CHAPTER XI.

THE PATRIARCHS.

_Isaac._

THE story of Isaac is brief; his life uneventful, perhaps we might

say monotonous. The record shows that the Lord appeared to him on two

distinct occasions; at Gerar (Gen. 26: 2–5), renewing the covenant

previously made with Abraham, with a very full restatement of all its

salient points; also at Beersheba (26: 23–25) where we are told “he

builded an altar and called on the name of the Lord,” in the steps

of his godly father.――――We see a point of his character in the fact

stated incidentally, that Esau’s marriage into Hittite families “was

a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah.” Esau lacked sympathy with

the spirit of the pious patriarchs and utterly failed to appreciate

the inheritance of blessings which had lain so near the heart of his

grandfather Abraham and of his father Isaac――facts which the historian

touches briefly――“Thus Esau despised his birthright.” The writer to the

Hebrews puts the case forcibly: “Who for one morsel of meat sold his

birthright” (12: 16).――――We have no means of knowing how persistently

and wisely Rebekah had labored to win and hold him by her maternal

opportunities and power. In later years she seems to have withdrawn

her heart from him to give it (with apparently extreme partiality) to

Jacob.――――Of her duplicity in the matter of the paternal blessing, it

can scarcely be necessary to say that the fact of its being recorded by

no means proves that the Lord justified it. Indeed the absence of any

explicit condemnation can not be taken as equivalent to a justification.

Jacob’s exile from his father’s house and home for twenty long

years――so manifestly the result of this duplicity――must have been to

her mind painfully suggestive. It seems plainly to have been one of

God’s ways in providence to rebuke and chasten her for this wrong,

and perhaps we may add, to save Jacob’s soul by removing him from

a maternal influence which was so defective――not to say faulty and

pernicious.

As to Isaac, one point only is named of him by the writer to the

Hebrews in his catalogue of illustrious examples of faith: “By faith

Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come” (11: 20).

These benedictions (recorded Gen. 27: 28, 29, 33, 37, 39, 40) must

be regarded as far more than a venerable father’s good wishes――indeed

as nothing less than prophetic benedictions――words uttered under the

divine impulses of the Holy Ghost. Their broad outlook embraced the

great outlines of the future history of the two nations that were

before him in the person of his two sons.

_Jacob._

In Jacob’s history there is no lack of stirring incident and critical

exigency; in his character, no lack of positive elements and vigorous

force. _Bethel_ where he seems to have found God first; _Mahanaim_

where the double hosts of God met him and the murderous rage of Esau

threatened every precious life in all his household, and he found help

only as he wrestled with the angel of the covenant till he prevailed;

the scenes of his sojourning in _Canaan_ where Joseph first comes to

view, envied and hated of his brethren, and his father mourned for him

many days as dead; and finally _Goshen_ where the aged patriarch found

his lost Joseph yet alive and lord of all Egypt; stood before Pharaoh;

saw his sons and sons’ sons――a growing host; gave them his blessing

and was gathered to his fathers:――surely these salient points of his

history indicate no lack of adventure, and in the religious point of

view, abundant scenes of moral trial――exigencies that tasked his virtue

and endurance, his faith and patience, and in the end brought forth his

chastened soul purified by the discipline of suffering and strong in

the faith of Abraham’s God.

To understand well the scenes of Bethel, we must think of a young man,

emerging from boyhood――his fond mother’s chief beloved――not to say, her

pet boy――never yet thrown upon his own resources; an heir to wealth;

a child of ease――perhaps of maternal indulgence;――but now suddenly

brought into peril of life from his twin brother’s indignant rage and

violence. It would be so horrible to the mother to see her Jacob slain

by his own brother’s hand and to “lose them both in one day”! (Gen.

27: 45). Safety seemed to be only in flight, so she must needs send him

secretly to the distant land of her birth――the old maternal family home.

Therefore, with many a pang of heart, and (let us hope) with many a

prayer, she commended him to the God of the covenant and sent him away.

One day of thoughtful travel had passed slowly over Jacob, his mind

traversing by many rapid transitions from the home he had left behind

to the new scenes that met his eye; from the brother before whose fury

he was fleeing, to the unknown experiences of life among friends he had

never seen. At last the sun had gone down; the eye had nothing more to

see; weariness called for rest and sleep. With a stone for his pillow,

with his tunic wrapt about him, and the broad heavens above for his

canopy, he slept and dreamed――dreamed of a ladder with its foot on

the earth beside him and its top in the heavens; and wonderful to

see! the angels of God descending and ascending upon it! A new sense

of communication between earth and heaven came upon him, assuming a

strange reality when he saw the Lord standing above it and heard him

say, “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac.”

Before this Jacob had heard of that wonderful covenant of God so often

ratified with his venerable grandfather and his father. The transfer

of blessing from Isaac to himself as the lineal heir of both birthright

and blessing was a thing of quite recent experience. How fully he had

comprehended its glorious significance before does not appear; but now

that he is cast out alone upon the wide, unknown world――now that he so

much needs the Great God for his friend――it comes over him with solemn,

precious interest. The words spoken were full of comfort. They reminded

him of the great family promise to Abraham, renewed to his father Isaac:

“A God to thee and _to thy seed after thee_,” and he felt that the

promise put its finger upon his own aching, solitary heart. He had a

fresh assurance that his life would not come to nought and be a failure,

for the Lord said: “The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give

it and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and

thou shalt spread abroad to the West and to the East; to the North and

to the South; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the

earth be blessed.” And lest these blessings might seem too remote to

meet his sense of present peril and need, the Lord kindly added――“And

behold I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou

goest, and will bring thee again to this land; for I will not leave

thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” How deeply

these scenes and words impressed the soul of the youthful Jacob is

apparent in the few words which fell from his lips when he came to the

full consciousness of wakeful life. “Surely the Lord is in this place,

and I knew it not”! I had not thought to meet God _here_ and to meet

him _so_! I thought I was utterly alone but lo! _God is here!_――――We

must suppose that Jacob had never been so near to God before. Such a

meeting with the Majesty of heaven was new to his experience, and a

sense of solemn awe――of reverence amounting to fear, came upon him:――as

the record is, “he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place!

This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of

heaven.” The ladder stretching upward, its foot resting beside him

and its top in the heavens, the open door far in the sky through which

the angels seemed to come and go; the voice of the Lord himself and

withal uttering such words――ah indeed, the whole effect was as if

God and heaven had truly dropped down upon him, and this was God’s

dwelling-place and heaven’s door was there!

The scene was entirely too precious to be suffered to pass into

oblivion; so Jacob’s thought turned to some memorial of the scene and

to a moral adjustment of his future life to this heavenly call. First,

he took the stone which had served him for a pillow and set it up for

a _pillar_ and poured oil upon the top of it――a sacred unction.――――To

the place he gave the significant name “Bethel”――house of God――by which

it was ever after known. Then, by a solemn vow, he gave himself to

the Lord who had thus called and comforted him with promise. We read,

“Jacob vowed a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me

in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put

on so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the

Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be

God’s house; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the

tenth unto thee.’”――――If we press the word “_if_” at the head of this

sentence so as to make it thoroughly conditional, and withal suggesting

some shades of doubt whether God would prove faithful, we shall wrong

Jacob, imputing to him what manifestly he could not have meant. His

words must be taken thus:――_Inasmuch as_ God has so kindly promised

to be with me in all my otherwise doubtful way, and to bring me back

despite of all peril to my father’s house again, I accept him as in

very deed my God; and out of all my accumulated wealth, I will surely

give one tenth to him.――――The spirit is that of one drawn by God’s

promised mercy――not of one who stands in grave doubt whether God will

come up to the full height of his promise. These are the words of one

who has _no_ doubt on that point and who refers to that promise only

to say that because of it, under the joyful assurance of it, he gives

himself to God in full, prompt, and perpetual consecration. A reverent

soul brought so near to God, impressed with a sense that heaven and

God are verily here, does not tempt and provoke God by expressing the

fear that he will not prove faithful to his promises!――――Late into the

morning Jacob lingered in this hallowed spot as one loth to close such

an interview with God and break the charm of such sacred associations.

And when at length he must go on his journey, it was with far other

heart than in his solitary journey of the day before.

* * * * *

Of the scenes of his sojourn at Haran there is no occasion to speak

particularly. Perhaps the deception in which his mother and himself

were the responsible parties came up fresh and clear to him when he

found that Laban had taken similar liberties with him, giving him Leah

when Rachel was in the bond. A man never gets so sharp and keen a sense

of the wrong of these little deceptions as when he becomes the victim

and the sting goes deep into his own bosom. This is sometimes the

Lord’s way to testify his disapprobation of this wrong and to impress

his own view of it upon those who may have sinfully indulged in it.

_Mahanaim._

The second great exigency of Jacob’s life has its record in Gen. 32.

Twenty years have passed away in Haran; he has wives, children, and

ample substance of cattle, sheep, camels. Indeed all his children

except Benjamin are now about him. Not feeling at home longer with

Laban; remembering the Lord’s promise to give Canaan to him and to his

children; mindful moreover of the scenes of Bethel, and we may hope,

somewhat fearful lest the household gods which were dangerously near

the heart of Laban, might be a snare to his wives and children, he

fully makes up his mind to return to Canaan.

At some point on this return journey, (as the narrative states

rather abruptly), the angels of God met him. Jacob saw them and said,

“This is God’s host”――a convoy――a kind of military guard, the demand

for which presently appeared. He gave name to the place from the

fact――“Mahanaim”――the double camps or hosts. They seem to have been an

intimation to him that danger was near, and that God’s hosts were near

also for his rescue.

On his way back to Canaan, and consequently approaching the residence

of Esau in the land of Seir, Jacob is fully aware that his coming must

be known to Esau, and therefore he sends messengers to him for the

purpose of conciliating his good will. These messengers soon returned

to Jacob, saying; “We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh

to meet thee and four hundred men with him.” In an instant Jacob

comprehends the situation and sees his danger. Those four hundred

men are led on by Esau with no peaceful purpose. The lapse of twenty

years has not sufficed to quench the fire of his wrath and to revive

fraternal affection. Still unforgiving he comes on “breathing out

threatening and slaughter,” exhibiting identically the same character

which he impressed on his posterity and which manifested itself in

the vindictiveness of the Edomites at the fall of Jerusalem before the

Chaldean power. Amos (1: 11, 12) and Obadiah (vs. 10–16) represent this

vindictiveness against the posterity of his brother Jacob as the ground

and reason of God’s overwhelming judgments on their nation and land.

“Because he did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all

pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he nursed his wrath for

ever.”――――Such was the bearing of his nation toward the sons of Jacob

in the day of Jerusalem’s fall; and with this same spirit he is coming,

at the point of his history now before us, to cut off Jacob’s powerless

family.――――With admirable self-possession and wisdom, Jacob laid his

plans promptly――first, to divide his train into two parts, placing

one at some distance in advance of the other, so that if the front

column were attacked, the rear might stand some chance of escape: and

secondly, to send forward a valuable present to Esau;――“two hundred

goats; two hundred ewes and twenty rams; thirty milch camels with their

colts; forty kine; ten bulls; twenty she-asses and ten foals” (Gen.

32: 13–15)――enough at least to arrest Esau’s attention and perhaps

to soothe his spirit toward his brother. These he sent forward with

fitting words of conciliation:――but by far the most vital measure

of relief yet remained――_prayer to the Great God of the covenant_.

Vs. 9–12 record the words of this prayer, apparently as offered to

God in the first moments after the messengers returned and apprised

him of his danger. The prudential arrangements above named followed,

occupying the morning hours of the day. When night came on Jacob was

left alone save that the Lord came down in form as a man――the angel

of the covenant――and a scene of struggling, wrestling prayer ensued

which ceased not till the dawn of the morning. As the narrative has

it; “Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the

break of day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he

touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was

out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he [the angel-man] said, Let

me go, for the day breaketh. And he [Jacob] replied――I will not let

thee go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name?

And he said, Jacob. And he said――Thy name shall no more be called Jacob,

but Israel; for as a Prince hast thou power with God and hast prevailed.

And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name; and he

said――Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed

him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have

seen God face to face and my life is preserved.”

What we may call the costume, the purely external _forms_ of this

scene, are striking, peculiar, but thoroughly significant. In view

of the circumstances, there can not be the least doubt that, mentally,

spiritually,――_this is a scene of prayer_――nothing else, less or more.

The prayer is a struggle of soul on the part of the suppliant. He

is in trouble; he is shut up to God alone for help; and he feels that

_he can not be denied_. The scene of the wrestling must imply that God

debates this matter with the suppliant Jacob, apparently resisting,

contending,――certainly delaying, and prolonging the conflict hour after

hour of the live-long night till break of day. Seeing that he prevailed

not to silence Jacob’s supplication, _i. e._ to break his hold as

a wrestler, he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, crippling the

wrestler seriously, yet leaving his arms with strength unimpaired

to hold fast his antagonist. Then as if to test Jacob’s faith and

endurance to the utmost, he said――“Let me go, for the day breaketh;”

to which Jacob replied――“I will not let thee go except thou bless me.”

Jacob as a wrestler with one thigh out of joint had become powerless

to cast his opponent; but with his arms in their full strength he could

_hold on_――and he did. The culminating point in the struggle is reached

in these remarkable words; “I will not let thee go except thou bless

me.” I can not be denied. I have thy promise: it touches this very

case――protection and succor till I return to my country; and I can

not let go my hold. I must have help now, or perish!――――The change of

name is richly significant. Jacob, _i. e._ supplanter, suggested the

deception by which he obtained from his blind father the blessing; but

with it came the rage of his brother and this present peril to himself

and to his great family. “Israel” means _a prince with God_――one who

has prevailed in the struggle of prayer and obtained the blessing

he sought. The change of name thus indicates the change in Jacob’s

relations to God and to Esau which followed his victory in this

prayer-struggle.

But what is the significance of this example? What was really the

animus of this conflict? what the reason for it; what the point in

debate, and what the great moral lessons which it teaches?

Our data for the answer to these questions must come from one or both

of two sources:

(a.) _The circumstances of the present case_;

(b.) _The principles of God’s spiritual administration_ of grace to his

people in connection with prayer.

(a) As to the circumstances of the present case:――The covenant of God

with Jacob is very definite. Jacob understands and manifestly pleads it,

as we see in this chapter. These are his words as recorded: “O God of

my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac”――the Lord [the _Jehovah_,

signifying the faithful God of his people] “who saidst to me, Return

unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee:

I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all thy truth

which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed

over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver 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.

And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the

sand of the sea which can not be numbered for multitude.”――――It should

be noted that the promise in this covenant precisely meets Jacob’s

present emergency――“Return and I will deal well with thee: thou saidst,

I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea.”

These points fully covered his present danger. Jacob doubtless had in

mind the very explicit terms of this covenant as announced to him at

Bethel: “I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou

goest and _will bring thee again to this land_; for I will not leave

thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” There

is therefore no room for mistake on this point. The Lord’s promise to

Jacob is explicit, and in its terms guarantees perfect protection in

his present peril. Why, then, it will be asked, was this night-long

struggle?

We may find some light toward the answer if we remember that every

promise of God to man must in the nature of the case _imply certain

conditions_; and the promise in this covenant equally with all other

promises. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

“Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss.”――――As bearing on this

very covenant let us recall the ground of the Lord’s confidence that

he should be able to fulfill his words to Abraham: “I know him that he

will command his children and his household after him, and they shall

keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, _that the Lord may

bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him_.”――――Now it will

be in point to consider that these scenes of danger from Esau’s rage

inevitably brought up between the Lord and Jacob the question whether

the deception practiced upon Isaac to transfer to Jacob the blessing

which legitimately fell to Esau could be passed over by the Lord

without rebuke. Was it proper that the Lord should endorse it with no

rebuke whatever? If he were ever to bear his protest against it, the

present was the time.――――Yet further, the fact had but recently come

to Jacob’s knowledge that his favorite Rachel had stolen her father’s

gods and taken them with her as she left the family home. Had Jacob

been faithful to the God of his fathers in teaching and impressing

the worship of the one true God and in protesting solemnly against

idol-worship? And had he been firm and outspoken against such theft and

deception as that of his beloved Rachel? Must not things of this sort

be inquired into and definitely settled before the Lord could interpose

with such manifest deliverance as would virtually endorse Jacob as

right before God?――――It ought not to escape our notice that while

the narrative in the preceding chapter (31) recites the misconduct of

Rachel and shows that Jacob then for the first time became aware of the

extent of her idolatry, theft, and deception, so a subsequent narrative

(35: 1–4) apprises us in a very significant way that both the Lord and

Jacob remembered this wonderful night of struggle, and that some of

the matters then in issue were set right. “God said to Jacob――Arise,

go up to Bethel [that place of so many hallowed associations] and dwell

there and make there an altar unto God who appeared to thee when thou

fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said to his

household and to all that were with him, _Put away the strange gods

that are among you_, and be clean, and change your garments, and let

us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God

_who answered me in the day of my distress_, and was with me in the way

which I went.” Yes, “he who answered me in that day of my distress,”

before whom this whole matter was reviewed and debated through that

long, fearful night――who called me to account in that dread emergency

and pointed out my sins and put my soul to most humble confession of

past short-comings and to most solemn vows of future service;――let

us amend our ways and our doings before the eye of this holy God who

mercifully spared us in that fearful hour. These circumstances throw

light upon this remarkable scene of prayer.

* * * * *

(b.) We may also call to mind _the principles of God’s spiritual

administration over his people in respect to answering their prayer_.

Here it is safe to say that God never delays to answer prayer without

some good reason. He could not delay from mere caprice.――――On the other

hand he may delay the blessing sought, for the purpose of holding it

before the suppliant’s mind till he shall better appreciate its worth,

and his own dependence on God alone for it, and that he may accept it

more gratefully and prize it more adequately when it comes. The reasons

for delay may often lie in this direction; but in the present case

of Jacob we must look elsewhere, since in his fearful emergency this

particular reason is scarcely supposable. His case was so urgent and

involved interests so dear and so near to his very soul that his mind

could scarce need to be sharpened to more intense desire or impressed

with a deeper sense of dependence.

Again, God often holds the suppliant in suspense for the sake of

throwing him upon self-examination. It may be simply indispensable

both for the good of the suppliant and for the honor of God that he

should be put to the deepest self-searching, to compel reflection and

consideration for the purpose of convicting him of some sin that must

needs be seen, confessed, repented of and put utterly away. We must not

overlook the great fact that when God grants signal blessings in answer

to any man’s prayer, it will be taken as a tacit indorsement on God’s

part of this man’s spiritual state. It will be considered as God’s

testimony that he is _not_ “regarding iniquity in his heart”――that

there are no iniquities palpable to the world and present to the man’s

own consciousness――indulged and not condemned and forsaken. On this

principle it often happens that God must needs compel the praying

soul to the most thorough heart-searching and to the most absolute and

complete renunciation of known sin, before he can honorably and safely

bestow signal blessings.

If now we place this obvious principle of God’s spiritual

administration alongside of the well-known facts of Jacob’s history,

we shall readily see reasons, apparently all-sufficient, for this long

delay and this remarkable struggle of prayer before the blessing was

given. The Lord was searching his servant and impressing some great

principles of practical duty upon his mind under circumstances well

adapted to insure very thorough reformation.

When Jacob at length prevailed and the Lord blessed him there, the

crisis was past, and the danger really over. It was only for the Lord

to put forth his finger and touch the heart of Esau:――then the revenge

and murderous rage of the Esau that was, gave place to fraternal

kindness and sympathy. We read, “Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced

him and fell on his neck and kissed him; and they wept” (Gen. 33: 4).

The result therefore was far more and better than a mere escape with

life from Esau’s murderous purpose. It was the reconciliation of long

alienated brothers. At least it secured one precious scene of fraternal

sympathy and love.――――We read little of Esau’s subsequent life. The

brothers met at the death-bed and grave of their father (Gen. 35: 29);

perhaps their paths never came in contact again.

The scenes of Mahanaim have afforded to the godly of all future

ages some new light on the great subject of prayer. This was the

first strong decisive case on record of prevalence in prayer. Abraham

interceded long for Sodom; but with no further result than to show

that God was very condescending to hear such prayer, yet that the thing

asked could not be granted.――――Here is a case of positive victory――a

real prevailing with God, reached, however, only after a most

remarkable struggle. It is a great advance in the revealed science

of prayer to have a case so illustrative as this of the great laws

of prevailing prayer.

_Jacob and Joseph._

The group of historic incidents in which Jacob and Joseph were

prominent actors is eventful and striking; in some points without a

parallel in human history. If it were fiction, a mere drama, wrought

out by some gifted imagination, it could not fail to command the

admiration of men as a most finished plot, a wonderful outline of

strange varieties of human character. Truth is sometimes “stranger

than fiction”: and the careful reader of this narrative will testify,

far more instructive and impressive.

The points of chief value will be readily embraced under the following

heads:

I. The striking developments of personal character in the case of Jacob,

Joseph, and his brethren.

II. The hand of God in this history, manifested in two respects:

(a.) In the suffering and moral trial of the righteous: (b.) In his

overruling control of the wicked to bring forth abounding good from

their wickedness.

III. The divine plan and purpose in locating the birth of the great

Hebrew nation in such contact with Egypt.

IV. Egyptian history and life, studied in connection with this sacred

narrative as affording confirmation of its truthfulness.

I. The reader of Gen. 34 and 35 and 37 and 38 will see that the ten

older brethren of Joseph were “hard boys.” The sacred historian must

have been quite willing to give this impression, else he would not

have recorded Reuben’s incest with his father’s concubine (35: 22),

nor Judah’s criminal connection with a supposed harlot who proved

to be his own daughter-in-law (Gen. 38), nor the pitiless cruelty of

Simeon and Levi when stirred up to revenge the dishonor done to their

sister Dinah (Gen. 34). Especially do the worst elements of depraved

character appear in their treatment of their younger brother Joseph.

The narrative (Gen. 37) is brief; gives facts without comments; but

_what facts_! Joseph was young and very simple-hearted. Up to the point

where the history introduces him, he had been trained in a religious

home――which seems scarcely to have been the case with the ten older

sons. Their shepherd life took them into distant parts of the country,

and seems practically to have removed them much of the time from home

and its domestic influences. Unfortunately the domestic influences

of that polygamous home were by no means so wholesome as a religious

home ought to furnish. Envy and jealousy were stimulated into fearful

strength.

Joseph was sent to help the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. Painfully

impressed by their misdeeds, he reported them to his father. The

special love of this aged father for Joseph, manifested in the “coat

of many colors” (really a long tunic reaching to the wrists and ankles)

occasioned more rankling jealousy. Finally, Joseph’s remarkable dreams

which his simplicity related without apparently a thought of giving

offense, brought their animosity to its climax. Soon Joseph is thrown

into their power. They see him coming and conspire to take his life.

“Come,” (say they) “let us slay him and cast him into some pit, and we

will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will

become of his dreams.” We are not told which of them suggested this

murderous purpose. Reuben, the eldest brother, was the first to protest.

His plan was that they should cast him alive into some pit; and then in

their absence he could take him out and return him safely to his father.

They consented; stripped him of his new coat, and cast him into a pit

without water. [These pits were dug in that poorly watered country for

the sake of getting water for their cattle.] Then they sat down to eat

bread, perhaps complimenting themselves that they had not murdered him,

but had shown their power and for the present had put him out of their

way. Manifestly their consciences were dead to that sense of guilt

which a few years later forced them to say, “We are verily guilty

concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he

besought us and we would not hear” (Gen. 42: 21). Just then a caravan

of Ishmaelites and Midianites came in sight, moving toward Egypt, and

Judah came to the rescue with the proposition to take up Joseph and

sell him, to be taken as a slave to Egypt. With some manly feeling he

says――“What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?

Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be

upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh; and his brethren were

content.”――――Reuben’s better qualities come up to view again when he

returned to the pit, hoping to rescue his brother――but found no Joseph

there! “He rent his clothes”; he came to his brethren exclaiming, “The

child is not;――and I――whither shall I go?”

In the next scene these brethren were if possible more heartless still.

It commonly happens that one crime demands another and yet another

to conceal the first. So in this case, the next thing is to deceive

their father even though it torture him with the agony of supposing

his favorite son devoured by some evil beast. They kill a kid; stain

Joseph’s coat with its blood; and then send it to their father,

saying, “This have we found; see whether it be thy son’s coat or not.”

There was no mistaking the coat, and Jacob’s grief is heart-breaking.

Remarkably it is said that “all his sons and all his daughters rose up

to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted”; and he said, “I will

go down into the grave to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for

him.”――――How easily those sons might have said: “Father, we have sinned

against God and against thee; but Joseph is not slain by lions; we sold

him into Egypt! You may live to see him again.” But not even Reuben or

Judah had conscience, and truthfulness, and filial affection enough to

reveal the guilty secret. Miserable comforters were they all to their

father’s broken heart!

* * * * *

Leaving Jacob to long years of bitterest grief, we follow the fortunes

of Joseph. From this point the thread of the story takes him into Egypt

a slave. Sold to Potiphar, an officer under Pharaoh, it soon became

apparent that the Lord was with him and made every thing prosper under

his hand. He rises rapidly in the confidence of his master; is put in

charge of all his house――but here springs up a new trial. Joseph is

beautiful in person and amiable in manners. Potiphar’s wife, lewd and

shameless, tempts him with solicitations to adultery. Joseph’s bearing

in this case was worthy to be put on permanent record to pass down

through all future generations to the end of time, a perfect model of

both virtue and wisdom――the virtue that resists seductive temptation

with unwavering firmness; and the wisdom that comprehends and applies

the perfect methods of resisting temptation. Joseph did not dally with

his tempter; did not suffer the temptation to gather new force, but met

it instantly with the strongest considerations possible――“How can I do

this great wickedness and _sin against God_!” God, said he to himself,

is my best friend; I am his servant. He has stood by me through all

my trials and given me this great prosperity; his pure eye is on me;

I can not do this great wickedness against him!――――The sense of a

present God settled the question forever. There was indeed another line

of considerations――his obligations to the husband of this lewd woman.

Potiphar had trusted him most entirely; shall he abuse this trust?

Never.――――Thus Joseph’s course was at once decided. But this vile

woman persisted in her solicitations, till at length, maddened by

her failure, she plotted his death. She laid hold of his garment; he

escaped leaving it in her hands. With this for her proof she accuses

Joseph of the crime of which she alone was guilty. Joseph is thrown

into prison――because of his virtue and not because of any crime. Of

course the Lord was with him still, and again Joseph rises in the

favor and confidence of those in power; is put in charge of all matters

in the prison, and thus the Lord turned this great trial to account

to bring Joseph before Pharaoh. Long was the trial; the story of his

relations to the chief butler and the chief baker is in point chiefly

as showing how ungratefully the butler could forget his imprisoned

friend and prolong his imprisonment. But the hour of deliverance came

at last. Pharaoh’s two dreams impressed and disturbed his mind so much

that he summoned all his wise men to his help――but in vain. At this

opportune moment the chief butler remembers Joseph. He should have

spoken of him to the king two years before; but engrossed with his

own prosperity, he forgot his prison benefactor till this time. Joseph

comes to the help of the king. His first answer is beautifully modest

and fragrant with piety. “I have heard of thee, said the king, that

thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.” Joseph replies: “It

is not in me; God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (Gen. 41: 16).

The dreams are interpreted to signify seven years of overflowing plenty,

followed by seven of extreme famine throughout all the land. Joseph

suggests to the king to store up the excess of the plentiful years

against the deficiencies of the famine years. The king sees the wisdom

of this suggestion and at once appoints Joseph to this responsibility;

in fact, sets him over all Egypt save only in the honors of the throne.

At this point the historic thread brings Jacob and his sons in Canaan

to view again. We are not told whether they had the seven years of

exuberant plenty there, but the years of famine were there in terrible

power. They were soon breadless. The father hears that there is corn

in Egypt; so he sends ten of his sons――all that are with him save

Benjamin――to get corn. It was to be brought on the backs of their asses,

and therefore it was wise to send them all together.

The scenes that follow are told with masterly simplicity. Joseph knows

them; they do not recognize him: What policy shall he pursue? Why, we

may perhaps ask, why does he not make himself known to them at once?

Why does he treat them so roughly; accuse them of being spies; throw

them all into prison for three days; propose to keep them all confined

save one and send him back after Benjamin; but finally compromises the

matter by taking Simeon as a hostage, binding him before their eyes,

and then consenting that the rest may go home and bring Benjamin down

as the condition of Simeon’s release? Why does he put their money into

the mouth of each man’s sack of corn? Why this long delay, and these

searching, harassing preliminaries?

It was not that Joseph was hard-hearted and rather enjoyed using his

power and taking some revenge――nothing of this sort. It is indeed said

in the first stage of this interview――“Joseph remembered the dreams

which he dreamed of them” (Gen. 42: 9), and thereupon said, “Ye are

spies; to see the nakedness of the land are ye come.” But this only

shows that his policy was settled upon the spur of the moment. He saw

what he needed to accomplish and laid his plans accordingly. The whole

narrative shows that, so far from being void of fraternal feeling and

hard-hearted, in fact it tasked his firmness of character to the utmost

to suppress his emotions sufficiently to carry out his purpose. His

main purpose was to bring them to thorough repentance. For this end he

must needs throw their thought back upon their great sin and bring the

heavy pressure of present calamity upon them with all its suggestive

power to show them that God was taking them in hand for that wickedness.

He also wished to see how they felt toward their father and toward

Benjamin. Their feeling toward both the father and his youngest son

would be an index of their penitence for their great sin toward himself.

Joseph was a man of consummate wisdom. Few men have ever lived who

understood human nature better than he, or could plan better for a

given effect. Consequently we shall not miss greatly if we infer his

design from the actual effect. When we see what he accomplished, we are

reasonably safe in saying――This is what he aimed to do.

Observe now that the first scene had not fully transpired ere he

heard them saying one to another, “We are verily guilty concerning our

brother in that we saw thee anguish of his soul when he besought us and

we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.” And Reuben

answered them (_i. e._ interposed at that point) saying, “Spake I not

unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear?

Therefore, behold also, his blood is required.”――――Joseph saw that his

scheme was taking effect; their consciences were at work. How his own

heart must have throbbed! Accordingly we read――“He turned himself about

from them and wept.” But the work is not yet complete; so he brushed

away the tears and “returned to them and took from them Simeon and

bound him before their eyes.” Why he chose Simeon is not indicated.

Perhaps――not to say probably――he was the leading spirit in the cruel

scenes thirteen years before. We remember that Simeon and Levi led off

in that bloody affray with the men of Shechem. However this may be, he

was the eldest after Reuben; and Reuben, though a coarse, rough nature,

was on the side of mercy toward the abused Joseph. Simeon, therefore,

is chosen for the hostage, to be kept in close confinement while

the rest are dismissed to go home. Simeon will have abundant time to

think over the guilty deeds of that dreadful past! Let us hope that it

brought him to genuine repentance.

The narrative details the return of the nine brethren to their father’s

house; how they told their story there; how Jacob rebuked them for

disclosing their youngest brother; how he struggled desperately against

his manifest destiny; how he said――Benjamin shall never go down into

Egypt; how Reuben interposed in his rough way, saying to his father:

“Slay my two sons if I bring not Benjamin back to thee”――as if he could

not see that murdering two of his grandchildren would be infinitely

far from helping the matter or affording the least relief. With better

good sense and a more just appreciation of his father’s feelings, Judah

pled with his father:――We shall all die of starvation unless we go down

to Egypt for corn: we must take Benjamin with us――else we get no corn.

“Send the lad with me; I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou

require him: if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then

let me bear the blame forever” (Gen. 43: 8–10).――――The heart of their

father Israel comes to view here――yielding to the inevitable necessity;

wisely getting up a liberal present of the best fruits of their land;

double money, to return what came home with them in their sack’s mouth,

and to buy again. Saddest of all he gave up his dear Benjamin, and

then with many a prayer he sent them to Egypt a second time: “And

God Almighty give you mercy before the man that he may send away your

other brother and Benjamin: If I be bereaved of my children, I am

bereaved.”――――But he did not see the deep thoughts of God in these

trying scenes, and perhaps he had not yet fully learned how wise and

safe it is to trust Almighty God to bring out his own results in his

own way! He will learn more by and by.

Events thicken; the final consummation hastens on. They are in Egypt

again and stand before Joseph. His quick eye sees his beloved brother

Benjamin among them. At once he gives orders to the ruler of his house

to prepare a dinner for all these men and to bring them all into his

house. A deeper fear seizes upon them: what, say they, can this mean?

What new charges, what prosecutions, what fresh dangers, are coming

now? They meet the Steward at the door and tell him their story about

the returned money. The recognition of God in his reply seems strange

for an Egyptian――unless we suppose that Joseph had given him the

words. He said, “Peace be to you; fear not; your God and the God of

your fathers hath given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money”

(Gen. 43: 23). “And he brought Simeon out to them”――which might well

have given some relief to their burdened hearts.――――The dinner hour

approaches; they are to eat with the lord of the land. They get their

presents ready; and when Joseph appeared “they bowed themselves to him

to the earth.” The historian is careful to mention this for its bearing

as the fulfillment of that long past dream of the boy Joseph. With

the true politeness of profound sincerity Joseph inquires about his

father: “Is your father well――the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet

alive?” “And they answered: Thy servant our father is in good health;

he is yet alive; and [again] they bowed down their heads and made

obeisance.”――――Now his eye falls on Benjamin, his own mother’s son, and

he asks――“Is this your younger brother of whom ye spake unto me? God be

gracious unto thee my son.”――――Ah, but Joseph’s heart is too full; “he

made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother; and he sought

where to weep, and he entered into his chamber and wept there.” But,

the time has not come yet to reveal himself; the searching ordeal

through which he must needs make his brethren pass has not fully

done its work; so Joseph washes off the tears; refrains himself from

shedding more, and orders the food set on. The brethren of Joseph had

probably a rather pleasant time――only it seemed strange to them that

they were seated by age from the eldest to the youngest and Benjamin

had a five-fold mess! How comes it that the lord of Egypt knows so much

about us? They can not see.

They are getting ready now for home; their sacks are filled with

corn again, and again the money is put back into each sack’s mouth,

and worst of all, Joseph’s silver cup is slipped into the mouth of

Benjamin’s sack. Ere they are fairly out of the city Joseph posts his

steward after them, abruptly charging them with having ungratefully

stolen his lord’s silver cup. Consciously innocent and deeply indignant,

they are rash enough to say――Let the man in whose sack it is found

die, and take all the rest of us for slaves! How were they amazed

and overwhelmed when the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack! They rent

their clothes in bitterness of heart, and all return to the city. Judah

comes to the front here; it is “Judah and his brethren” who come to

Joseph’s house, and Judah who makes the plea in behalf of Benjamin.

The historian is careful to say again that when they met Joseph “they

fell before him on the ground.” He also remarks that Joseph was yet

in his house, having remained there ever since the caravan left in the

early morning, too full of thought on this subject to turn to any other

business.――――Now he expects to learn how they feel toward Benjamin and

toward their aged father. He must be sure they are all right on these

points before he lifts the vail and shows them himself.――――They are

brought back as criminals before him. With a sternness that is not at

all in his heart but in his assumed manner only, he says――What deed

is this that ye have done? Were ye not aware that I have the power of

positive and certain divination?――――Judah is in deep perplexity――but he

speaks frankly: “What shall we say unto my lord? or how shall we clear

ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants”――which

words can not, it would seem, refer to any iniquity in the matter

of the silver cup, but must have referred to the long past crime of

the brethren toward Joseph. He can not say less than that they will

all become the slaves of Joseph, all including even Benjamin.――――No,

replies Joseph; I want only the guilty man, Benjamin; all the rest of

you may go in peace to your father!――――Now the crisis so long dreaded

has come. A terrible responsibility falls upon Judah. With wonderful

simplicity, with most touching filial affection toward his father, and

with masterly skill he rises to the moral sublimity of the occasion. He

comes near to Joseph and begins his great plea. Every reader must study

it. We shall need to go far to find more touching eloquence, a more

masterly setting forth of the facts of the case including the whole

story from the beginning to the end. The case of the aged father and of

his two younger sons left him by his best beloved wife――put in the aged

patriarch’s own words――ran thus: “Ye know that my wife bear me two sons,

and the one went out from me, and I said――Surely he is torn in pieces,

and I have not seen him since; and if ye take this also from me, and

mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow

to the grave. Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father and

the lad be not with us; (seeing that his life is bound up in the lad’s

life)――when he shall see that the lad is not with us he will die; and

thy servants will bring down the gray hairs of our father with sorrow

to the grave. I said to him, If I bring not Benjamin back, I will bear

the blame forever. Now therefore I pray thee, let me abide instead

of Benjamin, the bond-servant of my lord, and let him go back to his

father. For how shall I go to my father and the lad be not with me?

Lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.”――――This

was more than Joseph could bear. He could refrain himself no longer;

the tears would come; the swelling emotions must have vent. Joseph

cried: “Have every man away from me save these men of Canaan.”

The proof of their love to their aged father and to Benjamin is

unmistakable; Joseph is satisfied. They are penitent for their long

past crime against him, and he can therefore at length break the secret

and show himself their long lost brother! How do their ears tingle

as they hear him say――“I am Joseph: Doth my father yet live?”――――The

first shock is almost stunning: they can not answer him, for they are

troubled at his presence. More kind words and the kindest possible

manner are now in place. “Joseph said to his brethren, Come near to

me, I pray you; and they came near.” Again he says――“I am Joseph, _your

brother_, whom ye sold into Egypt.” Then with a turn which evinces the

exquisite tenderness of his heart, he begs them “not to be grieved nor

angry with themselves;” but to think rather of the design of God in

permitting and providentially shaping this wonderful series of events.

“God did send me before you to preserve life. There are five more

years of famine yet to come; God sent me before you to preserve you a

posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” The best thing

he could say under just those circumstances to soothe their mind, to

assure them of his full forgiveness and to give them consolation in

place of the agitation, fear, and remorse that so nearly overwhelmed

their spirits.

Arrangements for the future are soon made. Joseph assures them that the

best of Egypt’s land shall be given them, and insists that they hasten

home and bring their aged father and their little ones――every thing

they have――down to Egypt, because five more years of famine are to

follow. Egyptian wagons――unknown to Jacob’s household――are sent, and

the brethren are hastened off. Were they not a happy band? The great

agony of fear is past; the surgings of anxiety and solicitude have

ceased; the pungent convictions of that dread crime long ago against

their younger brother have done their work, and wrought out “the

peaceable fruits of righteousness.” This is a wonderful crisis in

their life history. Let us hope that most if not all of them found God

through these fiery trials and these penitent tears!

They are home again. The first thing is to break this strange secret

to their father. They make just two points: “Joseph yet alive;” “Joseph

Governor over all the land of Egypt.” It was too much――was too good

to be believed. The English version has it, “Jacob’s heart fainted.”

Better――“Jacob’s heart _remained cold_, for he believed them not.” It

stirred no joyous and warm emotions, for he could not believe it. But

when they told him all the words of Joseph, and especially when he saw

the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, then his spirit rose;

his heart waxed warm; he said: “_It is enough_; Joseph my son _is_ yet

alive; I will go and see him before I die.”

Beersheba, the old home of his father Isaac, lay on his route. He

stopped there and offered sacrifice to the God of his father Isaac.

The night following the Lord met him in vision, saying, “I am thy God

and the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will

there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt

and will bring thee up again; and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine

eyes”――_i. e._ to close them in death.――――How tenderly appreciative

of the circumstances and of Jacob’s need was this vision of Beersheba!

Such are God’s blessed ways with his children. He can not send them

into scenes of special danger or of critical interest, without some

special manifestations of his presence.

II. We are to notice _the hand of God_ in this history in its twofold

bearings:

1. As active in the sufferings and moral trial of the virtuous;

2. As manifested in his overruling control of the wicked to bring forth

from their wickedness abounding good.

1. As active in the sufferings and moral trial of the virtuous.――――The

most cursory reader of this story will see in it a striking case of

the sufferings of innocence. Joseph, envied and hated for no fault

of his; coming near to being murdered by his own brothers, and really

sold into slavery――a slavery prospectively life-long and in a distant,

unknown land; torn away from every thing dear in _home_, at the age

of seventeen:――this surely was innocence subjected to the sternest

suffering.

How do such things happen under the government of God? When they do

happen, _what do they prove_?

a. Negatively: They prove that all the suffering in this world _can not

be retribution for sin_. There may be great suffering which can not in

any true sense be the punishment of great crime. The greatest sufferers

are not necessarily and always the greatest sinners. Suffering is

not graduated to crime.――――This lesson Job’s three friends were slow

to learn. Even Job himself seems not to have learned it thoroughly,

but was groping toward it, under the lessons of his own conscious

experience. It may not be amiss to suggest here that Job and his

friends reasoned _without the light_ which this history of Joseph would

have given them if they had ever heard or read it. They either lived

_before Joseph_, or too remote from these scenes to hear or in any way

learn the lessons they teach.

b. Positively this case illustrates some of the ends which God aims to

secure by permitting the sufferings of the good; _e. g._ to discipline

them to patience under suffering, and to trust in God in the midst of

darkness and in spite of it. Joseph’s slavery and prison-life in Egypt

would have been simply miserable without this patience and this trust

in the Lord his God. Suppose he had given himself up to fretting and

chafing and dashing his head against the strong walls of his prison and

to wrenching off the fetters with which they “hurt his feet” (Ps. 105:

18);――What could have come of such adjustment of one’s self to dark

providences? Certainly not the sweet and blessed discipline which he

did in fact get from his afflictions; certainly not the favor and the

blessing of his God. Every thing in the future as before his eye was

dark enough; but he knew there was a God of loving kindness above――a

God who made no mistakes, yet whose purposes were often too deep for

afflicted man to fathom, and therefore a God whom his children should

learn to trust as certainly doing _all things_ well.

Again; the case serves to reveal God’s pity and his love in that

he _goes with_ his children into their slave-life and into their

prison-life with such smiles of favor, such tokens of his presence,

as may well make them joyful in the most terrible affliction. As Paul

and Silas prayed and sang praises within the cold, desolate walls of

a prison while yet smarting under the Roman scourge, and with perhaps

some prospect of sufferings more severe when another day should dawn;

so Joseph found the Lord with him when he reached Egypt a slave;

with him when cast into prison because he virtuously repelled a foul

temptation to crime. God was there, proving to his servant Joseph that

no surroundings are so dark that God’s manifested presence will not

make them light――that no sufferings and no bereavements are so severe

that God can not throw his smile upon the sufferer and fill his soul

with overflowing joy!

Yet again; this lesson teaches that God uses means apparently rough

and stern to prepare his servants for higher responsibilities and more

signal blessings. We can not say what Joseph would have been if he had

remained in the bosom of his doting father’s home through all those

years from seventeen to thirty, instead of being in God’s school of

suffering and trial; but it is safe to say that he made rapid strides

forward in this school of God――in his knowledge of human nature; in his

quick and manifest sympathy with every one in trouble; in his skill to

gain the confidence of those about and above him; in his capacity for

business; and not least in his living piety and his humble walk with

God. His surroundings threw him roughly upon his own resources, and

at the same time sweetly upon God’s resources; and in consequence he

rose, as few men have even been fit to rise, from slave-life and from

prison-life, to be the actuary of a great kingdom――the almoner of bread

and of life to the nations of the then civilized world; and also to

become one of the most exalted and spotless characters of all history.

Are not the ways of God truly wonderful?

* * * * *

_The ways of God toward Jacob_ must not be overlooked. We need not

debate the question how far his sufferings were those of innocence,

and how far he was criminally responsible for the lack of moral culture

and the power of fearful depravity in his sons. Be this as it may, it

was hard for him to lose Joseph――the one son who was a comfort to his

heart among so many who were quite otherwise. Even after thirteen years

his heart seems still to be sore with that great sorrow, so that when

his ten sons say that Benjamin must go with them to Egypt, he exclaims,

“All these things are against me”! And when at length he is compelled

to consent, his words indicate that he bows to an inexorable fate

rather than yields in sweet trust to a divine hand believed to be

wise and kind, though utterly and inexplicably mysterious;――“If I am

bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

Jacob lived to see the clouds of darkness lifted and rolled away.

He lived to learn that all those things were _not against him_ by

any means, but were in fact shaped of God to save his great household

alive through a seven years’ famine; and (what is far more than even

this)――were designed of God for the salvation of those sons of his

whose wickedness had brought these sorrows upon him, and whom God

had faithfully taken in hand to bring them to repentance. Had he not

learned ere this that it was always safe to trust in his father’s

God? Had not the Lord said to him, “I will surely do thee good”? As to

being “bereaved of his children,” was not the covenant very definite:

“A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall

come out of thy loins”? (Gen. 35: 11).――――This discipline of the aged

patriarch was sharp but wholesome. He might have said, “In faithfulness

hast thou afflicted me.” The clouds of life’s stormy day cleared before

sunset. It would be pleasant to hear, if we might, the experiences of

his closing years when he came to understand God’s ways and to reap the

blessed fruits of such chastening sorrows.

* * * * *

These methods and ends of God in the discipline and culture of his

people _reach onward into eternity_. The faithful here are the rulers

there (Mat. 25: 21). Those who take God’s discipline kindly here and

turn it to best account according to his thought and will, have their

reward above. It is not needful that we know in their details what the

heavenly responsibilities are, and what the dignities and the honors of

those who have been faithful over a few things here; but we are safe in

the belief that earthly discipline and culture are not lost attainments

as to the after life.――――As one short day transferred Joseph from the

prison-house of the kingdom to the lordship of that kingdom, so one day

is long enough for the transfer of many a humble, suffering saint of

God from dungeons of darkness and pain to palaces of royalty and bliss.

In the story of Joseph these great truths of God’s administration

with his people were breaking forth upon the minds of men by most

interesting stages of progress.

* * * * *

2. From these lessons in God’s ways with the righteous, we turn to

other lessons pertaining to his _ways with the wicked_. This history

of Joseph shows how skillfully and mightily God manages the wicked,

making their wickedness work (wholly against _their_ purpose) to evolve

abounding good.

We have seen how Joseph directed the thought of his brethren to these

ways and designs of God. “Be not angry with yourselves that ye sold

me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life.” “So now

it was not ye that sent me hither, but God” (Gen. 45: 5, 7, 8). And

again seventeen years later, after Jacob’s death, his brethren being

apprehensive lest Joseph might then relapse into revenge, he said

to them; “Fear not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye

thought evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass

as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50: 19, 20). We

should quite under-estimate Joseph’s knowledge of human nature and his

sense of moral distinctions if we were to press his words to mean that

God’s agencies in those crimes superseded theirs; lifted off their

responsibilities and left them essentially faultless.――――The reason

why Joseph’s remarks took this turn seems to have been this. He saw

that conviction for sin had done its vital work in their souls; that

they were apparently penitent and leaning toward the most severe

self-condemnation――at a stage where it was both safe and kind to turn

their attention to God’s hand as evolving good from their sin. In so

far as we can have confidence in Joseph’s judgment as to their moral

state, his words afford proof that his brethren were truly penitent,

and at a stage where consolation might properly be suggested as some

relief to their mental anguish.

The use which God made of the sin of Joseph’s brethren exemplifies his

consummate, far-reaching wisdom. He knew all the future. He saw the

coming famine; knew how to advance Joseph to the lordship of all Egypt,

and to put him there just in time to garner up the surplus of seven

years of overflowing abundance, and then dispense these stores of corn

for the sustenance of thousands less provident throughout all Egypt and

all adjacent countries. The resources of God’s providence, guided by

such wisdom, are simply boundless. What can he not do when he wills

to do it?――――The case is equally demonstrative of his _love_. Mark how

he bends the great powers of his infinite being to the production of

good, to multiply the means of happiness. This view of his character is

doubly, yea infinitely precious when studied in its developments in a

world, or rather a universe, _with sin in it_. If the Lord were obliged

to say――I must content myself with the co-operation of the good, the

unfallen, turning their agency to best account for the promotion of

happiness; but as to the wicked, they are beyond my reach; I can do

nothing with them; the evil they do must be endured as so much dead

loss to the universe, never to be of any service toward virtue and

happiness――the case would be, so far, one of unrelieved sadness. We may

bless the name of our God that his resources of wisdom and power and

the outgoings of his love are not thus limited. No indeed; some good

results will be extorted from even those horrible crimes of Joseph’s

brethren. Even the devil’s wickedness in which he exults as availing

to frustrate God’s plans and to shake his throne, he will find at

length to his everlasting confusion and shame, has been made, by the

over-mastering wisdom, power, and love of God, to subserve the very

cause he thought to break down, and to break down every thing he had

vainly hoped to build up! For is not God wiser and mightier than the

devil? The final result of the conflict will prove it.――――But it is in

place here to note that this story of Joseph’s brethren and of God’s

over-ruling hand in their case was shedding some rays of light on

these previously dark problems, and therefore was indicating progress

in the revelations of God and of his ways with sinful men.

Nor let us overlook this one other point――that the case evinces

the consummate skill of God in managing the free moral activities of

men without the least infringement upon their free agency and moral

responsibility. We see this in the way they went into their sin――purely

of their own free purpose――after their own envious and proud heart,

although God had purposes to answer by means of this very sin. We

see it still more, if possible, in the means he used to bring them

to repentance; how he put his great hook into their jaws and brought

them down to Egypt; took the pride out of them; pressed them with one

calamity after another till they came to feel very weak before Almighty

God; aroused their long slumbering consciences and kept their thought

upon that long past, almost forgotten crime against Joseph――till at

length they seem to have become thoroughly penitent. Only by legitimate

means and influences, and only by such a use of these as still left

their moral activities under their own responsible control――were these

grand results reached.――――Thus we may take lessons in the masterly

skill with which God’s agencies interwork with man’s, effective to the

result he proposes because God is more and mightier than man.

* * * * *

III. Taking a broader range of view, we may next study the purposes of

God _in locating the birth of the Hebrew nation in the land of Egypt_.

Since God’s purposes never come to nought but are always accomplished

perfectly, the ends he has in view being surely secured, it is safe

to reason backward from known results to original purposes. It would

amount practically to the same thing if we were to ask――What great

results were actually secured by locating his people in Egypt when and

as he did; by shaping their history as he did, and by bringing them out

at length with his high hand and outstretched arm?

1. In answering these questions we may note that Egypt in that age

stood at the summit of the world’s civilization, a fully organized

kingdom, a great and highly cultured people. There is most ample proof

that Egypt was then eminent above any other nation in learning, wisdom,

science, and art; in jurisprudence, and in the administration of law;

in industry and in wealth; in short, in all the main appliances and

results of a high civilization. The antiquities of Ancient Egypt are

the marvel of our times. Her temples, pyramids, and obelisks; her

paintings and works of art, have come down to our age in most wonderful

preservation, living witnesses to her ancient greatness. There was

no other kingdom on the face of the earth where a man like Moses

could have been educated and trained to become the law-giver of the

Hebrew nation, or where such a system of civil law as God gave his

people by the hand of Moses could have taken its rise and could have

been understood, accepted, appreciated, and ultimately wrought into

established usage and into the national life. We shall have occasion in

its place to inquire how far the civil system given through Moses was

borrowed from the Egyptian Code, and consequently how far the scenes

of their Egyptian life prepared the way for the new national life

instituted in the wilderness.

2. The plan of transferring his people from their nomadic, pastoral

life in Canaan, to a settled residence in Egypt provided scope for all

those developments which we have been studying in the history of Jacob,

Joseph, and his brethren.

3. Yet more and greater developments of God’s mighty hand were provided

for in the deliverance of his people from their bondage in Egypt; in

his judgments on Pharaoh and his land; in the destruction of his hosts

in the Red Sea; in the wilderness life of Israel during forty years;

and at length in their location in the land of promise. All these

points will come under review in their order.

* * * * *

IV. _Some notice should be taken of ancient Egypt as affording

confirmation to the historic accuracy and truthfulness of Moses in

Genesis._

1. Moses assumes that Egypt had a king and a fully organized government.

The evidence of this from Egyptian history and antiquities is too

abundant and accessible to need citation.

2. Also that the people subsisted mainly by agriculture, not pasturage;

that their soil was exceedingly fertile and the country one of great

wealth. The facts on these points also are beyond question. The Nile

has always made Egypt rich in soil and in agricultural productions.

Its periodical inundations have sustained the fertility of that valley

for thousands of years. Alternations of years of plenty with years of

famine have been their common experience in all ages, though probably

never so extreme and protracted as in the age of Joseph.

3. The history by Moses records the fact that in the early stages of

this great famine the lands passed over largely to the crown, but were

leased to the farmers for a certain portion (one-fifth) of the crops

(Gen. 47: 20–26).――――Testimony from sources other than sacred proves

these points. Herodotus was told by the priests of Egypt that the king

gave each Egyptian laborer a square piece of land of equal extent and

collected from each a yearly rent. Diodorus states that all the land of

Egypt belonged either to the king, the priests, or the military caste.

Strabo says that the farmers and tradesmen held their lands subject

to rent. In the Egyptian sculptures as shown by Wilkinson, only kings,

priests, and the military orders are represented as land-owners. [See

“Hengstenberg and the Books of Moses,” pp. 62–70.]

4. The history by Moses makes an important exception in the case of

the priests. Being supported directly from the royal treasury, they

were not obliged to alienate their lands during the great famine

and consequently continued to hold them (Gen. 47: 22). With this all

profane testimony concurs.

5. This fact implies an organized priesthood as a favored and therefore

powerful class in Egyptian society. Egyptian history confirms this and

shows moreover that they were not merely priests, performing religious

functions, but were the learned and scientific men of the nation; had

charge of education; held in their body the art and the “wisdom” of the

nation and performed largely the administrative functions of government.

“The thirty judges (says Drumann) priests of Heliopolis, Thebes, and

Memphis, were maintained by the king, and without doubt, the sons of

the priests also, all of whom over twenty years of age were given to

the king as servants; or, more correctly, to take the oversight of

his affairs.” “The ministers of the court were in Egypt the priests,

just as the state was a Theocracy, and the king was considered as

the representative and incarnation of the Godhead.” (Hengstenberg,

p. 68).――――It was by virtue of this usage that Joseph married into

the class of the priesthood, Asenath his wife being a daughter of

Potipherah priest of On (Gen. 41: 50).――――The reader will perhaps

recall the striking analogy between the Egyptian system and the Hebrew

Theocracy, particularly in the point that the ministers of religion

were also ministers of civil law and prominent in its administration.

The judges in the civil courts were taken chiefly from the tribe of

Levi.

6. Joseph’s arraignment of his brethren――“Ye are spies; to see

the nakedness of the land are ye come”――suggests an inquiry into

the relations of Egypt to foreign powers. The suspicions of Joseph

obviously assume a consciousness of great liability to foreign invasion.

Such was the fact; and the reasons for it will readily appear. We

have only to think of the powerful tribes scattered over vast Arabia,

the Hittites and other tribes of Canaan and of the regions North and

East――all stalwart men, all poor and subsisting on precarious supplies,

yet possessed of fleet animals――horses, dromedaries, camels――with which

they were able to move masses of men with great celerity. Let such men

see the tempting bait of corn in plenty in Egypt, and the marvel is

how Egypt could protect herself against sudden and formidable invasion.

The monuments of her early history testify to her long and bloody wars

with the Hittites and other tribes of Western Asia, often carrying the

war into their country as a wiser policy no doubt than to stand behind

her own walls on the defensive. Suffice it to say here that when those

Asiatic countries were famishing for bread and it was well known there

was corn enough in Egypt, the suspicion expressed by Joseph that those

ten men were spies was not only natural but perhaps even a necessary

measure of policy to satisfy the Egyptians. _They_ must naturally

apprehend danger though _he_ might personally know that these men were

harmless.

7. Sacred history drops this incidental remark――“For every shepherd

is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Gen. 46: 34). To some extent

this feeling was a natural outgrowth of their relations to the nomadic

tribes of South-western Asia――to which we have recently referred. But

there is some reason to suppose among them a certain special antipathy

against the sheep, more intense than against any other domestic animal

unless swine be an exception. They had so much respect for the cow

that they made her and her species objects of worship. Although they

attained great skill in the manufacture of linen, cotton, and silk,

I meet with no allusion to wool. Woolen cloths are never found upon

Egyptian mummies; linen and cotton were used.――――Some writers have

supposed that shepherds were held in special abhorrence because their

country had been conquered and ruled by a dynasty of shepherd kings

from the North-east; but the precise date of their invasion and of

their rule over Egypt is very much in doubt.

8. Both Joseph and his father were embalmed after death (Gen. 50: 2,

3, 26)――a service performed by the physicians. The antiquities of Egypt

furnish most conclusive testimony to their skill in this art――a skill

far surpassing that of any other people known to history. Great numbers

of those embalmed bodies (“mummies”) have been found in Egyptian tombs

within the present century, in perfect preservation. On this point the

coincidences between sacred and profane history are striking.――――The

practice was very ancient, some mummies bearing the date of the oldest

kings. It was performed by a special class of physicians. In harmony

with Moses, Herodotus and Diodorus state that the embalming process

occupied forty days; the entire period of mourning seventy. Classic

authorities give accounts similar to those in Gen. 50 of great mourning

for the dead. The monuments contain representations to the same

effect. Funeral trains, processions, of such sort as Gen. 50 records,

are represented abundantly in the oldest tombs at Elithias, also

at Sagguarah, at Gizeh, and at Thebes. (Hengstenberg’s Egypt and

Moses, pp. 70–78).――――A coincidence so minute as this is noticed; that

mourners forbore to shave their hair or beard; but none might appear

♦before the king unshorn. Consequently we observe that in the mourning

scene of Gen. 50, Joseph does not come before the king in person but

“spake unto the house of Pharaoh” requesting them to speak in his

behalf to the king (Gen. 50: 4–6).

Quite in contrast with the usual oriental custom, women were exempt

from seclusion and moved in society with apparently entire freedom.

This appears in the family of Potiphar. The ancient sculptures and

paintings found in their tombs give a very full view of the domestic

life of the ancient Egyptians, no point of which is more striking than

the high social position of woman and the entire absence of the harem

system of seclusion. “The wife is called the lady of the house.” (See

Smith’s Bible Dictionary, p. 677). According to the monuments the women

in Egypt lived under far less restraint than in the East, or even in

Greece. Wilkinson’s Egypt is full of testimony to this point (Vol. II.,

p. 389). Hengstenberg’s Moses, p. 24.

Sad to say there is abundant evidence from profane sources of a very

lax morality among married women――of which the history of Joseph in

Potiphar’s house is an illustration. Herodotus gives a fact in point:

“The wife of one of the earliest kings was untrue to him. It was a long

time before a woman could be found who was faithful to her husband.

When at last one was found, the king took her without hesitation for

his wife.”

Yet other points might be adduced of coincidence between the sacred and

the profane records of Egypt as the former appear in Moses. The above

may be taken as specimens. Most amply do they testify that the author

of Genesis was entirely familiar with Egyptian life and manners. The

sharpest and most unfriendly criticism has hitherto detected no point

of discrepancy between these respective records――no point in which it

can be made to appear that Moses wrote without well understanding the

Egyptian life of which he speaks.――――The corresponding coincidences in

Exodus will be suggested in their place.

* * * * *

Some special passages occurring in these latter chapters of Genesis

should receive attention.

_Jacob going down into Sheol to his son Joseph._

In Gen. 37: 35 Jacob, supposing Joseph to be dead, says――“I will go

down into the grave (Sheol) to my son mourning.” The reader of the

Hebrew text of Genesis has not met with this word before, and may

reasonably expect to see its meaning discussed here.

In the outset it should be observed that these words can not

possibly mean――My dead body shall go down into the grave proper, the

sepulcher――there to lie by the side of Joseph’s dead body. He could not

have meant this because the place of Joseph’s supposed dead body was

entirely unknown to him. He had seen his bloody coat and inferred that

Joseph was no doubt torn in pieces; _where_, he knew not; and whether

devoured by flesh-eating animals he could not know. We must therefore

reject this construction of his words.――――Plainly the Joseph he thought

of was the undying soul. He expected at his own death to meet Joseph in

that state or place which the Hebrews indicated by the word “Sheol.”

What is the primary significance of this word? What were the views

of the ancient Hebrews in regard to its location and the state of its

occupants?

The noun “Sheol” is made from the verb Shaal[25] having the sense,

to ask, to demand; and conceives of the place as evermore demanding,

insatiable; that which is never full; never has enough. The current

Hebrew conceptions of the word may be seen in Prov. 30: 15, 16, and Isa.

5: 14, and Hab. 2: 5. “There are three things that are never satisfied;

yea four say not, It is enough: the grave” [Sheol], etc.――――“Therefore

hell [Sheol] hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure;

and their glory, and their multitude and their pomp, and he that

rejoiceth shall descend into it.” “Who enlargeth his desire as hell”

[Sheol] “and is as Death, and can not be satisfied,” etc.

As to the location of Sheol it seems clear that they thought of it as

an _under-world_, as somehow beneath the surface of the earth. We see

this in the case of Korah and his company (Num. 16: 28–34), of whom

Moses said:――“If the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with

all that appertain to them, and they _go down_ alive into Sheol [Eng.

‘the pit’], then shall ye understand that these men have provoked the

Lord” ... “As he had made an end of speaking these words, the ground

clave asunder that was under them and the earth opened her mouth and

swallowed them up,” etc.――――We find the same view in Deut. 32: 22. “For

a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell

[Sheol], and shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire

the foundations of the mountains.”

In regard to their conceptions of Sheol as a state of being for the

righteous and the wicked dead, it is easy to see that holy men of

the oldest time lacked the clear light of the gospel age. Then it had

not yet been said――“In my father’s house are many mansions”; “I go

to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to

myself that where I am, there ye may be also” (Jno. 14: 2, 3). They

had not heard these words of Jesus――“This day shalt thou be with me

in paradise” (Luke 23: 43); those of Paul: “Having a desire to depart

and to be with Christ which is far better” (Phil. 1: 23).――――But

the patriarchs did expect to “be gathered to their people”――the good

men who had gone on before. This is said of Abraham (Gen. 25: 8); of

Ishmael (25: 17); of Isaac (35: 29); and of Jacob (49: 29, 33). David

said of his deceased infant child: “I shall go to him, but he shall not

return to me.” Job said of that little known world――“There the wicked

cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest” (Job 3: 17),

and yet he sometimes thought of it as intensely dark, for gospel light

had not then fallen upon it:――“Before I go whence I shall not return,

even to a land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness

as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death without any order, and

where the light is as darkness” (Job 10: 21, 22). Conceptions of this

state as well illustrating the fall and doom of wicked kings and

kingdoms, tinged, it would seem, with the spirit of poetry, may be

seen in Isaiah 14, and Ezek. 31: 15–18.

How far these notions as to the locality of Sheol are to be ascribed

to direct inspiration, and how far to a merely human speculation,

following the leading thought that the body _goes down_ and back to

dust at death, it seems by no means easy to determine positively. We

may be allowed to doubt whether the Lord intended to reveal definitely

the _location_ of human souls after death. It was a point of the

least conceivable importance; and moreover our knowledge of celestial

geography may be yet quite too limited to admit of any intelligible

revelation on this point.

* * * * *

_Jacob’s benedictions upon his sons_ on his death-bed――more or less

prophetic――present some points that call for special notice. Remarkably

they seem in most if not in all cases to start from the then existing

present, and to build their allusions to the future upon it. We see it

in the case of Reuben――noted for his outrage of his father’s nuptial

bed; of Simeon and Levi, whose history suggested their cruelty toward

the men of Shechem; of Judah, whose name bore the thought of _praise_

and whose record in the case of Joseph put him at once in the front

among his brethren; of Joseph, whose relations to his father and indeed

to all the family had been surpassingly precious. The special address

of Jacob to each of these was closely linked to their past history.

The prophetic feature in all these cases seems to have been suggested

by these salient points of their history. Reuben as the first-born

might have kept his supremacy――if he had been worthy of it――but he

was not. Simeon never rose to any distinction, and scarcely held any

well-defined territory in Canaan. Levi came into prominence as the

ancestor of Aaron and of Moses, and redeemed himself also by the

religious zeal and energy of Phineas in a great emergency during the

wilderness life (Num. 26: 6–13). The tribe were scattered in Israel,

yet not in the bad sense. Judah and Joseph had each a future more

resplendent and distinguished than any other of the twelve――their

prominence in Jacob’s benediction being fully carried out through the

history of their nation.

Some special passages and phrases should be briefly explained.

In v. 4, the phrase, “Unstable as water,” does not compare water to the

solid earth or to more solid rock as treacherous to the foot and unsafe

to stand on; but rather as bubbling, effervescing under heat or applied

force――as therefore a fit image of ungoverned passion; of wantonness,

impatient of restraint. Reuben had no moral stamina, and therefore

could not hold his natural place of headship as the first-born――a

moral lesson worthy of thoughtful consideration. A young man given to

licentious indulgence can have no solid bottom to his character. The

sagacious will never trust him.

v. 5. “Simeon and Levi are brethren”――of kindred spirit; “instruments

of cruelty are in their habitation”; better, instruments of cruelty

their swords are. Most solemnly does the dying patriarch disavow

all sympathy with their cruelty!――――The phrase――“Mine honor” in the

sense of myself――my nobler powers――is specially significant here, for

their spirit was dishonorable, treacherous, basely cruel. Jacob had

a sense of honor which utterly forbade all sympathy with them in this

thing.――――In the last clause of v. 6, the English margin gives the

sense of the Hebrew: “They houghed oxen.” They slew not one man only

but man as a species; and cut the hamstrings of their cattle.

* * * * *

_The benediction upon Judah_ (v. 10) stands unrivaled in importance

and is not without difficulty. The main question is whether the

word “Shiloh” signifies the Messiah, in the special sense of the

Peace-giving One; or refers to the city of that name in Canaan. If it

refers to the Messiah, the sense, the application and the fulfillment

of the passage are facile and truly rich――thus: Judah shall head the

tribes and give them kings until the Great Messiah shall come: then

all the nations (Gentile and Jew) shall obey him――obedience rather than

“gathering” being the best established sense of the word. It occurs

elsewhere only in Prov. 30: 17.

No facts of Jewish history are better known than these――that Judah

led the march through the wilderness, and that from David to Christ the

scepter was in Judah――until the Messiah came, when it dropped from his

hand. “We have a law,” (said the Jewish Sanhedrim in the age of Christ)

“and by our law he ought to die”――_i. e._ for blasphemy. But under

their law, capital punishment was by stoning (Lev. 24: 15, 16, and

Mat. 26: 65, 66, and Jno. 19: 7). Having lost the power of life and

death over criminals, they were compelled to take the case to the Roman

authorities. _Their_ mode of capital punishment was crucifixion. Thus

the “cross” stands through all the ages to prove that the scepter had

departed from Judah and that the Messiah had come.――――But he came not

only to die but to reign, and the nations of the wide earth are to bow

to his scepter.――――Such is the construction of this passage, provided

the term “Shiloh” refers to the Messiah.

That it does refer to him may be argued on two grounds:

(a.) This construction is facile, natural, and supported by analogous

prophecies;

(b.) The other which makes Shiloh the name of a town in Canaan, labors

under serious, not to say insurmountable difficulties.

(a.) “Shiloh” is derived readily from the verb Shalah,[26] kindred

with Shalam, both words being in frequent use in the sense of being

at peace and in rest; expressing good wishes for peace――_i. e._ for

all prosperity――the noun from which might naturally mean the author of

peace, as we see in Mic. 5: 4. Furthermore, this distinctive feature of

the Messiah’s character and mission is the theme of Ps. 72 and of many

passages in Isaiah, _e. g._ 9: 6, 7, and 11: 1–10, and 60: 18–22. These

prophecies naturally follow the lead of this and therefore sustain the

construction here given it.

Moreover, it is natural and highly probable that Jacob whose twelve

sons were to found the twelve tribes of Israel and who knew that the

Messiah was to come in the line of _some one_ of his sons, should

indicate which. Noah had designated Shem: God had designated Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob; now the choice is naturally made out of these twelve.

That the long promised Seed was in Jacob’s thought is forcibly and

beautifully suggested in the midst of these dying benedictions by

the words――“I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord” (49: 18). In the

sustaining hope of a coming Savior he had waited and trusted through

many long years; for these words express the precious experiences of

a life. As Jesus himself testified of Abraham, “He rejoiced to see my

day,” hailing it joyously from afar, so Jacob witnesses of himself,

“I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.”

(b.) Those who give “Shiloh” here the geographical sense argue that

in every other case of its use in scripture, it refers to the town of

that name. This name for a town appears first in Josh. 18: 1, 8, 10,

and often subsequently in Judges, 1 Sam., etc. But there is no evidence

that in Jacob’s day it had come into use in geography. This usage, so

far as appears, was long subsequent. Nothing forbids, therefore, that

Jacob should use it simply for its significance――the Peace-giving One.

Again, the most marked supremacy of Judah began _after_ the nation had

reached Shiloh. It is therefore bad history and very inept prophecy

to represent Judah as holding the scepter _until_ the nation came

to Shiloh; the fact being that he had not held it in the full sense

previously to reaching Shiloh, but did hold it for many centuries

after Shiloh had lost its pre-eminence as the religious capital. I see

therefore no good ground for setting aside the Messianic interpretation

of this passage. The argument in its defense is ably and fully drawn

out by Keil in his Commentary, and yet more fully by Hengstenberg in

his Christology, vol. 1. pp. 50–63.

_The less readable portions of Genesis._

We have passed several portions of Genesis with little or no notice;

_e. g._ the genealogical tables, and some of the less important

sketches of family and tribal history; _e. g._ that of Abraham’s sons

by Keturah; of Ishmael, Esau, Laban, etc.

Of these less readable passages, let it be noted:

1. They are such as never could find place in a tale of fiction,

gotten up in some later age to interest and amuse the reader. The

fact that nobody finds interest and amusement in reading them now

proves conclusively that no writer of fiction could possibly have

concocted such chapters from his own fancy and have foisted them into

a professedly ancient history. The men who forge books of fiction to

pass them off as truthful history are careful not to put in unreadable

chapters――void of rational or even imaginative interest to the men of

after ages.

2. Consequently these passages are incontrovertible proof of the

genuineness and real antiquity of these writings. In their time they

had interest――just that interest which attaches to sober truth: none

more or other than this.

3. The Scriptures were written with special adaptation to their

first readers, and must include therefore those matters which had

real value and interest _to them_, whether they would continue to have

interest and value many thousand years onward or not. This fact, often

overlooked, has many important bearings.

4. By far the greater portion of these historic books has a permanent

interest and value to us and will have to their readers through all

future ages. We see in these ancient books not only the earliest

developments of human nature in the primitive society of the race, but

also the earliest manifestations of God to men, and can trace their

progressive unfoldings step by step, age after age by new methods and

with clearer light as we move on toward the great era when God became

manifest in human flesh.

5. It may well reconcile us to the annoyance (if such it be) of

some unreadable portions that precisely these above all others afford

us the strongest evidence of the genuineness and high antiquity of

these entire books. They constitute an internal mark of antiquity

and genuineness which by the laws of human nature never could be

counterfeited. The man who should attempt to counterfeit such proofs

that his fiction is true history would not prove himself very sharp

save in the skill of spoiling his book and frustrating the only

conceivable object of a fiction――for the sake of what?

We lay down Genesis, profoundly impressed that this oldest volume of

human history is unsurpassed in simplicity and beauty, and wonderfully

rich in its revelations both of man and of his Maker.