THE GOD OF JACOB

THE GOD OF JACOB

I have been interested by the magnificent way in which God ministered to Jacob, when his head was laid on a stone pillow, seeking repose after a weary day, and with a heart still more weary. His mother’s care, and object, and delight, he had been compelled to break from her side and her love, and had become a wanderer, homeless and friendless, but God ministers to him; and how? With no less than a display of future glory on earth. What a wondrous way of cheering a weary heart in that lonely spot! What a contrast between his circumstances and God’s thoughts about him! Again, when he was afraid of his brother Esau twenty years afterwards on his return to the land, the same God ministers to him again. He wrestles with him till break of day, to prevail against his flesh, to cripple the hindering self; and all this to confer on him, with the dawn of a new day, the greatest name, even “Israel” - a prince of God; “for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32: 28).

If he is in sorrow of heart, and pillowed on the hard stone at night, God opens heavenly glory to him; and if he fears the ruthlessness of the enemy, He rebukes his flesh, but invests him with the best and highest dignity.

^[p. 288] Such small occasions for such magnificent displays of His power and grace to us, not measured by our necessities, but by His own love! Hence His love not only meets the necessity, but it acts so that there shall be no room for want. Well, then, if you have sorrow, He will open heaven to you; and if you have fear, He will, while setting aside your flesh, assure you of your new name in Christ.