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GENESIS 29 TO 35

This chapter gives us the end to which Jacob was all along being led. The chapters from 29 give his history and experiences in Padan-Aram. No doubt that history is a type of the position of Israel as away from the land of their inheritance, and without an altar; suffering the consequences of their own conduct, reaping the fruit of their natural character and of their unbelief. It is a sorrowful and humiliating history on Jacob’s side, yet we see Jehovah’s faithfulness, and grace, and providential care on the other side. God does not leave him, but deals with him, and exercises him, and speaks to him, and protects him again and again, until after twenty years he is ready to come to the place of blessing — Bethel.

Though typical of Israel, all this has an application to the saints now, because the same conditions of unbelief and weakness are often found in the people of God, and involve similar exercises and discipline. It is blessed, too, to know that the God of Jacob is our God, and He never departs from His own grace and faithfulness. But it is solemn to think of a saint being so long without an altar; Jacob had no altar all the time he was in Padan-Aram, and he was in idolatrous associations. What corresponds to the altar now is the opportunity to take up priestly relations with God. The saint is privileged to take up priestly relations with God in regard to himself, to his household, to God’s interests in the gospel, and to everything else connected with God’s testimony. It is his privilege to be in priestly access to God as to it all. With many saints this is not known because of their condition and associations. The associations ^[p. 214] of Padan-Aram were idolatrous; priestly nearness to God could not be known there. Laban had graven images in his house, and Rachel stole them, and thus they came into Jacob’s household; so he was in idolatrous associations. 1 Corinthians 10 warns us that we cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.

Jacob is viewed from the outset as representing the elect of God, and I think faith had appeared in him before this, for he desired God’s blessing. There was an exercise of faith that caused him to differ essentially from Esau. He was typically the elect of God, and his heart was set on the blessing; doubtless with a great mixture of human infirmity, expediency, and unbelief; but there was an element of faith that desired to be in the line of the birthright and blessing. Esau, on the other hand, had no interest in the birthright; he was profane and afterwards lawless, and in the end we see Edom destroyed for ever. Jacob’s history was very different: it began in God’s election, and he pursued the line of faith — though with a mixture of many motives and things incongruous with faith — and in the end finished his course as a worshipper. It is important to see that God was pledged to Jacob from the outset. The truth of election comes out here; it is a marked feature in connection with Jacob’s history.

From Jacob’s experiences in Padan-Aram we may learn in type that the Gentile — represented by Leah — must come in and be fruitful before Rachel, though the latter, like Israel, was the first loved. And in the names of Leah’s sons there may be a hint of the kind of fruit which is now being brought forth among the Gentiles. That is, those marked by sonship (^[p. 215] Reuben — See! a son); a personal and confiding intercourse with God in the consciousness that He hears (Simeon — Hearing); unity in the one Spirit and by the knitting together in love (Levi — United); praise (Judah); abundant compensation for anything that may have been given up (Issachar — There is hire); and, finally, the dwelling of divine Persons (Zebulun — Dwelling).

Then Joseph is born of Rachel — the one who would be such a striking and well-known type of Christ as the beloved of the Father, but rejected by his brethren, and exalted among the Gentiles.

Then in chapter 31: 3 Jehovah says to Jacob, “Return unto the land of thy fathers”, and in verse 13, “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow to me. Now arise, depart out of this land, and return to the land of thy kindred”. Jacob could never get away from the impression made upon him at Bethel. God made the impression and could appeal to it. It is often so with saints; God makes distinct impressions on which He can work, and to which He can appeal. Sometimes it is long years with us before we come to the good of a divine impression made on our souls. Israel at the Red Sea sang as if in the land; they had such an impression as to it; “All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away”; they were in view of being planted in the mountain of God’s inheritance, but they did not reach the realisation of it for forty years.

In chapter 32: 1 we find Jacob, after twenty years of vexation and disappointment, on his way back, and the angels of God met him. That is, he got a special indication of God’s care. God always ^[p. 216] confirms and encourages the faith of one who is moving in the right direction. Jacob called the place Mahanaim — Two Camps — but he failed to realise the encouragement God meant it to be to him. For if the ‘two camps’ of angels had been in his mind he would not have thought of ‘two camps’ as in verse 7. When one is in a wrong state of soul, even divine encouragements do not counteract one’s fears. We find Jacob crying to God for deliverance, and pleading the promise, but full of fear, and full of schemes, too. The angels were divine encouragement; it was as much as to say, You do not need to be afraid of anything; go straight on to Bethel. What are Esau and four hundred men compared with two camps of angels?

Jacob had to learn that all his scheming and planning were of no avail; he had to come to the end of every expedient. He had to learn to wait only on God, and to have no other confidence. God had a controversy with Jacob, and was bent on teaching him the true secret of divine strength. In the end Jacob was left alone, and God wrestled with him. Hosea 12 is very interesting as showing how God applied the teaching of this to Israel in a later day. They looked to this and that for help just as Jacob did. God says to them, You have made a covenant with Assyria, and carried oil into Egypt; you have tried all kinds of devices to be independent of Me. But remember how Jacob got blessing; he had to come to the end of all his scheming, and to prevail by weeping and supplication.

Jacob was brought face to face with God and learned his own utter weakness, but he learned, too, that weakness and dependence put one in the place ^[p. 217] of power with God. But then he must carry the consciousness of weakness all his life; he halted on his thigh; he was a cripple to the end of his days.

But Peniel was not the place where God’s interests centred, and therefore he got no revelation of God’s name. Indeed, his associations were such as to render this impossible; idolatry was in his house. And this probably accounts for his stopping at Succoth, and building a house and buying a field. There was a shrinking from the holy demands which Bethel would make. Shalem (Safe) did not raise the question of all the secret things as Bethel would. It is true that Jacob had an altar there, which he had not in Padan-Aram, but it was not a very high altar. He called it El-Elohe-Israel — God, the God of Israel. How many have such an altar as that! They think of God in relation to themselves; but His thought is to be known in relation to His house — El-Bethel — the God of the house of God.. It is God’s purpose to make Himself known to us in relation to His own circle of things, and to give us a place and portion there.

When we stop short of what God has before Him, He often has to let us get into trouble to stir up our nests. Chapter 34 is the stirring up of Jacob’s nest at Shalem. He was made to stink among the inhabitants of the land; that is a strong expression. It took such a discipline as that to prepare him for the call of chapter 35: 1 to “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother”.

The fact was that though Jacob had come face to face with God at Peniel, and had learned how to ^[p. 218] prevail with God for blessing, yet his associations had not been purified; his household was not clear of idolatrous associations: it was the knowledge of this that kept him away from Bethel. When we have been in Padan-Aram we pick up things that are not at all suited to Bethel. That is the secret why many do not reach Bethel; they are conscious that if they had to do with God in His own house many things would have to go; and they are not prepared to let them go. The Corinthians were in idolatrous associations, and this, with other things, hindered their growth; they were only babes, and precious things could not be ministered to them.

At Peniel, at the time of his wrestling with God, Jacob got a new name — a title. But he did not move in suitability to his title until he had been in Bethel. After that we read for the first time “Israel journeyed”; he moved in the dignity of his place with God; this is only acquired at Bethel. I do not think it is possible for us to move with God apart from the sense of what His house is. God can be with us as He was with Jacob, who was the subject of God’s discipline, care, and protection all the time. God had said, “I will never leave thee”; but it is one thing for God to be with me in His grace and faithfulness, and another for me to be with God in holiness. The moment the question of Bethel was raised in Jacob’s soul he was a different man. Shechem is a fine place! They put away the earrings and strange gods there — everything connected with idolatry — “Jacob hid them under the oak that is by Shechem”. Shechem is the place where Joshua said, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord”. It is the place of uncompromising decision. Joshua ^[p. 219] was a man at Shechem; he took his course definitely, and declared the line that he purposed to pursue. When Jacob got to Shechem the images and other things went down at the foot of the tree. The tree seems to be a suggestion of the cross. If we leave our idols at the foot of the cross we are then in light marching order; many Christians have so much baggage, so many teraphim about them that they cannot move!

When Jacob got to Bethel and anointed the pillar and offered a drink offering, it is said, “Then Israel journeyed”. He moved in the dignity of his new name. From Bethel it was not far to Ephrath (Bethlehem), where Christ comes in. There Rachel dies, a figure of the passing of Israel, but Benjamin comes in — the son of his father’s right hand — a type of Christ as the One by whom God’s power will set up the kingdom after Israel has utterly failed.

Having reached Bethel Jacob journeys in the light of the house of God; he makes a new departure, and moves in the dignity of one who belongs to the house of God. We see in 1 Timothy that the saints are to move in the dignity of the house of God; the men marked by prayer, and the women by modesty of apparel. A man in prayer is a man in true dignity with God. There is nothing in which man appears in such dignity as when he prays. Fancy a creature set in such a place that he can speak to God freely, even in giving thanks for food! “Every creature of God is good and to be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and freely addressing him”. How wonderful to be here in the dignity of one who can freely address God. He has spoken to me in His grace and love, and put me on such confidential ^[p. 220] terms with Himself that I can freely address Him! I take that as the true dignity of a man: it would be a great dignity if we could freely address the king at any time, but how much more God! It is the dignity of a priest; holy dignity; it belongs to one in the beauty of holiness. Jacob called upon his household to put away the strange gods, and cleanse themselves and change their garments; they were to come out in the beauty of holiness; nothing else would do for the house of God. Purity and holiness are proper to God’s house.

Jacob does not say now, “How dreadful is this place”. He has a drink offering here that speaks of joy; he set up his pillar and he was in keeping with it. In chapter 28 he had learned something of the character of God, but he was not in keeping with it; therefore there was no drink offering; he was not happy, and there was no pleasure really for God.

Reconciliation is that there is nothing to disturb divine complacency. If I were really in the good of reconciliation, there would be nothing seen in me but Christ. That is the proper kind of clothing to wear in God’s house. If saints walked according to l Timothy only Christ would be seen in them; then God would be complacent, and there would be a pillar. The assembly of the living God is the pillar, the testimony in this world to the true character of God. Think of saints who have got clear of every idolatrous influence, and have laid aside all that ministers to their vanity and pride, coming out in new garments — the moral features of Christ! What a testimony it would be! That is the thought of Bethel. Then there is something for God, a drink offering, the witness that Jacob was happy to be there.

There is much in Jacob’s history that is very humbling, but how much of faithfulness and unparalleled grace on God’s side! God protects him, directs him, and in the end brings him to His house in suitability to Himself.

The revelation of God’s name not being given in chapter 32: 29, but given in chapter 35: 11, would seem to show that the revelation of God’s name can only be where there are moral conditions suited to that name. Jacob, with idolatrous associations, could not have committed to him God’s name. Jacob got a new name at Peniel, but God did not reveal His name there. Afterwards, at Bethel, God revealed His name; “God said to him, I am God Almighty”.

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