RACHEL’S story has its own peculiar charm in the midst of the brides of Scripture. She links our thoughts with Jacob, who brings up the whole question of God’s love to Israel. No one can understand Scripture properly who does not see God’s special relationship with Israel. All through Scripture we see how from the first God’s heart was set upon that people. What words are these! how they tell of that Bridal relationship with Israel which in all Scripture is seen to exist between the Lord and them: “I am married unto you” (Jer. 3:44Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? (Jeremiah 3:4)). And these: “Thou shalt call Me thy Husband; and I will betroth thee unto Me forever; I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness” (Hos. 2:2020I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. (Hosea 2:20)). It is through the sweet lattices of such promises as these that we see God’s special love to them. Three times repeated are the words, “I will betroth thee,” showing with what tenderness His heart was set upon the seed of Jacob. And how He loved to tell it; and how assured they might be of it. It was not only in righteousness He did this―His own, of course, for they had none; they were and are a sinful people―but it was “forever.” The engagement into which the Lord entered was not only unconditional and unchanging, but eternal. Many read the Word as if the story of Israel were only of the past; but indeed it is not ended yet, yea, never will end. Israel are hidden only for a while; we shall see them again soon.
The principle on which the Lord betrothed Israel to Himself was one suited to them as sinners; it was unconditional on their part. For His own sake He would do it, because of His own pleasure, and for His own glory. “I will do it,” he says, “in faithfulness,” without which, because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, it could never be accomplished. Other blessings promised to Israel were conditional, and were lost. Any engagements into which they ever entered were as the morning cloud and early dew that quickly goeth away. “All that the Lord hath said, we will do,” was their bold, unadvised declaration at Sinai. But it was worthless as bold; for already at the foot of that mount was the engagement broken― “at Horeb they made a calf!” Yet no failure on the part of Israel (blessed truth! for it is the same with us) can alter the engagement which God entered into with Himself. He will be God in spite of all―perfect, true to His own love and purpose, whatever we may be. The children may forsake His laws, and their iniquities be visited with stripes, which stripes surely are being inflicted on them now; “nevertheless [sweet word!], My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor alter the thing... gone out of My lips.” No; Israel may fail, may be among exacting creditors of the earth; but He can say, Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? I have not sold you. I have not been unfaithful. On the contrary―oh, words of tenderness!― “The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when thou vast refused” (Jer. 3:1414Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: (Jeremiah 3:14)). “Turn, O back-sliding children; for I am married unto you.” Thus this engagement is absolute and abiding, because it was entered into in grace by God Himself, and for His own sake; and because, being in grace, subject, to no conditions, there can be no failure.
This is the sure, blessed principle on which God betrothed Israel to Himself, and on which our souls are saved. It is this which gives God’s dealings with Israel such deep moral value to our own hearts; for, in like manner as to our own salvation, it is independent of what we are in ourselves, and therefore not merited by us, and can never be forfeited. But this grace is according to righteousness. Christ by His obedience unto death has righteously met all that God had against us. Any claims, therefore, that may come on us we can, through grace, refer to Him―blessed be His name! Oh, what a rock of certainty, of security, and of unchangeableness we have in God, who for His own sake hath saved us, and who has declared, “I have done it in faithfulness” It was only for Israel to know God’s thoughts as disclosed to them, and they saw that He was their divine “Ishi” ―their unchanging Lover. This relationship can never be given up, can never be forfeited. Hos. 2:1616And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. (Hosea 2:16), Isa. 66:2222For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. (Isaiah 66:22), Rev. 2122And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. (Revelation 21:22) all beautifully agree. And, notwithstanding present appearance, God will have His blessedness with Israel yet. In Isa. 65:1717For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. (Isaiah 65:17) it is said: “Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,” or “upon the heart,” as the word is, ever more to disturb or grieve it. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name [the name of Israel] remain” (Isa. 66:2222For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. (Isaiah 66:22)). Thus unconditional and unchanging are the glories associated with Israel, as also are all those counseled by God to us who during Israel’s failure are partakers of “the root and fatness of the olive tree.” How one loves to link in Jacob and Isaac also with the promises which are heavenly! Of Abraham it is said “he looked for a city [lit., he was awaiting the city], which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.” With many Abraham may indeed have part in a calling which is heavenly; but for Jacob (Israel) those made to them, it is said, are bounded by this earth. To possess the goodly land on the earth, it is affirmed, will be the fulfillment of what is promised to them. But no; it is said of them―Jacob and Isaac, as well as Abraham―that “they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, but HATH PREPARED FOR THEM A CITY” (Heb. 2:1616For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. (Hebrews 2:16)).
Although Jacob, along with Israel and Abraham, had promise of what is heavenly, he as father of the tribes stands at the head of all that vast dispensation which in the latter day will fill the earth also with its glory. In anticipation of that day, and ere he died, he could tell his patriarch son, “The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills” (Gen. 49:2626The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. (Genesis 49:26)). Isaac himself had said to Jacob: “And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people.” And the Lord had said: “I am the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread forth [break forth] to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:33And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)). To Abraham God had said, “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens” ―the stars as well as the sand of the sea and the dust of the earth; i.e., the heavenly as well as the earthly. Thus there is one glory which is celestial, and another glory which is terrestrial.
As to the terrestrial none can properly understand Scripture who do not understand dispensations. All nations, the nations of the earth, will call the seed of Jacob blessed; all nations will be blessed in them, They will inherit the earth. In their day, the days of Israel’s glory, the earth will be the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. They will be of a world whose King and Lord will be the Deliverer out of Zion. The riches of the Gentiles will belong to them, according to the promises made to the estranged one in service and sorrow in Padan-aram.
I do not now give an account of the many and great failures and sins of Jacob. They remind us that he was taken up by God for His own sake, a vessel of His love. Nor am I looking at Jacob as a type of God’s dealings towards us in the kingdom of His grace (that he was such is evident); I am looking upon him now as the repository of all those great promises, the fulfillment of which will fill the whole earth with glory. The ladder set up on the earth, but which reached unto heaven, was a magnificent expression of that glory; also of the accomplishment of the promises made to him, that HEAVEN and EARTH in the latter days would be blessedly united. Our own calling is different, as its place is different, as we have seen elsewhere. For the present we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3)). Our birth, our place, our hope, according to our calling, are all heavenly; not merely so, we are one with Him who is in heaven, the heavenly One; as in 1 Cor. 15, we read, “As in the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly.” How different this reads from anything ever said to Jacob, or any of the patriarchs!
But when He who is the heavenly One, as Son of Man, comes in His glory to take possession of the earth, then we and they also, I believe, will come with Him, and shall reign with Him; as Christ said, “sit with Me on My throne.” The Church being one with Him, we shall possess all things. Being heirs with him, all that which He will have as Son of Man and on of Abraham, and Son of David, we shall have. “The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them.” This He said to His disciples, and through them to us.
And the promises, as to the earth, made to Jacob are different from any ever made to us. Moreover, they are not yet. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings; not so Israel; for what and where are they now? And as to the future: a long night of trouble first― “Jacob’s trouble;” then the morning without clouds; then a heavenly city will break forth in magnificent glory, overshadowing the Salem of the millennial earth, when all nations will be blessed; at which time we who have now suffered with Him and all who have “died in faith” shall reign with Him.
But how did Israel, as a nation, once seem on the eve of its full earthly glory! How near in the days of David! nearer still in those of Solomon! for how had they spread abroad “as the dust of the earth!” and how, in Solomon’s reign of peace, were “all the nations of the earth blessed!” and how did the riches of the Gentiles belong to him! Truly one loves to linger over those few pages of the Word which show that the blessings of his reign had prevailed above the blessings of his progenitors, unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills! What a Zion was that which then mantled the hills of Salem! What a temple which he had made! How gorgeous! how glorious! And what a time was it when the ark in that day entered into its abiding place! There was nothing in it then but the tables of the covenant. There was no manna in it, for all the once hidden mercies were made, manifest; and there was no Aaron’s rod, that told of power in reserve, and wilderness failure, which God did not wish to have in remembrance. But what fullness of Christ’s was there in the thousands and tens of thousands of offerings which king Solomon offered What glory was there in that presence of the Lord in His holy temple, when “the priests could not attend Rachel to minister by reason of the cloud!” The one feature of the hour was, that “the prayers of David the son of Jesse were ended;” that is, they all seemed as if answered―the longings of his soul were all met. The earth was at rest and quiet under him who ruled in Solyma. All nations called him blessed.
Yet all this greatness was but typical greatness, the glory was but a figure of that to come. As has been said: “That day of Solomon ended in darkness. God ceased; men ceased to call Him blessed. After Solomon, darkness began steadily to settle in; Israel was swept away. Christianity followed; that has similarly failed. And now the black night of antichristian apostasy is drawing nigh.” And thus, so far, the prophecies beginning with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob have not yet been fulfilled. Israel is as dead. Yea, buried among the nations. Jerusalem is in heaps, trodden down of the nations until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. How sadly appropriate are the following mournful lines―
“Oh, weep for those that wept by Babel’s stream,
Whose shrines are desolate, whose land’s a dream!
Weep for the harp of Judah’s broken shell
Mourn―where God once dwelt the godless dwell!
Tribes of the wandering foot, the weary breast,
How shall ye flee away, and be at rest?
The wild dove has her nest, the fox his cave,
Mankind his country―Israel but a grave!”
Truthfully and sorrowfully may we sing with our Christian bard (and the song is a kind of landing-stage in the progress of our theme) ―
“The Lord hath afflicted His Zion,
The city He loved so well:
Where He deigned, like a crouching lion,
In glory and strength to dwell.
But why hath Jehovah forsaken
The place of His ancient throne?
His vine from the wilderness taken
To flourish for Him alone?
Ah, deem not the Holy One cruel!
Had Solyma loved His will,
She had sparkled the costliest jewel,
The beauty of nations still.
The Lord had been still her defender,
And she, the queen of the earth,
In holiness, freedom, and splendour,
Had gloried in Shiloh’s birth.
But she fell and her crown of glory
Was struck from her rebel brow;
And with feet all wounded and gory
She wanders in exile now.
Yet, sad one, distrust not our pity;
Though some would wring out thy teats.
We will weep for the holy city,
And sorrow o’er former years.
Thou art stricken, dethroned, and lowly,
Bereft of a home on earth;
Yet still to our heart thou art holy,
Thou land of Messiah’s birth.
He sprung from thy chosen of daughters;
His star o’er thy hills arose;
He lathed in thy soft flowing waters,
And wept o’er thy coming woes.
He wept, who in secret yet lingers
With yearnings of heart o’er thee;
He―He―whom thy blood-sprinkled fingers
Once nailed to the cursed tree.
Dark deed! It was thine to afflict Him,
Yet longs His soul for the day
When thou in the blood of thy victim
Shalt wash thy deep stains away.
Thou land of the cross and the glory,
Whose brightness at last will shine
Afar through the earth, what a story
Of darkness and light is thine.
He died as a lamb―as a lion
He spares thee―nor can forget
His desolate exile of Zion;
He waits to be gracious yet.”
This surely is true; and the time is near when the Solomon season of glory will have come. Meanwhile, the church of this day comes in between the time of Messiah’s rejection and that season of His reign. The Lord, as Son, is now in heaven, whilst by the Holy Ghost, through the Gospel, He is gathering on earth (for He is the great soul-gatherer) all those who are one with Him, even those who form the mystery hid from the beginning of the world, and who are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. The middle wall which separated Jew and Gentile is broken down, and both are now one in a new creation, which new creation is not by natural birth, as with Israel in the past, but by a divine and heavenly birth.
The Holy Ghost is gathering out of the nations a people for God. That work completed, the Lord will come to His Zion and to the earth; and then all that Jacob was promised will be accomplished. The earth will not go on indefinitely. The Son of David will yet have His place in it, and His glory too, as its Monarch and Ruler. And the world will then be altered. “None shall hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain” (Isa. 2:99And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. (Isaiah 2:9)). For it is then that the earth will enjoy her long, bright millennium. It is then the heavenly city containing ourselves, yea, all the resurrection and glorified saints, will pay her visit to the earth. Then Israel will be saved, and all nations will call the Messiah blessed.
The whole circle of Israel’s history, is it not with sufficient clearness told by that prophet who more than any other speaks of her coming glory? By him her sins, sorrows, repentance, and accomplished blessedness are all minutely described (Isa. 28, 40, 42), Oh, what a history, reaching throughout all vicissitudes and changes, and issuing in the full accomplishment of the promises of glory made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! But the Lord will not be alone in reigning over the earth in that day. There will be an innumerable company of joint-heirs who will come with Him, having the glory of God, and will reign with Him in that city over the Jerusalem of the land of Israel; and they will be a magnificent display to the whole universe of what redemption is, and along with Him minister glory to the earth. They of the city, and nation also, will minister deepest love to His own heart. They will know Him and love Him and adore Him as the once slain Lamb. Especially will they know Him as having once served and suffered for them. Think of the nation looking on their Messiah not to reject Him, but to own and love Him as their own! and think of the redeemed in the city of the glory looking at their Bridegroom-Lamb; the same Lamb, the same Christ―the hands, the feet, the side, with the marks of His sufferings unworn away by the glory, speaking of His sorrows, and telling how He loved them. It is thus here among the Brides of Scripture that the truth concerning Rachel so beautifully appears. For Rachel is different from all others. David was not humbled for Abigail; Isaac never sorrowed for Rebekah, nor Joseph for Asenath.
It is Rachel who takes up the tale in this one aspect of it. It was through the humbling of himself that Jacob obtained Rachel; it is in the glass of his deep sorrows that we can see the love he had for her. We need not say of what she is the image. She surely reminds us of what will be the feelings of the saved at the marriage of the Lamb, when He who was humbled for us here will be all made known to our satisfied hearts, when we shall feast on the love of Him who was rich, but for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. It is by Christ’s humbling Himself as a servant and as sufferer for us that we see His love. The order was―first, love; next, suffering; then possession. But the love was first. It is in the story before us that we see this.
We have the sweet, natural scene of Jacob’s love, with all that it morally suggests in Gen. 29, where our thoughts now are. And this is another landing-stage in our inquiry into the story of Rachel: Jacob “looked,” we are told, “and behold a well in the field, and flocks lying by it.” The flocks were lying there; for they are restful in presence of the fountain. So will it be with us forever; we shall rest where He rests. But the stone is on its mouth, and must be rolled away ere they can drink. All obstacles must be removed, which they were at the cross, ere we could drink as now from “the fountain of the water of life freely” (Rev. 21:66And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:6)). How have we seen souls drink as they have never drank before, when, through the Word, the obstacles have been shown as all taken out of the way.
But there can be no drinking or feeding till the flocks are assembled. It was to show His delight in our communion, our fellowship one with another, that He said, “Where two or three are gathered in [or by] My name, there am I in the midst” (Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)). Coldness, deadness, loss of communion, all vanish as He is revealed. The sweet visions of His grace, at His table, for example, draw all to lie down in green pastures beside the still waters.
It was while Jacob was speaking to his brethren that Rachel came. When he saw her, he rolled away the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flocks of Laban, his mother’s brother. Nothing is so commanding as love. “And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept” ―sweet owning of relationship. Such is our glimpse of this first love of his, which proved itself by long years of service and sorrow. Picture of him who said, “I love my wife and children.” (Ex. 21:55And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: (Exodus 21:5)); and of Him who would serve for us forever.
It was from this time that “Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve for Rachel seven years.” And then, as the seven years wore away, and there were seven years more, “they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her” (Gen. 29:2020And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. (Genesis 29:20)). But who that saw Jacob as humbled by Laban could have supposed that such promises were his? He was, as the blessed Lord Himself, unknown to those not in divine knowledge, and passed as a stranger in the land. Did Rachel, we wonder, know the true value placed on him by God? She loved him, we cannot doubt as many now, without much intelligence, love the greater than Jacob; but was she in the secret of the promises? Was she a daughter of faith? Was she a daughter of Abraham, and able to foresee the time when the full inheritance of the heavenly country would befall him, and when she herself, as to this earth, like Rebekah, would be the “mother of thousands of millions?”
How beautiful her first knowledge of him! Jacob claims relationship, on which he founds the rights and intimacies of sweetest love; she is of his own people; she is the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother. The eye that saw her looked on relationship. Jacob was to her as a mysterious one, whose grace drew to himself; yea, drew from Rachel a love corresponding to his own. No sooner does love exist than it asserts itself. It cannot rest until it is satisfied. It was thus, while in estrangement, far from any possession of the promises, that Jacob loved Rachel. What follows is that, through toil and disappointment, he finds his way to her possession. Though evil treated, nothing is an obstacle. Laban would have given wages, but Jacob wants no wages; he wants Rachel, for whom he will willingly suffer. He accordingly serves for her seven years. These passed, he put in his claim. By stratagem the elder sister is substituted in her place. He is told he must serve other seven years.
Fraud, disappointment, toil, all are as nothing to his love for Rachel. It is this one point of light in the history of Jacob which makes it so clear to our mind how he had set his love upon Rachel, reminding us of Him who had set His love upon us. We are told “it was exacted. And He was made answerable; and He opened not His mouth” (Isa. 53:7-97He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7‑9)―Bishop Lowth’s, version).
We seek no fanciful or self-derived interpretation of this Scripture, but what may be doubted as a type may be accepted as an expression of precious truth concerning Christ and His Church; as one has said, “He saw the Church in the glass of the divine purpose, and so loved it that He could give up all, even life, to possess it.” This was before the foundation of the world; but even in these early ages of time does one love to see how He had His delights with the sons of men, His rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth! In such as Isaac, David, and Jacob, He saw Himself as Bridegroom; in their brides also He saw those to whom in His time He will say, “I am married unto thee; I have betrothed thee unto Me forever” (Hos. 2: 20). It is because of this we so loved these histories. They are fragrant of God’s love to Israel, of Christ’s love to His Church. It is, under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, that in these Old Testament writings so much of Christ is discovered. We read of Jacob, Isaac, Boaz, David, Joseph, but it is not their names so much we see as the Name of names, that Nape above every name, “which is as ointment poured forth. His garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia.” It is said of the vases of Egypt, three thousand years old, that they are still odoriferous with the precious ointment which they once contained. The fragrance of Jesus poured into such histories as these will grow with the growth of divine knowledge, and will be present to our redeemed memories through the everlasting ages of ages. The order, thus, with Him, as with Jacob, was first, love; next, suffering, and then possession; for though His love is eternal, the full possession is not yet.
There was a difference between Isaac and Jacob. Isaac tells of Him who was in the bosom of the Father, and, as Son, never left it even in the hour of deepest sorrow. It was not as Son with the Father, but as man with God, that He had to say, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:3434And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34)). Jacob tells of the same Person, but in His character as the Son of man. He was “despised, rejected, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:33He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)). Both set forth Christ; and we need both. Looking at Christ as man only is the error of the Humanitarian and of the Unitarian. Looking to Him, as Son, yet denying His Sonship to be eternal is the error of the Socinian. But who can deny His Godhead with such words as John 1:1-141In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:1‑14), where it is said, “the Word WAS God!” not the Word was from God, or like God, but WAS God. And to identify the Word with Christ it is added― “and the Word was made flesh, and DWELT AMONG US” (John 1:1414And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)). A death blow to all such denial of His Godhead are such words as these. Also that word in John 14:99Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? (John 14:9): “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” But how is this? Why, in that human body dwelt, as treasure in a vessel, ALL THE Fullness OF THE GODHEAD. Accordingly the Father was there; the Son was there; the Holy Ghost was there. Hence he who knows Jesus, knows the Father and the Son―knows God. This is blessed, especially in view of that day when, absent from the body, we are present with the Lord―with Him whom as Man, as Son, as Saviour, we have thus down here known and loved, and whom we shall find to be the same there.
How has He spread out, as it were, a mirror for Himself in all those we are considering, and into whom He Himself has been pleased to look, leaving there, for us to ponder, His own blessed image. Thus we see Him first rejected, and then reigning as Messiah-King. Joseph shows Him as Lord of the earth, Israel and the nations subject to Him. Isaac shows Him as Son. Jacob, in his turn, takes up features of the image unknown to others. He shows Him humbled―a man of sorrows, of promise truly, but not in possession. Jacob had only “a burying-place,” like Him of whom we sing―
“Who found on earth no resting place,
Save only in the grave.”
Promised all, but received nothing. Blessed Lord! How one seems to see Thee in these Thy ways in the olden time. It was love―grace―that made Thee serve for us poor sinners. But had there been no sorrow, no humbling unto death, there had been no salvation.
It was that He might die for us He became man, and also that He might show us the Father; for “they were human lips that told us of the Father” ―the inmost secrets of His bosom. And the lips by which He now speaks, and by which He will speak to us forever, are human lips. The whole vessel is human. The treasure is different. But whether, as Son here, declaring to us the secrets of the Father, or as a suffering, dying Victim for us on the tree, the source of all is love―deep, unchanging love, the love of Him who “so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
Our souls would yet further linger over this image of Christ’s service. The man in Ex. 21 could have gone out free, but then he would have gone out alone. But he said, “I love my master, I love my wife and my children; I will not go out free.” He would rather be in bonds with them, than at liberty without them. Psa. 40:66Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. (Psalm 40:6) shows how this applies to Christ. He would rather be in humiliation and death down here, and have His Church, than remain free in heaven forever without it. For the joy set before Him He endured all. So with the seven years’ servitude of Jacob―they “were but as a few days, for the love which Jacob had to her.” Speak we of love? It is different to mere hire. Service from love carries with it its own reward. It is in service that love finds its sweetest exercise. Paul speaks of eye-service; that is, service done only when the eye of another is on us, but ceasing when the eye is withdrawn. Witness or no witness, it was all the same with Jacob. He loved Rachel, and cared only for Rachel. Moreover, such love can endure suffering, reminding us of how Christ came where we were; and how, as the Good Shepherd, He gave His life for His sheep. In His deepest, darkest hour, when God had forsaken Him, His thought was of His redeemed ones―His “darling,” or, as in the margin, His “only one.” We were with Him. No sorrows could be deeper. Who can think of them but with awe? He was left by God; but though God left Him, faith had not left Him, and His faith was still with us; hence He could still say, “Deliver My darling, My only one, from the power of the dog” (Psa. 226But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. (Psalm 22:6)). Who can doubt that this was His redeemed? And who can doubt that the power of the dog means the power of hell? It was love that made Him suffer thus; and that love which was stronger than death had fellowship with His own, even whilst tasting its greatest bitterness, saying, “My darling, My only one.”
As Isaac and Jacob are different, so also are Rebekah and Rachel. The call of Rebekah to be the bride of Isaac was founded on oath and promise, the result of previous plan and purpose. In the call of Rachel there was no mention of any such purpose. Her being Jacob’s was because of herself; She was beautiful to sight. Seeing her was to love her. Like the word in the psalm, “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty.” Nothing is said of Rebekah thus. Costly gifts adorn her. There were no such costly gift here; it was herself simply, reminding us of how God saw in us poor, unadorned ones in the far country that which He loved. Moreover, Eliezer it was who went in quest of Rebekah, but Jacob went himself for Rachel, reminding us how Christ came where we were. The Good Shepherd goeth after His sheep until He finds, as the word is, it, which He surely always definitely does.
Then again it was Eliezer all along the desert journey who was representative for Abraham, informing the mind of Rebekah concerning Isaac. He had come for her; nay, was to be with her even to the end of the journey, when, having completed his mission, he would deliver her up to Isaac. He had already adorned her and otherwise prepared her for the moment when he would present her to Isaac. He would then have accomplished the will of him who sent him. Isaac having come, the guide was no more needed. There was no such provision for Rachel. Like those in the latter day who will unexpectedly see the Lord Himself, will see Him as He is, not needing, as we do now, first of all to see as in a glass darkly. How beautiful it all is! But it is the Spirit, the Comforter, that other Paraclete, who now, in the absence of the Son from heaven, engages our minds and exercises our affections. “Whom having not seen, we love” (1 Peter 1:88Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:8)). But in a new age the saved people, like Rachel, will see Him who, like Jacob, “had not where to lay His head,” and seeing and possessing Him, will be happy in His love: they themselves in a special way the reward of His soul’s travail.
One pleasant thought more. Sweet was the “I will” of Rebekah. It came in answer to the question, “Wilt thou go with this man?” But there was no “I will” with Rachel. There was no distance for the heart to traverse. Jacob had come; and it was not faith, but sight. Jacob was there; and to whom could she go? Jacob loved Rachel, and at once that love secured the same in her, which nothing could hinder; she was at once his own. How natural! How lovely! And surely we have a heart for all this, and are helped in our souls thus in our knowledge of Christ in these precious stories―human, yet divine. How they tell of mysteries far deeper and dearer than their own. And how they benefit our own love! Oh, do we not long to know yet more of the love of Christ which “passeth knowledge?” ―that dying love of His―yea, that love which, notwithstanding delay, a delay extending through all the ages of the promises, and that age now transpiring, will issue in the glorious consummation, when Israel’s night, now dark indeed, will be forever overpast; and when our own night will be lost amid the glory of our coming day. The one night―our own―will end with “the morning star;” i.e., when Christ comes to the air; the other, as a subsequent event, with the Sun of Righteousness, who will rise over Israel and the earth with healing in His wings, which He will do at His second coming to the world. Surely for both the night is far spent, and the day is at hand.