MDB 23: Genesis 35
Genesis 35: 3
"that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone."
Fascinating fellow this Jacob. So many chapters dedicated to a man who is far from admirable. You see his life foreshadowed in the birth narrative as he arrives grasping the heel of his older brother. He was a man who would plot and scheme for his own advancement, one who was cunning and deceitful - and yet, the one who keeps securing the blessings of God. And now here in Genesis 35, we see something of his recognition of what has transpired.
Has it been because of his cleverness? No. Has it been because of his character? No. Blessings have found him not for reasons found in Jacob. It has been God who has been with him wherever he has gone. While Jacob was busy conspiring with his mother and deceiving his father, it was God's covenant mercies which have been pursuing him. Douglas Macmillan, a Gospel minister of the Free Church, captured this thought in his exposition of closing of Psalm 23.
"What do I think of when I think of goodness and mercy? I think of the fellows taking the sheep home, walking down the road with their sticks. The sheep are coming behind them and behind the sheep are two dogs, and one is called Goodness and the other is called Mercy. You watch them, sheep being what they are, when the shepherds back is turned, they'll try and sneak off the road. You see a sheep on one side, and off it goes trying to get back to the pasture and the mountains. Without even the shepherd whistling, what happens? Goodness runs out and circles the sheep and turns it back into the flock and into the path of God. Then, a little further along the road, another one will do the same, or two or three will do it and there you will see Mercy running out and turning the sheep back, too. Ah, they are two lovely dogs, Goodness and Mercy."
So it has been with Jacob. The goodness and mercy of God have gone with him, keeping his heart which of itself was so prone to wander. Even when Jacob had no regard for God, God regarded him.
