WHEN God lays hold of a sinner and brings him to Himself, His ways with such a soul can only be like Himself. God is great, and does great things; and because God is what He is, His salvation is wonderful. We have to tell of this great salvation, from sin and from wrath, through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, for sinners; and also, we have to record God's ways of dealing with each soul of His saved people individually. On the one hand, there is the mighty work of the Saviour on behalf of myriads of souls; on the other, the gracious, tender care of God over each saved soul, working in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.
A very beautiful illustration of this way of God with His people is opened out to us in the history of the patriarch Jacob. We know that Jacob was not altogether a fine natural character. His brother Esau's testimony of him, “Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times " (Gen. 27:3636And 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? (Genesis 27:36)), points to a want of openness in Jacob, and unfolds a view of his taking advantage of his brother, which is painful even in natural character. But God in His sovereign grace had set His heart on Jacob, even as now He takes up the sinner, not because He finds that which is lovely in the sinner's character, but because He Himself loves to bless.
After a time, according to the government of God, Jacob had to reap what he had sown: his ungenerous ways met their reward; and he fled from his home because of Esau's anger. Jacob thus became a homeless wanderer. When he was some way on his journey the night closed around him, and Jacob was in darkness. So the solitary man took of the stones of the place where he was, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. (Gen. 28:1111And 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. (Genesis 28:11).)
When a sinner realizes what a position he has brought himself into by sin, when he is conscious of the desolation of this world, and when darkness closes around him, what is more natural than that he should seek a little ease, go to sleep, and forget his sorrow? Man would fain hide from his soul the gloom of his surroundings: he cannot bear to meditate as in the presence of God. To sleep to the realities of where a man's own sins have brought him, seems to be the chief aim of the unsaved soul. How many of us, now awakened by God in grace, must own to this fact! Our sins brought us into circumstances of misery and darkness, and then we sought our comfort in forgetfulness of the reality of our position.
When Jacob was asleep, unconscious as to where he was, God, in His sovereignty and mercy, spoke to him! How gracious is God! When we were afar off, when we were insensible to Him, His eye was upon us, and just as we were, He spoke to us. When God speaks to a sinner, it is according to His own sovereign grace. God's ways are the expression of what He is. Would that each one of us might truly believe what a God is our God. It is not only that He speaks to us, but He speaks out what is in His own heart about us. When a soul, aroused to hear God's voice in His word, has a listening ear granted him, he will presently learn that God blesses His people according to His own standard, according to what He is in Himself, and not by any means according to what men think they need or feel they are.
A glory opened over the sleeper in the desert! He lay in the darkness, utterly unconscious of God's thoughts about him, when God sent him a vision. He beheld the Lord God standing in heaven looking at him lying upon the earth, and the angels of God ascending and descending the ladder, which, set up on earth, reached even to where the Lord God stood. Why were those angels going up and down that ladder? The activity of those heavenly messengers was being exercised on behalf of the man God purposed to bless. What sights might our eyes not see were they but opened? even as it was with the servant of the prophet when he beheld the horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. (2 Kings 6:1717And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. (2 Kings 6:17).) Are not the angels all "ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb.
But it is God Himself, not His angels sent to minister to poor feeble man, who shall fill our thoughts. God Himself stood at the top of this beautiful ladder, and He spoke to Jacob. Now mark how God speaks to the sinner. He does so in a way absolutely different from our natural expectations. God did not find fault with Jacob (Gen. 28:1313And, 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; (Genesis 28:13)); God first declared who He was, then His purposes respecting Jacob ( 13, 14), and then His gracious will to keep Jacob safe till all His declared purposes should be accomplished
(15). Now it is thus that God speaks to us still. He reveals Himself, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and His purposes to bring His people into glory, holy and without blame before Him in love; and then God assures each soul to whom He has so spoken, of His gracious mercy, and that He will never leave, never, no, never forsake him.
Jacob did not enter then and there into the meaning of God's words. It is a mistake to suppose a sinner all at once receives into his soul the full measure of what the gospel of God is. It was many a year before Jacob entered into the counsels of God concerning him. The first effect on his soul upon awaking out of his sleep was fear. He said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! “Now this utterance seems very remarkable. God had spoken in matchless kindness to Jacob, but the result on Jacob's soul was fear. Such, however, is the result which is produced in the heart and conscience of the sinner, when he hears in his soul for the first time what God in His love and grace is to sinners. Fear fills the breast. “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Can we not indeed say, when a sinner is awakened to hear God's voice, his convictions of sin, and the sense of what he is, witness that he has been at Bethel?
May each reader know, in the inmost recesses of his soul, such a Bethel—such a house of God as this. On the one hand, the revelation by God to him of what God is for His people; on the other, the deep sense in the soul, of the utter unworthiness of man in the presence of God.
Jacob's natural character displayed itself, even in his vow to God made upon the marvelous revelation and the promises just given to him, “I am with thee, and will keep thee." "If God will be with me, and will keep me," said he. Alas! for our hearts, and our " If God will be with me." What a comfort it is to know that God has purposed, and that God has promised, and that He will perform!
Jacob's natural character also displayed itself in his saying, “Of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee." We must remember that he had nothing save his staff when God promised him his wealth. All that he eventually possessed came to him by the sovereign goodness of God.
Is it not written to us, for whom God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all— to us, to whom, with His Son, God will also freely give all things—" I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service "? (Rom. 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1).)
We would yet linger a little over Bethel. God does not forget the day when He first spoke to us. Can we forget it? It is a question the Christian who has been converted for, may be half his lifetime, does well to ask himself.
“Oh! happy day when first we felt
Our souls with true contrition melt,
And saw our sins of crimson guilt
All cleansed by blood on Calvary spilled."
On that day did we not in spirit consecrate ourselves to our God? Perhaps we were very ignorant of Him in that day, but His grace to us moved our hearts towards Him. We knew our sins were washed away in the blood of His Son, that God was our God, and heaven our home, and we yielded ourselves then and there in spirit to our God who loved us.
Do we suppose God forgets those yielding’s to Himself? "'Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals." (Jer. 2:22Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. (Jeremiah 2:2).) Years had rolled over Jacob's head when God said to him, " I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me." (Gen. 31:1313I 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. (Genesis 31:13).) Such a voice may perhaps startle some in the middle life of their Christian course on earth, and raise in their hearts the inquiry, What! have the very mercies of God in life made my soul forgetful of the love of its espousals; of the kindness of my youth?