06.6.2. The Motives to Service
II. -- THE MOTIVES TO SERVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENTS BY THE WAY
WE have seen Jacob in the promised land, by craft and energy rather than by patience seeking to overcome the elder son. We have seen the result, -- only greater opposition. The elder is not brought to serve the younger by such policy. We now see Jacob flying before his brother, going down from the ground of promise to toil in Laban’s house, a course in which he is blessed, -- for by it he reaches others whom he brings back with him to the promised land, -- but which never conquers Esau: the victory over the first-born is won by a very different wrestling.
Esau and Laban are both forms of the flesh; (Note: For Esau, see on Genesis 25:24-34. For Laban on Genesis 24:1-67.) the one being the carnal mind as it grows out of a true son; the other, our outward natural man. These differ, though both are of the flesh; as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob differ, though forms of one spirit. Esau is the loveliest form of the flesh, the carnal mind as it grows in us after the spirit of sonship is our ruling life, stirred at times even to seek for heavenly things, yet at heart profane, and loving this present world. Laban is our outward natural man, which dwells in outward things, and is content to dwell there. Each of these in turn tries us. At one stage the outward man is our greatest difficulty. At another it is the carnal mind within, growing up in closest connection with spiritual things, which, because more inward, is far more dangerous and much harder to overcome. Jacob here learns the strength of each. As worker, he strives, not to be ruled, but to rule over these. But Esau is yet so strong that Jacob is forced for awhile to give way and fly before him; while Laban, so far from serving, is served, though at length much that was once in his power follows a better guide. Esau too must yield at last, but not till hasty Jacob has become halting Israel. At the stage before us Jacob flees to Laban. His motives and encouragements here are both laid open to us. We see the mixture of motive which there is in truest service; how little credit the elect can take to themselves either for what they do or suffer.
Three distinct influences were at work upon Jacob, all uniting to urge him down to Laban’s house.
First, Rebekah urges the step, through fear of Esau (Genesis 27:42-45). In this view Jacob’s service appears the result, not of longing for fruit, but simply of Esau’s violence. And God only knows how much we are led to busy ourselves in attempts to subdue the faculties and affections of the outward man, by the fact of a carnal mind still strong within from which we flee to toil in outward things. Some affection of the outward man, some natural faculty which is engaged in outward things, -- Laban’s daughters and flocks, -- are sought and won. Is not this good? Surely, very good. Nevertheless it may result from the power of the carnal mind within, which distresses the spirit, and forces it, with a vague hope of thus acquiring power, into efforts to rule our outward man. But not thus is Esau overcome. Our zeal to subdue the faculties and affections of the outward man, blessed as such service is, and much as it enriches us, -- for Jacob wins both wives and flocks and herds from Laban, -- will never make Jacob Esau’s lord. We may have toiled with Laban, and be increased, and possess his goods as our rightful portion, earned by hard labour; yet this will not master Esau: after this, Esau is yet "my lord Esau." This is learnt as we advance. Here we see that Jacob’s service to Laban in one view is a result of Esau’s violence. The very strength of the carnal mind within drives the spirit in us to efforts to subdue the outward man.
Another motive is desire for fruit. Isaac says, "Arise, go down to Padan-Aram, and take a wife thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother’s brother; and God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people" (Genesis 28:2-3). In this view our service aims to bring forth fruit. The spirit of sonship urges us on to attempt to subdue natural affections, that we may increase spiritually. Thus our service is not urged on through fear only; there is also a pure desire for increased fruitfulness. On this motive, I need not dwell; all know it, in whom the spirit of service has come and grown strong.
Jacob’s service has yet another end. If Rebekah, and Isaac have each their purpose in it, no less has God His, to work something in Jacob as well as by him, to chasten his spirit, and wean him from his self-confidence. For the spirit of service needs breaking in. If when first awakened to the prospect of overcoming that in us which is of the flesh and "first and natural," it could effect this at once and in its own strength, it would thereby most surely be a loser. Self-will would come in, and self-satisfaction, making the very victory a worse defeat. It would be our kingdom rather than God’s; and our spirit, unbroken and unchastened, could not be truly blest. For not by strength, but in weakness, does God’s kingdom come; not in obtaining our will, but in His will. It is only by the death of all our hopes in self, and this after we have tried our energies to the uttermost, that we are brought really to rest in God. In the walk of faith and sonship we have already proved this. In the effort to subdue our carnal mind and outward man, that is, as Jacobs, the same lesson must be learnt again. Only by sad experience is the spirit of service purged from its tendency to self-confidence and self-exaltation.
Thus Jacob goes forth to toil. Meanwhile, Esau, hearing Iaaac’s charge to Jacob, that he should not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites, now takes to himself another wife, a daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s carnal son. Thus Jacob’s course affects Esau, no less than Esau’s violence had affected Jacob. We read "when Esau saw that Isaac had sent Jacob into Padan-Aram, to take a wife from thence, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-Aram; Esau, seeing that the daughters of Canaan (whom he had already married -- Genesis 26:34-35; Genesis 27:46) pleased not Isaac his father, went unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife" (Genesis 28:6-9). This yet is Esau’s way. The carnal mind, having been excited by the elect to seek the blessing, and having failed to obtain it, learning that Canaanitish wives, the evil principles which it has embraced, are obnoxious to the spirit, and seeing the spirit bent on obtaining better fruit, does not, indeed, put away the former wives, but adds to them another from Abraham’s carnal seed, that is, some principle, which has sprung from the union of faith with law, and which, though Abraham’s or faith’s seed, is yet its carnal seed. Thus does Esau seek better fruit; and this act shews a desire for some measure of reformation. But spite of its aim, it is a mistake. The carnal mind will never be improved by adopting principles which are only the carnal fruit of true faith. The elder cannot be heir; flesh is flesh, and, improved as it may be, cannot inherit heavenly things. To return to Jacob, his way seems hard enough. Alone, with a staff in his hands, but all unused to journeying, he turns his face towards Laban’s house. Night comes on, and he lies down to sleep, with stones for pillows. In the darkness God is near. If He chastens with one hand, He sustains with the other. So Jacob sees a vision, such as our Lord promises to an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51). He sees heaven opened, and angels of God ascending and descending upon a son of man. He sees how one chastened for sin, in darkness, still weaker than the first-born, and to be yet more humbled, is yet the care of God. Earth is shut, but heaven is opened; there is a path, linking the seen with the unseen, leading upward, and assuring present help. The Lord is not seen to come down, as afterwards, -- for at a later stage, we read, "He went up, after He had talked with him" (Genesis 35:13), -- but the promise is heard, and the Lord appears "above the ladder;" above, yet in communication with him. Then the sevenfold promise again is heard, "Behold, I am with thee, and will help thee in all places whither thou goest, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of" (Genesis 28:13-15). The spirit of service is yet thus refreshed. It needs, and must receive, correction, but a hand of love administers it. Solitude and darkness may be its lot; but in the darkness the Lord brings into view and opens heavenly things. (Note: The Fathers call especial notice to the stone which Jacob took for a pillow, Greg. M. Moral. in Job, l. v. c. 31, § 54. Augustine gives the same interpretation, In Johan. Tract. vii. § 23.) Light shines out, and fills the soul. Fears, enmities, and sorrows, for a season at least are lost to view. God fills the eye. And afterwards as our spirit journeys on, faint and travel-stained, through the appointed pilgrimage, the recollection of that hour of conscious communion comes back to us as a point of light and joy to cheer and strengthen us. Such moments are memorable indeed. We go far in the strength of that communion. We may, indeed, meet such a revelation, not with the strong grasp of faith, but like Jacob, with a half-fearing cry, "How terrible is this place!" Our surprise may shew how unaccustomed we are to see the Lord. Our language, "If God will be with me," may betray our feeble faith, which can utter an "if," in reply to God’s unfailing "I will." But the vision is never to be forgotten. Our spirit "lifts up its feet," and journeys on with fresh alacrity. (Note: Jacob "lifted up his feet," &c., Genesis 29:1, margin. Heb. yisah reglaayw [H5375 H7272]. The Samaritan, Chaldee, and LXX. versions, all translate this verbatim.)
It is the same story without. God’s servants go forth to service with very mixed and different ends. The desire for fruit is not our only motive. Our service may be also a result of the opposition of carnal men within the Church. Christ may be "preached of strife," as well as of "love" (Php 1:16-17); and even our truest attempts to shew love be mixed with much that is selfish and uncharitable. Such poor worms are we at the best. In seeking to be catholic, we are often most sectarian. So in seeking to be loving and to win souls to Christ, we are too often unchristlike and unloving. But we learn even by our mistakes, -- by falling, to walk upright -- by many sad blots, at last to write fairly. And so out of our mixed motives God brings forth good; for far above our thoughts He is working something in, as well as by, His servants. If none else are served, the Lord’s servants themselves should be served and profited by their own ministry. Who would have thought that a course of toil could be both a labour of love, voluntarily entered upon, and bringing its own reward, and at the same time an appointed means to humble us. All our Christian path is such; but this stage above all others shews, that our most devoted service, undertaken to please God, and to bear fruit to the praise of His faithfulness, in another aspect may be God’s disciplining rod. Those especially who have engaged in service, and have spent their lives, willingly, but at great cost to themselves, in some peculiar and trying toil and testimony, will on looking back on their path, as they draw towards its close, feel how the trials of their way have been precisely that discipline which their souls most needed. I believe all suffering will on one side be found to be corrective, even though it comes upon us in the course of the most willing and holy and accepted service. The service may be blessed, the reward great, yet in its sorrows, in those very crosses for which we shall receive a full reward, God may be teaching us obedience by the things which we suffer. Thus God’s servants start, and in darkness find how near He is, and that there is a ladder joining earth to heaven, the seen to the unseen, by which their spirits can rise to Him, be they where they may, and His Spirit in return come down upon them. This is seen when we would serve. Not Abraham, or even Isaac, but Jacob beholds this ladder reared up. For the spirit of faith, and even sonship, are slow to learn what the Incarnation means. But God’s servants could never serve at all in outward things, if in some measure at least this vision were not vouchsafed to them. Therefore, as they go forth to serve, they are shewn what Christ’s flesh means, and what a link between highest and lowest, the outermost and innermost, is everlastingly assured to us thereby. (Note: Augustine several times alludes to this, explaining this ladder by our Lord’s words to Nathaniel, John 1:51. -- Serm. 122, § 2. The way in which he proceeds in another place to apply this vision, as an example of ministry, which, after the pattern of the angels and of Christ’s Incarnation, should come down to earth as well as rise to heaven, is most striking. -- In Johan. Tract. vii. § 23.) Do the angels descend as well as ascend? Has the Lord of angels Himself by His flesh come down, and been made a Jew to gain the Jews? Then His servants too may come down to earth, and may leave their own high and heavenly ground to win earthly souls; may assume a fleshly form for fleshly souls, and become as Jews to Jews, and as babes to babes, for others (1 Corinthians 9:19-20), in the assurance that everything and anything on earth may be sanctified by the word of God and prayer and thanksgiving. Henceforth every spot is holy ground. We cannot call any man, however outward, common or unclean. For heaven is linked with earth. Shall we then, who are of the earth, count any on earth alien to us? Rather with Jacob we say even of the untilled field, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not" (Genesis 28:16). Not till this is seen are we fitted for service in the outward world.