PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY (3)
[p. 343] PRINCIPLES OF RECOVERY (3)
Genesis 28: 10 - 22; Genesis 31: 1 - 3; Genesis 32: 22 - 32; Genesis 35: 1 - 16
Of the four distinct features of recovery in this book, this one is the most important.
In chapter 5 recovery is seen in Adam, brought about by light which came in at the birth of Enosh (chapter 4: 26). His father discerned that man is mortal, and room was thus made for God. If man is dying, all is hopeless unless God comes in. The end of that was, that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, walked with God and did not see death; we see a full result in him. Death in that chapter emphasises the thought of life; the presence of death only brings out the power of life; death is ours; it only enhances the life that we have. So from that point of view, the great result would be that we walk with God; we afford pleasure to Him. Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God, and God took him. One would be so concerned that he should be so pleasing to God that He would take him.
Noah signifies rest; he brings in something for men that would be a comfort, a relief from toil; comfort comes in through Noah. Emerging from the ark on a clean earth he offers to God an offering of a sweet smelling odour, the burnt-offering, speaking of Christ. Noah is placed in formal relation to God by the bond which remains to this present time in the covenant. Noah brought through that which was for God. In the dove returning to Noah there was a testimony that she found no rest. There is the principle of discrimination in the dove, pointing to the time when the Lord Jesus should appear. The dove brings in the evidence of the work of God in the olive leaf “plucked off”. It was not a floating leaf, it was “plucked off”. We must take account of every bit of the work of God. Then the close relation [p. 344] to each other in the ark signifies the development of affections. Love delights in nearness. We are to get near to our brethren; we do not want to be separated from them.
We now come to Jacob to bring out the third feature of recovery. Jacob was a man fleeing for his life. The house of God comes in, in that connection. Jacob presents an extended feature of recovery. If we are fleeing from the face of our brother, the house of God comes in as a haven for us. There is here the great interest of heaven in one who is fleeing from his brother. Jacob had faith; he valued the birthright. Though he did not use the right way to obtain it, yet God knew he valued it. God makes promises without conditions. It involved an immense field of discipline when God said, “I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of” (chapter 28: 15). God in sovereign mercy takes us up, and it involves a lot of discipline to bring us through to His thought about us. He travels with us in all our paths, even in our devious ways; but He will not fail to make us feel that we are in them. The byways were used in the days of Deborah: “The travellers on highways went by crooked paths. The villages ceased in Israel, ceased until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel”, Judges 5: 6, 7. God takes account of our leaving the highway, and makes us feel it; the highway goes up to Zion, where all appear before God.
As Jacob is returning to his own land, before he reaches Bethel, he is much more concerned about Esau than about God. But God shows him that He is much more to be feared than Esau. He says as it were, ‘Never mind Esau, get right with Me’. Jacob is greatly concerned as to how he is to meet Esau. He marshals his forces to make a good showing before Esau; but God met him and said, ‘You have to do with Me’. Jacob valued the blessing. If you [p. 345] can discern that a man values what is of God, you can support him.
The house of God is where God expresses His interest in us. It is not a building here, but the divine thought. He expresses His interest in you, the interest of heaven (read chapter 28: 10 - 22). The angels were interested in Jacob. Jehovah stood above the ladder and said, “The land on which thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed ... I will not leave thee until ...”. God has His end in view, and He will not give it up (Philippians 1: 6); Christ’s day is the day of display, when God has fully recovered man for His pleasure.
“Whom the Lord loves he chastens”, Hebrews 12: 6. “I have loved Jacob”, Romans 9: 13. Jacob is a model of chastisement, and his end is wonderful; his sun goes down in a wonderful setting; he has the light of God in his soul, he worshipped. We may as well make up our minds to that. “Whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives”. The work of God underlies all this chastening. “Jacob ... gathered his feet into the bed, and expired”, Genesis 49: 33. It reminds you of the Lord’s death; He died in power; Jacob in his death proved the presence of God with him.
At what point did God come into view on Jacob’s return? It was when the wrestling was over, when Jacob said, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me” (chapter 32: 26). He always valued blessing from God. It will be observed that he had oil; he anointed the pillar with oil in Bethel twice (chapter 28: 18; 35: 14).
When Jacob awoke from his sleep on the first occasion of God meeting him at Bethel, he said, “How dreadful is this place!” In awakening he forms an estimate of the place, “Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew it not”. Notice, “is” in it, not ‘was’. This is another great feature in this subject,
[p. 346] where God is. God has not left this earth. He has left a door open that He might enter any time. In Genesis 2 God does not finish creation, and leave it to work automatically. God comes in and gives impetus morally to all. Whatever may be said about ‘nature’ acting, faith connects everything with God. In the moral system God gives impetus to things. So Jacob said, “Jehovah is in this place ... this is the gate of heaven”; heaven and earth are brought together; the house of God is the gate of heaven; it is morally near, not distant, “As the days of the heavens which are above the earth”, Deuteronomy 11: 21. The house of God is “above the earth”. The vessel coming down from heaven was preparatory to the house of God; the house really took form under Paul. Peter’s mind would run in an oblong or rectangular way, but the house is four-square; it is a universal thought. There are many assemblies, but one house. It is a test to be obliged to give a name to a thing of which the characteristics are presented. Jacob said, “This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”. Adam was thus qualified, he could tell an animal’s characteristics by looking at it, and could give it a name. The Father names all the families, He is “Father” to every family, and we are given names too; so, when Jacob gives the name, “This is ... the house of God”, it shows that he had sufficient insight to understand God’s thought. Jacob arose early in the morning, the time of freshness; he set up the pillar, and poured oil on it.
“The gate of heaven”, is where heaven administers its will; the gate is where administration comes in, “God’s dispensation, which is in faith”, 1 Timothy 1: 4. God is dispensing in His house; it is house-wise. There is consideration for everybody in God’s house. We must not be harsh or critical, but consider for people, “Her husband is known in the gates” (Proverbs 31: 23);
[p. 347] the assembly is the expression of Christ. Bethel stands out as a well-known landmark in the history of Israel; a spiritual witness to the people. You see the import of the spiritual thing; you name it. “This is none other but the house of God”. Jacob reasoned it out and said, ‘God is here’. You say, ‘If God is not in this place, I must get out of it; if God is in this place, I must get into it’. It is the reflex of heaven, heaven brought down. In 1 Timothy 2, Paul says, “I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men” (heaven has an interest in all men); “for kings and all that are in dignity, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and gravity”; it shows what a place the house of God is. Solomon’s temple was a place for prayer for all nations, “And as to the stranger also, who is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name’s sake (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy mighty hand, and of thy stretched-out arm); when he shall come and pray”, 1 Kings 8: 41, 42. God will accept his sacrifice; even the eunuch, God gives him a place within his walls. It is a place where He honours the people, and makes them joyful. From the time the house is brought in, it is His mind that His people should be joyful.
The angels ascended and descended on the ladder. They ascend first, the movement begins where Jacob is: “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man” (John 1: 51); here the ladder means constant communication between that place and heaven. Jehovah stood above the ladder, above it; it only emphasises the administration; He controls all that goes on. The idea of the ladder may suggest that there are degrees of nearness.
Jacob set up the stone for a pillar. The oil was his estimate of the place; he ennobled the place by [p. 348] the oil. The drink-offering in chapter 35 is more than oil; the drink-offering is for satisfaction, what is for God’s pleasure. Christ is Son over God’s house; He is there as representing God. The High Priest is there as well. He is on our side.
Now in chapter 31: 13 it says, “Now arise ... and return to the land of thy kindred”; God seeks to move Jacob out by the thought of his kindred. God sets before us inducements, in order to restore us; He reminds us of the land of our fathers. There are many of the people of God who can scarcely take in the thought of the house of God, but they can the thought of kindred. They are those that you love spiritually; you may be no longer with them; you may have wandered elsewhere, but the word is “Return ... I will be with thee”. The great thing is to have God with you (chapter 31: 3), “The Lord Jehovah, who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith: Yet will I gather others to him, with those of his that are gathered”, Isaiah 56: 8. God takes account of the outcasts. In John 9 the man who was blind became an outcast; then the Lord met him, and gathered him in. “Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night, if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come”, Isaiah 21: 11, 12. God encourages you to return.
When Joseph was born, then it was that Jacob said, ‘Now I will move and go back’. God ever helped Jacob; even in the matter of the cattle He prospered him. God never took His eye off Jacob. He must go to Bethel. Jacob was still Jacob; he wanted to make a great show before Esau; he prepared a magnificent present for him (chapter 32: 13 - 15); but he takes a true place before God: “With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two troops. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau”. Jacob sent the family over the brook. “And Jacob remained alone”; he had to do now with God, not Esau.
Jacob was moved when Joseph was born (chapter 30: 25). Evidently, light came into his soul; God brings in the light of Christ; He is the One in whom the light is. The Holy Spirit uses Joseph at this early stage, as a figure of the One to come (chapter 33: 7); it is Joseph first, and then Rachel, when meeting Esau. Joseph is put before his mother; the Holy Spirit puts Christ first. So Isaiah 9: 6 says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given”; Christ formed in us, is recovery; Christ beginning to take form in your soul; you know Him in the house.
In chapter 32: 1, 2, the angels of God met Jacob on his way; a great testimony to the interest of heaven. And he said, “This is the camp of God. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim”. He named the impression he received from God. “Two camps” — it was adequate testimony; one man was the object of heaven’s interest to that extent that two camps of angels met him.
Esau was a big man, a man of the field; the man Jacob had wronged; he had, in truth, wronged him. Esau looms up before his mind in great proportions. God says, virtually, ‘It is not Esau you have to do with, but with Me’; but there is gentleness, for He lets Jacob prevail. There are the sympathies of the Man; God approaches us in Christ.
The Holy Spirit brings out the power of Jacob; the development in his soul; it is the power of the Spirit. One is to be in the house as a prince. This involves having power with God and with men. If you pray for a brother, or a company of saints, you get power with them. Israel corresponds with Romans 8; we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; the Spirit characterises the christian. Jacob limped, but “the sun rose upon him”; he was recovered.
The ring is the brethren’s recognition of your reinstatement (Job 42: 10, 11). When the brethren begin to give you a piece of money, that is the completion of recovery. Every one does it; all Job’s acquaintances, his brothers and sisters, thus show their confidence in him. It is a golden ring, the affections of the brethren. The money supported him. Job had twice as much as before; God had given it to him. “Ye have ... seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful”, James 5: 11. The piece of money from the saints is worth more than millions from one that is not a saint.
Jacob gets a new name: “Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel”. He asks for the name of the other wrestler, but His name is not given. God’s name is known in His house; you have to get into the house to learn that (chapter 35: 11). “I am the Almighty God”; now we have got it! You get confirmation in the house, the statement of the end reached by God. The divine end is reached, and God gives an account of the result of the process. Our name is changed when we recognise we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. In Romans 8 we pass from flesh to Spirit. In Romans 7 you have lost confidence in yourself. There is nothing impossible to God, for now, all is in the Spirit. “Jacob” is the name as to his responsible life; “Israel” represents what is spiritual and what belongs to privilege. But he is called Jacob and Israel right through; the two thoughts run on until the end. Paul said at the close, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first”. You retain your public identity, and what God has done for you. As a “man in Christ”, Paul was not the first of sinners. Jacob’s public history is a monument of God’s grace; so with all of us; but new creation is all of God.
“Nations” bring in the thought of fruitfulness; the house is now in view; also kingship, that on which things hinge: “The shout of a king is in his midst”, Numbers 23: 21. There is moral power; one is serviceable to the Master. “A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins” (chapter 35: 11); there will be immense results as we submit ourselves to God.
At first, the angels came down, and God stood above; now it is God who comes down, “And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him”. Jacob had personal communication with God; God had come down. Jacob would have a great regard for that spot where God talked with him; it is a dignified spot now. Communications are made, God makes them, and the place is hallowed; it becomes precious in your thoughts.
Christ is Son over God’s house, the Son is free, and we have been delivered from the authority of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The truth of the house is universal; evil in one place affects us all. Most precious communications came out, after the truth of the house was established. The significance of the drink-offering is that the place is for God’s pleasure. You consider for God henceforth; you see to it that things are for God there. At Bethany they made the Lord a supper; they considered for the Lord. The oil honours God and men. Christ was already a drink-offering, but the Spirit came upon Him to honour Him.
The house of God is a loved spot; think of the dignity that belongs to the assembly; the Lord is there! He will look out for it. God supports what He anoints.