9. God’s Faithfulness; Our Failures.
IN the chapter, which illustrates to us by many examples, the life of faith, Jacob’s name appears connected with the tent and the staff. (Heb. 11:9, 219By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: (Hebrews 11:9)
21By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. (Hebrews 11:21)) “Dwelling in tabernacles,” worshipping, leaning “upon the tor of his staff;” may appear trifles to those who are unacquainted with God’s thoughts respecting His people, but whether in the Old Testament or in the New, the testimony of a life, which is one of a pilgrim character, is precious to God. And He loves to dwell upon these incidents in the lives of His people, which are the outcome of faith in Himself. “By faith” there was this “dwelling in tabernacles;” “by faith” the top of the staff was leaned upon; so the Scripture teaches us, and without faith it is impossible to please God. God communicates His mind to us; we believe His word, and by faith we so act as to please God.
The dwelling in tabernacles was the mode of life common to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “By faith” he (Abraham) sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” They could not build in the land of promise, but waited till the promised land should be in their possession; the tent, therefore, characterized their mode of life. Isaac and Jacob followed the habit of their parent, Abraham, whose faith had led him out of his father’s house. The definite promise of God to these men of faith made them dwellers in tents, and gave them to hope in God throughout their lives.
As years passed by, their descendants found themselves in Egypt, and became bondsmen there, until God redeemed them and made them once more dwellers in tents, and pilgrims through the wilderness to the promised land. They were called out of Egypt to Canaan, out of the land of bondage to the tent and to God’s protection, that they might learn to hope in God, and to wait for the fulfillment of His word.
Christians are now addressed as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,” and the spirit of the dweller in the tent should characterize us! If we settle down into the order and ideas of the world we shall become bondsmen of it. It is our common portion to dwell in tabernacles, speaking spiritually, but this can never be done in a true and practical way, save “by faith.”
We said the tent and the staff are connected with Jacob’s name in the roll of the names recorded in Hebrews 11. The tent is more general in its application than the staff―Jacob with Isaac followed his father Abraham’s mode of life: the staff is individual. Each traveler has his own staff; we may share our tent with others!
In a peculiar way the staff is connected with Jacob, even as the rod is with Moses; the spear with Joshua; the harp with David; the crown with Solomon. The rod speaks of delivering power; the spear, of victory, and of defeat; the harp, of joy and sadness; the crown, of glory; and in each lies a record of God’s faithfulness, and His people’s faith or failure, and in the staff, these things are vividly before us.
Joshua’s spear was his own, and so was David’s harp his own. Each believer has his own battle to fight, and his own songs to sing, and in the same way the staff has an individuality about it, and it embodies the idea of a history―the history of a walk! When Jacob, in his old age, appeared before Pharaoh, and spoke of the days of his “pilgrimage,” saying, “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,” he summed up the story of “a hundred and thirty years” (Gen. 47:99And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. (Genesis 47:9)), viewed from the standpoint of his failures!
And when, just before he ended his pilgrimage, “leaning on the top of his staff,” “he worshipped,” and said,” God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil” (Gen. 48:15,1615And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, 16The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. (Genesis 48:15‑16)) he rejoiced in God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness―our failures! how these fill our hearts as we review the past.
Shall not the staff utter its voice to us? What thoughts must have arisen in Jacob, as, leaning upon it, he worshipped God! His life is a record of God’s faithfulness to him, “With my staff,” he said, he had crossed the Jordan. As he slept on his stony pillow, a lonely pilgrim, a stranger in a strange land; God had opened heaven above, and had promised him blessing on blessing. The memory of those early days, and of that then received grace, filled his soul as he worshipped leaning on the top of his staff.
And, as he leaned, worshipping, his own fears also rose up in his mind, and that prayer he had prayed in the night of his distress, “With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee.” (Gen. 32:10, 1110I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. 11Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. (Genesis 32:10‑11)) But more than his fears, faint-heartedness and failure, the sight of the Angel shone again before his soul― “the Angel who had redeemed” him “out of all his troubles”―for on that night of fear he had learned to cling to the Mighty One! This lesson he had been taught by the power of the Angel’s touch, which dried up his strength. His wrestling was over, his strength was gone, and Jacob, a lamed man, cast himself into the Stranger’s arms for strength, and so became Israel! Jacob, “the supplanter,” received the name of Israel, “a prince with God.”
The staff has a history to tell, the history of our life, which may be summed up thus—a record of God’s faithfulness and our failures.