THE BELIEVER IN THE HOUSE OF GOD (2)

^[p. 100] THE BELIEVER IN THE HOUSE OF GOD (2)

Genesis 35:6 - 15; Genesis 35:27,28

JT We noticed this morning that the house of God is introduced in connection with the believer on his journey. After the vision of Bethel, spoken of in chapter 28, it says in chapter 29 that Jacob “continued his journey”. Then in verse 16 of our chapter, that “they journeyed from Bethel”; the end of the journey was Hebron. Chapter 37 marks a fresh stage for Jacob; “Jacob dwelt in the land where his father sojourned — in the land of Canaan”. An entirely fresh matter develops with Joseph from that point, whereas before chapter 37 it had only spoken of him once or twice. When Joseph was born, Jacob, it says, proposed to return to Canaan. “Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my country”, that is to say, that Christ appears on the believer’s horizon, although in a somewhat weak way. In chapter 33, Joseph is placed before his mother; “Leah also, with her children, drew near, and they bowed. And lastly Joseph drew near, and Rachel, and they bowed”. That shows that, while making the journey to Bethel, Christ comes before us in a somewhat feeble way to begin with, but there is an appreciation of what is spiritual above that which is natural. In God’s house, we are not in any way to be on natural lines.

HD'AC It is very important not to introduce into the things of God that which is natural. We are to occupy the place we have before Him in Christ. The house of God includes only those who have the Spirit of God.

JT Exactly. The book of Genesis presents things in a somewhat abstract way: If God will, we shall see in the New Testament that it speaks of christians as being in the house of God, but in Genesis it is a question of the part that God has, and of His interests in men.

^[p. 101] The fact that the house is introduced in connection with a man like Jacob shows us the great patience of God, so that we may be brought to God’s house. The Spirit of God does not recount these happenings in order to satisfy our curiosity, but to answer to our affections. Although we cannot approve of many of the things which Jacob did, the details of them are given as representing what we are in the flesh, or rather we see there a picture of the flesh working in a believer after God has commenced His work in the heart. The nearer a man is brought to God, the more the flesh in that man is exposed, and it is only by means of the Spirit that we fully learn what we are according to the flesh. The spirit of a man who bargains is particularly brought out in chapters 28 to 35; Jacob had specified, so to speak, the wages which he wished to have. He always had that spirit before arriving at Bethel, in chapter 35. One is never conscious of being in God’s house for the pleasure of God, if one is there with the object of receiving wages.

HD'AC Peter said to the Lord, “Behold, we have left all things and have followed thee”, (Luke 18:28) as if to say, What will you give us?

JT We see above all in the beginning of Luke, that the disciples had left all to follow Jesus; that is especially so with Peter, who was doing good fishing business with his companions, in chapter 5. They left all, which does not mean that they were negligent of their business. They did not leave their ships at sea, but it says that “having run the ships on shore, leaving all they followed him”, (verse 11). It was the same with Levi, although his business was very prosperous, “having left all, rising up, he followed him”, (verse 28). But Jacob never had the idea that he should leave everything; until chapter 32, he had the thought of gain in God’s house. His first business was with God Himself; he loved to make bargains.

Rem “If God will be with me, and keep me on this road that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and a garment to put on, and I come again to my father’s house in peace — then shall Jehovah be my God”.

PL “And of all that thou wilt give me I will without fail give the tenth to thee”.

JT He wanted to keep ninety per cent of the blessings for himself. That is not the principle of the house of God; nevertheless, to say the least, christendom acts on that very principle. God does not work with us in this way as to our property, He recompenses us liberally. He leaves Jacob to make his bargains with another.

PL With Laban.

JT Laban had changed Jacob’s wages ten times. It is good to see that Jacob was tired of making bargains with Laban; God fully recompenses us if we give up this way of going on.

PN Peter said, “Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee”, (Acts 3:6).

JT That is the spirit of this dispensation. God shows us in this chapter how He can enrich Jacob without making bargains with him. He said, “I am the Almighty God: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land”.

PL In Zechariah 14:21 it says, “And in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts”. The Canaanite is a dealer.

JT We see how the Lord cast out all the dealers from the temple; He used a scourge of small cords.

HD'AC Does God make bargains?

JT The Lord said in John 4:10, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. That is what the believer finds in the house of God: God is there, it is the house of God.

JBC In chapter 28:13, God says, “the land ... to thee will I give it”, and in chapter 35:12, “the land (country) that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it”.

JT The principle which governs the house is that of giving. God waits for Jacob’s return to the house in order to reveal to him His name. The Holy Spirit gives in verses 9 to 15 an account of Jacob’s return to Bethel. God blesses him and says to him, “Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel”. Jacob was to become spiritual: “he called his name Israel”. That means that the thing is settled; God had brought about his nobility.

HD'AC He had had that name for some time, but he had not answered to it.

JT He is now settled in the house. God says to him, “I am the Almighty God”. He had refused to tell him His name at Peniel: “How is it that thou askest after my name”, (chapter 32:29). He had said. God awaits the favourable occasion for us to make this revelation, and then it is that we refuse to make bargains with Him; we see that we are much richer in leaving things in His hands. “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things”, (Romans 8:32). The believer is therefore set up in the knowledge of God, and at the same time he is conscious of being for the pleasure of God. In verse 6, it speaks of Jacob and of the people with him, but nothing is said of the herds of cattle. He had made a great point of the cattle when with Esau, but before God he says nothing about them. The cattle on a thousand hills belong to God, but in His presence it is a question of persons. The house of God is formed of persons, and of persons ^[p. 104] having the Spirit. All those who have the Spirit of God belong to God’s house.

HD'AC And each of them is “a prince of God”.

JT God’s patience, exercised towards us to bring us to this position, is very touching, as the preceding chapters to this one serve to bring out. So that no one may be discouraged, God works with us in patience, so that we may be brought to judge the flesh. In chapter 32, as he makes his return journey, two ‘camps’ of angels meet him, so that the believer may have a fresh impression of God’s interest in him. “Jacob went on his way; and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them he said, This is the camp of God. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim”, that is, “two camps or hosts”, and that affords witness of the continual interest of God in the believer. As on a previous occasion, Jacob can give a name to his exercise: “He called the name of that place Mahanaim”. After that, in the same chapter, he prays, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Jehovah, who saidst unto me: Return into thy country and to thy kindred, and I will do thee good — I am too small for all the loving-kindness and all the faithfulness that thou hast shown unto thy servant; ... Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will certainly deal well with thee, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude”. So the believer makes progress in the understanding of what the house of God is, and he recognises divine interest in him, and he changes to prayer. The encounter at Peniel is very interesting, for it is ‘a man’ whom Jacob meets; “a man wrestled with him until the rising of the dawn”. All the efforts he had made were now in the darkness, and “he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and ^[p. 105] his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok”.

PL In Romans 13:12 it says, “Let us cast away therefore the works of darkness”; this is what Jacob did in the prayer at Peniel, so that the sun rose upon him.

JT In the encounter at Peniel, God intervenes in an intimate and sympathetic way; it says that he “wrestled with him”. God makes us feel the great power He has, but in a gentle way so that we are able to realise the power that is within us. Jacob is encouraged in the struggle, and says, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me”.

HD'AC Whence did he draw his strength to wrestle with the angel?

JT Typically it speaks of the Holy Spirit; the believer discovers that he has power. The moment was critical for Jacob, for Esau was there; he was wrestling, so to speak, anticipatively with Esau, and God gave him an excellent preparatory exercise. If you have power with God, you will have power with men; it is a question of approaching God and persevering until you are conscious that He is listening to you. Jacob gains the victory with Esau therefore, but God had decided that he would be lame according to the flesh, and for a great while, “that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Paul says again, “Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me”, (2 Corinthians 12:9).

HD'AC The “God of Jacob” is our refuge. It is He who says in Zephaniah 3:19, “I will save her that halted”. There are many Jacobs today, but, if they are lame, they need not fear.

JT In Isaiah 44:3 - 5, the seed of the righteous is spoken of: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my spirit ^[p. 106] upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am Jehovah’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall write with his hand: I am Jehovah’s, and surname himself by the name of Israel”. You see how the young ones enlarge in spiritual state: “I am Jehovah’s”: that is very beautiful. Another shall “call himself by the name of Jacob”: that is, he has the feeling of responsibility. And another shall “write with his hand: I am Jehovah’s”. When one writes with his hand, one is, so to speak, encouraged to responsibility, and what is written is definitely established; such persons are suitable for God’s house. So then Jacob comes out of the struggle at Peniel as an ennobled man, a spiritual man having power with God. It says, “he touched the joint of his thigh; and the joint of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him”. The thigh refers to the part of the body which symbolises the maximum of force; now this part is dislocated, so that the excellence of power may not be of man, but of God, and all this is involved in the account in chapter 35:9 - 15. Certain sorrowful elements, however, had been brought from Syria, and these must be judged before one can enter God’s house. There were still idols, or strange gods, which Rachel had hidden in Jacob’s house, which shows that the lack of transparency or frankness opens the door to false gods. The woman represents the subjective side amongst us, and if we lack in transparency, there will be hidden things amongst us. Rachel had hidden the teraphim under the camel’s saddle and she had sat on it. As they approached Bethel, however, Jacob said, “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments”, (verse 2). How many hidden things there are with us!

PL “Laying aside therefore all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings, ..”. (1 Peter 2:1) for the house of God ^[p. 107] is in view. Every hidden strange god hinders us from realising what awaits us at Bethel.

HD'AC It is a question of having no part dark. God cannot rely upon us so long as we lack in frankness and transparency.

JT It is through this lack of frankness that the enemy made his first attacks in the book of the Acts, in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. Achan acted in the same way when the people of Israel entered the promised land.