, the earth and man (Gen. 1 and 2).
Second. Salvation through the woman’s Seed, illustrated in the life of faith (Gen. 3-50).
The first division stands by itself, distinct from the entire word of God, we may say, except in its typical character and in the final fulfillment which we find in the closing part of Revelation, where the new heavens and the new earth take the place of that which had been marred by sin.
This first division sub-divides into two parts:
(1) The origin of all things as created by God (Gen. 1-2:3).
(2) Man in responsible relationship to God (Gen. 2:4-244These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 18And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:4‑24)).
Sub-Division 1. (Gen. 1-2:3.)
The first sub-division has again what we can hardly call a new division, but something that should at least be noticed. The first verse evidently stands alone in its statement. It is not a part of the first day’s work, but rather a statement of the abstract fact of the creation, in this way introductory to the entire word of God; and more particularly introductory to the seven days which follow. Bearing this in mind, we will make no further division of this portion, but speak of this introductory statement.
We are not told here of the method of divine creation. How could we enter into that method by which Omnipotence expresses itself? Science tells us of unlimited periods of time in which the earth has passed through various stages of progress. Faith has endeavored to link these with the periods suggested in the seven days. Of this we will speak a little later. Just at present, it is well to remember that God’s first statement of creation has no modifications. He does not speak of time or methods, but simply of that omnipotent act by which all things were brought into existence.
The second verse need not be taken as describing the necessary condition of the universe after its creation, but a state into which it fell through causes more or less clearly understood. A passage in Isaiah 45:1818For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:18) tells us that God did not create the earth “without form.” This may refer to the ultimate outcome of the new creative work, which we see in the preparation of the earth as the abode of man. It does not necessarily mean that the earth did not pass through successive stages, thus gradually reaching its present condition. What is dwelt upon in the second verse, however, is the fact that after the original creation in which all things were brought into being, the earth was in a condition of formless chaos. It has been the custom, and we think rightly, to say that in this general statement we have abundance of room for the vast geological ages which a careful study of the earth calls for. We need not think of the first act of creation being futile as to the earth on one side; nor on the other, look for a primeval state of order which was later followed by chaos as the result of some untoward event.
Before going further, we must say a word as to the spiritual and typical meaning of this chapter. We speak for those who are prepared to receive the evident truth that we have many types throughout the word of God. Few indeed are those literalists, if any, who would deny that the ark is a type of salvation through Christ; the Passover lamb, of shelter from judgment through the blood of the Lamb of God, and so on. Indeed, Scripture itself applies these and many others. We cannot here argue the question, which will come up in another connection for more direct treatment in the handbook on “The Types of Scripture.” The interpretation must justify its own truth; and without further argent, but remembering what we have said of the definite purpose of God in this narrative, we will proceed to speak of the typical application of the seven days.
We have, first, of course, the literal meaning of the narrative, and then two or possibly three typical interpretations of it. The narrative itself is not, as we have already suggested, an amplification of the statement of the second verse, “The earth was without form and void,” but shows how God laid hold of that waste condition of the earth and brought it up into its place in successive stages of divine work of creation. The study of nature and of Scripture shows us a close correspondence between the two, and we are not left to our own conjecture that the first creation is a type of the new: “If any man be in Christ, it is new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” “In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” The literal work in the six days is a figure of that work of new creation in the soul, reaching on from its beginning to its completion and the rest of God. In addition to this, God’s ways in the world dispensationally are clearly suggested and illustrated in the successive stages which lead us on to the sixth day. Further, we seem to have here in germ, the biographical history of the entire second part of the book of Genesis in which the cycle is again brought before us.
Lastly, we need not be surprised if we have also an outline of the previous geologic periods of the earth’s history given in the work of these successive days. Truth is, we might say, in concentric circles, and this is justified and illustrated in these few verses at the opening of Genesis. We will therefore speak of these various meanings as we take up each day’s work.
First Day — Light. Science no longer smiles at the thought of light before the sun. The latest discoveries in this department confirm the simple, non-scientific, but not unscientific statement of our chapter. Light is the result of some unascertained motive power, producing vibrations of inconceivable rapidity in the ether which pervades the entire universe. At present, this is connected with the combustion going on in the sun, and indeed with any source of light, great or small. Back of this, however, science demands a further explanation somewhat in accord with that just given. What this mysterious force is which thus puts into motion the waves of ether, it does not say. Faith however, with these precious words before it, has no difficulty. God said: “Let there be light, and there was light.” It is Omnipotence that manifests itself in the all-pervasive effulgence that floods His universe with this manifestation of Himself. “God is light.” How grand the thought, how glorious, how divine! Brooding over a shapeless wreck that welters in impenetrable darkness, God manifests Himself!
We touch so closely here to the great spiritual truth of new birth, that the transition is easily made. Over a wrecked life, lying hopeless in gloom that so far as its own efforts are concerned must be eternal, the Spirit of God in brooding love flashes forth the knowledge of the presence of God Himself: “God, who command the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.” The light here shows nothing but itself in which God can find pleasure: “God saw the light that it was good.” He can only divide it from all that is not light, calling the one “day” and the other “night.”
In the history of the work of God in the soul, this illumination is often accompanied and indeed marked by the deepest sense of utter sinfulness. God’s presence manifests that as nothing else would. There is, however, coupled with this sense of sin, the light of what God’s grace is, which is prophetic of the work which that grace is going to accomplish in a creation upon which He has now laid His hand. Thus the literal and the spiritual significance of this first day’s work is clearly established.
Dispensationally, it suggests that time when, after sin had brought ruin into the world, we have the light of God’s promise shining over the troubled scene of the earth’s history from Adam to Noah, when the earth was uncontrolled by human authority, and yet faith had the light of God’s promise to guide it ever forward to the good things that were yet to come. Indeed, how beautiful it is to see in this the first of God’s new creation, the pledge of its final consummation. The light of the heavenly city itself is seen in this its first introduction here. It is the pledge of that glorious day when there shall be no night there, when God who is light shall be all in all. This is ever the mark of a divine work. It carries within it the promise and the potentiality of the consummation. When once this is grasped, the feebleness and foolishness of the view that God’s work can fail, that His people must exert themselves or be “cast as rubbish to the void,” is seen. As well might we expect, after the introduction of light on the first day, to find all falling into darkness and ruin. True, the night does come again for a little season, but the day follows, and indeed it is that which is last, for “the evening and the morning were the first day.” So, when we reach the seventh day there is no evening. All ends in eternal light.
No doubt this first day suggests the earliest geologic age — the Azoic, in which nothing was manifested except the light.
In the biographies following, we also have, evidently, the promise as connected with Adam given to our first parents before they were bashed from Eden. Thus it was not into darkness they were banished, but with the light of a promise which would shine more and more unto the perfect day.
Second Day — The Firmament, or expanse, is here seen, which spreads between the earth-heavens and the waters beneath. As yet, nothing is upon the surface of the world except the waters covering all. God makes a division now between these waters and the vapors above. There is marked distinction between them. The waters upon the earth are the salt, bitter waters of the ocean; while those above, though drawn from the ocean, are perfectly fresh. It is beautiful to see how these waters in vast and inconceivable volume are suspended in those “balancing clouds” which lift them above the earth and yet hold them in connection with it, ever ready to pour down in beneficent rain the treasures which they hold. Science here again has ceased to sneer at the wondrous exactness and beauty of all this. It is a true picture of what the expanse of the atmosphere is, a separation between the waters on the earth and in the heavens, not a hard and fast line; indeed, one that can be filled, it may be, with vapor, and yet which in general arches itself above us, making a true separation, as Scripture here describes it.
The spiritual meaning of this is not difficult to ascertain. We saw in the first day the light manifesting an ocean of chaotic ruin. In this second day, we have manifested the separation that exists between the ruin of the fallen nature and the new life which is from God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Here we have the two natures which are in the believer. The fallen one, dead, unproductive, at enmity with God; but lifted up, distinct from this, and yet in connection with it we have a new life which has, we might say, been constructed through divine alchemy from the world, lifted up above it now to control and pour out its beneficence upon the new man, making him fruitful. Fruitfulness is not yet apparent, but God sees the result of His work. If this truth is seen, difficulties otherwise inexplicable are solved. The extravagant claims of perfectionism are seen both to be impossible and unnecessary; while the undoubted presence of evil still remaining in the child of God is fully accounted for. The old nature is not eliminated. It is, however, not that which characterizes the newborn soul.
Further, in their position above the earth, the waters would suggest the supremacy of the Spirit in the life. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.” “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.”
Dispensationally, this second day points to the time when God made a separation between the lawless elements of a fallen humanity and those principles of control which one day are to govern all. It was effected, we might say, literally out of the waters of the flood; for, under Noah, we have this elevation of divinely given authority in government over the lawlessness of the human family; and from the time of Noah to the present, there have always been the powers that be, ordained of God, which govern more or less distinctly; and though, alas, with constant admixture of human tyranny and unrighteousness, they yet are evidently beneficent and distinct from the raging waves of the sea, which again and again Scripture speaks of as the lawlessness of unrestrained self-will. This is the dispensational application of the second day.
In the subsequent part of the book of Genesis, it seems to refer more particularly to the life, for instance, of Seth and his family, who are distinct from the descendants of Cain. In Cain, we have the waters beneath, lawless, unrestrained, self-willed, reaching up indeed to the giants, and fathering all kinds of inventions that make life tolerable and enjoyable, while ever away from God. In the family of Seth, we have that spiritual seed lifted up above all this, reaching its climax in Enoch who “walked with God” and who passed into the heavens, for which his new nature had already fitted him.
The geologic period suggested by the second day is doubtless that condition of the earth when its heavily charged vapors subsided more into the water, and a true atmosphere, not exactly as we know it now, but quite similar, was established, in which the vast waters above the world were separated from those beneath. This touches so closely on the literal narrative, that there can be no difficulty in understanding it.
Third Day — The Earth. Here at last, the dry land emerges from the sea. The waters are gathered in one place, forming indeed by far the larger part of the surface of the world, and yet giving place to the dry land, which soon begins to smile with its coat of many colors in grass and flower and fruitful plant and tree.
There are thus two parts to the work of this day, both of which are pronounced “good.” This gathering of the waters into their own place marks the great epoch of the earth’s history in which we still are. With the exception of the flood, when all was temporarily submerged, the dry land has ever appeared, and, as we have already seen in connection with the waters above the firmament, given character to the surface of the earth. It will be noticed that God’s work from the beginning was of a separative character. Light was separated from darkness; the waters above the heavens from those death, and here again the dry land is separated from the engulfing waves, which prevented its manifestation.
Applying all this to the history of the new creative work, the meaning is beautiful and clear. God’s gracious work is of this separative character. The light of life is separated from the surrounding death. The new nature is distinct from the old, and this new life is now to manifest itself in the earth as well as above it in a way that shows its power. Thus the “dry land” appears.
It will be noticed that this takes place on the third day. “Three,” the number of manifestation, of divine fullness, and thus of resurrection, suggests the power of the new life manifested as a true resurrection. It is in connection with this that the fruits of the new life make their appearance. And how beautiful are these fruits! If the earth would be unsightly without its grass and herb, its tree with blossom and fruit, how desolate too would appear a life in which, while it was the true work of God, there was no fruit for His eye to rest upon! Indeed, this would be impossible, and so we find that the fruit is closely connected with the emergence of the dry land.
Space will not permit more than this glimpse at the fair field of the new creation. May it be ours to witness more and more the reality of that life which now is manifested: “Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”
Dispensationally, the third day speaks of the emergence of a nation from the surrounding heathenism which supervened so soon after the flood, and which took its place definitely as such when Israel entered into the land. This marks an epoch in God’s dealings with the world. Noah and his successors give us the second great period of human government, but from Abraham on, and as we have said more particularly in the Jewish nation in the land, we have a distinct separation between the earthly people of God and the surrounding nations. This people was formed to bear fruit for Himself. God brought a vine out of Egypt and planted it in a fruitful hill. He looked that it should bring forth grapes. This was His purpose. We see indeed the fruit in the life of every man of faith from Abraham on to Samuel, David, and the prophets, with countless others who were “the quiet in the land,” and yet who presented many a modest flower or luscious fruit to the eye of God. Alas, the nation as a whole brought forth wild grapes; yet the purposes of God were established and manifested, as was just said, in the life of individual faith. Thus the third day, dispensationally, speaks of the time from Abraham to the coming of Christ.
In the biographies of the book of Genesis, we can scarcely fail to see that Noah, emerging with his family from the flood, would speak of this period when the dry land appeared. God establishes a definite testimony upon the earth which, as in the case of Abraham, manifests itself in fruitfulness of life. It has been pointed out elsewhere (see notes in Numerical Bible, Introductory to Genesis), that in this connection, Abraham is linked both with the second part of the third day, as already suggested, and with the fourth, to which we are now coming. This will be noticed as we proceed further. It is simply to be remarked that we thus have for the remainder of the book of Genesis, two sets of divisions; one which makes Abraham a third, and the other, a fourth. This will also give his successors a twofold position, in each of which there is a distinct and appropriate meaning.
In the geologic history of the earth, we have now reached the place where its various strata begin to take permanent place. In the rising of the dry land from the waters, we may have the first appearance of those earliest continental areas as seen in the Laurentian rocks. Connected with these, too, is that character of life which is seen in the earliest forms of algae and other kinds of vegetable life. The periods which are linked with this will give us in ever-increasing measure the establishment of vegetable life upon the earth during the various ages which followed, more particularly the carboniferous, in which vegetation seems to have reached a climax of greatness, thus serving the twofold purpose of absorbing the vast, limitless amount of carbonic acid gas which would have rendered the atmosphere unfit for animal use, and at the same time laying up in store those great seams of coal which were a prophecy of the man that was to come.
Fourth Day — The Heavens. The sun is now seen in its place in relation to the earth; the moon as well. Here again, science adds its assent, which faith had not needed, to the order which suggests that the sun as we know it now had not previously its established and definite place and purpose. Without going too deeply into astronomic theories, it is admitted by scientists that the earth, as the smaller body, might well have taken its form prior to the shrinking of the inconceivably great mass which now forms the sun into that definite body. Be this as it may, there is no question that the narrative, while couched in the language of everyday speech, is strictly accurate. The sun, as we know it now, the great light which rules the day, came into this place on the fourth day.
Spiritually, we have here that which gives definiteness, character, and power to the whole life of the new man. From the beginning, God saw all blessings centered in Christ; but until after He had, not merely appeared upon the earth, but had accomplished by the sacrifice of Himself the great work of redemption, and taken His place in the heavens as risen and glorified, His preeminent position was not seen. It is Christ, the risen man at God’s right hand the One who has sent down the Holy Spirit as His representative and agent upon earth, who is the power of that new life by which we now live to God. “If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” He is the Sun who illumines our day. We have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. He it is also who controls and orders all things; and, as we know, the moon shines with but a reflected light, so the Lord’s people as lights in the world shine by virtue of that light which falls upon them from Christ in glory. The stars show the heavens in their complete order.
In the soul’s spiritual history, all this is most important. We are not merely to be fruitful upon the earth, but be marked as a heavenly people.
Dispensationally, we need hardly say, the epoch which follows after Israel’s national history is characterized by the Sun in the heavens. It is Christ in glory who shines upon this earth, making the present or Church period the most remarkable in the world’s history. This epoch extends from Pentecost on to the coming of the Lord; it is the fourth stage in God’s ways with the world. The Church is seen here as the moon, in one sense, reflecting the light of her absent Lord. It is not a contradictory, though somewhat different thought, to speak of the moon as Israel, and so we find that in their history God made special provision for the blowing of the trumpets on the new moon. The light of the moon wanes as it turns away from the sun, so that at the close of each lunar month there is a period of darkness. Then the new moon reappears, a type of Israel’s shining again, and this is signalized by faith’s recognition of it. The Psalms speak of this, the blowing of the trumpet on the new moon. The longing cry of faith asks Him who is the Sun for Israel to begin this new period: “Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.” “There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.”
The present or Church period is the time of Israel’s darkness. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel,” and the vessel of testimony, the lesser light that rules the night of this present period, is not Israel, but the Church.
As to the application to the geologic history of the world, we have evidently now reached the time when the full effects of the shining of the sun introduces those periods when conditions of life began to be similar to the present, the atmosphere purified, and therefore vegetable growth becoming more and more conformed to what we know it at present.
Fifth Day — The Waters. The waters now teem with life, and birds fly in the air. Here again science adds its confirmation, grudgingly enough, but it could not be withheld. The order is evidently the correct one. How beautifully, too, is seen the action of God’s goodness in all this! He first creates an environment in which it is possible for His creatures to exist. For instance, plant life requires the dry land upon which to be established. That, therefore, is first brought up out of the waters. Animals need vegetable food, and this is first supplied in abundance before these creatures are brought into being. God’s whole work, as we have already remarked, is thus ever prophetic of the good things to come.
How blessed it is to be a part even of His material creation, and to find that He never introduces us into a sphere which He has not first prepared for us. It is thus even that the apostle speaks of the good works of the believer. We are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained (prepared) that we should walk in them.” They are made ready to our hand, rather than the result of any effort of our own.
Science, as we were saying, declares that animal life in the waters began before that upon land. The earliest forms of animal life are aquatic, and to this day the waters are the home of by far the larger part, numerically, of all forms of life. The waters still literally swarm with life. The birds also are the first in order of the warm-blooded vertebrates, and those are appropriately in the fifth day.
Spiritually, the sea, as we have already found, speaks of that restless, fallen nature which is in man, and of the world too in which we are, which is like the troubled sea. It is through exercise in connection with the surging and struggling of the old nature that the child of God produces fruit for Him. The tribulations through which he passes in the world, the opposition of evil, the being in the strange element where all is contrary to a life of faith, is the environment in which certain characteristics of the divine life are manifested. “Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience.” It is true in the history of every child of God that the time when he has seemed to be most tried, are the occasions for a special and higher character of spiritual growth than he had heretofore manifested. Just as animal life is an advance upon vegetable, the latter requiring a fixed and quiet abode, while the former flourishes under more adverse circumstances, so the spiritual life is developed in what we may call the more manly virtues, by the very oppositions through which we are called to pass.
Dispensationally, the period which will succeed that of the Church upon the earth is that brief but troublous time which forms so large a part of the narrative of the book of Revelation. It is the time of the Great Tribulation, when the sea and the waves thereof are roaring, and when all seems ready to engulf any testimony for the truth of God. It is out of this fearful time of trouble that the faith of Israel, in the feeble remnant which turns in penitence to God, will reach a definiteness and energy which perhaps were not known even in Israel’s palmiest days. In those days the men of faith frequently were, from their very position, in more or less authority over the earth-power; but during the last week of Daniel, “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” there will be fearful oppression, a time of tribulation such as has not been since the world was, “no, nor ever shall be;” and yet, out of this surging opposition of evil will arise that poor and afflicted people who shall be marked by the faithfulness, for instance, of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, and who, though many of them shall be put to death, love not their lives unto the death, and therefore shall receive a better resurrection. Out of this period of turmoil will arise a spiritual life in Israel such as they never had before, a life which in the birds flying in the open firmament of heaven suggests a liberty and a power that augur well for the glories of the succeeding dispensation.
As we have said before, this is both a fourth and a fifth division. Abraham, as we saw, is a third, along with Noah, suggesting the resurrection side of things. He is also a fourth, as showing us the walk of faith upon the earth. He is the true pilgrim, who embodies in himself the characteristics of both the numbers three and four. In his life, he is linked with the resurrection. In his walk, he is linked with the earth.
In this way Isaac is also a fourth and a fifth. In the lowliness and subjection of his life, we are reminded of the place of dependence, as well also of his being a type of Christ risen, the true Sun in the heaven. As a fifth division in the book, it shows us the fruitfulness that comes from his typical death and resurrection. His union with Rebecca follows his sacrifice.
Jacob, in like manner, is a fifth and a sixth, with characteristics of both numbers; the fifth suggesting the exercise and tribulations through which he passed, and the sixth, the victory which God gave him and the deliverance out of all his trouble. His history emphasizes for us the discipline through which the people of God are caused to pass; a discipline which produces in them the peaceable fruits of righteousness. So we find with Jacob personally. It is significant that the tribulation itself is called “the time of Jacob’s trouble;” and, as in the case of Israel, it can also be added: “He shall be saved out of it.”
The geologic periods are now those of the Cenozoic, the earlier Eocene and more recent forms of animal life, the Pliocene, in which life approaches more and more to its present conditions. It is needless to say that during this period, all forms of marine life arc in abundantly full evidence.
The Sixth Day — The Earth Peopled. On this, the last day of the Divine labor, the scene is transferred from the sea to the dry land, and beasts of every kind are brought forth from the earth. Details are not given. There are however, here as everywhere else, suggestive intimations which can be followed out by reverent study. It will be noticed that each creature is “after his kind,” as in the previous days plant and marine animals were similarly created. This establishes the fixity of species. Of course, what these species were is not definitely declared, nor the general limits within which variety might be subsequently developed. As a matter of fact, in many animal species this variety is so great as to be scarcely believable, did we not have the clearest evidence for it. This may give us a hint that these varieties would include many apparently different species. One thing, however, is certain, that “after his kind” puts its stamp of individuality upon each class of plant and animal life. Evolution, therefore, meets with no encouragement from this Scripture, though as we have just said, we must be careful in any reaction from the extreme of infidel theory not to fall into the opposite one of making endless classes. A common unity underlies all animal creation. There are special adaptations in each class for work to be done. Just as distinctly, however, are the classes separated one from the other by barriers which cannot be transgressed.
It will be noted that the work of the sixth day is also divided into two parts, as was that of the third, and the fifth as well, where fish in the sea and fowl in the air are not as closely connected together as our ordinary text would lead us to think. It should rather read: “Let fowl fly above the earth, in the open firmament of heaven.” The second part of the sixth day is doted to the creation of man; and here, for the first time, we have those expressions of the Divine counsel which give us glimpses into the wondrous depth of the ineffable relationships of the persons of the Godhead.
It may be as well just here to remind the reader that throughout the entire first chapter, as indeed throughout all Old Testament Scripture, the name “Elohim” translated “God” is plural, while the verb of which it is the subject is singular. This indicates plurality of Persons, but one God. Here we have the same thought of plurality of Persons taking counsel together. Other scriptures show us that the active agent in creation was “The Word” (John 1:1-31In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1‑3)) — the Son, by whom and for whom all things were created. This, of course, does not mean that He was alone in the work, but it was through Him that the full results of the divine counsel were carried out. The Spirit too was unquestionably present, as we read in the second verse of our chapter. It seems suggestive, as we are reminded constantly throughout this chapter, that the work of creation was by the word of God. Thirty-one times is the expression repeated “and God said.” Thus we have not merely the thought of a plurality of divine Persons, but of the Trinity itself — Father, Son and Spirit.
There is an evident pause ere man is introduced into the scene. Of no other creature do we find anything like such language as is here used, although, as we know, he has an animal existence in common with other creatures, and can, as to his material organism, be classified with the rest. There is, however, that which so absolutely differentiates him from the lower orders of animal creation, that he stands absolutely and impassably alone.
“Let Us make man, in Our image, after Our likeness.” This “image” constitutes man the representative of God upon the earth, and the “likeness” shows, as the apostle says, quoting from the heathen poet: “We are also His offspring” — a likeness of moral and mental faculties which give man the capacity to know God and to enjoy Him.
Alas, we are soon confronted with the awful ruin which sin has brought in, and which has stamped ignorance of God upon the very being who was created in His likeness. We know also that man at his best estate is altogether vanity, and that being in honor and understanding not, he is “like the beasts that perish;” for, when he knew God, he “glorified Him not as God,” and thus has fallen lower than the brute creation over which he was appointed as head.
All this, however, would come in later and is aside from the main point here, which is that man by his intellectual, moral and spiritual constitution, is in the image and likeness of God, as in the New Testament he is declared to be “the image and glory of God.” “Glory,” as we know, is manifested excellence. How solemn and amazing is the thought that man was created to be the display, in creature measure, of the excellence and the glory of God. At once, the mind leaps forward to the Second Man in whom this display in its perfection exists, One who was and is “the image of the invisible God,” and who, coming into the creation which His own power had brought into being, takes His place as Head over it, with dominion over all things. This reminds us again that it is Christ who is ever bore the mind of God, and in whom alone His counsels can be fulfilled; of whom alone, in perfection, all that is here said of the supremacy of man is true.
But space does not permit us to enter here into the full discussion of this most attractive and important department of divine truth; we may say, of that which is at the head of it all. It must suffice us to remember that the creation of man thus declares his spirituality, uniqueness and supremacy. Other truths are suggested here which will come up when we speak of the details of the creation as brought out in the next chapter. Male and female remind us of the link between man and other creatures, and suggest that establishment of the human family upon the earth which is in itself a shadow of the blessed companionships in the Divine family and a foreshadow of those companionships in grace which God has established both in heaven and upon earth.
Man, then, is the crowning work of God, and is established over the fair creation which divine wisdom and skill have prepared for his enjoyment.
Passing to the spiritual application of all this in the history of the soul, as has already been said, the mind leaps forward to that day when the Second Man shall be displayed in all His glory, Head and Lord over all things; and associated with Him is a redeemed company which no man can number of those who have been washed in His precious blood and made meet by new creation to be the partner of His glory in His headship over all things: “And gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness (or complement) of Him that filleth all in all.”
Here, then, is the ideal of manhood in the image and likeness of God, an ideal reached alone in Christ, with whom alone His Church could rightly share the place which never could be held by any other than the Firstborn. This already suggests the goal toward which all things tend.
Individually, in the soul’s progress, it speaks of that blessed time, in relation to each believer, as expressed by the apostle: “Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark (or goal) for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.” No development of character, even of the new man, no fruitfulness of life here, can ever be mistaken for “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” which is the consummation of all God’s thoughts and purposes; thus, most suggestively, the culmination of highest individual blessing merges in the corporate, where each individual will not only be perfectly blessed, but be in absolutely harmonious relationship with the whole family of the redeemed.
Dispensationally, the sixth day points forward to the re-peopling of the world with the nations who shall be brought through the period of trial which shall try all them that dwell upon the earth, spoken of in the fifth day. It is suggestive, thus, of the order and peace of the millennium. Significantly, it is divided into two parts, as giving us the twofold thought of a ransomed earth, which is also under the headship of the Second Man with His bride. As we have it in the last of Revelation, the bride city, the Lamb’s wife, is seen in association with Himself in connection with dominion over the earth. Thus the promise is fulfilled to the overcomer, that he shall with Christ sit down upon His throne and rule the nations.
Coming to the division of the book of Genesis, the life of Jacob, as has already been said, is both a fifth and sixth; the fifth recalling his tribulation, and the sixth the victory which God gives him. His closing days are peaceful, and we see him basking in the honors heaped upon his beloved son Joseph, who thus comes before us fittingly as the sixth, a type of the Second Man, who with His Gentile bride, is placed in dominion over the earth; typical of which, he has been the Saviour through the time of “Jacob’s trouble,” the period of the famine.
As is common in the Scriptures, the lights blend together, and we pass from the exercises of Jacob into the even deeper ones of Joseph, out of which he was brought and placed upon the throne. Here all is in beautiful accord.
Little need be said as to the sixth geological period. We are at last brought into the Pleistocene age and modern condition of things which has gone on undisturbed, save possibly by a glacial submergence, and an evident cataclysm of which there are abundant evidences, showing that a flood came upon the earth after man was established on it.
The Seventh Day. We have thus reached the end of the works of God. “In six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day, and hallowed it.” After labor comes rest. We may say, in the language of man, that God has rested from His works since their completion. He has no longer been putting forth the labor which is suggested in the work of creation. This sets aside the thought entertained by some, of subsequent creatorial acts. Physically speaking, we have been living in the Sabbath of God, so far as His cessation from creative labor is concerned.
Of course this is the lowest view of rest — a view which Scripture does not much dwell upon; for as our Lord said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work,” which shows that there was still need that His Sabbath rest should be disturbed. We know what brought in this disturbance, and what has started a fresh course of divine labor of a far more toilsome character than the bringing of worlds and creatures into existence. “There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God” — a rest which they can share only with Himself. This rest yet waits for its accomplishment, when all things shall have been subjected, and when at last the Son Himself shall deliver up all things unto God, even the Father, and God shall be all in all; when the tabernacle of God shall be with men and “He will dwell with them;” when there shall be a new heaven and new earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness” — an infinite advance upon even that reign of righteousness which shall be during the millennium.
Nothing more will then remain to be done. All the purposes of God will have been fulfilled; blessing will have been established, not upon the unstable foundation of the fallible first man, but upon the eternal righteousness and accomplished work in redemption of the Second Man. He is also the last Adam, the head of the redeemed human family, who are the “many sons” brought to glory with Himself.
The Sabbath, thus, is a type of the eternal state. Fittingly, therefore, all lines converge here. The spiritual history of the individual here reaches the same goal as the dispensational destiny of the whole creation, and the very “new heavens and new earth” themselves speak of the bringing in of a new geologic order, which shall not witness of the past throes and convulsions of this poor earth, but rather of a scene of bliss, when the creation itself “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption” and brought “into the liberty of the glory of the children of God;” when the vast universe itself shall be the fitting expression and display of the mind of God; and, even as now the body of man is not only the vehicle, but in a certain sense the expression of his personality, so the whole universe shall be both the vehicle of the display, and itself in a very real way the manifestation of the glory of the Second Man and His redeemed people. For this rest we wait — in divine company with the Father who still looks out upon a seething mass of evil, out of which is emerging, little by little, that which alone can abide, all the rest of which must be forever banished from His presence;―
In company with the Son, who, while now receiving foretastes of the glories of His redeeming work in the salvation of individuals, still waits for that Day when “He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied” in fullness, and when that joy which was set before Him shall be fully entered into, the joy of bringing back and laying at the feet of the Father a once revolted but now restored creation, never, never again to rise against infinite goodness, love and blessing; — In company with the Spirit, who from the beginning has been brooding over ruined nature and quickening souls; who has been leading on and on into the ever-brightening light of the coming Day; who is at present dwelling in each believer and also forming the Church, the body of Christ, linking it with Himself in heaven; and dwelling in the temple, the house of God, which is growing up into a completed building, spite of all the failure and ruin which for the time being has come in through the faithlessness of man; but who still yearns and longs for the coming of the Bridegroom — “the Spirit and the Bride say ‘come;’” who will find His rest not even in the millennial period when “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” but who will at last, with the Father and the Son, enjoy the bliss which His own grace has made possible — the rest of God, in the new heavens and the new earth.
In this divine companionship we wait. Surely, our home, our rest can be nowhere else than there, with the family of God. As we think of this, with all the longing implanted in the heart by the Spirit of God for such a rest, we cannot linger here, nor let the fairest scenes of earth deceive us for a moment, even though a millennium lay before us. We still hear a Voice saying, “Arise and depart, for this is not your rest.”
Sub-Division 2. (Gen. 2:4-254These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 18And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:4‑25).)
We have necessarily somewhat anticipated what belongs to the present sub-division of our subject, which we have entitled, “Man in responsible relation to God;” nor can we dwell upon the details before us as much as we have in our rapid glance at the seven days. Several salient features, however, must be noticed.
First — The Name of God. “Jehovah-Elohim,” translated “the LORD God,” has been taken by unbelief, as we know, to indicate a difference of authorship. It seems strange that sensible men should not have thought of a far more obvious explanation — that here we have a different subject. We can think of a person in two or more different connections. As an official performing public duties, he would be designated, for instance, as a judge; while, as the head of a family, his acts in the home would necessarily not be spoken of as those of a judge, but of a father. Thus, we would not be in the least surprised to read in the biography of some noted jurist, “In this divine companionship that such evidence was not admissible,” and on a succeeding page, when his son asks some favor of his father, to find the same person spoken of as his father. This simply illustrates that of which Scripture is full, a delicate accuracy in the use of the divine titles. It is so with the names and offices of our Lord Jesus, which are never used in a haphazard, careless way.
What then is suggested by this twofold name, “Jehovah-Elohim?” “Elohim” links with what has gone before, and shows us that He who is now spoken of as “Jehovah” is none other than the “Elohim” of the preceding narrative. This establishes a continuity which prevents all heathen thought of a multiplicity of deities with diverse and sometimes contradictory interests.
“Jehovah” is full of the deepest and tenderest suggestions. Etymologically, it means “The One who Exists,” perhaps in the simplest way in which it could be expressed, declaring the eternity of God, in contrast with His entire creation, sentient and inanimate, which is finite. It is the self-existent One, the Absolute, who Himself is the Cause, Author and End of all things; the “Alpha and Omega,” “the First and the Last,” by whom and for whom are all things — the One who “is, and was, and is to come;” the One of whom the Psalmist says, “From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” There is, however, in this name “Jehovah” an etymological suggestion of futurity hinted at by the presence of the first letter Yodh, the New Testament “jot” of Matthew 5. It might be rendered “The One who will be,” as though suggesting a revelation of Himself in far fuller measure than was enjoyed when first His name was declared. Indeed, God reminded Moses that the revelation of Himself as “Jehovah,” in the significance of this name, was something new.
To Abraham, who knew the literal name “Jehovah,” as doubtless his predecessors did, God was known rather as El-shaddai, “God Almighty,” His omnipotent power, wisdom, etc., being suggested; but to Moses, was made known the true, inward significance of the name “Jehovah” as the God of covenant relationship, the eternal and unfailing One who would surely bring to pass all His promises. Thus, He was revealed not exactly “by” His name “Jehovah,” but according to that name. This encourages us to expect a still further revelation of the significance of that title. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that in “Immanuel” (God with us), His name is declared to be “Jesus” (Jehovah the Saviour). Here at last is the full shining forth of that name which God, in the typical salvation of Israel out of Egypt, made known to Moses in part; as He says, His back parts seen, but now to us revealed in all the effulgence of the glory of the moral character of His beloved Son, and in all the wonder of the grace of that redemption which He has wrought for us by His cross. Thus the pledge suggested in the sign of the future is made good, and in Jesus, “Jehovah the Saviour,” we have the full thought of the covenant of God, to whom we have been brought into relationship.
Thus we may well say that the very first mention of “Jehovah-Elohim” has upon it the mark of futurity, telling us that all the depths of that name would not be known until “God was manifest in the flesh.”
Second — “Generations, Toledhoth.” In Genesis 2:44These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, (Genesis 2:4), we have for the first time this characteristic word, which introduces ten more or less clearly marked divisions of the entire book of Genesis. Indeed, these have been taken to indicate certain original documents which go to make up the book, and they are said to show that Moses simply edited these documents, incorporating them into the one book. We have already spoken sufficiently upon this point. We do not believe, indeed, that they necessarily at all indicate separate documents, but rather, as has already been suggested, separate topics.
These “generations” speak of certain moral characteristics of the portion they introduce. The word “generation,” from the root “Yaladh” meaning “to bring forth,” suggests the natural order and relationship and community of character in what is being described. Thus, the first use of the word in the verse we are considering has been taken to look both backward and forward, unlike its use in any subsequent passage, where it has always been placed at the head of the passage introduced. Here it has been thought to refer to the work of the six days as well as to that which follows, the establishing of man in moral relationship to God. We are not disposed to deny this application; we merely suggest that it is not absolutely necessary; but that we may have in the six days’ work that which stands out by itself, and then in the succeeding section we begin that which continues throughout the entire book, the narration of events in their moral order and significance. This we think is rather more in accord with the truth and subsequent use of the expression.
“Generations” then suggests nature, character, and the responsibility that is associated with these. “The generations of the heavens and of the earth” suggests their relationship to dine order and their evident prophetic connection with man, who had not yet been created. This indeed is what immediately follows. Plant life, as has already been said, which would fit the earth for the abode of man when he was brought into it, is spoken of in just this anticipative way. God prepared all things for the future head and master of creation. Then in verse seven, in simple but most dignified manner, we have certain details of the creation of man. He is formed of the dust of the earth, thus linking him, as we have said, with material creation. It does not exactly say, let it be noted, that man’s body was formed of the dust of the earth. His body is a part of himself and cannot be separated from his individuality. This suggests at once the permanence, in some form, of the human body; a permanence which is fully established for His people in blessing by the resurrection of Him who has become the first fruits of them that slept.
As the formation of man’s body links him with material creation, so the breathing into his nostrils the breath of life links him directly with God. He is thus the offspring of God. This inbreathing surely cannot mean of the mere bodily life which man has in common with the beasts. It suggests those mental and moral faculties with which he has been endowed, of knowledge, will and affection, which link him in nature with God. This is a direct, definite act. Many questions might detain us here, the answers to some of which we certainly could not give. It is not amiss, however, to ask these, if in a reverent spirit.
What, for instance, we may ask, exactly corresponds to this inbreathing into the nostrils of Adam, in the case of every person who is born into the world? How is his individuality, personality, imparted to him? In one sense we may say by heredity, which is perfectly true. In another, we must guard against the mere thought of multiplication of the species apart from divine act. While the inbreathing is only spoken of in connection with the first man, yet is there not in connection with each individual that is born into the world something that answers to this unique individuality, this personality stamped upon each human soul? Solemn, in one sense dreadful, that God Himself imparts to every responsible being that which is the pledge and the necessity for an eternal existence of joy or woe unutterable, according to the way he meets the thought of God in grace.
Third — The Garden of Eden. The whole universe, in one sense, is the garden which the Lord has planted; no doubt, in future ages to be enjoyed in the company of the Second Man as He looks out upon that goodly heritage, “the new heavens and the new earth,” which has been given Him to share with His ransomed people, in headship over all things.
In another sense, the whole earth is the garden of the Lord, and during the millennial age it will doubtless blossom as the rose, and be a scene where the Lord God can walk and enjoy counion with His beloved people.
The literal Garden of Eden was, however, a certain portion of the earth prepared especially for the abode of our first parents. Just as the present geologic state of the earth is marked off in separation from all those preceding stages when the earth indeed flourished in all the luxuriance of vegetable and animal life, and yet was manifestly unfit to be the abode of man; so too the present earth, stretching out in its vast extent from pole to pole, was too wide, and we may say, uncultivated an area for the untried human family. What thoughtful tenderness, what goodness and love unite with divine skill, as suggested by the word “planted!” Here we have the first husbandman, none other than the living God Himself, in tender solicitude for His offspring, man His creature, preparing an abode where all that was needed and pleasant for food and for enjoyment would be made ready to his hand.
Our attention is then directed to the two trees which were there: the tree of life, of which little is spoken, for the very significant reason that it was so soon to be forfeited, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This last is distinctly spoken of, and it is just here that the cardinal point is reached. Is man to be simply a child of larger growth, unthinking, irresponsible, without that which will fit him to enjoy communion with God? If so, he cannot be the highest thought or purpose in the Divine mind; just as no father, however much his heart is delighted with his infant child, would rest satisfied with his remaining in infancy. That which is a joy and a delight in the early days of the little one, becomes a sorrow and burden if as the days go on it is seen that its intelligence is limited, its affections similar to those of a domestic animal, and its powers so cramped that it will never, with the flight of years, be anything but an infant. Pathetic indeed are those who thus remain in infancy; a dwarfed spiritual condition, of which the apostle speaks in connection with the Corinthians, who were failing to go on in the enjoyment of their privileges and in meeting their responsibilities, and whom, therefore, he characterizes as babes and carnal, whom he must thus feed with the milk suited only for infants, and not with the food which is the proper enjoyment of the matured man. “Every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” Likewise we may well say, had man been without the responsibilities that flow from a necessary free agency, he would have been a perpetual dwarf, utterly incapable of entering into the thoughts of God, or of answering to that yearning of the Divine heart for companionship with creatures who were capable of entering into His desires, purposes and affections.
Thus the tree of knowledge of good and evil was no arbitrary or cruel test applied to an unsuspecting, guileless being. It was absolutely essential, if man was to be man in any true sense of the word. He was to be bound to God, not by the rigid links of a blind necessity over which he had no control and to which he could not say aught. He must be left to the exercise of the freedom of a will which separates him from the beasts about him. These indeed may and do act in accordance with the instincts implanted within them, may devour flesh or feed upon the herb according to their natural endowment, but they are irresponsible because devoid of that individuality and freedom of will which distinguishes man from them; for, as a matter of fact, it is not merely reason which distinguishes man from the lower animals, but that moral endowment which enables him to choose, which makes him to a certain degree the master of his surroundings and of his future.
Solemn and dreadful thoughts cluster here. We may easily, especially under the leadership of “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” ask why God has brought such creatures into being, why He has endowed man with free agency, knowing that he would abuse it and forfeit the blessing connected with it? Our one and all-sufficient answer is, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” “Hath the clay power to say to the potter, Why hast thou made me thus?” Intelligent faith is content to bow and accept absolutely what God has done as perfection. Nay, more; as we have already suggested, we can even now understand the necessity of man being what he is. We can thank God for the creation of beings whose destiny to a certain extent is in their own hands, even though the fall has come in; for this very fall has been the occasion for the establishment of a relationship in grace with the Son of God who became flesh, a relationship which does not rest upon an untried, if unfallen, creature, but upon the eternal God Himself, who has in grace linked Himself with flesh and blood; and in the perfection of a will as free as that of Adam, and yet eternally incapable of evil or disobedience, yielded Himself up without spot to God, in obedience unto death, that He might bring us to Himself, not as unwilling captives, nor in the perpetual infancy of a dwarfed humanity, but with the full intelligence which goes on developing in ever greater measure — of intelligent, moral, responsible free agents, whose joy it is to recognize their absolute dependence upon perfect grace and almighty power; who never again will dream of a freedom apart from God, and who will sing in the joy of new creation bliss, “We know no higher liberty than that of being bound to Thee.”
Man, therefore, must be tried, must be left to himself to decide the momentous question, Is God God for him; and is he the creature dependent upon and obedient to every command of that God? And yet how carefully God hedges about His creature from anything that would encourage him to depart from the simple path of obedience! About him, all speaks of the goodness, care and kindness of his Creator. The Garden of Eden in which he is lacks nothing to make it a place of sweetest joy; his companionship with an equal, yet dependent fellow-creature who shares in his thoughts, enjoys and reciprocates his affection, and is the companion in the highest sense of all that is noblest and best in him, is a safeguard which cannot be overestimated. There is not idleness in the garden, but the fullest opportunity for the development of all his physical and intellectual powers. He is not merely there to enjoy, but to till the garden, to keep it in order, as well as to partake of its fruits; thus, by implication, to understand the endless variety of plant and tree and fruit spread out before him, to find his tastes cultivated, and to see a link between the tiniest blade of grass beneath his feet and the almighty Creator of the universe above him.
So also with the animal creation. He is established as its head, and must use his intelligence to recognize the various classes into which the animal world was divided. All of this suggests not toil and weariness, but an activity of body and mind, while the affections, as we have already said, go out to a companion who is an equal, immeasurably separated from the brute. Above all, the Lord God is present, in some way making known His will and His command; and, as a little later we see Him walking in the garden in the cool of the day, it suggests, in some measure at least, a communion with the creatures whom He had formed.
Notice, there is but one command given. Man is not confused by a multiplicity of prohibitions, nor burdened with a load of work to be done. As we have said, that work is rather suggested than put into his hand, save that he understands it is his duty. But the absolute command of God is centered in one single word. Neither is it something hard or difficult to understand. It raises but one issue; that is, obedience. One command will do this far more effectually than ten, and in the very fact of being one, concentrates all obedience upon a single point. No room here for forgetting or giving undue emphasis to one command over another. Likewise with the consequences of disobedience, these are not enlarged upon. There would come, of course, the forfeiture of the garden; labor would be changed into toil and the sweat of the face; sorrow, trial of every kind would come in, but these are not mentioned. One solemn, awful, final result will come from disobedience — death. There is to be no further trial, no other opportunity. The whole fabric of the first creation rests upon this one pivotal point. If man fails here, the whole structure comes crashing down, and in his disobedience of this one simple commandment, we see the ruin of nature, the crash of worlds, the very lake of fire itself, and the rolling together of the heavens with a great noise. All is blackness where the creature is disobedient.
Space remains only to notice that the Garden of Eden — the paradise of man — is a type, as has already been said, of the Paradise of God, the final dwelling place of redeemed men. The first paradise is evidently a type of the last, and so referred to in the book of Revelation where we cannot fail to see the correspondence between the two. The two trees, of which we have already spoken, together with the river flowing out in its four branches in every direction, and the presence of jewels and gold, all speak of the joy and blessedness of the eternal state. There is but one tree in the midst of the Paradise of God. We may say the tree of knowledge of good and evil has been merged into it through that other “tree” upon which our Lord bore our sins in His own body. That indeed was where good and evil were fully manifested — all of the evil of Satan’s malice, of man’s rebellion and hatred against God, but the good of His love, of the sinless obedience unto death of His Son, through which the very evil has but furnished the occasion for the display of the good. Truly it is “of death and life the tree.” Thus in the midst of the Paradise of God nothing is left but the tree of life, which in itself witnesses to the eternal triumph of good over evil, and which in its twelve manner of fruits suggests the endless fullness and sweetness of the results of Christ’s death and present life for us.
It has been suggested that in the tree of knowledge we have typically parental overnight and divine control, pointing to the Father; while the tree of life similarly reminds us of the Son, and the flowing forth of the river of water of life speaks of the Spirit. Thus the true God is manifested, which is surely true when we think of the final Paradise. How sweetly, too, does the river remind us of that fullness of the Spirit which shall flow forth from the throne of God and the Lamb throughout the whole creation! No part will be unvisited then; and even now how good it is to trace the flow of that river of water of life from its source in God, springing up in the heart of each believer, a well of water, flowing forth in rivers of service and refreshing in this earth until it is again merged into its own native Source at home!
Heaven is described as a city of gold and jewels, just as here we have the gold of the land of Havilah which is “good;” bdellium and the onyx stone, precious jewels, foreshadows of that final display when God at last shall be free to let shine forth all the effulgence of His glory to His ransomed creatures. Here also we find the bride, the Lamb’s wife, of whom the first bride was a type. We merely mention the deep sleep from God which fell upon Adam — the very death of Christ is looked at as from the hand of God rather than what the malice of man was permitted to accomplish. Out of that death is fashioned of Himself a new creature, to be the companion, the bride of Him who “loved the Church and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”
We have dwelt at greater length than was intended upon this earliest portion of our Bible, and even now must leave it with what is still a meagre notice of its wondrous fullness of detail. This will suffice, we trust, at least to incite to a livelier interest in this portion of God’s word, and stimulate to that reverent and believing search which is always rewarded.
Division 2. (Gen. 3-51).
Salvation through the woman’s Seed, illustrated in the life of faith.
We pass now to a more rapid glance at the second portion of Genesis, which includes the remainder of the book.
We reach an absolute division in the third chapter. A breach has taken place between man and God, as complete and absolute as it could possibly be. Death is stamped upon the first creation — a death which, while physical, is also moral, and points forward to the second death, unless there is a sovereign intervention in grace.
This whole second part of Genesis has been divided into seven different portions, and at these we will look briefly.
Sub-Division 1. (Gen. 3.)
Life in a Scene of Death. It is blessed to see that parallel with the fall, we have the grace of God working from the very beginning, and it is this which gives character to all subsequent revelation. We may be sure if there were nothing but darkness and evil to be recorded, without hope of deliverance, God would not have troubled Himself to have given us an inspired record of the corruption and rebellion of the human heart. This may suggest why we have so little about the serpent, and indeed why, throughout Scripture, we have but glimpses of Satan’s previous exalted position and privileges from which he fell by pride. God gives us just sufficient to show the hopelessness of persistent and defiant sin, in order that we may turn from it unto Him through whom deliverance is accomplished.
Satan is not permitted to assail us as a superior, but must come in the form of one of the lower creatures which has already been put under the dominion of man. Whatever influence he has must be of a moral character, rather than by overpowering will. He approaches the woman, the one who had been put in the place of dependence upon her husband, and whose highest happiness was to defer to his judgment and to be subject to him. The springs of departure from God are suggested here in the alienation, though all unconsciously, of the woman from her husband. She is deceived, is encouraged to use her own reason and judgment, and in doing so falls under the power of the enemy’s deception. The man apparently is with her during this trial, and instead of resisting for her, suits to her leadership, taking, as we are distinctly told in the New Testament, not because of deception, but intelligently, that which he knew was in absolute disobedience to God. Satan is a liar as well as a murderer, and he misrepresents God entirely, insinuating doubts of His goodness and a denial of His truth, with an intimation that man can reach a plain of equality with and independence of Him.
Who that reads this narrative and knows his own heart, can fail to see the divine accuracy of all here? Although we have not sinned “after the similitude of Adam’s transgression,” we have been inoculated with the virus of his sin, and, alas, are quite capable of recognizing in ourselves that distrust of God, that doubt of His goodness and that unbelief in His righteous retribution which marks the entire fallen human family. We see the blind, deceived heart, as the apostle says: “We ourselves also were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived.” We see the ambition to be equal with God, and, alas, we see too that open-eyed clinging to the creature rather than the Creator, even when we know that the end is destruction. Truly, the fall is with us yet in all its awful consequences, intensified by the very multiplication of detail in both the individual and humanity at large. It surely is nothing but willful unbelief that closes the eyes to the inspiration of these few verses which record the fall.
God comes upon the scene. Oh, how blessed it is to see that in the midst of the shame, the ruin and havoc of sin, God has come down! In this we have in type the incarnation of the Son of God, who “was manifest in the flesh,” “God with us,” “to seek and to save that which was lost;” for evidently it is upon no errand of vengeance that the infinite God enters the garden, that He calls aloud to our terrified parents who shrink and hide in vain amidst the trees; that He probes their hearts and consciences and brings from them the confession of their shame and of their sin.
The whole story is brought out into the light. It is not glossed over. The man’s accusation of the woman and implied reproach on God Himself for giving her to him is not allowed to cloud the true point at issue, which is disobedience to God. The women in vain casts the responsibility upon the serpent for deceiving her. Upon the serpent there can be nothing but judgment; yet out of this judgment, in the Seed of the woman who was deceived, comes the promise of One who should crush the serpent’s head and gain the victory over him for the fallen sons of men. Here we have the cruse of salt placed at the fountain-head of the bitter waters of sin, a pledge that the very source of evil shall be purged and the author of it eternally judged.
There can be no doubt that our first parents received the promise of life in connection with the judgment of their sin which had brought in death. The promise of the woman’s Seed is given in connection with the serpent’s judgment, and Adam calls his wife Eve, “life.” How beautiful that faith can thus rise into the thoughts of God and see a life given to the very one in connection with whom death had come in! She is the “mother of all living,” not only the entire human race, but particularly of Him who was “made of a woman,” the true Seed of the wan who has life in Himself and who gives life to every one that believeth on Him.
So also in the coats of skin which God Himself provided, necessarily through the death of the animals whose coverings had been taken, we see provided a divine covering through the death of a Substitute. The fig leaves of human righteousness, all forms of religious expedients, are futile; but who can say aught to those who have been clothed by God Himself? Surely, we see here the joy of the Father as He says,
“Bring forth the best robe and put it on him.” Thus we have in this chapter the overthrow of Satan, the giving of life, the provision of a perfect righteousness, all through the death of the woman’s Seed.
Of the governmental consequences of the fall we need not say much. Grace does not set government aside. The garden has been forfeited and our parents must be thrust outside, while the cherubim guard the entrance to that forfeited paradise. How good it is to remember that those cherubim — as seen in the tabernacle — have their attention riveted upon the mercy-seat and the sacrificial blood sprinkled thereon, which speaks of righteousness fully met, so that man is introduced into and welcomed by the very righteousness of God, not back to his forfeited inheritance, but to an infinitely better one, the paradise of God!
Outside, man must now bow to the pressure of the load which he has put upon himself. His life is to be one of toil, a toil which is indeed a blessing in disguise — for what can be worse for fallen man than to let his heart feed in idleness upon evil? — while the woman in her sorrow and pains is ever reminded, not only of her sin, but of Him, who through a deeper sorrow and pain, is going to deliver her from the results of her evil. Thus at the very outset is implanted in the bosom of the woman that desire for the promised Deliverer.
Sub-Division 2. (Gen. 4 and 5.)
The two Seeds, the Flesh and the Spirit. The two lines of evil and of good, of nature and of grace, are now laid down before us in the contrasted seeds of Cain and Abel succeeded by Seth. The first son is the child of nature, and has in him only instincts of the fallen creature; while the second, Abel, by his name, “vanity,” suggests the sense of nothingness which is the precursor of the knowledge of grace. The two men are distinguished by the character of their offerings. Cain ignores the curse which has come upon the earth and presents the fruit of his toil to God; while Abel presents that which God had so evidently revealed in the coats of skin, a sacrificial substitute. He is saved on the ground of his gifts, while Cain is rejected for what he was. The enmity comes out, and the first recorded sin, after that of our first parents, is murder, as though God would show how every form of evil is immediately due to the original disobedience.
The incorrigible nature of the flesh is here seen; Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord professing that the burden of punishment is greater than he can bear, yet builds himself a city, makes himself a name, and establishes the whole order of civilization which has gone on ever since. This is the “way of Cain,” the way of the flesh. It begins with the denial of sin, a refusal of the sacrifice, and goes on to stain the earth with innocent blood, and to surround itself with comfort and pleasure away from God.
God raises up another to take the place of Abel; in Seth and his seed we have the line of faith, which is brought out in the succeeding chapters.
We do not dwell here upon the significance of the names of these descendants of Seth. unquestionably, all has meaning, and in its very brevity is pregnant with many suggestions. Enoch blossoms out in the midst of the genealogy which records death, and shows the presence of that life which triumphs over the very presence of death. We see in him the fitting result of being sheltered by the blood of the sacrifice.
Sub-Division 3. (Gen. 6-11:9.)
The flood and the new world established. The flood gives us God’s judgment upon the line of Cain, together with all that is mixed up with it. It shows us also the end of the course of this world and the necessity for inevitable judgment upon man who is away from God. At the same time, we see the provision of grace again in the ark, a type of Christ, wherein is safety not only for the chosen seed of Noah and his sons, but the material for the restoration of things upon the earth after the flood has gone. We have here a type of the Great Tribulation, with provision for the introduction of blessing during the reign of righteousness over the earth in the Millennium.
Human government is now established; a government, alas, which shows its incapacity, not in the authority which has been bestowed, but in the feeble hands to which it has been entrusted. Noah fails to govern himself, and thus becomes a type of the failure of all government, an intimation, however, that One is coming who shall reign in righteousness and bring blessing through His reign.
The nations are here seen established after the flood, and in Babel we have again the rising of human pride and ambition, which will assert itself in the imperial idea which has ever since allured man onward in the path of ambition. Nimrod with his Babel tower seeking for universal rule, only finds the discord which pride brings in, whether in the family, the professing church, the community, or the world at large. The nations are scattered, and the whole history of the world since that time has been an illustration of the same principle — pride and ambition, only bringing the confusion of Babel.
In Noah and his descendants we have the world at large with its national sub-divisions and groups, marked not only by geographical and political boundaries, but by racial and linguistic distinctions. In this account we have at once the unity of the human family recognized, with its diversities explained. The study of language itself indicates this. There is evidently underlying all human speech, to be traced with greater or less clearness, a common mother tongue from which the others have sprung. The interesting researches of comparative philology bring this out and show an essential bond of union between the great eastern and western families of languages, which becomes more and more clear as we look at the cognate groups of those which have been more closely associated together.
The study of language might well form the subject of a special handbook, for the lessons to be gathered from it are rich with spiritual meaning. We dare not begin to speak of what would carry us far afield — how the Hebrew and the Greek are by their very character, structure, etymology and grammar, technically fitted as the vehicles of inspiration for the special portion of the word of God which is given to us in them. If all language is the speech of man, broken, inarticulate, and apparently contradictory — how He who is the Word of God, the true Language embodying all thought in its perfection, is the key which will unlock these mutterings of a disordered humanity and give true interpretations to the longings which seek for utterance from the stammering lips of fallen man!
Sub-Division 4. (Gen. 11:10-2110These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: 11And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 12And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: 13And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 14And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: 15And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 16And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: 17And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 18And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: 19And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. 20And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: 21And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. (Genesis 11:10‑21)).
The pilgrim walk as seen in the life of Abraham.
We pass from the consideration of the world at large to the elect family. For God is interested in giving us, not the history of nations, but the history of His purposes as worked out through faith. The narrative rapidly narrows down, therefore, to those descendants of Shem, the son of Noah, who are the forerunners of the line of faith of which Abraham is the great head. Evidently, idolatry had taken possession of all. Even Abraham himself seems not to have escaped the universal superstition which had lost the knowledge of the true God. Idolatry is not human ignorance blindly groping upward out of darkness into the light, seeking after the true God, eventually to find Him. It does not represent man with his face to the light groping toward it, but rather with his back turned upon the revelation which he once had, going off to ever-deepening gloom.
Unquestionably, Noah had the knowledge of the true God, and his descendants as well. In Ham we see all the impiety which goes on into godlessness, and fittingly he is the head of the first great civilization after Noah, of the builder of Babel, and the progenitor of the great world-powers of that day.
Japheth wanders off into the Gentile regions, to be heard of no more in connection with God, save as he is brought back in sovereign grace; while Shem (Name) suggests that knowledge of the true God who is revealed in His name, which is preserved by sovereign grace.
Idolatry, therefore, is apostasy. The only development that Scripture records is a development away from God. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” Notice the order here. Idolatry makes progress, but it is in degradation. First, man who was made in the image of God is deified; then birds of the air, four-footed beasts, down to the groveling, creeping insects, show the progress of degradation. Thus, in the magnificent temples of Egypt, where architecture reached its culmination of grandeur, we have stately avenues leading up to grand temples with their outer court and inner sanctuary, but enthroned in the innermost recess of this magnificence is a hideous scarabæus, a creeping thing, as though Satan delighted to insult God by such a similitude.
It is out from all this idolatry that God in sovereign grace calls Abraham. “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham,” sang unto him: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee” (Acts 7:22And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, (Acts 7:2)).
We will briefly note the various divisions in the life of Abraham exemplifying the full pilgrim walk, as they have been given to us.
1. The call of God and the obedience of faith (chaps. 10-14). Faith ever separates from nature, not necessarily geographically, but in heart. As we saw at the beginning, when God works he effects division; light is separated from darkness; the waters above from the salt waters of death; the dry land from the sea, etc.; and so it is with His work of grace. Abram is called out from his country, where the Shemites dwell, from his immediate family of the Hebrews, and while for the time being he carries his father’s house with him (Terah accompanying him as far as the land of Haran, and Lot going still further), yet eventually he is separated from all that speaks of mere nature. Faith must walk alone with God. He is brought into a land of which he is given none in possession, but all in promise. This shows us the pilgrim character of faith. Outwardly it has nothing in present possession. It looks forward to its inheritance in the future. It does have its tent hover, as we see in Abram, speaking of this pilgrim character, a sufficient if temporary protection; and its altar which shows its access to God and the enjoyment of communion with Him on the basis of sacrifice.
Abram thus comes into the land; but a famine proves too much for his faith, and he passes on down to the land of Egypt where God permits him to see the result of declension in his denial of his wife. Egypt, the world, is no place for faith to settle down in. If it does, it will deny its true connection with grace, the connection of absolute unity.
In mercy God recovers Abram (chap. 13), and he is brought back to Canaan with much wealth indeed, gathered in Egypt, with Hagar also, the bondservant of whom we hear later. Lot has thus far followed Abram; but now at last the test is applied which separates between the two. It is the willing choice of nature to settle down in the fruitful plains of Sodom, where sight finds much to attract, but faith sees only evil. A righteous man himself, Lot loses his testimony because of the feebleness of his faith, and fails to walk in that separation which alone can honor God. He is therefore carried captive by the powers of the world, from which he is only restored by the man of faith from whom he had separated.
Beautifully, in the closing part of this portion (chap. 14), we find Abram brought into counion with Melchizedek, King of Salem, a type of God’s High Priest, who abideth such in the power of an endless life. He it is who blesses Abram and spreads the communion feast of bread and wine for him, while Abram acknowledges his greatness by giving him tithes of all. In the power and energy of the communion thus enjoyed, Abram can face the king of Sodom, the prince of this world with all its greatness, and refuse to take a single thing from him. Has he not feasted in the presence of the King of righteousness? How can he then enjoy the spoils of the king of Sodom?
2. The promise fulfilled to faith (Gen. 15-21). In this portion of the life of Abraham, we have the great example, upon which the apostle dwells in the New Testament, of justification by faith without works. The sentence of death had practically come in upon Abram and his wife Sarai. In view of the utter helplessness of nature, he counts upon the faithfulness of God, who, pointing him to the heavens with their countless stars, declares: “So shall thy seed be.” This is the kind of faith which ever glorifies God, an example for the sinner and the saint. One who comes to God with no righteousness of his own, and who takes His word of promise in the gospels, is justified with believing Abram. It is this which characterizes the household of faith throughout all dispensations. They believe in God against sight, counting Him faithful that promises. This is the general subject of chapter 15.
In the next chapter (16), we see the restlessness even of the children of God, who would seek for fruitfulness apart from His promise. Thus, the bondwoman Hagar is brought in, and we are left in no uncertainty as to the significance of this, from the epistle to the Galatians. The two covenants are here represented, and the word comes as clearly to faith, with reference to the law, as it did to Abram with reference to the son of the bondwoman: “Cast out the bondwoman and her son.” “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”
3. The Seal of the Covenant (Gen. 17). This part of the life of Abram gives us the seal of God’s covenant, — circumcision, “a seal of the righteousness of the faith (obtained through faith) which [Abraham] had being yet unsurmised.” It is in connection with this, that God reveals Himself as the Almighty, and renews the promises to Abraham as to the earthly greatness of his descendants. His name is changed from “Abram” to “Abraham” (father of a multitude). The seal of circumcision is typical, doubtless, of what the apostle calls in Colossians “the circumcision of Christ;” that is, it is the sentence of death put upon the natural man. Of course, Israel made a carnal use of this, so that circumcision became distinctively a badge of the first covenant and of the law. If any man be circumcised, “he is a debtor to do the whole law.” But, for Abraham, there was a special significance in the seal of circumcision as connected with his faith in God.
4. The Intercessor (Gen. 18). We next see the man of faith in separation from the world, as to an intercessor for it. The scene is beautiful in its dignity and simplicity. God can humble Himself to become a visitor at the pilgrim-tent of the man of faith, and here He will not merely make known afresh the promises of blessing to faith, but the certainty of judgment upon the ungodly. Faith has ever to hear this two-fold declaration of the divine purpose. It is beautiful to see Abraham in heart separate from all the defilement of Sodom, yet interceding for that guilty place. It is to be noted that God responds so long as His servant pleads.
5. The End of Lot (Gen. 19). We have here a solemn contrast to the simplicity and dignity of the communion of faith. We see Lot, a child of God evidently, one who “vexed his righteous soul at the filthy conversation of the wicked,” and yet who remained a citizen and a ruler amongst them, sitting in the gate of Sodom. With the instincts of courtesy, he finds the heavenly visitants greatly reluctant to accept his proffered hospitality. The contrast with Abram is marked and the reason as well. Here we have no intercession, nothing but the solemn declaration of immediate judgment, the necessity for which is apparent in the manifested wickedness of the men of that guilty place. Lot is saved “as by fire;” his poor wife, whose heart still lingered there, partakes of the judgment which fell upon the ungodly. Solemn warning to all who would linger in heart-fellowship over a Christless and wicked world.
6. In the Philistine’s Country (Gen. 20). We have next Abraham’s experience in the land of the Philistines where, most remarkably, we see the second failure of faith in a most crucial point. How strange — did we not know our own heart and history — that twice, in the same way, the man of faith should act with such contemptible cowardice as to deny his own wife! Hover, the mercy of God is better than the measure of our faith; and Abraham, while the shame of his fault is exposed, is recovered from the snare into which he is fallen.
7. The Birth of Isaac (Gen. 21). Lastly, we have the culmination of Abraham’s life in the birth of the long-promised seed, the child of joy, Isaac (laughter). God makes good His promise, and Abraham has practical proof that it is not a vain thing to count “Him faithful who had prosed.” Sarah too shares in the joy as she had shared in the faith, and the sweet word of praise which she utters may well be taken up by the lips of everyone who knows the spirit of sonship — “God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream; then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.”
This closes the life of Abraham in its distinctive character. What remains is so closely identified with Isaac, that it falls under that portion the narrative.
Sub-Division 5. (Gen. 22-26:33.)
Sonship in obedience and self-surrender as seen in the life of Isaac (Gen. 22-26:33).
(Gen. 22.) It is very beautiful and suggestive that the first narrative we have in the life of Isaac is connected with his offering up. As an evident type of God’s only begotten Son, it is fitting that this should stand out in the prominence which its position gives.
As has already been said, Abraham is also prominent here. We are engaged both with the surrender of faith as seen in him who would give up his only begotten son as a burnt offering in obedience to God, and the response in that son of meek and willing surrender to the will of his father. Here the veil between type and fulfillment is so transparent that we can easily discern the reality under the figure; and what a view it gives us of the love of the Father, the self-sacrifice which would give up the Son of His bosom to satisfy claims of infinite righteousness and holiness! How, too, we see the obedience of the Son yielding Himself up to be bound with the bonds of obedient love to His Father’s will, to the very cross itself! How the restoration of Isaac from the very dead, “in a figure,” points to the resurrection of the Son of God, which thus confirms “the blood of the everlasting covenant” as the basis of blessing which can never be shaken!
(Gen. 23.) Sarah, the pattern holy woman, next passes from the scene. As the mother of Isaac, she is the type of Israel as the nation of whom Christ came, and who nationally pass out of view. Thus in her death we are reminded of the passing of that which is natural, in order that God may perfect His wondrous plan regarding the mystery which He had kept secret from the foundation of the world, the calling out of His Church to be the bride of Christ.
Before the call of Rebekah is recorded, Sarah passes away. How simple and lofty is the whole scene connected with the burial of this holy woman! Abraham, in all the dignity of his bereavement, would secure even in death that separation from the world which their life had maintained. He would not bury his dead in the choicest sepulcher of the men of the land, for faith looks onward to resurrection and the obtaining of an abiding inheritance. The tomb must be purchased, suggestively with the money later on used as a type of redemption. How good it is to remember that the grave is purchased, and so far from being a mere scene of desolation, the trees with their blossoms and fruits, the blessed hopes and assurances of immortality and a glorious resurrection, flourish around it. So too for Israel, for the present buried, there are still the trees of promise growing all around the field of her burial, declaring that the Lord will yet visit His people, bring them up out of their graves of national dispersion and restore them in blessing to the land.
We are now free to follow the history of Isaac as seen in the calling out of Rebekah to be his bride and companion, taking the place of his mother.
(Gen. 24.) It is most suggestive, as already intimated, that the call of Rebekah succeeds both the offering up and restoration of Isaac as from the dead, and the death of Sarah. The call of the Church, beginning at Pentecost, follows after the cross, where the foundation of eternal blessing was laid, and confirmed in the resurrection of our Lord; Israel, for the time being is set aside as a vessel of testimony. The details in this chapter are interesting and exact. It is the father who takes thought for a bride for his son, even as it was God who at the beginning declared, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an helpmeet for him.” The servant who is engaged to carry out the will of the father and to bring a suited bride for his son is manifestly a type of the Holy Spirit, who ever hides Himself from view, for it is His one work to glorify Christ and to win souls for him.
The bride must not be an alien, nor taken from those in the land. Our Lord laid not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham; and yet in the call of Rebekah there are such manifest reminders of the ministry of grace which reaches out to those who are far from God, that we cannot fail to remember that while grace first saves and then seals, the two acts are consecutive. The scene at the well, where the fair virgin Rebekah is espoused, reminds us much of that later scene, when another weary Traveler sat by the well and won for Himself the heart of a poor wanderer away from God.
The betrothal and the consent of Rebekah follow, and then her immediate going forth under the leadership of the servant to meet her lord. How suggestive is that word of diligence: “Hinder me not.” So also the Spirit in us would ever say to anything that would detain our hearts upon earth, “Hinder Me not.” Under His blessed guidance we go forth to meet the Bridegroom.
In the next portion we have a brief glimpse of what follows the present or Church period — the blessing to the nations of the earth (Gen. 25:1-181Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. 2And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. 3And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. 4And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. 5And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. 7And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. 8Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people. 9And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; 10The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife. 11And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi. 12Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham: 13And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, 14And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, 15Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: 16These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations. 17And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people. 18And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren. (Genesis 25:1‑18)). Abraham’s children through Keturah are suggestive of the Gentile nations as to whom God made promises to Abraham; while in Ishmael we have the figure of the earthly people Israel, in connection with whom those blessings are bestowed.
We follow on now with the life of Isaac, and see it merging into that of his sons Esau and Jacob (Gen. 25:59-34). In these two sons we have a representation of the two seeds, with the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. That is first which is natural, “afterward that which is spiritual.” The strange contradiction which the believer finds in his own heart, the conflict of two natures, is here given to us in type, with the promise, thank God, of the subjection of the flesh to the spirit and the ultimate triumph of the latter. In Esau, we see the profanity of nature which despises the promises of God, while even the planning of Jacob has in it at least the redeeming feature of a faith that sets value upon that which God has promised.
In Genesis 26:1-221And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. 2And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 3Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; 4And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. 6And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: 7And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. 8And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. 9And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. 10And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. 11And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. 12Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. 13And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: 14For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. 15For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. 16And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. 17And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. 19And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. 20And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. 21And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. 22And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. (Genesis 26:1‑22), the weakness of Isaac’s faith is manifested. He would, like Abraham, have gone down to Egypt in the time of famine, had not God restrained him, and shows a similar weakness to that of his father in the denial of his wife. Together with this, we have the faithful mercy of God which recovers and gives abundant blessing. This portion of the personal life of Isaac closes with the account of his dwelling at Beersheba, “the well of the oath,” where again the Philistines, as in Abraham’s day, are compelled to own his greatness and his favor with God
Sub-Division 6. (Gen. 26:34-37:134And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. 1And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. 2And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: 3Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; 4And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die. 5And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 6And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, 7Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. 8Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. 9Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth: 10And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. 11And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 12My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 13And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. 14And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. 15And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 16And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: 17And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. 18And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? 19And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. 20And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. 21And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. 22And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. 23And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him. 24And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. 25And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. 27And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed: 28Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: 29Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. 30And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. 32And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. 33And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. 34And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. 35And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. 36And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? 37And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? 38And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. 39And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; 40And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. 41And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. 42And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. 43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; 44And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away; 45Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? 46And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? 1And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. 3And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. 5And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. 6When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 7And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-aram; 8And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife. 10And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. 11And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. 17And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 20And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God 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, 21So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: 22And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. 1Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east. 2And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. 3And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. 4And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. 5And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. 6And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. 7And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. 8And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then we water the sheep. 9And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep: for she kept them. 10And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. 11And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. 12And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son: and she ran and told her father. 13And 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. 14And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month. 15And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be? 16And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. 18And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. 19And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me. 20And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. 21And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. 22And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. 23And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her. 24And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid. 25And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? 26And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. 28And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. 29And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. 30And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. 31And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren. 32And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me. 33And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon. 34And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi. 35And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing. 1And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. 2And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? 3And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. 4And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. 5And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. 6And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. 7And Bilhah Rachel's maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. 8And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali. 9When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. 10And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son. 11And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. 12And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son. 13And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher. 14And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. 15And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes. 16And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night. 17And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son. 18And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar. 19And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son. 20And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. 21And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah. 22And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. 23And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: 24And she called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son. 25And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country. 26Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee. 27And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. 28And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. 29And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. 30For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also? 31And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock: 32I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire. 33So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me. 34And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word. 35And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. 37And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. 38And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. 40And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle. 41And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. 42But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. 43And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses. 1And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory. 2And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. 3And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. 4And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock, 5And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me. 6And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. 7And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me. 8If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked. 9Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. 10And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled. 11And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. 12And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. 13I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. 14And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? 15Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money. 16For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do. 17Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels; 18And he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padan-aram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. 19And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's. 20And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled. 21So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead. 22And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled. 23And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and they overtook him in the mount Gilead. 24And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 25Then Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount: and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead. 26And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword? 27Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp? 28And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing. 29It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 30And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? 31And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me. 32With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them. 33And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. 34Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. 35And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images. 36And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? 37Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. 38This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. 39That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. 40Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. 41Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. 42Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight. 43And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? 44Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. 45And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. 46And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap. 47And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed. 48And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; 49And Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. 50If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. 51And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; 52This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. 53The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. 54Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount. 55And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place. 1And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. 3And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. 4And 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: 5And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. 6And 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. 7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; 8And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. 9And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: 10I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. 11Deliver 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. 12And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. 13And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; 14Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, 15Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. 16And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. 17And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? 18Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. 19And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him. 20And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. 21So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. 22And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. 23And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. 24And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 26And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 29And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. 30And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. 31And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. 32Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. 1And 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. 2And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. 3And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. 5And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. 6Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. 7And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. 8And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my lord. 9And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself. 10And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. 11Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it. 12And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee. 13And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. 14Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. 15And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. 16So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. 17And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. 18And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan-aram; and pitched his tent before the city. 19And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money. 20And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel. 1And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her. 3And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. 4And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. 5And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come. 6And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. 7And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done. 8And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife. 9And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. 10And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. 11And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. 12Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife. 13And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister: 14And they said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us: 15But in this will we consent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised; 16Then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 17But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone. 18And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor's son. 19And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter: and he was more honorable than all the house of his father. 20And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, 21These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. 23Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. 24And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city. 25And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. 26And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out. 27The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field, 29And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house. 30And 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. 31And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot? 1And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 2Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: 3And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. 4And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. 5And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. 6So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth-el, he and all the people that were with him. 7And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. 8But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth. 9And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him. 10And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; 12And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. 13And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. 14And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. 15And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el. 16And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. 17And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. 18And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin. 19And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. 21And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. 22And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: 23The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: 24The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: 25And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: 26And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram. 27And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. 28And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. 29And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. 1Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. 2Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; 3And Bashemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth. 4And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel; 5And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan. 6And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. 7For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. 8Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom. 9And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir: 10These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau. 11And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. 12And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife. 13And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: these were the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife. 14And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife: and she bare to Esau Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. 15These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 16Duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah. 17And these are the sons of Reuel Esau's son; duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah: these are the dukes that came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Bashemath Esau's wife. 18And these are the sons of Aholibamah Esau's wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah: these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. 19These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their dukes. 20These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, 21And Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan: these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. 22And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan's sister was Timna. 23And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. 24And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. 25And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. 26And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. 27The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. 28The children of Dishan are these; Uz, and Aran. 29These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah, 30Duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan: these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir. 31And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. 32And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah. 33And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead. 34And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani reigned in his stead. 35And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Avith. 36And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead. 37And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead. 38And Saul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead. 39And Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab. 40And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, 41Duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, 42Duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, 43Duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession: he is Esau the father of the Edomites. 1And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. (Genesis 26:34‑37:1)).
The discipline and chastening of God, leading on to final victory as seen in the life of Jacob.
In some respects Jacob is the most human of these characters, in whom perhaps we find more that corresponds with ourselves than in the lives of Abraham and Isaac. It has been pointed out that in these three, to whom God gives special promises of blessing, linking His Name with them as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we have a suggestion of the Trinity. Abraham as the father of Isaac suggests as we have already seen, the Father; and in like manner Isaac, the Son in His sacrifice and obedient submission. In Jacob, we have one who is subjected to discipline and sifting, suggesting those exercises which the Spirit of God produces in order to deliver us from the power of the flesh. Thus in his discipline, we have suggested the work of the Spirit, which again is in fitting accord with the Spirit’s self-effacement. He is seen in His work rather than directly or personally.
The life of Jacob may be divided into three main portions, connected respectively with his history in the land (Gen. 26:34-28: 22); his sojourn in Syria (Gen. 29-31); and his recovery to the land (Gen. 32-37:1).
We must look at each of these briefly. There is nothing to attract in the wretched deception itself, practiced upon his blind aged, father by Jacob with the help of his mother. Deceit and falsehood cannot be condoned, no matter by whom practiced, and yet even here, as in the previous case when he defrauded his brother, Jacob indicates that he prized above all things the birthright and the blessing. Esau is a profane man who manifests it in his whole course and in forming those links with the Canaanites which Abraham had distinctly forbidden for his son Isaac. We need not seek to justify Jacob in his deception. He suffers abundant chastening at the hand of God for it, in which his mother shares, being deprived as she was of her favorite child throughout the closing years of her life.
Jacob is obliged to flee from the presence of his outraged brother. In the scene at Bethel we have a beautiful contrast between the grace of God which gives unconditionally, and the results of man’s seeking to obtain the promises in a fleshly way. It is, under different circumstances, a repetition of Abraham’s efforts through Hagar to secure the promise of God. How beautiful is the scene as the poor, homeless wanderer lies asleep with his head upon a stone! God makes His promises unconditional, but Jacob wakes up to add his faithfulness to God’s promises! We feel that it is an intrusion, which God Himself will later eliminate to show that all depended upon Him alone.
The second part of Jacob’s life is spent in comparative exile in Syria. Here indeed he is fruitful and experiences the blessing of God in a remarkable way, while at the same time the chastening of God in government because of his untruthfulness is evident. He is the victim of deception, and finds that others besides himself can drive hard bargains; yet in spite of all this there is a manifest faith which attaches the man to the promises of God. His very prosperity does not cause him to lose sight of this, and when Joseph is born — a type of Christ in a marked and distinct way, as we shall soon find — the longing to be back again in the land of promise where the covenant-blessings of God are to be bestowed, and where God Himself had engaged to give him his inheritance, takes possession of Jacob, and he sets his face, in some little way like Abraham at the beginning, toward the land which God would show him.
The last portion of Jacob’s life is largely spent in the land of his fathers. He too, as Abraham, is to have his name changed; and in connection with this, he is to have an experience of his own nothingness, even as Abraham had learned his, although in the case of Jacob the struggle is pronged.
At Mahanaim, we have most significantly, an apparent duality of interests: Mahanaim (two camps), the hosts of God and his own camp. They are not here identical. The angels may indeed encamp about him and deliver him, but they are external to himself. His brother Esau, also, comes to meet him with a hostile force. Here again there is a division of interests. He then divides his own company into two camps, as though realizing his weakness and inability to cope with his brother, hoping at least that one of the companies may escape. But a further division must take place. He must separate himself from all his possessions, even his family, and is left alone while his entire company passes on before. The division, however, is not yet complete. Jacob must realize that he is not at one with God, nor indeed with himself, and in the struggle which follows we see the efforts of nature to win a blessing for itself by its own strength, until God shrivels all this up, and in perfect helplessness at last Jacob is made to realize that God must be all in all — self, nothing. Thus Mahanaim (two camps), in which diversity, division, alienation and weakness are manifested, is changed to Peniel (the face of God), where all is brought into harmony and blessing because the Lord has His true place. Thus are discords ever overcome by the power of God alone; discords in our own hearts, in our relationship with one another, and above all, in our attitude toward God. It is as we bow and confess our own nothingness, that we become as Jacob, “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” A new name is given. It is the name of victory, a “prince with God.”
Jacob is now in the land, and we find him exposed to the especial danger of Lot. Prosperity is a sore trial to the people of God, more dangerous in many ways than adversity. In his extremity, when apparently bereft of all his possessions, Jacob clung to God; but as he settles down, building booths at Shechem, purchasing an inheritance with his own money, he lays himself open to the shame and humiliation of the scenes that follow, in which his sons again exemplify his own restless energy in taking the case into their own hands, and bring upon themselves the governmental judgment of God which their father pronounces upon his death-bed. If Jacob is to enjoy blessing in the land, it must be on the basis of pure grace; the grace that found him a wanderer and made unconditional promises to him of blessing, is that alone in which he can be secure.
Thus, how sweet and comforting is the word: “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there,” a word for every Christian heart that has in any measure departed from its first love.
As a postscript to the life of Jacob, we have the contrast of Esau, who rises to prominence and earthly greatness while yet his brother is but a pilgrim, dwelling in tents. All this is most significant. We are living now in man’s day, and need not be surprised if the flesh and its works have a place and importance in the eyes of the world far above the lowly pilgrim testimony of the people of God.
Sub-Division 7. (Gen. 37:2-50).
The full display of Christ’s glory following His suffering and rejection as seen in the life of Joseph.
As it was in the case of both Abraham and Isaac, the closing part of Jacob’s life is merged in that of his son. It is significant indeed that the generations of Jacob (chap. 37:2) introduce the narrative of the life of Joseph. God would in this way manifest the unity of that divine life which He has been tracing from its beginning in Adam, and show that in each succeeding character there is an enlargement of what existed in the former one. Thus, in the well-known septenary series of 2nd Peter, it is not simply an addition which is suggested, but each course is to be characterized with the qualities of that which follows. “Have in your faith virtue (or courage).” Courage is to characterize the faith, just as knowledge is to characterize the courage, and so on. Thus, in Joseph, we have, we may say, the outcome of all the exercises through which Jacob passes. If the lesson we learn from him is the nothingness of the flesh, it ends, not in disaster, but rather in the display of Him who takes the place of the flesh. Thus, Joseph from his very position, as the culmination of the whole of the biographies of Genesis, suggests the full perfection which we find in Christ; and we need not therefore be surprised at the marked exactness of the typical features of his life.
There are three main divisions in the life of Joseph, corresponding to a certain extent with those of his father Jacob. For our present purpose we will group the events under these three divisions, without refusing, however, the more exact and complete six fold division given to us elsewhere.
We have:
1. Joseph in rejection (Gen. 37:2-40).
2. Joseph exalted over the land of Egypt (Gen. 41).
3. Joseph’s restoration to his brethren and kindred (Gen. 42-50).
We see him first as the object of his father’s special favor: separated in spirit from his brethren who already look with suspicion upon him, and when sent from the vale of Hebron — a glimpse of the place of “communion” which the Son had with the Father, and from which He came forth into the world seeking those who had wandered from God — his brethren plot against him, cast him out, deliver him to the Ishmaelites, a type so evidently fulfilled in the rejection of our Lord and His being delivered up to the Gentiles, that it needs little comment. In Egypt, under the authority of the Gentiles, Joseph is put in prison, suggesting how, not only His own people, the Jews, but the world itself conspired against our Lord. While Joseph was in the prison, in contrast with his faithfulness and uprightness we have the sin of his brother Judah, bringing out again the lesson which is stamped upon the entire word of God, that human excellence is an empty thing, that we must cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. It is while in the prison that Joseph is the proclaimer of deliverance to the butler and of judgment to the baker, suggesting how, through the cross of Christ, blessing comes to the believer and judgment to the unbeliever.
In the next stage of Joseph’s life, he is brought before Pharaoh, declares to him the meaning of the twofold dream he had, and outlines the plan for providing for the time of famine which was soon to come. As “the revealer of secrets” and the “Saviour of the world,” Joseph is exalted to the place next to Pharaoh, and in this we see a figure of our Lord’s exaltation after His rejection and death to a place where all things are put beneath His feet. It was here that Joseph received his Gentile bride, as it is in the time of His rejection by Israel that our Lord has given to Him the Church who is to be His companion in glory.
The later and larger portion of the narrative of Joseph’s life is taken up with those touching scenes with his brethren and his father. Here righteousness and faithfulness are blended with love and tenderness in a way which cannot fail to stir the heart, and to give us a glimpse of those divine ways in righteousness and grace in which Christ deals with the sinner, and brings him into His presence forgiven; or, in a national way, how the Lord will deal with Israel and bring them to repentance, and so introduce them into the blessing which awaits them. It is their need which brings Joseph’s brethren to him. The hour of trial which will “try them that dwell upon the earth” is going to test those who still cleave to their national name and claims as “Israel.” It is this which Joseph makes his brethren give up. If they are to be brought into blessing, it is not as those who deserve it, but as those who have forfeited everything, to receive it as a matter of divine grace. Thus, in the latter day, Israel will be brought in upon the ground of the pure, unmerited mercy of God — not because they can claim a right to the blessing as being descendants of the fathers. They come in even as the Gentiles, as we see abundantly illustrated on many a page of history and prophecy.
Jacob’s hopes have centered in Benjamin since the presumed death of Joseph, and with all the fervor of love which cannot sacrifice its last hope, he refuses to put the child of his old age into the hands of this unknown, apparently cruel, and yet God-fearing ruler of Egypt; but he must place, even as Abraham did of old, the child of promise into the hands of God, to receive him back again not merely as he delivered him up, but as associated with his long-lost, but never-forgotten son through whom all the glory and blessing were to be secured. Thus, Israel must sacrifice their national hopes of greatness and glory, as typified in Benjamin, into the hands of a righteous God, and find that these hopes and claims are made good to them through the very One whom they had rejected and cast out. How accurately and beautifully all brings out the ways of God, whether in connection with the individual sinner or with the nation of Israel as a whole.
And so Jacob reappears in prominence toward the close. He is brought down to Egypt, his beloved son is made known to him, and he finds his true victory, not in his own greatness, but in the greatness of Joseph, who cares for him and all his father’s house with a devotion and a wisdom of which Jacob would have been incapable. All this heads up in Christ, who becomes the Nourisher of His people and the Saviour of the world at large, having title to it and to all who are brought through the Great Tribulation into millennial blessing, so that the reign of righteousness which He establishes upon the earth is one in which His absolute claim upon the very persons of those whom He has spared is recognized.
The book closes with the final blessing of Jacob for all his sons, and the scenes connected with his and Joseph’s passing away. In the blessing upon Ephraim and Manasseh we see again that reversal of nature which God constantly emphasizes for us. The younger is blessed above the elder, Ephraim above Manasseh; while in the blessing pronounced upon his twelve sons, Jacob gives us a prophetic outline of the ways of God with Israel from the beginning to the final consummation.
In this recapitulation of Israel’s history, we find the excellence of the flesh set aside at the very beginning. Reuben cannot obtain the preeminence. In Simeon and Levi we have suggested the violence and evil which culminated in the rejection of Christ; while in Judah, we have the coming of the Messiah, who, as the true Shiloh, shall reign; and yet there are intimations of His rejection, and the fact that there must intervene a period of exercise and suffering for the people ere full blessing shall eventuate, in Joseph and Benjamin. Thus we find in those sons following Judah, until Joseph, a submission to Gentile dominance, an apostasy even, with suggestions of the faithfulness of God in preserving His people until, as we said, in Joseph all brightens out again, and Jacob narrates the suffering, the rejection and the subsequent glory of his beloved son, a glory which is linked with the final judgment typified in Benjamin.
Thus we have the whole outline of Israel’s history, and their blessing seen in connection with Judah and Joseph. All centers for them, as it does for us as well, in Him who was rejected and separated from His brethren, but exalted by God.
Thus we reach the close of Genesis. We have the end of Jacob, a beautiful, quiet sunset, so strikingly different from his former troublous life. The aged patriarch can bestow his blessing upon Pharaoh, upon Ephraim and Manasseh, upon his twelve sons, and then quietly bowing his head, as he leans upon his staff in worship, he yields up his spirit into the hands of the faithful God his Saviour.
With this deathbed and that which quickly follows it, the death of Joseph, who can question the reality of the faith in these men of God, which still looked for the city which hath foundations? Both Jacob and Joseph demand that their bones shall be laid in the land of promise.
Both were looking forward to a better resurrection, and in the hope of that, would rest quietly until God should fulfill His every word.
We have now traced the divine life from its beginning in Adam till its culmination in Joseph. If on the one hand, the book ends with a coffin in the land of Egypt, on the other, faith shines out brightly as we see the promises still claimed and held fast to, which shall be fulfilled in their appointed time. We are thus prepared to enter upon a new department of God’s ways, which fittingly belong to another book in this main group.