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Genesis Chapter
Thirty
Genesis 30
Chapter Contents
A further account of Jacob's family. (1-13) Rachel
beareth Joseph. (14-24) Jacob's new agreement with Laban to serve him for
cattle. (25-43)
Commentary on Genesis 30:1-13
Rachel envied her sister: envy is grieving at the good of
another, than which no sin is more hateful to God, or more hurtful to our
neighbours and ourselves. She considered not that God made the difference, and
that in other things she had the advantage. Let us carefully watch against all
the risings and workings of this passion in our minds. Let not our eye be evil
towards any of our fellow-servants, because our Master's is good. Jacob loved
Rachel, and therefore reproved her for what she said amiss. Faithful reproofs
show true affection. God may be to us instead of any creature; but it is sin
and folly to place any creature in God's stead, and to place that confidence in
any creature, which should be placed in God only. At the persuasion of Rachel,
Jacob took Bilhah her handmaid to wife, that, according to the usage of those
times, her children might be owned as her mistress's children. Had not Rachel's
heart been influenced by evil passions, she would have thought her sister's
children nearer to her, and more entitled to her care than Bilhah's. But
children whom she had a right to rule, were more desirable to her than children
she had more reason to love. As an early instance of her power over these
children, she takes pleasure in giving them names that carry in them marks of
rivalry with her sister. See what roots of bitterness envy and strife are, and
what mischief they make among relations. At the persuasion of Leah, Jacob took
Zilpah her handmaid to wife also. See the power of jealousy and rivalship, and
admire the wisdom of the Divine appointment, which joins together one man and
one woman only; for God hath called us to peace and purity.
Commentary on Genesis 30:14-24
The desire, good in itself, but often too great and
irregular, of being the mother of the promised Seed, with the honour of having
many children, and the reproach of being barren, were causes of this unbecoming
contest between the sisters. The truth appears to be, that they were influenced
by the promises of God to Abraham; whose posterity were promised the richest
blessings, and from whom the Messiah was to descend.
Commentary on Genesis 30:25-43
The fourteen years being gone, Jacob was willing to
depart without any provision, except God's promise. But he had in many ways a
just claim on Laban's substance, and it was the will of God that he should be
provided for from it. He referred his cause to God, rather than agree for
stated wages with Laban, whose selfishness was very great. And it would appear
that he acted honestly, when none but those of the colours fixed upon should be
found among his cattle. Laban selfishly thought that his cattle would produce
few different in colour from their own. Jacob's course after this agreement has
been considered an instance of his policy and management. But it was done by
intimation from God, and as a token of his power. The Lord will one way or
another plead the cause of the oppressed, and honour those who simply trust his
providence. Neither could Laban complain of Jacob, for he had nothing more than
was freely agreed that he should have; nor was he injured, but greatly
benefitted by Jacob's services. May all our mercies be received with
thanksgiving and prayer, that coming from his bounty, they may lead to his
praise.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Genesis》
Genesis 30
Verse 1
[1] And
when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and
said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
Rachel envied her sister — Envy is grieving at the good of another, than which no sin is more
injurious both to God, our neighbour, and ourselves. But this was not all, she
said to Jacob, give me children or else I die - A child would not content her;
but because Leah has more than one, she must have more too; Give me children:
her heart is set upon it. Give them me, else I die, That is, I shall fret
myself to death. The want of this satisfaction will shorten my days. Observe a
difference between Rachel's asking for this mercy, and Hannah's, 1 Samuel 1:10, etc. Rachel envied, Hannah wept:
Rachel must have children, and she died of the second; Hannah prayed for this
child, and she had four more: Rachel is importunate and peremptory, Hannah is
submissive and devout, If thou wilt give me a child, I will give him to the
Lord. Let Hannah be imitated, and not Rachel; and let our desires be always
under the conduct and check of reason and religion.
Verse 2
[2] And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's
stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
And Jacob's anger was kindled — He was angry, not at the person, but at the sin: he expressed himself so
as to shew his displeasure. It was a grave and pious reply which Jacob gave to
Rachel, Am I in God's stead? - Can I give thee that which God denies thee? He
acknowledges the hand of God in the affliction: He hath withheld the fruit of
the womb. Whatever we want, it is God that with-holds it, as sovereign Lord,
most wise, holy, and just, that may do what he will with his own, and is debtor
to no man: that never did, nor ever can do, any wrong to any of his creatures.
The key of the clouds, of the heart, of the grave, and of the womb, are four
keys which God has in his hand, and which (the Rabbins say) he intrusts neither
with angel nor seraphin. He also acknowledges his own inability to alter what
God appointed, Am I in God's stead? What, dost thou make a God of me? There is
no creature that is, or can be, to us in God's stead. God may be to us, instead
of any creature, as the sun instead of the moon and stars; but the moon and all
the stars will not be to us instead of the sun. No creature's wisdom, power,
and love will be to us instead of God's. It is therefore our sin and folly to
place that confidence in any creature, which is to be placed in God only.
Verse 3
[3] And
she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my
knees, that I may also have children by her.
Behold my maid, Bilhah — At the persuasion of Rachel he took Bilhah her handmaid to wife, that,
according to the usage of those times, his children by her might be adopted and
owned as her mistresses children. She would rather have children by reputation
than none at all; children that she might call her own, though they were not
so. And as an early instance of her dominion over the children born in her
apartment, she takes a pleasure in giving them names, that carry in them
nothing but marks of emulation with her sister. As if she had overcome her, 1.
At law, she calls the flrst son of her handmaid, Dan, Judgment, saying, God
hath Judged me - That is, given sentence in my favour. 2. In battle, she calls
the next Naphtali, Wrestlings, saying, I have wrestled with my sister, and have
prevailed - See what roots of bitterness envy and strife are, and what mischief
they make among relations!
Verse 9
[9] When
Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her
Jacob to wife.
Rachel had done that absurd and preposterous
thing of putting her maid into her husband's bed, and now Leah (because she
missed one year in bearing children) doth the same, to be even with her. See
the power of rivalship, and admire the wisdom of the divine appointment, which
joins together one man and one woman only. Two sons Zilpah bare to Jacob, whom
Leah looked upon herself as intitled to, in token of which she called one Gad,
promising herself a little troop of children. The other she called Asher, Happy,
thinking herself happy in him, and promising herself that her neighbours would
think so too.
Verse 14
[14] And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the
field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give
me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.
Reuben, a little lad of five or six years
old, playing in the field, found mandrakes. It is uncertain what they were; the
critics are not agreed about them: we are sure they were some rarities, either
fruits or flowers that were very pleasant to the smell, Song of Solomon 7:13. Some think these mandrakes
were Jessamin flowers. Whatever they were, Rachel, could not see them in Leah's
hands, but she must covet them.
Verse 17
[17] And
God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.
And God hearkened unto Leah — Perhaps the reason of this contest between Jacob's wives for his
company, and their giving him their maids to be his wives, was the earnest
desire they had to fulfil the promise made to Abraham (and now lately renewed
to Jacob) that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude, and
that, in one seed of his, the Messiah, all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed. Two sons Leah was now blessed with; the flrst she called Issachar, a
hire, reckoning herself well repaid for her mandrakes; nay, (which is a strange
construction of the providence) rewarded for giving her maid to her husband.
The other she called Zebulun, dwelling, owning God's bounty to her, God has
endowed me with a good dowry. Jacob had not endowed her when he married her;
but she reckons a family of children, a good dowry.
Verse 21
[21] And
afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
Mention is made, of Dinah, because of the
following story concerning her, Genesis 34:1-16, etc. Perhaps Jacob had other
daughters, though not registered.
Verse 22
[22] And
God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
God remembered Rachel, whom he seemed to have
forgotten, and hearkened to her, whose prayers had been long denied, and then
she bare a son. Rachael called her son Joseph, which, in Hebrew, is a-kin to
two words of a contrary signification: Asaph, abstulit, he has taken away my
reproach, as if the greatest mercy she had in this son were, that she had saved
her credit: and Joseph, addidit, the Lord shall add to me another son: which
may be looked upon as the language of her faith; she takes this mercy as an
earnest of further mercy: hath God given me this grace? I may call it Joseph,
and say, he shall add more grace.
Verse 34
[34] And
Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
Laban was willing to consent to this bargain,
because he thought if those few he had that were now speckled and spotted were
separated from the rest, which was to be done immediately, the body of the
flock which Jacob was to tend, being of one colour, either all black or all
white, would produce few or none of mixt colours, and so he should have Jacob's
service for nothing, or next to nothing. According to this bargain, those few
that were party-coloured were separated, and put into the hands of Laban's
sons, and sent three days journey off: so great was Laban's jealouly lest any
of those should mix with the rest of the flock to the advantage of Jacob.
Verse 37
[37] And
Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and
pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
Here is Jacob's policy to make his bargain
more advantageous to himself than it was likely to be: and if he had not taken
some course to help himself, it would have been an ill bargain indeed; which he
knew Laban would never have considered, who did not consult any one's interest
but his own. 1. Now Jacob's contrivances were, He set pilled sticks before the
cattle where they were watered, that looking much at those unusual party-coloured
sticks, by the power of imagination, they might bring forth young ones in like
manner party-coloured. Probably this custom was commonly used by the shepherds
of Canaan, who coveted to have their cattle of this motly colour. 2. When he
began to have a flock of ring-straked and brown, he contrived to set them
first, and to put the faces of the rest towards them, with the same design as
he did the former. Whether this was honest policy, or no, may admit of a
question. Read Genesis 31:7-16, and the question is resolved.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Genesis》
30 Chapter 30
Verses 1-13
Rachel envied her sister.
Rachel’s impatience
I. IT WAS
UNGODLY.
1. She was the victim of unholy passions. Envy and jealousy.
2. She took a despairing view of life.
3. She failed rightly to recognize the true Author of all good
things.
II. IT LED TO THE
ADOPTION OF WRONG EXPEDIENTS. Showing impatient haste of unbelief, and a want
of confidence in God.
III. IT HAD AN
INFLUENCE FOR EVIL.
1. Upon her own character. Boasting (Genesis 30:6; Genesis 30:8).
2. Upon her sister (Genesis 30:9). (T. H. Leale.)
Domestic irritations
I. JACOB TOOK
UPON HIMSELF DOMESTIC TROUBLES,
II. IT REQUIRES
SOMETHING ELSE THAN THE ATTAINMENT OF OUR WISHES TO BRING HAPPINESS.
III. BLESSINGS DO
NOT ALWAYS COME AS WE EXPECT.
IV. HISTORY
REPEATS ITSELF.
V. THE PROMISES
OF GOD ARE GRADUALLY FULFILLED.
VI. THE
UNDESERVING ARE BLESSED BY GOD.
VII. HAVE PATIENCE
WITH IRRITATING ASSOCIATES. (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
Envy
The infatuated Caligula slew his brother because he was a
beautiful young man. Mutius, a citizen of Rome, was noted to be of such an
envious and malevolent disposition, that Publius, one day, observing him to be
very sad, said: “Either some great evil has happened to Mutius, or some great
good to another.” “Dionysius the tyrant,” says Plutarch, “out of envy, punished
Philoxenius the musician, because he could sing, and Plato, the philosopher,
because he could dispute, better than himself.” Cambyses killed his brother
Smerdis, because he could draw a stronger bow than himself or any of his party.
Verse 8
With great wrestlings have I wrestled
Great wrestlings
Thus speaks Rachel; and this woman’s experience, multiplied as it
is a thousand-fold in hearts that never told their struggles, shows us that
life is not so calm as it seems.
Beneath many a placid stream there are deep and dangerous under-currents. Often
a quiet face hides the deep things, which even the dearest intimacies cannot
draw out, and which constitute the tragedies of the heart’s history. It is well
that we learn the need of wrestling; for life, especially Christian life, has
flesh and blood to battle with. Paul says, “we wrestle”; and goodness, even at
its best, is dearly bought and hardly won.
I. THIS IS TRUE
OF THOSE WHO ARE OUTWARDLY THE WEAKEST. Nothing betokens the warrior; there is
no mailed breast, no gauntleted hand. The character seems like the face
perhaps, to be common-place and dull. But what a world there is within the
humblest forms that move to and fro amongst us! That plain face that we mark no
loveliness in, is beautiful perhaps in the eyes of angels--that unillustrious
life is associated with paths where some Goliath has been laid low, and where
the Philistine host has been dispersed.
II. THIS IS TO BE
THE LOT OF OUR CHILDREN. Listen, and you may hear a sigh as of a distant storm,
in the spring breeze of childhood’s morning, which may break into a weird
tempest over their heads before the evening comes. These children of ours
cannot do without religion, without Christ--the Brother and the Saviour of men.
Do these little ones look made forthe endurance of hard wrestlings? Perhaps
not. But these little hands will be stretched out in the dark night; these
little feet will have to climb in loneliness the toilsome way, when you and I
are gone. Who can wonder that we wish to see them before we die in the covert
of the great rock?
III. THIS IS THE
ONLY PATH TO VICTORY. God sees that it is best. The oak that struggles with the
tempest strikes deeper root in the soil; and the faith that has struggled with
doubt is the firmest of beliefs. The love which has learnt human insincerity,
learns to prize beyond all price the less demonstrative love of true natures.
We gain conquest through hardship, defeat, and peril. We wrestle with great
wrestlings over inborn tastes and desires, over habits that have steadily risen
to dominance, over affections that are carnal and corrupt, and over enemies
visible and invisible. For ease is death. When we cease to wrestle, the enemy
binds us with fetters of iron. Conquer we may and can--through the faith that
looks upward all through the wrestling years. To him that overcometh the
glorious promise of victory is vouchsafed. But the struggle will be severe; we
shall have not only ordinary sorrows, superficial anxieties, but great
wrestlings; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
These wrestlings are not mere matters of mental energy; they are connected with
moral pain. Dispositions natural to us have to be overcome; human nature, like
a child, likes to be spoiled and petted--it can ill-endure rebuke and
resistance I Consequently the battle is hard, and there is no plaudit of
honour, no noise of conquest, no palm-wreath on the brow.
IV. THIS IS THE
ANCIENT WAY. It leads us back to Moses, to Abraham, and to Jacob who was left
alone--“and there wrestled a man with him till the break of day” (Genesis 32:24). And that we have a Divine
nature is proven by man’s spiritual wrestlings from the earliest dawn of
history. And the rendering of this text, as you will see in the margin of your
Bibles, leads us to think of God. “With great God-wrestlings have I wrestled.”
And this ancient way will be our way too. (W. M. Statham, M. A.)
Verses 22-24
And God remembered Rachel
God’s favour towards Rachel
I.
IT
WAS LONG DELAYER. Discipline.
II. IT WAS GRANTED
TO HER AFTER SOME SOLEMN LESSONS HAD BEEN LEARNED.
1. Dependence.
2. Patience.
3. Faith and hope.
III. IT AWAKENED
GRATITUDE.
1. Grateful recognition of God’s dealings (verse23).
2. Heartfelt acknowledgment of God (Genesis 30:24). (T. H. Leale.)
Verse 25
Send me away that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country
The lights of home
There is in Switzerland a hill known as the Heimweh Fluh, or
Home-sick Mount.
It is so called because it is usually the last spot visited by the traveller
when leaving that part of the country at a time when his thoughts are turned
homeward. It commands a glorious view of the whole valley of Interlaken, with
its fields and pastures, its villages and lakes, with a back-ground of
snow-capped mountains. It is a fair scene, but the heart of the traveller is
not there. His thoughts are with his friends and loved ones at home. He looks upon
the homesick mount, and seems to murmur with the patriarch Jacob, “Send me
away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.” There are many
such homesick mounts, such landmarks, to remind us of home. The sailor on the
slippery deck points to some dark towering cliff, and says, “We shall soon see
the Lizard Light”; or, “Yonder is Beechy Head!” The traveller along the wintry
road strains his eyes through the darkness to catch a glimpse of the lights of
home. And we, if we have learnt to think of our life here as a pilgrimage,
shall often stand, as it were, upon some Heimweh Fluh, some mount of
home-sickness, and whilst we gaze on the beauties of this world; we shall feel,
“This is not my home, I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.”
We shall press onward “through the night of doubt and sorrow,” straining our
eyes to catch sight of the lights of home. Let us, by God’s grace, try to live
and work for Him daily, and when death comes we can say, without fear, “Send me
away, that I may go to mine own place, and to my country.” The dying Baxter,
who wrote “The Saints’ Rest,” said, “I am almost well, and nearly at home!” and
another dying man exclaimed, “I am going home as fast as I can, and I bless God
that I have a good home to go to.” Yes, that thought of home is a blessed one,
both for time and for eternity. During the American Civil War the two rival
armies were encamped opposite each other on the banks of the Potomac River.
When the federal bands played some national air of the union, the confederate
musicians struck up a rival tune, each band trying to out-play and silence the
other. Suddenly one of the bands played “ Home, Sweet Home,” and the contest
ceased. The musicians of both armies played the same tune, voices from opposite
sides of the river joined the chorus, “There’s no place like home!” So we, the
pilgrim band, are bound together by that one strong link--we are going to our
own place and our own country, “Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O
Jerusalem.” When that brave soldier of Jesus Christ, Charles Kingsley, lay
dying, he was heard to murmur, “No more fighting; no more fighting.” No one
knows the full meaning of those words except one who has fought the good fight,
whose life has been one long battle with sin. Those words have no meaning for
the coward who yielded himself a prisoner to the enemy, the drunkard who never
fought against his besetting sin, the angry man who never wrestled with the
demon of his temper. What know they of fighting? (H. J.Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)
Verse 27
I have learned by experience
Moral and religious lessons gained by experience
The words are Laban’s, and, taken in their connection, they
intimate that even an utterly wordly man, such as he was, may be forced to
acknowledge the moral providence of God, whereby He takes especial and peculiar
care of His servants.
Look at the moral and religious lessons which a thoughtful man may learn by
experience.
I. We learn by
experience MUCH THAT IS WHOLESOME ABOUT OURSELVES. By the blunders we have
made, the falls we have suffered, the injuries we have sustained, the sins we
have committed, and the wrongs we have inflicted on others, God has enlightened
us in the knowledge of ourselves, and made us feel that it is not in man that
walketh to direct his steps.
II. Experience has
taught us MUCH REGARDING THE WORLD AND ITS PLEASURES, POSSESSIONS, AND
ENJOYMENTS. Even in the case of the Christian, there is much to wean him from
the world as the years roll on. As he grows older the world becomes less and
less to him, and Christ becomes more and more. He learns to delight in God, and
his growth in holiness becomes the ambition of his life.
III. The experience
of the lapse of years teaches US MORE AND MORE OF GOD AS THE GOD AND FATHER OF
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. We have increasing proofs of God’s wisdom and God’s
faithfulness. Whoever has been false to us, He has remained true. This
testimony of experience thus grows with our growth and strengthens with our
strength. It is a fortress which is utterly impregnable. (W. M. Taylor, D.
D.)
Experience
Find men where you may, they all agree in owning that they owe
much to the same Instructor: they all agree in owning that they have grown
wiser for the teaching of that unflattering Preceptor, who knows no royal road
to truth, and in whose stern school you must stumble once, that you may learn
to avoid falling again. And truly here is the best way to learn--the way that
sinks the deepest, and is remembered the best.
And if it be true, as the proverbial saying would have it, that
experience teaches the foolish, surely it is true no less that experience makes
the wise. And as experience is the teacher that instructs all men and instructs
them unthanked and unasked, so there are many things which no other can teach
us: many lessons we never learn, and many matters we never rightly understand,
till we have “learned by experience.” We shall never know, for example, what
our hearts can feel and bear, by the descriptions of other people; no account
can make us understand what great sorrow is, or great anxiety, or buoyant
gladness, or hearty gratitude, or fixed determination; we must feel in
ourselves the quickened pulse of hopefulness, the laden heart of care, the
blankness of disappointment and failure; or we shall never know what they mean.
Even Jesus Christ, our Maker, gained that consummate sympathy with us which it
became our Saviour to have, through actual experience. But there is one class of
subjects one great subject which above all others we must know by experience,
or we shall not know at all. My brethren, this is a thing that is hard upon
mere human reason; this matter of the real power and efficacy of prayer. If
there be any truth in what we believe of the power of prayer, it is the
mightiest agent--save God Himself--in all the universe: it is stronger than the
hurricane that wrecks a navy: stronger than the great ocean to which man’s
mightiest works are as a plaything. Christian brethren, let us frankly confess
what a weak state, what an insecure position we should be in, if we were taking
all this on hearsay. Why, it looks such a truly monstrous deal to believe, that
positively for your credit as a reasonable man, you would be half ashamed to
say you fancied all this. Never concern yourself to unravel the threads the
sceptic has twisted; never set yourself to answer by argument the objections he
has raised. It can be done, but there is a far better way. Tell him that your
Bible bids you pray, and assures you that prayer shall prevail; but tell him
more--and God be thanked if you can say so much--tell him that you have put the
matter to the proof!--that you were not content to take the thing on the word
of others; that you fairly tried, and that you “learned by experience” that
prayer is heard and answered! Another thing that we may learn by rote, but that
we never shall really believe till we learn it by experience, is the
insufficiency of this world to satisfy the soul; the great truth, that “This is
not our rest.” For experience alone is enough to bring men to the strong
belief, that all worldly things, even when possessed in their intensest degree,
leave an aching void within the soul--many a stated man of pleasure, many a
successful man of ambition, has told us as much as that--but it needs God’s
Holy Spirit to touch the soul, before it can take the next step--before it can
draw the final conclusion--that the right things for the soul to love and seek
are beyond the grave, and that the heart’s true home and abiding treasure are
there. But we shall give the remainder of our time to looking at one great fact
which is best learned by experience--I mean the preciousness, the
all-sufficiency, the love and grace, of our blessed Saviour. You remember it is
written, “Unto you which believe He is precious.” Now that seems to mean, that
to those who believe, He is more precious than He is to other people; that, in
a peculiarly strong sense, His preciousness is a thing that must be learned by
experience. So it is. And it is easy to see how it must be. For the value of a
thing is understood fully only by those who know how much they want it. And if
a man feels that he does not want a thing--that he can do perfectly well
without it--why, he will esteem it as of very little value indeed. Now a
perfectly worldly and unconverted man feels he needs food, he cannot do without
that; and so of course he sets a value on it. He feels he needs a home to dwell
in--he cannot do without that; and so of course he sets a value on it. He feels
he needs friends--that life would be a poor, heartless thing without them; and
so he sets a value on them. But the quite worldly and unconverted man, who
brings everything to a quite worldly estimate, does not feel he needs Christ; he
never feels any want of Him; he thinks he can do quite well without Him; and of
course he sets no value on Him; of course the Saviour is not precious to that
man--how can He be? But, brethren, look to the man who has been convinced of
his sin and misery by the Spirit of God; and that only our Redeemer can save us
from that dismal estate, and see what he thinks of Christ! Yes, that convicted
sinner has found his need of the Saviour. He has learnt that food and raiment,
and all things men work hardest for and value most, are not the one thing
needful--are worth nothing when compared with a saving interest in the blessed
Lamb of God. He has “learned by experience I “ He has felt a want, felt that
the Saviour alone could supply that want; and he knows what Christ is worth, by
what Christ has done! (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)
Experience
1. The true teacher.
2. The universal monitor.
3. The indisputable evidence.
4. Experience of sin, pardon, peace.
5. Character thus becomes argument.
6. Let sin be subjected to this test.
7. The Christian triumphant here.
8. Many can answer by experience who cannot answer by controversy. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Learning by experience
The world is a school, and the period of our remaining here is the
school-time of our existence. The school is a severe one, the discipline is
hard, and the process is often tedious. God is the teacher, and He has many
assistants, which in various ways and manners are used to bring the soul to
saving knowledge of the truth. Now, there is no method so potent for impressing
facts on the mind as actual practice. Theory is an ideality which amid the
whirl of time and business is soon dissipated. It is only when we ourselves
apprehend, through actual touching and handling, that we get a positive and
practical knowledge of anything. The most learned engineer who ever lived would
feel at a terrible loss if put to drive an express locomotive or to superintend
the engines of a vast steamship, if he had never seen one before, although he
might have read and written on the subjects all his life. The most skilful
theoretical architect would shrink from the ordeal of practical building.
I. We learn by
experience THE FLIGHT OF TIME. The child is scarcely conscious that time moves
at all. It is to him a calm, placid, unruffled lake. But the illusion is
gradually dispelled. Youth deepens into maturity, maturity glides into
incipient decay, and the soul is startled to find how rapidly life is passing.
Then it begins to fly by like a rushing river torrent.
II. We learn by experience
THE FRAILTY OF HUMAN NATURE. The curse of decay comes as a revelation. Death of
a playmate or relation startles the little soul and awakens an unknown terror.
Then with the flight of time comes the realization of weakness within
ourselves.
III. We have
learned by experience the DISAPPOINTMENTS OF EARTH. How has the sanguine heart
grown broken and seared! The rosy vision has minished into darkness.
Disappointments!
IV. We have learnt
by experience THE VANITY OF TRUSTING TO SELF. Self-sufficiency is man’s
heritage and Satan’s mightiest weapon. The best contrived scheme brought to
nought, the wisest forethought nullified, the labours of a lifetime lost, have
shown us how vain is man.
V. We have
learned by experience THE UNENDING LOVE, COMPASSION, AND GOODNESS OF GOD. (Homilist.)
Experience
I. SOME OF THE
LESSONS LEARNED BY EXPERIENCE.
1. The unsatisfying nature of all earthly objects.
2. The preciousness of Christ.
3. The efficacy of prayer.
4. The benefit of affliction.
5. The sustaining power of God’s grace.
II. THE REASONS
WHY GOD TEACHES US BY EXPERIENCE.
1. Because we will not learn our duty without it.
2. Because the lessons thus acquired are the most valuable and
permanent.
3. Because we are then more useful to our fellow-men. (Seeds and
Saplings.)
Verses 28-43
Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it
Jacob’s new contract of service
I.
IT
WAS ENTERED UPON IN OPPOSITION TO HIS BETTER FEELINGS AND CONVICTIONS.
II. IT WAS MARKED
BY WORLDLY PRUDENCE.
1. The prudence which calculates.
2. The prudence which takes advantage of superior knowledge. (T.
H.Leale.)
Lawful diligence blessed
A Divine benediction is always invisibly breathed on painful and
lawful diligence. Thus the servant employed in making and blowing of the fire,
though sent away thence as soon as it burneth clear, ofttimes getteth by his
pains a more kindly and continuing heat than the master himself who sitteth
down by the same; and thus persons industriously occupying themselves thrive
better on a little of their own honest getting than lazy heirs on the large
revenues left unto them. (Fuller.)
Advised diligence
What though you have found no treasure, nor has any friend left
you a rich legacy! Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all
things to industry. Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have
corn to sell or to keep. Work while it is called to-day, for you know not how
much you may be hindered to-morrow. One to-day is worth two to-morrows, as poor
Richard says; and further, never leave that till to-morrow which you can do
to-day. (Franklin.)
Holiness
God has given us precepts of such a holiness and such a purity,
such a meekness and such humility, as hath no pattern but Christ, no precedent
but the purities of God; and, therefore, it is intended we should live with a
life whose actions are not chequered with white and black, half sin and half
virtue. God’s sheep are not like Jacob’s flock, “streaked and spotted,” it is
an entire holiness that God requires, and will not endure to have a holy course
interrupted by the dishonour of a base and ignoble action. I do not mean that a
man’s life can be as pure as the sun, or the rays of celestial Jerusalem; but like
the moon, in which there are spots, but they are no deformity; a lessening only
and an abatement of light, no cloud to hinder and draw a veil before its face,
but sometimes it is not so severe and bright as at other times. Every man hath
his indiscretions and infirmities, but no good man ever commits one act of
adultery; no godly man will at any time be drunk; or if he be he ceases to be a
godly man, and is run into the confines of death, and is sick at heart, and may
die of the sickness--die eternally. (Jeremy Taylor.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》