GENESIS 27 AND 28
GENESIS 27 AND 28
Chapter 27 is rather a sorrowful one, because it exhibits to us the low state into which men of true faith can sink. The lack of perception in Isaac, and [p. 203] the deception of Jacob, suggested and furthered by Rebecca, and the want of intelligence in Isaac even when pronouncing a true divine blessing, are all sorrowful and humbling. The chapter shows Isaac out of communion and deceived; it shows Rebecca and Jacob, though anxious to get Isaac’s blessing for the latter, doing deceitful things to get it. If these things came out in such as Isaac and Jacob, and have been put on record, we may be sure they represent conditions into which the people of God may come in other days. They are written for our admonition. The only thing that really stands in the chapter is the blessing of Jacob; that could not be reversed.
Isaac seems to set before us a true saint, but one who had not learned to judge and refuse his natural tastes. We are told in a previous chapter that “venison was to his taste”: his natural tastes brought him under the influence of the wrong man, for he loved Esau, the one who ministered to them; so he entirely failed to be in line with the distinctive truth of the moment. The distinctive truth of the moment was God’s sovereignty, according to which the elder was to serve the younger. Rebecca, with all her faults, had learned through exercise that God must be sovereign, and that the younger was to be served by the elder; so she loved Jacob. But Isaac’s affections were on natural lines and influenced by natural tastes; so he loved the wrong man: he was under the influence of Esau. It is a warning for us.
Blessing would have come to Jacob apart from his deception, because it was secured by God’s sovereign purpose, and did not need any engineering or planning or deception on the part of Rebecca and Jacob to secure it. Jacob himself had to learn in the end to [p. 204] cross his hands. The lesson that is especially connected with Jacob is sovereignty, and he learnt it at the end. He put his left hand on Manasseh, and Joseph says, That is wrong. Oh no, he says, I know what I am doing. He had learned divine sovereignty, and that made him a worshipper; he is the only man in Hebrews 11 that is spoken of as a worshipper.
It is a sad thing when a saint’s eyes get dim. One might say that morally Isaac’s lack of perception was traceable to the gratification of his natural tastes. A man who has never learned to deny his natural tastes is sure to be influenced by what he likes, and thus diverted from the mind of God. So that what we see in Isaac in this chapter is a serious warning: even when he pronounced the blessing it was unintelligently done.
Moses was the contrast to this: he had learned to refuse all that must have been naturally attractive to him — a great place in Egypt as son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He had learned sovereignty; for he had learned that a company of despised brickmakers were the people of God — the object of His sovereign choice — and he chose to suffer affliction with them. He refused his natural tastes, and followed his spiritual tastes, and therefore he had spiritual perception; when he came to the end of his course his eyes were not dim; and in Deuteronomy 33 he blessed the people intelligently. And even Jacob in Genesis 49 saw clearly what was before his sons at the end of days; he could speak of all the crookedness and perversity which would come out in their history, and also of the blessing which would come in by Jehovah’s salvation. But Isaac blessed unintelligently, for he was deceived.
When Isaac said, “He shall be blessed”, he was conscious that the blessing could not be withdrawn. That is the one bright spot in chapter 27, the one thing that stands — “He shall be blessed”; that is, blessing according to election cannot be reversed. If we had the faith of that we should not need to be scheming. Rebecca and Jacob were two schemers; they were a curious mixture. They had true faith in divine blessing, and a true desire to get it, but a great practical lack of confidence in God. It may be that they realised Isaac’s weakness, and that he would favour Esau, and they could not trust God to bring about His purpose in His own way. What they sought was good, and, in a way, God allowed their plans to succeed; but for all that, the way they took to get it only landed them in exercise and sorrow, and discipline of a lifelong character. It is a very rare thing that human planning has not some element of deception in it, and in the government of God this always brings discipline. If we recognise divine sovereignty we must also recognise divine wisdom. He is not only “wonderful in counsel” but also “excellent in working”. It is better to trust Him to bring things about in His own excellent way. If we are in the way of His will we do not need to scheme to make sure that things will not fail.
In this connection it is of interest to note that Jacob represents the earthly people, and it is in relation to earthly things that saints are apt to scheme and plan in order to bring about what seems to be good. But this never adds to the good, or makes it more certain or secure. It hinders the heart from knowing and receiving it as purely of God, and from having in rest and peace the assurance that He has [p. 206] had His way, and that we have not brought it about ourselves. Any element of deception is sure to bear sorrowful fruit. Both Rebecca and Jacob suffered bitterly for many a long year, and, so far as we know, Rebecca never again saw the son she loved.
We get Isaac and Jacob blessing in this way, but none of Jacob’s sons did. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were great heads of blessing in a way that none of the other patriarchs were: the blessing was covenanted with them. Jacob’s sons were not vessels of promise like these three. “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ... this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations”, Exodus 3: 15. What God is — His name and His memorial — came out in relation to these three men.
It is interesting to see that Esau is coupled with Jacob in Hebrews 11: 20. It shows that from the divine side there was blessing even for Esau; but Esau did not appreciate the birthright. That is why he drops out of the blessing in the end. We might say that he wanted the blessing without the Blesser. Esau is called a profane person; he did not value the promises which would have formed a spiritual link between God and his soul. He wanted blessing in connection with the earth, but did not value the birthright, which would have connected him with the olive tree of promise, and secured him a part in Christ and in all that Christ would bring in. He did not want that; he wanted earthly blessing, and that alone. “The blessing of Abraham” was not to his taste; and in the end we get a prophetic touch, that he would come out as a lawless man. It is said, “When thou rovest about thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck” (verse 40). He would be found lawless. He was profane at the start, and would be lawless at the finish. So he drops out of blessing when all the nations of the earth are blessed. He will be cut off for ever. See Obadiah 10, 18; Malachi 1: 4. A life of piety would preserve us from scheming and deception. Do we bring God into everything? If we do, we do not need to be planning and contriving in a fleshly way. Paul’s planning in 1 Corinthians 9 was very different. There it is the grace that would go down to the lowest point to bring the knowledge of God to the sinner. It is not planning and contriving to gain some object for himself; it was divine planning, the sober calculation of love for the good of others. It is as if you could imagine Rebecca and Jacob planning to bring about the blessing of Esau!
In chapter 28 we get the commencement of Jacob’s life of discipline. It opens with Isaac calling Jacob and blessing him; he might have rebuked him. It is remarkable that, at the outset of the life of discipline that Jacob was about to suffer for more than twenty years in consequence of his deception, God does not refer to it. It is in keeping with what God had said before he was born. Nothing had altered the divine purpose; “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance”.
Jacob was really a fugitive, fleeing from the wrath of his brother. There is still a thought typically of the bride being of the bridegroom’s kindred, but what is chiefly in view is Jacob’s experience away from the land of promise. It is a picture of the Jews today, fugitive from their land, looked at as the elect of God for earthly blessing, but suffering governmentally the [p. 208] consequences of their natural character. They are a by-word for selfishness and deception all the world over; but God has His eye upon them and they will eventually be brought back. What makes this chapter so interesting is to see how God came in at the very outset of Jacob’s life of wandering and discipline to make known to him that he was the subject of the care and interest of heaven, and of angelic protection, and that Jehovah’s purpose stood fast in faithfulness and grace. Indeed He does not say one word as to Jacob’s past, or any of his crookedness. Sovereignty comes out as clearly in this as it did in what was said before he was born. He had not done any evil then, but now that his character had come to light, it did not change God’s purpose. “I am Jehovah, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed”. If we look at Jacob today, what a history of departure and wickedness we see! But they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes, and the fathers were beloved because Jehovah chose to love them sovereignly!
And if we look at saints today in what may be called their Jacob character, how much comes to light in them that is not in accord with a heavenly calling! Much that is not at all in keeping with God’s house! Jacob felt he was not in accord with the house of God. But God addresses His people from His own standpoint of a purpose and grace that was given them in Christ Jesus before the ages of time. We had done nothing then, good or bad, so that if we had a place in His purpose it must have been wholly in sovereign love. And nothing that may transpire afterwards will or can change it. To Jacob the land was given, a numerous seed ensured to [p. 209] inherit it, and divine faithfulness pledged to keep him in all places, and to bring him into the land of promise. “I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of”.
How this gives us to know the grace and faithfulness of the God we have to do with, and to know what is the true source and security of all our blessing! Its character, too, as being entirely planned and purposed by God: it can never be diminished or curtailed. It never comes down to the thought or measure of the believer. He must come to it in all its fulness and preciousness. It will yet be said of Jacob, “What hath God wrought!”
It may be said, Why should all this be presented to a man whose course had been so unworthy of God, and who was apparently so completely out of accord with it? Well, if grace will not humble and subdue a man, what will? It is as God is known, and gets a place in man’s heart, that restless flesh is subdued. See how God deals with Corinthian carnality, and with Galatian legality! Does He not in each case open up His own purpose and grace, and tell the misguided saints of their portion in it? Man’s way would be to correct this, that, and the other — to deal with the manifestations of spiritual defect and departure. But God’s way is to bring Himself, and all His grace in Christ, and His unfailing faithfulness, into the faith and affections of His poor saints, and thus restore them from the deepest inwards of their being. He would have things healed from the bottom, no mere surface work. If God in known grace and faithfulness fills the heart there is the most blessed security against every intrusion of the world and the flesh. Can we not recognise that such a way of [p. 210] dealing is worthy of God, and indeed the only true way of preservation or recovery.
With Jacob it was as it often is. There was no happy response to the vision of grace. He recognised, indeed, that “this place” was “none other but the house of God”, but he was not at home there. “He was afraid”. A man who has been on the line of fleshly scheming and natural activity feels all out of place in the holy atmosphere of God’s house. It took more than twenty years of discipline to prepare him to come back to that house intelligently and in moral suitability. But it is often God’s way to give a soul at the very outset a divine impression of where He means to bring it. There is something impressed on the heart which remains there, and which can be appealed to, and worked upon (see chapter 31: 13). He says, “I am the God of Bethel, etc”. God had not forgotten it and Jacob had not, and God could work on the impression that had been made on Jacob’s soul! It was the spot God had in His mind for Jacob, and He gave Jacob to know it. God had made Himself known there in grace and faithfulness, and that is the character of the house.
Jacob says, “This stone shall be God’s house”. It is a principle that what God gives us to rest on becomes our testimony. The pillow becomes a pillar; it was God’s grace and faithfulness that He put under Jacob’s head as a resting place! What you rest on becomes your testimony.
The ladder indicates connection between heaven and earth. Instead of heaven being a long way off it is very near. God assured Jacob that He was the object of the interest and care of heaven. You can say to any poor believer who is as crooked as Jacob,
“[p. 211] You are an object of care to heaven; and angels are looking after you! Ministering spirits are sent forth to care for you, you do not need to be afraid of anything”. The house is God’s place here, and heaven is not a long way off; the natural man thinks it is, but Jacob learnt that it was near and that its gate is here on earth.
There is a millennial thought in connection with it. It suggests the coming day when angels will ascend and descend on the Son of man; John 1: 51. Then “the heavens shall hear the earth”. Heaven will be near. That will be in the millennium, but if we know what it is to be in the house of God, it is not merely near, but we are in its gate. Angels ascend and descend; their place of service is here below; they are here where saints need them. The prophet said, “Open the young man’s eyes”, and then he saw that the mountain was full of chariots. They ascend to report what they have been doing, and then they come back to this world. It is not that they come down and go up, but they are down here in service, and go up to report about it. In the millennium the blessedness of heaven will find an answer in the blessedness of earth: it will be God’s will done on earth as in heaven. Earth and heaven will be very near to each other. The same character of things will be on earth as in heaven.
The communications of grace led to a definite point being reached in Jacob’s spiritual history; the setting up of the pillar represents that. He was not up to the grace presented to him; he did not feel at home in it; but it made an impression on his soul: he recognised that the grace in which God had spoken to him ought to be preserved in testimony here in the [p. 212] power of the Holy Spirit. I daresay some of us have known what it was to set up a pillar. We have recognised that certain things have come into our souls as light from God, and that true testimony was connected with them. If you once recognise a thing as being of God, and that you ought to be true to it, you will never be right or happy until you return to it. When Jacob returned to Bethel he added a drink offering. He was then in accord with the place, and in divine joy, so that there was something for God. Jacob was away from Bethel for over twenty years: “Thus I was twenty years in thy house” (chapter 31: 38 - 41). It was a history of disappointment and dissatisfaction; and he was never happy until he came back to the point where he set up a pillar.
The Lord appealed to Israel, “I remember thee and the love of thy espousals”. He spoke to them then as He spoke to Jacob here; He never forgot it, and He will bring them back to it. He brought Jacob back, and He will bring us all back to the point where we have set up a pillar; every saint is bound to come back to the best point he has reached in his soul’s history with God; the faithfulness of God is bound up in it.
Jacob’s vow — poor as it was — indicated that he had a sense there should be a place and portion for God; that this must be the end God had in view; and his vow committed him to the furtherance of it. So God never forgot it. The idea of a vow is that there should be something for God, something dedicated to Him.