Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 32
Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 32
Scripture Reading: Genesis 32 (KJV)
And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him." In spite of everything, God's grace still follows him. "Nothing changeth God's affection." Whom He loves, He loves to the end. His love is like "Himself," the “same yesterday, today, and forever." But how little effect "God's host" had on Jacob may be seen by his actions now set before us. "And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom." He evidently feels uneasy about Esau, and not without reason. He had treated him badly, and his conscience was not at ease; but instead of casting himself unreservedly on God, in order to avert Esau's wrath, he once again makes his own plans. He tries to manage Esau, instead of leaning on God.
“And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now." All this speaks of a soul off its center in God. "My lord," and "thy servant," is not like the language of a brother, or of one in the conscious dignity of the presence of God; but it was the language of Jacob with a bad conscience.
"And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed." But what does he do first? Does he at once cast himself on God? No; he begins to manage.
"He divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape."
Jacob's first thought? Make a plan. This is a picture of the human heart. After making his plan, he turns to God and cries for deliverance; but no sooner does he cease praying than he resumes planning. We need to understand that putting praying and planning together will never do. If we plan, we are leaning more or less on our plan; but when we pray, we should lean exclusively on God – the two things are incompatible; virtually destroying each other. When our eyes are filled with our own management of things, we are not prepared to see God acting for us; and, in that case, prayer is not the utterance of our need, but the mere superstitious performance of something that we think ought to be done, or perhaps it is no more than asking God to sanctify our plans. This will never do. It is not asking God to sanctify and bless our means, but rather asking Him to do it all Himself.1
Though Jacob asked God to deliver him from his brother Esau, he was evidently not satisfied with that, and therefore tried to "appease him with a present." His confidence was not in God, but in the "present." "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." It is often hard to detect the real ground of the heart's confidence. We imagine or persuade ourselves that we are leaning on God, when, in reality, we are leaning on some scheme of our own devising. After hearkening to Jacob's prayer, wherein he says, "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children," who could imagine him saying, "I will appease him with a present." Had he forgotten his prayer? Was he making a god of his present? Did he place more confidence in a few cattle than in Jehovah, to whom he had just committed himself? These are questions that naturally arise from Jacob's actions regarding Esau; questions that are readily answered by looking into our own hearts. There, as well as from the pages of Jacob's history, we learn how much more apt we are to lean on our own management than on God. But that will not do; we must be brought to see that the end result of our management is folly, and that the true path of wisdom is to repose in full confidence on God.
It will not do to make prayer part of our management. We often feel satisfied with ourselves after adding prayer to our plans and arrangements, calling on God to bless them. When this is the case, our prayers are worth about as much as our plans, because we are leaning on them instead of on God. God cannot show Himself as long as we insist on following our own plans. But we can never get to the end of our plans until we have been brought to the end of ourselves. We must see that "all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field" (Is. 40:6).
"And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." This is a turning point in the history of this remarkable man. Being left alone with God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways. We can never get a true estimate of our nature and all its actions, until we have weighed them in the balance of the sanctuary – there we ascertain their real worth. No matter what we may think about ourselves, or what man may think about us; the great question is, what does God think about us? The answer to this question can only be heard when we are "left alone;" away from the world; away from self; away from all the thoughts, reasonings, imaginations, and emotions of human nature – "alone" with God; the only way get a correct judgment about ourselves.
"Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him." Note that it was not Jacob wrestling with a man; but a man wrestling with Jacob. This scene is commonly referred to as an instance of Jacob's power in prayer. However, the simple wording of the passage is evidence this is wrong. You wrestling with a man and a man wrestling with you presents two totally different ideas. In the former case, you want to gain some object from him; in the latter, he wants to gain some object from you. In Jacob's case, the Divine object was to bring him to see what a poor, feeble, worthless creature he was, and when Jacob so pertinaciously held out against God dealing with him, "he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him." The sentence of death must be written on the flesh – the power of the cross must be entered into before we can steadily and happily walk with God. So far, we have followed Jacob amid all the windings and workings of his extraordinary character – we have seen him planning and managing during his twenty years of sojourn with Laban; but not until he "was left alone," did he get a true idea of how helpless he was in himself. Then, the seat of his strength being touched, he learned to say, "I will not let thee go."
This was a new era in the history of the supplanting, planning, Jacob. Up to this point he had held fast to his own ways and means; but now he says, "I will not let thee go." Someone might remark that Jacob did not express himself in this way until "the hollow of his thigh was touched." This simple fact is quite sufficient to settle the true interpretation of the whole scene. God was wrestling with Jacob to bring him to this point. Regarding Jacob's power in prayer, we have already seen that he had no sooner uttered a few words to God than he let out the real secret of his soul's dependence, by saying, "I will appease him with a present." Would he have said this if he had really entered into the meaning of prayer, or true dependence on God? No; if he had been looking to God alone to appease Esau, he would not have said, "I will appease him by a present." Every soul that knows and understands the sacred reality of a life of faith, must keep God and the creature distinct.
But, here is where many of us fail. Under the plausible and apparently pious formula of using means, we cloke the positive infidelity of our deceitful hearts; we think we are looking to God to bless our means, while, in reality, we are shutting Him out by leaning on the means, instead of leaning on Him. We pray that our hearts may be taught the evil of such action; that we may learn to cling more simply to God alone, so that so our history may be characterized more by that holy elevation above the circumstances through which we are passing. It is not an easy matter to get to the end of the creature, and be able to say, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." To say this from the heart, and to abide in the power of it, is the secret of true spiritual strength. Jacob said it when the hollow of his thigh was touched; but not till then. He struggled long, before giving way, because his confidence in the flesh was strong. But God can bring down to the dust the stoutest character. He knows how to touch the spring of nature's strength, and write the sentence of death on it; and until this is done, there can be no real "power with God or man." We must be "weak" before we can be "strong." "The power of Christ" can "rest on us" only in connection with the knowledge of our infirmities. Christ cannot put the seal of His approval on nature's strength, its wisdom, or its glory: all these must sink so that He may rise. Nature can never form a pedestal on which to display the grace or power of Christ. If it could, then flesh might glory in His presence; but this, we know, can never be.
The display of God's glory, His name or character, is connected with the setting aside of our nature, so, until this latter is set aside the soul can never enjoy disclosure of the former. Hence, though he is called to tell that his name is Jacob, or a “supplanter,” he receives no revelation of the name of the One wrestling with him, and bringing him down. He received the name of Israel, or “prince;” but when he says, "Tell me, I pray thee, thy name;" he received the reply, "Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?" The Lord refuses to tell His name, though He elicited such from Jacob and blesses him accordingly. This is often the case in the annals of God's family. There is disclosure of self in all its moral deformity; but, practically, we fail to get hold of what God is, though He has come so close, and blesses us in connection with the discovery of ourselves. When the hollow of his thigh had been touched, Jacob received the new name of Israel. He became a mighty prince when he had been made to know himself as a weak man; but still the Lord had to say, "Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?" There is no disclosure of the name of Him Who, nevertheless, had brought out the real name and condition of Jacob.
From all this we learn that it is one thing to be blessed by the Lord and quite another to have the revelation of His character revealed to our hearts by the Spirit through the Word. "He blessed him there;" but he did not tell His name. There is blessing in being made to know ourselves in any measure, because therein we are able to more clearly discern God. Thus it was with Jacob. When the hollow of his thigh was touched, it was either God or nothing. A poor halting man could do little; therefore, it behooved Jacob to cling to the Almighty.
In a certain sense, the book of Job is a detailed commentary on this scene in Jacob's history. Throughout the first thirty-one chapters, Job grapples with his friends, maintaining his point against their arguments; but in Job 32, by the instrumentality of Elihu, God begins to wrestle with him; and in Job 38, with all the majesty of His power, He comes down on him, overwhelming him by the display of His greatness and glory, eliciting from him the well-known words, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5, 6). In a sense, this was touching the hollow of his thigh. Make note of the expression, "mine eye seeth thee." He does not say, "I see myself;" no; but "thee." Nothing but a view of God can lead to repentance and self-loathing. Thus it will be with the people of Israel, as well as all souls. Only when we are able to look on the crucified Christ and mourn can the Gospel be obeyed – only then can there be full restoration and blessing. Like Job, the latter end will be better than our beginning; because we will have learned the full meaning of that word, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help" (Hosea 13:9).
Footnote:
1When faith allows God to act, no doubt He will use His own agency; but this is totally different from Him owning and blessing the plans and arrangements of unbelief and impatience. This distinction is not sufficiently understood.
