JACOB RETURNING TO BETHEL
[p. 315] JACOB RETURNING TO BETHEL
Genesis 30: 25; Genesis 32: 1, 2; Genesis 32:24-31
I would like you to notice that the birth of Joseph evidently occasioned a desire to move on the part of Jacob, Joseph being a type of the Lord Jesus. As he came into Jacob’s circumstances, Jacob says to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place”; that is, he felt that he was not then in his own place. This is an illustration of many believers at the present time, whose circumstances are not of divine appointment; who have sought after advantage in the world and gained it, but find themselves spiritually in precarious surroundings and even discomfort. No amount of cattle can make up for the loss of soul-satisfaction. Although Joseph was but a babe, it seems as if it came into Jacob’s heart that his circumstances were incompatible with the presence of him who was a type of Christ. Is it not often so with us? We may pursue a course of worldly advantage until the Lord intrudes Himself, and then all is changed. Do you wish to move out of these circumstances that are incompatible with Christ? All that is not in keeping with Christ is detrimental to our soul’s welfare.
Jacob was a true child of Abraham after the Spirit. You may ask, How can we test that? It is most important that every soul should be assured of his standing. There is a classification which goes on in the world, but there is a spiritual one which goes on all the time. It is for each one to be sure that he belongs to the household of faith. How are we to know? I will give you a test. I will show you from Jacob how one may determine his status in regard of God. Adam was commanded not to do something, but he did it; that man was marked out as wanting in obedience. Abraham was told by [p. 316] God to get out of his country, his kindred, and his father’s house; and being commanded thus it is said he obeyed, although evidently there were no railroads, guide-posts, or maps; indeed, it says in Hebrews that “he went but not knowing whither he went”. (Hebrews 11: 8) Do not ask any questions when God’s will is involved. Abraham OBEYED! Have you obeyed the divine command? This is the first principle of faith; indeed, faith is announced for obedience among the nations. The gospel is on the principle of FAITH; the principle of FAITH to FAITH.
To whom is the Holy Spirit given? To those who obey God. We must be obedient. It is said of Jacob he obeyed his father and mother; Genesis 28: 7. I want to say a word especially to the very youngest here; the authority of God is vested for you in your, parents. It is a test to your faith as to whether you obey not merely your father but also your mother. The Lord was subject to His parents, not only His father but His mother. God has placed authority in those easiest to submit to, the ones who have affection for you. It is said of Jacob that he obeyed his father and mother; this is real evidence that he was a child of FAITH therefore, in what I have to say, I do not wish to detract from Jacob in any way, for he shines as a child of FAITH. Yet, while his parents told him to go to Padan-Aram for a wife, they did not tell him to stay there twenty years. They simply directed him to go and seek a wife, but he remained there many years. Is there not a hint to us in this, of many souls who begin with the obedience of faith, and then find interests in the world or in business, till they are choked with thorns and briars and make no spiritual headway. Jacob was held in circumstances not of faith, but of sight.
In order to meet this in Jacob God brings in Christ typically, and so after Joseph was born Jacob virtually says, ‘This is not my place’. Oh! believer, the Lord [p. 317] has a place for you, and it is for you to go there. God gave Jacob a taste of that place before he went to Padan-Aram, and he never forgot it. Jacob had come to the place, and took of its stones for a pillow and lay down to sleep. “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”. There he was, as you may say, a poor lone man, lying on the earth, and yet all heaven is looking on and is interested in him. Jacob awakes out of sleep, and comes to a judgment about the place. God, as it were, let heaven down and surrounded Jacob with it at the outset of his spiritual career, and that impression never left him. God ever reverts to it, too.
Well, the thought comes into Jacob’s heart, ‘This is not my place’. It seems as if Joseph could not be associated with it. It suggests to us that lowly Man once laid in a manger, who entered into all human circumstances, sin apart. Can I be at home where He was a stranger? Jacob said to Laban, “Let me go to mine own place”. But Jacob, alas! tarries in spite of his resolution until God speaks to him as recorded in Genesis 31: 3. God Himself now says, as it were, to Jacob, ‘Your resolve must be put into effect’. Beware, Christian, if you tarry in the world. God never gives a Christian up. I should not like you to think a believer could be lost; that is impossible. I would I could convey to you what God feels towards you. Someone else has said, that, even if you turn your back to Him He shines on it. The sun remains in heaven whatever I may do; my tiny movements do not alter the position of the sun, or reduce the heat or light of it. Jacob is an illustration in this way of what God is to the believer. When Jacob weakens in his resolve God appears and says, ‘Jacob, what did you do at Beth-el?’ He did not remind him that he said it was a dreadful [p. 318] place, and that he bargained with him there, but that he had set up a pillar and anointed it there. God refers to the spiritual act of Jacob. God would remind you of what is spiritual in your life, not the crooked things, but of course these must be judged; there must be self-judgment, though it is the reign of grace now; righteousness is going to reign in the millennium, but grace reigns through righteousness in this dispensation. The history of Jacob is a wonderful illustration of it.
Jacob was clever enough to know how to get gain. It is not that God is not interested in your temporal things. He will help you even in your business. God helped Jacob thus; the ringstraked, speckled and grisled cattle, all became his. But now Jacob must go to Beth-el: he must go to the house of God; it was time for movement. We may say, that we have our place in heaven for the future, but there is the house of God now. The gospel, we may say, is the presentation of God in Christ. He is God of the house of God. His rule is universal, but His love is told out in the house. He says to Jacob, “I am the God of Bethel”. It is as if God says, ‘Remember the night when the light was received in your soul; you did not appropriate the privileges it opened up to you, but turned to earthly things. You have been a long time in this way, now return to the place of blessing; go back to Beth-el’. How anyone who loves God can stay away from the circle of God’s people I do not know. Love would say, ‘I must be there’. If you love God you will also love His people- Psalm 26: 8 says, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth”. God says, as it were, Jacob, you must be there; He speaks in language which impels him to go. God encourages Jacob to go. What a God!
Now in Genesis 32: 1 it says, “Jacob went on his way”, the way of love and faith. Are you on that way? The chapter shows how the divine interest continues. The Lord appeared in a dream at Beth-el and Padan-Aram, but now angels of God meet him. As we take our way towards the house we need succour; even the Lord Himself was ministered to by angels. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1: 14) Now Jacob was an heir; the angels of God ministered to him. I might enlarge on this. I would not deny that the angels might help us in our ordinary affairs, in our business. We may lose some advantages, but the angels make up for them; but they will not help you beyond the prosperity of your soul. If you get helped beyond the prosperity of your soul it is not the angels of God that help you then, but other agencies. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s host”; not in the form of a question as at Bethel; now it is a definite statement. “And he called the name of that place Mahanaim”; that is, “two hosts”; the witness of God’s interest is complete. Testimony is established in the mouths of two witnesses; but there were two hosts. God showed His intense interest. He helps us providentially; but God does not tempt anybody; He will not help you if it will damage you.
At the close of chapter 32 we get the end of this part of Jacob’s education. He is not now with any one, but left alone, and his soul had to be adjusted with God. It says he was left alone; his cattle, and his wives and children had gone over the brook. It was a wonderful moment in his soul’s history. Angels had appeared twenty years before, and now there wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of the day. Verses 24 - 29 we have read many times aid ministered from them, yet the passage is so full it always yields something for the soul. It is the supreme moment of Jacob’s life; it is not an angel [p. 320] that is having to say to him now, he is face to face with a MAN. God draws near as a Man, with all His tender sympathies. An angel cannot express what God is; he may protect us from damage, but reveal the heart of God he cannot. God in a Man draws near as we are alone. Have you had secret exercises with God? There must be a secret transaction with God in Christ, or we shall never be fitted for the house of God. The wrestling went on “until the breaking of the day”; it is day now. Luke says, “The dayspring from on high has visited us” (Luke 1: 78); that is Christ. Think of the light breaking in from that day! In a sense there is really no other. In the beginning God called the light day; on the fourth day He set a great luminary in the heavens; it was typically Christ. Again, according to Ezekiel, there was the appearance of a Man above the expanse, in the brightness and the glory there. The prophet speaks of “the appearance of his loins even upward, from the appearance of his loins even downward” (Ezekiel 1: 27); in this, attention is called to the affections whether upward or downward. The Man in the brightest spot in the day has affection for me; He loves me. I would that the light of that day should stream into our souls.
Jacob wrestled with the Man until the breaking of the day. I fear the day has not dawned in the souls of many Christians. Have you passed in soul through the evening first and then the morning? Jacob had the evening first before he had the morning; that means self-judgment and self-denial; nothing enters into that day but what is of Christ. Then Jacob says, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me”. How the Lord is pleased when we reach that point! He blessed Jacob there and gave him a new name. The name Jacob belonged to the old order, to those twenty years of crookedness and waywardness. A new spiritual era has dawned, and a new [p. 321] Man in it; we must have a status there. If you had all the titles that a king could give you, it would not add one bit to your title there. Only Christ can give you a status there. “Thy name is no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed”.
That is the Christian; he has not yet reached the house, but he is on the way to it. Do not assume that you can come into fellowship with any natural advantages; there must be a new name. Israel means prince; “for as a prince hast thou power with God”. If we could take all that in how ennobled we would be! One is found in fellowship not according to what he may be in this world, but according to what he is with God.
Pages 322 - 354. “Priestly Energy and The House of God”, Manchester, November and December, 1919. (Volume 42)