I. The PROMISE TO GUIDE, protect, and bless fulfilled in connection with the employment of ordinary faculties and instrumentalities. Jacob's craft partly natural, but in this instance specially assisted that he might be helped in an emergency. The "supplanter" in this case represented the better cause. II. HUMAN DEVICES only apparently, and not really, thwart the purposes of God. Jacob represents the people of God. The victory is appointed them. Their interests must be served by the kingdoms of this world, though for a season the advantage appears on the side of the mere calculating, selfish policy. The true wisdom is that which cometh from above. III. INCREASE in the best sense is God's promise. It will be sent as he wills and when he wills, but will be found the true answer to prayer and the true manifestation of love. On all that belongs to us the blessing rests. Spiritual prosperity carries with it all other. Though the individual may be called to suffer for the sake of the community, the promise to the Church must be fulfilled. "It is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom." "The meek shall inherit the earth." - R.
Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house. So asked Rachel and Leah of Jacob. And we see how suggestive these historical touches in Old Testament story are, when vitalized by the spirit of the gospel. We think at once of the Saviour, who is the open door to the great Father's house. There are multitudes who have lost their portions, and some are very sad and weary. Prodigal meets prodigal, and recounts the story of the painful way. Ruins always touch us with sadness; and "human hearts get ruinous in so much less time than stone walls do!"I. THE CRY IS PERSONAL. Men do not ask, "Is there hope for the lost — the profligate, the vile?" but, "Is there hope for me?" The soldier lying wounded in the battle-field thinks of the home harvest-fields far away, and the soul amid its wounds and woes whispers, "I will arise and go to my Father. There is a home-returning way for me!" II. THE CRY IS ANXIOUS. "Is there yet?" Once the soul was ready to surmise there might be! But is there now? when sin has consolidated into habit, when the door has been shut so often in the marred face of the Man of Sorrows! "My sin is ever before me," is the great cry of conscience. We sympathize with human anxiety. We watch with moistened eyes the widow who asks, "Is there yet a table in the wilderness for me and my little ones?" In reply to the "yet," let us answer, "Though thy sins be as scarlet, He shall make them white as wool"; "He shall blot out thy transgressions as a cloud, and thine iniquities as a thick cloud"; "He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him." III. THE CRY IS CHILDLIKE. "My Father's house!" For we are, in one sense, all of us God's offspring. True, we have lost likeness to Him and peace with Him; and only by faith can we become the spiritual sons of God. But there is memory of the lost estate in every heart. Man was made for God, and He is the only home of the soul. God gave us our earthly homes and relationships, to be parables of that great central truth. No word thrills us like "home"; no picture on Academy walls touches us like Provis's interiors. And this is natural. For let home be dark or deserted, let the dove of peace leave that, let those sweet sanctities be desecrated, and no outside joys, no travels, no pursuits can make compensation! And to know the value of a home, you must lose one. IV. THE CRY IS ANSWERED. Yes! in many parables, in many promises, in deeds of love and sacrifice. Faith leads all along the way, from justification to glory. But it were wrong to conceive of the inheritance as all future. Heaven does begin on earth, because the heavenly principles, purposes, and pleasures may be ours now. CONCLUSION. We close with the remembrance that there is welcome for us, room for us, reward for us. Have you ever stood outside a flower-show in the summer-time, and seen carriage after carriage drive up, with rustling silks and dazzling liveries and crested panels, pride and pomp entering in; and then caught the wistful face of a poor child at the gate, with another child in her arms, shut out from seeing God's beautiful flowers? The poor, the blind, the maim, the halt, the prodigals of every type are welcome. What, does He want me? does He wait for me? has He asked for me? (W. M. Statham, M. A.) (A. Fuller.) 2. God can make them that disagree in a family sweetly to concur to do His work. 3. It is unnatural for children to find no portions in their father's house, when they abound. 4. Such brands of cruelty are left upon unnatural fathers by the Spirit (ver. 14). 5. It is cruel for fathers to use their children as slaves and make merchandize of them. 6. It is savage for parents to consume the substance of children for whom they should provide. 7. Such unnatural dealings, in God's justice, alienate hearts of children from parents (ver. 15). 8. It is fit to consider how God recompenseth cruelties of unnatural parents in depriving them of their children. 9. What God giveth to parents and children may be justly owned by them. 10. Good women will be free and helpful to their husbands to go and do whatever is the will of God unto them (ver. 16). (G. Hughes, B. D.) People Aram, Isaac, Jacob, Laban, Leah, Nahor, RachelPlaces Canaan, Euphrates River, Galeed, Gilead, Jegar-sahadutha, Mizpah, Paddan-aramTopics Belongs, Children's, Ours, Property, Riches, Surely, Wealth, Whatever, WhatsoeverOutline 1. Jacob, displeased with the envy of Laban and his sons, departs secretly.19. Rachel steals her father's household gods. 22. Laban pursues after him, and complains of the wrong. 34. Rachel's plan to hide the images. 36. Jacob's complaint of Laban. 43. The covenant of Laban and Jacob at Galeed. Dictionary of Bible Themes Genesis 31:1-24Library Gen. xxxi. 11Of no less importance and significance is the passage Gen. xxxi. 11 seq. According to ver. 11, the Angel of God, [Hebrew: mlaK halhiM] appears toJacob in a dream. In ver. 13, the same person calls himself the God of Bethel, with reference to the event recorded in chap. xxviii. 11-22. It cannot be supposed that in chap xxviii. the mediation of a common angel took place, who, however, had not been expressly mentioned; for Jehovah is there contrasted with the angels. In ver. 12, we read: "And behold … Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Appendix xvi. On the Jewish views About Demons' and the Demonised,' Together with Some Notes on the Intercourse Between Jews and Jewish Christians in the First Centuries. How the Rude in Sacred Learning, and those who are Learned but not Humble, are to be Admonished. Epistle Xlix. To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch . The Great Shepherd And He had Also this Favour Granted Him. ... A Treatise of the Fear of God; Meditations for the Morning. Genesis Links Genesis 31:16 NIVGenesis 31:16 NLT Genesis 31:16 ESV Genesis 31:16 NASB Genesis 31:16 KJV Genesis 31:16 Bible Apps Genesis 31:16 Parallel Genesis 31:16 Biblia Paralela Genesis 31:16 Chinese Bible Genesis 31:16 French Bible Genesis 31:16 German Bible Genesis 31:16 Commentaries Bible Hub |