Much gracious illustration of the love of Christ towards us may be found in the story of the Patriarch at these three places, or on the three occasions which they furnish. And each of them has its own lesson and comfort for us.
At Bethel (Gen. 28) Jacob is a saint under discipline. His sin in deceiving his father had brought a rod upon him; and he was now an exile from his father's house, soon to be a drudge in the house Of an injurious master in a strange and distant land.
He was now lying by night under the broad heavens, with the stones of the place for his pillow, and his traveling stick as his only companion. But the Lord meets him, as He always can meet His people in the place where they are accepting the punishment of their sins. He does not however remove the rod. He does not send him back to his father's house, undertaking to make all there comfortable to him again, but allows him still to pursue his wearisome, solitary journey. He does not take away the rod. This is never His way. But He promises to be with him under it, to give him His presence in the distant place of his exile and bondage, and never to leave nor forsake him till He bring him back to the land of his fathers, his own pledged and promised inheritance.
This was so, and this is one of the perfect forms of love. This was love, not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The Lord (to speak as men speak) did not spare Himself trouble or consult for His own ease, but looked simply and merely at the condition of the one He loved and ministered to it. Just like His way afterward with the camp in the wilderness. When by their unbelief Israel made themselves wanderers in a barren and thirsty land for forty years, the God of glory in the cloud went about with them. He left them not, but was a wilderness-wanderer with them for forty years, as now He becomes a sojourner with Jacob in a distant land for twenty. " I am with thee," says the Lord to Jacob, " and will keep thee in all places whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again to this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Jacob must still be under the rod, an exile in a strange land, but the God of all grace will be there with him. This was love " in deed and in truth."
At Peniel (Gen. 32) Jacob is in another character before us. Not as at Bethel, a saint under discipline for moral evil, but a saint in an unbelieving spirit, calculating and fearing, though religiously, when he should have been trustful, and calm, and satisfied. The fear of Esau had ensnared him, and he had surrendered confidence in God to that fear. He had not morally offended, as before at the bed-side of his father, but he had backslidden in spirit from God, reasoning, and praying, and laying his own plans instead of exercising peaceful confidence in God and a believing remembrance of His undertakings and promises.
The Lord cannot be indifferent to this. Surely not. He searches the reins and the heart, as He notices the hands and the feet. He discerns between joint and marrow, between thoughts and intents, (Heb. 4,) and cannot be indifferent to this backsliding in spirit, this departure from the simplicity and the quiet of a believing mind. He therefore contends with him. In the gloom of midnight He comes forth to wrestle with him. But withal, by the secret, in-working virtue of His Spirit, He restores His soul also. He revives faith in the heart of Jacob-commanding, triumphant, princely faith; so that Jacob faints not under this rebuke, sharp and peremptory as it was; but he is led again in the path of righteousness and beholds the face of God again in unclouded joy of heart, singing of his blessedness as he goes onward.
This was love, divine love again, though in another form. The Lord was consulting for Jacob's condition, and ministering to it accordingly, faithfully and practically. And this again is love " in deed and in truth." It is not loving "in word and in tongue," as amiable human nature often does, as some of us know to our humbling; but " in deed and in truth," as God must and does love.
At Beersheba, after all this, (Gen. 46,) this same Jacob is seen in another character, another relationship to God. He is not, as at Bethel, an erring saint under discipline; nor as at Peniel, a saint in a backslidden state of heart for the time, calculating on his own resources, instead of using God's; but here at Beersheba, Jacob is a saint in healthful jealousy of heart over his own ways, fearful that he has already taken one wrong step, and pausing godlily ere he take a second. It is interesting and instructive to ponder this.
Jacob had been already persuaded that Joseph was indeed in Egypt. This we see at the close of the preceding chapter. And this persuasion had, very naturally, set him on the way to Egypt at once. "Joseph my sort is yet alive," said he; " I will go and see him before I die." But now, on reaching Beersheba, he pauses. Beersheba was the southernmost point in the land, that looked right down towards Egypt; and as, with that land full in view, he begins to bethink himself afresh, and to remember the God of his fathers in connection with it. He pauses, and offers sacrifices to the God of Isaac. A godly fear, which ever works repentance not to be repented of, seems to seize upon his spirit. It is not again the fear of man, which brings a snare, but the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, He pauses. He seems to remember that Egypt was forbidden ground. His grandfather, Abraham, had been defiled there, and sent out of it back to the land which he himself was then leaving, humbled and dishonored. His father, Isaac, had been warned not to go there; and, according to this, it seems he offers sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.
This was beautiful in its season. This was the exercise of the godly mind. He had listened to nature ere he set out, but now he must sift and challenge the way of nature in the light of the Lord. And under this awakening of his soul, this action of a quickened, sensitive conscience, he makes his appeal to God. And, blessed to tell it, the God of Bethel, and the God of Peniel, will approve Himself, in the riches of His grace and the perfections-the divine perfections-of His love, the God of Beersheba also. He appears to His saint that very night. If the saint, having used the two-edged sword, and having had his very thoughts and intents exposed to him, had likewise used the throne of grace and applied himself to it, the blessed God would surely let him know that He was sitting on that throne to show mercy and render help in the time of need. (Heb. 4) He appears to him that night, and quiets the uneasiness of his heart, comforting him with the assurance that he may continue his journey down to Egypt without fear or hesitation, for that He would be with him, give him a sight of Joseph, bless him in that land, and bring him up out of it again.
This was love again in its divine quality, love " in deed and in truth," love that consulted for its object. Yea, and all these are samples and witnesses of immediate, individual, personal love; that love to one's very self which the heart of the Lord both entertains and exercises. Are we conscious of it? Is it among the gifts of grace? Surely, indeed; though we taste it coldly and with some suspicion, it may be. It is more, as I may express it than the public grace in which we stand, as in company with " all saints." At least, it is beside that. It savors of the white stone, which the overcomer is to receive at the hand of Christ in the day of the kingdom. (Rev. 2:1717He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. (Revelation 2:17).) These cases at Bethel, Peniel, and Beersheba witness this immediate, individual, personal love of which I speak. May we enjoy it by simple faith! It is no strange thing. Paul carried the sense of it about with hint wherever he went, as we see in Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).