The Companion of the Way
by
H.C. Hewlett
1962
Moody Press
Chicago, Illinois
~ Out of print and in the public domain ~
The Patient Wrestler - Jacob
(Genesis 32)
I. THE SETTING -- GRACE AND GOVERNMENT
In the life of Jacob we see exemplified the discipline by which God
deals with the waywardness of His people and leads them on to His purposed goal.
How effective it was in Jacob's case is seen in the golden sunset of his life
and in his last words to his sons. Speaking to Joseph, he said: "God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of
Canaan, and blessed me . . . the God which fed me all my life long unto this
day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads" (Gen.
48:3, 15-16).
It was God who had blessed him,
God who had fed him,
and God, revealed as the Angel of the Lord, who had redeemed him from all
evil.
Jacob attributed nothing to self. All was of God. The psalmist in
his day bore this witness: "Not unto us, O LORD,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake" (Psa. 115:1). (Italics
mine). Jacob spoke likewise in his prayer at Peniel: "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy
servant" (Gen. 32:10).
God appeared to Abraham as the God of
glory; it was surely as the God of grace that He revealed Himself to Jacob.
The sleeping fugitive pillowed on the
stone at Bethel was arrested, not by the anger of the brother from whom he fled,
but by a sight of Him who seeks the unworthy and works with them to make them
living monuments of His ways in grace and in government.
In his
dream Jacob was given:
His First
Glimpse
of the realm of order and of light that lies far above
this world of sordidness and of sin.
He saw the way that led upward to
Heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it.
He saw
the Lord and heard His voice saying to him, "In
thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
Then to this promise God added that of His perpetual presence, "Behold, I am with thee, . . . for I will not leave
thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of" (Gen.
28:14-15).
The response of
Jacob to the heavenly vision was to take the stone which had been his pillow of
rest and raise it up as his pillar of testimony. Only that upon which we
have rested personally can be the substance of our witness, else our testimony
would be in word only and not in truth. God's acceptance of this response is
evident from His words in a later dream of Jacob: "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the
pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me" (Gen. 31:13).
Twenty years elapsed between Jacob's conversion at Bethel and the
experience at Penuel, and these showed how feebly he had learned the lessons of
the first dream. It had set before him
a life of rest, of heavenly-mindedness, of divine guardianship, and of witness,
but the years were marred by the scheming which so characterized his
behavior.
It is pitiful to see him engaged in a battle of cunning
with Laban. It is always contrary to the dignity of the people of God for them
to be striving with the people of the world, and that in worldly ways. Having
deceived his father, Jacob was deceived by his father-in-law.
As He Sowed, He Reaped
Only the
faithfulness of God sustained him, and delivered him from his sorry position at
Padan-aram.
Free at last from the troubles and toils of his service to
Laban, Jacob journeyed back to Canaan, but a new and sharper phase of the divine
discipline awaited him. At Bethel God had shown what He would do for him; at Penuel Jacob was to find what God
would do with him. Jacob's concern at
this time was his fear of Esau's vengeance. Jacob sent messengers to negotiate
with Esau, but the kindness of God, which foresaw all and provided for all,
anticipated Jacob's move.
"And Jacob
went on his way, and the angels of God met him" (Gen. 32:1). He had seen
them in his dream at Bethel. Once more they were revealed to him, and "he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of
that place Mahanaim [i.e., two hosts]" with evident allusion to his own
company of family and servants and the company of angels. So fluctuating was his
reliance on the power of God, in spite of his experience of God's keeping, that
when the word came, "Esau . . . cometh to meet
thee, and four hundred men with him," he "was greatly afraid and distressed." Was it not
enough that God's host had met him before Esau's could? Was it not sufficient in
this fresh crisis that God had shown to him as He would later to Elisha's
servant that "they that be with us are more than
they that be with them" (2 Kings 6:16)?
In one particular
especially Jacob is a picture of us all.
How prone we are to act as though God needed
some help to keep His Word!
Instead of waiting His fullness of
time for the fulfillment of His promises, we seek to take matters out of His
hand.
Rebekah was guilty of this in her counsel to Jacob to disguise
himself as Esau. Had she trusted God, she would have seen the blessing of Isaac
come to Jacob in God's way and would doubtless have been spared the sorrow of
the parting. The effect of her example was seen in Jacob through many years.
Ever restlessly scheming, he arranged his people and his property to minimize
the disaster of Esau's expected attack, and then turned to God to ask protection
from that which he feared. Evidently his shrewd strategy was his first line of
defense. How true to life!
How like him are we!
Nevertheless,
there was
Gold Among the
Dross.
In his extremity Jacob besought the Lord and reminded Him
of His promises and of His bidding. God has said, "Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I
will deal well with thee," and earlier at Bethel God had said, "I will surely do thee good." God will ever hear
the prayer of the one who reverently sets before Him His own promises. In spite
of the turmoil of his life, Jacob prized the promises, and confessed the mercy
and the truth with which God had kept His Word and blessed him. "With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am
become two bands." Of himself he said humbly, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and
of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant" (Gen. 32:10).
We are reminded of Paul's portrait of himself as "less than the least of all saints" (Eph. 3:8).
It may be that in Jacob's case the owning of his unworthiness had in it an
allusion to the deceit which had led to his becoming a fugitive, even as in
Paul's case there was the memory of his persecution of the Church.
In
answer to his prayer, God gave him far more than his one petition.
The suppliant asked for deliverance from
Esau; God gave him what was of greater importance -- victory over Jacob.
Little did he realize that before God could grant what he sought, He must first
bring him to a position of utter helplessness.
Still planning for
himself, and not asking God for guidance, he arranged a substantial present to
appease Esau, and said, "Afterward I will see
his face; peradventure he will accept of me" (Gen. 32:20). But God
purposed that he should first see another face and enjoy a greater
acceptance.
II. THE REVELATION -- GOD'S
WAYS NOT MAN'S WAYS
"And Jacob
was left alone" (Gen. 32:24). Again and again the place of loneliness has
been the place of transformation. Ofttimes the divine wisdom permits
circumstances in which the believer finds himself bereft. Friends, or health, or
wealth may be taken away.
The dreams of eager youth fail of fulfillment.
The stimulus of noble ambition is replaced by the weariness of frustration.
In that solitude One draws near who never forsakes His own.
He
has allowed the things that bewilder.
He has permitted the loneliness, that
He may satisfy the life with Himself.
No problem baffles Him. No
circumstance is beyond His overruling power. With Him the situation is never out
of hand.
It was when Job had been stripped of well-nigh all that the
Lord, who watched His tried servant, appeared to him in the storm and spoke such
words that Job replied at last, "I know that
thou canst do everything . . . I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear:
but now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:2, 5). In that revelation Job found
not only repentance but "the end of the
Lord" and proved that "the Lord is very
pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:11).
"And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking
of the day" (Gen. 32:24). To no created angel was this task entrusted.
Admittedly, He who thus dealt with Jacob was called "the angel" (Hos. 12:4), but this because He was
"the angel of the LORD" (see Gen. 31:11,
13, where the angel spoke of Himself thus: "I am
the God of Bethel," and Genesis 48:16, where Jacob spoke of Him as "the Angel which redeemed me"). In this passage
He is spoken of as a man, for His government was beautiful with a gentleness
which exactly met the patriarch's need. He had appeared not to overwhelm, but to
transform.
Not To Crush, But to
Bless
The touch which took away the human strength was the touch
of love that would not cause needless pain. The Lord said of His ways with
Ephraim as a people: "I drew them with cords of
a man, with bands of love" (Hos. 11:4). So He dealt with Jacob
personally. Nor is it otherwise in His dealings with us. At the Incarnation He
took humanity into union with His deity, so that He who has said, "Lo, I am with you alway" is rich toward us with
the fulness of both natures. Illimitable power and exquisite gentleness are
linked together, and the wisdom of God with the sympathy of personal experience
in weariness and suffering.
Nought else we are told of the manner of His
appearing to the patriarch. It was He who wrestled with him. He sought the mastery which alone could bless
Jacob's life, but self was strong in Jacob, and he resisted stubbornly till
daybreak.
Not until then did Jacob realize who it was who
wrestled with him, or the purpose of the mysterious conflict. The struggle went
on till the moment of the dawn, which suggested so vividly the spiritual
blessing of the scene, and the discipline suddenly became sharper. "When he saw that he prevailed not against him, he
touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of
joint, as he wrestled with him" (Gen. 32:25).
It was the end of
Jacob's physical prowess.
His power to war was gone.
What thoughts
must have surged through his heart! How should he meet Esau? Was this the end to
his prayer to his God?
Then came the knowledge of the Person of the
wrestler.
Who was this whose touch had such power but who nevertheless
refrained from using it till the dawn.
Who was this who had wrestled in
long patience?
Only One it could be, even Him who now said: "Let me go, for the day breaketh" (Gen. 32:26).
To Him he had prayed for deliverance from Esau, but now the prayer had been
answered in ways which Jacob had not contemplated. He now learned what many
another was to learn through the centuries, that the Lord says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways" (Isa. 55:8).
Jacob's expectation was in the line of
his strategy. The Divine response was to take from him his strength, that he
might
Cling to the Almighty
One.
Conscious of this, and broken in spirit as weakened in body,
Jacob "wept, and made supplication unto
him" (Hos. 12:4).
The day was breaking. Ahead lay its toils and
cares and the meeting with Esau. But Jacob clung still to his Lord, and said,
"I will not let thee go, except thou bless
me" (Gen. 32:26). Without His presence and His blessing Jacob was
helpless. That which he had wrought in the past was no longer possible to him.
Others must work, for "man goeth forth unto his
work and to his labour until the evening" (Psa. 104:23).
Jacob's
responsibility would now consist in guiding the development of the family from
whose twelve sons God would make a nation for Himself. Jacob was about to enter
the promised Land with those whom God had given him, and he must dwell in it as
become an heir of promise.
All this demanded an enhanced experience of
God and relationship with Him, and a renewed blessing.
God gave that
which was needed and conferred upon Jacob, as earlier upon Abraham, a new
dignity. The record now wraps itself around three names, and these we must note
in their turn.
Firstly, there is
The New Name
of the patriarch. Of the
man who clung to Him and sought His blessing God asked, "What is thy name?" (Gen. 32:27). Like a shaft
of heavenly light searching the inmost depths of the heart, there came the
question that brought from him the one word that summed up his ways by nature.
Coming from One whose eyes are as a flame of fire, the question drew forth the
confession of all the past. "And he said,
Jacob (supplanter)." No other word could he add. The name told its own
tale. Had not his brother said: "Is not he
rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times" (Gen.
27:36).
With Jacob this humbling experience, this revelation of himself
to himself, took the form of a crisis. It is not always so.
With some,
the conviction that preceded conversion is acute and dread.
With others,
especially those who have been converted in early life amid the privileges of a
godly home with its shelter from the ways of the world, there is the deepening
humiliation of lifelong discovery of the sinfulness of the heart.
But,
however it be, there can be no extenuation of that which we are apart from the
grace of God.
"And he said, thy name
shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel (i.e., striver with God): for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men,
and hast prevailed" (Gen. 32:28). The experience of the night was
preserved forever in the new name Israel. As God has wrestled with him, so had
he wrestled with God and had prevailed, yet not by his wrestling, but by his
acceptance of its purpose, and by his clinging in utter dependence upon God.
Jacob strove with God, and in the reference in Hosea 12:3, it renders the same
verb "had power." The emphasis in the giving of the name seems,
however, to be upon striving. Israel is
therefore a name of strength in weakness -- strength gained by clinging to the
strong One. It was not that the man henceforth exhibited always the
Israel character. At times he was manifestly Jacob, but the new dignity was his,
to be displayed increasingly in his life and to be passed on to the nation which
sprang from him, as a reminder that its triumph would ever come from God and
from His enabling grace.
Then there is
The Hidden Name
of the Wrestler.
"And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me,
I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my
name? And he blessed him there" (Gen. 32:29). The first act of Jacob
after receiving his new name was to make the request: "Tell me... thy name." In that wonderful moment
it was no idle curiosity that prompted his words but a true longing to know the
Blesser. This is ever the mark of healthy, spiritual life -- a consuming desire
for God Himself. Throughout the Scripture this longing is breathed, as in the
prayer of Moses: "that I may know thee"
(Exo. 33:13, see also Phil 3:10). The life given by God is satisfied only in its
source. "This is life eternal," said the
Lord Jesus, "that they might know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). When the
flame of desire to know God burns but feebly in our heart, it is time to search
our ways before Him, and to pray, "Wilt thou not
revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psa. 85:6).
That the name was not revealed to Jacob implies no wrongful motive on
his part but rather the mystery of that name. Its unfolding could proceed only
in keeping with the purposes of God for the manifestation of His beloved One.
When in his day Manoah asked the same One (the Angel of the LORD) His
name, He replied in words identical with those spoken to Jacob, "Why askest thou thus after my name?" (Judg.
13:18), but He added, "seeing it is
secret?" Here again is an anticipation of Isaiah 9:6, "His name shall be called Wonderful."
The name could be declared only when the time had come for the
revelation of His person, for the word "secret" spoken to
Manoah is the same word "Wonderful," in Isaiah 9:6 - His name.
He has been made known abundantly to us in His journey from God to God
(John 13:3), but the fulness of His name is known to no creation. "He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name" (Heb. 1:4). "God . . . hath . . .
given him a name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:9). "He had a name written, that no man knew, but he
himself" (Rev. 19:12). "No man knoweth
the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11:27).
That infinite name is
unfolded in every treasure of His creation, for creation is all His handiwork.
His name is told out in every wonder of the universe, the vastness of
which mocks our comprehension. Into its beauty of design and harmony earth's
greatest minds have delighted to search, but behind all its phenomena is He who
is its ultimate reality, for "these are parts of
his ways" (Job 26:14).
The name is unfolded in all the wonders of
redemption, for this, too, is the work of Him who redeemed us by His precious
blood. In the depths of His stoop, in the sufferings of his Cross, in His
exaltation from the tomb to God's right hand, and in the triumphs of His grace
in human lives, the name is declared.
But where else except in the heart
of the Father is that redemptive work and its cost fully known? The name is
unfolded in all the excellencies of His eternal being; it is the total of what
He is -- in His activities, in His relationships, and in His own Person.
The seeking of His name must
therefore be the true and eternal quest of the soul.
Finally,
there is
The Name of the Place
of the wrestling. When Jacob awoke at Luz, after the dream of the
ladder, he called the name of the place Bethel (the house of God), saying,
"This is none other but the house of God, and
this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:17), but the place of the wrestling
he called Peniel (the face of God), saying, "I
have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30).
How evident was the enrichment of his spiritual experience! The house of
God -- the face of God! Once it was God's abode; now it is God Himself!
III. THE BLESSING -- THE LIGHT
OF THE MORNING
No detail is given of the specific blessing
imparted to Jacob by God at Peniel, save that "he blessed him there" -- there, where the man
whose thigh He had touched bowed to the meaning of the discipline, and where a
mortal being conscious of the presence of God looked into His face and sought to
know His name.
The record throws a veil over the terms of the blessing.
Indeed, that which is between the soul and God can never be fully known by
another. Yet it was blessing imparted personally, and it strengthened the heart
of Jacob with its assurance of the certainty of the Lord's purpose for him.
Calm in its promise, he could face Esau and all the way that stretched
unseen into the future.
Beyond the wrestling, with the new dignity it
brought, and beyond the receiving of the blessing, sovereign and irrevocable,
was the supreme good of the sight of the face of God.
Jacob had thought
only of seeing Esau's face, but God had interposed the vision that alone can
satisfy. In so doing, God had taught
the lesson required not only by Jacob but by every generation of believers --
and by none more than ourselves -- that only as we have seen the face of God are
we equipped to see the face of men.
In the light of His face is
our salvation along the journey of life: "Turn
us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved . . . Turn
us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved . .
. Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be
saved" (Psa. 80:3, 7, 19), whether from the fear of men or from the
snares of this world, and we are enabled thankfully to say, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the
time that their corn and their wine increased" (Psa. 4:7). Without the
shining of His face, we are as other men. "Hide
not thy face from me," prayed the psalmist, "lest I be like unto them that go down into the
pit" (Psa. 143:7). To the believing heart that vision is its own
beatitude, and its wonder gleams throughout the Scriptures from the early
records to the last witness of Revelation, "They
shall see his face" (Rev. 22:4).
To the patriarch it was a matter
of awe that he should see the face of God and yet be permitted to live.
Likewise spoke Gideon and Manoah when they too, saw the Angel of the
LORD. In a sense, it was a glimpse beforehand of that which gives Heaven its
supreme blessedness, and therefore it spoke of acceptance with God. Such it was,
but not for Jacob's sake alone. He saw the face of One whom he called Redeemer:
"The Angel which redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers
Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the
earth" (Gen. 48:16), and we also, by faith, have gazed on the Saviour's
face and have been accepted for His sake.
Not for nought is it recorded
that as Jacob "passed over Penuel
The Sun Rose Upon Him" (Gen. 32:31).
Its gladdening warmth cheered his halting steps, but more than that, it
figured the rising upon his gaze of a greater Sun. The time is coming when upon
those that fear His name "the Sun of
righteousness [shall] arise with healing in his wings," and Israel's
long, dark night shall be over, and the King of glory "shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun
riseth, even a morning without clouds" (2 Sam. 23:4).
The day
came, and with it the meeting with Esau, but the overruling care of God brought
the brothers together not to strive but to weep.
God was faithful to His
servant and displayed the certainty of His promise, "I am with thee, and will keep thee."
So
will He be with us and keep us and lead through life's discipline till the dawn
of eternal day and the seeing face to face.
No comments:
Post a Comment