The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 557

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Oh. xlvi. 1-4; xlvL 28-30; xlviL 7-10. -Tlie three meetings. I. BETWEEN JACOB AND GoD. 1. A gracious meeting. In the visions of the night, at Beersheba, Jeho,ab, after a lapse of upwards of a quarter of a century, again makes known his presence to his servant. It \Vas a signal act of gracious condescension on the part of God. 2. A promi-sed meeting. As the God of Abraham and of Isaac, Jehovah had solemnly taken Jacob into covenant with himself, and engaged to be with him for guidance and succour wherever he might wander and whensoever he might need assistance ; and such an occasion had manifestly arisen then in the experience of the patriarch. 3. A solicited meeting. It is more than likely this was the explanation of Jacob's sacrifices at Beersheba. He was asking God to come to him with counsel and help at the important crisid ""'•ich bad come upon him. 4. An encouraging meeting. Jacob got all that he desued and more-words of cheer and promises of love, that sufficed at once to dispel his fears and animate his hopes. II. BETWEEN JACOB A...'-"D JOSEPH, 1. A longed-for meeting. How earnestly father and son had yearned to behold one another we can imagine better than express. 2. An expected meeting. No doubt Joseph instructed Judah to inform Jacob that he (Joseph) would visit him at Goshen. 3. A /ULppy meeting. Those who have passed through experiences in any degree similar to this of Joseph and Jacob meeting after many years, when each perhaps thought the other dead, will not be surprised at their emotion. III. BETWEEN JACOB AND PHARAOH. 1. An interesting meeting. Of age with (probable) youth, of poverty with wealth, of lowly birth (at least, comparatively) with regal dignity, of piety with superstition. 2. An instructive meeting. No <loubt the monarch would learn something of Jacob's by-past history, and let us hope too of Jacob's God; and perhaps Jacob would discover something in what he heard from Pharaoh concerning Joseph that would lead him to recognise the Divine hand even more clearly than he did. 3. A profitable meeting. Pharaoh got n good man's blessing, and Jacob won a great man's smile.-W. Vera. 1-7.-God spealcing in the visions of the _night. ~bile there ~ere provi- dential intimations which were clear enough, still the direct revelation of God was necessary for Jacob'e assurance. At Beersheba, the consecrated spot, Jacob offers sacrifices in the covenant spirit, and receives in return the message of the covenant God: "I will make of thee a great nation." 11 I will also surely b1ing thee up again," i. e. ~n t~y _descendan!e, The ~ision is _n?t a mere persona\ matter for Jacob's consolat10n, it 1s another m the series of D1vme revelat10ns which are con- nected with the development of the covenant.-R. Vere. 8-27.-Tlie beginning of the nation. "The souls of the house of Jacob which came into Egypt were threescore and ten.'.' The n~mber seventy became afterwards a symbolic number among the Israelites - as m the seventy elders of Moses, the seventy of the Sanhedrim, the seventy of the Alexandrian -yersion of the Scriptures, the seventy disciples of the Lord, the seventy heathen nations of OIJ, XLVJ. 1-34.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS, 507