PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Notes on the Book of Genesis
Mackintosh, Charles Henry, 1820-1896 · 94,805 words · 140 reading sections
FOOTNOTES:
[18] It is deeply interesting to the spiritual mind to mark how sedulously the Spirit of God, in Rom. ix. and indeed throughout all scripture, guards against the horrid inference which the human mind draws from the doctrine of God's election. When he speaks of "vessels of wrath," he simply says, "fitted to destruction.…
279 wordsSECTION 122CHAPTER XXXII.
"And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him." Still God's grace follows him, notwithstanding all. "Nothing changeth God's affection." Whom he loves, and how he loves, he loves to the end. His love is like himself, "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." But how little effect "God's host" had upon Jacob…
893 wordsSECTION 123Part 123
Thus it is in this interesting chapter; when Jacob had made all his prudent arrangements, we read, "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." This is a turning-point in the history of this very remarkable man. To be left alone with God is the only true way of arriving a…
640 wordsSECTION 124Part 124
But, alas! here is where we fail, if one may speak for another. Under the plausible and apparently pious formula of using means, we really cloak the positive infidelity of our poor deceitful hearts; we think we are looking to God to bless our means, while, in reality, we are shutting him out by leaning on the means, in…
724 wordsSECTION 125Part 125
I would remark, ere leaving this chapter, that the book of Job is, in a certain sense, a detailed commentary on this scene in Jacob's history. Throughout the first thirty-one chapters, Job grapples with his friends, and maintains his point against all their arguments; but in Chapter xxxii. God, by the instrumentality o…
242 wordsSECTION 126FOOTNOTES:
[19] No doubt, when faith allows God to act, he will use his own agency; but this is a totally different thing from his owning and blessing the plans and arrangements of unbelief and impatience. This distinction is not sufficiently understood.…
41 wordsSECTION 127CHAPTERS XXXIII. XXXIV.
We may here see how groundless were all Jacob's fears, and how useless all his plans. Notwithstanding the wrestling, the touching the hollow of the thigh, and the halting, we find Jacob still planning. "And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the c…
667 wordsSECTION 128Part 128
We shall see, when we come to Chap. xxxv. that Jacob is led to take a higher and a wider view of God; but at Shechem he was manifestly on low ground, and he was made to smart for it, as is always the case when we stop short of God's own ground. The two tribes and a half took up their position on this side of Jordan, an…
788 wordsSECTION 129CHAPTER XXXV.
"And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there." This confirms the principle on which we have been dwelling. When there is a failure or declension, the Lord calls the soul back to himself. "Remember therefore _from whence thou art fallen_; and repent and do _the first works_." (Rev. ii. 5.) This is th…
811 wordsSECTION 130Part 130
But there is another thing to be remarked in Jacob's recall to Bethel. He is told to make an altar "unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother." He is thus reminded of "the day of his distress." It is often well to have our minds led in this way to the point in our history in…
423 wordsSECTION 131CHAPTER XXXVI.
Furnishes a catalogue of Esau's sons, with their various titles and localities. We shall not dwell on this, but pass on to one of the most fruitful and interesting sections in the entire canon of inspiration, viz.:--…
37 wordsSECTION 132CHAPTERS XXXVII-L,
On which we shall dwell more particularly. There is not in scripture a more perfect and beautiful type of Christ than Joseph. Whether we view Christ as the object of the Father's love,--the object of the envy of "his own",--in his humiliation, sufferings, death, exaltation, and glory,--in all, we have him strikingly ty…
863 wordsSECTION 133Part 133
These verses beautifully exhibit to our view "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." "The archers" have done their work; but God was stronger than they. The true Joseph has been shot at and grievously wounded in the house of his friends; but "the arms of his hands have been made strong" in the powe…
328 wordsSECTION 134CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Presents one of those remarkable circumstances in which divine grace is seen gloriously triumphing over man's sin. "It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda." (Heb. vii. 14.) But how? "Judas begat Phares and Zara of _Thamar_." (Matt. i. 3.) This is peculiarly striking. God, in his great grace, rising above the si…
268 wordsSECTION 135CHAPTER XXXIX.-XLV.
In perusing these interesting sections of inspiration, we perceive a remarkable chain of providential actings, all tending to one grand point, namely, _the exaltation of the man who had been in the pit_; and at the same time bringing out by the way a number of subordinate objects. "The thoughts of many hearts" were to …
759 wordsSECTION 136Part 136
Here, then, was exaltation of no ordinary kind. Contrast this with the pit and the dungeon; and mark the chain of events by which it was all brought about, and you have, at once, a marked exhibition of the hand of God, and a striking type of the sufferings and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph was taken from the p…
849 wordsSECTION 137Part 137
Hence, it is more important to ponder the practical consequences which flow out of the truth of our being gathered to a risen and glorified Head in the heavens. If Christ were on earth, we should be gathered to him here; but, inasmuch as he is hidden in the heavens, the Church takes her character from his position ther…
890 wordsSECTION 138Part 138
"And Joseph said unto his brethren, _Come near to me_, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me hither; for God did send me before you, to preserve life.... And God sent me before you, to pre…
509 wordsSECTION 139Part 139
The remaining chapters of this book are taken up with the removal of Jacob and his family into Egypt, and their settlement there; Joseph's actings during the remaining years of famine; Jacob's blessing the twelve patriarchs; his death and burial. We shall not dwell in detail upon these things, though the spiritual mind…
429 wordsSECTION 140FOOTNOTES:
[20] Joseph's wife sets forth the Church as united to Christ in his glory; Moses' wife presents the Church as united to Christ in his rejection. [21] The close of Jacob's career stands in most pleasing contrast with all the previous scenes of his eventful history. It reminds one of a serene evening, after a tempestuou…
523 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.