“AND Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem, and Jacob set a pillar upon her grave.” From her came forth the son who carried into Egypt, was made ruler there—and thence Jacob's power begins—while the godly remnant mourns, as from the grave of Israel's hope, because her children are not; and the place which should have been the starting-point of every blessing becomes a grave. Thus is Israel's history, as God's witness, bound betwixt two pillars; the first securing to him, unwitting, Laban's gods; the last marking the place where she, who in ignorance and natural religion had hid them—the poor of the flock—passes from connection with Israel forever, until the son called out from Egypt comes up in the power of resurrection, and the son of sorrow becomes the son of the right hand.
Her grave, thus become the occasion of Gentile mercy, is, on the ground of mercy, a house of bread to many nations.
The power of nature fails to uphold anything, it must be by the gift of grace and mercy. Ephratah, Bethlehem, is man's order—fruitfulness before blessing (Gen. 35:1919And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. (Genesis 35:19))—blessing, then fruitfulness, Bethlehem-Ephratah (Mic. 5:22But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)) is God's way.
They have now not believed in Gentile mercy, in order that they also may be objects of mercy. The deliverer shall come out from Egypt. He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. Edar, Bethlehem, Zion mark His course, not Bethel, Ephrath, Edar, as Israel's: for unto Edar unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion: thou Bethlehem-Ephratah, out of thee shall He come forth unto me, to be ruler in Israel; and the Redeemer shall come to Zion.
Now draws Israel's sad history towards a close, as responsible in the land. “It came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, and Israel heard it."
The son dishonoureth the father, a man's enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore faith will look unto the Lord, and he who loves God's truth not alone obeys, as Abram, getting out of country, kindred, father's house, but is content to waive all right to that which in God's promise was his inheritance.
Israel understands not the things which are for his peace, the blessing in him and in his seed, and in his heart withholds the birthright, the inheritance, from Reuben, whose right it was; therefore is he a man cast loose, a wanderer, with no tie in all the land. He must go forth to Egypt, and faith owns the just decree, being ready to go hither, thither, at the word of God, even if it were from off the ground of promise, confiding in the power of God, the God of the living. It flees from place to place, witnessing of a rejected one, counting all things loss for his sake: content to be a little one, with little earthly blessing, that he may be greatest in the kingdom when the heavens rule; a friend of publicans and sinners, that wisdom may be justified of her children. It leaves home, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, and receives in this time an hundredfold with persecution.
“Israel heard it!” Jacob heard, and held his peace when folly had been wrought in Israel. In silence, and unwittingly, had God's claims been denied. In grief and pent-up wrath he disinherits Reuben in his heart. Thus what he would not do by faith, he does in inconsiderate haste. If faith fails to move a man, force goads him to God's goal.
Thus, with wives, twelve sons, and cattle and beasts, and all the substance which he had got in Padan Aram, Jacob came unto Isaac his father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. To him Ephratah-Bethlehem was as Padan Aram: to him Canaan was not God's land; oblivious, like Lot, of the word, “Canaan shall be his servant.” forgetful of the covenant, “I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession;” regardless of the promise, “the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed."
"Israel dwelt in that land,” “the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.” A sad declension! With God's title-deeds he bought peace, and a portion with the Amorites to dwell in, making thereof destruction and a grave; but, worse than this, he turns his father's sepulcher into a dwelling-place.
With all things lost, if he but take the path of one cast out, he may walk therein in fellowship with God. How good it is to know God's present truth, and act upon it! Thus to do would be at least to make requital for the wrong done Esau; and what as a Canaanite he bought in avarice, and got confirmed by fraud with balances of deceit; then seized by force—he loveth to oppress—that might he now in lowly grace give up. But no his eye saw, his hand took, his lust holds, and Esau, in mere grace of nature, profane as he is, takes God's part; for “Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance which he had got in the land of Canaan, and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob; for their riches were more than that they might dwell together: and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir."
In nature's grace, God's providence and faithfulness in seen things, Esau drinks deeply of his blessing—consistent and persistent in his course; pressing forward in his line of things to lay hold of the promise set before him; unconsciously the instrument on Jacob's failure, whereby God's election, purpose, and calling are established.
“The elder shall serve the younger!” serving him by selling him his birthright—a paltry price to pay for such a portion—yet prevailing to procure a blessing, and in the order of God's providence, which answers nature, breaking from off his neck his brother's yoke when, lust unworking, and in the strength of nature's hardihood, he heeds not Canaan's fruitful plains, where from his wealth of wives and children, goods and cattle, had been gathered, but leaves them in the hold of coveting, amassing Jacob, and goes forth to a land of rocks and separation.
Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir, and dukes and kings come of him ere there reigns any king over the children of Israel. So, by force and nature's grace regaining, as it were, his birthright on independent grounds, he takes dominion in the cast-off place, breaking his brother's yoke from off his neck.