IT is always a moment of intense interest when a I young man or woman leaves home for the first time. Some regrets there are sure to be when the time for tender and perhaps tearful “Good-byes” has really come, but these as a rule do not last long. So many bright hopes and plans for the future fill the mind of the son or daughter who is about to take his or her place in the battle of life, that it is no uncommon thing for the anxiety as to the untrodden path to be most keenly felt by those who see their loved one go from the peaceful, happy home of childhood and youth, to encounter, it may be, the dangers and temptations that can hardly fail to attend the rush and bustle of a great city.
Happy indeed are the parents to whom the joy has been given of knowing that the child for whom they have so long prayed is on the Lord’s side, and is not going forth without a Pilot who if trusted will take entire charge of the bark, steer it safely through the Voyage of Life, and bring it at last into its desired haven.
The day on which Jacob bade farewell to the tents of his father Isaac could hardly have been other than a sorrowful one (Gen. 28). How deeply Rebecca may have mourned the shortsighted, unwise love that while seeking what she thought was for the advantage of her favorite son, in the end sent him forth an exile from his home, we are not told, but it is not too much to suppose that for her the day of his departure must have been a sad one. Jacob, who as we know was in after years deceived by Laban, and afterwards by his own sons, would doubtless remember with shame and sorrow how cruelly he had deceived his blind and aged father. Deeply, too, had he wronged the brother whose anger he had only too good reason to dread.
But it is a relief to turn from all that Jacob was, from all that we are, to the perfect grace and goodness of God, who loves to bless, and as month by month our subject opens out before us, we shall trace the way in which HE acted, nothing, no weakness, no failure, being allowed to hinder the accomplishment of HIS purposes, or render void the promises made to Abraham.