Romans 9:13

THE STORY OF JACOB

‘Jacob have I loved.’

Romans 9:13

It has been said as a paradox that ‘there is nothing so disappointing as failure, except success.’ The study of the character of Jacob illustrates the truth of the paradox, for we find that at the outset of his career he was eminently successful in accomplishing what he desired, whereas, when he was an old man, we see him overwhelmed with grief, saying, in anguish of spirit, ‘I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.’ The sad thought in his history is that we can trace a direct connection between his sorrows in later life and the successes of his early youth. He waited long, waiting for salvation from the result of the sins of his youth.

I. That had been the main occupation of his life, and he confessed it when, just before death, he, like his father Isaac, gave his final blessing to his children. In the midst of it he paused and exclaimed, ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.’ He had waited, and had found it in more senses than one. Through all the vicissitudes of his life his sons had all been spared him. The tears which he shed over Joseph’s bloodstained coat had long been dried. His sons had repented of their sin against their brother and of their lies to himself. In all this he saw the mercy of God rejoicing over judgment. There was something satisfactory in the thought that the punishment of his sin had fallen on him already, and was now over for ever. His success in deceiving his father had brought on him a lifelong train of bitter disappointments, but his failures and trials, in which he plainly discerned the hand of God, were now his source of comfort and satisfaction. They were proof to him that God had never either forgotten or forsaken him. He knew at the end that not one word of His promises would fall to the ground.

II. The ladder resting on earth and reaching up to heaven had not been a mere dream, it was a revelation telling him that his communion with God would be established for ever. Looking at his sons standing round his bed, and knowing that all had families of growing children, he saw in them the firstfruits of the fulfilment of that promise given to him as part of the revelation: ‘Thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ That was the promise given, as St. Paul says, to Abraham and his seed, not to all the branches of his posterity, but to the one line which ran through Jacob and his sons, and culminated in the birth of Christ.

III. It is well for us that God, Who rules over all, sees the whole man as a whole, and that He does not pronounce judgment on him in sections. Who but God could have seen the grand old Jacob of his later years, in the germ of the young liar, sneaking out of his father’s tent rejoicing in the success of his deception? But that was only a section of the imperfect Jacob, a piece of the shapeless, plastic clay out of which the great Potter had determined to mould a vessel full of honour and meet for His, the Master’s use, when He had first worked him into shape on the wheel of destiny, and then fixed his character for ever in the fiery furnace of affliction.

So, God grant, may He act towards us, visiting us sharply for our sins in order that we may forsake them, and then finally purifying us, even as He Himself is pure.

—Dean Ovenden.

Illustration

‘Once when teaching a class of boys at a reformatory school I asked them, “When did you feel worse, on the day when you knew that you had stolen, or on the day when the policeman caught you?” They answered in a chorus, “The day I was caught, sir.” The crime was nothing. It was the means by which they had attained their desires. Had they succeeded, they would have congratulated themselves on their skill, and that feeling of jubilation would have effectually silenced the voice of conscience speaking within. Such jubilation, doubtless, was felt by Jacob.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

SOWING AND REAPING

There are many lessons to be learnt from the life of Jacob, but at this time I will only ask you to look upon it as an illustration of the law that ‘whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’

I. Jacob deceived his father and his brother, and as a consequence of this, all his life long he suffered from deceit and ill-conduct on the part of those nearest to him. Laban by deceit forced upon him a wife whom he had no wish for, and compelled him to labour twice seven years for Rachel whom he loved; and ten times afterwards he changed his wages, seeking to gain an advantage over him. Simeon and Levi by deceit slew all the men of Shechem, and made it necessary for Jacob to abandon his home for fear of the vengeance of the neighbouring tribes. His favourite son was sold into slavery by his brothers, who deceived their father with the belief that he had been slain by a wild beast, and allowed him to continue in that belief, notwithstanding the agony of his sorrow. Reuben, the eldest by birth, and Judah, the first in dignity of his sons, were both guilty of grievous sins; even the innocent stratagem of his son Joseph was the cause of most painful anxiety. ‘Few and evil have the years of my life been,’ were the words he addressed to Pharaoh; and we cannot doubt that many a time in his later life he looked back to his own sinful act towards his father and brother, and repented bitterly of the faithlessness which had led him to seek by unlawful means that blessing which God had promised should be his, and which would undoubtedly have come to him by the order of God’s providence, if he had been willing to wait the appointed time.

We have seen how a sin committed years before, and bitterly repented of, was visited upon Jacob again and again till quite the end of his life. Shall we say that this is a sign that his sin has not been forgiven, that God’s anger is not turned away? On the contrary, he is the inheritor of God’s highest blessing, the one man honoured and approved of God beyond all others in his generation.

II. In him we may see the truth of the words, ‘whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth’; the more precious the metal the more carefully is it refined. If, then, there are any of us who are now reaping the crop of sorrow which has sprung up from the seeds of past sin, let us—

(a) Acknowledge that it is no mere chance which has brought it about, but that it is the voice of God calling us to repentance.

(b) Let us not be discouraged or look upon ourselves as special objects of God’s wrath. Chastening is not a sign of wrath, but of love to those who will take it as such, who place themselves meekly and trustfully in God’s hands, and pray that He will do with them as He sees best. If ever we are inclined to despair, let us look at those great saints of God, Jacob and David, and see how they were punished, and let us bear with patience and thankfulness what God sends.

(c) If there are any who are conscious of past sin unrepented of, which God seems to have passed over or forgotten, let the example of Jacob rouse them from their false security. If God did not forget the sin of Jacob, though it had been earnestly repented of and had received His forgiveness, is it likely that He can have forgotten yours? Let us all remember the solemn lesson that ‘whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,’ reap more or less here in this life, but reap fully and completely in the life to come.

—Rev. Professor Joseph B. Mayor.