029. Jacob--Fearing Esau
Jacob--Fearing Esau
Gen 32:9-11. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto, me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I 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. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. The man who is instructed to “acknowledge God in all his ways,” and he only, has found out the road that leads to true happiness. The cup of prosperity wants its choicest ingredient when the love of our heavenly Father, is not tasted in it. The bitterest potion, when mingled by his hand, we can drink with confidence and cheerfulness. It is pleasant to a man, to see his own sagacity and diligence crowned with success. But very imperfect is that pleasure unless he can look up and say with submission and gratitude, “the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow therewith.” There is a virulence in the ills which we bring upon ourselves, or which flow from the unkindness and injustice of others, that corrodes the heart, and depresses the spirit. But calamity, the appointment of Heaven, calamity the discipline of a Father’s care and wisdom, brings its own relief along with it. The very poison, if administered by his hand, becomes its own antidote, and what threatened to kill, effects a cure.
It would greatly tend to improve our wisdom, to promote our piety, and increase our pleasure, to take frequent and particular reviews of our own life; and to observe the changes which have taken place in our circumstances from time to time, in connection with the means and instruments which Providence more clearly or more obscurely has employed, and through which our enterprises have succeeded or failed. Many, very many, have arrived at situations to which once in their lives they durst not have presumed to aspire. But their present elevation and prosperity want their brightest ornament and their firmest support if they be destitute of that spirit which good Jacob breathes in the words which I have read--that spirit which ascribes every acquisition, every blessing to the wonder-working hand of indulgent Heaven.
Few men have experienced greater varieties, greater reverses of condition than our patriarch. But we find him perpetually gathering strength from the hardships which he endured, supporting a life of uninterrupted, unutterable affliction with patience and fortitude, suffering and feeling as a man but enduring and overcoming as a saint, and at length closing the extended scene of woe, with the triumph of a believer exulting in the bright, unclouded prospects of immortality.
One general remark may be applied to his whole history. His deepest distresses sprung out of his choicest comforts; his most signal successes took their rise from his heaviest afflictions. The attainment of the birthright and the blessing drove him into banishment; the labor, watchfulness, and anxiety of a shepherd’s life conducted him to opulence and importance. The elevation which he too eagerly grasped at was the cause of his depression; the humiliation to which be voluntarily and patiently submitted became the foundation of his future greatness. The partial fondness of a mother exposed him to the unnatural unkindness and severity of an uncle; the jealousy and envy of malevolent and selfish brothers-in-law forced him back to the calm delights of his father’s house.
After twenty years’ hard service under Laban, which that ungenerous kinsman repaid with harshness, injustice, and deceit, but which God was pleased bountifully to reward by a numerous and thriving progeny and large possessions, he sets out secretly, in order to shun the mortification which he daily endured, for the land of Canaan. He is hotly pursued, and with hostile dispositions, by his father-in-law, and overtaken, encumbered as he was, on the seventh day, in Mount Gilead. Providence once more interposes in his behalf, and protects him from Laban’s fury.--Charged with undutifulness and disrespect, and accused of a robbery which he would rather have died than commit, he defends himself with the spirit of a man, with the dignity of conscious innocence, and the awful superiority of truth and virtue. Those who have a taste to relish the modest, manly, simple, pathetic eloquence of a good and honest heart, will, I am persuaded, find much pleasure in the perusal of Jacob’s reply to Laban’s accusation. “And Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? What is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? Whereas thou host searched all my stuff; what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? Set it here before my brethren, and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. This twenty years have I been with thee: thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was, in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle; and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction, and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.”[*]Gen 31:36-42 The power of truth is irresistible, and even Laban, though with an ill grace, is constrained to yield to it; and matters are at length amicably settled to their mutual satisfaction. To prevent as much as possible all future ground of fear and suspicion, a covenant of peace and good will is ratified between them, with all the solemnities of a sacrifice, an oath, a monumental pillar, and a feast of love. In the whole of which transaction, we cannot help remarking, that Laban, the party who had the wicked intention and the guilty conscience, is the first to propose, and the most eager to employ the awful formalities of compacts, and promises, and oaths. He knew that he himself needed to be thus bound, and therefore judges it necessary thus to bind the other. Laws are made for the violent and injurious, covenants for the false and perfidious. The light of an upright heart is its own law, the conscience of an honest man his own faithful witness, his own tremendous judge. What is the opinion of the world to conscious integrity? “The conscious mind is its own awful world.” Guilt is timorous, jealous, and suspecting; innocence bold, believing, and generous. Laban employs the most words; Jacob has the purer and more righteous intention. Laban does justice, not from a regard to duty, but through fear of detection and punishment; Jacob speaks and practices truth because he loves it. The form of religion is employed by Laban to perfect the security which he wanted; Jacob scruples not to superadd the form, where he felt the force of the obligation. Laban swears, that he might hold the other fast; Jacob, because he fears an oath, and is willing at once to satisfy the other and to bind himself. Laban, an idolater, calls to witness the gods whom the ancestors of Abraham and Nahor served “beyond the flood;” Jacob, a worshipper of the living and true God, swears by “the fear of his father Isaac,” the God who has power to save and to destroy. The agreement being thus solemnly ratified, and the hour of separation at length come, they part with mutual satisfaction--Laban with the self-congratuation of having made a virtue of necessity; and Jacob, well pleased to have escaped so happily from a danger so threatening. Laban returns with his train to Haran, and we hear of him no more. And little does it signify what became of an old miserly knave, whose name had been better blotted out of every record, than transmitted to posterity with so many notes of infamy upon it. Jacob goes on his way rejoicing towards Canaan, beloved of God, and respected of men.
He has hardly bidden his father-in-law farewell, when we find the angels of God pressing forward to meet him.”[*]Gen 32:1 The history of these superior beings, and of their commerce with mankind, is so brief, so obscure, and so figurative, as rather to excite curiosity than to gratify it. It serves rather to furnish matter for speculation, than to convey distinct, full, and exact information. By the angels of God, who are said to have met Jacob on this occasion, some understand merely human messengers, whether deputed from among his own attendants to examine the country through which he was to travel, or some friendly strangers directed that way of Providence, to warn him of the approach of his brother Esau. But we cannot materially err by taking the words of Moses in their literal acceptation, and according to the more obvious sense which they convey. “Wherefore should it be thought a thing incredible,” that the same merciful God who condescended to visit Jacob’s sleep at Bethel, with a vision of angels ascending and descending from Heaven to earth, to cheer and encourage his solitary progress to Haran, should vouchsafe to bless his waking thoughts at Mahanaim with a visit of these ministering spirits in a bodily form, to be the image and the assurance of the divine favor and protection in every hour of danger, in every time of need? What had that man to fear from the rage of an incensed brother, though that brother were followed by an armed host, around whom “the angels of the Lord encamped” in two hosts or bands.
Whether the history, in this passage, is to be understood literally or figuratively; whether these angels were human or supernatural beings; this, in either view, well deserves remark, that Jacob was not induced, in confidence of the vision, to neglect any duty of piety or of prudence. Piety dictates the address and recommendation of himself to the Goal of angels and of men, which we read in the opening of our discourse; and in this he chiefly rested his safety. And prudence made such a wise arrangement of his affairs, as might either gain a brother by kindness, melt him by submission, or oppose him with success. The religion which, aiming at things uncommon, miraculous, or preternatural, neglects or despises the plain track of reason and revelation, is dangerous, and to be suspected. It ministers too much to human vanity; it would establish a standard, vague, variable, and capricious as the wild imagination of man; and, making every one in matters of faith, a law unto himself, would depreciate time “sure word of prophesy,” which yields a steady, uniform, and certain light, to illuminate a dark world. The disposition of his company, which Jacob made, in the view of meeting- his brother either as a friend or an enemy, discovers the deepest wisdom and penetration. Everything that might revive the memory of their ancient grudge is artfully suppressed. If there appear any ostentation of wealth, it is wealth devoted to the use and service of a brother. The message which was put into the mouths of the servants who conducted the droves of cattle, to be successively delivered to Esau, is wonderfully calculated to turn away the wrath of an angry man, “my lord Esau,” “thy servant Jacob.” And the present judiciously intended to disarm and mollify him, is, with equal judgment, exhibited and tendered not, all at once, but slowly and gradually; in sensibly to steal upon his heart, and imperceptibly to lull all his resentments asleep. He appears voluntarily paying, a tribute of duty and affection as to his sovereign, not haughtily exacting submission and acknowledgment as from his vassal. Fear for his own life had driven him, twenty years ago, from the face of Esau, and now that his being is, as it were, multiplied in the persons of so many, dear to him as his own soul, his apprehension increases in proportion.
We cannot but observe, though we need not much wonder at, the partiality discovered in settling the order of this domestic procession. The beloved wife and her darling son are placed in the rear, farthest from danger, if danger there were, because first in the attention and respect of the fond husband and father. Unhappy Jacob! whether shall we pity or blame thee? In this management I see the dawnings of that unwise and unfortunate preference, which afterwards raised such a tempest in the family, and pierced through the paternal heart with so many sorrows. The thirty-second chapter of this sacred book concludes with the history of an event in Jacob’s life, so very singular and mysterious, as to baffle interpretation, and defy criticism. I mean, his wrestling with a person unknown, in the form of a man, whom he afterwards describes as God, and against whom he prevailed in the contest. If this transaction is to be understood according to the letter of the narration, the Spirit of God has seen meet to withhold the knowledge of some particulars which are necessary to a clear and distinct comprehension of it; and the inquirer is stopped short, with the reply of the angel who wrestled, to Jacob’s request, “Tell me I pray thee thy name;” “Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?[*]Gen 32:29 The figurative meaning, and the practical intention and application, are more obvious and it is this indeed with which we have chiefly to do. Jacob was that very morning to meet Esau, his brother, who was advancing toward him, at the head of four hundred men. Uncertain of his disposition and intentions, conscious of having given him much cause of offence, and apprised of the menacing and resentful language which he had formerly held concerning him, he shudders to think of the consequences of this formidable encounter. And, having first poured out his soul to God in such a dreadful emergency, and then adopted the measures for safety which wisdom and the necessity of his situation suggested, he again, it is natural to suppose, might have recourse to earnest prayer and supplication, and continue in it during a great part of the night and morning. This, in the forcible and figurative phrase of oriental language, might be expressed “by his wrestling” with God “to the dawning of the day;” and is at length prevailing so far as to obtain from God some sensible sign or token, to assure him he should be carried through this, as through his other dangers and distresses, undestroyed, unhurt. The sign given him was calculated at once to express approbation of his faith, fortitude, and perseverance; and to convince him of his inferiority and weakness. The unknown wrestler, though seemingly foiled in the combat, by a simple touch dislocates a joint in the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, and thereby disables him from continuing the struggle. Might not the wisdom of God be employing such mystical representation and expression to instruct men in the nature of prayer, and to enforce the obligation of it? “To the end that we should pray always and not faint.” Do we prevail in our applications at the throne of grace? It is because our heavenly Father is disposed to yield, and stands out only to heighten our exertions, and call forth our importunity. Have we power with God, and prevail?” Then “what is man who shall die, and the son of man who is a worm!” Did Jacob sink and fail in the very moment of victory! We are just what God makes or permits us to be.
Whatever were the real circumstances of this extraordinary scene, it procured Jacob a new and an honorable name, which obliterated to his posterity, if not altogether to himself; that less honorable appellation which commemorated a little, though significant incident attending his birth, and which recorded the infamy of his unfair dealings with his father and brother; Jacob, the supplanter, is transformed into Israel, a prince with God. The vision of the Almighty is scarcely at an end, when the interview with Esau takes place. And we are then fittest for every service, for every trial, when we have settled matters with Heaven. He who by a touch disjointed Jacob’s thigh, could by a word have scattered Esau’s host. But behold a greater miracle! By a simple act of his sovereign will, he has in a moment changed Esau’s heart. They meet, they converse, they love, as brothers ought to do. And “O how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” We apprehend a strife of fierce and angry looks, of reproachful words, of violence and blood. But how joyful the disappointment! Behold a contention of kindness, a blessed contest of affection; the honest, heart-melting triumph of nature, the noble victory of goodness. Let the proud and the resentful peruse, with care, this inimitable scene of tenderness, painted in colors so bright and so touching by the pencil of inspiration,[*]Gen 33:4-15 and say, whether it be possible for any gratification of revenge, any depression of a hated rival, any triumph of violence and blood, to yield any thing that deserves the name of, joy, compared with the sweet satisfaction which must have filled the bosoms of this pair of brothers, burying animosity and discord in mutual endearments, and expressions of good will. Ah, why should so many wretched brothers as there are of us, pass through a world in which there is so much unavoidable misery, estranged from one another; or madly, wantonly, wickedly interrupt and disturb each other’s passage, by bitterness and wrath! What wretched things are wealth, and pomp, and state ant power, which will not permit brothers to live together in love as they might, and as, but for one or other of these disturbers of human quiet, they would do!
Such scenes as that which now passed between Jacob and Esau ought to have been perpetual. But alas, it cannot be! Esau must return to his possession in Mount Seir that very day; and Jacob pursue his journey to Canaan. The paternal roof must no more cover their heads again at one time, nor the affectionate parents enjoy the supreme felicity of witnessing their reconciliation, and of strengthening it by their blessing and their prayers. Let the lower ranks of mankind rejoice, that a gracious Providence, in withholding from them affluence, and station, and distinction, has left them a blessing greater than all put together, friendship, and the means of exercising and enjoying it. Parents, as ye love your children, and wish to have them near yea, and to bless you with a sight of their health and prosperity, be moderate in your views and efforts concerning them. Prospects of ambition, or of avarice, will of necessity banish them from your sight, will separate them from each other, will scatter them upon the face of the earth.
Jacob, by slow movements, as the delicate condition of part of his retinue required, advances homewards in a south-west direction from the ford of Penuel, on the south bank of the Jabbok, towards Jordan; and arrived safe at the ford of Succoth. So called from the booths which he erected there, for a temporary repose to himself and family, in the plains of Jordan, about twelve or fifteen miles from Penuel; ten miles south of the sea of Galilee; and five south of the Jabbok, where it runs into Jordan: a city afterwards assigned by lot to the tribe of Gad. After resting at Succoth about a month, be proceeds to travel from Jordan west and by south about thirty-five miles, and arrives in peace and safety, according to the promise and covenant of the God of Bethel, which was ratified more than twenty years before, at Shechem, the city of Hamor, the Hivite; of whom he bought a field, in the same place where Abraham first pitched his tent upon coming into Canaan. And there Jacob erected an altar, and dedicated it by the name of El-Elohe-Israel, God, the God of Israel. Now this event happened in the year of the world two thousand two hundred and sixty-six; before Christ, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight; after the flood, six hundred and ten; from the peregrination of Abraham, one hundred and eighty-three; before Jacob’s descent into Egypt, thirty-two; before the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt, two hundred and forty-seven; and in the year of Jacob’s life, ninety-eight; Isaac, his aged father, living then at Beer-sheba, one hundred and fifty-seven years old. And this naturally furnishes another resting place in the history of our patriarch. The next Lecture, if God permit, will resume the subject, and carry it forward to a conclusion. We detain you only for a moment or two, to suggest a few thoughts on the analogy of Jacob and Christ, from this portion of the Scripture history. How beautifully and how exactly does the account which Jacob gives of himself as a shepherd correspond to the character of the “good shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep!” “This twenty years have I been with thee thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts, I brought not unto thee: I bare the loss of it. Of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was, in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from mine eyes.”[*]Gen 31:38-40 “And he said unto him, my lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me : and if men should over-drive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant; and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me, and the children be able to endure; until I come unto my lord unto Seir.”[*]Gen 32:13-14 “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”[*]Isa 11:11 Angels, thus ministering to the heir of the promise, at Bethel, at Mahanaim, lead our thoughts directly to the annunciation, the nativity, the temptation in the wilderness, the agony in the garden, the resurrection, the ascension, the second coming of our blessed Lord. The wrestling at Peniel, is a strong figurative description of the powerful and prevalent intercession of the Prince with God, Messiah himself, whose language is not “Father, I beseech thee,” but “Father, I will.” Jacob’s safe and happy return to Canaan, and to his father’s house, every enemy being subdued either by fear or by love, accompanied with two bands of sons and daughters, wherewith God had enriched him in the land where he was a stranger, and where he had been humbled, and oppressed,--prefigures, as has been suggested in a former discourse, the triumphant return of the great Captain of salvation to his father’s house above, loaded with the spoils of principalities and powers: the power of hell vanquished by force, an elect world redeemed and rescued by love. “His right hand and his holy arm had gotten him the victory;” “he shall reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet,” “sing praises to his name, sing praise.” “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men: yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.”[*]Psa 68:8 “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”[*]Rev 1:5-6 Amen.