In the spirit of one who has not learned this perfect love of God, Jacob makes a vow; in fact he tries to make a bargain with God. If God will give Jacob all he wants, then Jacob will serve God! And this when God has already given him His word that Jacob shall want for nothing! Truly man is a perverse thing. And God bears with this. Oh what a patient God is ours; how has He not borne with us! But the patience of God follows out the moral process in Jacob's soul. In his exile he reaps what he had sown; as he deceived his father, so Laban deceives him. He had taken unbrotherly advantage of Esau's hunger: his uncle Laban takes advantage of his position, and Jacob has to work hard for his wages. By low cunning he overreached Laban, and brings upon himself Laban's anger, which might have been fatal, only that God stepped in and restrained Laban from touching him. Indeed Laban had just cause to be angry with his unscrupulous nephew. In their last agreement Jacob made a proposition which if accepted would be made by his craft far more profitable than any wages Laban would give. It was one of his meanest schemes; but mark his want of conscience: “So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come.” (Gen. 30:3333So 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. (Genesis 30:33).) Laban (quite deceived) eagerly embraces the proposal, but soon finds out his mistake. He too has to reap what he had sown, for he deceived Jacob grievously in not giving him Rachel.
But Jacob has to fly. The time has come for him to return to his father's house, and God tells him to return. Why steal away unawares? Because he had consciousness of sins. He knew that he had wronged Laban: hence his trouble and fear. No sooner delivered from Laban than the dread of Esau falls upon him. God uses it as a means of bringing Jacob to Himself in prayer.
After Laban's departure “Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.” Jacob recognizes them, he had seen them before in his dream, and said “This is God's host.” Their appearing was God's reminding him of His promise, “I will never leave thee.” It was to assure him of God's protection in the dreaded meeting with Esau. But his response to this grace is very feeble. His fear is overwhelming. How humble-we may say-how abject his message to his brother! He is reaping the fruit of his former conduct. Esau is coming with four hundred men. This drives him to God. He prays and confesses himself unworthy. (Gen. 32:1010I 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. (Genesis 32:10).) If by slow steps, he is advancing on the path of faith: as yet it is a stony road, but salutary and needful. God is wise in His teachings. Faith would lead through green pastures but for the flesh! Our unbroken will strews the path with stones, making us weep when we should sing. But Jacob says he is unworthy; how different this from his vow to serve God, if God would only supply his wants; but what trial and sorrow to bring him to this point! It is a preliminary step to the being made a worshipper to which God was in His grace bringing him. But the breaking down of “old” Jacob is not yet complete. He cannot yet trust all to God, and so strong is the fear of Esau upon his soul that he sends all before him, his beloved Rachel too, over the brook. He sent his gift over, and “lodged that night in the company.” But he could not rest, he rose up that night and sent “his two wives and his two women servants and his eleven sons, and [they] passed over the ford Jabbok.” (Gen. 22:21-2421Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah. (Genesis 22:21‑24).) He is left alone. It was so ordered by God, for another lesson of unspeakable grace was to be taught him that night, and he must be alone with God. Our most precious lessons of grace are learned when alone with God.
God, as a man, meets him and wrestles with him. He had been wrestling with him throughout his life, but now it was face to face. Until break of day the man wrestled with him, and did not prevail. God gave Jacob power and said that as a prince be had prevailed. God condescended to say “Let me go, for the day breaketh,” and then he put it into Jacob's heart to say “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” It is the very thing God was waiting to hear, and to which He led on Jacob's soul. His word, “Let me go” was said for the very purpose of making Jacob say, Bless me first. In a later day the Lord Jesus Christ led on the Syro-Phoenician woman to beg as a dog for the crumbs that fell from the table, and then commends her faith by granting her prayer. He led her to the place, and then rewards her for taking it. So here with Jacob: God wanted him to prevail that He might bless him. This is the manner of His grace. And a new name is given to him. We read that the less is blessed by the greater, and the Greater in this scene is the One who “saw that he prevailed not against him.” (Gen. 32:2525And 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. (Genesis 32:25).) Wonderful! He who blesses is the one who prevailed not, and the poor man that as a prince had power with God and had prevailed is made lame for life. It is a night to be remembered. God would keep it in Jacob's remembrance, and given him two mementoes-a new name, and lameness. Each has its lesson. Nature must be broken and halt in God's presence. It was after he had felt the withering touch of God's hand, that Jacob said, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” Nature was weakened before he had power with God; and he was lame before he was called Israel-a prince of God. Surely the truth, not merely foreshadowed but plainly taught should be taken home to our hearts. Flesh shall not boast in His presence. “He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.” The only way for us to have power with God is to be “lame” as to our own strength. “My grace is sufficient for thee,” said the Lord to a greater servant: “for my thoughts is made perfect in weakness.” It is His way with us.
As the sun rises, Jacob passes over Fennel to rejoin his family, but he halts upon his thigh. His household might wonder at his altered gait, and say, Jacob is lame. But God said of him-Israel is a prince of God. Man always judges after the sight of his eyes, God according to the position His grace gives. Did Jacob henceforth walk as a prince that had power with God? Nay, he did not even at the time rise to the height of the grace shown him. He said he had seen God face to face, “And my life has been preserved.” This was all! He did ask God's name, but he did not rise above “self,” and was in no condition to hear the Name. God blesses him, but tells not His name. The “prince” had to go down deeper into the dust, to drink a bitterer draft of sorrow, yea of shame, before he could hear God's name. Nature must be broken, not merely lamed. To hear His blest name is better far than being called a “prince.” Man, that is, the saint, must be on his face before God, in deep self-abasement, then, and then only is he in the right attitude to hear the Name. Jacob has not yet been there. Still there is progress. For now his little faith was sufficient to inspire him with courage. Esau is in sight, but now it is not Jacob terrified and sending women and children before him, but it is Israel going before (33:8), the prince who had power with men and prevailed, the second prerogative of his new name. Whatever vengeance was in Esau's thoughts, they are all banished. Israel, though a suppliant bowing himself seven times, is the prince and prevails. Esau is subdued and runs to meet his brother; they embrace and weep together.
Is not this another proof of God's overruling care, another call to Jacob's faith? So God teaches, so He draws to Himself, tenderly, lovingly, perseveringly, “bearing on His wings.” How wretched the heart that cannot respond to this goodness! Jacob is delivered from Esau, but not yet from himself. Nothing of Israel is seen again till he goes to Bethel; nothing but Jacob, the old cunning and deception. He frees himself from Esau's company, promising to meet him in Mount Seir. Did he intend it? He went to Shalem, and there apparently forgets all God's care and his own vow. He had asked to be brought back to his father's house, and God had told him to return. But he settles down and buys land while away from his home; he would be a dweller where he should be only a traveler. True, he builds an altar, but in vain; there are no worship and no true altar among the unclean. This poor Jacob soon proves. He became a fellow-citizen with Canaanites. He bought “a parcel of a field” to make a house; not like Abraham who bought a cave wherein to bury his dead. In vain the altar and its great name; it was true that God was the God of Israel-El-elohe-Israel. But it was not true that the name made the altar God's altar. Men make the same mistake now and give high names to their own altars, and say-the house of God,
But does this make one “El-Beth-El,” any more than Jacob's altar did? God forces him away from his evil and guilty position, by making him feel the sad consequence of settling down in that place and allowing Dinah to see the daughters of the land. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” The fearful revenge of Simeon and Levi fills him with dismay,” I shall be destroyed, I and my house.” He seems paralyzed with fear. How unlike a “prince” is this. He forgot his new name and lost its power. And saints now lose power over the world when they seek a resting-place in it. All the circumstances say to a soul that can hear, What doest thou here, Jacob? But he does not hear till God in mercy speaks, “Arise, go to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared to thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.” (Gen. 35:11And 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. (Genesis 35:1).) God calls to his remembrance former mercies, and names the place where His altar must be made. It is as if God said-Go back to your starting-point and begin again. Like the Nazarite who defiles himself in the days of his consecration, he had to begin all over again, his former days would not count. (Num. 6:1212And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled. (Numbers 6:12).) This is the turning-point in his life.
At the call of God he sets out for Bethel, he leaves his field and his own altar for the place of God's choosing. He is going to worship. Before learning to do well he ceases to do evil, and begins by purging his house. “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean and change your garments.” Was it any wonder that a man with strange gods in his family should have sought to remain with Canaanites? But now he hates even the garments spotted by the flesh. There must be self-abasement as well as cleansing, and he directs them to take off their earrings. It was an external sign of repentance and humility. Jacob feels his sin at conniving at the idolatrous practices in his family. Rachel stole the images from her father; was it his love for her that led Jacob to permit them in his house? Christian parents sometimes permit practices in their households which they know to be wrong. It is a sin to them. When human affection interferes with faithfulness to God, it always brings sorrow. A holy God must chasten His saints for their faults. First Deborah dies: did she as nurse aid Rachel in idolatry? Bethel becomes for a time Allon-bachuth. Not long after, Rachel dies. Jacob loses his beloved wife, and she names the child-Benoni-son of sorrow. But he has been to Bethel, and while bowing his head to the stroke rises in faith. The bereavement may be chastisement for past unfaithfulness, and the cause of his failure is taken away; but if there be sorrow in remembering the failure, there is power in being brought into the place of worship and communion. She who brought the images into the family being removed, it becomes an occasion of “power with God,” and “Israel” calls the child-Benjamin-the son of the right hand.
In their journey to Bethel God causes His terror to fall upon the cities, and so keeps Jacob and his sons. But he is not without chastisement, “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” (Heb. 12:66For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6).) Deborah dies and there is weeping. When there is true worship, then also sin must be judged in its roots. Now God appears again, and Jacob hears his new name again. It was given before, and then because he was a prince and had prevailed. But it was only in respect of his own wants, above which he did not rise. Hence “a man wrestled with him;” but God does not “wrestle” with faith. Now like Abraham he worships, and to him as to Abraham God reveals His Name, nor waits to be asked. Jacob had asked “Tell me thy name;” but he was not in a condition to hear it, and it was not then revealed. When that Name is revealed, it is not merely to know God as the one who delivers and blesses; it means communion. There is a secret joy in knowing it. So there is also in God telling us His and our new name, and the joy of this is a secret between God and the soul. There is a joy common to all believers; there is also a specialty the privilege of each which no other knows. There is fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and with each other; but over and beyond this common privilege there is a secret communion with God. “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.” (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).) Blessed truth! God is known to us by a new name, and we are known to Him by a new name. Not merely that He is Father and we are children, but each child has his own special and peculiar place in God's family, a name known only to God and to himself. What made the name “Israel” sweet to Jacob? what clothed it with power? The revelation of God's name. When he had it without knowing God's Name, he soon forgot it, and went down lower than ever. Now He knows God's Name, and realizes it in the presence of death, even the death of his most loved. It is here, at least in some degree, resurrection faith, though not shining so bright as Abraham's. So Rachel dies, but there is no “oak of weeping.” It is Benjamin-not Benoni.
In looking back a moment, how marked the gracious dealings of God with Jacob! It is truly the perseverance of grace, until he is brought to have a new name, and that in connection with knowing God's name. It is this which made the name of Israel to be truly a new name. Abram had a new name as well as Jacob; why was there none given to Isaac? I apprehend because Isaac is typically a risen man; as such he did not need a new name. As risen he was a new man. In all we see the teaching of God, and the working of faith. It is the way God brings us to love and serve Him, to be in communion with Him and to live here below as true worshippers. And where can there be acceptable worship? Only in the place of God's appointing. Man's will is the principle confessedly when they rear other altars, and, as men differ, so each one has his own opinion. This is Protestantism; nearly, if not quite as great as the opposite evil seen in Popery. The result is that intelligence as to the true altar of God is well nigh lost. The old dispute about “this mountain” and “Jerusalem” still goes on. But God's place, into which the Father brings us, is neither the one nor the other.
There are four salient points in Jacob's life, each being addressed to our faith. The first is his dream, marked by the absence of faith but by much fear, yet God offering Himself as a stay and resource in all his wanderings. Secondly, the wrestling, where the grace of God intent on blessing him is the more prominent, where also the flesh gets its first breaking, and in consequence Jacob is fitted to receive a new name. Thirdly, God's call to Bethel, where he is made a worshipper, having first purged his house, his own name repeated and confirmed, and God's name revealed. Fourthly, at the close of his life where his faith is so bright, the shining spot in his whole life, which is held up as such in Heb. 11. The intelligence of faith looks over the past and recognizes the presence of God in keeping and leading. “The God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil.” (Gen. 48:15, 1615And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, 16The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. (Genesis 48:15‑16).) This is faith's answer given at the outset of his course, “I will never leave thee.” Guided now by God he blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, putting the younger first. Flesh put Esau first; faith put Ephraim. He makes his sons solemnly promise to bury him with his fathers—faith's answer to the promise, “To thee and to thy seed will I give it.” Checkered as his life had been, so marked by trial and sorrow, none had a brighter end.
Gen. 26 forms a parenthesis in the inspired narrative. Isaac's death closes the preceding chapter, and Jacob as a type passes away to make room for another, in whom the purpose of God concerning Christ is foreshadowed. At the first reading, this account of Esau's generation might seem as a disconnected fragment, which could equally well have been inserted a few chapters earlier, or a few later, as where it now stands. But neither chapter nor word can be displaced without marring the perfectness of God's word. There is divine wisdom in placing it just where it is.
Jacob, in several points of his career, illustrates the history of the nation, which is continued in Judah. (Chap. 38.) Then comes Joseph, who in his turn foreshadowed the Messiah-the true Joseph, who, cast out by His own, will not be seen again by them till He comes in power and great glory. As the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, “Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matt. 23:3939For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:39).) And again, “Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” (Matt. 26:6464Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64).) So, just as the kings and dukes of Edom appear between the typical Jacob and the appearance of Joseph, the Gentile appears in dominion and power before the Lord Jesus is presented to the Jew. So also the historical books of the Old Testament close with the Babylonish captivity, and the New Testament opens with Jesus, born King of the Jews. The Holy Spirit does not occupy us with delineating the grandeur and might of those who rose to eminence when Israel lost the inheritance-save as when connected with the condition of Israel, as were Ahasuerus and Nebuchadnezzar—but passes on to the birth of the true King. Here, in Genesis, we have only a list of names to tell us that this duke and that king once lived. Their power was ephemeral, their greatness evanescent, and they are summarily dismissed. “These are the generations of Esau.” But when the Holy Spirit speaks of the “generations of Jacob,” there is but one Man before His mind, and ten chapters follow, giving His typical history.
The first thing said about Joseph is, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children... and he made him a coat of many colors.” (Gen. 37:88And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. (Genesis 37:8).) If there had been nothing more in this than the expression of a father's partiality, would the Holy Spirit have recorded it? God calls the Lord Jesus His well-beloved Son, and has given Him many glories. A robe of many colors is His, but they are the colors of His glories. Not one greater, or more brilliant, than the glory of His humiliation. He laid aside His riches, and became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. The glory of being rejected, scorned, crucified, and laid in the grave, so conquering the power of death and the grave, and delivering us from the bondage of the fear of death. The glory of being made sin, and of being forsaken, bearing the whole judgment of God, that believers in Him might become sons of God. The glory of vindicating the righteousness and majesty of God, of being Heir to David's throne, of being Supreme Ruler over the whole world its ordained Judge, of having His name written upon His vesture and upon His thigh, “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” The glory of being Head of the church, and having a peculiar people, each one both king and priest, a special company, the object of His special love. And in the brightness of His millennial reign all these varied rays of glory will be focused in His own person. Israel will shout, “Emmanuel, God with us,” and the great voices in heaven will proclaim, “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.” (Rev. 11:1515And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15).) Soon will our gladdened eyes be with Him where He is “that they may behold my glory.” (John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24).)
Joseph is specially the type of Christ, as the representative of all the generations of Jacob, of Him who, in His own person, secures all the promised blessings which Israel had forfeited. All is summed up in Him. And in the exaltation of Joseph, so that no Egyptian could move without his permission, before whose chariot heralds proclaimed, “Bow the knee,” we see the exaltation of Christ, to whom every knee must bow. And when that glory comes, He will be seen, not merely as Messiah, the true Son of David, the rightful Heir, to whom the willing heart of Israel restored will pay homage; but also, as the Egyptians bowed to the authority of Joseph, so will the nations own the exalted Christ, in that day, to be King of kings, and Lord of lords.