03 - Wilderness Wanderings and Heavenly Guidance
B.W. Newton The "Patmos" Series No. 3 Wilderness Wanderings And Heavenly Guidance “There are many devices in a man’s heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.”— Proverbs 19:21
Few things are more painful to observe than the tendency to declension among those whom God hath blessed. In reading the history of the “family of faith,” we find from time to time God was pleased to call out some by His grace into a separate place of blessing. For a little while that place was steadily maintained, but then it waned, till the light of the day of their blessing seemed to set in darkness. So we have to remember this tendency to fall back into something that darkens the brightness of testimony.
What different exhibitions of faith we find in Abraham and in those who came after Abraham was distinctly separated, not only morally. That Enoch was, and Abel, and Noah. They remained in the midst of their country and associations and households; and that moral separation by reason of the Truth of God which was in them, of course continued in Abraham but then there was something more. He was called to leave his country and his father’s house; and to move in a distinct sphere, in which there was to be a complete contrast between all the arrangements of his ways and of those whom he had left. This was manifested still more, when Israel was called out from Egypt, to be a peculiar and separated people to God to have laws, principles, and everything, distinct from all else in the earth.
Well, Abraham maintained this place of separateness; and during the whole of his course, with the exception of one or two spots that seemed for a moment to dim the brightness of his history, we find a steady adhesion to God; and it was marked by this, that he not only remembered the great end God had set before him, but day by day be was able to depend on God for the means by which that final end was to be realized. He did desire God to be the Director and Appointer of his ways. He sought not to control things for himself. He left the appointment of things to God, and said “the steps which He has appointed toward the final end of glory He has also provided for me.”
Now you know, this is not easy: nothing is found by the “family of faith” so difficult as this. In Isaac it declined: in Jacob still more, for Jacob’s history is a remarkable example of one who had great faith in God touching the end—we never find him wavering as to the end of blessing to be attained, neither do we find him doubting that all blessing must come from God—but, when it came to the management of his ways to secure that end, there was an energy which led him to try and control things for himself which he might have left to God. We see this in the history of Rebekah; and her child probably inherited it. She regarded the birthright, and knew it had been distinctly promised to Jacob. Ought there then to have been any doubt or question in her soul as to whether Jacob would indeed have that place? Was it not something that might well be left in the hands of God? Was it for her to burden herself with the care of how it might be attained, and to devise plans by which it might he secured? Did God tell her to do that? Had He told her, it would have been right to do it; but, whenever practical steps are necessary to he taken by the Lord’s people for the final end, He gives unmistakable signs; they will not be left in doubt what steps they ought to take, if those steps are necessary to the final end. God will take care to make that plain enough to their consciences and hearts, so they need not be anxious about them. Their place is only to move as He leads. No doubt Rebekah had some thought about this, therefore she waited many a long year; she did not immediately come to the crafty device she afterwards planned to secure that which God had promised. She left it many a long year; anxious no doubt about it; troubling herself often; but still she did not act till her patience was at last worn out, and would nor endure any longer. She saw no advance. On the contrary, she saw all her husband’s affections going towards Esau, not Jacob; and Isaac himself drawing very near the end of his days all seemed to indicate that the promise of God was rendered uncertain. Did not God intend this? Did not He intend that circumstances should seem to make it appear that the promise was not to be fulfilled? It is the way of God to discipline; to try the faith of His people and especially where there is any frowardness or self-confidence; or a disposition to make plans and schemes for oneself. Therefore, when everything seemed to threaten contrary to her desires, she at last distinctly determined that she would control circumstances, and not allow things to go on as they seemed to be going on. She put in her hand to subtlety and deceit, and planned that which was really a lie, undirected by God; involving her son, whom she so dearly loved, in that same falsehood and deceit! Here you see is an instance of the way in which nature acts but she could have had no right apprehension of the true nature of the blessing. She felt it would bring to her peace and blessing—things that nature would appreciate—but had she only connected it with God and His holiness, would she have dared to practice the deceit which she did? So this is what the human heart can do—even when it does not altogether depart from God—where nature is predominant.
Well, the deceit was practiced, the desired end attained, and by her own means! The blessing was given to Jacob, and then came the sorrow. Do you suppose that this could be unnoticed by God; that He could allow this to be done, without giving a clear intimation of what His judgment respecting it was? There was nothing on earth dearer to Rebekah than Jacob, yet she was never to see him anymore; and she well deserved that sorrow.
Instantly there was to be strife, bitter strife in her household; almost the feeling of Cain against Abel again. Esau was so furious as to be ready to imbrue his hands in his brother’s blood, and she it was who had stirred up this feeling in Esau! If God had in His own way conducted it, no doubt He would have found means as He afterwards did, to calm the fury of Esau; but here it rose up in its terribleness, and then of course she had to plan again what could be done. She arranged for herself again, and the only way was, that Jacob should go away—back to the very place from which Abraham had been called, and of which he had said, “Beware that thou bring not my son thither again! “God had called him to Canaan, and was his son to go back to the place of his natural birth that would be seeking to undo the arrangements of God! But this was planned for Jacob, an arrangement that the heart of Rebekah had made, not God. God was the ultimate controller of it, and He intended ultimately to bend all these circumstances: but what a different relation of God that is! Yet how often believers are satisfied with this; viz., that God will finally cause all things to “work together for good,” and in some way bend all circumstances so that they shall come to the right point at last. How different is this—first making things crooked, and then asking God to make them straight—from first asking God that He would be pleased to guide our ways Himself. How many sorrows that would avoid!
Well Jacob went on his solitary way into the wilderness—a blessed place indeed, when “faith” distinctly called into it, but it was not so here; it was self-sought—his own plans had brought him there. So you see, there may be circumstances of trial which we distinctly earn for ourselves, or it may be, we are brought into them distinctly by God. Now, would not that make a marked difference in our estimate of these circumstances? Not that we are to forget that God is a God of “grace” in either case; yet, we ought to ask if we find ourselves in such circumstances, “Are they self-earned, or, are we brought into them by faith? “Not infrequently has there been unholy haste as to this, and the Lord has been spoken of as if He were the Person Who had brought into such circumstances, when evidently it was not the Lord at all, but the mistakes and frowardness of the person himself.
It is a hallowed word “The Lord hath done so and so;” or “The Lord hath led me to this or that.” Indeed I seldom like to hear that from a person’s lips, because comparatively it is not often the case. It may be, but it is the exception now; because at the present time there is too great deficiency in faith and ability to wait on God for the means, for us assuredly to say “The Lord hath led to this or that.” Though I would not desire to take that word from anyone’s lips when it is fitting, yet there should be holy caution in using it, lest we put that holy Name to something which, after all, is proved to be a way of our own devising. So then, Jacob was in a wilderness, and so far apparently, in a right place; for the wilderness is a place of blessing when the Lord leads into it. But when he entered it, what thought was prominent in his mind?
How he should get through those trying circumstances to the point which he and Rebekah had set before him—that point of sorrow as he afterwards found it to be—for Laban’s house was very like to him. How bitterly he felt the bondage of it, he was able afterwards to tell (Genesis 31:6, Genesis 31:40). Jacob stood in that wilderness in nature’s strength. He intended to go through it in nature’s strength; he intended to act as he afterwards did act in Laban’s house. So this was no light prospect for him, and would have been sorrowful indeed but for the faithfulness of God; He did not forsake Jacob. Jacob was the heir of promise. God had said over the head of Abram, “Blessed, yea and thou shalt be blessed:” and God put that blessing on the head of Jacob for His own Name’s sake, and was carrying on His own purposes of “grace” through this unworthy instrument, who was beginning to prove, what was afterwards most distinctly proved, that he was the “worm Jacob.” Therefore, the moment he entered the wilderness, lest by any means God, and his promise and grace should be forgotten, and the darkness and sorrow that were going to roll over Jacob’s course should seem to dim the brightness of the promise, God took care to show that He did not forget His faithfulness. Consequently, though he was not apparently thinking of these things of God, and even the birth-right seemed a distant thing, and he, occupied no doubt with his present sorrows, for he lay down to sleep and placed a stone for his pillow—a blessed place externally if only Jacob’s soul had been in harmony with his position, but that harmony was wanting—nevertheless, God was pleased as soon as he fell asleep, to show him that heavenly vision, which will remain God’s great pledge to all the family of faith till the hour of glory comes. So that we have to go back to this vision and to learn in it part of our own blessing: for Heaven was opened, and a connection was formed between Heaven and earth! God formed the connection. God created the ladder. God caused the angels to ascend and descend. He formed the link between Heaven and earth, and He stood at the top of that ladder as indicating, that He would at last give these blessings to this dark earth. So that this vision stood in contrast, not only to the sorrows of the wilderness and everything that man was on earth, but even in contrast with the practical moral condition of Jacob himself!
There was no bright prospect anywhere. As to the earth, it was groaning with corruption. As to men, they were strangers to God; and as to the person to whom the promise was made, he was lying down in the wilderness, having taken a wrong step, and going on to reap the consequences of that wrong step! But before all the results of this were worked out, God was pleased to give this bright vision of glory and peace. And when the hour comes for this vision to be fulfilled, then, where will all those stand who have been of faith during this dark season? Shall they not be in association with Him Who was at the top of the ladder—the heavenly One—and will not even angels be subject to them? Is not that the destined place of glory even of you, and is not the hour drawing nigh? Was not one step long ago taken, when Heaven was opened over the head of Jesus in this earth, and has it ever since been closed? No: never from that hour to the present! It is not manifestly open as it will be; but, as there are those in the earth loved with the same love as God loved the Son; as Heaven was opened over His head, so is it over theirs also! This is the place in which the family of faith still are, even as the Lord Jesus said (John 1:51), “From this time forth” (for that is the word He uses), “Ye shall see heaven opened.” That was the moment when this blessed period began, which, as to its manifestation, its development, we yet wait for. But that hour is drawing nigh now. It will not be long before all that that vision indicates shall absolutely and fully be revealed. We are coming near to the time when Christ will take His place on the Throne, and establish the glory of His kingdom in the earth.
Well; God enlarged the blessed promise that He had before made to Abraham (v. 13-15). Do you ever read a fuller development of the ways of faithful “grace” than is contained in these words to Jacob? And this remains as part of their inheritance, to all the children of faith! We may read them as applying to ourselves. The whole family of Israel come under these words “All things are yours.” So it is the pledge of constant preservation, guidance, and full blessing at the last. Yet, full of blessing as the words were, how did they affect the soul of Jacob? What would you have expected when he awoke from his vision? Fullness of thanksgiving, would you not? But was it so? No! he felt surprised and even terrified at this presence of God; yet there was not one terrifying word in it; they were all words of consolation and peace and mercy: yet, so little had he been walking with God, so little had God been the practical companion of his ways of late, (how could he have been in those paths of Jacob’s own devising) that when God did meet him, he was terrified, and said “How dreadful is this place!” Was that language ever used by Abraham? No, because Abraham was practically walking with God, which Jacob was not: therefore, the sense of the distance of his feeling from God was far more prominent in his soul, than the blessings God had spoken to him of.
It is one of the most remarkable evidences that Scripture anywhere furnishes, of the degree in which, by self-induced darkness, the light of the precious blessings of God may fail in penetrating the heart. So completely of the earth had his practical ways and thoughts been, that he dreaded to find himself at the gate of Heaven, even though he met there nothing but words of blessing! May we take warning by this, lest we say “our blessing is inalienable, therefore all is well.” No doubt these blessings are inalienable to all the family of faith, and so far all is well: but should we wish to be brought into the condition of heart under any circumstances that Jacob here manifested? Could we expect anything but sorrow? Bitter was the sorrow that marked the course of Jacob and his household, till it ended in Egypt, and then there was a gracious interference on the part of God on their behalf; and though there were bright spots in their history, yet as a whole we must say it was a dark picture till Moses was called. As a whole, we must say it was a downward path, else, how would the family of faith have got into Egypt—that place so distinctly marked as opposed to everything that is of Canaan and of God—how could they have found themselves involved in the circumstances in which they finally groaned in Egypt? God indeed not failing them, but allowing them to go this downward path, and then, when they had made this crooked bend in their history, interfering for them in grace, and, without one intervention of human planning or human thought, delivering them from the house of bondage!
Then again observe, how even one of the chiefest blessings—the chief blessing of all—was unnoticed by Jacob. Did he speak at all of the heavenly glory and presence of God, as if that had been his blessing? No: there was no thought at all except of being brought back again in peace to his own land. That was his prevailing thought. “Give me that,” said he, “and I shall be satisfied!” God did do that for him, but, how many sorrows he had after! So you see, his heart did not estimate the very things that God proposed to him to encourage and cheer his faith. And then, would you not have supposed that the manner in which the Lord had so distinctly said “I will be with thee; I will guide thee,” etc., would have rested on his mind? yet, so far from recognizing this, he actually uses a word that God had not used! His very first word was “if”—“If the Lord will do this”—the very thing the Lord had said He would do! Instead of giving the prominence to God’s “I will do,” he made himself the prominent one, and says “If the Lord will do so and so, I will do so and so to Him! I will surely give the tenth to Him”; really as though it were a favor to God to take Jehovah to be his God!
Yet do we never feel like this, as though there were something to be proud of in rendering up our petty little services to the Lord? Do we apprehend those words “When ye have done all that is commanded you, say ‘we are unprofitable servants, we have done merely that which it was our duty to do.’” I fear we seldom estimate the fullness of truth that is in these words, but we have to guard against this unholy bargaining as it were. Of course it was right to ask (vv. 20, 21), but to put it in this way under any circumstances would be wrong, especially when the Lord had just said “I will be this to thee.” Let there not be this kind of stipulation, but a remembrance of what God has promised. Would you desire to choose your own ways? Has that ever ended in anything but sorrow? God may turn round those paths; still, you will know a deal of sorrow while those paths are being turned. So I trust we may have wisdom, seeing that the more our hand is still, the better, except indeed there be a command given by God to put it forth; and when there is, let it be put forth steadily and with vigor; otherwise let our hand be still, and let the Lord work; for He is able to accomplish His own purposes, and does not need our help. And then, if there should be a wilderness, it will be a wilderness entered with different feelings to those with which Jacob entered it. Many of David’s most blessed Psalms were sung in a wilderness—a wilderness which he did not choose for himself, but which was forced on him by faithfulness to God—and he went into it with words of faith and joy in his lips, and was able there to sing thankfully to God.
How different to Jacob! Jacob was not able to return thanksgiving when God invited to it. David, with no outward circumstances to cheer him, was yet able to rejoice, to praise, too glory in God. No angels were seen around his path: no vision was given to him: no such words were spoken to him; yet his heart was full of thanksgiving and praise, while the heart of Jacob, unmoved by the vision of glory, only felt dread and uncertainty as to the future; and the only words he uttered were a kind of stipulation with God!
Both were children of faith. Both were blessed. Both will stand in final glory, complete in the perfectness of Christ: yet, how contrasted their practical ways! May we observe this contrast, and may God give us grace to choose the better path.