Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTERS 27-35

Scripture Reading: Genesis 27-35 (KJV)

These chapters present the principal scenes in the history of Jacob. The Spirit of God here sets deep instruction before us, first, regarding God's purpose of infinite grace; and, second, regarding the worthlessness and depravity of human nature.

There is a passage in Genesis 25 that we purposely passed over, so that we might take it up now in reference to Jacob.

‘And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her: and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.’

This is referred to in Malachi, where we read, "I have loved you, saith the Lord: yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I have loved Jacob, and hated Esau." This is again referred to in Romans 9: ‘For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.’

God's eternal purpose is before us. There is much involved in this expression. It banishes human pretension from the scene, asserting God's right to act as He will. This is of major importance. The creature can enjoy no real blessedness until he is brought to bow his head to sovereign grace. It becomes him so to do, because he is a sinner, and, as such, utterly without claim to act or dictate. There is great value in finding oneself on this ground is. Then, and only then, it is no longer a question of what we deserve to get, but what God is pleased to give. The prodigal might talk of being a servant, but he really did not deserve the place of a servant; therefore, he had to take what the father was pleased to give. Thus it must always be. "Grace all the work shall crown, through everlasting days." Happy for us it is so. Day by day, as we make fresh discoveries of ourselves, we need to have beneath our feet the solid foundation of God's grace: nothing else could possibly sustain us as we grow in self-knowledge. Our ruin is hopeless, and therefore the grace must be infinite: and infinite it is. Its source is in God Himself; its channel is in Christ; its power of application and enjoyment is in the Holy Spirit. The Trinity¹ is brought out in connection with the grace that saves a sinner. "Grace reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." Only in redemption can this reign of grace be seen. We may see in creation the reign of wisdom and power; we may see in providence the reign of goodness and long-suffering; but only in redemption do we see the reign of grace.

In the person of Jacob, we have a most striking exhibition of the power of Divine grace; and for this reason we have in him a striking exhibition of the power of human nature. In Jacob we see nature in all its obliquity, and grace in all its moral beauty and power. From his remarkable history, it seems that before his birth, at his birth, and after his birth, the extraordinary energy of nature was seen. Before his birth, we read, "the children struggled together within her." At his birth, we read, "his hand took hold on Esau's heel." And, after his birth to the turning point of his history in Genesis 32, his course without any exception exhibits the most unamiable traits of nature. However, all this, like a drab background, only serves to throw into view the grace of Him who condescends to call Himself by the peculiarly touching name, "the God of Jacob" – a name most assuredly expressive of free grace.

Let us now examine the chapters consecutively. Genesis 27 exhibits a humbling picture of sensuality, deceit, and cunning; and when one thinks of such things in connection with the people of God, it is very sad and painful. Yet how true and faithful is the Holy Spirit. He tells all. He cannot give us a partial picture. If He gives us a history of man, He must describe man as he is, hiding nothing. So, if He unfolds the character and ways of God, He gives us God as He is. And certainly this is exactly what we need. We need the revelation of One perfect in holiness, yet perfect in grace and mercy; One who could come down into the depth of man's need, his misery and degradation, and deal with him there; One who could raise him up out of it into full, unhindered fellowship with Himself in all the reality of what He is. This is what Scripture gives us. God knew what we needed, and He has given it to us – blessed be His name.

We need to remember that what God lovingly sets before us all the traits of man's character, it is for the purpose of magnifying the riches of Divine grace, and to admonish our souls. It is not to perpetuate the memory of sins, forever blotted out from His sight. The blots, failures, and errors of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have been perfectly washed away. They have taken their place amid "the spirits of just men made perfect;" but, on the pages of Inspiration, their history remains for the display of God's grace, and for the warning of God's people in all ages – so that we may distinctly see that the blessed God has not been dealing with perfect men and women, but with those of "like passions as we are;" that He has been walking with and bearing the same failures, the same infirmities, the same errors, as those over which we mourn every day. This is peculiarly comforting to the heart; and stands in striking contrast with the way in which the great majority of human biographies are written. For the most part, we find in them not the history of men, but of beings devoid of error and infirmity. Therefore, histories often have the effect of discouraging rather than edifying those who read them, becoming histories of what men ought to be, rather than of what they really are.

Nothing can edify like the presentation of God dealing with man as he really is; and this is what the Word of God gives us. The chapter before us illustrates this very well. We find here the aged patriarch Isaac, standing, as it were, at the very portal of eternity, the earth and nature fast fading from his view. Yet, he is occupied about "savoury meat," and about to act in direct opposition to Divine counsel by blessing the elder instead of the younger. Truly this was nature with its "eyes dim." If Esau had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a mess of venison. How humiliating.

But God's purpose must stand, and He will do His pleasure. Faith knows this; and, in the power of that knowledge, can wait for God's time. But nature can never do this. Instead, it must set about gaining its own ends by its own inventions. So, there are the two points brought out in Jacob's history: God's purpose of grace, on the one hand; and on the other, nature plotting and scheming to reach what that purpose would have infallibly brought about, without any plot or scheme. This amazingly simplifies Jacob's history and also heightens the soul's interest in it. Perhaps there is nothing in which we are as lamentably deficient as in the grace of patient, self-renouncing dependence on God. Nature is always working in some shape or form, attempting to hinder the outshining of God’s grace and power. In order to accomplish His purpose, God did not need the aid of such elements as Rebekah's cunning and Jacob's gross deceit. He had said, "The elder shall serve the younger." This was enough for faith, but not enough for nature, because human nature must always adopt its own ways, knowing nothing about waiting on God.

Nothing is more truly blessed than the position of hanging in child-like dependence on God; being content to wait for His time. True, it involves trial; but the renewed mind learns some of its deepest lessons, and enjoys some of its sweetest experiences, while waiting on the Lord; and the more pressing the temptation to take ourselves out of His hands, the richer the blessing of leaving ourselves there. It is exceedingly sweet to find ourselves wholly dependent on One Who finds infinite joy in blessing us. Only those who have tasted, even in little measure, the reality of this wondrous position can appreciate it. The only One Who ever occupied it perfectly and uninterruptedly was the Lord Jesus Himself. He was always dependent on God, and utterly rejected every proposal of the enemy to be anything else. His language was, "In thee do I put my trust;" and again, "I was cast upon thee from the womb." So, when tempted by the devil to make an effort to satisfy hunger, His reply was, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." When tempted to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple, His reply was, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." When tempted to take the kingdoms of the world from the hand of Satan, His reply was, "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." In a word, nothing could allure the Perfect Man from the place of absolute dependence on God. True, it was God's purpose to sustain His Son; it was His purpose that He should suddenly come to His temple; it was His purpose to give Him the kingdoms of this world; but this was the very reason why the Lord Jesus simply and uninterruptedly waited on God for the accomplishment of His purpose, in His own time, and in His own way. Jesus did not set about accomplishing His own ends. He left Himself thoroughly at God's disposal. He would only eat when God gave Him bread; He would only enter the temple when sent by God; He will ascend the throne when God appoints the time. "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool" (Ps. 110).

This profound subjection of the Son to the Father is admirable beyond expression. Though entirely equal with God, as man, He took the place of dependence, rejoicing always in the will of the Father; giving thanks even when things seemed to be against Him; always doing the things that pleased the Father; making it His grand and unvarying object to glorify the Father. Finally, when all was accomplished, when He had perfectly finished the work that the Father had given, He breathed His spirit into the Father's hand, and His flesh rested in hope of the promised glory and exaltation. Therefore, the inspired apostle said: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

In the opening of his history, Jacob knew little of this blessed mind. How little prepared he was to wait for God's time and God's way. He much preferred Jacob's time and Jacob's way. He thought it better to arrive at the blessing and the inheritance by all sorts of cunning and deception, than by simple dependence on and subjection to God, whose grace had promised and whose almighty power and wisdom would assuredly accomplish for him.

But, we know well the opposition of the human heart to the attitude of patiently waiting on God. In language not to be misunderstood, this tells us the true character of human nature. In order to know what nature is, we need not travel into vice and crime that justly shock all refined moral sense. No; all that is needful is simply trying dependence on God for a while, and we’ll soon see how nature carries itself there. Human nature really knows nothing of God, and therefore cannot trust Him. Herein was the secret of all its misery and moral degradation. It is totally ignorant of the true God, and therefore can be nothing else but a ruined and worthless thing. The knowledge of God is the source of life – yea, life itself; and until a man has life, what is he? Or what can he be?

In Rebekah and Jacob we see nature taking advantage of nature in Isaac and Esau. There was no waiting on God. Isaac's eyes were dim; therefore, he could be imposed upon, and they set about doing so, instead of looking to God, Who would have no doubt frustrated Isaac's purpose to bless the one whom God would not bless – a purpose founded in nature, for "Isaac loved Esau," not because he was the first-born, but "because he did eat of his venison." How humiliating!

But, when we take ourselves, our circumstances, or our destinies out of the hands of God, we are sure to bring unmixed sorrow upon ourselves.² Thus it was with Jacob. Observing Jacob's life, we perceive that after he had surreptitiously obtained his father's blessing, he enjoyed little worldly felicity. To avoid his brother’s murder plans, Jacob was forced to flee from his father's house; his uncle Laban deceived him as he had deceived his father, and treated Jacob with great rigor. After a servitude of twenty-one years, Jacob was obliged to leave him in a clandestine manner, and not without danger of being brought back or murdered by his enraged brother. No sooner were these fears over, than Jacob experienced the baseness of his son Reuben, in defiling his bed; he next bewailed the treachery and cruelty of Simeon and Levi toward the Shechemites. Then he felt the loss of his beloved wife; was imposed on by his own sons, and lamented the supposed untimely end of Joseph. To complete it all, famine forced him to go into Egypt, and there he died in a strange land.

While this is a true picture of Jacob, it only provides one side – the gloomy side. But, there is a bright side. In every scene of his life, when Jacob was called to reap the fruits of his own plotting and crookedness, the God of Jacob brought good out of evil, causing His grace to abound over all the sin and folly of His servant. This we shall see as we proceed with his history.

Let us briefly consider Isaac, Rebekah, and Esau. Notwithstanding the exhibition of nature's excessive weakness, it is very interesting to observe how in the opening of Genesis 27, Isaac, by faith, maintains the dignity that God had conferred on him. Notice how he blesses with all the consciousness of being endowed with power to bless! Isaac says, ‘I have blessed him; yea, and he shall be blessed. Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him; and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?’

By faith, he speaks as one who, by faith, had all the treasures of earth at his disposal. There is no false humility, no taking a low ground by reason of the manifestation of nature. Though he was on the eve of making a grievous mistake, still, he knew God and took his place accordingly, dispensing blessings in all the dignity and power of faith. "I have blessed him; yea, and he shall be blessed." "With corn and wine have I sustained him." It is the proper province of faith to rise above one's failure and the consequences thereof, into the place where God's grace has set us.

Rebekah was called to feel all the sad results of her cunning actions. No doubt, she imagined she was skillfully managing matters; but, she never saw Jacob again – so much for management. How different it would have been had she left the matter entirely in the hands of God. This is the way faith manages, and it is ever a gainer. "Which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit?" We gain nothing through anxiety and planning; we only shut out God, and that is no gain. It is a just judgment from the hand of God to be left to reap the fruits of our own devices. There are few things sadder than seeing children of God forgetting theirs proper place and privilege, taking the management of their affairs into their own hands. The birds of the air and the lilies of the field should be our teachers and examples when we forget our position of unqualified dependence on God.

Regarding Esau, the apostle calls him "a profane person, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright," and "afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of change of mind, though he sought it carefully with tears." Thus we learn what a profane person is – one who would like to hold both worlds; one who would like to enjoy the present, without forfeiting title to the future. This is, by no means, an uncommon case, but expresses the worldly mind whose conscience has never felt the action of Divine truth, and whose heart has never felt the influence of divine grace.

We now trace Jacob in his movement from under his father’s roof to a homeless and lonely wanderer. It is here that God's special dealings with him commence. In some measure, Jacob now begins to realize the bitter fruit of his conduct, relating to Esau. At the same time, God is seen rising above the weakness and folly of His servant, displaying His own sovereign grace and profound wisdom. God will accomplish His own purpose; no matter by what instrumentality; but if in impenitence of spirit and unbelief of heart, we take ourselves out of His hands, then we must expect sorrowful exercise and painful discipline. It was so with Jacob: he might not have had to flee to Haran, had he allowed God to act for him. Most assuredly, God would have dealt with Esau, causing him to find his destined place and portion; and Jacob might have enjoyed that sweet peace that comes only from subjecting all things to the hand and counsel of God.

But here is where the excessive feebleness of our hearts is constantly disclosed. We do not lie passive in God's hand; we are always acting; and our acting hinders the display of God's grace and power on our behalf. "Be still and know that I am God," is a precept that nothing save the power of divine grace can enable us to obey. “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." What will be the result of this activity? "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall garrison your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:5-7).

However, God graciously overrules our folly and weakness, and while we reap the fruits of our unbelieving and impatient ways, God uses them to teach our hearts still deeper lessons of His own tender grace and perfect wisdom. This wonderfully exhibits the goodness of our God, comforting the heart while we are passing through the painful circumstances resulting from our failure. It is God’s special prerogative to bring good out of evil; to make the eater yield meat, and the strong yield sweetness. Therefore, while it is true that Jacob was compelled to be an exile from his father's roof as a result of his restlessness and deceitfulness, it is equally true that he could not have learned the meaning of "Bethel" had he stayed quietly at home. So, there are two sides of the picture revealed in every scene of Jacob's history. When he was driven from Isaac's house by his own folly, he was led to taste, in some measure, the blessedness and solemnity of "God's house."

"And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep."

Here the homeless wanderer is in a position for God to meet him and unfold His purposes of grace and glory. Nothing could possibly be more expressive of helplessness and nothingness than Jacob's condition in this place – on a pillow of stone, beneath the open canopy of heaven, in the helpless condition of sleep. In this particular place, at this particular time, the God of Bethel unfolded to Jacob His purposes pertaining to him and his seed.

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

This is simply "grace and glory." The ladder "set on the earth" naturally leads the heart to meditate on God's grace in the Person and work of His Son. The accomplishment of this wondrous work formed the strong and everlasting basis of all the Divine counsels regarding Israel, the Church, and the world at large. On the earth Jesus lived, labored, and died; so that through His death He might remove every obstacle to the accomplishment of the Divine purpose of blessing man.

But "the top of the ladder reached to heaven," forming the medium of communication between heaven and earth. "Behold the angels of God ascending and descending upon it" – striking and beautiful picture of Him by Whom God has come down to the depth of man's need, and by Whom He has brought man up and set him in His own presence forever, in the power of Divine righteousness! God has made provision for the accomplishment of all His plans, despite man's folly and sin; and it is everlasting joy when, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the soul finds itself within the limits of God's gracious purpose.

The prophet Hosea leads us on to the time when that which was foreshadowed by Jacob's ladder reaches full accomplishment.

"And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle, out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies; I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God" (Hosea 2:18-23).

There is also an expression in the New Testament, bearing upon Jacob's remarkable vision; it is Christ's word to Nathanael, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (Jn. 1: 51).

Jacob's vision is a blessed disclosure of Divine grace to Israel. We have been led to see something of Jacob's real character, something, too, of his real condition. Both were evidently showing that, for him, it would either be Divine grace or nothing. Jacob had no claim by birth or by character. Esau might put forward some claim on both these grounds; but Jacob had no claim whatsoever if God's prerogative were set aside. So, while Esau could only stand on the exclusion of God's prerogative, Jacob could only stand on the introduction and establishment thereof. Jacob was such a sinner and so utterly divested of all claim, both by birth and practice that he had nothing whatever to rest on save God's purpose of pure, free, and sovereign grace. Hence, God’s revelation, while Jacob slept on a pillow of stone, is a simple record or prediction of what He Himself would yet do. "I am . . . I will give . . . I will keep . . . I will bring . . . I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." It was all Himself. There is no condition whatever. When grace acts there can be no “if” or “but.” Where there is an “if,” it cannot possibly be grace. This is not to say that God cannot put man into a position of responsibility, while addressing him with an “if.” We know He can; but Jacob asleep on a pillow of stone was not a position of responsibility, but rather the deepest helplessness and need. Therefore he was in a position to receive a revelation of full, rich, and unconditional grace.

Actually, it was a blessing to be in such a condition; having nothing to rest on except God Himself – it is in this most perfect establishment of God's own character and prerogative that we obtain our true joy and blessing. According to this principle, we experience irreparable loss when we attempt to stand on our own ground, because when, in that case, God addresses us on the ground of responsibility, our failure is inevitable.

It was Jacob’s failure to recognize this that led him into so much sorrow and pressure. God's revelation of Himself is one thing; our resting in that revelation is quite another. God shows Himself to Jacob in infinite grace; but no sooner does Jacob awake, than we find his true character developing, proving how little he really knew of the blessed One who had just revealed Himself to him so marvelously. "He was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." His heart was not at home in the presence of God; nor can any heart be until it has been thoroughly emptied and broken. God is at home with a broken heart, and a broken heart is at home with Him. But Jacob's heart was not yet in this condition; he had not yet learned to repose, like a little child, in the perfect love of the One Who could say, "Jacob have I loved." "Perfect love casteth out fear;" but where such love is not known and fully realized, there will always be a measure of uneasiness and perturbation. God's house and God's presence are not dreadful to a soul who knows the love of God as expressed in the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Such a soul is led to say," Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth" (Ps. 26:8). And again, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple" (Ps. 27:4). And again, "How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord" (Ps. 84). When the heart is established in the knowledge of God, it will assuredly love His house, whatever the character of that house may be, whether it be Bethel, the temple at Jerusalem, or the Church now composed of all true believers, "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." However, at this point in Jacob’s history, his knowledge of God and His house was very shallow.

We will later have occasion to refer to some principles connected with Bethel; but now we close our meditations on this chapter with a brief notice of Jacob's bargain with God, so truly characteristic of him, and so demonstrative of the truth of the above statement regarding the shallowness of his knowledge of the Divine character.

‘And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.’

Observe, "if God will be with me." The Lord had just emphatically said, "I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land," etc. And yet poor Jacob's heart cannot get beyond an "if," or rise higher than "bread to eat, and raiment put on." Jacob had such thoughts even though he had witnessed the magnificent vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with the Lord standing above, promising an innumerable seed, and an everlasting possession. He was evidently unable to grasp the reality and fullness of God's thoughts; No doubt measuring God by himself, thus utterly failing to apprehend Him. In short, Jacob had not reached the end of himself; and hence he had not really begun with God.

"Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east." As saw in Genesis 28, Jacob utterly fails to apprehend God's real character, and meets the rich grace of Bethel with an "if" and a bargain about food and raiment. We now follow him into that scene of bargain-making. There is no possibility of escaping from "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Jacob had not yet found his true level in the presence of God; therefore, God uses circumstances to chasten and break him down.

This is the real secret of much sorrow and trial in the world. Our hearts have never been really broken before the Lord; we have never been self-judged and self-emptied; and hence, again and again, we seem to knock our heads against the wall. No one can really enjoy God until reaching the bottom of self, and for this plain reason God has begun the display of Himself at the very point at which the end of flesh is seen. Therefore, if we have not reached the end of our flesh, in the deep and positive experience of our soul, it is morally impossible that we can have any apprehension of God's character. But, in some way or other, we must be conducted to the true measure of nature. To accomplish this, the Lord makes use of various agencies that are only effectual when used by Him for the purpose of disclosing in our view the true character of our hearts. As in Jacob’s case, how often do we find that although the Lord may come near to us, and speak to us through His Word, yet we do not understand His voice, or take our true place in His presence. "The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not . . . How dreadful is this place!" Jacob learned nothing by all this, and even twenty years of terrible schooling was not sufficient to break him down.

However, it is remarkable to see how he gets back into an atmosphere that is suited to his moral constitution. The bargain-making Jacob meets with the bargain-making Laban and they are both seen, as it were, straining every nerve to outwit each other. We should not wonder at Laban, because he had never been to Bethel: he had not seen an open heaven, with a ladder reaching down to earth. He had heard no magnificent promises from Jehovah, securing the land of Canaan for him, with a countless seed. Therefore, it is no marvel that he should exhibit a grasping groveling spirit; he had no other resource. It is useless to expect from worldly people anything but a worldly spirit, worldly principles and ways. But, after all he had seen and heard at Bethel, to find Jacob struggling with a man of the world, and endeavoring by such means to accumulate property, is peculiarly humbling.

It is not uncommon in our age to find the children of God forgetting their high destinies and heavenly inheritance, descending with the children of this world into the arena of this world, struggling there for the riches and honors of a perishing, sin-stricken earth. This has grown to such an extent that in many instances it is hard to trace a single evidence of the apostle John’s "overcometh the world." Looking at Jacob and Laban and judging them on natural principles, it would be hard to trace any difference. We need to get behind the scenes, entering into God's thoughts about both, in order to see how widely they differ. But it was God that made them to differ, not Jacob; and so it is now. Difficult as it may be to trace any difference between the children of light and the children of darkness, there is, nevertheless, a wide difference – a difference founded on the solemn fact that the former are "the vessels of mercy, which God has before prepared unto glory," while the latter are "the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction" (Rom. 9:22, 23).³ This reveals a serious difference. The Jacobs and the Labans differ materially, have differed, and will differ forever, though the former may sadly fail in the realization and practical exhibition of their true character and dignity.

In Jacob's case, as set forth in the three chapters now before us, all his toiling working and bargaining is the result of his ignorance of God's grace, and his inability to put implicit confidence in God's promise. The man who, after an unqualified promise from God to give him the whole land of Canaan, could say "If God will give me food to eat and raiment to put on," had only a faint apprehension of either who God was or what His promise was, or both; and because of this we see him seeking to do the best he can for himself. This is always the way when grace is not understood: the principles of grace may be professed, but the real measure of our experience of the power of grace is quite another thing. One would think that Jacob's vision had told him a tale of grace; but God's revelation at Bethel and Jacob's actions at Haran, represent two very different things; yet the latter reveals Jacob's sense of the former. No matter what we may profess, character and conduct prove the real measure of the soul's experience and conviction. But Jacob had not yet measured himself in God's presence, and therefore he was ignorant of grace, and he proved his ignorance by measuring himself with Laban, and adopting his maxims and ways.

Because Jacob failed to learn and judge the inherent character of his flesh before God, he was therefore, by the providence of God, led to Haran, the country of Laban and Rebekah, the very school from whence those principles he was so remarkably adapted to had emanated; where they were taught, exhibited, and maintained. To learn what God was, one needed to go to Bethel. To learn what man was, the place to go was Haran. But since Jacob had failed to take in God's revelation of Himself at Bethel, he went to Haran, and there showed what he was – what scrambling and scraping! What shuffling and shifting! There is no holy and elevated confidence in God, no simply looking to and waiting on Him. True, God was with Jacob – for nothing can hinder the outshining of Divine grace. Still, Jacob cannot allow God to settle the question regarding his wives and wages, but seeks to settle everything by his own cunning and management. In short, it is "the supplanter" throughout. For example, consider Genesis 30:37-42; a masterly piece of cunning. It is verily a perfect picture of Jacob. Instead of allowing God to multiply "the ringstraked, speckled, and spotted cattle," he sets about securing their multiplication by a policy that could only have found its origin in the mind of a Jacob. So, after all his actions during his twenty years' sojourn with Laban, he characteristically, "steals away," thus maintaining his consistency with self.

In tracing out Jacob's real character, from stage to stage throughout his extraordinary history, one gets a wondrous view of Divine grace. Only God could have put up with him; but then grace begins at the lowest point; taking us as we are and dealing with us in the full intelligence of what we are. From the first, it is important to understand this feature of grace; it enables us to steadfastly bear our discoveries of personal vileness, which frequently shake the confidence and disturb the peace of the children of God.

Hence, as they journey on their course, they begin to make deeper discoveries of the evil within, and being deficient in their apprehensions of God's grace, and the extent and efficiency of the sacrifice of Christ, they begin to raise questions as to whether they are children of God at all. Sadly they are taken away from Christ, and thrown on themselves. Then they either fall into the legalism of ordinances, in order to keep up their tone of devotion, or else they fall back into worldliness. These are disastrous consequences, resulting from not having "the heart established in grace."

Footnotes:
¹ For more information on the Trinity see "God's Fullness" in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
² We should always remember that what we want in a place of trial is not a change of circumstances, but victory over self.
³ In Romans 9, as well as throughout Scripture, the spiritual mind notices how sedulously the Spirit of God guards against the horrid inference the human mind draws from consideration of God's election. When speaking of "vessels of wrath," Holy Scripture simply says "fitted to destruction" - not that God "fitted" them. On the other hand, God's Word refers to "the vessels of mercy" by saying, "whom he had afore prepared unto glory." This is important to understand. Matthew 25:34-41 contains another striking and beautiful instance of the same thing. In verse 34, when the king addresses those on His right hand, He says "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." But, when He addresses those on His left, He says, "Depart from me ye cursed." He does not say "cursed of My Father." Further, in verse 41 He says "into everlasting fire, prepared," not for you, but "for the devil and his angels." It seems plain that God has "prepared" a kingdom of glory and "vessels of mercy" to inherit that kingdom; but, He has not prepared "everlasting fire" for men, but for the "devil and his angels"; nor has He fitted the "vessels of wrath" - they have fitted themselves. The Word of God as clearly establishes "election" as it sedulously guards against "reprobation." Those who find themselves in heaven will have only God to thank; and those who find themselves in hell will have only themselves to thank.

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