Genesis 28

PART THIRTY-SIX RECAPITULATION: SURVEY OF THE PATRIARCHAL AGE

From A Class-Book of Old Testament History, pp. 73-76

by G. F. Maclear, D.D. Published by Macmillan, London, 1881, now long out of print.

With the death of Joseph the Patriachal Age of Israel’s history may be said to close. The Family had now thrown out many branches and was now on the point of emerging into the Nation. At this juncture, then, it may be well to look back, and review some of the chief features of the Patriarchal Life.

1. And the first of these that claims attention is its Nomadic character. Unlike the founders of Egypt, of Babylon, of Nineveh, the Patriarchs were not the builders of cities and towns, but pilgrims and sojourners, dwellers in tents (Hebrews 11:9). But they were very different from rude hordes, like the Amalekites and other sons of the desert, abhorring any higher mode of life. Abraham was no stranger to the highest form of civilization that his age afforded. He was acquainted with Ur, with Nineveh, with Damascus, with Egypt; he had left his home in one of the chief cities of Mesopotamia, not from choice, but in consequence of a direct personal call from God. Moreover, so far from regarding his present mode of life as an ultimate end, he and Isaac and Jacob were ever looking forward to a time when it would close, when their descendants should be settled in the Land of Promise, and become a great nation, when the portable tent should give way to the city that had foundations (Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 11:13-16; comp. Genesis 24:7; Genesis 28:4; Genesis 49:4; Genesis 50:24). Hence, from time to time, as opportunity offered, we see the wandering life freely and willingly laid aside. Lot settled in Sodom (Genesis 13:10-12); Abraham in Egypt went direct to Pharaoh’s court (Genesis 12:14); at Hebron he settled and became a prince of God in the midst of the Hittites (Genesis 23:6); Isaac not only lived near the Philistines, but occupied a house opposite the palace (Genesis 26:8), and practised agriculture (Genesis 26:12); and Joseph’s dream of the sheaves points out that this was also continued in the time of Jacob (Genesis 37:7).

2. The Family was the center of the Patriarchal commonwealth. Its head was the source of authority and jurisdiction; he possessed the power of life and death (Genesis 38:24); he united in himself the functions of chief and priest; he offered the burnt-offering; he had his armed retainers (Genesis 14:14; Genesis 48:22; Genesis 34:25; Genesis 33:1); his intercourse with his wives (for polygamy was not forbidden) was free and unrestrained; the wife’s consent was asked before wedlock (Genesis 24:57-58); love hallowed the relations of Abraham with Sarah, of Isaac with Rebekah, of Jacob with Leah and Rachel; woman, indeed, did not occupy the position since conceded to her, but her position was far from degraded, and the sanctity of the marriage-bond was defended by severe laws, which made death the punishment for adultery (Genesis 38:24). Slavery, it is true, existed, but in the tents of Abraham the slave was ever treated with consideration, and not excluded from, but made a partaker of religious privileges (Genesis 17:13). The fidelity and attachment of Eliezer the steward of Abraham’s house, the mourning for Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse (Genesis 35:8), are pleasing proofs of the peace that reigned in the Patriarchal household.

3. Civilization. The life of the Patriarchs was chiefly that of the shepherd, and their wealth consisted in their flocks and their herds. But besides practising agriculture they were not unacquainted with money and the precious metals. Abraham paid for the field of Machpelah with coin (Genesis 23:9-20), and the sons of Jacob took money with them into Egypt (Genesis 42:25; Genesis 42:35); while the gold ring and armlets presented to Rebekah by Eliezer (Genesis 24:22), the bracelet and signet ring of Judah (Genesis 38:18), the ear-rings of Rachel (Genesis 35:4), the many-coloured coat of Joseph, indicate an acquaintance with the luxuries of life.

4. Religion. While other nations were rapidly learning to deify the powers of nature, the Patriarchs believed not only in a God above and beyond nature, but in a God Personal, Omnipotent, and Holy. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was. no mere abstraction, no mere law. He could and did reveal Himself by angelic appearances, by visions, by dreams; He could console, strengthen, encourage; He could punish, rebuke, and on repentance forgive. Abraham, the Friend of God (James 2:23), intercedes with Him in behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:23-33); Isaac is warned by Him against going down into Egypt (Genesis 26:2); Jacob is consoled by Him at Bethel when setting out into the land of exile (Genesis 28:13-15), and wrestles with Him by the fords of Jabbok till the break of day (Genesis 32:24); Joseph believes in His invisible but ever-present help in prison and in a strange land, and ascribes to Him all his wisdom in the interpretation of dreams (Genesis 41:16). The Divine Promise of a great future Abraham believed under circumstances of greatest trial, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness (Romans 4:3). Moreover, the God of the Patriarchs was not a mere national or household God. His sphere of operation was not restricted to the Patriarchs and their families; He is the God of all the earth (Genesis 24:3), the God of Righteousness and Holiness. He punishes the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24-25); He plagues Pharaoh’s house (Genesis 12:17); He is the God of the priest-king Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18), and of the Philistine Abimelech (Genesis 20:3); He protects not only Isaac the child of promise, but the outcast Ishmael the child of the bond-woman (Genesis 21:13); He is with Joseph in prison, but He sends dreams to Pharaoh, and through Joseph He saves Egypt from famine (Genesis 50:20).

5. The Religious Worship of the Patriarchs was in keeping with the simplicity of their creed. The head of the family was also the priest of the family. Whenever Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, reached any new spot in their pilgrimage, they invariably erected an altar, generally of stone and on a high situation (Genesis 22:9; Genesis 26:25; Genesis 35:7); there they called on the name of Jehovah, there they presented their burnt sacrifice, there they offered up their prayers. Their history also proves the existence of offering covenant-sacrifices, and celebrating covenant-feasts (Genesis 15:9-18); the making and paying of vows (Gen. 28:23); the erection of memorial pillars, and the consecration of them by pouring upon them oil and wine (Genesis 28:18); the rite of circumcision (Genesis 17:10-14); and the paying of tithes (Genesis 14:20).

6. The Character of the Patriarchs is never represented as perfect; their faults are freely exposed; theirs is no ideal history. If we compare the four most eminent amongst them, we seem to trace in (i) Abraham, the faith that can remove mountains in its power and in its fulness, revealing itself in unfaltering trust and unquestioning obedience under the most trying circumstances conceivable; in (ii) Isaac, the faith that can possess itself in patience, and discharge the ordinary duties of life in quietness and waiting; in (iii) Jacob, the violent contest of faith with the flesh, the higher with the lower nature, till by hard discipline the latter is purified, and the Sup-planter becomes the Prince, the Prevailer with God; in (iv) Joseph, the fidelity and perseverance of faith, revealed not only in the patient endurance of the most grievous trials, but in energetic action, and at length crowned with victory. He unites in himself the noble trust and resolution of Abraham, with the quiet perseverance of Isaac, and the careful prudence of Jacob. He is moreover an eminent historic type of Christ, in (1) his persecution and sale by his brethren, (2) his resisting temptation, (3) his humiliation and exaltation, and (4) his dispensing to a famine-stricken people the bread of life, and (5) in the fulness of his forgiving love.

ADDENDA [Volume 3] LANGE: ON THE ANGEL OF JEHOVAH

(CDHCG, 389-390, verbatim)

Between Abram’s connection with Hagar and the next manifestation of Jehovah there are full thirteen years. But then his faith is strengthened again, and Jehovah appears to him (Genesis 17:1). The most prominent and important theophany in the life of Abram is the appearance of the three men (ch. 17). But this appearance wears its prevailing angelic form, because it is a collective appearance for Abram and Lot, and at the same time refers to the judgement upon Sodom. Hence the two angels are related to their central point as the sun-images to the sun itself, and this central point for Abram is Jehovah himself in his manifestation, but not a commissioned Angel of the Lord. Thus also this Angel visits Sarah (Genesis 21:1; compare Genesis 18:10). But the Angel appears in the history of Hagar a second time (Genesis 21:17), and this time as the Angel of God (Maleach Elohim), not as the Maleach Jehovah, for the question is not now about a return to Abram’s house, but about the independent settlement with Ishmael in the wilderness. The person who tempts Abram (Genesis 22:1) is ElohimGod as he manifests himself to the nations and their general ideas or notions, and the revelation is effected purely through the word. Now, also, in the most critical moment for Abram, the Angel of the Lord comes forward, calling down to him from heaven since there was need of a prompt message of relief. In the rest of the narrative this Angel of the Lord identifies himself throughout with Jehovah (Genesis 22:12; Genesis 22:16). To Isaac also Jehovah appears (Genesis 26:2), and the second time in the night (Genesis 26:24). He appears to Jacob in the night in a dream (Genesis 28:12-13). Thus also he appears to him as the Angel of God in a dream (Genesis 31:11), but throughout identified with Jehovah (Genesis 31:13). Jehovah commands him to return home through the word (31:3). Laban receives the word of God in a dream (Genesis 31:24). The greatest event of revelation in the life of Jacob is the grand theophany, in the night, through the vision, but the man who wrestles with him calls himself God and man (men) at the same time. According to the theory of a created angel, Jacob is not a wrestler with God (Israel), but merely a wrestler with the Angel. It is a more purely external circumstance which God uses to warn Jacob through the word to remove from Shechem (Genesis 35:1). In the second-’ peculiar manifestation of God to Jacob after his return from Mesopotamia (Genesis 35:9), we have a clear and distinct reflection of the first (Genesis 32:24). In the night-visions of Joseph, which already appear in the life of Isaac, and occur more frequently with Jacob, the form of revelation during the patriarchal period comes less distinctly into view. But then it enters again, and with new energy, in the life of Moses. The Angel of Jehovah (Exodus 3:2) is connected with the earlier revelation, and here also is identified with Jehovah and Elohim (Exodus 3:4). But he assumes a more definite form and title, as the Angel of his face, since with the Mosaic system the rejection of any deifying of the creature comes into greater prominence, and since it is impossible that the face of God should be esteemed a creature.

The reasons which are urged for the old ecclesiastical view of the Angel of the Lord, are recapitulated by Kurtz in the following order: 1. The Maleach Jehovah identifies himself with Jehovah. 2. Those to whom he appears recognize, name, and worship him as the true God. 3. He receives sacrifice and worship without any protest. 4. The biblical writers constantly speak of him as Jehovah. We add the reasons. 1. The theory of our opponents opens a wide door in the Old Testament for the deifying of the creature, which the Old Testament everywhere condemned; and the Romish worship of angels finds in it a complete justification. 2. The Socinians also gain an important argument for their rejection of the Trinity, if, instead of self-revelation of God, and of the self-distinction included in it in the Old Testament, there is merely a pure revelation through angels. As the fully developed doctrine of the Trinity cannot be found in the Old Testament, so no one can remove from the Old Testament the beginnings of that doctrine, the self-distinction of God, without removing the very substructure on which the New Testament doctrine of the Trinity rests, and without obscuring the Old Testament theology in its very centre and glory. 3. It would break the band of the organic unity between the Old and New Testaments if it could be proved that the central point in the Old Testament revelation is a creature-angel, and that the New Testament revelation passes at one bound from this form to that of the God-man. The theory of the creature-angel in its continuation through a colossal adoration of angels, points downwards to the Rabbinic and Mohammedan doctrine of angels which has established itself in opposition to the New Testament Christology, and is bound together with that exaggerated doctrine of angels in more recent times, which ever corresponds with a veiled and obscure Christology. On the other hand, it removes from the New Testament Christology its Old Testament foundation and preparation which consists in this, that the interchange between God and men is in full operation, and must therefore prefigure itself in the images of the future God-man. 4. The doctrine of angels itself loses its very heart, its justification and interpretation, if we take away from it the symbolic angel-form, which rules it, as its royal centre, i.e. that angelic form which, as a real manifestation of God, as a typical manifestation of Christ, as a manifestation of angels, has the nature and force of a symbol. But with the obliteration of the symbolic element, all the remaining symbolic and angelic images, the cherubim and seraphim, will disappear, and with the key of biblical psychology in its representation of the development of the life of the soul, to an organ of revelation, we shall lose the key to the exposition of the Old Testament itself. 5. Augustin was consistent when, with his interpretation of the Angel of Jehovah as a creature-angel, he decidedly rejects the interpretation which regards the sons of God (ch. 6)as angel-beings; for the assumption of angels who, as such, venture to identify themselves with Jehovah, and notwithstanding they are in peril, abandon themselves to lustful pleasures and a magical transformation of their nature, combines two groundless and intolerable phantoms. We hold, therefore, that Old Testament theology, in its very heart and centre, is in serious danger from these two great prejudices, as the New Testament from the two great prejudices of a mere mechanical structure of the Gospels, and of the unapostolic and yet more than apostolic brothers of the Lord. (See the defence of the old ecclesiastical view in the Commentary by Keil, also with a reference to Kahnis, de Angelo Domini diatribe, 1858. The assertion of the opposite view held by Delitzsch in his Commentary, meets here its refutation).

6. The aspect of all theophanies as visions. It is a general supposition, that divine revelation is partly through visions, or through inward miraculous sights and sounds. We must, however, bring out distinctly the fundamental position, that every theophany is at the same time vision, and every vision a theophany; but that in the one case the objective theophany and in the other the subjective vision, is the prevailing feature. The subjective vision appears in the most definite form in dream-visions, of which Adam’s sleep, and Abram’s night-horror (chs. 2 and 15.), are the first striking portents. It develops itself with great power in the lives of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and is of still greater importance in the lives of Samuel and Solomon, as also in the night-visions of Zechariah. We find them in the New Testament in the life of Joseph of Nazareth and in the history of Paul. It needs no proof to show that the manifestations of God or angels in dreams, are not outward manifestations to the natural senses. In the elements of the subjective dream-vision, veils itself, however, the existing divine manifestation. But what the dream introduces in the night-life, the seeing in imagesthat the ecstasy does in the day or ordinary waking life (see Lange: Apostolic Age). The ecstasy, as the removing of the mind into the condition of unconsciousness, or of a different consciousness, is the potential basis of the vision, the vision is the activity or effect of the ecstasy. But since the visions have historical permanence and results, it is evident that they are the intuitions of actual objective manifestations of God. Mere hallucinations of the mind lead into the house of error, spiritual visions build the historical house of God. But in this aspect we may distinguish peculiar dream-visions, night-visions of a higher form and power, momentary day-visions, apocalyptic groups or circles of visions, linked together in prophetic contemplation, and that habitual clear-sightedness as to visions which is the condition of inspiration. But that theophanies which are ever at the same time Angelophanies and Christophanies, and indeed as theophanies of the voice of God, or of the voice from heaven, of the simple appearance of angels, of their more enlarged and complete manifestations of the developed heavenly scenethat these are always conditioned through a disposition of fitness for visions, is clear from numerous passages in the Old and New Testaments (2 Kings 6:17, Daniel 10:7; John 12:28-29; John 20:10-12; Acts 9:8; Acts 12:7-12; Acts 22:9-14).

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THE ABRAHAMIC PROMISE

(by H. Christopher, The Remedial System, pp. 146-150)

The promise that God would bless the whole world through him [Abraham] had reference to Christ, the son of Abraham, through whom God would fulfill his promise of blessing the whole world through the offspring of Abraham. Whilst it was the first and chief promise made to Abraham, it was the last in fulfillment. Nearly two thousand years intervened. It was ratified and covenanted by the blood of Christ, and looked to the possession of the heavenly Canaan, and to a circumcision that cut off the heart from all that is worldly and sensual, and to a seal that became the pledge of the purchased possession, and its settlement in the heavenly Canaan, by the resurrection from the dead, when the spiritual people of God cross the Jordan of death, and take possession of the land of promise, for which even Abraham looked, when he sought a city whose maker and builder is God. This promise and its blessings have no connection with the others made to Abraham. They differ as widely as flesh and spirit, and as earth and heaven. They connect or coalesce no where. The first were but preparatory and necessary to the last. When the last appeared, the first had served their chief, if not all their, purpose. The first had chief reference to man’s body, while the last has chief reference to man’s spirit. And as the spirit of man is superimposed, as it were, upon the body, and is capable of a separate and independent existence, so was the last promise superimposed upon the first, and is capable of existing, and does exist, independently of it. Hence, the promises and the covenants by which they were ratified, connect with each other only as the flesh connects with the spirit. Between them lies an impassable gulf. There is no possible passage from the first to the last. The Jew has no rights and privileges under Christ by virtue of his being the son of Abraham according to the flesh; for the promise was; In Isaac shall thy seed be called, and he was the child of promise and of faith. The Christian is the child of promise and of faith, and hence is reckoned through Isaac as a special creation of God, and is, therefore, himself a new creation. The last creation supersedes all former ones, and by this supersession abrogates them. The adoption of the children of Abraham as the special and peculiar people of God, set aside the adoption by creation, and during the time of their adoption, the natural adoption was set aside, and the rest of mankind ignored, and treated as an uncovenanted people. So when the Christian adoption came in, the Jewish was set aside, and all the rest of mankind, not embraced in the new adoption, were ignored and treated as uncovenanted. Hence, under Christianity there is neither Jew nor Greek; neither circumcision nor uncircumcision; but all the families, nations, and races of mankind are one in Christ, in perfect fulfillment of the promise: In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

All this is necessarily true. The Remedial System is developed by differentiations which mark the boundaries of the development. The patriarch had no privileges, special and peculiar, after the calling of Abraham. By that call God isolated a part from the whole, and made this part his special care. By the new creation through Christ another isolation was made, which placed Jew and Greek on the same plane before God, and abrogated all special and peculiar rights or privileges claimed by the Jews. This is necessarily true from another consideration. The claim of the Jew rested on an explicit covenant. That covenant recognized him as the chosen of God, through a means wholly different from that by which he had recognized the patriarch, and does now recognize the Christian. This consideration or means was his birth. He was the son of Abraham according to the flesh, and entitled, consequently, only to the rights and privileges guaranteed by the covenant ordained to grant and secure these. He could claim only under the stipulated grants of his covenant. Under other and different covenants, and made with other people, he could, of course, have no claim or right whatever. His circumcision effected all it was designed to effect, and meant more than the Jew was willing to accept. It cut him off from all the rest of the world, and also from all other covenants of God, but according to the flesh. His circumcision bound him down to the provisions and obligations of that covenant, and confined him within its prescribed limits. What claim, therefore can a Jew have to the grants and blessings of a covenant that has no special reference to him whatever, and that was not made with him as a Jew? The European had as well claim equal rights with the American under the constitution of the United States. The Jew was the chosen of God only according to the flesh, and entitled only to blessings of his covenant. He is not the chosen of God according to the spirit, or the seed of Isaac according to the promise, and hence he can have no right with those who are.

There are four things necessary to make a nation the peculiar and chosen people of God, and all these obtained in the case of the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh. These things are, 1. A creation. This we have in the birth of Isaac. His conception was a miracle, and hence a creation. 2. A seal. This we have in circumcision. 3. A purchase. This we have in the deliverance of this people from Egypt. And 4. A covenant. And this we have in the covenant made before Mt. Sinai. All these are peculiar and consistent, and perfectly harmonious with all that God has promised, or has done for, the Jews. They were all equally necessary, and they follow each other as necessary results one of the other. The seal came to ratify the creation, the purchase, in demonstration of the fulfillment of the promise, and the covenant, in order that the people might also pledge themselves by covenant. By this the people became cemented and organized into a nation. As such they needed laws and institutions for their government and welfare as a people; and as the people of God, religious institutions for the various purposes which God had in view with that people. It will be observed that this covenant made with Abraham’s descendants arose under that which covenanted them as the peculiar people of God, and was, consequently, entirely Jewish. The covenant of Mt. Sinai was made with that people, and the institutions subsequently given, were given to that people, and to no other. The Jewish institution, in all its entirety, was as verily circumcised as were the people for whose benefit it was ordained. It was as completely isolated from all other religions and peoples, as were that people. Hence, it had no connection with any other, nor relation, except that of opposition. The covenant stipulated and embraced no more than did the promise under which it was made. It was a ratification, or acceptance on their part, of the stipulations of the promise. It was the covenant by which God renewed his promise to be their God, and by it the people accepted the offer, and covenanted to be the people of God. This covenant bound both parties to their pledgeGod to be their God, and them to be his obedient people. It did not, and could not stipulate and grant more than did the promise; hence, all these were temporal in their nature. This completed all that God had to provide for that people. Henceforth there was naught for either party to do, but to carry out the provisions of the covenant which formulated the promise. But this covenant was not only temporary as respects the rights, privileges, and blessings which it secured to that people; but it was also temporary in its duration. The people broke that covenant: and a covenant broken on one side, is broken on both. It was faulty in that it only contemplated and provided for man’s temporal wants. Indeed, this was the fault of the whole Jewish fabric, from the inception to the close. This was foreseen; and not only foreseen, but the whole structure was but a means to an end; a measure to give time for the preparation and institution of a better. The promise of God under which the whole Jewish structure arose, was not the first and chief promise that God made to Abraham, nor his chief purpose in calling him. This chief and greatest promise was that through him he would bless the whole human family. This promise the apostle interprets as having reference to Christ, and consequently, it was sooner or later, to take precedence of all others. It could not be annulled by any subsequent promise, unless that promise annulled, at the same time, all former ones. But this the subsequent promises did not do, as is affirmed by the people. The promise which had reference to Christ, preceded the ratification of that concerning the land several years, and antedated the covenant of circumcision twenty-four years. The covenant at Mt. Sinai followed the latter four hundred and six thereafter. So that nothing which transpired under the later promises could annul the first. The first and chief promise which contemplated spiritual blessings and a spiritual offspring through Isaac, was not ratified, fulfilled, or covenanted, for nearly two thousand years. All that has grown out of this promise has no connection with what arose under the others. It differs from them in every respect. It differed from them in the beginning. It came into the world through a different line. There were two lines of descendants in Isaac, as two promises were fulfilled in his descendants. The one line was the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, and the other the seed according to the spirit, the latter of which is reckoned the true line under the covenant of the first promise. This excludes the children according to the flesh from all rights and privileges pertaining to the children according to the spirit. As respects, therefore, their nature, rights, and privileges, the Jewish and Christian institutions differ radically and entirely; to that degree as to exclude the one wholly from the other. The creation, the circumcision or seal, the purchase, and the covenant, that made the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh the people of God, have no place nor value under the Christian institution. The latter has its own creation, seal, purchase, and covenant, all of which are spiritual and eternal, and these give the Christian no rights or privileges under the former. Hence, as respects institutions differing so completely and widely, there can be no community of rights and privileges; nor can the one flow out of the other so as to establish any genetic connection between them. As the spiritual and the eternal necessarily supersede the fleshly and temporal, so does the Jewish institution, in whole and in part, give way to the Christian. Under the latter arises a people of God as distinct from the former as spirit is from flesh. The Christian is a new creation, and all that pertains to his creation is new. Before it the Jew and Gentile stand on the same ground. Both must become the subjects of this new creation before they can be regarded as belonging to the people of God. All the claim which the Jew once preferred, goes for naught under the operation of the new creation. A new birth is just as essential for the Jew as for the Gentile. Hence, the Jew’s creation, seal, purchase, and covenant are all naught when he stands before the Christian’S. His birth of the flesh avails nothing, and neither does his circumcision, Nothing is now acceptable to God but the new creation in Christ. These things being true, all that is Jewish has passed away. The Jews are no longer the people of God. Their whole religious service has perished; and what purpose God has now with that people remains to be seen. That he has no further purpose with them in regard to the fulfillment of his promise of blessing the world through them by Christ, is evident from the fact that Christianity has superseded Judaism, and that the whole religious service of that people perished with the total destruction of their temple. Christ is the end of the law, and of all that pertained to it. It was but a pedagogue to lead the Jews to Christ; so that when he came all that was Jewish was set aside, and the pedagogue was dismissed. All now become the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek; neither bond nor free; neither male nor female; but all are one in Christ Jesus. And all who are Christ’s by virtue of the new creation, the spiritual seal, the eternal purchase, and the everlasting covenant, are the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise: In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (N. B. After hunting several years for a copy of Christopher’s book, I found it in the Dallas Christian College LibraryC. C.)

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THE EXCELLENCE OF FAITH

(Read Romans 5:1-11).

In the study of First Principles the term which first engages our attention is faith. We shall find that it occupies a prominent place in connection not only with conversion, but also with every phase of Christian activity and growth.

Faith is one of the most far-reaching words in the vocabulary of inspiration. Without faith none of the blessings of the spiritual realm would be available to man. Contrariwise, on the ground of faith, such blessings as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived (1 Corinthians 2:9), are within his power to appropriate and enjoy.

Faith is an oft-recurring word in the New Testament. Jesus had much to say about it, and the word is used repeatedly in the Epistles. Paul states expressly that we are justified by faith (Romans 5 :).

The excellence of faith is indicated in scripture by the following representations:

1. Faith is superior to things and circumstances of this material world.

When given full sway in the human heart it rises above the circumstances of life and controls them. The power of faith is described in such scriptures as Matthew 17:20, Mark 9:23; Mark 11:23, Luke 17:6. Christians of this materialistic age, in bondage as they are to the tyranny of things, are inclined to look on these sayings of the Master with more or less skepticism. The tragedy is that we have never really learned to walk by faith. We cannot testify that these sayings are true for the simple reason that we have never learned to stand on God’s promises. True, we claim to do so, and we sing Standing on the Promises, but always with mental reservations. It is only through the exercise of implicit faith that we can throw off the fetters of anxiety and fear which enslave us to this present evil world. We are willing to obey the Lord in confession and baptism, but we certainly fall far short of His teaching in regard to such everyday matters as fear, worry, forgiveness, humility, and the like. (See Matthew 5:3-12; Matthew 5:21-26; Matthew 5:38-42; Matthew 6:25-33; Matthew 7:1-5; Matthew 7:7-12, etc. Cf. 1 John 4:18) He might well say to us as to His disciples of old, O ye of little faith!

2. Faith is the ground of our justification.

Being therefore justified by faithnot by faith alone, or mere intellectual assent (the theologians have added the word alone)we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Not by faith alone, because faith apart from works (i.e., works of faith) is dead (James 2:26). The faith that is unto the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39) expresses itself in works of obedience, sacrifice and service (Romans 12:1-2). To walk by faith is to live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25). God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son as a propitiation for our sins (John 3:16), but we must appropriate this matchless Gift by faith. By true faith in Him we have access into this grace wherein we stand (Romans 5:2). For by grace ye have been saved through faith, and that (i.e., that salvation) not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

3. Faith is the motivating principle of all Christian worship and service.

True worship is (1) communion of the human spirit with the Divine Spirit, (2) on the terms of the truth as revealed in scripture (John 4:24). This can be realized only through faith. Repentance is faith choosing; the confession is faith speaking; baptism is faith obeying; the Lord’s Supper is faith remembering; liberality is faith acknowledging God’s ownership; prayer is faith communing; meditation is faith pondering; and. the whole Christian life is faith serving. Therefore we are justified by faith. From the day of conversion to that of the putting, on of immortality, the actuating principle in the life of every true Christian is faith.

4. Implicit faith, along with obedience, is a necessary, condition to the answer of prayer (John 14:12-15; John 15:5-10, etc.).

(1) Acts 12:1-17. We read here that many of the early disciples were gathered together in the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, praying for Peter’s deliverance from prison. Yet they were amazed when their prayer was answered and Peter stood in their midst. Most of our praying is of this kind; it has little conviction back of it. (Matthew 21:22).

(2) The prayer of faith, i.e., the petition offered in harmony with the teaching of God’s word, will not go unanswered.

Unanswered yet? The prayer your lips have pleaded

In agony of heart these many years?

Does faith begin to fail? is hope departing?

And thing you all in vain those falling tears?

Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer,

You shall have your desire, sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Tho-’ when you first presented

This one petition at the Father’s throne,

It seemed you could not wait the time of asking

So urgent was your heart to make it known.

Tho-’ years have passed since then, do not despair;

The Lord will answer you, sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Nay, do not say -ungranted-';

Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done;

The work began when first your prayer was uttered,

And God will finish what He has begun;

If you will keep the incense burning there,

His glory you shall see, sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered;

Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock;

Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted,

Nor quails before the loudest thunder-shock.

She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer, And cries, -It shall be done, sometime, somewhere!-’ And cries, -It shall be done, sometime, somewhere!-'

5. The blessings and rewards of the gospel are all received and realized through faith.

Among these are: (1) salvation from the guilt of sin (Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38; Acts 10:43; Acts 16:31; Acts 26:18); (2) spiritual life (John 20:31; John 6:40, John 3:16; John 3:36; 1 John 5:12); (3) spiritual light (John 1:9; John 8:12; John 12:36); (4) heavenly adoption (Galatians 3:26); (5) the indwelling Spirit (John 7:39, Ephesians 1:13, Galatians 3:14); (6) justification (Romans 5:1, Galatians 2:16): (7) true righteousness (Romans 1:16-17; Romans 10:6; Romans 3:22); (8) true worship (John 4:24, Ephesians 3:12); (9) providential oversight (1 Peter 1:5); (10) eternal rest (Hebrews 4:3). In fact the inheritance of all the promises of God is to be realized through faith (Hebrews 6:12).

Conclusion: No wonder then that faith is represented to be the foundation which supports the entire pyramid of Christian virtues that true disciples build, one stone upon the other, and upon which they climb heavenward (2 Peter 1:5-7). True Christians walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Faith, hope and love, according to Paul, constitute the abiding trinity of spiritual virtues (1 Corinthians 13:13). Of these three, love is greatest; because, in the home over there, faith will have given way to spiritual knowledge, and hope to fruition, leaving only love to consummate the blissful intercourse of the redeemed with their heavenly Father (Revelation 21:1-5).

THE NATURE OF FAITH

(Read Hebrews, ch. 11, esp. Hebrews 11:1.)

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been called Israel’s Roll of Honor. It is the great faith chapter of the Bible. It is an inspired discourse on the subject of faith. The discourse begins properly with the last three verses of ch. 10, in which the writer speaks of a faith that is unto the saving of the soul. The subject-matter which follows, in ch. 11, is an analysis of that kind of faith, what it is, whence it is obtained, and how it operates unto salvation, as exemplified in the lives of many illustrious believers of olden times. The writer proves to be an excellent sermonizer, as we might expect in view of his having been inspired by the Spirit of God. He states his text in v. 1, and then proceeds to develop it with appropriate illustrations drawn from Old Testament history. His concluding exhortation follows, in ch. 12, Genesis 12:1-2. We shall attempt here to evaluate the teaching of this great chapter on the nature (i.e., the original and essential characteristics) of faith.

Let me repeat that the kind of faith under consideration here is the faith that works unto the saving of the soul. By some this has been called saving faith. Not that faith of itself will save any one, because it will not; but that the right kind of faith will motivate the believer to such intelligent and sincere cooperation with God, on God’s terms and according to His plan, that He may consistently save the one who so believes. It is God who pardons and saves, but always through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

What is faith? Considering the excellence of faith, it is exceedingly important that we know what faith is. I am profoundly thankful that the Holy Spirit has not left us in darkness regarding this essential matter. Nor has he left it to our finite minds to formulate a definition. We are not compelled to go either to philosophy or to theology for a definition of faithwe have it in clear, unmistakable terms, in the Christian Scriptures.

What, then, are the essential characteristics of faith? This question is fully answered in the words of our text, as follows:

1. Faith is assurance. Assurance is defined as confidence inspired or expressed, that which produces certainty. It connotes positiveness, certainty, even boldness.

2. Faith is assurance of things hoped for. That is, faith is the foundation of hope.

(1) Authorized Version: the substance of things hoped for. The word substance means in our language the stuff, material, or matter of which anything is composed. It is used here, however, in its derivative sense. It is derived from the Latin prefix, sub (under) and the Latin participle stans (standing). Substance, then is that which stands under. Faith is that which stands under hope. Cf. Living Oracles: faith is the confidence of things hoped for. Moffatt: faith means we are confident of what we hope for. Weymouth: faith is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope. Goodspeed: faith means the assurance of what we hope for.

(2) Faith is the foundation of hope. This is true in every department of human activity. It is true in the business world. I visited a friend on one occasion to solicit a contribution from him for a worthy cause. Having heard my case, his reply was: I believe in your proposition, and I am sorry that I am not in a position to help just at this time. But I will do something later. I have invested a considerable sum of money in an oil well in Texas, and I am expecting returns from this investment within a few months. If you will come back about a year from this date, I will give you a substantial donation. I thanked him, and departed. About a year later I called at his office a second time, and as soon as I entered he looked at me and exclaimed: I know what you have come for, but I can-’t do anything for you. What is the trouble? I asked, didn-’t the oil well turn out satisfactorily? And in extreme disgust he said: I wish I had the money back that I sank in that hole in the ground. The first time I called he was extremely hopeful, because he believed in the enterprise in which he had invested; the second time I found him with hopes blasted, because he had lost all faith in it. Where there is no faith, there is no hope.

(3) This is also true in the social realm. In the course of time a young couple will fall in love, marry, and establish a home. The success of their undertaking will depend largely on their faith in each other. On this foundation of faith they will erect a structure of dreams and plans and hopes. But let the confidence of one in the other be destroyed and this structure will fall to the ground. Both marriage and home are erected on a foundation of faith.

(4) So, in the realm of spirit, as elsewhere, hope rests upon faith. Every act of worship and service we perform is motivated by faith. Faith underlies the pyramid of Christian virtues (2 Peter 1:5-7). And all our aspirations and hopes respecting the home over there, the inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away (1 Peter 1:4) rest on faith. In everything faith is the foundation of hope.

(5) Illustrations from the chapter (Hebrews 11). (a) Abel’s hope that his offering would be acceptable to God rested on faith, Hebrews 11:4. (1 John 3:12) (b) Enoch’s walk with God was a walk of faith, Hebrews 11:5. (c) Faith was the foundation of Noah’s hope of deliverance from impending judgment, Hebrews 11:7. (d) Abraham’s hope of attaining the far country which he was to receive for an inheritance was founded on faith, Hebrews 11:8. Also, his hope of receiving Isaac back from the dead was inspired by faith, from whence he did also in a figure receive him back, Hebrews 11:17-19. (e) Sarah’s expectation of a son, the child of promise, rested on faith, Hebrews 11:11. (f) Joseph’s hope that the children of Israel would ultimately take possession of the land of promise rested upon his faith, Hebrews 11:22. (g) The aspirations, hopes and plans of Moses for his people, and his matchless efforts in their behalf, were all inspired by his faith, Hebrews 11:24-29. In every example cited, faith is presented as the foundation of hope.

3. Faith is a conviction … A conviction is defined as a strong belief, something firmly believed. The faith which operates unto the saving of the soul is something more than a passive intellectual assent. It is a conviction. It must be a conviction, one that takes hold of the soul and determines the course of one’s life. In the light of this definition, it is obvious that faith is precisely the thing that is lacking in the modern church.

4. Faith is a conviction of things not seen, i.e., a conviction with respect to things not seen.

(1) Authorized Version: the evidence of things not seen. Moffatt: Faith means. we are convicted of what we do not see. Weymouth: a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see. Goodspeed: our conviction about things we cannot see.

(2) Note that faith is a conviction with respect to things not seen. I have never seen Paris, but I have a conviction that there is a city by that name and that it is the capital of France. My conviction is the result of satisfactory evidence. Things which are seen are matters of observation and knowledge, but things that are not seen belong to the realm of faith. God who is a Spirit (John 4:24) cannot be seen, and is therefore to be apprehended only by faith. Angels, spirit, resurrection, immortality, heaven, etc., all these realities of the unseen world are matters of faith. Faith pertains not to the things that are illusive and transitory, but to the things which are abiding. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

(3) We have never seen God, but we believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him (Hebrews 11:6). We were not present to see the worlds created, but our conviction is that they were framed by the word of God (Hebrews 11:3). We have never seen Christ, our Elder Brother, but we believe in Him as the One who is abundantly able to save us from sin and mortality. We have never had a glimpse of heaven, but we believe that the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in us, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to our mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in us (Romans 8:11). Therefore we are exhorted to live by faith, to walk by faith and to die in the faith.

(4) Illustrations from the chapter (Hebrews 11). (a) Abel brought his offering to the altar with the conviction that the God whom he had never seen, but in whom he believed, would accept it, Hebrews 11:4. (b) In Noah’s heart there was an overwhelming conviction that judgment would come upon the antediluvian world because of its wickedness. Although summer and winter, and seedtime and harvest, continued to come and go as usual for one hundred and twenty years, he never faltered. Through all the trying experiences of this period of grace he retained his conviction. Because that during all these intervening years there was no evidence in nature of the impending catastrophe, it was a conviction with respect to things not seen, Hebrews 11:7. (c) Abraham left home and kindred and friends, and started on a strange journey to a land both unknown to him and unseen by him. He had no idea how far he would have to travel in order to reach it. All that moved him was a conviction with respect to the far country and a conviction that God would give it to him for an inheritance. Hebrews 11:8-12. (d) These fathers of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all died in the faith, having never received the literal fulfilment of the promises. So far as we know they all died without possessing a single acre of the land of promise save the few square feet they had purchased for a burial ground. It seems that as they continued in their pilgrimage their faith became clearer, and they began to look beyond the literal to the spiritual fulfilment of the promise, in the city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God, Hebrews 11:13-16. (e) Joseph’s conviction with respect to the exodus of his people from Egypt pertained to an event far in the future, an event not seen, Hebrews 11:22. (f) Moses, the man who saw an undying flame, chose to share ill treatment with the people of God, above the temporary enjoyment of the pleasures of sin, because he endured as seeing him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:23-29). In all these cases, faith was a conviction with respect to things not seen.

(5) As in the various cases cited from Old Testament history, so it is with respect to faith in the present dispensation and under the new covenant: (a) our faith must be something more than mere assent; (b) it must be genuine conviction in order to work unto the saving of the soul; (c) it must be conviction with respect to things not seen, viz., God, the Son of God, the Spirit of God, the future life, heaven, etc.; (d) this faith undergirds all our spiritual blessings, aspirations and hopes (1 Corinthians 2:6-10).

Conclusion: 1. This inspired definition of faith is perfect and complete. Nothing can be taken from it without weakening its import. Nothing can be added to it that would give it greater force.

2. Christian faith takes in all those convictions with respect to God, the Son of God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, immortality, heaven, and the like; all of which are eternal realities above and beyond the realm of time and space. Like Moses, we endure as seeing him who is invisible, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Like Abraham, we realize that we are pilgrims and strangers upon this earth, that our present dwelling places are but the tabernacles of a night-time; and, like him, we anticipate a more glorious fulfilment of the promises than would be possible in this world of places and things (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). Our ultimate goal is that heavenly country towards which he made his pilgrimage. In the words of Emily Dickinson:

I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea, Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given.

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THE SOURCE OF FAITH

(Read Romans 10:1-17).

Having ascertained the essential nature of faith (1) the assurance of things hoped for, and (2) a conviction with respect to things not seen, we shall now turn our attention to the source of faith. Whence is the faith obtained that is unto the saving of the soul? We may find the answer to this important question by turning again to the cases cited in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews:

1. Abel, Hebrews 11:4. Whence did Abel obtain his conviction that the offering of a sacrifice of blood would be pleasing to God and would bring him God’s blessing? Evidently from the word of God. It seems obvious that God laid down the law of sacrifice as soon as man fell, in order to establish the principle that apart from shedding of blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22). Abel, in bringing an offering in which blood was shed, obeyed the law; Cain, in bringing the fruit of the ground, disobeyed it (1 John 3:12). This explains why Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s rejected.

That this institution was of divine origin is evident from several considerations: I. We learn from Hebrews 11:4, that Abel offered his sacrifice in faith. But in Romans 10:17, we are told that -faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.-’ And hence it follows that Abel could not have offered in faith without a command from God. II. It could not have been a human invention, because Reason can perceive no connection between the means and the end. It is evidently a positive and not a moral or natural institution. III. Its universality is another proof of its divine origin. Mr. Faber says that -throughout the whole world there is a notion prevalent that the gods can be appeased only by bloody sacrifices. There is no heathen people,-’ he adds, -that can specify a time when they were without sacrifice. All have had it from a time which is not reached by their genuine records. Tradition alone can be brought forward to account for its origin.-’ IV. The distinction between clean and unclean beasts even in the time of Noah (Genesis 7:2) proves also the divine origin of sacrifice. This is a distinction which is altogether positive, and which has no foundation in either reason or philosophy (Milligan, SR, 67).

2. Enoch, Hebrews 11:5.Enoch’s walk of faith was evidently inspired and directed by the word of God (Genesis 5:24).

3. Noah, Hebrews 11:7. How did Noah obtain his conviction that an overwhelming deluge would come upon the antediluvian world? How did he obtain the conviction that in the building of the ark a means of deliverance would be provided him and his family? Evidently from the word of God. God told him the flood would come in due time. God told him to build the ark and how to build it. God gave him the plans for it. God promised him deliverance through the instrumentality of the ark. And Noah believed God. His conviction was inspired not by any manifestation in nature, but solely by the word of God. See Genesis 6:13-22; Genesis 7:1-5; Genesis 8:15-17.

4. Abraham, Hebrews 11:8-19. Whence did Abraham obtain his conviction regarding the land to which he journeyed? Whence did he obtain his belief that this land would be given him for an inheritance? From the word of God. See Genesis 12:1-4; Genesis 13:14-18, etc. It was God who told him about the far country and promised it to him for an inheritance. Whence did Abraham and Sarah obtain their conviction regarding the birth of the child of promise? From the word of God (Genesis 17:15-21). Whence did Abraham obtain his conviction that God would not allow Isaac to suffer an untimely end (Hebrews 11:19)? From the word of God. Had not Isaac been miraculously conceived and born? Were not the details of the Abrahamic promise to be worked out through him? (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 13:16; Genesis 17:19, Hebrews 11:18). Cf. Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6, James 2:23.

5. Joseph, Hebrews 11:22. Whence did Joseph obtain his conviction that his people would leave Egypt and repossess Canaan? Evidently from God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 12:1-4; Genesis 13:14-18; Genesis 17:15-21; Genesis 26:2-5; Genesis 28:12-17).

6. Moses, Hebrews 11:22-29. From whom did Moses receive his commission to lead his people out of bondage? From whom did he receive the Law ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator (Galatians 3:19)? From God Himself. See Exodus 3:1 to Exodus 4:17, Exodus 20:1-26, Deuteronomy 5:1-33, etc. Who was his constant Guide and Protector through all those terrible marches in the wilderness? Who rained manna from heaven upon the starving people? Who guided them by means of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night? Moses constantly endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

7. Joshua, Hebrews 11:29. Whence did Joshua obtain his confidence that the walls of Jericho would fall? From Jehovah’s word. He went to God for a war program, in his extremity, and God supplied it (Joshua 6:1-20).

8. Rahab, Hebrews 11:30. Whence did Rahab obtain her belief that she should give aid and succor to the men of Joshua’s army? Evidently from her knowledge of God’s promises and judgments (John 2:9-21; John 6:22-25, James 2:25).

9. The creation, Hebrews 11:3. Whence do we obtain our belief that our physical universe was the materialization of God’s word? Our conviction that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear (i.e., that this universe was not fashioned out of pre-existing materials, as the evolutionists and materialists contend)? From the word of God. (See Psalms 33:6; Psalms 33:9; Psalms 148:5, etc. Note that the expression, God said, is found ten consecutive times in Genesis 1. Cf. also John 1:1-3, Hebrews 1:1-3, 2 Peter 3:5-8, etc.).

10. Other great heroes and heroines of faith, Hebrews 11:32-39. All received their inspiration to deeds of heroism from the attractions and impulsions of God’s word. So, then, belief cometh of hearing the divine word, as our text says. Believers in all ages endure as seeing Him who is invisible.

Conclusion: So much for the examples from Old Testament history. But what about the faith that operates unto the salvation of the soul, in the present dispensation, under the new covenant?

1. From what source do we obtain our belief that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him (Hebrews 11:6)? From the testimony about Him as revealed and recorded in Scripture. From the complete and perfect revelation of Him afforded us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, whom to know aright is eternal life. John 15:9-11, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Hebrews 1:1-3, 1 Peter 1:3-12, etc.

2. From what source do we obtain our conviction that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? From the testimony presented in the Scriptures, particularly that of the gospel records. This is our only source of accurate information about Him, See John 17:20, John 20:30-31, Acts 15:7, Acts 17:11-12, etc. Why should me reject the testimony of these competent eye-witnesses, these men who walked and talked and supped with Him, and listen to the quibblings of half-baked professors removed from Him by a span of twenty centuries?

3. Whence do we obtain our convictions respecting the future life and its rewards and retributions? From the testimony of Scripture? From the great and exceeding precious promises of God.

4. Romans 10:17. Hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Faith does not come by feeling, nor by a direct operation of the Spirit, nor in answer to prayer, but faith does come by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:6-8, 1 Thessalonians 2:13).

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THE PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH

(Hebrews 11:1-19, esp. Hebrews 11:13)

One of the most illustrious characters of ancient times to whom our attention is called by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, is Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people.

Abraham’s life and walk were so eminently motivated by faith, that his name has gone down in sacred history as the Father of the Faithful, and as the Friend of God (Romans 4:17, Galatians 3:29, Isaiah 41:8, 2 Chronicles 20:7, James 2:23).

1. Note, in the first place, that Abraham’s whole life was a pilgrimage of faith.

(1) It was by faith that he first went out from his native home, Ur of the Chaldees. As faith comes from hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17), so he went out in response to God’s command (cf. Genesis 12:1-3). He did not go out in consequence of any urge within himself, but solely in obedience to God. By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance (Hebrews 11:8).

(2)* By faith he made his initial pilgrimage from Ur of Chaldea to the land of promise.* As faith is a conviction with respect to things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), he therefore went out not knowing whither he went (Hebrews 11:8). Commenting on this verse, Milligan says: Here we have given the fact that Abraham received a call from God; that by his call he was required to leave his home and kindred in Ur of Chaldea, and go out into a strange land; that this land, though promised to his posterity, was wholly unknown to him at the time; and that he nevertheless obeyed God, and went out of his own country, not knowing whither he went (Milligan, NTCH, in loco.)

(3) By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, etc. It would seem from this that Abraham never regarded Canaan as his home. He knew of course, by faith, that when the Canaanites should have filled up the cup of their iniquity to the full, in the fourth generation, the land would be given to his posterity for an everlasting possession, as indeed it was in the time of Joshua (Genesis 15:12-21). But until that time neither he nor his seed, he realized, had any rights or privileges there beyond what might have been accorded other strangers under like circumstances. (Cf. Acts 7:5). Hence Abraham died without owning a foot of the land other than the cave of Machpelah, which he purchased from Ephron the Hittite for a burying-ground (Genesis 23:3-20); and hence, also, neither he, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, ever established a permanent residence in the country. They were satisfied to live in movable tents, feeling assured that according to the promise, they were to fall heir to a better inheritance than any that is to be found on this earth.

(4) By faith he looked beyond the literal to the spiritual fulfilment of the promise. For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, etc. (Hebrews 11:9-10). From this and other like passages we are constrained to think that God had given the patriarchs information with regard to the heavenly country, far beyond what is now recorded in Genesis or any other part of the Old Testament. What we find there at present was written for our instruction, as well as for the benefit of the ancients (Romans 15:4). But much may have been said to them which would in no way benefit us; and which was, therefore, excluded from the Canon by Moses, Ezra and other inspired writers. The origin of sacrifice, for instance, is nowhere expressly mentioned in the Old Testament; nor is there anything said in it respecting the origin of the Patriarchal priesthood. Information, clear, full, and explicit, on all such matters, was of course needed by the ancients; but for us the more general instructions of the Bible are quite sufficient. And so, also, we think it was with respect to the heavenly country. The Patriarchs seem to have received revelations concerning it which have never been transmitted to us; for it is obvious that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, lived in constant expectation of entering it at the close of their earthly pilgrimage. They were satisfied to live here as strangers and pilgrims, knowing that they had in heaven a city having permanent foundations whose Architect and Framer is God. This city is manifestly the heavenly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:28, Hebrews 12:22; Hebrews 13:14), which for the present is located in heaven, but which will hereafter descend to the earth after the latter shall have been renovated by fire (Revelation 21). Then will be fulfilled in its full and proper sense the promise made to Abraham, that he and his seed should be the heirs of the world (Romans 4:13) (Milligan, ibid.).

In the land of fadeless day,

Lies -the city four-square-';

It shall never pass away,

And there is -no night there.-'

God shall -wipe away all tears,-'

There’s no death, no pain nor fears,

And they count not time by years,

For there is -no night there.-'

(5) By faith he anticipated the birth of the child of promise (Hebrews 11:11-12, Galatians 4:23, Genesis 17:15-21; Genesis 18:9-15; Genesis 21:1-7). The miraculous conception and birth of Isaac, typical in respect to its supernaturalness of that of Jesus, were direct fulfilments of the promise of Jehovah which Abraham believed. In this respect Abraham’s faith was even greater than Sarah’S, who, on being told, at ninety years of age and long after she had passed the age of child-bearing, that she should give birth to a son, received the announcement at first with considerable incredulity (Genesis 18:9-15).

(6) By faith he offered up Isaac on Mount Moriah, accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead; from whence he did also in a figure receive him back (Hebrews 11:17-19). Abraham’s faith was such that he knew that the promise of God (Genesis 17:21; Genesis 21:12) could not and would not fail, and as he could not anticipate that God would interfere, as He did, so as to prevent the immolation of his son, there was really left for him no alternative other than simply to conclude that God would restore Isaac to life. This conviction seems to be implied in the remark which he made to his servants, -Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again.-’ The word rendered come again (we will return) is in the plural number, and seems to indicate a belief on the part of Abraham, that God would immediately raise Isaac up again from the dead (Milligan, ibid.) The account of this, the severest trial and consequently the supreme manifestation of Abraham’s faith, is related in Genesis 22:1-14).

(7) Having walked in faith, he likewise died in faith, not having received the promises but having seen them and greeted them from afar, etc. What were the promises? (a) That Abraham should have a, numerous offspring (Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:3-5; Genesis 17:2-4; Genesis 22:16); (b) that God would be a God to him and to his seed after him (Genesis 17:1-8); (c) that He would give to him and his seed an everlasting inheritance (Genesis 12:7; Genesis 13:15; Genesis 15:18-21; Genesis 17:8); (d) that through him and his seed, all the nations of the earth should be blessed (Genesis 2:3; Genesis 22:18). With respect to these four details, Abraham looked beyond their literal to their spiritual fulfilment. To each of these God attached a double significance.. They each consisted, so to speak, of two elements, one of which had reference to the carnal side of the covenant, and the other to the spiritual side; one to the type, and the other to the antitype. Thus Abraham was made the honored father of two families: to each of which an inheritance was promised, and through each of which the world was to be blessed (Milligan, ibid.). Abraham, it would seem, understood all this, understood by faith that the spiritual side of the promise would be realized through his seed, the Messiah, and consequently rejoiced to see his day, and he saw it, and was glad (John 8:56). (Cf. Galatians 4:21-31; Galatians 3:6-13, etc.) Hence, he died in faith, knowing that the promise in its various details would be worked out according to God’s eternal purpose and plan. Hence, too, by his constant life and walk of faith, he admitted that he did not seek a home on this earth, that here he considered himself merely a stranger and sojourner, that he did not expect to enter into possession of his true home until he should have reached the end of his pilgrimage and been received into a better country than this, i.e., heaven itself. Wherefore God approved and rewarded the faith of Abraham, and of Isaac and Jacob as well, by preparing for their inhabitation, and for all the redeemed of all ages, a city whose foundations had, even in their day, been laid prospectively in the blood of Jesus Christ (cf. Hebrews 12:22-24).

2. Note, in the second place, that Abraham’s pilgrimage of faith was designed to be typical of the believer’s journey.

(1) A voyage to a distant landsuch is the life of every Christian believer.

Our life is like the hurrying on the eve Before we start on some long journey bound, When fit preparing to the last we leave, Then run to every room the dwelling round, And sigh that nothing needed can be found; Yet go we must, and soon as day shall break; We snatch an hour’s repose; when loud the sound For our departure calls; we rise and take A quick and sad farewell, and go ere well awake.

(2) Here we walk by faith, and not by sight, if we are true Christians. Though in the world, we are not of the world. The worldly spirit deals with things present, but the spirit of faith anticipates the more glorious things to come. The worldly spirit is neither far-reaching nor far-sighted. Its range is bounded by the horizon of time and sense. It has no wings with which to soar into realms invisible. It is of the earth, earthly. Whence comes the manna? why gushes the water from the rock? whither guides the pillar of cloud and fire?these are questions it never asks. It knows not how to soar, how to anticipate and trust and wait, how to endure as seeing Him who is invisible, how to repose under the shadow of His wings, unmindful of the dangers of the wilderness and unalarmed by foes. But the heavenly-minded man walks by faiththat faith which is the substance of things hoped for, and a conviction with respect to things not seen. And, among all the great verities which possess his soul there is none greater, none nobler, none surer, than his conviction with respect to the saints-’ everlasting home. All the circumstances of his present journey, all the remembrances, all his reasonings, all his aspirations, point to a Better Land. By faith he sings:

There is a land of pure delight,

Where saints immortal reign,

Infinite day excludes the night,

And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides

And never-withering flowers;

Death, like a narrow sea, divides

This heavenly land from ours.

(3) We realize that as far as this present life is concerned we are but strangers and sojourners on the earth. We dwell in tents, as did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; in the tabernacles of a night-time. We are here today, and gone tomorrow. There is nothing that we possess here that we can really call our own. All that we shall have in the end is a few square feet of earth in which our mortal remains will be laid away to mingle with the dust. This is not sentimentaityit is plain fact. We can-’t take anything material with us into the next world, for the simple reason that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. No matter how diligently we may toil and strive to accumulate houses and lands and worldly goods, of what value will these things be when we reach the end of the road? We are pilgrims, nothing more, walking by faith in the direction of the heavenly country which we expect to reach beyond the swelling of the Jordan, the country that will truly be, Home, Sweet Home. The true Christian philosophy is expressed by Phoebe Carey in these lines:

One sweetly solemn thought

Comes to me o-’er and o-’er:

I am nearer my home today

Than I have ever been before.

Nearer my Father’s house

Where the many mansions be;

Nearer the great white throne,

Nearer the crystal sea.

Nearer the bound of life,

Where we lay our burdens down;

Nearer leaving the cross,

Nearer gaining the crown.

(4) Observation teaches us that much in this life is inequality and injustice. As far as this world alone is concerned, honesty is not always the best policy, Judas fares about as well as John, and Nero quaffs more of the wine of living than Paul. The voice of experience speaks to us that if this life is all, it is scarcely worth the living. In the words of Robert Browning:

Truly there needs be another life to come! If this be all And another life await us not for one, I say, -Tis a poor cheat, a stupid bungle, A wretched failure, I for one protest Against, and I hurl it back with scorn.

(5) Life as we live it here is largely illusion. (See F. W. Robertson, Sermons, The Illusiveness of Life). Our senses deceive us. They deceive us with respect to distance, shape, and color. That which, afar off, seems to be oval, turns out to be circular when modified by the perspective of distance; that which appears to be a speck, becomes a vast body, on nearer approach. Stand in the middle of a railroad track, and look in either direction, and the rails appear to converge; but they do not actually do so. Look at what we call the horizon and it seems that the earth and sky meet, but they do not actually, meet. The beautiful berry turns out to be bitter and poisonous; that which apparently moves is in reality at rest; that which seems to be stationary is in perpetual motion; the earth moves, but the sun, which appears to be moving, stands still. All experience here is but a correction of life’s illusionsa modification or reversal of the judgment of the senses. Our natural anticipations deceive us. Every human life starts out bright with hopes that will never be realized. These hopes may be different in nature: finer spirits may look on life as an arena for good deeds, while the more selfish regard it as a place only for personal enjoyment; but the results are usually the same. Regardless of the nature of these hopes, the majority will fail of fruition. It would seem almost a satire on life to compare the youth in the outset of his career, flushed and sanguine, with the aspect of the same man when he is nearly done, worn, sobered, covered with the dust of life, confessing that its days have been few and evil. Where is the land flowing with milk and honey? Not on this earth. With our affections it is even worse. Man’s affections are but tabernacles of Canaan, the tents of a nighttime, never the same, always changing. Where are the charms of character, the perfection and purity and truthfulness which seemed so resplendent in our friend? Association has rendered them sordid. They were only our conceptions and they proved false; hence we outgrow friendships. Life as we live it here is an unenjoyable Canaan with nothing real or substantial about it. Our expectations, resting on divine revelation, deceive us. For example, the attitude of the church with respect to the second coming of Christ. The apostles expected Him to return while they were yet here, and the early churches were vitalized by this hope of seeing the great and notable day of the Lord. John, in penning the last words of the New Testament, expressed this hope, Come, Lord Jesus. The church, throughout the centuries of the Christian era, has revived and revitalized this hope many times; in fact it has never died away. And even today, if it should turn out that we who are alive shall remain unto the coming of the Lord, we would consider ourselves fortunate indeed. However, He has not come. He will comebut not as yet. The promise, This Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven, remains unfulfilled. What is the meaning of all this illusiveness of earthly life? Faith replies that it is not delusion, but illusion; that the non-fulfilment of the promises literally, is a pledge of their spiritual fulfilment later; that God, by their very non-realization, lures us onward and upward to nobler things. Suppose, for instance, that the spiritual side of the Abrahamic promise had been revealed to ancient Israel at first; suppose they had been informed at the outset that God’s rest is inward, that the land of promise is to be found only in the Jerusalem which is above; not material, but immaterial; not visible, but invisible. That rude, gross people, yearning after the flesh-pots of Egypt, willing to go back into slavery so only they might have enough to eat and drinkwould they have quitted Egypt on such terms? Would they have taken one step on that pilgrimage which was to find its meaning in the discipline of the ages? Nothey had to be lured on by something visible, something tangible. So we are lured on through life as upon a journey. Could man see the route before hima flat, straight road, unbroken by tree or eminence, with the sun’s heat burning down upon it, stretching out in dreamy monotonyhe could scarcely find either the inclination or the energy with which to begin his journey. It is the very uncertainty of that which is not seen, that which lies just around the bend, that keeps expectation alive. The view we think we may get from yonder summit, the landscape that may be glimpsed as the road winds around yonder knoll, hopes like these beguile the weary traveler on. So our heavenly Father leads us on, educating us day by day, and hour by hour, to walk in faith, ever holding up the seen as an incentive to the unseen. So He deals with us, luring us on by means of life’s unsatisfactory and illusive rewards, ever schooling us in the art of waiting, of enduring as seeing Him who is invisible. Canaan first; then the hope of a Redeemer; and finally the Better Land. It was in this manner that the ancient saints interpreted this mystery of the illusiveness of life. They did not regard life as a dream, nor as a bubble, nor as a delusion. Though they no doubt felt as keenly as any moralist could feel; the brokenness of its promises, yet by faith they pressed on, confessing that they were pilgrims and strangers here, that they had no continuing city, never mournfully moralizing about it, but admitting it cheerfully and even rejoicing that it was so. They felt that all was right; they knew that the promise had a deeper than material significance; so they looked for the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. They even died in faith, not having received the promises, not expecting to receive them here, but hereafter. Now observe the glorious result that comes from the indestructible power of believing and continuing on, in spite of apparent failure. The primitive Christians, for instance, believed in their day that the millennium was at hand. They had heard the apostolic warning, brief and clear, to watch. Now suppose, instead of this, they had been able to look into the future and see all the dreary pages of church history unfolded, with its heresies, its apostasy and divisions; suppose they could have known that even after two thousand years the world would scarcely know the alphabet of the Christian religion; knowing all these things, what would have become of their gigantic and heroic efforts, their sacrifices, their persecutions and their martyrdoms? With such knowledge of the future, do you suppose there ever would have been what we consider the heroism, the sacrifice, the passionate zeal of primitive Christianity? It is in this way that God leads His children on, on to realization and achievement through the illusiveness of the past; as a father educates his child, holding up the seen, all the while nurturing the thought of the unseen. Thus we shall continue to the endto that day when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. Thus the non-fulfilment of God’s promises becomes to the man of faith an earnest of their deeper and nobler fulfilment.

(6) Finally, as in Abraham’s case, heaven is the goal of our pilgrimage. We expect to find illusion here, and we expect to find reality hereafter. We know that things here are seen and temporal, and we know, too, that the things we shall enjoy hereafter, the things that are now unseen, will be eternal. Interpreted, then, in the light of faith, life’s illusions are not disappointing; in fact nothing is disappointment if spiritually discerned. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called our God; for he hath prepared for us a city (Hebrews 11:16).

There’s a land that is fairer than day,

And by faith we can see it afar,

For the Father waits over the way,

To prepare us a dwelling-place there.

Just recently Dr. F. B. Meyer, one of England’s greatest preachers, entered into rest. Writing to a friend just three days before his death, this is what he said: Dear Friend: I have just been told, to my surprise, that my days on earth are numbered. It may be that before you receive this letter, I shall have passed within the Palace of the King. Do not trouble to write. I will meet you in the morning. Yours, with much love, F. B. Meyer. I will meet you in the morningwithin the palace of the King. This is Christian faith. This is conviction. Death isn-’t the end, it is the beginning, the beginning of greater growth, greater progress, greater service, and greater joy. As Louise Chandler Moulton has written:

At the end of Love, at the end of Life, At the end of Hope, at the end of Strife, At the end of all that we cling to so The sun is settingmust we go?

At dawn of Love, at Dawn of Life, At dawn of Peace that follows Strife, At dawn of all we long for so The sun is rising*let us go!

Conclusion:* Wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city. This is the promise! And God keeps His promises!

How beautiful to be with God,

When earth is fading like a dream,

And from this mist-encircled shore

To launch upon the unknown stream!

No doubt, no fear, no anxious care,

But, comforted by staff and rod,

In the faith-brightened hour of death,

How beautiful to be with God.

Beyond the partings and the pains,

Beyond the sighing and the tears,

Oh, beautiful to be with God

Through all the endless, blessed years

To see His face, to hear His voice,

To know Him better day by day,

And love Him as the flowers love light,

And serve Him as immortals may.

My sinner friend, will you not turn now, and start upon your pilgrimage of faith?

Genesis 28:1-5

PART FORTY THE STORY OF JACOB; THE JOURNEY TO PADDAN-ARAM

(Genesis 27:46 to Genesis 28:22)

1. *The Biblical Account

46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? 1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. 3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a company of peoples; 4 and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land of thy soojournings, which God gave unto Abraham,* 5 *And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Paddan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram, to take him 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; 7 and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan-aram: 8 and Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9 and Esau went unto Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife. 10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. 11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed; and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land where on thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place; and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 so that 1 come again to my father’s house in peace, and Jehovah will be my God, 22 then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. 2. Jacob’s Blessing and Departure* (Genesis 27:45 to Genesis 28:5). We are told by the critics that we have here two accounts of Jacob’s departure differentiated by dissimilar motivations; In one version, the motive is fear of Esau’s revenge; in the other, it is Rebecca’s aversion to Hittite women and her determination that Jacob shall choose a wife from among her own Aramaean relatives. In their eagerness to find material for separate documents, or evidence of duplicate accounts, the critics seem to be ever ready to sacrifice the force and beauty of the narratives with which they deal. They dissect them to the quick, rending them into feeble or incoherent fragments, or they pare them down by the assumption of doublets to the baldest forms of intelligible statement, and thus strip them of those affecting details, which lend them such a charm, because so true to nature. This involves the absurdity of assuming that two jejune or fragmentary accounts, pieced mechanically together, have produced narratives which are not only consistent and complete, but full of animation and dramatic power. An attempt is made to establish a difference between J and E on one hand, and P on the other, as to the reason why Jacob went to Paddan-Aram. According to the former (Genesis 27:1-45), it is to flee from his brother, whom he has enraged by defrauding him of his father’s blessing. According to the latter (Genesis 26:34-35; Genesis 28:1-9), that he may not marry among the Canaanites, as Esau had done, to the great grief of his parents, but obtain a wife from among his own kindred. P, we are told, knows of no hostility between the brothers. But all this is spoiled by the statement in Genesis 28:7, that -Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan-Aram.-’ His father sent him to get a wife (Genesis 28:1-9), but his mother to escape Esau’s fury (Genesis 27:42-45); and there is no incompatibility between these two objects. In order to gain Isaac over to her plan without acquainting him with Esau’s murderous designs, Rebekah simply urges her dissatisfaction with the wives of Esau, and her apprehension that Jacob might contract a similar marriage with someone of the daughters of the land. Isaac had one object in mind, Rebekah another. There is nothing for the critics to do, therefore, but to pronounce the unwelcome words, -and his mother,-’ an interpolation. In order to prove their point they must first adjust the text to suit it. But tinkering the text in a single passage will not relieve them in the present instance. The hostility of Esau is embedded in the entire narrative, and cannot be surrendered from it. Why did Jacob go alone and unattended in quest of a wife, without the retinue or the costly presents for his bride, befitting his rank and wealth? When Abraham desired a wife for Isaac he sent a princely embassy to woo Rebekah, and conduct her to her future home. Why was Jacob’s suit so differently managed, although Isaac imitated Abraham in everything else? And why did Jacob remain away from his parents and his home, and from the land sacred as the gift of God, for so many long years till his twelve sons were born (Genesis 35:26 P)? This is wholly unaccounted for except by the deadly hostility of Esau (UBG, 330, 331). (It should be recalled that J stands for the Jahvistic Code, E for Elohistic, and P for the Priestly. See my Genesis, I, pp. 47-70)

In order to obtain Isaac’s consent to the plan, without hurting his feelings by telling him of Esau’s murderous intentions, she [Rebekah] spoke to him of her troubles on account of the Hittite wives of Esau, and the weariness of life that she should feel if Jacob also were to marry one of the daughters of the land, and so introduced the idea of sending Jacob to her relations in Mesopotamia, with a view to his marriage there (BCOTP, 280). The true state of Esau’s spirit is shown by his resolve to kill his brother as soon as his father should die. To avert the danger, Rebekah sent away Jacob to her family at Haran. Isaac approved the plan, as securing a proper marriage for his son, to whom he repeated the blessing of Abraham, and sent him away to Paddan-aram (Genesis 32:10) (OTH, 96). The first verse of ch. 28 so obviously follows the last verse of ch. 27 that we see no pertinent reason for assuming separate accounts of the motive for Jacob’s departure.

Note also the blessing with which Isaac sent Jacob on his way, Genesis 28:1-4. The Jehovah of the blessing is at the same time the God of universal nature, Elohim, who from his general beneficence will bestow -the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine,-’ In taking leave of Jacob, Isaac pronounces upon him the blessing of Abraham (Genesis 28:4); he is thus led to borrow the language of that signal revelation to Abraham when Jehovah made himself known as God Almighty (Genesis 17:1), and gave him promises with a special emphasis, which are here repeated. Hence the El Shaddai (Genesis 27:3) and Elohim (Genesis 27:4) (UBG, 332). The blessing to Abraham was that he should teach man the knowledge of the true God which would become a blessing to him. Isaac now blessed Jacob that his seed might be worthy to give such teaching, in the merit of which they would possess the Promised Land (SC, 157). Note the phrase, company of peoples, Genesis 27:3. This would seem to point forward to the tribes that were to spring from the loins of Jacob. By the words of Gen 27:4, Isaac conveys the most important part of the patriarchal blessing, the part relative to the Messiah, which he had not quite ventured to bestow previously when he still thought he was dealing with Esau. Sobered by the failure of his attempt and made wiser, he freely gives what he fully understands to have been divinely destined for Jacob. -The blessing of Abraham-’ is fully as much as was promised to him but no more. Since previously (Genesis 27:27-29)Isaac also had not ventured to bestow the land of promise on the one who presumably was Esau, now he unmistakably bestows it on Jacob, that which is now a -land of sojourning-’ where the patriarchs have as yet no permanent possession except a burial place.. God -gave-’ this land to Abraham, of course, only by promise but none the less actually (EG, 767, 768).

Note well the aftermath of treachery in this case: Rebekah and Jacob never saw each other again. Jacob had lost a mother’s love, a father’s love, and a brother’s loveall sacrificed to selfish ambition. He was almost like Cainall alone in the world. We may be certain that, our sins, sooner or later, find us out (Numbers 32:23).

Review Questions

See Genesis 28:20-22.

Genesis 28:6-9

3. Esau Takes Another Wife (Genesis 28:6-9). Isaac blessed Jacob that the blessing which he had given him previously, viz., God gave thee of the dew of heaven, etc. (Genesis 27:28) might be fulfilled in the land which God had promised to Abraham; but his blessing to Esau, of the fat places of the earth shall be thy dwelling (Genesis 27:39), would be fulfilled in a different country (SC, 157). Esau saw that Isaac did not want Jacob to have a Canaanite wife. He assumed that he had lost the blessing because he had married a Canaanitish woman, since Isaac, when blessing Jacob, had impressed upon him not to do so. He consequently thought that by not marrying another of these women, he would win back his father’s favor and possibly secure the revocation of Jacob’s blessing.. Although he did not marry any more women of Canaan, he was not willing to send away those he already had, in spite of their unsuitability and wickedness (SC, 158). Desirous to humor his parents, and if possible to get the last will revoked, he became wise when too late (Matthew 25:10), and hoped, by gratifying his parents in one thing, to atone for all his former delinquencies. But he only made bad worse; and though he did not marry -a wife of the daughters of Canaan,-’ he married into a family [that of Ishmael] which God had rejected; it showed a partial reformation, but no repentance, for he gave no proofs of abating his vindictive purposes against his brother, nor cherishing that pious spirit that would have gratified his fatherhe was like Micah: see Judges 17:13, also ch. Genesis 36:1-5 (CECG, 198). Cf, especially Genesis 26:34, Genesis 28:9, Genesis 36:1-5. How account for these apparent differences in the lists of Esau’s wives? Some critics think that Esau had six wives; others, five; and still others, three. It will be noted that all the wives in the second list have names different from those in the first. Keil, Lange, et al, account for this by the fact that women at their marriage received new names. On this hypothesis, Bashemath, daughter of Ishmael, is the same with Mahalath; Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite is the same with Bashemath; and Aholibamah, daughter of Anah and (grand-) daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, is identical with Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite. Anah is also called -Beeri-’ (-man of the springs-’), from the fact he had found certain -warm springs-’ in the wilderness [cf. Genesis 36:24] (Haley, ADB, 336). The account given of the parentage of these wives has seemed to many equally obscure and perplexing as that of their names, But all these difficulties admit to an easy and satisfactory solution. Thus, with regard to the number of Esau’s wives, although it is not expressly said that he had three wives, the several passages in which they are enumerated comprise only three; and these, as shall be presently shown, the same three throughout. As to the names of the wives, it has been remarked, that while these, in Eastern countries, as elsewhere, are sometimes changed on account of some memorable circumstances in the course of life, women assume new names more frequently than menthey do so particularly on their marriage; and as in this genealogical record all the wives of Esau are distinguished by different names from those which they formerly bore, the change is to be traced partly to their entrance into the matrimonial relation, and partly to their settlement in a foreign land, where Esau himself assumed the permanent designation of Edom (Genesis 36:8). The import of their names was founded probably on some conspicuous attribute of character or feature of personal appearance or habit, as Judith or Jehudith (the praised one) was changed into Aholibamah (tent-height, i.e., tall, stately); Bashemath, Hebrew, Basemath (fragrance, the perfumed one) into Adah (ornament, beauty, the adorned one); Mahalath (hard, the musical one) into Basemath (fragrance, perfume, the perfumed one). If Esau had obtained the name of Edom from his red hair, or the red pottage, his wives might as well have derived their new appellatives from such trivial circumstances as peculiarity of appearance and dress, or a love of strong-scented unguents. With regard to the names of their respective fathers, Elon the Hittite, and Ishmael stand in both lists; while Anah is not the mother and Beeri the father, of Aholibamah, as has been supposed by Ranke and others; but as has been demonstrated with great ingenuity by Hengstenberg, is identical with Beeri. Anah, being the proper name of the individual, is given in this genealogical record (Genesis 36:2; Genesis 36:14; Genesis 36:24); while Beeri (man of springs), a surname properly applied to him by his contemporaries (see Genesis 36:24), was naturally preferred in the general narrative (Genesis 26:34). There is another difficulty connected with the name of Anah. He is called (Genesis 26:34) a Hittite, here (Genesis 36:2) a Hivite, and (Genesis 36:20) a Horite. But there is nothing contradictory in these statements. For in the historical relation he is styled, in a wide sense, a Hittite, a term which is frequently used as synonymous with Canaanite (Joshua 1:4, 1 Kings 10:29, 2 Kings 7:6); while in his tribal connection he was a Hivite, just as a man may be described in general history as a native of Great Britain, while specifically he is a Scotchman. The word Horite does not imply either a geographical or national distinction, but simply a dweller in caves; Zibeon, on emigrating to Mount Seir, having become a Troglodyte. These difficulties, then, which encompass the domestic history of Esau having been removed, a clear view of the names and parentage of Esau’s wives may be exhibited in the following table:

*Ch. Genesis 26:34

Ch. Genesis 36:2-3

Father

Name at birth* Judith, or Jehudith

Name after marriage = Aholibamah

Daughter of Anah (Beeri), Hittite, Hivite, and Horite, and Granddaughter of Zibeon, Hivite and Horite

Bashemath

= Adah

Daughter of Elon, Hittite

ch, Genesis 28:9 Mahalath

= Bashemath

Daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebajoth

In this table, -the daughter of Zibeon-’ is taken in connection, not with Anah (a man’s name), but with Aholibamah; and consequently we must interpret -daughter-’ in the wider sense it sometimes bears of granddaughter. It may be interesting to add, that Dr. Wilson (Lands of the Bible, Vol. I, p. 33) found that these names are still common in Idumea and among the Arabs. When conversing with the Fellahin, of Wady Musa, he says -It is worthy of notice that the first name of a man which they mention to us as current among them was that of Esau; and that Matshabah, one of their female names, seems, by a bold anagram, not unusual in the formation of Arabic words from the Hebrew, to resemble Bashemath, wife of Esau. Aidah, too, one of the female names, is like that of Adah, another of Esau’s wives-’ (Jamieson, CECG, 226, on ch. 36). Esau’s marriage was another attempt to regain the blessing, by trying to please his parents in Jacob’s absence. But his choice showed he had no sense of spiritual realities. He does not do exactly what God requires but something like it. But at heart he was unchanged (TPCG, 55). Esau belongs to the great army of substitutes, like Cain, i.e., those who substitute their own way of doing things for God’s way of doing things. For the opposite note the attitude of Jesus in regard to his own baptism (Matthew 3:13): to fulfil all righteousness is to do God’S will to the full.

Review Questions

See Genesis 28:20-22.

Genesis 28:10-17

4. Jacob’s Dream-Vision at Bethel (Genesis 28:10-17).

The Dream Ladder and the Angels. Jacob went out from Beersheba (Genesis 26:25)and set out toward Haran. Note the following differences of view: His departure from his father’s house was an ignominious flight; and for fear of being pursued or waylaid by his vindictive brother, he did not take the common road, but went by lonely and unfrequented paths, which increased the length and dangers of the journey, until, deeming himself at a secure distance, he seems to have gone on the great road northward along the central mountain-ridge of Canaan (CECG, 199). Was Jacob a fugitive? In a mild sense, Yes. But they let their imagination play too freely, who make him run forth in haste from home in continual fear of being overtaken and let him cover the entire distance from Beersheba to Bethelabout 70 miles as the crow flies over mountain roadsin one day. Esau had threatened to kill his brother only after the death of Isaac [Genesis 27:41]. It may have been about the third day when Jacob arrived at this spot after traveling leisurely, for he had a long journey before him (EG, 770). The mention of the fact that he went out teaches that a righteous man’s departure from a city leaves its mark. While he is in it, he is its splendor, lustre, and beauty. When he leaves, it all departs with him (Rashi, SC, 164).

The Place, Genesis 28:11, literally, he lighted upon the place, etc. That is, the place mentioned elsewhere (cf. Genesis 22:4), mount Moriah (Rashi). The definite article denotes the place well known to travelers, viz., an inn (Sforno) (SC, 164). The definite article prefixed to -place-’ shows that he had purposely chosen as his first night’S-’ resting-place the spot which had been distinguished by the encampment of Abraham shortly after his entrance into Canaan (Genesis 12:8); or that, the gates of Luz being shut, he was undesignedly, on his part, compelled to rest for the night, which proved to be -the place-’ his grandfather had consecrated. By a forced march he had reached that place, about forty-eight miles from Beersheba, and had to spend the night in the open field. This, after all, is no great hardship; for a native, winding himself in the ample folds of his cloak, and selecting a smooth stone for a pillow, sleeps comfortably under the canopy of heaven. Awarm climate, and an indifference to dirt and dew, easily reconcile an Oriental to such necessities (CECG, 199). The words, -he hit (lighted) upon the place,-’ indicate the apparently accidental, yet really divinely appointed choice of this place for his nightquarters; and the definite article points it out as having become well known (through the revelation of God that ensued (BCOTP, 281). Was this a cult-place? We doubt it very much. Such a -cult-place-’ would hardly have been a seemly place for Yahweh to reveal Himself; for perhaps without exception these places were set apart for the idols of the land. Yahweh has nothing in common with idols. Such a spot would be an abomination of Yahweh.. The article simply marks it as the place which was afterward to become famous. Jacob spends the night just there because that was all that was left for him, for -the sun had gone down-’ and the night had fallen swiftly, as Oriental nights do. The hardy shepherd is not disturbed by the experience, for shepherds often spend the night thus and are observed to this day sleeping with a stone for a pillow (EG, 771).

The Stone Pillow. One of the stones of the place, etc. The nature of the soil in this area, we are told, was stony. Was the prophetic power embodied in one of these stones? Would not this be sheer magic? We see no reason for these rather fanciful notions. It seems that Jacob simply took of the stones present and made for himself a head place. This is literally the meaning of the word used here. Here mera-‘ashtaw does not actually mean -pillow-’ but -head place-‘a proper distinction, for pillows are soft, -head places-’ not necessarily so. They who must find rational explanations for everything here conjecture about some stony ascent which Jacob saw in the rapidly descending dusk and which then afterward in the dream took the form of a ladder (even Edersheim). Dreams, especially those sent by the Almighty, require no such substructure. Not quite so harmless is the contention of those who import liberally of their own thoughts into the text and then secure a sequence about as follows: The stone used by Jacob is one of the pillars or sacred stones of the -cult-place-’ (a pure invention). Jacob unwittingly takes it in the semi-darkness and prepares it for a headrest. The charmed stone then superinduces a dream. On awakening, Jacob is afraid, because he realizes he has rashly used a sacred stone and quickly makes a vow to fend off possible evil consequences and to appease the angered Deity. Such interpretations transport the occurrence into the realm of superstition, magic, fetish, and animistic conceptions, debasing everything and especially the patriarch’s conception of things (EG, 771-772). Cf. Skinner: -He lighted upon the place-’ i.e., the -holy place-’ of Bethel (Genesis 12:6), whose sanctity was revealed by what followed.he took (at haphazard) one of the stones of the place which proved itself to be the abode of a deity by inspiring the dream which came to Joseph that night (ICCG, 376). We see no reason for importingas Leupold puts itpagan superstitions into the narratives of these ancient heroes of the faith. It is quite possible, of course, that some of these stones had once been a part of the altar set up by Abraham in the same vicinity (Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:2-4) although it is difficult to assume that Jacob had some way of identifying them as such. The commonsense view would seem to be that, as stated above, Jacob simply took some of the stones he found here and made of them for himself a head place.

The Dream. It was natural that in the unwonted circumstances he should dream. Bodily exhaustion, mental excitement, the consciousness of his exposure to the banditti ofthe adjoining regions, and his need of the protection of Heaven, would direct the course of his dream into a certain channel, But his dream was an extraordinarya supernatural one (CECG, 199). The connection between heaven and earth, and now especially between heaven and the place where the poor fugitive sleeps, is represented in three different forms, increasing in fulness and strength: the ladder, not too short, but resting firmly on the earth below and extending up to heaven; the angels of God, appearing in great numbers, passing up and down the ladder as the messengers of God; ascending as the invisible companions of the wanderer, to report about him, and as mediators of his prayers; descending as heavenly guardians and mediators of the blessing; finally Jehovah himself standing above the ladder, henceforth the covenant God of Jacob, just as he had hitherto been the covenant God of Abraham and Isaac (CDHCG, 521). This for Jacob was the first of seven theophanies: cf. Genesis 31:3; Genesis 31:11-13; Genesis 32:1-2; Genesis 12:24-30; Genesis 35:1; Genesis 35:9-13; Genesis 46:1-4.

The Ladder. Many commentators seem to prefer the rendering, stairway, or staircase, rather than the image of a mountain-pile whose sides, indented in the rock, gave it the appearance of a ladder: the rough stones of the mountain appearing to form themselves into a vast staircase: Bush, Stanley (PCG, 349). (Some will argue that the pile of rock which served as Jacob’s pillow was a miniature copy of this image). Not so, writes Leupold: Dreams are a legitimate mode of divine revelation. On this instance the ladder is the most notable external feature of the dream. The word sullam, used only here, is well established in its meaning, -ladder.-’ If it reaches from earth to heaven, that does not necessitate anything grotesque; dreams seem to make the strangest things perfectly natural. Nor could a ladder sufficiently broad to allow angels to ascend and descend constitute an incongruity in a dream. The surprise occasioned by the character of the dream is reflected by the threefold hinnehbeholds-’: a ladder, angels, and Yahweh (EG, 772). Speiser differs: The traditional -ladder-’ is such an old favorite that it is a pity to have to dislodge it. Yet it goes without saying that a picture of angels going up and down in a steady stream is hard to reconcile with an ordinary ladder. Etymologically, the term (stem, -to heap up,-’ -raise-’) suggests a ramp or a solid stairway. And archaeologically, the Mesopotamian ziggurats were equipped with flights of stairs leading up to the summit; a good illustration is the ziggurat of Ur (Third Dynasty). Only such a stairway can account for Jacob’s later description of it as a -gateway to heaven-’ (ABG, 218). At any rate, from Jacob’s ladder we receive the first definite information that beyond Sheol, heaven is the home of matt (Lange, 523). The ladder was a visible symbol of the real and uninterrupted fellowship (Cf. Hebrews 1:14; Psalms 23; Psalms 139:7-10)

The Angels. The ladder was a visible symbol of the real and uninterrupted fellowship between God in heaven and His people upon earth. The angels upon it carry up the wants of men to God, and bring down the assistance and protection of God to men. The ladder stood there upon the earth, just where Jacob was lying in solitude, poor, helpless, and forsaken by men. Above in heaven stood Jehovah, and explained in words the symbols which he saw (BCOTP, 281). In Jacob’s dream Jehovah, the God of the chosen race (Genesis 28:13; Genesis 28:16), in order to assure him that though temporarily exiled from his father’s house he would not on that account be severed from the God of his father, as Ishmael had been when sent away from Abraham’s household, and Lot when his connection with Abraham was finally cut off by his passing beyond the limit of the promised land. God was thenceforward Elohim to them all as to all who were aliens to the chosen race. But Jacob was still under the guardianship of Jehovah, who would continue with him wherever he might go. The angels (Genesis 28:12), however, are not called -angels of Jehovah,-’ which never occurs in the Pentateuch, but -angels of Elohim,-’ as in Genesis 32:2 (E.V. Genesis 28:1), who are thus distinguished from messengers of menthe Hebrew word for -angel-’ properly meaning -messenger.-’ This does not mark a distinction between the documents, as though J knew of but one angel, while E speaks of -angels-’; for J has -angels-’ in the plural (Genesis 19:1; Genesis 19:15). The place where Jehovah had thus revealed himself Jacob calls -the house of God-’ and -the gate of heaven,-’ God in contrast with man, as heaven with earth. It was a spot marked by a divine manifestation (UBG, 340).

This vision represented the peculiar care of God concerning Jacob and other saints, and the ministration of angels to them (2 Chronicles 16:9, Ecclesiastes 5:8, Psalms 135:6, Isaiah 41:10, Acts 18:10, 2 Timothy 4:16-17; Psalms 34:7; Psalms 91:11; Matthew 18:10; Hebrews 1:14; Genesis 32:1-2). But chiefly this ladder typified Christ, as Mediator between God and man. He, in his manhood, is of the earth, a descendant of Jacob; and in his divine person is the Lord from heaven (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6;John 1:14; Romans 1:3-4; Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 3:16): he is the only means of fellowship between God and men (John 14:6; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12; 1 Timothy 2:5-6); and he directs and enjoys the ministration of angels (John 1:51; 1 Peter 1:12, 1 Timothy 3:16)in his conception (Luke 1:31, Matthew 1:20)his birth (Luke 2:14, Hebrews 1:6)in his temptation (Matthew 4:11)his agony (Luke 22:43)his resurrection (Matthew 28:2; Matthew 28:5)his ascension (Acts 1:10-11; Psalms 47:5; Psalms 68:17-18; Daniel 7:10; Daniel 7:13)and second coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 2 Thessalonians 1:7, Matthew 25:31) (SIBG, 260).

The Divine Promise, Genesis 28:13-15, Genesis 28:13Yahweh stood by (marginal, -beside-’) him and announced Himself as one with the God of his fathers. Genesis 28:16the land whereon thou liest: a description peculiarly appropriate to the solitary and homeless fugitive who had not where to lay his head. Thus forlorn, amid the memorials of the covenant, he was visited by God in a dream, which showed him a flight of stairs leading up from earth to the gates of heaven, and trodden by angels, some descending on their errands as -ministering spirits-’ upon earth, and others ascending to carry their reports to Him, whose -face they ever watch-’ in dutiful service. This symbol of God’s providence was crowned by a vision of Jehovah, and his voice added to the renewal of the covenant a special promise of protection (OTH, 100). Yahweh reveals Himself first of all as the Lord (Genesis 2:4), the Covenant God of Abraham and of Isaac. It is remarkable that Abraham is styled his father, that is, his actual grandfather, and covenant father (MG, 387). Yahweh now renews the promise of the land, of the seed, and of the blessing in that seed for the whole race of man. Westward, eastward, northward, and southward are they to break forth. This expression points to the world-wide universality of the kingdom of the seed of Abraham, when it shall become the fifth monarchy, that shall subdue all that went before, and endure forever. This transcends the destiny of the natural seed of Abraham. He then promises to Jacob personally to be with him, protect him, and bring him back in safety. This is the third announcement of the seed that blesses to the third in the line of descent: Genesis 12:2-3; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4 (MG, 387).

The land, given to Abraham (Genesis 13:15) and to Isaac (Genesis 26:3), and now to Jacob. The seed to be as the dust of the earth, promised to Abraham (Genesis 13:16), and to Isaac, but under a different emblem (as the stars of heaven, Genesis 26:4), and now, under the original emblem, to Jacob. The seed, moreover, to break forth toward all four corners of the earth, as promised to Abraham (Genesis 13:14; cf. Deuteronomy 3:27; Deuteronomy 34:1-4), and now to Jacob (Genesis 28:14). Note that a third emblem, designed likewise to point up the world-wide universality of the Kingdom of Christ (i.e., the Reign of Messiah, Christ) is used in the divine promise to Abraham, viz., the sand which is upon the seashore (Genesis 22:17; cf. Genesis 32:12). Note that the citizens of the Messiah’s kingdom are citizens, not by virtue of having been born of the flesh of Abraham, but by virtue ofhaving been born again, that is, of belonging to Abraham by virtue of manifesting the fullness of the obedience of faith (Galatians 3:26-29), the depth of faith which Abraham manifested when God proved him to himself, to his own people, and to all mankind throughout the stretch of time (Gen., ch. 22). (Cf. John 3:1-8, Titus 3:5, Galatians 5:16-25, Romans 5:1-2, etc.)

Is the Lord blessing a cheat and prospering one who secured a blessing by craft? By no means.. Jacob is being strengthened in the faith and supported by liberal promises, because he was penitent over his sin and stood greatly in need of the assurance of divine grace. Besides, Jacob was deeply grieved at being called upon to sever the ties that bound him to house and home, and he was apprehensive of the future as well. The Lord meets him and grants him the support of His grace (EG, 773). Note again the elements of Yahweh’s Promise: 1. The possession of the land on which he now was lying, practically an exile. 2. A progeny (seed) as numerous as the dust of the earth. 3. Protection during the time of his absence from home, the protection in fact of God’s personal presence: I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, that is, this very spot, this piece of ground, on which Jacob was lying, and experiencing the reiteration of the Abrahamic Promise. The language surely intimates here that Jacob’s wanderings would be extensive; the ray of hope was in the promise that he would be divinely led back to this Land of Promise. The far-reaching element of the Promise was that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed (Genesis 28:14). The Seed, as we know from New Testament fulfilment, was Messiah, Christ (Galatians 3:16). (Note that this was in substance a renewal of the Abrahamic Promise: cf. Gen. 12:37; Genesis 13:14-17, Genesis 15:18, Genesis 22:17-18, Genesis 24:7, Genesis 28:13-15).

5. The Awakening, Genesis 28:16-17.

Jacob awoke from his dream with a sense of dread, of the awesomeness of God. He was afraid, and exclaimed, How dreadful is this place! Surely Yahweh is in this place! The underlying feeling is not joy, but fear, because in ignorance he had treated the holy place as common ground. the place is no ordinary haram, but one superlatively holy, the most sacred spot on earth (ICCG, 377). To this we reply that it was Jacob’s vision that for him endowed the place with dreadfulness (holiness), not with unknown magical qualities which the particular spot engendered. Jacob had felt himself severed from the gracious presence and the manifestation of Yahweh which he knew centered in his father’s house. Jacob understood full well the omnipresence of God, but he knew, too, that it had not pleased God to manifest and reveal Himself everywhere as Yahweh. Now the patriarch receives specific assurance that God in His character as Yahweh was content to be with Jacob and keep and bless him for the covenant’s sake. That Yahweh was going to do this much for him, that is what Jacob had not known. To understand the word rightly note that Jacob could not have saidfor it would have involved an untruth’Surely, God is in this place and I knew it not.-’ Of course he knew that. Any true believer’s knowledge of God involves such elementary things as knowledge of His not being confined to one place. Such crude conceptions the patriarchs never had. To suppose that the account is trying to picture Jacob as on a lower level than Abraham in spiritual discernment is misunderstanding (EG, 775). Jacob does not here learn the doctrine of the Divine omnipresence for the first time, but now discovers that the covenant God of Abraham revealed himself at other than consecrated places; or perhaps simply gives expression to his astonishment at finding that whereas he fancied himself alone, he was in reality in the company of God (PCG, 350). Not that the omnipresence of God was unknown to him, but that Jehovah in His condescending mercy should be near to him even here, far away from his father’s house and from the places consecrated to His worshipit was this which he did not know or imagine. The revelation was intended not only to stamp the blessing, with which Isaac had dismissed him from his home, with the seal of divine approval, but also to impress upon Jacob’s mind the fact, that although Jehovah would be near to protect and guide him even in a foreign land, the land of promise was the holy ground on which the God of his fathers would set up the covenant of His grace. On his departure from this land, he was to carry with him a sacred awe of the gracious presence of Jehovah there. To that end the Lord proved to him that He was near, in such a way that the place appeared -dreadful,-’ inasmuch as the nearness of the holy God makes an alarming impression upon unholy man, and the consciousness of sin grows into the fear of death. But in spite of this alarm, the place was none other than -the house of God and the gate of heaven,-’ i.e., a place where God dwells, and a way that opened to Him in heaven (BCOTP, 282). Jacob does not think that Jehovah’s revelation to him was confined to this place of Bethel. He does not interpret the sacredness of the place in a heathen way, as an external thing, but theocratically and symbolically. Through Jehovah’s revelation, this place. which is viewed as a heathen waste, becomes to him a house of God, and therefore he consecrates it to a permanent sanctuary (Lange, CDHCG, 525).

FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING

The Holiness of God

Text: Genesis 28:16-17. Note that Jacob on awakening from his dream-vision was afraid, that is, shaken, literally terrified (ABG, 218), and exclaimed How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Someone has said: Where God’s word is found, there is a house of God; there heaven stands open.

In Scripture there is one Personand only one Personwho is ever addressed as Holy Father: that Person is God Himself, and God is so addressed by the Son of God in the latter’s highpriestly prayer (John 17:11). Moreoyer, Jesus Himself forbids our addressing any other being as father, that is, in a spiritual sense (Matthew 23:1-12, esp. Matthew 23:9). Likewise, God alone is spoken of in Scripture as reverend (Psalms 111:9, cf. Hebrews 12:28-29). In view of these positive Scripture statements, how can men have the presumption to arrogate these sacred titles to themselves: not only just reverend, but also very reverend, most reverend, etc., ad nauseam. Note that Jesus, the Only Begotten, is also addressed as the Holy One of God (by evil; spirits, i.e., fallen angels, Mark 1:24; by Simon Peter John 6:69;cf. Acts 3:14; Acts 4:27; Acts 7:52). It should be noted, too, that God’s dwelling-place is the Holy City (Revelation 3:12; Revelation 11:2; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 22:19), per facio the New Jerusalem (Galatians 4:2, Revelation 21:10, Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 12:22). It is the presence of God that makes heaven to be heaven; it is the absence of God that makes hell to be hell (Revelation 21:1-8; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:1-5; Revelation 6:16-17, etc.).

The word holiness-’ comes from the Greek holos, meaning all, the whole, entire, etc, Holiness is wholeness, completeness, hence perfection (per facio, to make or to do completely, thoroughly). The perfections of God, commonly known as His attributes, constitute His holiness (Matthew 5:48). (Cf. 1 Peter 1:16, Leviticus 11:44; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 20:7).

The attributes of GodPerfections of the Divine Naturemay be classified as ontological, that is, inherent in His Being, and moral, i.e., inherent in His relationships with moral creatures. In the former category, we say that God is eternal, unchangeable, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. In the latter category, we say that God is infinitely holy, just and good; infinitely true and faithful; infinitely merciful and long-suffering. (For a discussion of these attributes see my Survey Course in Christian Doctrine, Vol. I, College Press, Joplin, Missouri.)

It is the holiness of God, we are told, that is the subject-matter of the heavenly hymnody before the Throne of the Almighty (Isaiah 6:3). This is the burden of the heavenly anthem which is sung unceasingly around the Throne, in which the redeemed of earth will be privileged to join, in the new heavens and new earth (2 Peter 3:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Revelation 4:8). When we stand before God in that great Day the one outstanding characteristic of His nature that will be apparent to all His intelligent creatures will surely be His holiness. Is not His end in creating us in His image the building of a holy redeemed race fit to commune with Him in loving intimacy throughout the ceaseless aeons of eternity? Hence His admonition to us, Be ye yourselves also holy, etc. (1 Peter 1:15-16). It is because men cannot grasp the import of the holiness of God that they get such ridiculously distorted concepts of His dealings with His creation. Holiness is the foundation of all the Divine Perfections. We shall examine here some of the more significant aspects of this Divine Holiness.

1. The Holiness of God includes His truthfulness. He always speaks the truth. He would never deceive us. When He speaks, He speaks the truth; what He tells us that He will do, that He will do: we can depend on it. (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33; Luke 16:31; Romans 10:6-10, 2 Timothy 2:18-19, etc.). The foundation of God standeth sure, i.e., for ever. His word is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, etc. (Hebrews 4:12). (May I offer this personal testimony: the more I delve into the cults and philosophies of men, the more I am convinced that God’s Word is to be found in the Bible, and the more confirmed I become in my conviction that what is found in the Bible is true, even if we as human beings cannot understand fully the meaning of it. After all, as Sam Jones used to say, You cannot pour the ocean into a teacup. In the Scripture God speaks to men, and what He speaks is truewe can depend on it. And the reason why multitudes are staggering in blindness and carelessness today is the fact that they do not knowor will not acceptwhat God is telling them in His Book. Their humanism, materialism, naturalism, agnosticism, etc., leave them utterly blind to the truth. They do not know God’s Wordthey do not try to know itthey do not even want to know it. They are the blind leading the blindand their end can be only the pit (Matthew 15:14C.C.).

2. The Holiness of God includes His righteousness. What He tells us to do is right; what He tells us not to do is wrong (Galatians 5:16-25). Why do we have so many varying notions of right and wrong? The answer is simple: Because men follow what they think instead of what God has said. God loves righteousness, but He hates iniquity (Psalms 45:7, Hebrews 1:9). It has been rightly said that human character is worthless in proportion as the abhorrence of sin is lacking in it. The most evident sign of the moral flabbiness of our age is the manner in which we condonewink atsin. It was Herbert Spencer who said over a century ago that good nature with Americans has become a crime. Dr. Arnold, Head Master of Rugby once said, I am never sure of a boy who only loves the good. I never feel that he is safe until I see that he abhors evil. Lecky says, in his great book, Democracy and Liberty, There is one thing worse than corruption, and that is acquiescence in corruption. Dr. Will Durant has said: The nation that will not resist anarchy is doomed to destruction. To be incapable of moral indignation against wrong is to have no real love for the right. The only revenge that is permissible to Christians is the revenge that pursues and exterminates sin. Likewise, this is the only vengeance known to God. (We must remember that vindication is not vengeance).

3. The Holiness of God includes His faithfulness. That is, He faithfully executes His judgments and fulfils His promises. (2 Timothy 2:13, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Deuteronomy 32:4, Isaiah 40:8, 1 John 1:9, Matthew 24:35, 2 Peter 1:4, Hebrews 2:1-4, 2 Peter 3:1-13).

4. The Holiness of God includes His love (and in turn His mercy and His longsuffering). By His mercy, we mean that He is ever willing and anxious to pardon all who are truly penitent. (Ezekiel 33:11, Psalms 145:9, Luke 1:78, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Ephesians 2:4, Titus 3:5, John 3:16, 1 John 4:7-21). In the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), Jesus tells us that the father ran to meet his penitent boy returning home and fell on his neck and kissed him: is not this really the story of the Forgiving Father? Note, too, that the father was moved with compassion (Genesis 28:20). Robert Browning writes: God! Thou art love! I build my faith on that. Lowell: -Tis heaven alone that is given away; -tis only God may be had for the asking. Annie Johnston Flint: Out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and givethand giveth again. By God’s longsuffering we mean that He gives the sinner a long time for repentance, even to the limit at which love must give way to justice. 1 Peter 3:20the longsuffering of God gave the antediluvian world one hundred and twenty years of grace (Genesis 6:3); cf. 2 Peter 3:9. It is said that an atheist conversing on occasion with Joseph Parker, the distinguished British minister, exclaimed, If there is a God, I give Him three minutes to prove it by striking me dead. To which Joseph Parker replied with great sorrow in his voice, Do you suppose that you can exhaust the mercy of God in three minutes? Consider God’s long-suffering patience toward the Children of Israel, despite their numerous and repeated backslidings. Think of the awful wickedness spread abroad over our earth todayyet God waits, for those who may come to repentance. God’s mercy will follow you to the grave, my sinner friend, but it cannot consistently follow you farther. This life is probationary; in the next world, God’s love must give way to His justice. No such thing as post-mortem repentance or salvation is taught in Scripture: as a matter of fact, the idea is completely rejected in the narrative of the Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31).

Note what God says to us through His prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 33:11). Note the Divine exhortation, Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye die? Is not this a wonderful revealing of the great Heart of out God? God wants us to repent, to turn to Him; he yearns for our turning to Him; and when we give Him our hearts, He delights in being merciful to us. Did you ever have the experience of your child turning away from you and probably getting into trouble? then to have him come back in penitence and tears, with an open confession, I have done wrong? Do you not gladly help him in every way you can? You do for him what he cannot do for himself. That is what God does for usHe does for us what we cannot do for ourselves: He who owns the world and all that is therein, comes down to buy us back, to redeem us. He rushes out the road to meet us and to throw His arms around us, if we will only come in penitence and confession. Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases through the blood of Him who died on the Cross to redeem us. He provided this covering of grace for our sins. He leads us back into His house and bestows on us the gifts of His divine Fatherhood. We can never merit salvation and eternal life; we can only accept these as Gifts (John 3:16). Dante tells us in his Divine Comedy (one of the greatest of all the epic poems) that the motto over the doorway to Hell is this: Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. The Bible tells us that above the gate to Heaven is the inscription: The Gift of God.

Yes, it is God’s Love that causes Him to be a jealous God. I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, etc. (Exodus 20:1-6). We must not overlook the fact that jealousy is naturally an emotion that attaches to true love. The person who can remain complacent when he sees the object of his affection being led away by another who is unworthy, by one who seeks only his own selfish ends, certainly cannot have any measure of true love to begin with. To be jealous is to be pained, to be hurt, to be heart-broken, on seeing the one loved being led astray into what can only turn out to be a life of misery. I would not give a plugged nickel (pardon the slang!) for any kind of affection that does not have in it this element of jealousy. What does this famous passage in Exodus mean? It means this: I Jehovah thy God have a heart filled with affection for you, my people. But I am hurt, I am heartbroken, when I see you bestowing your affections upon the false gods before whom you bow down in idolatry. And when you do spurn my affection, when you turn a deaf ear to my wooings, I will see to it that your sins will find you out, that the consequences of your unfaithfulness will pursue you and yours from generation to generation, if perchance, knowing this, you may be brought to your senses and to return to me and to my love for you. This Exodus passage is the first statement in literature of the law of heredity, the law of the consequences of sin. (The law of guilt is to be found in Ezekiel 18:19-24).

Yes, the holiness of God includes His jealousy. (Cf. the Apostle’s jealousy with respect to the Bride of Christ, 2 Corinthians 11:2). This was the terrible lesson that Hosea learned from his own experience: namely, that he was heartbroken by the unfaithfulness of his wife Gomer, so God was indescribably heartbroken (in such a measure as man could never be) by the unfaithfulness of His people Israel; that as he, Hosea, would go down into the marketplace and buy back his prostitute wife (redeem her) for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley, so God in the person of His Only Begotten would come down into the marketplace of the world, and by the shedding of His own precious blood, buy back all those who would accept the gift of redemption (John 3:16, Leviticus 17:11, John 1:29, Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 1:18-21, Revelation 12:10-12; Revelation 22:14). It was through his own personal experience that the prophet Hosea reached a concept of God’s immeasurable love that is not surpassed anywhere in Scripture, not even in the New Testament.

5. The Holiness of God includes His absolute justice. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne (Psalms 97:2). God could not be holy and not be just. God could not be holy and fail to punish sin. God could not be holy and accept a sinner in his sins, for this would be putting a premium on sin, this would be rewarding sin. And because sin is transgression of divine law (lawlessness, 1 John 3:4), God could not be holy without demanding an adequate atonement (the word means covering). Hence for the joy that was set before him (Hebrews 12:2), the Eternal Logos as the Only Begotten Son of God provided this atonement, this Covering of Grace, so that God would be vindicated from the false charges brought against Him by Satan and his rebel host, and hence could be just and at the same time a justifier of all who come to Him by the obedience of faith in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:19-26). Because the One who died on the Cross was not just a man (in which case this would have been only a martyrdom), but the incarnate God-Man (John 1:1-14; Matthew 22:42; Matthew 1:23; Galatians 4:4; 1 Timothy 3:16; John 17:5; Matthew 16:16-19; 1 Peter 2:21-24 etc.), whose vicarious sacrifice was, therefore, The Atonement (Hebrews 9:23-28). God did for man what man could never do for himself. As W. Robertson Smith writes, (LRS, 62): To reconcile the forgiving goodness of God with His absolute justice, is one of the highest problems of spiritual religion, which in Christianity is solved by the doctrine of the atonement. It is important to realize that in heathenism this problem never arose in the form in which the New Testament deals with it, not because the gods of the heathen were not conceived as good and gracious, but because they were not absolutely just (italics mine, C.C.). The God of the Bible is just, absolutely just: under His sovereignty every transgression and obedience will receive a just recompense of reward (Hebrews 2:1-3); in the finality of things the Great JudgeChrist Himselfwill render unto every man according to his deeds (Matthew 16:27). Multitudes seem to cherish the fantasy that final Judgment will be a kind of military inspection in which the Judge will pass down the line as we number off individually as in the army, and consign each of us to his proper destiny. No so. The Acting Sovereign of the universe knows the moral standing of every person at any and every moment of this life. Hence the final Judgment will not be the ascertainment of the moral character of each human being; it will be, rather, the revelation of the absolute justice of God who will render to every man according to his works (Romans 2:4-11). A man who afterward became a Methodist preacher was converted in Whitefield’s time by a vision of the judgment, in which he saw all men gathered before the throne and each one coming up to the book of God’s law, tearing open his heart before it -as one would tear open the bosom of his shirt,-’ comparing his heart with the things written in the book, and, according as they agreed or disagreed with that standard, either passing triumphant to the company of the blest, or going with howling to the company of the damned. No word was spoken; the Judge sat silent; the judgment was one of self-revelation and self-condemnation (Strong, ST, p. 1026). Cf. Luke 16:25, Hebrews 10:27; Matthew 25:31-46, John 5:26-29, Acts 17:30-31, Luke 11:29-32; Revelation 20:11-15, 2 Peter 2:1-10; etc.) The saints will appear in the Judgment clad in the fine linen of righteousness (Revelation 19:8; Revelation 19:14), their sins having been covered by the blood of Christ, forgiven and forgotten, put away from them forever; and clothed also in glory and honor and immortality, the habiliments of eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12). In their manifestation, the greatness of God’s love, mercy, and salvation will be fully disclosed to all intelligent creatures. The wicked will be presented in the judgment as they really are; even their secret sins will be made manifest to the whole intelligent creation. For the first time, it seems, they will realize the enormity of their rebelliousness (as will also the evil angels) and their complete loss of God and heaven will impel them spontaneously to resort to weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, i.e., that of utter remorse and despair, not of hate. Thus will be consummated the complete vindication of God against all His enemies, angelic and human, which is, in itself, the primary design of the Last Judgment. This final demonstration will be sufficient to prove to all intelligences that Satan’s charges against God have been from the beginning false and malicious (John 8:44, Luke 10:18, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 3:8-12, 1 Peter 5:8, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6-7,1 Corinthians 6:2-3, Revelation 20:9-15, Revelation 22:10-15). The greatness of this Consummation of God’s Cosmic Plan will be determined, not by the number fully redeemed in spirit and soul and body, but by the ineffable glory of the salvation there to be revealed in its fulness (Romans 8:18-23, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, etc.). In a word, it can be rightly said that God’s absolute justice is His holiness, for the simple reason that ever attribute of God must be under the primacy of His justice.

6.Last, but not least by any means, the Holiness of God must include His awesomeness. But what is awesomeness? It is defined in the dictionaryand properlyas meaning causing, or expressive of, awe or terror. There are multiplied thousands of persons on our earth today who look upon God as a kind of glorified bellhop, waiting and ready at any time to pander to their slightest requests and idiosyncrasies. And when and if He does not do this, they resort to orgies of self-pity. This is not the God of the Biblelet this fact be understood at once! Manifold numbers of human beings carry the notion of God’s love to such an extent as to believe that all men will be saved ultimately, that is, let us say, if there is a God in their thinking). This is contrary to human experience itself, Only that person who has cultivated understanding of poetry can appreciate poetry; only that person who has cultivated understanding of music can truly appreciate music. And it is equally true that only those persons who Understand and cultivate the Spiritual life can expectand hopeto enjoy ultimate union with God. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, we often are told. And this is not just a clicheit is sober fact. In the very nature of the casepsychologically as well as theologically speakinga wicked man would be utterly out of place in heaven. Only those who bring forth the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-25)can, in the very nature of the case, be prepared to share the Beatific Vision (Revelation 21:1-5, 1 John 3:1-3). I can-’t think of anyone who would be more miserable than the Devil would be if he could get past the pearly gate for a split second. Evil is always uncomfortable, even miserable, in the presence of good.

The awesomeness of God. This was one of the lessons, if not actually the most important lesson, that Jacob learned from his experience at Bethel. When he awakened from his dream-vision, he was afraid, we are told: literally, according to Dr. Speiser, he was terrified. Was not this to be expected. No man hath seen God at any time, that is, in the fulness of His being: no man could look upon God with the eye of flesh and live, because our God is a devouring fire, a jealous God (1 John 1:16, Deuteronomy 4:24). (Cf, the appearance of Yahweh in the time of Moses, on the occasion of the giving of the Law, Exodus 19:7-25; Exodus 20:18-26). For the impenitent, the negligent, the profane, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries (Hebrews 10:27). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). The Apostle tells us that unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil (Romans 2:8-9). The wheat and the tares must be allowed to grow up together, because only Omniscience, who looketh upon the thoughts and intents of the heart, can justly separate them; hence it will not be until the great Judgment that the wheat will be gathered into the granary, and the chaff will be burned up with unquenchable fire (Hebrews 4:12-13; Matthew 13:24-30; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). Note the numerous references to hell as the abode of the lost in the lake of fire and brimstone, etc. (Isaiah 33:14, Psalms 11:5-7, Matthew 3:12; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 7:19; Matthew 25:41-46; Luke 3:17, John 15:6, 2 Peter 3:7, Jude 1:7; Revelation 14:9-11; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:8, etc.). There are many who will say that this language is all figurative. Perhaps soit could be, of course. But to say that all these references to hell are in figurative language is to accentuate the problem; for a figure must be a figure of something, and if the Bible descriptions of hell are merely figurative, I shudder to contemplate what the reality might be. For, whatever else we take with us into the next order of being, it is evidentfrom both Scripture and sciencethat we take memory (cf. Luke 16:25; studies in psychic research now verify the fact that the subconscious in man is the seat of perfect memory). It may turn out, then, that memory is the worm that never dies and conscience (if not at peace with God) the fire that is never quenched (Mark 9:43-48, Hebrews 10:27). (We must remember, in this connection, that when God forgives, He forgets; undoubtedly we may expect this to be one of the ineffable aspects of eternal redemption; cf. Psalms 103:12). On the other hand, one cannot even begin to comprehendor even to imaginethe mental anguish which the unredeemed will suffer on fully realizing the enormity of their loss in being separated from God and all good forever (Revelation 6:16-17; Revelation 9:6;Matthew 8:12; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 13:50; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 24:51; Matthew 25:30; Luke 13:28; cf. Heb. 18:15-20). (In this connection, it should be noted especially that the word which Jesus used to designate hell was not Hades [the underworld, or probably the grave], but Gehenna, the name derived from the Valley of Hinnom outside the city of Jerusalem, the place where Molech, Chemosh, and Tammuz (Ammonite, Moabite, and Syrian deities, respectively) were worshipped (cf. 1 Kings 11:7, 2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Ezekiel 8:14, Jeremiah 7:30-34, Numbers 21:29). Its sinister history caused its defilement by Josiah (2 Kings 23:6; 2 Kings 23:10). It became the place where the refuse of the city, dead animals, and the bodies of criminals were burned; and hence was regarded as a fit symbol of the destruction of wicked souls. It is especially significant that Jesus used this name several times in his Sermon on the Mount.)

Undoubtedly the dreadfulness of God is a fact of His being, and an aspect of His holiness. Recognition of it would seem to be an aspect of the attitude of worship. Indeed the Preacher tells us that to fear God and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Our God is to be feared in the sense that His awesomeness is to be felt at all times. All power is of God, and surely the forces that are unleashed as man discovers more and more about the physical power that is inherent in the submicroscopic world, should cause all of us to stand in awe of His righteous indignation that occasions His use of moral power (authority) to punish sin. Let it never be forgotten that God hates sin, and that this hatred is the source of the divine wrath which, in all justice and holiness, must inevitably be visited upon the wicked and impenitent.

Rudolph Otto, in his remarkable book, The Idea of the Holy, develops the thesis that religious dread is essential to recognition of God’s holiness and hence to genuine Christian worship. Of modern language, he writes, English has the words -awe,-’ -aweful,-’ which in their deeper and most special sense approximate closely to our meaning. The phrase, -he stood aghast,-’ is also suggestive in this connexion. The unique character of religious awe, he holds, is qualitatively distinct from all -natural-’ feelings. Quoting again: Not only is the saying of Luther, that the natural man cannot fear God perfectly, correct from the standpoint of psychology, but we ought to go further and add that the natural man is quite unable even to shudder (grauen) or feel horror in the real sense of the word. For -shuddering-’ is something more than -natural,-’ ordinary fear. It implies that the mysterious is already beginning to loom before the mind, to touch the feelings. It implies the first application of a category of valuation which has no place in the everyday natural world of ordinary experience, and is possible only to a being in whom has been awakened a mental predisposition, unique in kind and different in a definite way from any -natural-’ faculty. And this newly-revealed capacity, even in the crude and violent manifestations which are all it at first evinces, bears witness to a completely new function of experience and standard of valuation, belonging only to the spirit of man. This numinous awe, Otto goes on to say, appears first as characteristic of primitives in the form of -daemonic-’ dread. Even when the worship of -daemons-’ has long since reached the higher level of worship of -gods,-’ these gods still retain as -numina-’ something of the -ghost-’ in the impress they make on the feelings of the worshipper, viz., the peculiar quality of the -uncanny-’ and -awful,-’ which survives with the quality of exaltedness and sublimity or is symbolized by means of it. And this element, softened though it is, does not disappear even on the highest level of all, where the worship of God is at its purest. Its disappearance would be indeed an essential loss. The -shudder-’ reappears in a form ennobled beyond measure where the soul, held speechless, trembles inwardly to the furthest fibre of its being. It invades the mind mightily in Christian worship with the words: -Holy holy, holy-’; it breaks forth from the hymn of Tersteegen:

God Himself is present: Heart, be stilled before Him: Prostrate inwardly adore Him.

The -shudder-’ has here lost its crazy and bewildering note, but not the ineffable something that holds the mind. It has become a mystical awe, and sets free as its accompaniment, reflected in self-consciousness, that -creature-feeling-’ that has already been described as the feeling of personal nothingness and abasement before the awe-inspiring object directly experienced.

Otto cites as an example of the case in point the references in Scripture to the Wrath of Yahweh. The notion that this -Wrath-’ is mere caprice and wilful passion, he points out, would have been emphatically rejected by the spiritually-minded men of the Old Covenant, for to them the Wrath of God, so far from being a diminution of His Godhead, appears as a natural expression of it, an element of -holiness-’ itself, and quite an indispensable one. And in this they are entirely right. Closely related to the Wrath of Yahweh, according to this author, is the Jealousy of Yahweh. The state of mind denoted by the phrase -being jealous for Yahweh-’ is also a numinous state of mind, in which features of the -tremendum-’ pass over into the man who has experience of it. For characteristic aspects of what Otto calls the Mysterium Tremendum, the following are listed: the sense of Majesty (Overpoweringness), the sense of urgency (energy), the sense of the Wholly Other, the sense of Fascination, i.e., of the numinous object. The numinous consciousness, Otto tells us, is innate; it cannot be taught; it can only be awakened. Is not all this inherent in the oft-repeated descriptive phrase, in Scripture, The Living God? (See IH, pp. 12-24: cf. also the book by Miguel de Unamuno, The Agony of Christianity.)

In strict harmony with this experience of dreadful-ness in the presence of Yahweh was Jacob’s experience at Bethel (as Otto points out). Genesis 28:17, Jacob says here, on awaking from his dream-vision, How dreadful is this place: this is none other than the house of Elohim! This verse is very instructive for the psychology of religion.. The first sentence gives plainly the mental impression itself in all its immediacy, before reflection has permeated it, and before the meaning-content of the feeling itself has become clear or explicit. It connotes solely the primal numinous awe, which has been undoubtedly sufficient in itself in many cases to mark out -holy-’ or -sacred-’ places, and make of them spots of aweful veneration, centres of a cult admitting a certain development. There is no need, that is, for the experient to pass on to resolve his mere impression of the eerie and aweful into the idea of a -numen-’, a divine power, dwelling in the -aweful-’ place, still less need the numen become a nomen, a named power, or the -nomen-’ become something more than a mere pronoun. Worship is possible without this further explicative process. But Jacob’s second statement gives this process of explication and interpretation; it is no longer simply an expression of the actual experience. The words used by Jacob undoubtedly connote a sense of eeriness or uncanniness. Cf. Moses at the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:5-7), Isaiah’s Vision of Jehovah of Hosts (Isaiah 6:1-5), Daniel’s Vision of the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9 ff.), John’s Vision of the Living One (Revelation 1:12-18), etc. Surely the awesomeness of our God is a realistic aspect of the very Mystery of all mysteriesthe Mystery of Being! Surely the dreadfulness of God is a phase of His holiness, and the awareness of it a vital aspect of Christian worship! For our Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, in His eternal being (John 17:5), dwells with the Heavenly Father, in light unapproachable, whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power eternal. Amen (1 Timothy 6:15-16).

FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING

Lessons from Jacob’s ladder

Genesis 28:10-15; cf. John 1:51

The writer of Hebrews tells us that God spoke by divers portions and in divers manners to holy men of old (Genesis 1:1). He came down and talked personally with Adam in the primeval Garden. He conversed in some manner with Noah and the ark was built. He talked with Abraham on different occasions, and also with Isaac and Jacob. He revealed His will to Moses at the Burning Bush, and to the entire assembly of Israel from the summit of Sinai. Indeed prophecy (revelation) never came by man, but only as holy men of old spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).

We are quite familiar with the story of God’s speaking to Jacob in the dream-vision which the latter experienced at Bethel: the vision of a ladder stretched from heaven to earth and angels ascending and descending upon it. This vision had wondrous significance to Jacob, of course, but in its antitypical aspect is has even more far reaching significance for Christians. Our Lord Himself reveals fully the spiritual meaning of Jacob’s vision in terms we can all understand (John 1:51).

We are familiar with the circumstances which led up to this scene at Bethel. Jacob was in flight, we might truly say, to Paddan-aram, the home of his uncle Laban, to avoid the vengeance threatened by his brother Esau. On the way to Mesopotamia the event occurred as recorded in the lesson context. Physically exhausted, Jacob lay down to sleep, and then to dream. The earth was his bed, the canopy of heaven his coverlet, and a stone his only pillow. Then came the vision of the celestial ladder and its angelic host, and the voice of Yahweh repeating the Promise He had made previously to Abraham and then to Isaac. Said Jacob on awaking from his dream, This is none other than the house of God (Bethel)! Explaining this vision in the sense suggested by our Lord Himself, what lessons do we derive from the story? What truths did Jacob’s Ladder typify or suggest with reference to Christ?

1. It typified the Person of the Savior. (1) the top of the ladder reached to heaven. So Christ is the spiritual Ladder who connects heaven and earth. He came from heaven and entered into human flesh, in order to purchase redemption for us. Those -scholars who would discredit the Virgin Birth would do well first to explain away the doctrine of His pre-existence. (Cf. John 17:4-5; John 1:1-14; John 8:58; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:10; Hebrews 2:9-18; Philippians 2:5-11, and many other Scriptures which either assert positively, or clearly intimate, that the Son has existed with the Father from eternity and was indeed the executive Agent in the Creation, cf. Genesis 1:3; Genesis 1:6; Genesis 1:9, etc.). (2) In the beginning man transgressed the law of God, the sovereign law of the creation because it is the expression of the Sovereign Will. Absolute Justice demanded satisfaction, vindication of the Sovereign Will, else the law would have been rendered void and the Divine government discredited in the sight of all intelligent beings. There was nothing that earth had to offer, nothing within man himself, that, could provide atonement (covering) for the transgression of the divine law. Hence, it became necessary for Heaven to offer its costliest Gift, in order that the majesty of the law be sustained and God’s law adequately demonstrated to rebellious angels and men. This offering was made: God gave His Only Begotten as the Sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29; John 3:16), and for the joy that was set before Him the Son gave His life (Hebrews 12:1-2), and the Holy Spirit has revealed the Word (cf. Colossians 1:13-23, Romans 3:25, Ephesians 3:8-12, 1 Corinthians 2:9-13, Hebrews 10:19-22, etc. Hence it was, that the bottom of the ladder which Jacob saw rested on the ground. Our Lord took upon Himself, not the nature of angels, but the nature of the seed of Abraham, He became Immanuel, God with us. (Hebrews 2:14-16, Isaiah 9:6,1 Timothy 3:16, Romans 8:3, Matthew 1:23). He was not just a son, but the Son, of the living God (Matthew 16:16). He was God in human flesh (John 14:9), yet while in the flesh He was subject to the frailties and temptations to which all men are subject (Matthew 4:2; Matthew 8:24; Luke 2:52; John 4:6-7; John 11:35). In the strength of perfect manhood He conquered sin in the flesh, and being made perfect through suffering, He was qualified to lead many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:9-10). It is on the basis of His human nature that he is given the title, Son of man. It is on the basis of His human nature that He has qualified Himself to be our great High Priest (Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 5:8-10; Hebrews 9:24-28). John 3:13; this should read, freely translated: No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man whose abode is heaven (cf. John 1:18; John 17:5). His eternal abode is heaven; while on earth, He was temporarily out of that abode, to which He has returned as our Prophet, Priest, and King (Acts 2:36, Ephesians 1:20-23), the Lord’s Anointed, (Matthew 3:16; Matthew 16:16, John 20:30-31, Acts 2:29-36; Acts 10:38-43, etc.) The matchless humanity of Christ is one of the irrefutable evidences of His deity.

2. It typified the mediatorial work of Christ. The ladder reached from heaven to earth, thus forming a bond of union. An integral phase of Christ’s incarnate life was that of reconciliation; His ministry was the ministry of reconciliation (Ephesians 2:11-22, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). The essence of true religion is reconciliation, as signified by the etymology of the word, religo, religare, which means to bind back. Christianity is the true religion in the sense that it is the authoritarian Faith, revealing to us the only One who can bind us anew to God. God gave the world to man, and man mortgaged itand himselfto the devil (Genesis 1:27-31; Genesis 3:6-8; Romans 7:14). Rebellion entered man’s heart and separated him from his Creator. The Only Begotten (John 3:16) came to earth to offer Himself as a propitiation for sin (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10). He came, both to satisfy the demands of Absolute Justice and so to vindicate God, and to demonstrate God’s love for man in such a way as to overcome the rebellion in man’s heart and woo him back to the Heavenly Father (John 3:16; 1 John 4:11; 1 John 4:10; Romans 2:4). He came to heal the schism which sin had caused, to repair the ruin which Satan had incurred, and to remove the misery which iniquity had entailed (1 Corinthians 15:20-28, Hebrews 2:14-15).

He is our Mediator to-day, our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:20). There is no other name (authority) by which it is possible for us to be saved (Acts 4:12). There is no way of approach to God but through Him (John 14:6). We are no longer to pray directly to God, as did the Jew; we must address our prayers to the Father in the name of Christ (John 14:13-15). How, then, sinner friend, do you expect to come to the Father unless you have accepted Christ? How can you consistently ask God to answer your prayers until you have been inducted into Christ (Galatians 3:27)? I warn you solemnly that, as long as you are out of Christ, you are without a Mediator at God’s right hand (1 Timothy 2:5). The Mediatorship of Christ is one of the blessings of adoption, and with it comes the privilege of prayer and personal communion with God (Romans 8:12-17). It is indeed doubtful that anyone has the right to call God Father who has not been adopted into the family of God (Ephesians 2:19-22). I realize that this statement is contrary to public opinionbut we must speak where the Bible speaks and as the Bible speaks.

A priest is one who acts as mediator between God and man: in Scripture, all Christians are said to be priests unto God (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9; Isaiah 61:6, Revelation 1:6), thus qualified to offer up the incense of devoted hearts (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17, Romans 12:1-2), through the Mediatorship of their great High Priest. In the old Tabernacle and Temple service, the high priest went once each year, on the Day of Atonement, into the Holy of Holies, with an offering of blood for himself and his people. Jesus, our High Priest, does not have to enter heaven once each year, but has entered into the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies)heaven itselfinto the tabernacle not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, once for all, and there, again once for all time, He offered His most precious blood and His perfect body as the supreme sacrifice for the sin of the world (John 1:29; John 19:36; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 2:21-25; Heb., ch. 9). There He is to-day at God’s right hand (the seat of authority) acting as our Mediator (Hebrews 1:1-4; Hebrews 8:1-13), the Mediator of a better Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13). Satan may appear before the gates of heaven to accuse the people of God (Revelation 12:10; cf. Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Zechariah 3:1; Luke 22:31; 1 Peter 5:8), but our High Priest is there, at the Father’s right hand, to defend them (Ephesians 1:20-22). All Christians are priests unto God (1 Peter 2:5, Revelation 5:10); Jesus is their High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (i.e., a Priest-King, Genesis 14:18-20; Hebrews 6:20, Hebrews 8:11-13; cf. Psalms 110:4), and the antitype of Jacob’s dream-ladder in which heaven and earth were seen to be united i.e., reconciled.

3. It suggests that Christ is the only Way back to the Father. There was but one Ladder in the dream; so there is but one way back to reconciliation with God. In Christ, God is well-pleased, and only those who are in Christ can be well-pleasing unto God (Colossians 1:19-20, Galatians 3:27, Hebrews 11:6). All offerings of obedience, prayer, and sacrifice must be in the name of Christ (Colossians 3:17). We are baptized in the name of Christ (Acts 2:38); we meet for the Lord’s Supper each Lord’s Day in memoriam of His death on the Cross (Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-30; Acts 2:42; Acts 20:2). There is no propitiation available in you yourself, my sinner friend, in your home, in your lodge, in your school, or in humanity in general. (Propitiation is that which vindicates Divine Justice and effects reconciliation between God and man). You must come to God by the obedience of faith in Christ Jesus, humbly imploring the Heavenly Father for forgiveness and pardon, crying as did the publican of old, (Luke 18:13; Luke 15:16-24), God, be merciful to me, a sinner!

4. It portrays the accessibility of Christ to the sinner. John 3:17God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world (i.e., all accountable beings)? Why not? Because the world is under divine condemnation, and has been since sin entered in, and separated man from God. The unredeemed world is under the curse of sin (Galatians 3:10, Revelation 22:3). When a person arrives at an accountable age, he is in the kingdom of this world (John 18:36, Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 1:20, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Revelation 11:1-5; Revelation 12:10); he stands without hope either in this world or in the world to come, until he accepts and obeys the Son of God as both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36, Romans 10:9-10). He must be regenerated, born again, adopted, transplanted out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son, etc. (Colossians 1:13, John 3:1-8, Titus 3:5, Romans 8:12-17). These are eternal truths which the wisdom of this world, in our day as always, chooses to ignore or completely reject, in its attempt to deify man (in the name of humanism, naturalism, etc. and other such terms as only very learned (?) men could conjure up, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Man today has no awareness, comparatively speaking of his own insignificance and guilt. The grace of God has little or no place in the twentieth-century edition of the wisdom of this world.

Jacob, on his way to Paddan-aram, was weary and footsore when he arrived at Bethel, heavily laden with the consciousness of his own wrongdoing, and burdened with the knowledge of his brother’s estrangement and threatened vengeance. He was a pilgrim in a strange land. But the foot of this wonderful dream-ladder rested on the ground, right at his side. No matter if a stone were his pillow, the Ladder to heaven rested near him on the earth, the angels of God were walking up and down on it, and Yahweh Himself was talking to him. Herein we see the nearness of Christ to us. We are all sinners, saved by grace, if saved at all (Ephesians 2:8). We could hardly have any hope of heaven without this divine Mediator who knows our frailties and can sympathetically plead our case at the Bar of Absolute Justice. This writer is frank to say that the hope of eternal life which I cherish in my heart of hearts, rests solely upon the offices of the divine-human Redeemer, the Anointed of God, who emptied himself (Philippians 2:5-11, Hebrews 2:9-18), who stooped down to assume my insignificant state in the totality of being, who brought, and is continually bringing, the mercy and longsuffering of God within reach of every perishing sinner, including the forgiveness of His saints even after they have become redeemed (1 John 1:8-10: these words, it must be noted, were written to Christians).

5. Jacob’s Ladder points up the office and work of angels both in Creation and in Redemption. Jacob saw the heavenly host ascending and descending on the Ladder. Note what Jesus said, in this connection, John 1:51. We have largely lost sight of the Biblical doctrine of angels. Angels constituted the citizenship of heaven before the worlds were created (Luke 10:18). It was the premundane rebellion of certain angels, led by the archangel Lucifer, which brought about the mass of evil with which earth has been afflicted since the seduction of man (Ezekiel 28:12-17, Isaiah 14:12-15, John 8:44, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6). Angels have existed from eternity in great numbers and with a celestial organization (1 Kings 22:19, Psalms 68:17, Daniel 7:10, Matthew 26:53, Luke 2:13-14; Revelation 5:11; Revelation 12:7-8, etc.). In fact we are told that the worlds were arranged, and peopled by human creatures capable of redemption and immortalization, in order that the Absolute Justice of God and the fiendishness of Satan may ultimately be demonstrated to both angels and men (Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12). If, in the Day of Vindication, just one soul of the human family stands fully redeemed in spirit and soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23), God will be gloriously vindicated of all the false charges Satan brought against Him and the creation itself will be proved to be an indescribable triumph (Isaiah 45:5-7; Isaiah 46:8-11; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; Revelation 19:1-16; Revelation 20:11-15, etc.). It would seem that the justice and love of God could be demonstrated only in a world of lost sinners: that is a great mystery, of course. The simple fact is, however, that the price which man must pay for his freedomfor his being man, one might truly sayis the possibility of evil.

Angels are supernatural ethereal beings. They constitute a special creation, without sex distinctions, prior to man and superior to him in powers, endowed with superhuman knowledge, but lacking omniscience, thus filling the gap between Deity and humanity in the scale of intelligences. (Psalms 8:4-5, Mark 12:18-25, Acts 23:9, Hebrews 12:22-24). In Hebrews 12:22-23, we note the distinction between innumerable hosts of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect: this and other Scripture passages show us that angels are not disembodied spirits in fact there is no such teaching in Scripture; even the redeemed of earth will be endowed with spiritual bodies in the next life (1 Corinthians 15:42-54, 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). Angelic superhuman power, however, is limited in some respects (Mark 13:32).

Angels have always played a prominent role in the execution of God’s eternal purpose for His creation. We meet them executing judgment on the Cities of the Plain (Genesis 19). We meet them frequently in the stories of the journeyings of the patriarchs (Genesis 16:7, ch. 18, Genesis 22:11, Genesis 24:7). We meet them on Sinai’s mount communicating the law to Moses (Galatians 3:19). We meet them directing the battles of the Children of Israel on different occasions (Judges 6:12, 2 Samuel 24:16, 2 Kings 19:35, etc.). We hear them singing above the storied hills of old Judea on the night Christ was born (Luke 2:13-15). We meet them on the mount of temptation (Matthew 4:11), at the open sepulchre (Matthew 28:2), and on the Mount of Olives when our Lord ascended to heaven (Acts 9:1-11). We meet them comforting the saints, leading sinners to the light, delivering the apostles from prison (Acts 5:19; Acts 8:26; Acts 10:3; Acts 12:7, etc.). And we are told that every little child has its guardian angel always before the throne of God (Matthew 18:10).

Angels were walking up and down the Ladder which Jacob saw. That ladder typified Christ. In all ages, redemption has been offered man through Christ, the Lord’s anointed: before the Cross prospectively, since the Cross retrospectively; and in all ages, angels have been walking up and down this ladder of redemption which connects heaven and earth. Note that Jesus said they are ascending and descending upon the Son of man, John 1:51. The work of angels has always been that of ministering to those who inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:13-14). And even in our day, as always, angels are said to rejoice every time one sinner repents and names the name of Christ (Luke 15:7). No wonder, then, that the angels, as ministering spirits, have always been vitally interested in the unfolding of the cosmic drama of redemption (1 Peter 1:10-12; 1 Peter 1:4; Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:12, etc.).

6. Jacob’s Ladder signifies the truth that Jesus exalts His faithful people to their final heavenly state, clothed in glory and honor and immortality, and hence conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29-30), their minds united with the Mind of God in knowledge and their wills united with the will of God in love (1 Corinthians 13:12-13, 1 John 3:2).

The top of Joseph’s Ladder reached to heavena striking metaphor of what Christ will do for His saints. Man, in the beginning, was natural; when sin entered his heart and separated him from God, he became unnatural; by grace, through faith, he can become prenatural (a better term for redeemed man than supernatural). Progression in the Spiritual Life is from the Kingdom of Nature through the kingdom of Grace into the Kingdom of Glory (John 3:1-8, 2 Peter 3:18, 1 Corinthians 15:42-54, 2 Peter 1:10-11). Heaven is truly a prepared place for a prepared people. Jesus is now engaged in the great work of bringing many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:10). Immortality is one of the promises (rewards), of the Spiritual Life (Romans 2:7; Romans 8:11; Philippians 3:20-21; 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, etc.). (Immortalityincorruptionis, of course, a term that has reference to the redemption of the body, cf. Romans 8:23). The Christian life is constant growth (2 Peter 1:5-11). In the end, we may stand before the Throne, redeemed in spirit and soul and body, if we continue steadfastly in the love and service of Him who bought us with His own precious blood (Acts 20:28, Philippians 3:20-21, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, 1 John 3:2). Our ultimate destiny, as God’s saints, is the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 5:9-10).

Heaven is not reached at a single bound:

We build the ladder by which we rise

From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,

And mount to the summit round by round.

That Ladder is Christ; and the rounds are these: faith, courage, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, love (2 Peter 1:5-8). In the bliss of ultimate union with God, faith will become reality, hope will be lost in fruition, and love will be all-fulfilling (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Review Questions

See Genesis 28:20-22.

Genesis 28:18

5. The Memorial, Genesis 28:18.

The Stone Head-Place Made a Pillar. Jacob knew God’s omnipresence, but he did not expect a special manifestation of the Lord in this place, far from the sanctuaries of his father. He is filled with solemn awe, when he finds himself in the house of God and at the gate of heaven. The pillar is a monument of the event. The pouring of oil upon it is an act of consecration to God who has there appeared to him, cf. Numbers 7:1 (Murphy, MG, 387). Whether Jacob fell asleep again at the conclusion of the dream-vision, we do not know. In any case, he arose early in the morning, took the stone which he had used as a head place and set it up, it would seem, in a manner designed to make it stand out and hence to mark the precise spot where the dream had occurred: hence a statue or monument, not as an object of worship, a sort of fetish, but as a memorial of the vision (PCG, 350). (Cf. Genesis 31:45, Genesis 35:14; Joshua 4:9; Joshua 4:20; Joshua 24:26; 1 Samuel 7:12).

The Oil of Consecration was an integral part of this ritual. The worship of sacred stones (Baetylia), afterward prevalent among the Greeks, Romans, Hindoos, Arabs, and Germans, though by some regarded as one of the primeval forms of worship among the Hebrews, was expressly interdicted by the law of Moses (cf. Exodus 23:24; Exodus 34:13; Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 12:3; Deuteronomy 16:22). It was probably a heathen imitation of the rite here recorded, though by some authorities the Baetylian worship is said to have been connected chiefly with meteoric stones which were supposed to have descended from some divinity, as, e.g., the stone in Delphi sacred to Apollo; that in Emesa, on the Orontes, consecrated to the sun; the angular rock at Pessinus in Phrygia worshipped as hallowed by Cybele; the black stone in the Kaaba at Mecca believed to have been brought from heaven by the angel Gabriel. That the present narrative was a late invention -called into existence by a desire-’ on the part of the priests and prophets of Yahweh -to proclaim the high antiquity of the sanctuary at Bethel, and to make the sacred stone harmless,-’ is pure assumption. The circumstance that the usage here mentioned is nowhere else in Scripture countenanced (except in ch. Genesis 35:14, with reference to the same pillar) forms a sufficient pledge of the high antiquity of the narrative (PCG, 351). Although this act of Jacob is the first instance of stone consecration on record, it was evidently a familiar and established practice in the time of the patriarchs. But the unction of stones was ere long abused and perverted even by the Hebrews themselves to idolatry.. This superstition of consecrated stones was both very ancient and very extensive, from the Graeco-Phoenician Bantulia, or Boetylia, the monolithic temples of Egypt and Hindostan, the lithoi liparoi of the Greeks, the -lapides informes-’ of the Romans, the pyramids and obelisks of others, the cairns and cromlechs of Northern Europe, and the caaba of Arabia. That black stone of Mecca is described as -an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quality of cement, and perfectly smooth-’ (CECG, 200). Let it be emphasized here that there is no indication that Jacob regarded this stone pillar as a fetish: the idea of a fetish stone simply does not enter into this case.. Koenig has successfully refuted such claims by pointing out that Jacob says, -How awe-inspiring is this placenot -this stone-’ (EG, 778). What happened here was simply the natural thing, as an expression of the profound reverence that filled Jacob’s soul after such an experience: anyone in our day might react in precisely the same manner under the same or similar circumstances. The mere setting up of the stone might well have been just a future memorial to mark the spot: this practice, we are told, is still common in the East, in memory of a religious experience and vow. Having set the stone up, Jacob poured oil on the top of it. Oil is so much used in the east for food and for bodily refreshment that a supply of it invariably forms an important part of a traveler’s viaticum. From its excellent material properties, it came to be used as a symbol for spiritual influences, and, still later, as a means for setting apart or consecrating anything to God (CECG, 200). The stone marks the place of God’s presence. It becomes a beth El, a -house of God,-’ and is anointed with oil as a formal act of worship. Practices of this kind were common in the Canaanite cult and in the Semitic world in general but were subsequently condemned by Law and Prophets, see Exodus 23:24. Even in this passage a more spiritual conception goes with the idea of a divine dwelling on earth: Bethel is the -gate of heaven,-’ God’s true home, cf. 1 Kings 8:27 (JB, 49). We must distinguish here between the stone for a pillar, as a memorial of divine help, as Joshua and Samuel erected pillars (Genesis 31:45, Genesis 35:14; Joshua 4:9; Joshua 4:20; Joshua 24:26; 1 Samuel 7:12), and the anointing of the stone with oil, which consecrated it to Jehovah’s sanctuary, Exo. 20:30 (Lange, CDHCG, 522).

The oil mentioned in Scripture was from the olive-tree. The olive-berry is the most frequently mentioned source of oil in the Bible. The many olive-plantations in Palestine made olive-oil one of the most important and most lucrative products of the country. It was an article of extensive and profitable trade with the Tyrians (Ezekiel 27:17, cf. 1 Kings 5:11); and presents of the best grades of olive-oil were deemed suitable for kings. In fact, no other kind of oil is distinctly mentioned in Scripture, except in one instance (Esther 2:12, here it was oil of myrrh); and the different grades of oil referred to appear to have been only different kinds of olive-oil. Oil was used for many different purposes among the ancient Israelites and their neighbors. Special mention is made of it in the inventories of royal property and revenue (1 Samuel 10:1; 1 Samuel 16:1; 1 Samuel 16:13; 1 Kings 1:39, Genesis 17:16; 2 Kings 4:2; 2 Kings 4:6; 2 Kings 9:1; 2 Kings 9:3; 1 Chronicles 27:29; Chron. Genesis 11:11, Genesis 32:28; Proverbs 21:20), A supply of oil was always kept in the temple (Josephus, Wars, Genesis 28:13; Genesis 28:6), and an oil treasure was included in the stores of the Jewish kings (2 Kings 20:13; cf. 2 Chronicles 32:28). Oil of Tekoa was considered the very best. Trade in oil was carried on also between Egypt and Palestine (Ezra 3:7; Isaiah 30:6; Isaiah 57:9;Ezekiel 27:17, Hosea 12:1).

Oil was used for food (Jeremiah 31:12; Jeremiah 41:8; Ezekiel 16:13; Ezekiel 27:17; Luke 16:6 ff.), and its abundance was a mark of prosperity (Joe 2:19), It was used for cosmetic purposes (Deuteronomy 28:40; 2 Samuel 12:20; 2 Samuel 14:2; Rth 3:3). The bodies of the dead were anointed with oil by the Greeks and Romans, and apparently by the Jews (Mark 14:8, Luke 23:56). Oil was in common use for medicinal purposes (Isaiah 1:6, Mark 6:13, Luke 10:34, James 5:14). It was used to produce light in homes (Matthew 25:1-8, Luke 12:35). It was used for ritualistic purposes (Leviticus 2:1-2; Leviticus 5:11; Numbers 5:15): the use of oil in sacrifices was indicative of joy or gladness; the absence of it denoted sorrow or humiliation (Isaiah 61:3, Joe 2:19, Psalms 45:7, Revelation 6:6). Tithes of oil were prescribed (Deuteronomy 12:17, 2 Chronicles 31:5; Nehemiah 10:37; Nehemiah 10:39; Nehemiah 13:12; Ezekiel 45:14).

The first instance in Scripture of the use of oil for strictly religious purposes is in the account under study here, that of Jacob’s anointing of the stone which he had used as a head place on his way to Paddan-Aram (Genesis 28:18, Genesis 35:14). This evidently was designed to be a formal consecration of the stone, and indeed of the whole place in which the Divine visitation occurred. Under the Mosaic Law persons and things set apart for sacred purposes were anointed with what was designated the holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:22-33). This anointing with oil was the symbol of the conferring of the gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit by which certain persons were especially qualified for the respective ministries (offices) to which they were divinely commissioned. This was true especially in the ritual of formal induction of prophets, priests and kings into their respective services. (With respect to priests, see Exodus 28:36-41; Exodus 30:30-33; Exodus 40:13-16; Leviticus 8:10-12; Leviticus 8:30; Leviticus 16:32; with respect to kings, 1 Samuel 9:16-17; 1 Samuel 10:1; 1 Samuel 15:1; 1 Samuel 15:17-23; 1 Samuel 16:3; 1 Samuel 16:11-13; 2 Samuel 2:4; 2 Samuel 2:7; 2 Samuel 5:13; 2 Samuel 5:17; 2 Samuel 12:7; 2 Samuel 23:1-2; Psalms 89:20; 1 Kings 1:39; 2 Chronicles 6:42; 1 Kings 19:15-16; 2 Kings 9:1-13; with respect to prophets, 1 Kings 19:16; 1 Kings 19:19, etc.). The allusions to each of the three great kings of IsraelSaul, David, and Solomon, respectivelyas Yahweh’s Anointed are too numerous to be listed here (e.g., 1 Samuel 24:6; 1 Samuel 24:10; 2 Samuel 23:1, Psalms 89:20, etc.). Jesus of Nazareth, the Only Begotten, was God’s Anointed in a special and universal sense: hence He is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). The title Messiah (in Hebrew), Christos (in Greek), or Christ (in English) means The Anointed One. To accept Jesus as the Christ is to accept Him as one’s prophet, to whom one goes for divine truth, as one’s priest who intercedes for His people at the throne of heaven, and as one’s Kingthe Absolute Monarch of His Kingdom which includes all the redeemed of earth (John 14:6; John 8:31-32; John 6:68; John 6:63; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 7:11-28; Hebrews 9:23-28; Hebrews 4:14-16; Acts 2:36; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28; 1 Timothy 1:17; Revelation 19:11-16; Hebrews 1:6-8; Psalms 2, etc.). To accept Jesus as Christ, then, is to accept Him as God’s Anointed. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, we are told, was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10:38). When did this Divine anointingmarking His formal induction into His threefold office of Prophet, Priest and King occur? Obviously, it occurred after His baptism in the Jordan River, when the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him (Luke 3:21-22; Matthew 3:16-17) and the voice of the Father, at the same moment, avouched His Sonship (cf. John 1:29-34). In a special sense this conferring of the gifts and graces of the Spirit upon the Son was the great Antitype of the symbolism of the holy anointing oil as used in Old Testament times for the formal induction of prophets, priests and kings into their respective ministries (Luke 11:20; Matthew 12:28; John 6:63; John 3:34; cf. 1 Peter 1:10-12).

Review Questions

See Genesis 28:20-22.

Genesis 28:19

7. The Naming of the Place, Genesis 28:19.

Jacob called the name of that place, Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at first. It is not easy to discover whether Beth-el is identical with Luz, or they were two distinct places. Some passages seem to countenance the former view (Genesis 35:6, Judges 1:23), others the latter (Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:3; Joshua 16:2; Joshua 18:13). The probability is that they were in close contiguity, and were in time merged into one (CECG, 200). Originally the Canaanitish town was called Luz, or -almond tree,-’ a name it continued to bear until the conquest (Judges 1:23). From the circumstances recorded here in the narrative, Jacob called the spot where he slept (in the vicinity of Luz) Bethelthe designation afterward extending to the town (Genesis 35:6), Until the conquest both titles appear to have been usedLuz by the Canaanites, Bethel by the Israelites. When the conquest was completed the Hebrew name was substituted for the Hittite, the sole survivor of the captured city building another Luz in another part of the country (vide Judges 1:26) (PCG, 351). Luz, probably meaning -almond tree,-’ was renamed by Jacob Bethel, meaning -house of God,-’ and became a holy place to the children of Israel. It was located on land which later was granted to the tribe of Benjamin and was about twelve miles north of Jerusalem. The sacred place was defiled when Jeroboam erected a golden calf (1 Kings 12:28-33), therefore God decreed the destruction of the altar (1 Kings 13:1-5, 2 Kings 23:15-17, Amos 3:14-15) (HSB, 47). Jacob then gave the place the name of Bethel, i.e., House of God, whereas the town had been called Luz before. The antithesis shows that Jacob gave the name, not to the place where the pillar was set up, but to the town, in the neighborhood of which he had received the divine revelation. He renewed it on his return from Mesopotamia (Genesis 35:15). This is confirmed by ch. Genesis 48:3, where Jacob, like the historian in ch. Genesis 35:6, speaks of Luz as the place of this revelation. There is nothing at variance with this in Joshua 16:2; Joshua 18:13; for it is not Bethel as a city, but the mountains of Bethel, that are here distinguished from Luz (BCOTP, 282). Beth-el, house of God. A town about twelve miles North of Jerusalem, originally Luz (Genesis 28:19). It was here that Abraham encamped (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3), and the district is still pronounced as suitable for pasturage. It received the name of Beth-el, -house of God-’ because of its nearness to or being the very place where Jacob dreamed (Genesis 28:10-22). Beth-el was assigned to the Benjamites, but they appear to have been either unable to take it or careless about doing so, as we find it taken by the children of Joseph (UBD, 139). (Cf. Judges 1:22-26; Judges 20:26-28; 1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Kings 12:28-33; 2 Kings 23:15-20; Ezra 2:28; Nehemiah 11:31. Excavations at Bethel, conducted by Albright and Kelso reveal house walls from the time of the Judges; its occupation is thought to have begun about 2250 B.C.). Fleeing the vengeance of Esau, Jacob passed the night at Bethel about twelve miles north of Jerusalem on the road to Shechem. There he received the divine promise of a safe return to the land of his birth. The vision of the heavenly ladder reminded Jacob that the God of his fathers would not forsake him in his journeys. Bethel later became an important shrine. Golden calves were placed there by Jeroboam I to dissuade his people from going to the Temple at Jerusalem (BBA, 60). The problem of a twofold naming, as, for example, the naming of Bethel by Jacob at one time (Genesis 28:19) and again at a later time (Genesis 35:15) poses no serious problem. At the first time Jacob made a vow that, if God would bless and keep him till his return, the pillar which he had set up should be -God’s house.-’ Upon his return, in view of the abundant blessings which he had received, he performed his vow, changing the ideal to an actual Bethel, and thus encompassing and confirming the original name (Haley, ADB, 410). To the rationalistic objection that -identical names of places are not imposed twice,-’ we may reply, in general, that it is in -full accordance with the genius of the Oriental languages and the literary tastes of the people-’ to suppose that a name may be renewed; in other words, that a new meaning and significance may be attached to an old name. This fact sweeps away a host of objections urged against this and similar cases (ibid., 410). The place-name Bethel must have been known as far back as Abraham’s time: as Murphy put it, Abraham also worshipped God here, and met with the name already existing (see Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:3, Genesis 25:30). Or indeed the place may have been known as Luz in earlier times, this having been the Canaanite name, and somehow the two names became associated in the later historical accounts. (For examples, i.e., of twofold naming, cf. Genesis 14:14, Deuteronomy 34:1, Joshua 19:47, Judges 18:29, with reference to Laish (or Leshem) and Dan; also Numbers 32:41, Deuteronomy 3:4; Deuteronomy 3:14, Judges 10:3-4, with reference to Havoth-jair. Note also the name Beer-sheba: in Genesis 21:31, we read that Abraham gave this name to the place where he entered into a covenant with Abimelech; in Genesis 26:33, however, we read that Isaac called the place Shiba; but from Genesis 26:15; Genesis 26:18, we find that all the wells dug by Abraham in this region had been filled with earth by the Philistines, but that Isaac re-opened them and called them by the old familiar names. This certainly is a satisfactory explanation of the problem.)

Speiser seems to conclude properly in these statements: The link with Bethel carries its own symbolism as well. The theophany made Jacob realize that this was an abode of the Deity, hence the new name replaced the older Luz, as this aetiology sees it. Actually, Bethel was an old center (cf. Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:3), which managed to retain its religious influence until late in the seventh century, when the site was destroyed by Josiah (2 Kings 23:15). The etymology seeks to fix the locale of Jacob’s spiritual experience, but does not otherwise circumscribe its significance (ABG, 220). Skinner, following the critical line, writes: From John 16:2; John 18:13 it appears that Luz was really distinct from Bethel, but was overshadowed by the more famous sanctuary in the neighborhood (ICCG, 378). Note well Green’s appraisal of the sanctuary notion: The sacred writer, he says, makes no reference whatever to the idolatrous sanctuary subsequently established at Bethel; least of all is he giving an account of its origin. There is no discrepancy in different patriarchs successively visiting the same place and building altars there. These descriptions of patriarchal worship are not legends to gain credit for the sanctuary; but the superstition of later ages founded sanctuaries in venerated spots, where the patriarchs had worshipped, and where God had revealed himself to them (UBG, 343). Bethel was assigned to the Benjamites, but they appear to have been either unable to take it or careless about doing so, as we find it taken by the children of Joseph, Judges 1:22-26). Later Old Testament history makes it clear that Jeroboam I did establish idolatrous sanctuaries both at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28-33), and that King Josiah later destroyed the high places that Jeroboam had instituted; specific mention is made of the destruction of the idolatrous altar at Bethel, (cf. 2 Kings 23:15-20). As stated above, however, Lange suggests that through Jehovah’s revelation, this place, which is viewed as a heathen waste, becomes to Jacob a house of God, and therefore he consecrates it as a permanent sanctuary-’ (Lange, CDHCG, 523).

Review Questions

See Genesis 28:20-22.

Genesis 28:20-22

8. The Vow, Genesis 28:20-22.

Genesis 28:20A vow is a solemn promise made to God, by which we bind ourselves more strictly to necessary duty, or what indifferent things are calculated to promote it (Psalms 76:11; Psalms 119:106; Isaiah 19:21; Isaiah 44:4-5; Isaiah 45:23; 2 Corinthians 8:5; Deuteronomy 5:2-3; Deuteronomy 29:1; Deuteronomy 29:12-13; Joshua 24:25; 2 Kings 11:17; 2 Chronicles 29:10, 2 Chronicles 34:31-33; Ezra 10:3; Nehemiah 9:10; Acts 18:18; Acts 21:23-24), and that either in thankfulness for some mercy received (Jonah 1:16), or for obtaining some special benefit (Numbers 21:1-2; Judges 11:30; 2 Samuel 1:11; Proverbs 31:2) (SIBG, 260). This vow has often been presented in a light injurious to the character of Jacob, as indicating that his mind was so wholly engrossed with his present state and necessities that he felt no interest in the temporal blessings guaranteed to his posterity, or in the spiritual good which, through their medium, would be conveyed in remote ages to the world at large; and that, so far from having exalted views of the providential government of God, he confined his thoughts exclusively to his personal affairs and his immediate protection, as well as suspended his devotedness to the Divine service on condition of God’s pledges being redeemed. But it should be borne in mind that it was in consequence of the vision, and of the promises made to him during the night, in the most unexpected manner, by the Divine Being, that he vowed his vow the next morninga view indicative of his profound feelings of gratitude, as well as of reverence, and intended to be simply responsive to the terms in which the grace of his heavenly Benefactor and Guardian was tendered. Nay, so far is he from betraying a selfish and worldly spirit, the moderation of his desires is remarkable; and the vow, when placed in a just light, will be seen to evince the simplicity and piety of Jacob’s mind. Our translators have given rise to the mistaken impressions that so generally prevail in regard to Jacob’s vow, by the insertion of the word -then-’ in Genesis 28:21. But the apodosis properly begins in the verse following-then shall this stone,-’ etc. (It should be noted that the versification is clarified in the ARV). The words of Jacob are not to be considered as implying a doubt, far less as stating the condition or terms on which he would dedicate himself to God. Let -if be changed into -since,-’ and the language will appear a proper expression of Jacob’s faithan evidence of his having truly embraced the promise. And the vow as recorded should stand thus: -If (since) God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; and if (since) the Lord shall be my God, then this stone which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house,-’ where I shall erect an altar and worship Him (Jamieson, CECG, 201). Note that the conditions correspond with the Divine promise; that is, they are not really conditions at all, but a reiteration of the elements of the promise: (1) the presence of God, (2) Divine protection, (3) a safe return to his father’s house, which naturally includes the provision of food and raiment. If God will be with me. This is not the condition on which Jacob will accept God in a mercenary spirit. It is merely the echo and the thankful acknowledgement of the divine assurance, -I am with thee,-’ which was given immediately before. It is the response of the son to the assurance of the father: -Wilt thou indeed be with me? Thou shalt be my God-’ (Murphy, MG, 388). Genesis 28:21 aowned and worshipped by me and my family, as the author of our whole happiness, and as our valuable and everlasting portion (SIBG, 260; cf. Exodus 15:2, Psalms 118:27-29). It should be noted again that Jacob said, How awe-inspiring is this placenot this stone Genesis 28:17. Indeed, this stone, said Jacob in reply, shall be God’s house, that is, a monument of the presence of God among His people, and a symbol of the indwelling of his Spirit in their hearts (MG, 388). In enumerating protection, food, clothing and safe return Jacob is not displaying a mind ignorant of higher values but merely unfolding the potentialities of God’s promise (Genesis 28:15), -I will keep thee and bring thee again,-’ etc. When he said, -If Yahweh will be God to me,-’ he is paraphrasing the promise (Genesis 28:15): I am with thee.-’ Consequently, in all this Jacob is not betraying a cheap, mercenary spirit, bargaining with God for food and drink and saying, -If I get these, then Yahweh shall be my God.-’ That would be about the cheapest case of arrogant bargaining with God recorded anywhere.. The Lord was his God. Jacob was not an unconverted man still debating whether or not to be on the Lord’s side and here making an advantageous bargain out of the case. They who postpone his conversion to a time twenty years later at the river Jabbock completely misunderstand Jacob. Not only does the construction of the Hebrew allow for our interpretation, it even suggests it. The -if clauses of the protasis all run along after the same pattern as converted perfectsfuture: -if he will,-’ etc., -if Yahweh will be, or prove Himself, God to me.-’ Then to make the beginning of the apodosis prominent comes a new construction: noun first, then adjective clause, then verb (Leupold, EG, 780). (Genesis 28:20-21 form the protasis and Genesis 28:22 the apodosis). By the phrase, house of God, evidently Jacob does not indicate a temple but a sacred spot, a sanctuary, which he proposes to establish and perpetuate. Just how Jacob carried out his vow is reported in Genesis 35:1-7: here, we are told, he built an altar to Yahweh on this spot, this place (Genesis 28:17). Nothing is reported in ch. 35 about the tithe, perhaps because that is presupposed as the condition upon which the maintenance of the sanctuary depended. The silence of the Scriptures on, this latter point by no means indicates that it was neglected (EG, 781).

The second part of Jacob’s vow was that of the tithe: Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee (Genesis 28:22). Some authorities tell us that the case of Jacob affords another proof that the practice of voluntary tithing was known and observed antecedent to the time of Moses. Still and all, it is interesting to note that in Jacob’s vow we have only the second Scripture reference to the voluntary tithe. The first reference occurs in Genesis 14:20, where we are told that Abraham paid the King priest Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils (goods) he brought back from his victory over the invading kings from the East. (Incidentally, the fact that this is one of the only two references to the tithe in the book of Genesis, enhances the mystery of the identity of this King-Priest, does it not?) The number -ten-’ being the one that concludes the prime numbers, expresses the idea of completion, of some whole thing. Almost all nations, in paying tithes of all their income, and frequently, indeed, as a sacred revenue, thus wished to testify that their whole property belonged to God, and thus to have a sanctified use and enjoyment of what was left. The idea of Jacob’s ladder, of the protecting hosts of angels, of the house of God and its sublime terrors, of the gate of heaven, of the symbolical significance of the oil, of the vow, and of the tithesall these constitute a blessing of this consecrated night of Jacob’s life (Lange, CDHCG, 523)., The appropriation of this proportion of income or produce for pious or charitable purposes seems to have been a primitive practice, and hence Jacob vowed to give a tenth of whatever gains he might acquire through the blessing of Providence (ch. Genesis 14:20). It was continued under the, Mosaic economy, with this difference, that what had been in patriarchal times a free-will offering, was made a kind of tax, a regular impost for supporting the consecrated tribe of Levi (Jamieson, CECG, 201). I will surely give the tenth unto Thee. In the form of sacrifices (SC, 167). With regard to the fulfilment of this vow, we learn from chap. 3.Genesis 5:7 that Jacob built an altar, and probably also dedicated the tenth to God, i.e., offered it to Jehovah; or, as some have supposed, applied it partly to the erection and preservation of the altar, and partly to burnt and thank-offerings combined with sacrificial meals, according to the analogy of Deu 14:28-29 (cf. chap. Genesis 31:54, Genesis 46:1) (BCOTP, 283). A tenth I will surely give unto thee. The honored guest is treated as one of the family. Ten is the whole: a tenth is a share of the whole. The Lord of all receives one share as an acknowledgment of his sovereign right to all, Here it is represented as the full share given to the king who condescends to dwell with his subjects. Thus Jacob opens his heart, his home, and his treasure to God. These are the simple elements of a theocracy, a national establishment of the true religion. The spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, has begun to reign to Jacob. As the Father is prominently manifested in regenerate Abraham, and the Son in Isaac, so also is the Spirit in Jacob (Murphy, MG, 388). (For the involuntarylegaltithes required under the Mosaic economy, see the following: Leviticus 27:30 ff.; Numbers 18:21-28; Deuteronomy 12:5-18; Deuteronomy 14:22-29; Deuteronomy 26:12-14; 2 Chronicles 31:5; 2 Chronicles 31:12; 2 Chronicles 31:19; Nehemiah 12:44; Amos 4:4; Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42; Luke 18:12; Hebrews 7:5-8, etc. (See also especially Unger’s Bible Dictionary, UBD, under tithe, p. 1103).

9. Summarizations

10. With respect to Jacob’s pillar: The custom of the sacred pillar (-matzeba-’) is one of the central foundations of the patriarchal beliefs, and many of them have been discovered. They are usually small rectangles, flat and thin, more like small and humble grave-stones of today. They appear to have been erected chiefly to commemorate a theophany, a vow or sacred covenant rite, or-’ even an ancestor or important official. The recent excavations at Hazor and other ancient sites have produced sacred slabs of this sort (Cornfeld, AtD, 82). It should be noted, of course, that these sacred pillars are not to be interpreted as fetishes (i.e., as having magical powers),* but as memorials. It is important that we keep this fact in mind.* (Cf. the tendency to corrupt the significance of the Lord’s Supper in this way by theshall I say, magical?dogma of transubstantiation).

11. With respect to Jacob’s vow, note the following clarifying comment in Genesis 28:20-22: Jacob here was not expressing doubt as to whether God would keep His promise of Gen 28:13-15; he used the particle if in the sense of -on the basis of the fact that-’ (cf. Romans 8:31: If God is for us). Nor was he necessarily making a bargain with God, as if he would bribe Him to keep His word. He was simply specifying in the form of a vow the particular expression he would give to his gratitude for God’s surprising and wholly undeserved favor. This became a customary type of thanksgiving in Israelite practice and was of ten solemnized by a votive offering (HSB, 47).

12. With respect to the dream-vision: The dream vision is a comprehensive summary of the history of the Old Covenant. As Jacob is now at the starting-point of his independent development, Jehovah now stands above the ladder, appears in the beginning of his descent, and since the end of the ladder is by Jacob, it is clear that Jehovah descends to him, the ancestor and representative of the chosen people. But the whole history of the Old Covenant is nothing else than, on the one side, the history of the successive descending of God, to the incarnation in the seed of Jacob, and on the other, the successive steps of progress in Jacob and his seed towards the preparation to receive the personal fulness of the divine nature into itself. The vision reaches its fulfilment and goal in the sinking of the personal fulness of God into the helpless and weak human nature in the incarnation of Christ (Gosman, CDHCG, 522).

13. On Jacob’s response to the Divine Promise. If God is to me Jehovah, then Jehovah shall be to me God. If the Lord of the angels and the world proves himself to me a covenant God, then will I glorify in my covenant God, the Lord of the whole world. There is clear evidence that Jacob was now a child of God. He takes God to be his God in covenant, with whom he will live. He goes out in reliance upon the divine promise, and yields himself to the divine control, rendering to God the homage of a loving and grateful heart. But what a progress there is between Bethel and Peniel. Grace reigns within him, but not without a conflict. The powers and tendencies of evil are still at work. He yields too readily to their urgent solicitation. Still, grace and the principles of a renewed man, gain a stronger hold, and become more and more controlling. Under the loving but faithful discipline of God, he is gaining in his faith, until, in the great crisis of his life, Mahanaim and Peniel, and the new revelation then given to him, it receives a large and sudden increase. He is thenceforth trusting, serene, and established, strengthened and settled, and passes into the quiet life of the triumphant believer (Gosman, ibid., 523).

14. With respect to Jacob’s character, most commentators hold that the experience at Bethel was the turning-point in his religious life. Hear the surprise in Jacob’s cry as he awakened from his sleep.. What less likely place and timeso it had seemed to himcould there be for God to manifest himself? He had come to one of the bleakest and most forbidding spots a man could have chanced upon. It was no pleasant meadow, no green oasis, no sheltered valley. It was a hilltop of barren rock; and its barrenness seemed to represent at that moment Jacob’s claim on life. He was a fugitive, and he was afraid. His mother had told him to go off for a few days, and then she would send and bring him home. But Jacob may have had a better idea of the truth: that it would be no -few days-’ but a long time of punishing exile before he could ever dare to return. There was good reason to feel that he was alone with emptiness. When he had lain down to sleep, he was a long way off from the place of his clever and successful schemes. There was nothing to measure his own little soul against except the silent and dreadful immensities he saw from the height of Bethel: the empty earth, the sky, the stars. Yet the strange fact was that there existed in Jacob’s soul something to which God could speak. Unprepossessing though he was, he was capable of response to more than the things of flesh and sense. He had not despised or ignored his inheritance. He knew that it was faith in God that had given dignity to Abraham and Isaac, and he had a hungereven if mixed with basenessto get his own life into touch with God. When such a man is confronted in his solitariness with the sublimity of the hills and the awful mystery of the marching stars, he may be capable of great conceptions which begin to take shape in his subconscious, In his dreams he sees not only nature, but the gates of heaven. Yet how many there are who fall short of Jacob in thismen in whom solitariness produces nothing, who will fall asleep but will not dream, who when they are forced to be alone are either bored or. frightened. Out of the aloneness they dread they get nothing, because they have not kept the seed of religion that in their hour of need and crisis might have quickened their souls (IB, 690).

He made a solemn vow upon this occasion, Genesis 28:20-22. When God ratifies his promises to us, it is proper for us to repeat our promises to him. Now in this vow, observe, 1. Jacob’s faith. God had said (Genesis 28:15), I am with thee, and will keep thee. Jacob takes hold of this, and infers, -I depend upon it.-’ 2. Jacob’s modesty and great moderation in his desires. He will cheerfully content himself with bread to eat, and raiment to put on. Nature is content with a little, and grace with less. 3. Jacob’s piety, and his regard to God, which appear here (1) in what he desired, that God would be with him, and keep him (2) In what he designed. His resolution is: (1) In general, to cleave to the Lord, as his God in covenant, Then shall the Lord be my God. (2) In particular, that he would perform some special acts of devotion, in token of his gratitude. First, -This pillar shall keep possession here till I come back in peace, and then an altar shall be erected here to the honor of God.-’ Secondly, -The house of God shall not be unfurnished, nor his altar without a sacrifice: Of all that thou shall give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee, to be spent either upon God’s altars or upon his poor,-’ both which are his receivers in the world (M. Henry, CWB, 49).

With reference to Jacob’s spiritual condition at Bethel, the other side of the coin, so to speak, is presented by the well-known commentator on the Pentateuch, C. H. Mackintosh, as follows: Now this vision of Jacob’s is a very blessed disclosure of divine grace to Israel. We have been led to see something of Jacob’s real character, something, too, of his real condition; both were evidently such as to show that it should either be divine grace for him, or nothing. By birth he had no claim; nor yet by character. Esau might have put forward some claim on both these grounds (i.e., provided God’s prerogatives were set aside), but Jacob had no claim whatsoever; and hence, while Esau could only stand upon the exclusion of God’s prerogative, Jacob could only stand upon the introduction and establishment thereof. Jacob was such a sinner, and so utterly divested of all claim, both by birth and by practice, that he had nothing whatever to rest upon save God’s purpose ofpure, free, and sovereign grace. Hence, in the revelation which the Lord makes to His chosen servant in the passage just quoted, it is a simple record or prediction of what He Himself would yet do. I am … I will give … I will keep. I will bring. I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. It was all Himself. There is no condition whateverno if or but; for when grace acts, there can be no such thing. Where there is an if, it cannot possibly be grace. Not that God cannot put man into a position of responsibility, in which He must needs address him with an -if.-’ We know He can; but Jacob asleep on a pillow of stone was not in a position of responsibility, but of the deepest helplessness and need; and therefore he was in a position to receive a revelation of the fullest, richest, and most unconditional grace. Now, we cannot but own the blessedness of being in such a condition that we have nothing to rest upon save God Himself; and, moreover, that it is in the most perfect establishment of God’s own character and prerogative that we obtain all our true joy and blessing. According to this principle, it would be an irreparable loss to us to have any ground of our own to stand upon; for in that case, God should address us on the ground of responsibility, and failure then would be inevitable. Jacob was so bad, that none but God Himself could do for him (C.H.M., NG, 284-285). Again: We. shall now close our meditations upon this chapter with a brief notice of Jacob’s bargain with God, so truly characteristic of him, and so demonstrative of the truth of the statement with respect to the shallowness of his knowledge of the divine character. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee. Observe, If God will be with me. Now the Lord had just said, emphatically, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, etc. And yet poor Jacob’s heart cannot get beyond an if, nor in its thoughts of God’s goodness, can it rise higher than bread to eat and raiment to put on. Such were the thoughts of one who had just seen the magnificent vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with the Lord standing above, and promising an innumerable seed and an everlasting possession, Jacob was evidently Unable to enter into the reality and fullness of God’s thoughts. He measured God by himself, and thus utterly failed to apprehend Him. In short, Jacob had not yet really got to the end of himself; and hence he had not really begun with God (C.H.M., ibid., 287-288). (May I explain again here that God’s election of Jacob was not arbitrary, but the consequence of His foreknowledge of the basic superiority of Jacob’s character over that of Esau: afact certainly borne out by what they did in the later years of their lives and by the acts of their respective progenies. (For a study of the Scriptures, Romans 9:12-13, Malachi 1:2-3, 2 Samuel 8:14, Genesis 32:3, Gen., ch. 36, Numbers 20:14-21, Isaiah 34:5, see my Genesis, Vol. II pp. 241-243). God’s grace is indeed extended to man fully and freely, but the application of its benefits is conditional on man’s acceptance. One may try to give his friend a thousand dollars, but the gift is of no value unless and until it is accepted (cf. John 3:16-17; John 5:40; John 14:17; Matthew 7:24-27, etc.).

REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART FORTY

How reconcile the motive which is said to have prompted Rebekah with that which is said to have prompted Isaac to send Jacob away from home?

To what place did they send him and why did they send him there?

State the details of the blessing which Isaac pronounced on Jacob. Why is this designated the blessing of Abraham?

What prompted Esau to take another wife? Who was she, and from what parentage? Why was she chosen?

How many wives did Esau have? What is suggested by their names? What further demonstration of Esau’s profanity was demonstrated by his marriages?

One commentator writes that Esau did not do exactly what God required but only something like it. What reasons are given for this criticism?

Can Jacob be regarded as a fugitive? Explain your answer.

What does the term, the place, that is, where Jacob rested, probably signify?

What reasons can we give for not regarding this as a cult-place?

What function did the stone pillow serve on which Jacob rested his head?

Is there any reason that we should look upon this as a charmed stone?

Would not such an interpretation be importing superstition into this story?

What is the commonsense interpretation of this use of a stone for a head place?

What did Jacob see in his dream-vision?

What physical conditions probably directed the course of Jacob’s dream?

What dream-image does the word ladder suggest?

What spiritual truths are indicated by the ladder and by the angels ascending and descending on it?

In what way was the ladder a type of Messiah?

Where in the New Testament do we find this truth stated?

Whom did Jacob find standing by him?

What three general promises were renewed by Yahweh at this time?

What was the renewed promise with respect to Jacob’s seed?

What did Yahweh promise with regard to Jacob personally?

Recapitulate all the elements of the Divine Promise. Explain how it was a renewal of the Abrahamic Promise.

What was Jacob’s emotion on awakening from his dream?

What is indicated by his exclamation, How dreadful is this place!

What is indicated by his outcry, Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I knew it not?

What is indicated by his two statements, This is none other than the house of Elohim, and this is the gate of heaven?

Does the alleged dreadfulness of the place necessarily suggest any magical significance?

What does the word suggest as to the being of the Deity?

What did Jacob do with the stone head-place when he awakened?

Did Jacob design that this pillar be an object of worship or simply a memorial of his experience there? Give reasons for your answer.

What do we know about the worship of sacred stones among the ancient pagans?

What significance is there in the fact that Jacob exclaimed, How dreadful is this place! rather than this stone?

What was Jacob’s purpose in pouring oil on the stone-pillar?

What, according to Lange, is the distinction between using the stone for a pillar and anointing the stone-pillar with oil?

For what various purposes was oil used among ancient peoples? From what tree did the oil come?

What did the anointing with oil signify generally as a religious act?

What did the use of the holy anointing oil in Old Testament times signify?

When and where was it used for the first time for this purpose?

What three classes of leaders were formally inducted into their respective offices by the ritual of the holy anointing oil?

What did this ritual point forward to with respect to the title, Christ. What does this title signify?

Why do we say that Christ is an authoritarian title, and not a mystical one?

What name did Jacob give to this place? What does the name signify?

How is the use of the related names, Luz and Bethel, to be explained?

Give instances for a twofold meaning of a place-name. How is this to be accounted for?

How does Dr. Speiser explain the problem of Luz and Bethel?

What is Dr. Skinner’s view of the problem?

What is Green’s appraisal of the sanctuary notion?

How is Bethel associated with the name of Abraham, with the children of Joseph, and with the acts, respectively, of Jeroboam and Josiah?

How does Lange account for the meaning of the name Bethel)

What is a vow as the term is used in Scripture. Give examples.

What were the two parts of Jacob’s vow in this case?

How does Murphy explain the if in each of Jacob’s statements?

How does Jamieson explain it?

How does Leupold interpret it?

What are the only two instances of the voluntary tithe prior to the time of Moses?

What numerological import was attached to the number ten in ancient times?

What legal (involuntary) tithes were required under the Mosaic economy?

What does Cornfeld tell us about the sacred pillar in patriarchal belief and practice?

What is the commonsense view of the purpose of Jacob’s pillar?

Explain how Jacob’s dream-vision is a comprehensive summary of the history of the Old Covenant.

What reasons are offered for the view that Jacob’s experience at Bethel was the turning-point in his life spiritually?

What reason does C.H.M. give for his view that Jacob, by his vow, was trying to bargain with God? What is your conclusion in regard to the motive back of this vow?

What reason have we for saying that Jacob’s election to the Messianic Line was not arbitrary on God’s part?

What is the derivation of the word holiness?

What do we mean by the attributes of God?

Where is the only Scripture in which the title Holy Father occurs, and to whom does it refer?

What does Jesus have to say about calling any man father in a spiritual sense? Where is His statement found in Scripture?

What are some of the titles which churchmen have arrogated to themselves for the purpose of clothing themselves with priestly and doctoral dignity?

What attributes does the Holiness of God include?

Why do we say that Absolute Justice is the over-all attribute of God to which even His love is subordinated? How does the doctrine of the Atonement prove this to be true?

Explain Otto’s teaching with respect to the dread-fulness of God. What Scripture passages support this view?

Why do we say that in God absolute justice and holiness are practically identical?

What are the religious lessons to be learned from the story of Jacob’s ladder?

What truths does this story reveal to us regarding the life and ministry of Christ?