Genesis xxxii. 29 (continued)

When Paul says, that his preaching consisted npt in excellency of speech or human wisdom, be states something that. is applicable to the.whole of Scripture, which presents to darkened reason a labyrinth, out of which it sees no outlet, and. something that also very frequently applies to the ways in which God leads his people. Whet deep complaints are uttered by the man after God’s own heart in Psalm xxxviii.; from which, however, we will only adduce” the tenth verse, where he says,.* My strength faileth me.’ Strength is necessary in order to labor; and he who does not possess it, is incapable of the latter. TEe Christian must labor much. He must watchj pray, deny himself; preserve himself unspotted from the world; lay aside the sin which so r;isily besets him, and renders him. slothful, put on the armor of light; believe — -because without faith it is impossible to please God’; love — because only he that loveth abideth in God, and God in him; in short, to say every thing in few words, he must ’ work out his own salvation with fear and trembling.’ Let us not, think’ to excuse ourselves with the idea that we are unable*to do this; for the debtor menti&ned by our Lord, was delivered over to the tormentors, just because he was not able to pay.

David was able to do it. It is true, he never imagined he did it perfectly, but confessed that no one can understand his errors; yet he succeeded. What did he not possess, whom Saul called a stripling, whose form was more pleasing than great; what courage did he possess, and how much did he accomplish! A lion and a bear once attacked his flock, and carried off a lamb; but the little beautiful boy ran after him, smote him, and rescued the lamb from his jaws; and on its attacking himself, he caught it by the beard, smote it, and slew it. O pleasing type of Christ! The fair and ruddy youth had courage enough to go forth against the Philistine, whose height was six cubits and a span, when every one else fled before him. His brother Eliab angrily reproached him for being presumptuous, and thought he would do better to go and tend the few sheep in the wilderness. But it was not presumption; it was confidence in the living God. The fair-faced courageous youth probably did not at that time anticipate that he should ever compose such a Psalm as the 38th; and lament in it that his strength failed him. If his strength had departed, he was no longer able to accomplish that which he could otherwise have performed, and which was at other times easy to him; it was now become difficult, and even impracticable. ‘I am feeble, and sore broken,’ says he in verse 8; ‘I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart;’ according to Psalm lxxvii., he was so troubled that he could not speakmuch less accomplish anything. What was the reason of so much wretchedness? His iniquity was the cause of it; on which account he at length says, ‘I know, 0 Lord, that thy judgments are just, and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me.’

. What was it that failed him? Not all strength in the general, but his own strength. * My strength faileth me.’ Before, he had been able to do much that was good; but this is now at an end. No wonder that he began to be troubled about his sin. In verse 17, we are told he was ready to halt. This was a severe trial to self-love, self-righteousness, and to the life of self. But whom the Lord loveth, he overthrows in this manner, and gives them over unto death.

What was the result of this guidance? He never obtained his own strength again, nor did he wish for it; God has no pleasure in the strength of a man. Nothing was left him, but to declare his iniquity, and to hope in the Lord; who according to Psalm lxviii., gives his people might and power. His own strength was then no longer needed; he was then strong when he was weak, and great, by being humbled. Then he no longer said, ‘I care;’ but, * I lay me down and sleep in peace, for thou, Lord, only causest me to dwell in safety.’

Strange beginning! glorious end! Such is also the ‘case in the history of Jacob.

GENESIS XXXII. 29.
And he blessed him there.

Jacob now receives the blessing on the very spot on which he had been obliged to wrestle. We will consider this a little more minutely.

Israel had entreated a blessing, and that with a fervor and resolution which would take no refusal: * I will not let thee go except thou bless me.’ This was the Lord’s own work in the soul of his servant. It was a prayer according to his will; and ’ if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.’ This prayer flowed from a profound and vital feeling, from a heartfelt consciousness of the necessity of a superior communication of grace. It was a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, which Jesus pronounces blessed, on account of the satisfaction attendant upon it, and to which the latter is secured.

What was it that Jacob particularly desired in imploring a blessing 1 He had already a sufficiency of earthly wealth; and in spiritual things he probably did not regard himself as one who has no part in the Divine blessing, and who is not an object of the good pleasure and love of God; by no means. He intended by itifirst, a confirmation of the blessing received from his father, in virtue of which he was to be the progenitor of the promised Savior of the world. This is proved by his high esteem and love for the Redeemer. Esau, his brother, might have had the first claim to it, on account of his being the first-born; but he thought so little of the Redeemer, that he sold his birth-right, with all its privileges, for a mess of pottage; — a figure of all those who esteem temporal blessings, and sensible and sinful delights, more highly than the favor of God. Esau obtained what he sought — earthly prosperity; and in this respect far exceeded Jacob. The latter laad only a sufficient number of servants, whilst Esau could take the field with four hundred armed men; which was at that time a great number. The children ni lOsau were immediately termed princes, (ch. xxxvi.), and they were numerous. Two of them were called Eliphaz and Teman; and as these names were applied to Job’s friends, it is evident that they were the delants of Esau. As they make no mention whatever of the Redeemer in their discourses with Job — to whom the latter bears such an excellent testimony, and who is also mentioned by Elihu — we justly conclude that Esau troubled himself little about it, and that his descendants followed in his steps; who, in the case of Job, only regarded temporal prosperity as a sign of Divine favor, and the being deprived of it as a proof of the Divine displeasure; and hence declared Job to be an ungodly man, by which they at the same time proved their own righteousness; according to which they regarded their temporal prosperity as a reward of their virtue, and inferred from Job’s affliction, that he possessed no virtue. They were hirelings; hence the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, * My wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends, for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath:’ * My servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept; lest I deal with you after your folly.’ If before, they would only hear of their own righteousness, and not of a mediator, tin y were now obliged to be content to accept of Job’s mediation, and hear that the Divine displeasure w;is kindled against them, notwithstanding their ireat wisdom and virtue, in which they thought they so much excelled Job; and they were in great danger of experiencing the most painful proofs of it. God regarded all their boasted wisdom as folly, however much they had said that was true and excellent; and testified, respecting his servant Job, whose whole wisdom was at last comprised in this single expression, ( I know that my Redeemer liveth,’ notwithstanding all that he had uttered in his haste, ‘Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.’. We must hope that in this manner, their own wisdom and righteousness were in mercy put to shame, and that they learnt with Job to comfort themselves with a Redeemer, and with Elihu to look unto the One of a thousand, who says, ( Deliver him from going down to the pit.’

Esau and his posterity soon established themselves in Mount Seir, and had already kings of their own, whilst Israel’s descendants were still in circumstances of difficulty; as a proof that the Divine favor and temporal sufferings may not only well exist together, but that the cross generally accompanies grace, and that those are not necessarily the children of God, with whom every thing succeeds according to their wish. Jacob called his life a pilgrimage, and thus proved that he sought a country beyond the limits of the visible world. He gladly chose Christ, even with the cross; which mind was afterwards manifested very gloriously in Moses, that true Israelite, when he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season!

But what ideas must Esau have had of the blessing of God, on comparing himself with Jacob? The latter called him * his Lord,’ and himself ’ his servant.’ And such it really seemed, according to outward appearance. “Ah,” may Esau have thought, “what a superstitious fool I was, to attach so much value to my father’s blessing, as to weep because my brother forestalled me in it! How little reason I had for doing so! How every thing succeeds according to my wish! And my brother, how does it fare with him and his blessing? It ,is only superstition. And according to reason, he was in the right. But did Jacob think so too 1 Did he think,” What am I profited in being preferred to Esau? Wherein consists my preference? In suffering, in persecution, in misfortune’?” Did he think,” The blessing was of no importance, and it was very unnecessary for my mother to have been so anxious to appropriate it to me?’ O no! His Redeemer was his treasure, which he would not exchange for any consideration. He regarded all he possessed as a gracious present of the good pleasure of God; and this made the little more precious to him, than the abundance which Esau possessed, and respecting which, it was doubtful whether he possessed it in wrath or from favor. David preferred spending a day in the courts of God’s house, to a thousand in the tabernacles of the ungodly. Israel desired the confirmation of the promised blessing, by which, according to the assurance given to his predecessor Abraham, all the nations of the earth should be blessed in his seed. This he preferred to everything else; and that justly. * I have enough,’ said Esau; but Jacob, ‘I have abundance; for whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Though flesh and heart fail, yet God is the strength of my heart, and my portion.’ This confirmation was Israel’s primary wish.

The second thing of which he was rendered desirous was a deeper establishment in grace, greater liberty in it, a greater facility in boldly resigning and committing himself to it, by which he might be divested of a multitude of anxious cares. He had received the blessing from his father: he had experienced repeated confirmations of it from the Lord; he had received glorious promises, and the most striking proofs of his kind providence and goodness; but all this had not produced the effect upon his state of mind, befitting such gracious intimations. He was still subject to much anxiety and fear respecting Esau. One would be inclined to think and say, ‘How is it possible, that with such marks of favor, and after such experience, he could still be apprehensive that Esau might slay him, together with his children, since the promise of God would then be rendered void?” Jacob was fully sensible how painful and unbecoming this was, without being able to alter it 5 and felt compelled to apply to God in prayer, that, together with the promise, he would grant him the ability duly to co-operate with it.

Such is also frequently the case with the Christian. After having been so often enabled to receive the promise of the Gospel, and Jesus Christ himself, with joyful confidence, and to swear, ‘In the Lord have I righteousness and strength;’ after having been a hundred times translated from darkness to light, and from pressure into peace; after having been most firmly assured of his having been received into favor, and frequently inundated with consolation, and been so often able to trust in the Lord, that he will surely perform what he has promised, he becomes in some measure ashamed of always doubting of his reception to favor, as he did at the beginning: yet still he possesses no real peace and rest for his soul, and cannot yet fully commit himself, with filial confidence and resignation, to God, and all his concerns to the Lord, and still feels occasionally fear and anxiety. There are many, indeed, who think it cannot be otherwise here below; and that every one must satisfy himself with it as well as he is able. There are also others who have a superior idea of grace. They know, beyond a doubt, that grace is more powerful than sin; that the heart may be established with grace; that the knowledge of Jesus Christ may be exceedingly abundant, so as to cause us to count all things but loss for it; that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, may make us free from the law of sin and death; that we may be purged from an evil conscience, and that we may find rest for our souls.; that from being children we may become men and fathers in Christ, and that our hearts may be knit together in love, unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In short, the individual is compelled to form no mean, but great ideas of a really evangelical and New Testament state of grace, with respect to enlightening peace, sanctification, and power, as is only just and reasonable. And not only so, but he also feels a powerful hunger and thirst after righteousness — -after this perfect liberty, faith, and love; and finds himself compelled to declare with Jacob, ‘I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.’

It is therefore no longer single, transient enlightenings and seasons of refreshment which he desires, but a dwelling and abiding of Christ in the heart, a walking before him and in him, and a being rooted in him. Be it that the soul is not clearly conscious of this; yet still there is an impelling principle of the Spirit of God within her, which desires, with David, to be translated out of a strait place into a large room. Thus it manifested itself also in the disciples, when they prayed, 4 Lord, increase our faith!” Lord, teach us how to pray!’ because they could no longer be satisfied with their former mode of believing and praying. ‘Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,’ said they; and Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit, who should satisfy all their desire. Paul was not satisfied with the believing Corinthians, but calls them babes and carnal; nor with the Hebrew Christians, ’ for when for the time they ought to have been teachers, they needed that one should teach them again, which were the first principles of the oracles of God.’ He says to the Galatians, that he must travail again in birth with them, until Christ be formed in them. Christ reproves his disciples for being so devoid of understanding; and Peter says, i Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’

No one, however, can add one cubit to his stature, nor make a hair white or black. Without Jesus, believers can do nothing, not even think any thing good. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do that which is well pleasing to him. Our nature is never to be trusted, however pious it may appear to be, and then even the least of all; for from motives of mere self-love and self-complacency it may seek to grow and be something superior; hence also it is said, ‘Mind not high things.’ We ought not to take pleasure in ourselves. Our self-love is shrewd enough to take pleasure in making a display of gifts, grace, and a lofty standing, to regard them as a prey, and to let itself be seen by others in such array. It will gladly pass with Simon the sorcerer for some great one. This desire to become something may be the motive for much labor, effort, and diligence, in things which in themselves are holy and good; and a long time may elapse before the individual himself perceives it. We may be, or seek to be, superior Christians in our own eyes or those of others, and yet it may all be nothing; for what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God But the gracious path he takes, is always that of bringing to nought that which is, in order that he may be all in all.

When was Jacob blest? When did he receive the new and glorious name? WTien was he commended? Only after the wondrous conflict. And what occurred in the latter? Did he heroine increasingly stronger? Thus we naturally imagine it; and, according to our opinion, such is the mode of procedure. First, the individual succumbs under the power of his adversaries; he then begins to struggle; whilst doing so, he increases in strength; at length he rises up, and treads his foe beneath his feet. Such is the idea reason forms of it. But with Israel, the case was entirely reversed. He begun the contest with his whole strength; which however gradually decreased; at length it entirely disappeared when his hip was dislocated. The conflict did not indeed cease then, but was changed into an entirely different method of warfare, which consisted in his throwing himself upon the neck of his opponent, who now became his only support. And the very moment when his strength forsook him, his wondrous antagonist saw that he could not prevail over Jacob, and declared himself vanquished. This is extremely strange; but the ways of the Lord are right. Thus the Lord continues to annihilate that in his children which is, that he may be all in all.

On the whole, we must recollect, that real, genuine religion consists in a very essential experience of sin and grace, of our own misery and God’s glory, of our own weakness and God’s strength, of our own blindness and God’s wisdom; and remember, at the same time, that in reality we understand nothing more of it than what we experience. We must learn to know that God has interwoven the cross into all his providential dealings, and that the old man gradually bleeds to death upon it under them. The Scriptures speak of a salutary crucifixion and a dying with Christ, as well as a rising and being made alive again with him. Even as the latter is something very sacred and glorious — so the former, on the contrary, like every other mode of being put to death, cannot take place without anxiety and distress, as little as Jacob’s conflict could be carried on without pain and tears. Before Israel was delivered out of Egypt, their distress ahad reached its height; and Paul always bore about him the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Christ might also be manifested in him.

When the disciples were about to be elevated to a higher state of grace, enlightening faith, and sanctification, their souls fell previously into great spiritual travail at the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, in which they wept and mourned. It is extremely easy to talk of religious subjects and exalted states, and self-love can take great pleasure in so doing. But where essential grace exists, there all that is mere talk infallibly ceases; because all foundation for it is taken away, and if the individual be inclined to glory, it must be in his weakness. ‘I thank thee that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me and helpest me.’ A life of believing dependence, in which the individual boasts only of the Lord, is in truth and reality a rare phenomena.

Now if the Lord has wrought in a soul an ardent hunger after a genuine state of grace, he conducts.it thither in the way which is best pleasing to him; and, by means which his manifold wisdom selects for the purpose — means and ways which mostly seem to Reason any thing else than suitable, and appear to her ever the very reverse. For they are in conformity to the saying, ‘He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.’ Reason, which is blind in the ways of God, hopes to become increasingly richer and stronger in itself, and to require less and less the help of the Lord. But it is just the contrary! Christ increasingly becomes the one and the all, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; so that out of him, we can neither believe nor love, neither think nor desire anything good, neither hope nor be patient; and yet we are able to do all this, and even more, through Christ which strengthened us. Thus Jacob also, in the end, could neither stand nor walk. And it is then that praying without ceasing becomes easy to us, and that all that is necessary to life and to godliness is given without ceasing to us, and that the Christian has nothing, yet possesses all things, is weak and yet strong, is nothing, and hence is ablfc to do all things.

The Lord blessed Jacob. This was an actual reply to Israel’s question, ‘Tell me, I pray thee, What is thy name?’ The Patriarch experienced it internally. His former fear departed from his soul, like the dawning of the day expels the shades of night. Even as by its pleasing light the refreshing dew descends upon the grass — so a heavenly peace descended soothingly into the distressed soul of the weary Patriarch. The wild animals retired into their caves, and instead of their horrifying roar, the birds of heaven chanted their morning hymn, and Jacob’s terrific idea of ruin and destruction dissolved into confident hope. The thought of threatening Esau and his four hundred men, no longer terrified him; he was overcome; and Jacob, more defenceless than yesterday, was to day, although lame, as bold as a young lion. He no longer needed to look at the armed host. He knew in whom he believed, though Esau were to march against him with four thousand instead of four hundred men. His heart was enlarged in peaceful confidence in his God.

Thus the Lord blessed him, not in word, but by an essential impart at ion of his inward grace, which far exceeds all reason.

O glorious communication, more precious than if his mind had been refreshed by words, and literal promises, the effect of which is seldom wont to be of long duration!. O what mercy, when it is not single alleviations that are vouchsafed to us, and which are soon followed by new distresses; but when it is given us to ‘• come up out of the wilderness like pillars of perfume,’ and to lean upon our beloved; and when it is said, “How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter!” What mercy, when it is granted us in future to act in a becoming manner towards’ the Friend of our souls, and to come boldly to the mercy seat; quietly to walk forwards in the profoundest poverty of Spirit, in genuine sincerity and complete faith; and when our state is like that olBhe Apostle, described in the words, * I am crucified with Christ. Now I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and tin- life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

In this blessing, every thing is comprehended which is requisite for our commencement and progress, and our awakening and deeper establishment; — in a word, the essential appropriation, by the Holy Spirit, of the blessings of salvation purchased by Christ, and the Holy

Spirit himself. When Jesus, at the close of his residence on earth, and as a pre-intimation of his employment in heaven, lifted up his hands, and blessed his disciples, they no longer hid themselves behind closed doors from fear of the Jews; they began to praise and give thanks; they assembled together openly of one accord in the temple, for prayer and supplication. Thus the Lord first awakened in the mind of the Patriarch an urgent craving after the blessing, so that he could affirm and say, f I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.’ The Lord then let him wait awhile, that he might be the more profoundly conscious, that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy; and in order that he might be the more completely emptied of all his own activity: and - then he blessed him there, on the very spot .where he had been obliged to wrestle. Hence the place became very memorable to him, and he called it Peniel — the face of God.

It was indeed worth the while; for such a blessing is every thing. In earthly things it causes the seed to grow, the fruit of the vine not to deceit the hope, business to succeed, and prevents loss and injury; for the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; ability ‘is not sufficient for the procuring of a maintenance, nor prudence for the acquisition of wealth. If the Lord do not build the house, they labor in vain that build it; unless the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain. It is in vain to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for he giveth it his beloved sleeping. In vain thou weariest thyself in tht- multitude of thy ways, and takest thought in vain to add one cubit to thy stature. But the Lord’s blessing maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow with it: everything then comes as of itself. ‘Bless me also, cried Esau, and yet did not obtain the blessing; as a proof that even earnest and real longing after the blessing is the Lord’s work in the soul. Ah, Esau the elder still to have the blessing, and to be something great and powerful: SL t-ks to compel God to regulate the way of salvation according as he thinks best, and to be righteous and perfect in himself. But in this he will never succeed; he will not obtain the blessing, however much he may murmur and complain. The less, the younger, the new man receives it, but only when the hip of self is dislocated, when it is at length said to him, ‘I have chosen thee, thou .art mine.’

To Him be the kingdom, and the power, and the
“lory, for ever and ever! Amen.