Jacob's unbelieving fears. Gen. xlii. 36. All these things are against me!
THE best of men are weak when they come into temptation. The trials of Jacob were indeed heavy : and, if we suppose that he had any idea that his sons
55.] Jacob's unbelieving fears. 283
had been active agents in bereaving him of his beloved Joseph, his grief must have been poignant beyond all expression. Not having been able to bring home to them any proof of such a conspiracy, he seems never to have dropped any hint to them before respecting it ; and possibly he did not even now mean to charge it home upon them, but only to say, that he had been bereaved in some measure through them : neverthe- less his words seem to betray a lurking suspicion, that they had been accessary to Joseph's death ; " Me ye have bereaved ; Joseph is not :" and this might well make him averse to trust Benjamin in their hands. But in the complaint he uttered respecting the ulti- mate end of his trials, he was manifestly wrong. We say not, that we should have shewn more constancy than he : it is more than probable that none of us in his circumstances would have acted better : but from his language on the occasion we may learn, how we do act in trying circumstances, and how we ought to act.
I. How we do act —
" We are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward :" none therefore can hope to escape it ; and least of all they, who, like Jacob, have large families. While our trials are light, we can bear them with composure ; but if they become heavy and accumulated, we are then apt to indulge,
1. Murmuring complaints —
[Whether Jacob meant to reflect on his sons or not, he certainly meant to complain of his afflictions ; which was, in fact, to complain of God, who, in his all-wise providence, had appointed them. It was thus with his posterity during their sojourning in the wilderness : they always murmured against Moses, and against God, whenever they were involved in any difficulty or distress ; and, when they were discouraged by the report of the spies respecting the land of Canaan and its inha- bitants, they even proposed to make a Captain over them, and to return unto Egypta. And how many such " murmurers and complainers" are there amongst ourselves! Some will ex- pressly declare, that they think God deals hardly with them : others content themselves with venting their spleen against the instruments of their calamities : but all, in one way or other,
a Numb. xiv. 4.