Paul sets himself to the collecting, from the history of patriarchs and others, examples of the power of faith. Inspired as be was, we may not doubt that the instances which he selects are at least as strong as any which the histories present. Yet they do not always seem so. In many cases, had the selection been left with ourselves, we should not have fixed on the same example as St. Paul; so that we have cases in which what men would account best is not so accounted by Him who readeth the heart. In regard, for instance, to our text: the life of the patriarch Jacob was a singularly eventful one; many and great were the occasions which it furnished for the exercise of faith. Would this, we ask, have been the fact on which an uninspired writer would have fastened when choosing out of the history of Jacob what might best illustrate the faith which the patriarch had in God? Hardly, I think; more especially as Jacob blessed his own sons as well as those of Joseph; so that, even if we fix on the dying scene as most demonstrative of faith, we should probably not have taken the benediction on Ephraim and Manasseh in preference to that on some one of the twelve tribes. Indeed, when you remember that in blessing his son Judah Jacob delivered the illustrious prediction, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come,” and thus displayed faith in the promised Messiah, it may not be easy to understand how his faith could be more conspicuous in blessing Joseph’s sons, seeing that he seems to have predicted their temporal increase and greatness. This, however, it is which we must now endeavour to do. We may not, indeed, be able to prove to you that the selected instance is the strongest which the history furnishes, but we may at all events ascertain that it thoroughly establishes the power of the principle which it is quoted to illustrate. Now there is one very marked point on which we may fasten, to draw from it an illustration of the patriarch’s faith; and this is, the adoption of Joseph’s children for his own--an adoption, you observe, on which the dying man dwells with all possible earnestness; for, not content with having already said, “Thy two sons are mine,” he makes it part of his final benediction, as though the “ redeeming Angel” could do nothing more glorious for the lads: “Let my name be named on them, and the name of my father’s Abraham and Isaac.” And what shall we say of this eagerness of Jacob to engraft into his own family Manasseh and Ephraim? He seems to make it his object, and to represent it as a privilege, that he should take the lads out of the family of Joseph, though that family was then among the noblest in Egypt, and transplant them into his own, though it had no outward distinction but what it derived from its connection with the other. It seems to me, as I stand by the bedside of Jacob, as though two wholly different processions must have passed before his mind--the one a procession of human power and pomp, the other of poverty and shame, though with the favour of God and employment in His service. In the first procession, the procession of splendour and even sovereignty, the sons of Joseph seem born to take part. They had only to remain incorporated among the Egyptians, and theirs, in all human probability, would be the wealth and the majesty which passed with so stately a step before the dying man’s vision. In the second procession, the procession of tribulation and hardship, the leading figures are those of Jacob’s own children; the failing father discerns Judah and Simeon and Dan amongst the victims of oppression and the wrestlers for liberty. And it is for Jacob to determine whether he shall frame his parting blessing so as to leave Manasseh and Ephraim in the first procession, or so as to transfer them to the second. And was there no temptation to prefer the present to the future--the dignities of earth to the less palpable advantages of being numbered with a people set apart by God? There was but one principle which could have nerved the patriarch for doing as he did; nay, but one which could have justified him therein. Had he not been thoroughly confident in the Word of the Lord; had he not possessed an un-doubting assurance that no amount of temporal advantages could compensate the want of spiritual blessing--that poverty and contempt endured in the service of God were incalculably preferable to opulence and glory enjoyed in the service of sin--he could hardly have been bold enough, and we could hardly have applauded him, in the desire that his own name and the name of his father Isaac might be named upon the lads. But whilst we admit this we equally admit the greatness of the exhibited faith when the expiring patriarch decided for the procession made up of the suffering people of God, and not for that which was composed of the great ones of the earth. You have but to contemplate Jacob as executing a deed by which Manasseh and Ephraim were transferred from a position of almost regal eminence to one of dependence and poverty, and you must all acknowledge that it was by faith--aye, and by faith so conspicuous and illustrious, as that it deserved to be singled out when an apostle was searching through past ages for examples--that it was “by faith” that “Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph.” We should further observe the peculiarity of the language which he employs with regard to his Preserver, and his decided preference of the younger brother to the elder, notwithstanding the remonstrance of Joseph. There was illustrious faith in both. He speaks of the “Angel which had delivered him from all evil”; and desires that this Angel might bless his grandsons. And whom did Jacob mean by this “Angel”? Certainly no finite, no created being. He speaks of this Angel as God; as having “ redeemed him from all evil.” There is music, there is gospel in this word “redeemed.” It were hard to persuade me that it had no reference to the finished work of Christ. Redemption from all evil--this redemption attributed to an Angel or Messenger, whose appearance had been that of a man, but in whom the patriarch recognised God--what is this but the New Testament on the page of the Old? But whilst thankful for our own superior advantages, we ought greatly to admire that faith which could apprehend something of the mystery of redemption when there were but yet few and feeble notices of God’s wondrous design; which could trace the movements of a Divine Being in the rare appearance of the Angel of the covenant; which could detect in strange and solemn actions parables of the world’s deliverance from the consequence of the Fall. And thus was Jacob’s faith displayed in his parting benediction. Though, as we have said, it was not only in the words that he uttered that Jacob showed faith. There was faith in the disposition of the hands, in the guiding them wittingly, so that the left was on the elder’s head, the right on the younger. Not, we believe, without a typical design was it so often ordered of God that the younger son should be preferred to the elder. Such a preference was almost characteristic of the earlier dispensations. It occurred so frequently that we can hardly doubt that God designed to fix attention upon it as illustrating in some way His purposes towards the world. And if the preference of the younger to the elder were a type under the earlier dispensations of that great revolution which should follow the introduction of the gospel, does it not add vastly to the exhibition of faith in the patriarch Jacob, that when speaking of the redeeming Angel he should have “guided his hands wittingly,” and have refused, though entreated, to follow the order of nature, and bless Manasseh and Ephraim according to the birthright? Coupling the words with the action--the mention of a Divine Being, which redeemed him from all evil, with the resolute preference of the younger to the elder--I could almost say that we have the gospel preached, and the effect of the preaching accurately predicted. And I take it as a proof of the faith of Jacob that he persisted in setting Ephraim before Manasseh. His own father, Isaac, had acted differently; for though aware that Jacob, the younger, was to be preferred before Esau, the elder, he still sought to gratify parental partiality, and would have given, had not his purpose been defeated, the blessing to the firstborn; but Jacob betrayed no wavering on this occasion, though it could not have been other than painful to him to thwart the wishes of Joseph, and thus to make his last act on earth one of disappointment to the son whom he so tenderly loved. It was faith which upheld the dying man, and caused his parting word and deed to be so significant. Stand by the dying patriarch. What speaks he of? “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil.” Nay, whom is he addressing if not the Lord Jesus Christ, though it required indeed a strong vision to “see Christ’s day,” then so remote? How guides he his hands, though Joseph would change the direction? He is transferring the birthright, preferring the younger to the elder, and thus predicting not merely what must pain Joseph, as showing Ephraim greater than Manasseh, but what must pain himself, as showing the Jews, his own descendants, giving place to the Gentiles. Ah! see and hear all this, and you will see, I think, that St. Paul, commemorating what was most illustrious in the faith of early days, should have given as one example--“By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph.” But the apostle adds one more passage, which we have not taken into the account: whilst endeavouring to make you aware of the faith displayed by Jacob, he speaks of the patriarch as “worshipping, leaning upon the top of his staff.” The fact, first of all, of Jacob’s worshipping may be taken as proving his faith. For what has the dying man to do with worshipping unless he be a believer in another state of being; unless he believe that death is not annihilation, but that he is about to appear before God in judgment? In the act of dissolution a man can have nothing to ask of God if he suppose himself about to perish with the brute. Whilst living he would have to worship God, though he were not or might not know himself immortal; but when dying he must at least think it possible that the soul will survive the body, else there is no place whatsoever, no subject for prayer. But it is commemorated of Jacob, not only that he worshipped, but that he worshipped “leaning upon the top of his staff.” This leaning upon the staff is given as an additional evidence of Jacob’s faith. But what made it such? Indeed, this is not easy to answer; but we may conjecture where we can make no pretention to certainty.
Jacob had known much of poverty and trouble; as an exile from his home, he had wandered in strange lands, with only his staff for his companion; and he may have always preserved this staff as a memento of eventful pilgrimage. When appealing earnestly to God before his meeting with Esau, he says, “With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.” He contrasts, you see, his former with his present condition. He had then nothing but his staff, whereas now his numerous family and flocks make up “two bands.” The staff is appealed to as the emblem of his poverty. May it not, then, have been always such to Jacob? May it not have been kept in the days of his prosperity as a memento of the days of his adversity? (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Jacob’s deathbed
I. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, LEANING UPON THE TOP OF HIS STAFF. What a picture of human frailty! What an illustration of the touching words of the ninetieth psalm, that the very “strength “ of old men “ is labour and sorrow!” “The glory of young men is their strength”; but they have need to consider that in extreme age “the keepers of the house tremble,” and even “ the grasshopper is a burden.” But we have more here than the patriarch’s bodily frailty. He was worshipping; and he had studiously put his body, though in his feebleness it required no small effort to do so--into the best posture for that solemn work. In worship bodily attitude profiteth little. But it is not, therefore, a matter of absolute indifference. God is to be glorified in our bodies as well as in our spirits. The seraphim are represented as covering their faces and their feet with their wings when they adore in His presence.
II. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, WORSHIPPING. Men generally die as they live; and Jacob’s death-bed exercise was in fine keeping with his life. He had his infirmities; but he was a man who, with all his infirmities, had ted a devout life, a life of worship. He raised his altar to God wherever he went; he breathed much of the atmosphere of that “ better country,” the ceaseless employ of which is worship; and now that he was on the verge of it, we behold him worshipping.
1. It doubtless included confession--humble self-denying, self-abasing confession. Some persons talk much of looking back from a death-bed on a well-spent life. The good man, in so far as he has differed from others, knows who made him to differ. But in the review of the past, Oh, how little he sees that he can contemplate with satisfaction; and how much to lay him in the dust, and to strip him of all confidence in the flesh!
2. It doubtless included thanksgiving. What grateful emotions must have fired his bosom, as he thought of all the way in which the Lord had led him, so signally fulfilling the promises made to him.
3. It doubtless included prayer, properly so called, that is, petition, supplication. He had yet to take the solemn step into eternity. And we may be sure that, in view of it, he implored dying grace, with all the importunity of “a prince with God.”
III. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, BLESSING THE SONS OF JOSEPH. What is that to us? Much in many ways: in particular, it reads to u q one great lesson. It says to us, Be ye useful to the last. Be ambitious to do good, be ambitious to bless, not only living, but dying. And what opportunities of good-doing does a death-bed like Jacob’s furnish? If it shall be our lot to be laid on such a death-bed; if we shall have the possession of our reason; if we shall have freedom from agonising pain; if we shall have the requisite strength of body; if we shall be surrounded by dear friends eager to catch every syllable that shall fall from our lips:--Oh, will it not be well that our words be words of blessing? Will it not be well that they hear them rising to the throne for a blessing on them; and directing, entreating, and charging them to walk in the way in which the blessing runs? Parting words, words uttered in death’s parting, how peculiarly impressive and memorable they are, and what a blessing has often been in them!
IV. SEE JACOB, WHEN A-DYING, EXEMPLIFYING THE POWER OF FAITH. In all that we have now been looking at, we have been witnessing the working, the solace, the joy, the victory, of faith. And a great sight it is, to see faith not only enduring to the end, but supporting and cheering the heart when “ the earthly house of this tabernacle” is falling, and triumphing in the last and solemn hour. (W. Marshall, D. D.)
Dying in faith
I. IT IS AN EMINENT MERCY WHEN FAITH NOT ONLY HOLDS OUT TO THE END, BUT WAXETH STRONG TOWARDS THE LAST CONFLICT WITH DEATH, as it was with Jacob.
II. It is so also to be able by faith, in the close of our pilgrimage, TO RECAPITULATE ALL THE PASSAGES OF OUR LIVES, IN MERCIES, TRIALS, AFFLICTIONS, SO AS TO GIVE GLORY TO GOD WITH RESPECT TO THEM ALL, as Jacob did in this place.
III. THAT WHICH ENLIVENS AND ENCOURAGETH FAITH AS TO ALL OTHER THINGS IS A PECULIAR RESPECT TO THE ANGEL, THE REDEEMER BY WHOM ALL GRACE AND MERCY IS COMMUNICATED TO US.
IV. IT IS OUR DUTY SO TO LIVE IN THE CONSTANT EXERCISE OF FAITH, AS THAT WE MAY RE READY AND STRONG IN IT WHEN WE ARE DYING.
V. Though we should die daily, yet THERE IS A PECULIAR DYING SEASON, WHEN DEATH IS IN ITS NEAR APPROACH, WHICH REQUIRES PECULIAR ACTINGS OF FAITH.
VI. In all acts of Divine worship, whether solemn or occasional, it is our duty TO DISPOSE OUR BODIES INTO SUCH A POSTURE OF REVERENCE AS MAY REPRESENT THE INWARD FRAME OF OUR MINDS. SO did Jacob here, and it is reckoned as an act of duty and faith.
VII. THERE IS AN ALLOWANCE FOR THE INFIRMITIES OF AGE AND SICKNESS, IN OUR OUTWARD DEPORTMENT IN DIVINE WORSHIP, SO THAT THERE BE AN INDULGENCE TO SLOTH OR CUSTOM, BUT THAT AN EVIDENCE OF A DUE REVERENCE OF GOD AND HOLY THINGS BE PRESERVED. These postures which are commended in Jacob would not, it may be, become others in their health and strength. (John Owen, D. D.)
Jacob worshipping on his staff
“When he was a dying.” Death is a thorough test of faith. Beneath the touch of the skeleton finger shams dissolve into thin air, and only truth remains; unless indeed a strong delusion has been given, and then the spectacle of a presumptuous sinner passing away in his iniquities is one which might make angels weep. The text tells us that the patriarch’s faith was firm while he was a-dying, so that he poured forth no murmurs, but plentiful benedictions, as he blessed both the sons of Joseph. May your faith and mine also be such that whenever we shall be a-dying our faith will perform some illustrious exploit that the grace of God may be admired in us.
I. His BLESSING.
1. His blessing the sons of Joseph was an act of faith, because only by faith could he really give a blessing to any one. He believed God. He believed that God spoke by him; and he believed that God would justify every word that he was uttering. Faith is the backbone of the Christian’s power to do good: we are weak as water till we enter into union with God by faith, and then we are omnipotent. We can do nothing for our fellow-men by way of promoting their spiritual interests if we walk according to the sight of our eyes; but when we get into the power of God, and grasp His promise by a daring confidence, then it is that we obtain the power to bless.
2. Not only the power to bless came to him by faith, but the blessings which he allotted to his grandsons were his upon the same tenure. His legacies were all blessings which he possessed by faith only. He had, as a matter of fact, neither house nor ground in Palestine, and yet he counts it all his own, since a faithful God had promised it to his fathers. Faith is wanted to enable us to point men to the invisible and eternal, and if we cannot do this how can we bless them. We must believe for those we love, and have hope for them; thus shall we have power with God for them, and shall bless them. Our legacies to our sons are the blessings of grace, and our dowries to our daughters are the promises of the Lord.
3. Jacob in his benediction particularly mentioned the covenant. His faith, like the faith of most of God’s people, made the covenant its pavilion of delightful abode, its tower of defence, and its armoury for war. If you have no faith you cannot plead the covenant, and certainly if you cannot plead it for yourselves you cannot urge it with God for a blessing upon your sons and your grandsons. It was by faith in the covenant that the venerable Jacob blest the two sons of Joseph, and without it we can bless no one, for we are not blessed ourselves. Faith is the priest which proclaims the blessing without fear.
4. Jacob showed his faith by blessing Joseph’s sons in God’s order. Faith prefers grace to talent, and piety to cleverness; she lays her right hand where God lays it, and not where beauty of person or quickness of intellect would suggest. Our best child is that which God calls best; faith corrects reason and accepts the Divine verdict.
5. Notice that he manifested his faith by his distinct reference to redemption. He alone who has faith will pray for the redemption of his children, especially when they exhibit no signs of being in bondage, but are hopeful and amiable.
6. Jacob showed his faith by his assurance that God would be present with his seed. How cheering is the old man’s dying expression, made not only to his boys, but concerning all his family. He said, “Now I die, but God will be with you.” It is very different from the complaints of certain good old ministers when they are dying. They seem to say, “When I die the light of Israel will be quenched. I shall die, and the people will desert the truth. When I am gone the standard-bearer will have fallen, and the watchman on the walls will be dead.” Many in dying are afraid for the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof; and, sometimes, we who are in good health talk very much in the same fashion as though we were wonderfully essential to the progress of God’s cause.
II. HE WORSHIPPED BY FAITH.
1. First, while he was dying he offered the worship of gratitude. How pleasing is the incident recorded in the tenth and eleventh verses. Ah, yes, we shall often have to say, “O Lord, I had not thought that Thou wouldst do as much as this, but Thou hast gone far beyond what I asked or even thought.”
2. He offered the worship of testimony when he acknowledged God’s goodness to him all his life.
3. Notice, too, how reverently he worships the covenant messenger with the adoration of reverend love. We owe all things to the redeeming Angel of the covenant. The evils which He has warded off from us are terrible beyond conception, and the blessings He has brought us are rich beyond imagination. We must adore Him, and, though we see Him not, we must in life and in death by faith worship Him with lowly love.
4. If you read on through the dying scene of Jacob you will notice once more how he worshipped with the adoration of earnest longing, for just after he had pronounced a blessing on the tribe of Dan the old man seemed thoroughly exhausted, but instead of fainting, instead of uttering a cry of pain and weakness, he solemnly exclaims, “I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.”
III. His ATTITUDE. He worshipped on the top of his staff--leaning on it, supporting himself upon it. In Genesis you read that he “bowed himself upon the bed’s head.” It is very easy to realise a position in which both descriptions would be equally true. He could sit upon the bed, and lean on the top of his staff at the same time. But why did he lean on his staff? I think besides the natural need which he had of it, because of his being old, he did it emblematically. That staff was his life companion, the witness with himself of the goodness of the Lord, even as some of us may have an old Bible, or a knife, or a chair which are connected with memorable events of our lives. But what did that staff indicate? Let us hear what Jacob said at another time. When he stood before Pharaoh he exclaimed, “Few and evil have been the days of my pilgrimage.” What made him use that word “pilgrimage”? Why, because upon his mind there was always the idea of his being a pilgrim. He had been literally so during the early part of his life, wandering hither and thither; and now, though he has been seventeen years in Goshen, he keeps the old staff, and he leans on it to show that he had always been a pilgrim and a sojourner like his fathers, and that he was so still. While he leans on that staff he talks to Joseph, and he says, “Do not let my bones lie here. I have come hither in the providence, of God, but I do not belong here. I am in Egypt, but I am not of it. Take my bones away. Do not let them lie here, for if they do, my sons and daughters will mingle with the Egyptians, and that must not be, for we are a distinct nation. God has chosen us for Himself, and we must keep separate. To make my children see this, lo, here I die with my pilgrim staff in my band.” The longer you live the more let this thought grow upon you: “Give me my staff. I must begone. Poor world, thou art no rest for me; I am not of thy children, I am an alien and a stranger. My citizenship is in heaven.” Singular enough is it that each descendant of Jacob came to worship on the top of his staff at last, for on the paschal supper night, when the blood was sprinkled on the lintel and the side posts, they each one ate the lamb with their loins girt and with a staff in his hand. The supper was a festival of worship, and they ate it each one leaning on his staff, as those that were in haste to leave home for a pilgrimage through the wilderness. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Jacob worshipping
I. THE TIME HAD COME WHEN LIFE NEEDED A STAFF. How strange it seems, when we can walk, leap, run, when the agile limbs can obey the swift behest of the will, to think that the time will come when these limbs will refuse their easy and familiar work. A staff! how much it suggests to us! Leaning. In many senses a staff seems to hurt our pride, and it is very natural not to like to take to spectacles, or to a staff’ till we are quite obliged. Yet leaning is beautiful in many senses, as on the staff of Christian friendship, or the staff of God’s precious promises. Yes I “ Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” Say what we will, the Bible keeps its old place in this respect. You will lean on it, rest on it, and the staff will be all-sufficient for you as it has been for multitudes before you.
II. THE WORSHIPPING SPIRIT KNOWS NO SEASON OF DECLINE. It is most vigorous in age. Well has Montgomery said, “We enter heaven with prayer.” Worship is the highest occupation of which our natures are capable. How it chastens the mind, cools the passions, awakens the memories of mercies past and inspires confidence for the time to come. When other occupations lose not only their interest, but are impossible to us--when we can no more journey, study, toil; in the truest sense, we can worship still. I see the grey-headed old man making an end of commanding his sons, about to yield up the ghost, not to perish, but to yield up the spirit. There is one thing he still can do: no longer can he put the lamb or the bullock on the altar--no longer can he offer the burnt-offering, but he can lift up his heart to God; the incense of prayer can go up to the open gate of the heaven he is so soon about to enter. And “Jacob worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.”
III. THE PRINCIPLE WHICH IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN UNDERLYING HIS WORSHIP. “By faith!” Yes! the faith which is older than the law shone forth in him. He takes his place in the list of God’s heroes. By faith! And this is the essence of worship. Worship is not mysterious fear before an unknown Power. Worship is not a matter of form, it is a matter of faith. Places may help us by their solitude or silence. Associations may help us by ridding us of worldly influences, but they can do no more. Prayer is a matter of personal faith, and in this as in all else, without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith brings before us a God who is, and who is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Faith rests in the revelation of God’s Fatherhood, and draws near to Him, through the way of His appointment--in Jacob’s day by the foreshadowing sacrifice, and in these last days byHim who once in the end of the world has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. But faith feels worship to be real, intensely real,
IV. THE PERSONS HE IS SAID TO HAVE BLESSED. Not Joseph; but “ both the sons of Joseph.” It is exceedingly wonderful to see how tenderly grandchildren are treated. On a summer visit I felt very much touched by seeing hour after hour a grandfather leading a little blind grandchild about the garden lawn and through the fields. It seemed as though there was a wonderful confidence of love between the child and the old man. There is something marvellously wise in the ordination of family life. We cannot live in mere masses or organisations, we must take the God-way! It is a good thing for children to have incentives to courage, manliness, and success in this life as earnest citizens; but how much better it is to feel that they may be soldiers of the Cross, that the posts we have so poorly occupied they may fill, and that the blessing which has followed us all our days will be with them, making them rich indeed, and adding no sorrow. On our escutcheons men may read no connection with the Plantagenets, but they may read thereon: “Happy is the family that is in such a case. Yea, happy is that family whose God is the Lord.”
V. THE LIFE HE WAS LEAVING BEHIND HIM. It is all very well, I hear some say, to give us this touching close to Jacob’s life; but what about the phases of his history, weak, wicked, and contemptible. Think, men say; do not gloss over this history! True all you say is true. But this is also true, that blessings won by sin are miseries even here, so exquisitely is the world governed by moral law. And then because these were the sins of his youth, are we to deny him the honour of a noble fatherhood, or a beautiful old age? God forbid! where should we be if the critics were as severe on us? We too have erred, we have turned every one to his own way, and as the altars of Jacob prophesied of the Great Redemption, so now in the end of days Christ has borne the iniquities of us all.
VI. Some QUESTIONS NATURALLY SUGGEST THEMSELVES.
1. What is worship to us? Is it duty or delight? If earthly fellowship has in it some of the highest joys of which our nature is capable, shall not the heavenly fellowship immeasurably transcend these?
2. What hinders worship? Not want of time. No! Love never pleads this. Love is as swift to seize its opportunities as it is apt in making them.
3. What fosters worship? Ah! Trials foster a spirit of prayer. Would it not be well if we cultivated more of the spirit of worship in life’s day-time? (W. M.Statham, M. A.)
