07.06. Naphtali

NAPHTALI.

SOME theologians doubt whether or not the expression often used among us, "Wrestling with God in prayer," conveys a really Scrip­tural idea. It seems to imply that the person who wrestles believes that something like unwillingness in God to give the re­quest, or at least that his will needs to be wrought upon by great efforts of ours before He will consent to bestow the coveted gifts. Now, where the blessing is truly fitted to help and benefit us, there never is any un­willingness in God to give; and where it is not so, no wrestling of ours, no efforts, no crying and tears, shall ever bring God to consent to bestow it. On this account, the expression needs to be explained; but it is a mistake to say that it is altogether un­scriptural. In Colossians 2:1, Paul tells of his earnest prayers for the growth in grace of those of whom he speaks, and calls them "*****" * conflict, and Colossians 4:12, Epa­phras is represented as "*******," con­flicting like a wrestler in prayer to God in behalf of the Colossians. However, when we use it, let us clearly understand what we mean. We may use it surely since Paul did so. We use it not to imply that God is unwilling, or that if we insist in it suffi­ciently, He will yield to us even though He had purposed otherwise; but to express the truth that there are many blessings which He gives only after much waiting on Him on our part. In short, importunity in prayer comes up to the true idea of wrestling in prayer, when it is such wrestling as that of Paul and Epaphras. And if one asks, why does the Lord in some cases wish us to em­ploy importunity, and why does He not give the blessing till He has been urgently and repeatedly besought to do it? The answer is obvious. Such waiting on the Lord as is implied in importunity, is fitted to empty us of self, and the longer it is continued may complete the discovery and deepen in us the conviction of our own worthlessness, and thus to fix our confidence altogether on the Lord’s own grace. We really wrestle against our own fancied worthiness. This is a most humbling position; altogether unlike the other sort of wrestling (usually so called) which would convey the idea that the per­son who so prays has something of his own, has strength, has grace, has earnestness, which all may conduce to his being heard at last. Many have cherished this delusion, whereas it is only when we have wrestled against, and been emptied of, any such idea, left convinced of utter unworthiness, and brought to expect to be heard simply on account of the Lord’s own gracious heart, that we prevail. Jacob’s case (Genesis 32:25) illustrates the whole matter. There you find the angel wrestling with Jacob, letting him for a time put forth what strength he had, till at last, in order to convince him of his real inherent powerlessness and worm­like worthlessness, he touches him and puts his thigh out of joint. Upon this, as we learn from Hosea 12:4, Jacob, reduced to weakness, and probably agonizing in pain, seems to have fallen on the Angel’s neck, weeping and praying (for he had dis­covered his divine nature), and insisting that he should not go from him till he had blessed him. It was at this second stage that Jacob prevailed; for now the appeal was altogether to the grace and love of Him with whom he had to do. It was only now that Jacob had become a truly Scriptural wrestler, a wrestler like Paul and Epaphras in after times.

* It may be rendered more generally "striving" or "contesting," as in the public games; but Plato is in the habit of using the noun, *****, specially for gymnastic exercise or wrestling. Either way, the violent exertion and effort is expressed. And see Colossians 1:29.

We are come to the history of Naphtali, whose name speaks of "wrestling," and this has led us to preface our inquiries by the above remarks. For there is some difference of opinion as to what Rachel’s words signify in Genesis 30:7-8 : "Bilhah bare Jacob a second son; and Rachel said, With wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed. And she called his name Naphtali; "Hengestenberg and Delitsch maintain her meaning to be, that she had wrestled for mercy in prayer, to get God to deal with her as He had dealt with Leah; and old Onkelas in the Targum, makes her say, "The Lord has accepted my prayer when I did earnestly supplicate that I might have a child like my sister." It is against her sister she has directed her prayer; that her boasting over her might be silenced; and this she calls, "Wrestling with God against her sister," for our version, "great wrestlings" does not express the original. And so we may understand Naphtali’s name as nearly equivalent to "one won by prayer." Rachel, like the woman of Syrophcenicia in after days, when apparently frowned upon, con­tinued still to try the hidden depths of God’s mercy. She was persevering and importu­nate in prayer, calling upon Him on the ground of his infinite grace; while her sister Leah, satisfied with the past, made no such appeal to Jehovah. And thus it was that Rachel prevailed, and Naphtali was born,* the fruit of prayer-agonizing, wrest­ling, Epaphras-like prayer.

* Leah speaks of Jehovah, and Rachel of God (Elohim). Probably Rachel felt as if the Lord’s treatment of her stood in the way of her claiming the blessing from Him on any other ground than that He was able to do this thing, able as Elohim, even if not engaged to do it as Jehovah.

It is a mistake to insist that there is necessarily something like unbelief in such wrestling prayer, for it does not at all imply trust in our own efforts, or distrust of God’s good will. On the contrary, it is called forth by a fact regarding God’s ways, which He has made known to us, and which the be­lieving soul acquiesces in-viz., that He has delight in our continued prayers, and would have us to be constant suitors at his gate, and that therefore He has arranged as to some of his gifts, not to give them at a first or second asking, but only after we have continued perseveringly to ask. "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:21). Jesus "was all night in prayer to God" (Luke 6:12); and then obtained that quiverful of apostles. Elijah prays on and on till the seventh time ere the rain-cloud appears. Rachel needed only to pray for Dan, but she must wrestle for Naph­tali; and even then the full gain of her prayers did not appear. Ofttimes it is after we are in our graves that the result of our prayers comes full into view.

I. But we proceed. The gift won by prayer may be expected to be somewhat notable. What, then, have we to say of Naphtali’s career as a tribe? We have dying Jacob’s blessing on him, Genesis 49:21 - "Naphtali is a hind let loose:

He giveth goodly words;" others read it- "Naphtali is a spreading terebinth;

He putteth forth boughs of beauty."

Whatever be determined as to the exact rendering of the Hebrew words in this blessing, it is clear that Jacob predicts that Naphtali is to be remarkable for some kind of beauty. Preferring the common render­ing, we find that the grace and beauty of the hind, as it bounds along "with airy step and glorious eye," is Naphtali’s emblem. Now, this might well apply to the portion he inherited, for his lot fell in a region abound­ing in graceful and romantic scenery, where the "hind let loose," the gazelle in its beauty, might be seen at every step, literally and figuratively. In his tribe are "alluvial plains, long undulating ridges, and grace­fully-rounded hill-tops, clothed with ever­green, oak, and terebinth; thickets, too, of aromatic shrubs, and lawns of verdant turf. There are glens, densely wooded, with streams murmuring among the rocks, and glaring with oleander flowers, away down in shady beds. The air is filled with melody­-the song of birds, and the music of the forest, as the wind sweeps its chords" (Dr. Porter). And then as to the next clause- "He uttereth words of beauty"- it has been suggested that they refer to the natural effect of such scenery in stirring up the soul to speak gracefully, if they do not express generally the fact that Naphtali’s happy lot, by its rich scenery and verdurous landscapes, may be said to have been ever calling forth the eulogies of passers by. If, however, we go further, and inquire for the illustration of this blessing in the history and deeds of the tribe, there is nothing recorded bearing on this point except the memorable story of Barak and Deborah, the judge and the prophetess. Yet why should we not suppose an allusion to these illus­trious leaders of the tribe, even as in the case of Dan the allusion was so pointedly to Samson? Barak goes forth with his ton thousand, like the hind let loose, and gains his high places (Psalms 18:33; Habakkuk 3:19); while Deborah pours forth "words of beauty" in her song. "The hind" was on its "high places" as the prophetess sings (Judges 5:18), and may be said ever after to have stood there, in view of Israel. Indi­vidual minds leave their impress on a gene­ration, and on a region too. Barak and Deborah are the representatives of Naphtali. Nor should we forget that it was here Messiah first went forth, preaching the glad tidings, "giving goodly words." Some of his most "gracious words" were spoken here, and six at least of his apostles seem to have been from this tribe.

II. But Rachel’s gift won by prayer is celebrated by Moses also in Deuteronomy 33:23 - "0 Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord, Possess thou the sea, and the south."

"The thousand captains," with their 37,000 men, each carrying shield and spear, who joined persecuted David (1 Chronicles 12:34), attest the blessing which had rested on the population of their region. And then as to the region itself, some understand the latter clause to mean that "Naphtali shall possess a lot which should combine the advantages of the healthy sea-breeze with the grateful warmth of the south" (Keil). But, more definitely, we may remark that this tribe possessed at once some of the most delight­ful valleys of Anti-Lebanon (where "favour and fulness of blessing" rested beyond dispute), and at the same time the fertile slopes which close in the Sea of Galilee. On the south of his portion a part of this sea lies; so that when Jesus walked on its shores, the prophet in vision, and the evangelist in after days, exclaimed- "The land of Naphtali, the way of the sea! The people that sat in darkness saw great light." (Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:15-16) In the plain of Gennesareth, which Josephus calls a very paradise for beauty and delight, and where was concentrated all that might set forth Naphtali as "satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord," Messiah delighted to sound his jubilee-trumpet of deliverance, and utter his "goodly words" of light and life. His parables were spoken there, and many of his most gracious words, such as that everlast­ingly memorable invitation- "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, And I will give you rest."

Bethsaida and Capernaum were towns of Naphtali, in whose every street might he found some memorial of his mighty works, or some echo of his gracious words.

Even at this time, the traveller climbs the range of hills in this tribe, called "Mount Naphtali," and finds every height well wooded, and often fragrant with the myrtle and aromatic shrubs, with corn-fields at their base. Or he turns aside to the site of the old city of refuge, Kedesh-Naphtali, now called Kedes, and finds its ruins beside a modern village on a knoll, which rises up from a green vale, with herbage-clad hills beyond, and rich olive-groves close at hand. These are relics of the "favour and bless­ing" which the Lord once caused to rest here, when this tribe was like "the gazelle let loose," or "the spreading terebinth." It was when Israel turned to idols that the scene changed, and this tribe was the very first carried captive to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29), its inhabitants swept away to the far-off region where now the Nestorians are found keeping up traditions of the past. Perhaps it is no stretch of fancy to say that, just because this tribe was thus the first to suffer under the stroke of wrath, Messiah, when He came (in the wondrous love and grace that marked all his ways) selected their borders as the scene of his earliest public ministrations. Some of his first and sweetest calls rang through Naphtali’s groves and glades, and were echoed by his mountains. But they "received Him not;" and thus they con­firmed their doom.

III. Such, then, was Naphtali. Such were the after-fruits of Rachel’s wrestlings. It is no vain thing to take hold on God’s name and plead importunately. The fruit of such wrestling prayer is, both present and future blessing. Saints under the New Testament have learnt this secret, betaking themselves to such wrestlings of faith, when they would go forth "satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord," "like hinds let loose, giving goodly words." One man of prayer, when sent for by his bitter persecutors, in order to be conducted to a prison, calmly replied, "I know not whither you are sending me, but my heart is as full of comfort as it can hold;" and another man of prayer, as he is about to close his eyes in death, cries aloud, "I am full of the conso­lations of Christ!" All this they possess through Jesus Messiah, accepted and rested in as theirs. We inherit more than Naph­tali’s portion, when we welcome Messiah, whose "goodly words" were uttered so often in Naphtali’s cities-Chorazin, Beth­saida, and Capernaum. Nor, on the other hand, is it ever to be forgotten how these once famous cities were brought low-­"brought down to hell." The Lord Jesus came to them with all his saving grace. He would have gathered him under his wing, and "they would not." What then? Re­jecting Messiah, a blight passed over them, a withering blight, and soon were they dis­possessed of their pleasant portion, and lost at once the temporal and the spiritual riches that were within their reach. And has not all Israel lost "the pleasant land" by the same unbelief? Why are "few men left" in your land, 0 Israel? Why are your "cities without inhabitants?" (Isaiah 6:11-12; Isaiah 24:6). Your house is left unto you desolate, because you will not say, "Blessed is he that has come in the name of the Lord," for so Messiah has spoken (Matthew 23:39).