Genesis 31:14

Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house

Inheritance for us

So asked Rachel and Leah of Jacob.

And we see how suggestive these historical touches in Old Testament story are, when vitalized by the spirit of the gospel. We think at once of the Saviour, who is the open door to the great Father’s house. There are multitudes who have lost their portions, and some are very sad and weary. Prodigal meets prodigal, and recounts the story of the painful way. Ruins always touch us with sadness; and “human hearts get ruinous in so much less time than stone walls do!”

I. THE CRY IS PERSONAL. Men do not ask, “Is there hope for the lost--the profligate, the vile?” but, “Is there hope for me?” The soldier lying wounded in the battle-field thinks of the home harvest-fields far away, and the soul amid its wounds and woes whispers, “I will arise and go to my Father. There is a home-returning way for me!”

II. THE CRY IS ANXIOUS. “Is there yet?” Once the soul was ready to surmise there might be! But is there now? when sin has consolidated into habit, when the door has been shut so often in the marred face of the Man of Sorrows! “My sin is ever before me,” is the great cry of conscience. We sympathize with human anxiety. We watch with moistened eyes the widow who asks, “Is there yet a table in the wilderness for me and my little ones?” In reply to the “yet,” let us answer, “Though thy sins be as scarlet, He shall make them white as wool”; “He shall blot out thy transgressions as a cloud, and thine iniquities as a thick cloud”; “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.”

III. THE CRY IS CHILDLIKE. “My Father’s house!” For we are, in one sense, all of us God’s offspring. True, we have lost likeness to Him and peace with Him; and only by faith can we become the spiritual sons of God. But there is memory of the lost estate in every heart. Man was made for God, and He is the only home of the soul. God gave us our earthly homes and relationships, to be parables of that great central truth. No word thrills us like “home”; no picture on Academy walls touches us like Provis’s interiors. And this is natural. For let home be dark or deserted, let the dove of peace leave that, let those sweet sanctities be desecrated, and no outside joys, no travels, no pursuits can make compensation! And to know the value of a home, you must lose one.

IV. THE CRY IS ANSWERED. Yes! in many parables, in many promises, in deeds of love and sacrifice. Faith leads all along the way, from justification to glory. But it were wrong to conceive of the inheritance as all future. Heaven does begin on earth, because the heavenly principles, purposes, and pleasures may be ours now. CONCLUSION. We close with the remembrance that there is welcome for us, room for us, reward for us. Have you ever stood outside a flower-show in the summer-time, and seen carriage after carriage drive up, with rustling silks and dazzling liveries and crested panels, pride and pomp entering in; and then caught the wistful face of a poor child at the gate, with another child in her arms, shut out from seeing God’s beautiful flowers? The poor, the blind, the maim, the halt, the prodigals of every type are welcome. What, does He want me? does He wait for me? has He asked for me? (W. M. Statham, M. A.)

A worldly-spirited reply

We have seen some things in the history of these women which have induced us to hope well of them, notwithstanding their many failings; but though in this case it was their duty to comply with the desire of their husband, and to own the hand of God in what had taken place between their father and him; yet there is something in their manner of expressing themselves that looks more like the spirit of the world, than the spirit which is of God. A right spirit would have taught them to remember that Laban, whatever was his conduct, was still their father. They might have felt it impossible to vindicate him; but they should not have expatiated on his faults in such a manner as to take pleasure in exposing them. Such conduct was but too much like that of Ham towards his father. And as to their acknowledging the hand of God in giving their father’s riches to their husband, this is no more than is often seen in the most selfish characters, who can easily admire the Divine providence when it goes in their favour. The ease, however, with which all men can discern what is just and equitable towards themselves, renders the love of ourselves a proper standard for the love of others, and will sooner or later stop the mouth of every sinner. Even those who have no written revelation have this Divine law engraven on their consciences: they can judge with the nicest accuracy what is justice to them, and therefore cannot plead ignorance of what is justice from them to others. (A. Fuller.)

Lessons

1. It becometh wives, especially in good families, to listen unto advice of husbands from God.

2. God can make them that disagree in a family sweetly to concur to do His work.

3. It is unnatural for children to find no portions in their father’s house, when they abound.

4. Such brands of cruelty are left upon unnatural fathers by the Spirit (Genesis 31:14).

5. It is cruel for fathers to use their children as slaves and make merchandize of them.

6. It is savage for parents to consume the substance of children for whom they should provide.

7. Such unnatural dealings, in God’s justice, alienate hearts of children from parents (Genesis 31:15).

8. It is fit to consider how God recompenseth cruelties of unnatural parents in depriving them of their children.

9. What God giveth to parents and children may be justly owned by them.

10. Good women will be free and helpful to their husbands to go and do whatever is the will of God unto them (Genesis 31:16). (G. Hughes, B. D.)