See GEN. 32
IT is a blessed thing, not only to be obedient to precept, and watchful against evil, but to have the heart so answerable to the appeal of God, as to catch the tone of it, and reflect the very complexion of His dealing with us. Blessed, when we dance to His piping, and lament to His mourning. For this is service in spirit, and not merely with the hand or the foot.
Jacob, for instance, failed in this service in spirit, in this answer of the heart to the tone of God’s appeal at Mahanaim. It was a great moment; the occasion was a very fine one. Angelic hosts were sent to salute the anointed heir of the Lord on his return to his promised inheritance. Heaven was giving a witness that it shared in the joy of such a moment, and watched with the interests of this elect one. Nothing, therefore, but an exulting spirit of confidence and praise befitted such a moment: so distinguished an occasion should have been answered by a shout of triumph in the soul. The Lord was piping, and Jacob should have danced; but he did not: his soul was not up to the occasion. He used it as though the Lord were mourning to him. He begins to fear Esau, and to pray about danger, instead of answering the salutation of the hosts of God, by going onward in a spirit of victory and joy.
We all, alas! behave too much in this way of Jacob, in the answer we make to the appeal of God in the Gospel: for it is blessed. The delight which God takes in the work of Christ for us sinners is finely expressed through Scripture, as I may incidentally notice. Prov. 8:30, 3130Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; 31Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:30‑31), lets us know that this delight filled the divine mind before the world began. For Wisdom, or Christ, was then set up in connection with sinners, or the children of men, and He was God’s “delight.” So Gen. 8:2121And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. (Genesis 8:21) tells us of the same delight in early patriarchal days. For it was the blood or sacrifice of Christ, preached by Noah, which drew forth this fervent utterance from the heart of the Lord God. Lev. 9:23, 2423And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. 24And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:23‑24); Ex. 11:34; 2 Chron. 7:11Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. (2 Chronicles 7:1) publish the same on different occasions during the time of Israel.
Because, the fire from heaven, and the glory (symbols of the divine approval and presence) in their action on these occasions, declare their delight in such occasions. And what were those events, (the raising of the Tabernacle, the building of the Temple, and the consecration of the Priest,) but so many typical exhibitions of Christ in His ways for us?
Matt. 3:1717And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17) witnesses the same in Gospel times. Christ was just going forth, the minister of grace, in works and services for poor sinners; and the Father, with the richest emphasis, seals His whole soul’s delight in such a moment.
Matt. 27:5151And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; (Matthew 27:51) is a like testimony. Christ had now finished the work which, at the time of the preceding scriptures, He was beginning; and this rending of the veil, without a moment’s delay, speaks the delight and fervency with which all heaven greeted the work finished for sinners.
Such are among the witnesses to the delight which the blessed God takes in the Gospel, or the work of Christ for sinners. Such is the “piping;” and “dancing,” or joy, and a spirit of liberty and praise, is our proper answer to it. As when the glory and the fire appeared, in Lev. 9, the congregation fell on their faces, and shouted.
And in that case of Jacob, I may observe, that he was brought to a better mind. With his condition of soul, already noticed, the Lord had a controversy. In the Divine ear there was discord. Piping had been answered by lamentation. The Lord, therefore, wrestles with him, contends with him, rebukes him; and Jacob is put into another state of mind.
This happy process begins at once. Jacob does not faint under the rebuke: he holds the Wrestler of the night fast. The Divine Stranger then tries his faith by withering the hollow of his thigh by a touch: Jacob still holds on, “faint yet pursuing.” Then the Wrestler tries his faith again, asking for liberty to go, sheaving that He was ready to put an end to the strife: Jacob will not hear of that; he acts in the understanding of this secret—that our blessing is God’s purpose. He therefore makes his profit, rather than the Stranger’s pleasure, his rule, and refuses to let Him go till He blest him.
O happy understanding of the heart of Christ! This was “dancing,” indeed, in the spirit of his mind. All is harmony now. The “piping” has got its due answer; and Christ blesses him, instead of wrestling with him; and Jacob pursues his way in the light of the face of the Lord. He crosses the plain, calling it Peniel, “the face of God;” glorying in that mystery, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
Was not that dancing? Was not that journeying with so light and triumphant a heart, as suited the piping of the Lord in the angelic salutation? All is harmony now, where all before had been discord. The exercise of soul under the wrestling had rejected everything, The fearless footstep of the patriarch over Peniel was the due responsive dance to the music at Mahanaim.
This discipline or wrestling had not to correct or change the path which Jacob was treading. He pursues it still—the very same path which he had trod before; but it had to correct the spirit in which it was pursued. “The Father of spirits” is our disciplining God.
~~~
SELF-JUDGMENT.—How necessary it is for each of us to have much personal dealing with God, to keep out the flesh in its various insidious ways of approval to the hidden man of the heart. There would then be less running after men, less judging of others, less chattering and seeing others’ failings, and more judging of ourselves; and our souls and consciences would be kept more alive, and thus we should be able to pray for those who labor and rule, strengthen their hands, and walk in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Those who labor and rule, too, should be watching, if they who rule well are to be counted worthy of double honor: they should recollect they have double difficulties, and dangers, and snares. The Lord help us! The longer I live, the weaker I find myself, and the more help I need.
~~~
The secret of being happy and safe, is keeping always before us the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
~~~
It is His work for us that is the only foundation for His working by us.