Paul, the faithful steward, thrice besought that the thorn for the flesh might depart from him: in this his will be done. The holy servant Jesus prayed intently three times, fearing the cup, “not My will, Thine be done."
Three times Jacob parleys with the Lord. Three times by craft had he procured his ends—ends ordered of the Lord. He takes away his brother's birthright, his blessing, and his uncle's herds, but throughout Jacob's prayer is that his will, not God's, be done.
Thrice had Isaac failed to bestow the blessing in its fullness Therefore the Lord brings Jacob out to a certain place, the sun being set, the stones of that place being for his pillow, and in a vision of the night gives him an unstinted weed of blessing. The promise is first, “To thee will I give the land whereon thou liest, and to thy seed.” Then is the blessing, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Thus, comes first the birthright, which is to the heir according to promise, then the blessing which runs in the genealogy; the first dependent for its enjoyment upon faith and patience; the latter absolute, and inseparable from the stock.
See the perfect fruition of this mere seed sown first in Abraham, Gal. 3:6-14. “In thee all the nations shall be blessed” —blessed with Abraham—his blessing. Here is the blessing first, “justification of life,” the absolute blessing running inalienably in the line of the chosen seed; afterward the promise (Gal. 3:15- 29; 4:1-7), the birthright, the inheritance on the principle of promise made, “to thy seed,” not to “seeds as of many, but as of one, even Christ;” but “ye all are one in Christ Jesus, but if ye are of Christ, then ye are Abraham's aced, heirs according to promise.” Thus the Gentiles being “God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus,” and the Jew “redeemed from under law, that he may receive sonship,” God sends out the Spirit of His Son into their “hearts, crying Abba, Father."
In the passage now before us God gave Jacob the birthright—the inheritance by promise—and the blessing inalienable in the seed, “in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Besides, He says,” I am with thee.” But Jacob is a merchant, lusting after flesh, desiring to lay up treasure to himself, therefore bargains he with God, and vows a vow; but lust of flesh in hidden energy is the active cause, and bursts forth instantly that flesh is seen. “He looked.” What filled his eyes? “A well,” “three flocks,” Rachel and the sheep of Laban. Hitherto flesh-lust had wrought, coveting the unseen things—the birthright and the blessing: now eye-lust is added, though, perhaps, to Jacob's self unknown. Flesh to the full unfills his lust. Leah, Rachel, at Laban's offer, since suiting Jacob's will; then Bilhah, urged by Rachel, just meeting, it may be, his heart's thought. Lastly, Zilpah, Leah's gift, acceptable to him.
Jacob calls it righteousness, just what he ought to have; but, still unsatisfied, he wanders farther in his crooked paths; in conscious craft he works to take his fill of flesh, and having got it, hastens to depart. But knowing that the balances of deceit are in his hand, he carefully puts from him the thought of God, and not “Thy will be done” with, chiding claims from man his rights.
But God's grace does not leave him, though he say, “I am become rich; I have found out substance in all my labors; they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.” Yet his God would have him “dwell in Succoth,” and know no God but Him, for there is “no Savior beside him.” So the angels of God meet him, and He forces Jacob, by dint of fear, to weep, and make supplication to Him. His own will He had done in providing for himself, though God had wrought it; now be has power over the angel, and prevails to have the blessing in his own way—not God's will and way—moved by the lust of his eyes—the things which are seen. The glory of the unseen God is out of his thought. God had shown truth and mercies to what, a servant? Now he pleads “the mother and the children.” Jacob selfish at the bottom! He gets his heart's desire, but is “blessed there.” His course runs in God's way, and yet athwart, who smites him not, but withers up his strength—an utter contrast to the steps of Christ! Jacob says in heart, “My will be done,” and has his flesh: afterward his cry is, “Not thy will” —seemingly to get a blessing, really asking that God's will should be set aside. He grants this prayer, and blesses him, but there.
That for which he asks he has. He got the flesh he lusted for, and now he keeps it.
He has provided for his own house, but his conscience tells him God's house has been quite uncared for; left in far-off Luz, a bare stone; and grudging the needed outlay and supply to raise and keep it, therefore necessarily his prayer must be,” Not thy will be done.” For this end he is willing to give up the cattle, if that the mother and the children may be spared: but at bottom it is Jacob's self he clings to, for there lies lust of flesh, which says, “My will be done.” From thence acts eye-lust, saying, “Not thy will be done."
May we turn aside to see this great sight—a man tempted, and failing not? Also note the perfectness of God's revelation. Matthew sees the beloved Son fulfilling God the Father's will and counsels. God only is set before Him. “My Father, thy will be done.” (Matt. 26:42.) Therefore He is carried by the Spirit, as thus not led nor driven, answering the tempter, who by craft opposes God, by bringing God Himself upon the scene, and His spoken will, “Every word which goes out through God's mouth.” No lust of flesh is in Him, but as man mere dependence on the will of God. “My Father, thy will be done.” Then in order comes trust in God, not flesh working by sight, not hankering to see some acknowledgment from God that He was with Him. His voice and word had been enough—not tempting God, however plausibly, by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Ex. 17:7.)
The words, “to keep thee” (Luke 6:10), are left out here. They passed His ear unheeded, as this cry filled His soul, “My Father, thy will be done."
In due place the third temptation, pride of life, proceeds. The two last show the evil one unveiled, and Jesus, with the will of God alone in view, is taken by him—thus not led; a very high mountain is the place; the kingdoms of the world and their glory the scene; and these are more looked at as connected with the will of God—more the systems than the men composing them. Filled thus with God's mind, and God's will before Him, instantly the wrath of Jesus flames forth on the foe. “Get thee away, Satan."
Turn now to Mark: all here is active energy. The Spirit drives him out— “Abba, Father, not what I will.” Amazed, oppressed in spirit, and His soul soon fall of grief—one long outlook to the end—one long prayer that His will, good, holy, and acceptable, should not be willed, but God's. Self, divinely perfect, set aside—all touching only self unnoted, He is a servant only: no pride of life.
Luke now claims attention. “Father, not my will, thine be done,” is here His thought; and by the Spirit He is led to meet the unveiled devil with whom He had to cope, who, if departing from him for a time, would come again in the power of darkness, so that the whole land and the sun should be darkened. So the devil Jesus answered, and we find the word of God man's life: man, even the Son of man, on God depending, not on what flesh desires. Nay, even “Not my will.” Therefore follows the further truth, “Father, thy will be done.” No pride of life. Led up as a man into a high mountain, shown the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time; all that could captivate or seduce a man, offered Him then and there, for whom all things were made. In the calmness of His prayer, “Father, thy will be done,” He says, “It is written, Thou shalt do homage to the Lord thy God.” Now, as a man to go forth with the prayer upon His lips, “Father, not my will, thine be done,” He asked not to see aught as proof that God would keep Him. God was with Him of a truth. He will not tempt the Lord. No lust of eyes was in Him.
John gives us the One come from the Father, going to the Father, glorifying Him upon the earth, completing the work given Him to do. Therefore the circumstances falling by the way are unrecorded. The meeting wile, with word at the onset, and power with prayer at its close, have no place. It is the Word who is God, the only-begotten Son, declaring God His Father, giving signs on earth, but eternal life and Spirit for heavenly worshippers.
We have seen the lust of the flesh in Jacob—as a merchant bargaining to get it filled..” If God will, I will.” Also the lust of the eyes, by which flesh acts. He seeks, by holding deceitful balances, to get and keep his gain. “I am become two bands.... deliver me the mother and the children Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good.” Whether first or last, it is Jacob still, and eye-lust working. “He lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, Esau.” So Jacob acts as guided by his eyes, and settles his surroundings by himself, not the Lord his center; “he put first the handmaid and their children foremost, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost, and he went first,” and bowed himself to the ground seven times, forgetful of the word of God and the blessing he had schemed to get.
How God delights to own an act of grace! The merest fragment of that work which He had seen was very good and blessed! Would God-manifest-in-flesh illustrate perfectly the grace of God the Father? These very words He chooses to reveal the workings of His heart. “He ran, fell on his neck, and covered him with kisses."
But see the reason why the Spirit draws attention to this scene Where was Esau's action like to God's? or Jacob's as the conscience-stricken sinner born of Adam? Is it not in this that, as the prodigal had thought to win his father's favor by fair words, it was the goings forth of self-born love, long ere, a whisper could have reached his ear of good or ill, that moved the father with compassion, seeing his wretched son a great way off? Thus Jacob, vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind, a man independent, has no understanding of free grace in God nor man, but counts himself a power in himself before God, and able to do something, even though it were only to own Jehovah his God, to make a stone His house, and of what He gave to render back a tenth. As to man, supplanted and deceived, he cannot credit him with grace. Wrong thoughts of God so thoroughly had warped his mind, that nature even he cannot rightly judge. In order to begin aright in heart, or mind, or act, one must be right with God.
Just see how vain are Jacob's plans to buy a pardon with a present! Yet perhaps he claims the honor of the happy issue. Jacob said, “I will appease him with a present.".... “I have sent to tell my lord that I may find grace in thy sight.” But Esau had not even seen the women-servants and men-servants, or flocks, and asses, and oxen, until he had wept upon his brother's neck, and then “he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and children, and said, Who are these?” and as to the droves, he knew not what it meant till Jacob told him, and then he took it not as price of pardon, but as Jacob's blessing.
The same principles are shown, whether in a fragment of nature ruined, yet bearing the stamp of God's creation, or in Godhead manifested, grace, free, full, unbought, unfettered, springing from itself, which works to satisfy itself in blessing others, measuring the blessing by itself, not the object.
We have seen the self-existent Man depending wholly, and the “one” who lived by a life supplied from God unsubject. The One had said, “My Father, thy will be done;” the other, “Give me my wife.” Now we enter on another stage. That One had said, “Abba, Father, not what I will” this one says in heart, “Not what Thou wilt.” The Lord said unto Jacob, “Return unto the land of thy fathers;” and Jacob had even dreamed that God had said, “Return unto the land of thy kindred;” and had he not “risen up to go to Isaac his father;” and to Esau he affirmed, “I ensue unto my lord to Seir.” But what does he? “Jacob came to Shalem and pitched his tent before the city,” and even buys a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred lambs. (See margin.)
Notice here, this was no sepulcher bought for a sum of money; it was Abraham alone did thus. Jacob buys a place to live in, purchasing from man God's gift to him; even as before he got by craft God's gift of grace and Isaac's blessing; giving up the rights of God, indeed denying them, in order to re-purchase for himself.
“Machpelah before Mamre, the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan, and the field and the cave that is therein, did Abraham buy for four hundred shekels of silver for a possession of a burying-place of the sons of Heth;” standing for the rights of God, owning his rights in God; owning indeed the curse and the children of it, and the title they had under it, according to the word, “cursed be Canaan.” As a burying place to Canaan it belonged; for such a purpose a possession must be bought. But if to live in, then the land belongs to Abraham as lord; for so the word by Noah had been spoken, “Canaan shall be his servant.” Abraham buys a place to bury in, and lives in it. Jacob bargains for a parcel of a field to live in, and it becomes a place of judgment, death and burial.
How divinely accurate the scriptures! When Jacob in his faith is looked at, and to faith is standing for the fathers, then it tells how they were “placed in the sepulcher which Abraham bought for a sum of money.” But if the faith of Joseph fix the eye of the believer, then in him the scripture says, “Our fathers were carried over to Sychem.... of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.” No mention of a sepulcher, nor purchase; for to faith, however many lambs might be the price, “the portion Jacob took out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow."
Wondrous are the ways of God! That which man will not do in fellowship with Him, He does perforce; while faith denies man's deed and owns God's work. Gen. 48:22.
Why does God confirm the outcome of an act of fierce anger, cruel wrath, that brings a curse? Because if not, His way in grace might be impugned. Man in nature has no rights, for life and strength are forfeited to God. Blessing flows from grace; right comes by faith to man. If anything is due to him, it is wrath alone: else were grace set aside. So when God's man, Jacob, holds as valid the title of the world, God, that He may bring grace in truth, must own it too. Thence comes the Passover in Egypt, the sprinkling of the blood: the cross of Christ, and the archangel's voice.
Thus is Jacob all things to all men, if by any means he might profit himself; willing enough to return to the land of his kindred, but not to his kindred as God had said; for between him and them stood the place of sacrifice and obedience to God. (Gen. 31:8, 11, 12) Knowing God's will, if told to do whatever He had said. To Esau he replied, “I come to Seir."