PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis
Dods, Marcus · 135,092 words · 179 reading sections
_Jacob At Peniel._
GENESIS xxxii. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up."--JAMES iv. 10. Jacob had a double reason for wishing to leave Padan-aram. He believed in the promise of God to give him Canaan; and he saw that Laban was a man with whom he could never be on a thoroughly good understanding. He saw…
764 wordsSECTION 122_Jacob At Peniel._
Therefore was Jacob "greatly afraid and distressed." The joy with which, a few days ago, he had greeted the host of God, was quite overcast by the tidings brought him regarding the host of Esau. Things heavenly do always look so like a mere show; visits of angels seem so delusive and fleeting; the exhibition of the pow…
943 wordsSECTION 123_Jacob At Peniel._
Why, then, was Jacob thus mysteriously held back while his household were quietly moving forward in the darkness? What is the meaning, purpose, and use of this opposition to his entrance? These are obvious from the state of mind Jacob was in. He was going forward to meet Esau under the impression that there was no othe…
682 wordsSECTION 124_Jacob At Peniel._
This wrestling therefore was by no means actually or symbolically prayer. Jacob was not aggressive, nor did he stay behind his company to spend the night in praying for them. It was God who came and laid hold on Jacob to prevent him from entering the land in the temper he was in, and as Jacob. He was to be taught that …
834 wordsSECTION 125_Jacob At Peniel._
Thus, as Abraham had to become God's heir in the simplicity of humble dependence on God; as Isaac had to lay himself on God's altar with absolute resignation, and so become the heir of God, so Jacob enters on the inheritance through the most thorough humbling. Abraham had to give up all possessions and live on God's pr…
695 wordsSECTION 126_Jacob At Peniel._
Similarly, when advancing to a spiritual possession, such checks are not without their use. Many men look with longing to what is eternal and spiritual, and they resolve to win this inheritance. And this resolve they often make as if its accomplishment depended solely on their own endurance. They leave almost wholly ou…
464 wordsSECTION 127_Jacob'S Return._
GENESIS xxxv. "As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way."--GEN. xlviii. 7. The words of the Wrestler at the brook Jabbok, "Let me go, for the day breaketh," express the truth that spiritual things will not submit themselves to sensible tests. When we seek to let the full …
658 wordsSECTION 128_Jacob'S Return._
But though God's operation is in darkness the results of it are in the light. "As Jacob passed over Peniel, the _sun rose_ upon him, and he halted upon his thigh." As Jacob's company halted when they missed him, and as many anxious eyes were turned back into the darkness, they were unable still to see him; and even whe…
1,043 wordsSECTION 129_Jacob'S Return._
The narrative now prepares to leave Jacob and make room for Joseph. It brings him back to Bethel, thereby completing the history of his triumph over the difficulties with which his life had been so thickly studded. The interest and much of the significance of a man's life come to an end when position and success are ac…
847 wordsSECTION 130_Jacob'S Return._
If years go by without any such incident occurring in our life as drives us to a recognition of our moral laxity and deterioration, and to a frank and humble return to a closer walk with God, we had need to strive to awaken ourselves and ascertain whether we are living up to old vows and are really animated by thorough…
763 wordsSECTION 131_Jacob'S Return._
But a heavier blow, the heaviest that death could inflict, soon fell upon him. She who had been as God's gift and smile to him since ever he had left Bethel at the first is taken from him now that he is restored to God's house. The number of his sons is completed, and the mother is removed. Suddenly and unexpectedly th…
954 wordsSECTION 132_Joseph'S Dreams._
GENESIS xxxvii. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee."--PSALM lxxvi. 10. The migration of Israel from Canaan to Egypt was a step of prime importance in the history. Great difficulties surrounded it, and very extraordinary means were used to bring it about. The preparatory steps occupied about twenty years, and …
721 wordsSECTION 133_Joseph'S Dreams._
It is to obviate these dangers, and to secure that Israel grow without let or hindrance, that Jacob's household is removed to a land where protection and seclusion would at once be secured to them. In the land of Goshen, secured from molestation partly by the influence of Joseph, but much more by the caste-prejudices o…
893 wordsSECTION 134_Joseph'S Dreams._
A young man of such capabilities could not long remain insensible to his own powers or indifferent to his own destiny. Indeed, the conduct of his father and brothers towards him must have made him self-conscious, even though he had been wholly innocent of introspection. The force of the impression he produced on his fa…
827 wordsSECTION 135_Joseph'S Dreams._
It was because Joseph's dreams embodied his waking ambition that they were of importance. Dreams become significant when they are the concentrated essence of the main stream of the waking thoughts, and picturesquely exhibit the tendency of the character. "In a dream," says Elihu, "in a vision of the night, when deep sl…
973 wordsSECTION 136_Joseph'S Dreams._
Whatever Joseph thought of the path by which he was to reach the high dignity which his dreams foreshadowed, he was soon to learn that the path was neither easy nor short. Each man thinks that, for himself at least, an exceptional path will be broken out, and that without difficulties and humiliations he will inherit t…
870 wordsSECTION 137_Joseph'S Dreams._
All this is in the way to attainment. This or that check, this long burial for years, does not come upon you merely because stoppage and hindrance have been useful to others, but because your advancement lies through these experiences. Young persons naturally feel strongly that life is all before them, that this life i…
960 wordsSECTION 138_Joseph In Prison._
There are, too, unstable Reubens still, whom something always draws aside, and who are ever out of the way when most needed; who, like him, are on the other side of the hill when Christ's cause is being betrayed; who still count their own private business that which must be done, and God's work that which may be done--…
682 wordsSECTION 139_Joseph In Prison._
In Joseph's being lifted out of the pit only to pass into slavery, many a man of Joseph's years has seen a picture of what has happened to himself. From a position in which they have been as if buried alive, young men not uncommonly emerge into a position preferable certainly to that out of which they have been brought…
752 wordsSECTION 140_Joseph In Prison._
His capacity, then, and power of governing others, were no longer dreams of his own, but qualities with which he was accredited by those who judged dispassionately and from the bare actual results. But this recognition and promotion brought with it serious temptation. So capable a person was he that a year or two had b…
954 wordsSECTION 141_Joseph In Prison._
The incident is related not because it was the most violent temptation to which Joseph was ever exposed, but because it formed a necessary link in the chain of circumstances that brought him before Pharaoh. And however strong this temptation may have been, more men would be found who could thus have spoken to Potiphar'…
722 wordsSECTION 142_Joseph In Prison._
"But the Lord was with Joseph, and allowed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison." As in Potiphar's house, so in the king's house of detention, Joseph's fidelity and serviceableness made him seem indispensable, and by sheer force of character he occupied the place rather of governor th…
822 wordsSECTION 143_Joseph In Prison._
This casual conversation, then, with his fellow-prisoners was for Joseph one of those perilous moments when a man holds his fate in his hand, and yet does not know that he is specially on trial, but has for his guidance and safe-conduct through the hazard only the ordinary safeguards and lights by the aid of which he i…
1,093 wordsSECTION 144_Pharaoh'S Dreams._
GENESIS xli. "Thus saith the Lord, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers: that saith of Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure."--ISA. xliv. 25, 28. The preceding act in this grea…
722 wordsSECTION 145_Pharaoh'S Dreams._
But, as things turned out, it was perhaps as well for Joseph that his promising friend did forget him. For, supposing the Chief Butler had overcome his natural reluctance to increase his own indebtedness to Pharaoh by interceding for a friend, supposing he had been willing to risk the friendship of the Captain of the G…
784 wordsSECTION 146_Pharaoh'S Dreams._
These two years, then, during which Joseph's active mind must necessarily have been forced to provide food for itself, and have been thrown back upon his past experience, seem to have been of eminent service in maturing his character. The self-possessed dignity and ease of command which appear in him from the moment wh…
929 wordsSECTION 147_Pharaoh'S Dreams._
It tells in favour of the court magicians and wise men that not one of them offered an interpretation of dreams to which it would certainly not have been difficult to attach some tolerably feasible interpretation. Probably these men were as yet sincere devotees of astrology and occult science, and not the mere jugglers…
679 wordsSECTION 148_Pharaoh'S Dreams._
It is the existence at the court of Pharaoh of this highly respected class of dream-interpreters and wise men, which lends significance to the conduct of Joseph when summoned into the royal presence. Such wisdom as he displayed in reading Pharaoh's visions was looked upon as attainable by means within the reach of any …
806 wordsSECTION 149_Pharaoh'S Dreams._
That we do not misjudge Joseph's character or ascribe to him qualities which were invisible to his contemporaries, is apparent from the circumstance that Pharaoh and his advisers, with little or no hesitation, agreed that to no man could they more safely entrust their country in this emergency. The mere personal charm …
351 wordsSECTION 150_Joseph'S Administration._
GEN. xli. 37-57, and xlvii. 13-26. "He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom."--PSALM. cv. 21, 22. "Many a monument consecrated to the memory of some nobleman gone to his long home, who during life had held high rank at the cou…
822 wordsSECTION 151_Joseph'S Administration._
His attitude towards God and his own family was disclosed in the names which he gave to his children. In giving names which had a meaning at all, and not merely a taking sound, he showed that he understood, as well he might, that every human life has a significance and expresses some principle or fact. And in giving na…
680 wordsSECTION 152_Joseph'S Administration._
There is no doubt then that Joseph had learned to recognise the providence of God as a most important factor in his life. And the man who does so, gains for his character all the strength and resolution that come with a capacity for waiting. He saw, most legibly written on his own life, that God is never in a hurry. An…
770 wordsSECTION 153_Joseph'S Administration._
Egypt's indebtedness to Joseph was, in fact, two-fold. In the first place he succeeded in doing what many strong governments have failed to do: he enabled a large population to survive a long and severe famine. Even with all modern facilities for transport and for making the abundance of remote countries available for …
1,172 wordsSECTION 154_Joseph'S Administration._
From this chapter, then, in the history of Joseph, we may reasonably take occasion to remind ourselves, first, that in all things pertaining to God unconditional submission to Christ is necessarily required of us. Apart from Christ we cannot tell what are the necessary elements of a permanently happy state; nor, indeed…
791 wordsSECTION 155_Visits Of Joseph'S Brethren._
[1] "It happened very often that the inhabitants of one district threatened an attack on the occupants of another on account of some dispute about divine or human questions. The hostile feelings of the opponents not unfrequently broke out into a hard struggle, and it required the whole armed power of the king to exting…
848 wordsSECTION 156_Visits Of Joseph'S Brethren._
When Joseph sees this, his heart warms to them. He may not yet be quite sure of them. A prison-repentance is perhaps scarcely to be trusted. He sees they would for the moment deal differently with him had they the opportunity, and would welcome no one more heartily than himself, whose coming among them had once so exas…
728 wordsSECTION 157_Visits Of Joseph'S Brethren._
The test which revealed the thoroughness of his brothers' repentance was unintentionally applied by Joseph. When he hid his cup in Benjamin's sack, all that he intended was to furnish a pretext for detaining Benjamin, and so gratifying his own affection. But, to his astonishment, his trick effected far more than he int…
819 wordsSECTION 158_Visits Of Joseph'S Brethren._
Thus Joseph in seeking to gain _one_ brother found eleven--for now there could be no doubt that they were very different men from those brethren who had so heartlessly sold into slavery their father's favourite--men now with really brotherly feelings, by penitence and regard for their father so wrought together into on…
925 wordsSECTION 159_Visits Of Joseph'S Brethren._
To complete our apprehension of the state of mind into which the brethren were brought by Joseph's treatment of them, we must take into account the assurance he gave them, when he made himself known to them, that it was not they but God who had sent him into Egypt, and that God had done this for the purpose of preservi…
750 wordsSECTION 160_The Reconciliation._
GEN. xlv. "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones."--HEB. xi. 22. It is generally by some circumstance or event which perplexes, troubles, or gladdens us, that new thoughts regarding conduct are presented to us, and new impul…
693 wordsSECTION 161_The Reconciliation._
It is one of our most familiar intellectual pleasures to see in the experience of others, or to read, a lucid and moving account of emotions identical with those which have once been our own. In reading an account of what others have passed through, our pleasure is derived mainly from two sources--either from our being…
806 wordsSECTION 162_The Reconciliation._
2. In finding their brother again, those sons of Jacob found also their own better selves which they had long lost. They had been living in a lie, unable to look the past in the face, and so becoming more and more false. Trying to leave their sin behind them, they always found it rising in the path before them, and aga…
804 wordsSECTION 163_The Reconciliation._
The same warm tide of feeling which carried away all that separated Joseph from his brethren bore him on also to the decision to invite his father's entire household into Egypt. We are reminded that the history of Joseph in Egypt is an episode, and that Jacob is still the head of the house, maintaining its dignity and …
736 wordsSECTION 164_The Reconciliation._
The anxiety with which he gazed evening after evening towards the setting sun, to descry the returning caravan, was at last relieved. But his joy was not altogether unalloyed. His sons brought with them a summons to shift the patriarchal encampment into Egypt--a summons which evidently nothing would have induced Jacob …
951 wordsSECTION 165_The Reconciliation._
Cordial as the reconciliation between Joseph and his brethren seemed, it was not as thorough as might have been desired. So long, indeed, as Jacob lived, all went well; but "when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil whi…
762 wordsSECTION 166_The Reconciliation._
How Joseph spent the years which succeeded the famine we have no means of knowing; but the closing act of his life seemed to the narrator so significant as to be worthy of record. "Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham…
793 wordsSECTION 167_The Reconciliation._
Several passages in the life of Joseph have shown us that where the Spirit of Christ is present, many parts of the conduct will suggest, if they do not actually resemble, acts in the life of Christ. The attitude towards the future in which Joseph sets his people as he leaves them, can scarcely fail to suggest the attit…
297 wordsSECTION 168_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
GENESIS xlviii. and xlix. Jacob's blessing of his sons marks the close of the patriarchal dispensation. Henceforth the channel of God's blessing to man does not consist of one person only, but of a people or nation. It is still _one seed_, as Paul reminds us, a unit that God will bless, but this unit is now no longer …
1,023 wordsSECTION 169_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
In these blessings, therefore, we have the history of the Church in its most interesting form. In these sons gathered round him, the patriarch sees his own nature reflected piece by piece, and he sees also the general outline of all that must be produced by such natures as these men have. The whole destiny of Israel is…
847 wordsSECTION 170_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
And often we are rebuked by finding that when we do offer things spiritual, even those who are wrapped in earthly comforts appreciate and accept the better gifts. So it was in Joseph's case. No doubt the highest posts in Egypt were open to his sons; they might have been naturalised, as he himself had been, and, throwin…
780 wordsSECTION 171_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
We meet with these crossed hands of blessing frequently in Scripture; the younger son blessed above the elder--as was needful, lest grace should become confounded with nature, and the belief gradually grow up in men's minds that natural effects could never be overcome by grace, and that in every respect grace waited up…
1,154 wordsSECTION 172_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
The future of Reuben was of a negative, blank kind--"Thou shalt _not_ excel;" his unstable character must empty it of all great success. And to many a heart since have these words struck a chill, for to many they are as a mirror suddenly held up before them. They see themselves when they look on the tossing sea, rising…
693 wordsSECTION 173_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
In the sin, Levi seems to have been the moving spirit, Simeon the abetting tool, and in the punishment, it is the more dangerous tribe that is scattered, so that the other is left companionless. In the blessings of Moses, the tribe of Simeon is passed over in silence; and that the tribe of Levi should have been so used…
889 wordsSECTION 174_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
The kingly supremacy of Judah was here spoken of in words which have been the subject of as prolonged and violent contention as any others in the Word of God. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." These words are very generally understood to mean that Judah'…
759 wordsSECTION 175_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
Zebulun, the sixth and last of Leah's sons, was so called because said Leah, "Now will my husband _dwell with me_" (such being the meaning of the name), "for I have borne him six sons." All that is predicted regarding this tribe is that his _dwelling_ should be by the sea, and near the Ph[oe]nician city Zidon. This is …
1,020 wordsSECTION 176_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
Issachar receives from his father a character which few would be proud of or would envy, but which many are very content to bear. As the strong ass that has its stall and its provender provided can afford to let the free beasts of the forest vaunt their liberty, so there is a very numerous class of men who have no care…
877 wordsSECTION 177_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
There seems to have been an improvement in this tribe, an infusion of some new life into it. In the time of Deborah, indeed, it is with a note of surprise that, while celebrating the victory of Israel, she names even Issachar as having been roused to action, and as having helped in the common cause--"the princes of Iss…
820 wordsSECTION 178_The Blessings Of The Tribes._
But why, in the full flow of his eloquent description of the varied virtues of his sons, does the patriarch suddenly check himself, lie back on his pillows, and quietly say, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O God"? Does he feel his strength leave him so that he cannot go on to bless the rest of his sons, and has but t…
784 wordsSECTION 179*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Expositor'S Bible: The Book Of Genesis ***
[2] Merivale's _Romans under the Empire_, vi. 261. [3] Plato, _Repub._ i. 5, etc. [4] The subsequent history of the tribe shows that the character of its father was transmitted. "No judge, no prophet, not one of the tribe of Reuben, is mentioned." (_Vide_ Smith's Dictionary, _Reuben_.) Updated editions will replace …
210 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.