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MAN (8)

JT It is thought that the two sections read at this time will afford us much light as to humanity as it appeared in Jacob; perhaps the most important character in the book of Genesis, next to Abraham. We have had humanity before us in these readings for several months, and the idea now is to look at it as seen in Jacob. We get humanity set out in a remarkable way in the whole book of Genesis, but peculiarly in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which affords us much in the matter before us. We have no doubt seen what has been said about these three, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in The Collected Writings; that Abraham is the source, or root of promise, Isaac the heavenly man, and Jacob represents the earthly side of the truth. So that we come now to Jacob, and no doubt the Lord will help us, because the idea of humanity ought to be in our own minds as to what characteristics apply to each of us.

ABP Does the fact that he entered into struggle even before his birth suggest a clue as to the features that came out in him?

JT Therefore the ground is laid now for us to consider what should mark brethren; for Esau and Jacob were twins, and the relation of twins certainly ought to bring out what persons are in their human characteristics.

AJG I would like a little help as to what is in mind as to Jacob and the earthly side, referring to the earthly side in its application to us.

JT It is a matter of what we have to do in everyday life, I would say; our relations in everyday life, and especially in relation to our brethren. What we are as brethren would be the main thought. We want to get what Jacob is characteristically as a man, because we are dealing ^[p. 135] with man.

RWS It is not man as such, but man as the product of the work of God which we are looking at in this series, is it not?

JT That is what is important; man as unregenerate is of little or no importance to us, not of any importance to heaven. It is man as important before God that is particularly before us; not as in his natural state, because after all what he is naturally is a story soon told. What is in our minds now is what he is before God, as having been wrought by God; otherwise there would be nothing worth speaking of.

Ques Does that involve the work of God beginning in new birth?

JT Just so, so John gives it; John will be our subject for the moment. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, John 1:1. It is a question of the Word. “He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1:2 - 4. That is the thing that we might rest on for the moment; life as seen in man in the sense in which God regards it. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”; that is to say, man was the idea. “And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, his name John. He came for witness, that he might witness concerning the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but that he might witness concerning the light. The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man. He was in the world, and the world had its being through him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth; (John bears witness of him, and he has cried, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me;) for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1:5 - 18.

^[p. 136] I thought it would be worth while to just rest on this section in John’s gospel so as to get the true idea of humanity as before God, in Christ Himself; that is the very highest thought of it. It is wonderful that a divine Person should become man. The true idea must be seen there; that is, in that Man. And so “the life was the light of men”; it is a question of man.

JTJr So the outshining of the life of Jesus would produce light for men.

JT It was the light of men, just so; showing that, as has often been remarked, it was not the light of angels, it is the order of being that man is. That God Himself in the Lord Jesus should become man is marvellous, the most marvellous thing of all; that He is as one of us, one of our kind, in that sense. But He is God, God Himself, God as man.

AR Is He like the sun? It says in verse 9, “The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”, John 1:9.

JT Exactly; but it was the true light, that is to say it was light for man. The true light is for man.

EEH “We have contemplated his glory”; is that the glory of manhood?

JT Quite so, the glory is “as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1:14 one in that relation, the most exalted ^[p. 137] relation; that is, Man in relation to the Father: “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”, notice that, “in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1:18.

ANW “In him was life”: does that differ at all from the statement in John 5:26? “For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is Son of man”.

JT “Son of man”, just so, it is to bring out man in that relation, not simply as Son of God, but Son of man; it is another wonderful thought that the Son of man is also the Son of God, and that the Son of God is the Son of man. He comes down within our range to be apprehended; it is the wonderful thought of manhood in a divine Person. It affects your heart that it is possible, that God Himself should be here, that it is no less than God. “He is the true God”, it is said, “and eternal life”, 1 John 5:20. That is in John’s epistle.

EAL In John 1 it says, “Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel”, John 1:49. He put the Son of God first there.

JT But there is more than that, you will have to read more to get the full thought.

EAL “Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he says to him, Verily, verily, I say to you, Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”, John 1:50,51.

JT “The angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”, that is the idea. It is to bring out manhood in the Son; I mean manhood in the expression, “the Son of man” — “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”, John 1:51.

^[p. 138] The allusion is to Jacob in the book of Genesis. Would you say that, Mr. G.?

AJG I was thinking that. It would mean that man has the foremost place in the mind of God, would it not? You were stressing that a divine Person has become man, that God has entered into manhood in the Person of Jesus; and is that not because the greatest thoughts of God are bound up with man, and not with any other order of creature?

JT And so in verse 26 of Genesis 1 it says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”, Genesis 1:26 that is the divine thought. God had Jesus in His mind. But He had to wait for hundreds of years to see man in Jesus, and that is the wonderful feature of the whole subject, the recency of man and yet the greatness of man. There could be nothing greater, because the Man alluded to is the Son of God. There could be no one greater.

Rem The greatness of man is seen in the fact that while in John 1 the Lord is spoken of as the light of men, in Revelation 21 it says of the city that the nations shall walk in its light; showing how characteristic she is of Christ, Christ being the light of men. The city in that day will shine upon the nations.

FNW I would like further help as to the link of the Son of man in John 1 with Jacob. Is it in your mind that the Lord Jesus here as the heavenly One has a certain relation to the earthly side of things which Jacob represents?

JT Well, He became man and moved about on the earth. He went from infancy to boyhood and to manhood, so that all those phases were filled out by that glorious Person. All the phases proper to man were seen in that glorious Person in everyday, ordinary life, we might say.

AR ^[p. 139] You get the same idea in Genesis 28 as you get in John’s gospel; it says, “And behold, angels of God ascended and descended upon it”, that is, the angels go up before they come down, and the same idea is in John’s gospel. Is that suggestive that man is the centre of everything?

JT So Pilate says, “Behold the man!” We are to pray for all men according to 1 Timothy 2: “I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men; for kings and all that are in dignity, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and gravity; for this is good and acceptable before our Saviour God, who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Timothy 2:1 - 4. And further, “For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”, 1 Timothy 2:5. That is it, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”; that is the thing that I thought we should get clearly before us, the man Christ Jesus. So as we are here this afternoon it is a question of each one challenging his own heart as to what he is as a man, or as a woman, for the word man covers both. “Let us make man in our image”, Genesis 1:26 and then immediately you have the plural: “let them have dominion”. So that the man and the woman reign, or rule, together.

JHE In our chapter Isaac would be concerned that Jacob should have a helpmate; as it says in the early verses, “Arise, go to Padan-Aram”. He is concerned that his son should have a proper helpmate.

JT So that now, to be simple and practical, we have to challenge ourselves as husbands and wives as to this matter of humanity. It is the kind of humanity we have as the subjects of the work of God, that kind of humanity; that is, Christ would be seen in us, “the man Christ Jesus”.

JTJr The work of God would bring about the same features in all of us, so that national features and original fleshly features would disappear.

JT Quite so; the same features must come out in the wife as in the husband. And then too in the male and female children. The whole point is what kind of man there is in the household, because God has before Him to bring about an order of man that is suitable to Him, whether on the earth or in the heavens. Presently in the millennium it will be on the earth; in the meantime it is what is in the assembly, the heavenly side; we are a heavenly people.

AJG So that the saints are said to be “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them”, Ephesians 2:10. Is that manhood according to God seen practically down here?

JT Just so; the works were “before prepared that we should walk in them”; God has prepared them, they represent the kind of thing that we should be. Wonderful that there should be a pattern set before us in that sense! And I think Peter alludes to that when he says that we “should follow in his steps”, 1 Peter 2:21.

ABP Would the various exercises that Jacob went through teach him experimentally that God is taking away the first that He might establish the second?

JT So that his name is changed; that is what we shall come to in chapter 32, that the man’s name is changed. He is alone with God; his wives and children are detached from him so that he is alone with God and God has dealings with him and cripples him, so that he might be made subject and humble through being crippled.

VCL In chapter 27 Isaac, in blessing Jacob, says to him, “Let peoples serve thee ... Be lord over thy brethren”, Genesis 27:29.

^[p. 141] Is that what he was reaching in all this experience that God was passing him through, so that when his name is changed he is equal to it?

JT So that he can be lord; God has a man suitable to rule. Therefore we have to pray for kings and all that are in authority; we are exhorted to pray for men.

RWS Is the long time that is involved in this process to be a voice to us? Years and years were required in the history of Jacob to work this out. I am thinking of the twenty years at Padan-Aram, for instance. He does not arrive at God’s thought immediately, and I suppose we do not either.

JT Quite so, and we have to learn from what is seen in him. As we run down through Genesis we shall see at the end how Jacob crosses his hands wittingly; he knew then how things were to be; that is, he had been learning in the school of God.

RWS It has been an encouragement to me that it took Jacob so long to learn because it takes us a long time. But perhaps we should not excuse ourselves on that account but seek to move on more rapidly than Jacob did.

JT We have to wait for the incarnation to bring out everything. We do not get it all in the book of Genesis nor in any of the Old Testament books; we have to wait for the incarnation, that is where we get man according to God.

RWS It helps to have before us the divine standard in John 1 before we come down to Jacob.

JT Just so, we have to come to the incarnation, the wonders of the incarnation. That is what bows our hearts, and it should bow our hearts.

Rem Despite the deflections of Jacob and the long way by which he arrived at this point, yet there would be something of God in his history which God could take account ^[p. 142] of?

JT Quite so; whatever God had wrought was there; but how comparatively little when you come to the great idea as set out in Christ! How immense it is, manhood in Christ! “One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”; 1 Timothy 2:5 not the babe, nor the boy, but ‘the man’ Christ Jesus. That is what is before us.

AJG Is that what is referred to in the first epistle of John where it speaks of the word of life? I was thinking of the opening of that epistle. It speaks of the word of life and what the apostles had contemplated and handled, and I wondered whether that is in keeping with what you have been saying as to life in man according to God, set out in Christ?

JT Just so; there it is the ‘word’ of it, that is to say the intelligent expression of it.

AJG Quite so, and I thought that corresponded with the expression that the life was the light of men; that there was a life in the presence of men conveying to men intelligently what God’s thoughts for man are and setting out the standard that God is intending to bring the saints to.

JT I suppose it is the whole thought of heaven just now, to bring out the idea of man as God intends it to be seen in the assembly; the great vessel in which He is to be expressed, the assembly.

TEH I want to ask a question in relation to the oblation, which I understand relates to fine flour. I was wondering if that was the offering of the thief on the cross as he contemplated the manhood of Christ. As he was about to go into death he discovers that there is none perfect but Jesus, and he says, “This man has done nothing amiss”, Luke 23:41. Is that true manhood?

JT Just so, the fine flour is the quality of manhood in Christ; that is the idea of it. The fineness of the ingredient of which the bread was ^[p. 143] made suggests what Christ is, the fineness of the quality of the humanity of Christ. That is what God has in mind for us, and He is working for it day and night with us. All these meetings are to bring it about, to bring about the order of man that is set out in Christ. God has it in mind to bring it about in those who form the assembly.

AJG In this process of His ways with Jacob why does God commence with the light of the house of God?

JT I think that would be a great thought in the divine order here on earth; the great thought would be seen in God’s house. If God is going to have man before Him, He will have him in the house, He will have a house for him; that is, we are brought into God’s house and we are to know how to behave ourselves in it, for it is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. I think it ought to work out thus.

AJG So that God Himself, as known in His house, shall become the Standard, is that it?

JT Just so, and that there shall be the feelings and affections that belong to a house; God has that in mind for us.

ANW Is that why all men are prayed for? We are to pray for all men and for those in authority.

JT Quite so; that makes the whole matter dependent on God; the principle of our prayers is to make the whole matter dependent upon God and that involves the matter of manhood.

AJG You mean that a feature of true manhood is dependence on God, that that is man’s mooring, so to speak?

JT Just so, and that is seen in the Lord Jesus, I would say; entire dependence on God. He would do nothing of Himself.

AR And is true manhood seen in relation to our prayers for all men?

^[p. 144] JT Exactly; the whole world you might say is dependent on the saints; God has placed it that way. Whatever the world may think of the saints, that is the position. God has put the matter in the assembly and the Spirit of God is there. He is not in the air, He is in the assembly, and it is a question of what we are so as to be, as it were, representatives of it.

AR So we are here in relation to men?

JT Quite so.

DP In Genesis 47:7, when Joseph brought his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh, Joseph would be conscious of the dignity of manhood in his father as before Pharaoh.

JT He was superior to Pharaoh really.

ANW It says that Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and we are told that the lesser is blessed of the greater.

VCL Is there not a very affecting touch to encourage anyone who desires to be marked by this manhood in that it says as to the ladder, “Behold, Jehovah stood above it”? The note says that the word ‘stood’ is the same as that used when the three men stood by Abraham’s tent. Would that not be God placing His thought before Jacob so that he might rise to the fulness of it?

JT Just so, Jehovah would take a position where He would be seen or apprehended fully. The position is not casual. The word ‘stand’ there means that it is not a casual stand, of no importance; it is of great importance because He would set out something in the standing, in the position He took up; His mind would be seen there.

Rem In this passage, with God standing at the top of the ladder, there was distance between Jacob and God; but in chapter 35 we find that distance removed, for it says, “And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him”, Genesis 35:^[p. 145] 13.

JT Quite so; we have to compare the differences as the history goes on because Genesis covers the whole history of what Jacob was and that history culminates in Jacob crossing his hands wittingly, he knew what he was doing, he was intelligent. That is the point with God, to make us intelligent; that is a solid idea, like the wall; it is a solid idea of manhood.

JTJr Would this line of thought in Jacob begin with the fact that he is obedient? He goes out under his father’s directions and thus becomes detached from everything and is alone with God.

JT Quite so, that is what Esau noticed. It says, “And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father, and take a wife thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. And the Almighty God bless thee, and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou mayest become a company of peoples. And may he give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, in order that thou mayest possess the land of thy sojourning, which God gave to Abraham!” That is, Jacob is to come into the inheritance, to come into it as a true man; that is the idea of it.

RDG Man’s idea was to build a tower, the top of it to reach to heaven; but now here is a ladder and the top of it does reach to heaven. Is the suggestion that God is coming down and that man is to be taken up to heaven?

JT I think so; God was in right relations with Jacob, and Jacob with Him. The divine idea is that Jacob should come into the inheritance, and that he should come into it in the character of Abraham, fully representing Abraham. There was to be full representation of Abraham, no deterioration ^[p. 146] whatever. So that Abraham has no generations mentioned, it is a question of the heavenly man. Abraham is the heavenly man, in that sense, and he has to have a representative here; and if it be Jacob, let Jacob be like Abraham. So it is with every one of us, we are to be like Christ.

EAL Had Isaac a sense that Jacob would be obedient? Esau was not obedient, indeed he was directly disobedient.

JT He shows the very opposite of obedience in that he goes out and marries strange women; and one great difficulty among brethren now is mixed marriages. It is one of the most baneful things amongst us. So that we are to be watchful as to those whom we marry that we get the right kind of humanity, of female humanity.

RWS Would not the great place the Spirit has acquired recently, not only in new birth but in our becoming increasingly familiar with Him promote this order of manhood?

JT Quite so; but I was just going to emphasize again the danger of mixed marriages, marriages with persons who are not the right kind of humanity femininely. The brothers are to be careful about this, and the fathers and the mothers must look after their children as to it that we continue what is the mind of God in the assembly at all costs.

AJG The angels come in here as ascending and descending, and then they appear again in chapter 32. I wondered if that was to confirm us in the sense that we need not be afraid to commit ourselves to what God is working in us; that angels are there, if need be, to serve us, and to make way for the work of God.

JT Just so, and you could add to that, “Are they not all ministering spirits ... ?”, Hebrews 1:4.

Ques Is there not also a feature of manhood in Jacob in that, in his flight, he carries oil with him?

^[p. 147] He poured oil upon the top of the stone that he set up for a pillar.

JT It is an anointed pillar therefore, and that indicates the Spirit; it is typical of Abraham and of what the mind of God was for Jacob, that he was to be anointed. That is the kind of man God had in mind that he should be. He was to be such as Abraham had been.

Rem Abraham, in sending his servant for a bride for Isaac, merely said that he was to go to his kindred, but in connection with Jacob, Isaac is much more exact and accurate about the matter. Is that not the case today? At one time our concept of the standard was much more general; today, however, with the development of the truth, we are much more specific. We say that only those breaking bread should marry each other. Would that be on the line of Jacob, that the actual family is specified?

JT I would go with that.

ANW The mother’s side must be right as well as the father’s side. Esau finds a link on Abraham’s side, but not on the mother’s side; he marries one of Ishmael’s daughters.

JT Showing how degeneration is set out in Abraham’s family; and Ishmael of course would be that; it was through a compromise of Sarah’s to have a family that Ishmael was brought in. He should never have been there, although God undertook to bless him because he was Abraham’s son, showing the liberality of God in dealing with His people.

ANW Some of the young may be inclined to think that it is good enough to be right on the father’s side; I mean that they tell us that the young man or the young woman is a believer. But that is not enough. It must be: “in the Lord”.

JT Marriage “in the Lord” is a fine expression; “only in the Lord” 1 Corinthians 7:39 is the word. All our marital ^[p. 148] links are to be in the Lord and only in the Lord. The enemy will get in otherwise.

TEH I was wondering if the suggestion here that he obeyed his father and his mother and went to Padan-Aram is the effect of manhood seen in doing what he is commanded?

JT He obeyed his father and his mother, quite so.

ABP Is it not significant that that is brought into Ephesians, “Honour thy father and thy mother ... and that thou mayest be long-lived on the earth”? Ephesians 6:2.

JT “And ye fathers, do not provoke your children to anger” Ephesians 6:4; the fathers are enjoined as to that. So that we have to watch that sort of thing if we are to hold our children in the fellowship, to see to it that they are not provoked to anger.

It was in mind in chapter 32 to show the change of Jacob’s name, which is a remarkable thing. The whole chapter deals with it. We might read from verse 13: “And he lodged there that night; and took of what came to his hand a gift for Esau his brother — two hundred she-goats, and twenty he-goats; two hundred ewes, and twenty rams; thirty milch camels with their colts; forty kine, and ten bulls; twenty she-asses, and ten young asses. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself; and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and put a space between drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meets thee, and asks thee, saying, Whose art thou, and where goest thou, and whose are these before thee? — then thou shalt say, Thy servant Jacob’s: it is a gift sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us”. And now further on, in verse 24 it says: “And Jacob remained alone; and a man wrestled with him until the rising of the dawn. And when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the joint of his thigh; and the joint of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the dawn ariseth. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me”.

^[p. 149] That is, Jacob clung to God for the blessing, and he got it. But the point that he had in his mind was to appease his brother; God went the whole way with him so that he should appease Esau.

RWS Is that a feature of moving amongst our brethren, that we should gain the offended brother?

JT Quite so, that is the great point in chapter 32; Jacob is being brought to right thoughts as to himself, he is crippled so as to make him suitable to meet his brother, to be with his brother, and mingle amongst his brethren. I think that is a great point.

AR It is not a question of cattle now, after he wrestles.

JT No, it is not cattle now, it is a question of the brother, how he is to be with his brother. Can he secure him?

JTJr Do you think the impression that he received here would refer, in a certain way, to how God would put an impression upon us that would remain with us all the time and bring out Himself in us?

JT What great pains God took with Jacob, to make things right with him; to change his name and make things right with him! The question is raised with him, “What is thy name? And he said, Jacob”. He has to confess that, and all that that name had meant heretofore; the name ‘Jacob’ has to be confessed, the kind of man he had been under that name. But now God is going to change his name and the word is therefore, “Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel”. The word means ‘prince of God’, that is, he would be a dignified man hereafter through this experience. And that is what God is waiting for and setting Himself ^[p. 150] to bring about in every one of us, that we may be princely, dignified, as in the assembly.

JTJr It is remarkable how man is stressed here; it says, “a man wrestled with him”, and then again it says, “for thou hast wrestled with God, and with men”. It is striking how this thought of man is stressed in this section.

JT Therefore the first idea would be the question of Christ, the kind of man that is seen in Christ; and Jacob was to take that on. Then he has to do with men, not only with one man, but with men, the brethren.

WWM Do you think that Jacob was doing, in principle, what the Lord enjoined in Matthew 5? “If therefore thou shouldest offer thy gift at the altar, and there shouldest remember that thy brother has something against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and first go, be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift”, Matthew 5:23.

JT That is just it, that is what I believe Jacob came to here; he learned how he was to get along with his brother. But then it is not only our brother, but the brethren, all of them. It is all the brethren, the plural.

WWM So that is a feature of manhood, would you say, and therefore we cannot hope to be on right relations with God if we cannot be on right relations with our brethren.

ABP And also, would you say, unless we can get on with a difficult brother?

JT Well, quite so, Esau was that, of course. The fact of the matter is he was hated, God said He had hated Esau; He had loved Jacob, for Jacob was in principle lovable, but Esau was not, not in the eyes of God, at least.

AJG Is it significant that in this gift that Jacob sends to Esau there is a preponderance of the female ^[p. 151] animals as though stressing the subjective formation that there was now in Jacob?

JT That is a word to notice; the female thought is therefore to be stressed.

ANW He is none the less a prince because he has to limp; he finishes up limping.

JT Quite so, but God did the crippling; it was an act of God to do it, but it was for his good, to discipline him.

AR Before that it says, “I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved. And as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him”; and then it says that he limped. It says the sun rose upon him, as if it was a new day.

JT That brings out the gracious actions of God in dealing with us; how God came down to this matter to bring about a right state in Jacob so that he could get on with his brethren. It was not only with his brother Esau — he was ready to do anything for him — but he has to get on with others as well.

Rem I think you have linked this thought of Jacob with Paul after he had been caught up to the third heaven and then went through discipline. The Lord says to him, “My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness”, 2 Corinthians 12:9.

JT Very good, “My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness”.

Ques Why is Paul’s name changed from Saul to Paul?

JT Paul means little; so that we are not to think too much of ourselves, He was worthy of the change because God would have us to be small, to be little, not to be big in our own minds.

Rem So Jacob calls Esau, “My lord”, and he speaks of himself as Esau’s servant. That would show manhood features, that he was prepared to go down “For I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved”. There is a new day in Jacob’s history now. It says that “the sun rose upon him”.

JT Quite so, a new day; “the sun rose upon him”. It does not say upon the world, but upon Jacob.

ABP Would the last verse show that an experience like this has an effect upon all the brethren? They ate no more of the sinew that shrank.

JT Well, just so, it is intended for that. God may begin with any one of us and do something with him so that others should be helped. “The sun rose upon him”, but then that was to affect him in regard of others as well, as to how to get on with his brethren.

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