IF the history of Jacob is one long record 1 of faithlessness on the part of a child of God―and it is so, with the exception of the closing scenes, which were like a bright suet after a stormy day―it is no less a long record of the persistent grace and faithfulness of God. This may be well illustrated by a comparison of the first and last recorded appearances of God to Jacob.
THE FIRST APPEARANCE AND PROMISE, “I WILL BE WITH THEE.” (Gen. 28:11-22.)
After Jacob and his mother had practiced their deception upon Isaac, the former fled for his life, justly fearing Esau’s vengeance. At Luz (Afterward Bethel) God appeared, and made him the most gracious and unconditional promises of blessing. Nothing was demanded of Jacob. The land, upon which he then lay, should be his, and his seed should be as the dust of the earth. Great promises were these to one whose portion chiefly lay in this life, but there was even more―a promise much dearer, at least to a believer, than all worldly prosperity: “I am with thee, and will keep thee....I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” Surely the presence of the Lord outweighs a hundredfold the possession of the cattle upon a thousand hills—ay, and the hills as well. Moses at least thought so, whose hopes, equally with Jacob, were set in the land, for he said, “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” And as one of our own poets has sung—
“In having all things, and not Thee, what have I?
Not having Thee, what have my labors got?
Let me enjoy but Thee, what further crave I?
And having Thee alone, what have I not?
I wish nor sea nor land, nor would I be
Possessed of heaven, heaven unpossessed of Thee.”
Can we not put our “Amen” to this? When Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, though he built a city and begat sons and daughters, he was not less a fugitive and a vagabond. It was night when Judas went out from his Lord’s presence―fit outward sign of the inward and gross darkness which covered his soul! “In Thy presence is fullness of joy,” said the Psalmist, and this presence is that which is sought for by every true saint of God. The promise of this presence was the crowning mercy in God’s words to Jacob. But what of Jacob? Could he accept so unconditional a promise? Immediately upon waking, he began to vow and to bargain― “If God will be with me,” and will grant me such and such mercies, “then shall Jehovah be my God.”
What if God had taken notice of Jacob’s vow, and ordered His blessing according to Jacob’s faithfulness?
Do we blame Jacob? May it not be that there are many Jacobs now, that we are as ready as he to put an “if” against God’s promises made in grace? There is a current expression by which a person, on believing God’s testimony concerning His Son, is said to “enter into covenant with God.” Well, one of God’s names is, “He who keepeth covenant.” But what of ourselves? Has there been no breach on our part? Indeed, what honest heart would deny this! Then are God’s promises annulled? Blessed be His name, never!
We briefly follow Jacob’s history. “Then shall the Lord be my God,” he had said, and we look to his life to see if this entered into his dealings. Alas! how little of that life was passed in the faith and fear of God! He fled in fear from Laban, though God had told him to go. He was in dead of Esau, whom he again deceived by saying that he would follow him to Seir, but turned off to Succoth! He built a house, where he should have had a pilgrim’s tent, and sought to sanctify it by an altar. He even suffered false gods in his house.
“The Lord shall be my God.” Such was. Jacob’s vow; but when fifty years had passed since that night at Bethel and “the gate of heaven,” the review of those years gave Jacob little pleasure. “Few and evil have the dap of the years of my life been,” is his own sac comment: yet God had been true to His word, notwithstanding Jacob’s faithlessness.
THE LAST APPEARANCE AND PROMISE, “I WILL GO DOWN WITH THEE.” (Gen. 46:1, &c.)
We must pass by the sharp discipline which Jacob himself had to endure, for “deceiving and being deceived” aptly sums up his life-history, and we turn to the last recorded appearance of God to him. The place was Beersheba; the occasion the journey into Egypt. Evidently some fear had taken possession of the aged man, but God knew of it. So He graciously draws near and speaks: “Jacob, Jacob!”
May we not reverently say, we seem to know the voice? Another scene rises before the mind―that “upper room,” with its strange mixture of carnal contention and real heart-sorrow, and we hear, “Simon, Simon!” In both instances the natural name of the man is used, and not the divinely-given one; “Simon,” not “Peter”; “Jacob,” not “Israel.” Yet the historian had been using the name “Israel” ― Israel said, “It is enough”― “Israel took his journey”― “God spake unto Israel.”
Surely there is meaning in this, for “Jacob” (i.e. “supplanter”) betokens the natural man and his ways; “Israel” (i.e., “he shall be prince of God”) the exalted dignity God bestows upon the object of His grace. May not God (who had said, “Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel”) have thereby designed, in the most tender way, to remind His aged and suffering servant of what he was, and to point out the grace of His own action? He might have reminded Jacob of Bethel, of His own promise, and of Jacob’s vow-a vow continually broken; and Jacob could not have murmured had God cast him off. But there is no word of reproach; “God never” (John Bunyan says) “mixes His mercies with twits.” He draws near, and says, “I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee.”
How gracious! “I will not leave thee,” is the first promise, which linked to the last — “I will go down with thee,” encircles, as with the golden girdle of God’s faithfulness, the weak life of His servant. And the reason for all this tender forbearance and grace we find in the pages of Israel’s last prophet... “I loved Jacob.”
Fellow believer, this God is our God. Jr.