THE HOUSE OF GOD
[p. 51] THE HOUSE OF GOD
Genesis 28: 11 - 22; Genesis 35: 1 - 7
In taking up these passages one feels that one is likely to be treading on ground already well trodden by most of us here. In saying that, I am assuming that the most of us are in the house of God, for if one has to show the line indicated in these passages, we begin with the light of the house, and end with dwelling there — the highest possible privilege for the moment. I say “for the moment” because it is a provisional order of things, pending that into which we are about to be introduced definitely and finally. The Father’s house is not provisional, it is a fixed order of things which abides, but the house of God is not that. It is very near to Heaven as you see in chapter 28; there are direct communications between Heaven and it, and as these communications are all from the top they are not likely ever to be cut. The house of God is the gate of Heaven — very near to Heaven, although not exactly Heaven — and it affords every possible comfort and satisfaction for the moment. Such is the house of God, beloved friends; one hopes that most of us are there; if you are not there may there be interest that you might get there! There is only one road to it and what you fund at the outset is that God proposes to be with you there. He says so to Jacob. If God were not accompanying the believer, he would never really reach the house. But God proposes to be with you, and that is a great encouragement. What I would desire is to show how divine interest in the believer is manifested, however crooked he may be; for the fact that you are a believer is no guarantee against crookedness. But however crooked and objectionable you may be to those who know you, God has undertaken your cause and will never leave you; He will pursue you. Although you may go into the world, His eye is never withdrawn from you, and He shows that His eye is upon you. I am dealing with a believer, you will observe, for Jacob is not a type of an unbeliever. The [p. 52] circumstances that brought out his crookedness proved that he was a believer. If not, he would never have sought the blessing. He believed in the blessing — do you? Esau did not. After it eluded his grasp he became a believer, but his belief was of no avail then. He sought the blessing with tears. He valued it when it was beyond his grasp. That will be the case, alas, with many a soul living at the present time. Jacob, though outwardly a much less desirable man than Esau, was a believer — a believer in the blessing. I take it everyone here is such as that, some perhaps not quite prepared for the consequences of it as yet, not prepared for the condition suited to it, nevertheless you believe in it. I believe in it, I never knew the time I did not believe in it, but there came a time when I appropriated it. Not to be a believer is to be a profane person. Do you desire to be classified in that way? It is not a question of outwardly gross profanity in divine things as we understand it, that was not Esau; his profanity lies in this that he despised the blessing. That was all. He sold it for a mess of pottage. There were certain circumstances which seemed almost to excuse him — he was about to die with hunger — but really no circumstance warrants despising the blessing of God. One may go down to the gates of death, but there is no warrant for despising the blessing of God. What does it evidence? Profanity, man’s utter nakedness; he is exposed. What has the western world become — that world to which the blessing of God has been presented? What are the grand results? It has been wonderfully favoured. Look at the western nations! The light of God has been presented to them in such a man as Paul, accredited with all that he was, for he was altogether in accord with his testimony. He brought christianity into the western world and set it up. The result is outwardly a world of profanity, a profane world. That goes without saying. And in what does it consist? In despising God’s blessing, which is simply bartered for immediate gain.
Let me appeal to you as to whether you are in that class, despising what is proposed to you — the blessing of God, what God proposed for man? Esau despised it, but Jacob [p. 53] did not despise it. But while he valued it and had his eye on it, he was not prepared to give up the present world for it. This is the state of many at the present time — true believers in the blessing, but unprepared to go in for it where it is to be found, for, mark you, it is to be found in a place.
I want to dwell on Jacob, as what one notices is that the house of God comes to light in connection with him. It is a very remarkable thing that God should bring such a wonderful truth into evidence in connection with one individual. Do you know that if there is a movement in your soul — just the initial movement in your soul — not only the house of God on earth but all heaven is interested in you! The very initial movement in the soul of this man produced movement, not only in the sphere called the house of God on earth, but in heaven. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”, Luke 15: 10. As if God would say, Now look at that! How quickly the angels discern the joy and sympathize with it. The joy is in their presence, not in them for the moment, over one sinner — one! Now all the great happenings in the world, all those great events occurring in the present world, will not occasion any movement in heaven; they produce no stir in heaven; but one sinner repenting causes joy there. Such is the interest that a response in the heart of man occasions in heaven. Nothing brings into evidence what God is more than that does.
So here in Jacob you have a man in whom divine operation had taken place. He had on the principle of faith secured the blessing; it was his. You make it good as a matter of title, even if you are prepared to defer it as a matter of blessing. Is it not so? We are prepared to defer it for years and years, and we go into the world to make a show there! Yet God waits upon you, and Jacob’s history begins with this — a ladder is seen. He was asleep — like many a soul — fast asleep. But divine interest is in you though you are asleep, and even in your sleep God would make known that interest in you. Depend upon it you are as precious to God as Paul is. Only God could speak to a [p. 54] man in his sleep. I could not. God alone can speak to a man asleep. He has his own way of doing it, “in a dream, in a vision of the night”, Job 33: 15. God has His own way of causing His voice to be heard, so He produced in Jacob whilst asleep a sense of the care He had for him. Jacob woke up; he never woke up before to such light! The sun had set when he went to sleep; the sun had gone down. It depicts the state of the soul, for Jacob felt apparently there was not a friend on earth — not one to befriend him among all the sons of men. He was alone — alone with a stone for a pillow — when the sun went down. But the sun goes down to come up; it never sets but to rise, and Jacob never woke to a brighter sun than on this occasion. He woke to all the light of heaven, the light of the opened heavens. Not simply the light of the sun but a light above the sun! Heaven was opened. We are in that dispensation, the dispensation of the opened heavens. The heavens are opened now. We are not told that he looked in. He was like a young man who valued the blessing and hoped to go in, but who, for the moment, looked elsewhere — anywhere but there. Stephen looked in. He did not look anywhere else, he looked steadfastly in. He was a christian, a fully developed christian; and in the power of the Spirit he looked in.
Jacob awoke to all that light. How I wish I could make known that light, the light of Christ in heaven reflecting all the heart of God. You see it in the face of Christ. How wonderful to wake up to all that light. The light is too much for you, you say. It was too much for Jacob. He did not deserve it. It was not too much for Stephen — is it too much for you? “The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6. What is it intended to do? To shut out all other things from your heart. “The light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God”. Satan hates that image and would do all in his power to shut it out. He blinds the minds of them that believe not “lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”, 2 Corinthians 4: 4. That is what Jacob awoke to — the light of heaven, the Lord at the [p. 55] top of the ladder and angels ascending and descending on it. Think of that! that friendless man, and rightly friendless, for he was a supplanter, a man of no character, friendless on earth but not friendless in heaven. Ah! you are not friendless in heaven. There was the Lord on the top of the ladder, and the ladder came just to Jacob. And angels, the sympathetic emissaries of Him who was at the top, were communicating with man at the bottom, and were ascending and descending on the ladder!
Just think for a moment of a praying father and a praying mother! I have great sympathy with parents. God has placed the idea of a christian household here, where there are affections, where there are brothers, sisters, father and mother. God has got the affections of a Father, and He understands what it is to be deprived of the obedient affection of children. Those who are parents know what that is. Now Jacob though friendless on earth, as we were saying, was not friendless in heaven. And what I would say in this connection is that God causes His sympathies to flow out through the saints here at the present time — through those that are near to you. They manifest divine sympathy to you. So that although you may feel yourself under the conviction of sin, and thus shunned by your companions and the world, yet you will not be without sympathy. And your companions will shun you — it is as sure as possible — directly you begin to feel what sin is, and what the world is, and to judge these things, the world will despise you. I refer to Lot; he was the mayor of the town (or city) but directly he receives the messengers of God, and brings forth unleavened bread, the people of Sodom turn on him. He is no longer a popular politician, no longer a mayor; he is an alien now, a “fellow” coming from the country. “He will needs be a judge”, they say, Genesis 19: 9. Directly you begin to feel what sin is and own it, and what the world is and own it, you will be despised and shunned. You will feel yourself friendless, but you are not friendless. Jacob was not. You will have truer friends than ever you had. God will stand at the top of the ladder and be your Friend.
[p. 56] Well, Jacob regards all this as a terrible thing. And why so? “How dreadful is this place” he says, “this is none other but the house of God”. The house of God dreadful! It was a place in which he was not happy or comfortable. But what we find is that the element of righteousness came into Jacob’s heart. There is no progress spiritually until the element of righteousness comes into your heart. How did it show itself with Jacob? He responds to the claims of God — the God at the top of the ladder who was so interested in him — He had some claim. “I will surely give the tenth unto thee”, Jacob said — a very poor answer, but it was the element of righteousness. Would to God all the christians of Christendom would give a tenth, there would be some righteousness. With Jacob it was to be himself nine times out of ten, but God was to be before him once out of ten; and that was something to his credit. I would ask you how many times have you got God before you? He will not despise it. If it is only one hour out of the week He will give you credit for it, but oh! how much you will lose; and will lose all the other hours. They will all go for nothing. Jacob was one-tenth righteous; it was enough to give him a footing, but it is as if God would say, Jacob, there must be more than one tenth before I am through with you. God loves us too much to allow of nine-tenths for self, and only one-tenth for him; for remember — it is only what God has that we get as a matter of practical enjoyment.
When we come to chapter 35 we find that Jacob has had twenty years of God, and twenty years of himself too, twenty years with nine-tenths given up to self. Now, how is it with you, young man or young woman, how are you to start? Look at the eunuch in Acts 8; he had been up to Jerusalem; he was returning reading the Bible — would that men would read the Bible — and he read a wonderful section of it, Isaiah 53. And his soul was entranced by a wonderful man. He had never read of a man like that before — a Man who was prepared to go down to death as a lamb. Is that the prophet? he inquires. Oh no, it is not the prophet. No prophet could conceive in his heart to [p. 57] depict such a man as that. It requires the Spirit of God to depict Him. The Spirit of God in Isaiah outlines such a Man as that. No, that is not the prophet. And Philip opened his mouth and preached unto him Jesus. What did the eunuch do? Did he give a tenth? Oh no! He went down altogether. “See, here is water”, he says, and he is baptized. What did it mean? It meant self was gone. He gave himself up for Christ. Wonderful moment in the history of a man’s soul when Christ comes before him in all His beauty, and self is abandoned for Him!
Well, as I was remarking, there are twenty years between the 28th and 30th chapters, and during all those twenty years God saw to it that there was one great end to be reached in that man’s soul; that end was the house. Jacob had said, “If God will be with me ... so that I come again to my father’s house”. Ah no! Jacob, it is not that, you left your father’s house in disgrace, you are not going there; you may go there incidentally, but you are coming to Bethel now. Thus would God address him, for remember you may go into the world and make a name — and you will suffer — but God never withdraws His eyes from you never. He will follow you for years, and directly you are on the way back He will meet you. It is wonderful to be met by God! Two hosts met Jacob: what a reminder! But it was only the beginning of something much more wonderful, for in the same chapter we find that God meets him. All he has — the result of the achievements of his life — go over the brook, his wives, his cattle — they are not going to the house of God, his cattle are not wanted there — and he is left alone. He was no insignificant man, he was a man of means; but he was alone — alone with a man who wrestled with him. The only thing I would emphasize in this connection is that in result Jacob said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me”, Genesis 32: 26. Ah, he has reached it now! He wants the blessing now; he must have it. Mark, it was Jacob who said this, not the One who wrestled with him. He wanted to go — it was the Lord Himself, and He wanted to go, but it was only in order to bring out what was in the heart of Jacob. The Lord has [p. 58] put something in, and he compels us to give it out. He loves that.
Now Jacob is limping. He went over the brook limping. The limping will bring you into reproach here, but you have got the blessing of God in your heart, and the limping will not hurt you in the house of God. Jacob got the Spirit typically. It constituted him a prince, and that is the only kind of person who goes into the house of God. “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel”. All is wiped out now, not at the cross alone, but in the history of your soul: you are no longer a supplanter, the Spirit of God has taken possession, and you have a new name. What a wonderful name Israel is! Jacob can lift up his head in dignity now. He has got means now. He can come to Bethel. It is now God the God of Bethel.
Paul says, “We are making our boast in God”; he says, “through whom now we have received the reconciliation”, Romans 5: 11 (New Trans.).
I could say a great deal more, but what I would desire to leave with you is a sense of the interest God has in a soul. He will never leave us till we are entirely adjusted down here, so that we may be fully equipped for His house. May He give us the answer to that!