Genesis 7

Chapter 7. The Beginning of the Life of FaithThe book of Genesis is especially instructive as an expression of the life of godliness and the true principles of faith and obedience. These are really the same under all dispensations. And so the apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in giving us the most complete illustrations of true faith, goes back to the very beginning and chooses his highest examples from this ancient record. The development of these various examples seems to shape itself almost into a symmetrical chain which comprises every aspect of the life of godliness. Types The first example, Abel, as we might naturally expect in the commencement of the series, is an illustration of justifying faith. The second, Enoch, leads us a step farther to sanctifying faith. The third, Noah, teaches us the principle of testifying and separating faith. The fourth, Abraham, illustrates the obedience of faith. The fifth, Isaac, is a beautiful type of the patience of faith. Jacob, the sixth, reveals to us God’s marvelous grace in the discipline and training of faith. And the seventh, Joseph, crowns the series as a monument of the trial and triumph of faith over injustice and suffering. Contrasts All these characters have contrasts. Abel shines more gloriously in the shadow of Cain. Enoch stands out from his own generation like a silver lining on the dark cloud. Noah is distinguished from the antediluvians by his character, destiny and deliverance. Abraham has Lot as his foil. Isaac is linked with Ishmael in unequal association. Jacob is the opposite of Esau. And Joseph’s loveliness is enhanced by the harshness and cruelty of his brethren. Thus light and shadow move on together, and both reveal more perfectly the picture of truth and true living. Seven Pairs These seven pairs stand for great principles, quite as much as the individual characters already referred to. Abel and Cain represent the opposite principles of grace and nature. Enoch and Lamech stand for holiness and worldliness. Noah and the antediluvians represent the ideas of separation on the one hand and judgment on the other on all who become allied to the evil world. Abraham and Lot perfectly express the conceptions of faith and sight. Isaac and Ishmael are declared by the apostle to be types of grace and law. Jacob and Esau represent respectively the spiritual and the fleshly man. And Joseph and his brethren illustrate the triumph of innocence and suffering on the one hand and the ultimate retribution of selfishness and sin on the other. Let us, however, look a little more in detail at each of these personal types of life and character.

Section I: Abel or Justifying Faith

Section I—Abel or Justifying FaithHeb_11:4Recognition of Sin1. We see the faith of Abel in the recognition of sin implied in his sacrifice. This was the chief distinction between his offering and Cain’s. The latter came to God as one on equal terms, acknowledging no need for expiation, or sacrifice, and presenting his offering as a friend to a friend. Abel took the place of a guilty sinner, deserving the death which he witnessed in his substitute, and from which he claims exemption only through the vicarious sufferings of that substitute and sacrifice. Cain refused all this, and so he lost the forgiveness which Abel found, and Abel lost the sin which he confessed. The latter knelt a penitent, and rose a justified and righteous man. The former began by saying, “I have not sinned,” and ended by the bitter cry, “My sin is greater than can be forgiven.” This is ever the gateway to heaven, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9). “Only acknowledge your guilt” (Jeremiah 3:13). God can forgive anything, but He cannot pass over a farthing in His book of accounts. He never ignores or cancels the account. It must be fully acknowledged, and then it must be fully satisfied through Christ’s atonement. Then, though it be written in scarlet, and be a debt of 10,000 talents, the promise is forever true, “Whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). The Blood 2. Abel’s faith not only recognized sin, but all the divine provision for its expiation through sacrifice. He did not expect acceptance because of his personal character or his works, nor did God make these the grounds of his acceptance. The apostle says, “God spoke well of his offering” (Hebrews 11:4). He was a poor, worthless sinner, but his offering was the type of God’s own perfect Son, and carried with it all the value of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore Abel was justified just as we are, on account of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. God has already testified of this gift, what He has of no other, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 17:5). And all who bring it and identify themselves with it, will share that commendation and benediction. God will say of them, “My Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” “All beautiful you are… there is no flaw in you” (SS 4:7). This is the meaning of the apostle’s language, “Which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:6), and of the Savior’s prayer, “That the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26). Believing and Receiving 3. Abel’s faith not only recognized the sin and the sacrifice, but also the efficacy of the sacrifice, and his acceptance on account of it. He believed that he was accepted and justified, and so entered into all the joy and rest of a full assurance of faith. Hence we are told by the apostle, “By faith he was commended as a righteous man” (Hebrews 11:4). It was not by feeling; it was not by the subsequent fruits of his life; it was not by inferential reasoning; but it was by simply believing God’s testimony to his offering. So the sinner must still not only acknowledge his sin and accept his Savior, but he must fully and firmly believe that he is accepted, justified and admitted to the place of sonship and perfect blessing in the love and grace of the Father. We must take this assurance by simple faith. We must believe the record which God has given us of His Son. We may weep and pray, but all will bring no rest until we honor God by simply believing His own testimony concerning His Son, and concerning our place of acceptance when united to him. Notice what Abel believed. Not only did he accept the place of forgiveness, but he obtained witness that he was righteous. He stood in the place which man had occupied before he fell, as fully justified as though he had never sinned. Nay, more, the sinner is as fully justified when he accepts the righteousness of Christ, as though he had performed the very acts of righteousness which the Lord Jesus fulfilled in his stead. This is the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith. It is as old as Eden. And Abel fully understood it and experienced it. This was the pathway of life for all the Old Testament saints. This was the message of Habakkuk, for all to read in its vivid and vehement characters, even as they run, “But my righteous one will live by faith” (Hebrews 10:38). This was the glorious theme of Paul. This was the keynote of the Reformation. This was the turning point of Whitfield’s life and the great message of his marvelous ministry. This is still the only gospel that can save sinners, and the only solid ground on which sinners can build for sanctification, for the fullness of the Christian life, and for the hope of glory. May we all know the faith of Abel, and stand with him at last as he shall lead the everlasting song in the choirs of the ransomed: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain” (Revelation 5:12), “and with your blood you purchased men for God” (Revelation 5:9).

Section II: Enoch, or Sanctifying Faith

Section II—Enoch, or Sanctifying FaithHeb_11:5Some men’s biographies are greater than the lives they record. But one sentence tells the story, in the case of Enoch, of a life whose loveliness and sublime issue has never been approached by any mere human experience, whether we consider the glory of his character, or the grandeur of his destiny. “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:22). “One who pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). “He was commended” by faith, “as one who pleased God” (Genesis 11:5). “Then he was no more, because God took him away” (Genesis 5:24). “He was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death” (Hebrews 11:5). Not Enoch, but God The personality most prominent in Enoch’s life was not Enoch but God. He was more remarkable for his Companion than for himself. This is the glory of true holiness; it hides us in the presence of our God. This is the true meaning of godliness. This is the true secret of divine holiness. It is not mere Christ-likeness, but it is Christness—Christ in us. Such a life alone can please God. The only thing that can meet the requirements and expectations of God’s law is the Spirit, the nature, the very life of His dear Son, reproduced in us. Therefore “the love you have for me” shall “be in them, and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26). Would we, therefore, please God? Let us receive the very Person of His dear Son, and offer Him to God as the one unceasing burnt offering and frankincense of our life. Then shall we also have the testimony that we please God, for the Spirit always, bears witness to Jesus and His glory. Then shall we be able to believe that we please God, without any fear of exalting ourselves, and claim the very highest place in Christ, while we hold ourselves ever in the lowest abasement and self-renunciation. Then, too, may we know that we shall be with God forever, and Christ in us shall become the Hope of glory. Then shall we be robed and ready for the Bridegroom when He comes, and have the wedding garment which Rebekah wore—even her husband’s robes to cover her person and hide her face. Holiness and Translation Divine holiness, therefore, is linked very closely with that which Enoch’s translation sublimely foreshadowed, the second coming of Christ and the rapture of His waiting people as they meet Him in the air. Enoch’s life was animated by this hope, and it was his special testimony to his own generation. “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones” (Jude 1:14). Therefore, God signalized it in his own experience, by making him the first glorious illustration of it. Let God’s people hear today the solemn whisper, “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him” (Revelation 16:15). “For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and dean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints)” (Revelation 19:7-8).

Section III: Noah, or Separating Faith

Section III—Noah, or Separating FaithGen_7:1; Hebrews 11:7We have already seen that the cause of the deluge—or rather of the corruption which necessitated the deluge—was the mingling of the godly and the worldly seed and the failure of the descendants of Seth to preserve that line of separation which God had indicated at the beginning. Noah stands out, however, as a distinguished exception to this universal conformity to the world, and for this cause he and his family are preserved from the common corruption and judgment. The same tendency is sweeping away the Church today, and the issue will be, not a flood of water, but a flood of fire. The lessons of Noah’s life are, therefore, peculiarly timely and important at this crisis. For our Lord has said that in the days of the Son of man it shall be precisely as it was in the days of Noah. He Believed We see the faith of Noah manifested in his believing the Word of God with respect to the coming judgment on the old world. The reason that God calls us to give up this present world is because it is doomed. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, we are in the city of destruction, and we are fleeing from its impending flames. The world will not believe this, but is making its calculations in defiance of divine warnings, and looking forward to an un-bounded future. But true faith looks through its glass at the splendid palaces and monuments, and lo, each of them has become a sepulchre; nay, its magnificence is driven like ashes in the whirlwind of the last conflagration. And it turns away from things so transient and uncertain to seek a city that has foundations, and find in heaven a better, even an enduring substance. Noah looked upon the world around him in the light of a century later, and saw it all a hideous wreck of perishing millions. The men around him laughed and scorned because they saw no sign of any such catastrophe in sea or sky. So the Apostle Peter tells us that in our day there will come scoffers who shall say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). It is the philosophy of blind, cold naturalism. God’s answer to it is the gospel of His Second Coming, the message of warning which proclaims the doom of all earth’s pride and power. Nothing will more help us to separate ourselves from the world, and rise above its pride and power, than the belief and realization of this great and portentous truth. “The world and its desires pass away” (1 John 2:17). “The Lord is coming” (Jude 1:14). He Prepared 2. Noah not only believed in the coming catastrophe, but prepared for it, and built the ark of refuge according to the divine prescription and specifications. And then at the appointed time, when there was no portent on the cloudless sky, and no sign of the coming tidal wave of judgment on the earth or sea, he entered into his refuge and shut the door upon all that seemed substantial and real around him. His faith was practical. He did something. He did it all his life long. And he did it up to the very end. For 120 years he continued to build the ark, and when it was finished he showed his faith by committing his family and all his belongings to it, even when to others it may have seemed the height of folly and fanaticism. So faith not only separates itself from the present world, but it lays hold upon the hope of the future, and prepares most practically, patiently and persistently, according to God’s plan for the issues which it foresees. Christ is our Ark. But there is a sense in which although that ark is finished, we have to practically build it into the structure of our entire life. Our whole Christian experience, like Noah’s work, is the putting on of Christ, the building up of the house of faith and holiness of which Jesus is the substance, with the imperishable materials of His grace, and by the agency and energy of His Holy Spirit, so as to stand the test of that coming day. He Separated Himself 3. Noah not only prepared for the future, but he also separated himself from unholy association with the men and women of his own generation. And not only by his life did he stand thus apart, but by his testimony he bore fearless and faithful witness against their wickedness, and warned them of the coming retribution. The Scriptures call him “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). And the apostle says in Hebrews that “he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:7). We cannot bear effectual witness against the world until we get above its life, and out of its evil influences. We cannot do men good so long as we are on their level. Separation is indispensable to successful service. But even success is not necessary to acceptable service. Noah’s preaching seemed the most fruitless that mortal ever attempted. For 120 years he labored in vain. Nor was he alone. For the Spirit of God also strove with men all those years. It is not a sign, therefore, that our work is not divine because sometimes the fruit is delayed and men even grow more obdurate in their rejection of our message. At last the message and the messenger were abundantly vindicated. The time came when the world would have given all it was worth for the lowest place in Noah’s house of safety; but it was too late. Noah let them have their farms and stores for a little while, and then God gave it all to him as he came down from Ararat that glorious morning under the magnificent arch of the rainbow and looked once more upon the loveliness of earth—it was all his own. There was no rival to dispute his title to any of its ample fields and vast estates. Noah had become the heir of the world, simply because he had given up the world. The day is coming when we, too, shall understand how he that loves his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for Christ’s sake, shall find it and keep it unto life eternal. And no man who has left houses or lands or possessions for Christ, shall fail to receive a hundred fold in the times of restitution when the Son of man comes. Let the world have its real estate, its mansions, its stocks and bonds. Christ is keeping it all for His waiting people who can afford for a little while to let the world go by. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). This is the true secret of separation from the world. We do not want its old title, for it is defective. We are going to get it all with a better deed from the original owner, in a little while. And therefore we refuse to invest our money in the poor life interest the present usurper can only give us. The Flood a Type 4. But we need to be separated, not only from the society of the world, but from its spirit, by a true death and resurrection, in our inner life, with the Lord Jesus Christ. The flood was the type of this spiritual experience. The Apostle Peter says of Noah that he and his family were saved by water. “And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). That is, the flood which buried the sinful world, and thus saved Noah from the engulfing waves of sin, is the type of our death to sin with the Lord Jesus now, and our resurrection life through Him to a new world of purity such as was prefigured by the new dispensation upon which Noah entered after the flood. We may go out of the world all our days, and yet have the world in us, all the more idolatrously just because we are denied its enjoyments. It is in the heart that the world must die. The true world that we are to hate and shun is the love of the world. Therefore the apostle says that by the Cross of Christ “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). It is only as we really know in our spirit the meaning and the experience of that death, and rise with Him to the new nature and the new inheritance, that the world can attack us no more. Risen with Christ, “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Genesis 3:3-4).

Section IV: Abraham, or the Obedience of Faith

Section IV—Abraham, or the Obedience of FaithHeb_11:8-10, Hebrews 11:17-19; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 13:8-9; Genesis 14:14-16; Genesis 15:5-6; Genesis 17:1-5; Genesis 22:1-3, Genesis 22:10-18Abraham’s faith has about it a many-sided fullness which makes it difficult to classify under any single aspect, in conjunction with other types. For in some sense it embraces the features of all the other types, and is indeed, the archetype of faith for all time. Hence the patriarch has been called “the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11). And yet its lessons come with great propriety after the three types already presented, as showing the fullness and entirety of the spiritual life into which God will lead His obedient children when they have learned with Abel, Enoch and Noah, the threefold secret of justification, sanctification and separation. We have called the special feature of Abraham’s faith, obedience, simply because the Holy Spirit has used this word as the first emphatic lineament in the picture of the patriarch’s faith. “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed” (Hebrews 11:8). Following the divine picture we notice: Faith Obeying

1. In Abraham we behold faith obeying God’s command. Faith meets us in the very beginning, as an act of obedience. It is not optional with us whether we shall believe God or not. “And this is his commandment: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). This makes faith our highest service. This also takes from the act of faith the personal responsibility, and places it upon God. If we are simply obeying His orders, He will be responsible to carry us through. This gives to faith a very practical character. It ceases to be an intellectual assent and becomes a real act and a decisive committal of our will and all the forces of our being. Hence we find in all great results of faith in God’s Word that it was connected with decisive and courageous action, and it was in the doing that the blessing came. Israel must go forth before the sea could divide. Naaman must wash in the Jordan before he could be clean. The paralytic must take up his bed and walk before he could be healed. And James sums it all up in the impressive words: “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 3:18). Abraham’s faith would have been an idle dream, if he had not done something that involved the risk and committal of his whole life to Him whom he believed. Faith Trusting
2. Faith believing in God personally, before it believes even God’s promise, is faith trusting. Abraham believed God. His faith rested in the bed-rock of God’s own personal character and faithfulness, before it even leaned upon the pillars of promise that rose from the foundations of that rock. True faith is not believing in words merely, even divine words, but believing ON the Lord Jesus Christ. How beautifully we see it in the Syrophoenician woman, who had nothing but Christ Himself, and yet clung to Him before she had a single word from His lips, and then believed it just because it was His word. This was the reason why Abraham could trust even in the dark hour when God’s very words seemed somehow contradicted by the command to offer Isaac. He did not understand, but he still trusted. This personal aspect of faith, the leaning of our heart upon the living God Himself, is best expressed in the simple word trust. What an awful significance it gives to unbelief that it is refusing to believe God; not merely the rejection of the statement or a truth, but a direct assertion of want of confidence in God Himself. Faith Trusting in the Dark
3. Faith is trusting God in the dark. “Abraham… went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). Later the way gradually became more precisely determined, but at first it was indefinite and dark. This is faith without sight, and this is essential to faith. When we can see things clearly, it is often mere reasoning, and not faith at all. How wondrously the navigator sails by what he calls “dead reckoning.” Day by day he marks his path upon the chart, as if following a chalk line upon the sea. And at last he knows just when the head lands are coming into view, and yet he has seen no point of land. His calculations are all from above. And so faith looks up and sails on in the light of heaven upon the trackless sea, content to know: He knows the way He taketh, And I will walk with Him. Faith Believing the Promise4. Faith, next, is believing the divine promise. Having learned to go without exact light, it must now learn to receive the light of promise and fully credit it, even long before its fulfillment; and, indeed, when that fulfillment seems most improbable on natural grounds. God promised Abraham a son, and yet He withheld for a long time the fulfillment, while in the meantime every natural cause seemed to render it impossible. But Abraham believed, as the apostle expresses it, “against all hope” (Romans 4:18), and “being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (Genesis 4:21). So we must take God’s divine Word when He gives it, specifically believe it, and expect it to be accomplished, whether it be the word of pardon, of sanctification, or of answered prayer in any other particular. Faith Confessing
4. Faith is not only believing, but confessing its confidence. Not only did Abraham believe God would give the child of promise, but he began immediately to act as though God had given what He had said. Therefore we are told that his faith called “things that are not as though they were” (Genesis 4:17). So we must not only claim, but confess our blessings, and regard the things which are still future as accomplished in God’s purpose. “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). Faith Surrendering
5. Faith is yielding up the world because it has a better inheritance, and a better title even to the world itself. Therefore when a strife arises, Abraham surrenders his personal rights to selfish Lot, and lets him choose the best; and then that same night God appears to Abraham, and tells him that it is all his own. So our faith can let the world go and know that God will give it to us in a better way, by an eternal, inalienable title. Faith Contending
6. Faith is contending for its inheritance when the enemy disputes it. Abraham yielded everything to Lot; but when the Eastern kings invaded the land, and took Lot a prisoner, Abraham went against them and resisted them in the name of the Lord, as the true heir and king of Canaan. By one of the most astonishing campaigns of all history, more wonderful even than Joshua’s invasion of Canaan, he utterly out-generalled them and recovered all the spoil. It was the type of our faith resisting the devil when he comes to dispute our new inheritance. We will be tolerant and patient with men so far as our personal rights are concerned. But when Satan disputes our standing, and puts his foot upon our inheritance, we will arise in the name of the Lord against the most tremendous odds, and claim the victory through Jesus Christ, by that aggressive and authoritative faith which treads on scorpions and serpents, and triumphs over all the power of the enemy; saying even to the mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea” (Matthew 21:21), and withering the fig tree of evil in His name. Faith Tested and Triumphant
7. Faith tested and yielding, perhaps, for a time to the infirmities of nature, will ultimately triumph and enter into rest and complete victory. The earlier trials of Abraham’s faith developed sometimes a spirit of timidity, and an undue eagerness to hasten God’s promise. But at least when the supreme trial came, and the child of promise and all the hopes connected with him had to be yielded into God’s hands, the grace of God enabled him grandly to meet the test. Faith so allowed Abraham to trust in God’s faithfulness, wisdom and love, and to hold fast to his confidence that somehow the promise would be fulfilled, that he committed all obediently and unreservedly into his Father’s hands. And then he beheld His marvelous working, and received the sign of His divine approval and of all His promises restored to him as from the dead.

Section V: Isaac, or the Patience of Faith

Section V—Isaac, or the Patience of FaithGen_21:3-9; Genesis 22:2-12; Genesis 26:12-25The life and character of Isaac touch at many points the commonplace lives which comprise the great mass of Christian experience. He is an actor in no great public events, but moves in a passive sphere, yielding and suffering, rather than aggressive and strong. More than any other of the patriarchs he teaches us the lesson of the death of self, and the life of self-renunciation, weakness and patient endurance.

1. He is the first example of the rite of circumcision, the divine symbol of self-crucifixion. And his whole life is a commentary upon the covenant act of consecration, of which he was the infant subject on the eighth day of his life.
2. His childhood and youth were one long scene of endurance and self-denial from the persecutions of Ishmael.
3. These were followed by a still more searching self-renunciation, namely, his offering on Mount Moriah at the hands of his father, as a living sacrifice. This must have been to Isaac as real a death as it was to Abraham, and from this time his life was a surrendered one, and really a resurrection life in its true spirit.
4. Isaac’s marriage involved the consecration of his affections and the renunciation of his will. His bride was chosen for him, not by his own caprice, but by the will of God, and sweetly accepted in the spirit of perfect obedience.
5. In the trials of his life, described in detail in the 25th chapter of Genesis, we see him envied by the Philistines, robbed of his wells of water, pressed from place to place by his jealous neighbors, and yet meekly yielding at every point, and, like his Master, going to another place.
6. His last trials and self-renunciation were with respect to his children. His personal preference for his eldest son had to be abandoned, and with the same sweet submission he yielded to the disappointment of his cherished affections, accepting the will of God concerning Jacob, and gave his blessing to the one who had so deceitfully wrung it from his hand. Thus, from infancy to age, Isaac becomes the type of self-surrender, submission to the will of God, passive obedience, and what we have already called the patience of faith, and, indeed, might also call the love that “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Section VI: Jacob, or the Discipline of Faith

Section VI—Jacob, or the Discipline of FaithGen_25:23,Genesis 25:27-34; Genesis 28:10-22; Genesis 32:24-31; Genesis 33:1-5; Genesis 47:9; Genesis 48:15-16There is very little that is naturally attractive in the character of Jacob. Humanly speaking, he was the most unpromising and unworthy subject of divine grace in all the patriarchal history. And yet, for this very reason, he was the best example of divine grace—that grace that is founded, not on human merit, but which triumphs over man’s meanness and worthlessness, and, where sin abounds, makes its riches to abound the more. We trace five great stages in the life of Jacob: His Choice

1. The first was his choice of the blessing. It was undoubtedly an act of faith. And it was probably founded upon his mother’s teachings regarding the promise that had preceded his birth, and designated him as the head of the chosen race. Everything naturally seemed against him. Esau was the firstborn, and the favorite of Isaac. But notwithstanding the natural difficulties, he believed the thing promised and set his heart upon securing the covenant blessing. Had his faith been more perfect, he would have avoided the restless and deceitful policy by which he tried to help God to fulfill His promise. But notwithstanding the means he employed, the motive was in its essential character a true one, and God accepted that which was good in it, and then, by the discipline of suffering, purged out the refuse and the dross. Jacob’s choice was the spiritual one, while Esau’s sole concern was for that which was earthly and temporary. The Revelation of God
2. The next stage of Jacob’s life is the manifestation of God to him, confirming His choice and revealing His covenant in the vision of Bethel (Genesis 28). This corresponds to the time in our Christian life when, having chosen God, He personally reveals Himself to the soul and brings us into conscious covenant relations with Him. This was followed in Jacob’s case by many years of vicissitude and spiritual unsteadiness, during which he made little progress in his religious life, and showed in his dealings with Laban that the old natural spirit of self-acting and carnal wisdom was still there in all its activity. Victory and Peniel
3. At length we come to the third stage of his life, and that is his deeper religious experience and consecration, which begins in the scene at Peniel (Genesis 32), where, crushed with anxiety and impending danger, his own resources fail him at last, and he is driven to cast himself helplessly upon the strength of God. In that night of agony and prayer, which has become the type of many a spiritual crisis since, he at length dies to his own sufficiency, sinks under the touch of God’s withering hand, and rises into the victory of self-renunciation and triumphant faith, henceforth receiving the new name of Israel, in token of the transformation of his life. This, however, was only the beginning of his consecrated life, for in the following chapter we find him still holding back from the fullness of God’s will, and receiving the summons: “Go up to Bethel and settle there” (Genesis 35:1). And Jacob puts away the idols which had still remained in his household, and for a time obeys the divine command. A little later, however, we find him wandering again (Genesis 35:16). He even seems to have forgotten the full meaning of the divine command to dwell at Bethel, and probably this was the cause of all the troubles that followed in his later years. The Discipline of Trial
4. The next stage of Jacob’s life is the discipline of trial, which is at last to burn out the selfishness and earthliness, and prepare him for the fullness of the blessing that God has already bestowed in covenant, to be the head of Israel’s future tribes, and even give his name to its lasting and illustrious history. These trials began in the death of Rachel at Ephratah, followed by the unnatural crimes of Jacob’s sons, and, at last, the mysterious and terrible tragedy of Joseph’s loss and the years of agony and suspense that at length filled the bitter dregs of his cup of affliction. The Triumph of Faith
5. The last stage of Jacob’s life is the triumph of faith, and the issue of his suffering in the happy reunion with his long-lost son, and the grateful testimony, “The Angel who has delivered me from all harm” (Genesis 48:16), and then the dying confession of victory and satisfaction, “I look for your deliverance, O Lord” (Genesis 49:18).

Section VII: Joseph, or the Victory of Faith Over Suffering and Wrong

Section VII—Joseph, or the Victory of Faith Over Suffering and WrongGen_37:3-28; Genesis 39:1-6, Genesis 39:20-23; Genesis 41:30-43; Genesis 42:3-8; Genesis 45:1-15, Genesis 45:25-28; Genesis 50:22-26Jacob was the type of suffering, largely caused by his own sinfulness, and designed to sanctify him from the life of self. Joseph’s sufferings have a different purpose, and are intended to show how the providence of God can overrule the most trying dispensations, and at length deliver His trusting children from the darkest and most mysterious trials, and crown them with glory and blessing.

1. The first chapter of Joseph’s faith had reference to his early visions of the future and the revelation to him of the will of God for his own destiny. It was because he believed this, and rested in the divine faithfulness, that he was persecuted by his brethren; but for the same reason, also, he was sustained in all the trying scenes of future years.
2. We see the trials of Joseph’s faith. First, came the cruel envy of his brethren, and their heartless crime and next, the false accusings of his mistress, and his languishing in prison amid neglect and humiliation for weary, hopeless years as it seemed, at least, to natural reasonings.
3. We see Joseph’s faith under trials, bravely meeting them with courage and manliness, making the best of his situation, and so conducting himself that he rose to the highest place, both in the household of Potiphar, and in the prison of Pharaoh. The secret of this was his fidelity to conscience and his unfaltering faith in God.
4. Joseph’s faith was recompensed at last with complete deliverance and glorious triumph. The height to which he rose was greater than the depth to which he had sunk. And so it ever is in the story of true faith and obedience.
5. We see in Joseph next the faith which works by love. He did not use his triumph for his own selfish aggrandizement or enjoyment. Rather, he used his triumph first for the salvation of the entire world from famine and death and next, for the welfare of the very brethren who had so wronged him, forgiving their sin, receiving them to his love, and sharing with them his wealth and honors.
6. We see next in Joseph a faith that looks back upon trial in the light of God’s wisdom and love. He saw the hand of God in all his sufferings, and above all his wrongs, and could say, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20). This is faith’s after-view of trial. And only as we thus contemplate it can we endure it without bitterness or discouragement.
7. We see in Joseph, finally, the faith that looks out upon the future with an eternal hope. He saw something better than Egypt’s throne. He saw the coming deliverance of his people under Moses and Joshua and still later the final resurrection of the dead, and the eternal inheritance of glory. And so his last act was to give commandment concerning his bones, and to make sure that his dust should have a part in the glorious hopes that awaited his people in the ages to come. How completely his life foreshadows all the highest aspects of the life of faith and godliness, as well as the sufferings and glory of that greater One who is for us not only the Example, but also, the Object, the Author and the Finisher of our faith.