Certain Singular Subjects

Certain Singular Subjects

(No. 1718)

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau Mount
Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt."
Joshua 24:4.

THIS passage, though audibly uttered by the mouth of Joshua, is to be
regarded as the immediate voice of God. Joshua said unto all the
people, "Thus says Jehovah, God of Israel." Jehovah reminded the
tribes, their elders and judges, of all that He had done and of all
that He had been to them–and from this He challenged their allegiance,
requiring that they should henceforth be loyal unto their great
Benefactor. Addressing them, Himself, His argument became all the more
impressive. I reverence all Scripture more than tongue can tell, but
yet I venerate most of all those portions of the Word which are God's
own voice–the thoughts of Deity interpreted into human speech by
Deity, itself! The passage now before us, though it reads like a piece
of ordinary history such as might have been composed by a common
scribe, has about it a vastness of meaning such as can only be found in
the language of the infinite God.

When God inspires David, or Isaiah or Paul, He teaches us most
graciously, but when He condescends to speak, Himself, how shall we
sufficiently reverence the Words? We have here, not so much a letter
dictated by God, as the actual autograph of the great Father! My text
is written with the finger of God. A glory blazes along the lines–the
letters are all illuminated–the words glow like the sapphire work of
Heaven's pavement. Our text has a world of meaning in it. It may, as we
notice its plain words and prosaic statements, seem to be a mere common
box, but it is, in very deed, an ark of precious perfumed wood,
overlaid with pure gold, and filled with gems and jewels rich and rare!

May the Holy Spirit give us eyes with which to perceive the treasures
which lie before us in these words–"I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau:
and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his
children went down into Egypt."

I. The first thing that I discern here is HISTORY AND THE HAND OF GOD
IN IT. See, "I gave," and then, again, "I gave." It is not merely that
Esau and Jacob were born of Isaac and Rebekah, but the Lord says, "I
gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau." How plainly does this declare that the
hand of God is in human history! At first sight, history seems a great
tangle, a snarl, a confusion–but on looking at it more closely, we
perceive that it is only in appearance a maze– but in fact a marvelous
piece of arrangement, exhibiting perfect precision and never-failing
accuracy! Our carnal reason sees the wrong side of the carpet and it
appears to be without design or order–but there is another side to
history–and looked at from that standpoint it reveals a wonderful
pattern of beauty displaying unparalleled wisdom and goodness!

Histories of nations are, from the human side, little more than a
narration of the crimes of kings and the follies of their people. And
yet, viewed from another quarter, they are the record of the dealings
of God with men–the story of love's labor to reclaim the lost! Look at
Calvary's sacrifice as it rises above all other events–even as, this
morning, I saw the hills and the tops of tall trees standing out above
the morning mist. What a sight it is! The Cross towering over the ages
looking down on their sins and sorrows! Calvary–what is it? What but
the climax of human iniquity, where man became not so much a regicide,
though he slew his King, as a Decide for, to the utmost of his power,
he slew his God!

On the Cross, human enmity of God reached its most dread extremity!
With wicked hands men crucified and slew the Son of God! Yet it is
equally true that on Calvary we see more of the goodness, Grace, mercy,
justice and long-suffering of God than anywhere else. The Cross is, at
once, our crime and our salvation–an exhibition of man's foulest sin
and of God's richest Grace! Calvary is of all spots, the blackest and
the brightest–the place where Hell displayed its most deadly power and
yet the very gate of Heaven! Thus is all human history, according to
its measure and proportion, a bitter sweet. Where man's mischief and
misery abound, there do God's goodness and Grace much more abound.

We see the hand of God in history very strikingly in the raising up of
remarkable men at certain special periods. It is true, as the Lord
says, "I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau." Children are the gift of
God. This is true not only of Isaac

but of all mortal men. God gave to a worthy couple, George Washington;
to another pair, John Howard; and to a third, George Whitefield. Each
of these, in his own special way, was a Divine gift to men. Children
are born with differing talents and varied capacities, but all about
them which will make them blessings is the gift of God. I shall not
tarry to mention great men whose names mark epochs in history from
which men date an increase of light and happiness–but let no man think
of these friends and leaders of mankind without admitting the hand of
God in their birth, training, disposition and ability.

The greatest blessing which God ever gave to man was the Man, Christ
Jesus, and, under Him, the next best blessings are men. You remember
the passage, "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men. And He gave some Apostles," and so forth.
Ascension gifts are sure to be worthy of the occasion and, therefore,
eminently precious–and these are all men! Within a man–poor, lowly,
humble and even sinful, though that, man may be in himself–there may
lie concealed an almost infinite blessing from the Most High! Even as
within an acorn sleeps a forest, or within a flint lies light for a
nation's watch-fires. When the Negro slave had borne long years of
bondage and hope of deliverance seemed far away, it was God that gave
an Abraham Lincoln who led the nation onward till "Emancipation" flamed
upon its banners

Long before, when England, free in every corner of it, yet held slaves
in its colonies, it was God that gave Wilber-force and raised him up to
plead in Parliament the rights of men, till the command went forth–

"Thus says Britannia, empress of the sea, Your chains are broken;
Africa, be free!" In all such acts of righteousness, the coming forth
of the man of the hour must be attributed to God's own hands. The men,
themselves, may not know why they have come to power–of them it might
often be said as the Lord said of Cyrus–"I girded you, though you have
not known Me." The mighty ones that contend for wrong, bind the chains
and forge the fetters of the oppressed, do not know the champions who
are predestined to overturn them, but God knows, and that is enough!
Tyrants have always just cause to be afraid, for every birth may
produce a deliverer. Somewhere in a hovel there may sleep, in a rude
cradle, the boy who shall shake the throne of evil!

As yet it has always happened in due season that Pharaoh has been
confronted by Moses and the princes of Midian by Gideon. For every
Sisera there is a Jael and for every Goliath a David. The upas tree may
increase its deadly shadow, but an axe is sharpening for the felling of
it! Evil is a gourd and though a man is but a worm, yet he shall
destroy that gourd. God is still working in the fashioning–oh, with
what mystery–of His own instruments! In His book are written the
members of men who are yet to be, who are now being fashioned in secret
by the hand of God! These shall, by-and-by, appear, and shall lead on
the race to a further unloosing of its bonds. I rejoice in the
possibilities which lie in birth!

As to the One great Seed of the woman we look for our greatest
deliverance, so do we, in a lower sense, look to her seed for the
overthrow of many of the doings of the serpent race. That curse which
made her, in sorrow, bring forth children, contains enclosed within
itself, like a bud in its sheath, the promise of untold benediction!
Often at a birth might an age rejoice and sing, "Unto us a child is
born: unto us a son is given." Let parents think of this and dedicate
their offspring with many a prayer to the Lord whose gift they are. Let
old men think of this and cry to God to raise up true men to fill the
places which they, themselves, can no longer occupy. Lo! Children are a
heritage of the Lord!

When our sons are a seed that the Lord has blest, blessed is the man
that has his quiver full of them. Let us bless and praise the Lord, as
we look back in history upon God's manifest interference with the
course of events by the singular births of men whom He has used to
effect His own Divine purposes! Nobody denies that the hand of God is
in the coming of men for the hour when the hour calls for the men. So,
also, is the hand of God distinctly to be seen in all great events. If
Esau captures Mount Seir, then the setting up of the Edomite dominion,
bad as it may have been, is, from another point of view, a matter in
which God's purpose and design are to be noted, for He says–"I gave
Esau mount Seir."

Brothers and Sisters, I believe–and I hope the Truth of God is not too
strong for you–that not a tiny bird pecks up a worm from the ground
without your Father. A plant does not sprout in the corner behind the
wall and shoot up its flower, seed, ripen and decay apart from the Lord
of Hosts! Much less does an empire rise, flourish, or decline without
Divine co-operation! When the sere leaf falls from the sycamore in the
autumn time, a Providence guides the leaf to its place upon the sod.
And when the worm uplifts itself to draw that leaf into the tunnel
which it has made, the hand of the Lord directs the burial! In
everything that happens, be it small or great, the Lord is present and
His will is done!

It is so in all the plotting and maneuvering of kings and princes and
senates; in the stirs of public opinion; in the marching of armies and
in all that transpires among mortal men. Though the iniquity of man is
abundantly seen, yet the overruling power of God is never absent. The
world is not left to itself, given over to the lord of misrule! In all
events the hand of God may be perceived by all who care to perceive it.
I reckon war to be a huge crime on man's side, but, when battalions
have marched against battalions, the destiny of empires and possibly of
the whole race of man, has turned upon the health of a commander, the
clearness of his eyes, or the quickness of his messenger–yes, the
turning aside of a bullet, or the fall of a horse, or the breaking of
an axle has become the pivot of history, the turning point of ages–and
there at the center the Lord has been surely ready!

Essential points have been secured beyond all question. Perhaps it is
more nearly right to say that every turn of history has been essential
and that the whole of it has been in the hands of the Highest. It is
singular how God is seen, both in dangers and preservations, in
connection with crises of history. Wellington at Waterloo sat on his
horse, Copenhagen, all day long. A friend of mine, well known to most
of you, said to him, "I suppose your horse must have been very weary."
"No," said the duke, "He was so fresh that when I got off from him, he
threw his heels into the air and almost struck my temple. I was not in
greater danger all through the battle than at that moment." God had
preserved the hero all that day and we little know what had been the
result if a chance slug or ball had carried him off!

And yet you see when the red mouth of war was growing silent, the Iron
Duke was still in jeopardy! Had he been suddenly cut off, our island
might have become an insignificant province of a vast Napoleonic
empire! But he was immortal till his work was done. Above the awful din
of war, I hear the voice of God, and even out of such an evil which
makes earth, for a while like Hell, the good Lord of All produces good!
Masters of armies reckon their hosts, but the Lord of Hosts they
forget. They plan and scheme, these masters of men to whom their people
are as so much food for powder– but a higher plan overrides their
planning! There is a King of kings, and Lord of lords, and He is no
silent spectator of what is done, but stretches out His hand to deliver
the nations from the power of evil, so that, still, by His great power,
the world moves onward to something better.

We think of this poor world with great sadness when we see all the
crime and sin which defile it, and yet we join with Galileo in saying,
"It does move though!" Truth makes progress! The right is winning! If
we do not see an improvement today, or tomorrow, yet take any 20 years
and you will see that the world is moving–moving on to that grand day
when the song shall ascend, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah: for the Lord God
Omnipotent reigns!" As the Lord's hand was in Esau's possession of
Mount Seir, so is it in the settlement of every tribe and people. And
it is to be seen by all observant eyes in all the great epochs of the
history of man. Yet please notice that whenever we say this–and I say
it pretty plainly–we never excuse the sin and folly of man!

We speak of predestination and foreknowledge because we find these
Truths of God in Scripture and they seem, to us, to be facts in the
very nature of things. God knows all that happens, otherwise He were
not God, but a poor, blind deity. And if He knows that a certain fact
will happen, then it is a fixed and settled thing, depend on that!
Nothing happens other than God foreknew would happen and, therefore, it
is fixed! If I laid aside predestination, yet foreknowledge would be
quite enough for me. Something or other is certain to happen and God
knows what that something or other is–and, therefore, it is fixed not
by blind fate, but still fixed. Yet this fixedness is perfectly
consistent with the free agency and responsibility of man! Man thinks,
resolves and acts as freely, and as much on his own accord, as if there
were no foreknowledge and no God! In the book of the unrevealed,
everything is written–but the mystic roll is laid up in the archives
of Heaven and no man knows what is written in it.

Down below everything happens according to that book–not a stroke of
it is in error, not a mistake is found in a single word–the event
happens as it was foreknown. But, still, if there were no such book,
man would not be more absolutely free than he is now. I can join
heartily with the advocate of free agency when he talks of man's
voluntariness in his acts of sin, his willful choice of evil, his
rejection of Christ and of His Grace. No man can too thoroughly believe
in the willful guilt of the wicked–at any rate, I will go all lengths
in such a belief. I couple with what is called Calvinistic Doctrine,
the other doctrine of free agency and responsibility, which seems to me
to be equally true. And if this is judged to be an inconsistency, the
remark does not stagger me, for I see no inconsistency and do not
believe that any exists!

My God is not a mere Omnipotent Being who can rule dead materialism and
compel insensible atoms to do His will, but He can rule free agents,
leaving them absolutely free and yet effecting all His purposes with
them! God's eternal pur-

poses are accomplished and yet men remain responsible free agents both
in their beginning and in their ending. Do you say that you do not
understand how this can be? Neither do I, but I believe it! There are
10,000 other things in Nature and history which are too high for me to
understand their "how" and "why"–and yet I see them–can I not, also,
be sure of some matters which I do not see? It is not for me to profess
to comprehend the nature or the ways of the Infinite! If we could
comprehend the Lord, He would not be the infinite God! It is because He
is beyond me–infinitely beyond such a poor creature as I am–that I,
all the more, reverently adore Him!

His Nature and His nets are, alike, veiled in mystery, but alike to be
held in reverence. Have you never heard of the insect philosophers?
They were midgets so small that a man needed a microscope to see
them–but they were very great philosophers for all that–and they set
about to describe an elephant. One of them hung upon the gigantic
creature's ear, surveyed a small portion of its area and his theory was
that an elephant was a living wall, almost perpendicular! Another stood
upright somewhere on the creature's back and he concluded that the
creature was a vast plain! A third, who was perched upon a hair of the
animal, propounded the idea that it was a tall shaft. These
midget-philosophers had not eyes large enough to take in a whole
elephant and so each one judged from the tiny morsel of hide which came
under his own narrow range of observation.

Yet these ephemera were nearer the mark with the elephant than our wise
men are with the universe, concerning which their first principles,
theories and hypotheses have usually been a museum of follies! Yet if
philosophers understood the universe, that understanding would not
bring their carnal minds within measurable distance of the infinite
God. None but the Spirit of God can reveal God to any man–and the man,
himself, must receive a new and spiritual life before he can know what
the Spirit teaches. Who, then, among the worldly-wise may dream of
understanding God, when even the spiritual rather embrace Him by love
than grasp Him by understanding? Let us, therefore, believe what we
find to be in God's Word and what we are taught by His Spirit, though
it should be far above our heads! Let us not delay to believe until we
can reconcile.

Do you not know that in theology–all the false parts of theology on
which the sects stand and fight each other– consists of suspension
bridges made of cobwebs which are intended to bridge the distance
between two awful Truths of God which look as if they were divided from
each other? The great rocky Truths are, in effect, accepted by both
parties, but the battle waxes hot concerning these cobweb-bridges which
were never worth a tithe of the ingenuity which has been wasted upon
them. I hold it true that God is in history and in everything! And I
read the newspaper that I may see how my heavenly Father governs the
world! And this I believe though I most clearly see that men sin
willfully, wickedly, vol-untarily–and that they are guilty free agents
in all their wrong-doing. These thoughts come to me when I remember the
character of Esau, and yet read the Lord's words, "I gave unto Esau
mount Seir to possess it."

To us, dear Friends, the hand of God is very visible in our own case.
Look at the hand of God that gave to you and to me such parents as we
have–I mean those of us who have the great delight of having descended
from Christian men and women. Had we anything to do with that? And yet
the greatest part of a man's future depends upon the parents of whom he
is born. No person can deny that our parentage is beyond our own power
and yet, to a large extent, it colors the whole future of life. Is not
the hand of God in it? Why shall one be born of a long succession of
drunks and of thieves, and have within himself an insatiable passion
born with him to imitate them–while another inherits a sound
constitution from his parents and, though he has no tendency to the
Grace of God, yet he has a tendency to morality and naturally develops
self-restraint and gentle manners? Do we not see the hand of God in the
parents that He gave us?

I cannot be so blind as to deny my own obligations! I shall forever
bless God that I was given to a godly couple whose delight it was to
lead me in the ways of God. And do we not see the hand of God, again,
in our children? Many of us do. Oh, how some of us bless and praise God
that ever such sons fell to our lot! We never think of them without
delight, for they are living in the service of the Lord Jesus, spending
and being spent in the Divine Master's service. Look at your children
as the gifts of God and if they are not yet all that you could desire,
yet still believe that God has given them to you, even as He says, "I
gave Isaac, Jacob and Esau." You, dear Friends in Christ, united in
holy wedlock, may look upon your children as not unclean, but holy, in
the sense intended by the Apostle when he speaks of the unbelieving
wife as sanctified by the believing husband and adds, "else were your
children unclean, but now are they holy."

They are not to be viewed as the unhappy fruit of an unhallowed union,
but as gifts of God, to be brought up for Him and trained in His fear.
They come not as the result of uncleanness, but as gifts from the Lord,
to whom marriage is

an honorable estate. It were a sad thing if the sight of my child made
me blush for shame. But it is a joy to look upon him as, like Samuel,
asked of God and given of God. Bring these gifts of God to God and say,
"Here, Lord, are the children which You have given me. Save them by
Your Grace, since in love You have given them to me. These dear ones
are favors from Yourself, blessings upon which I set great store. O
Lord, let Your name be named on them and let Your Grace be glorified in
them."

Observe, further, that the Lord's hand is in all the prosperity which
He gives to any. He says, "I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it."
It is by God's allotment that temporal things fall as they do–even the
ungodly have their portion in this life by Divine grant. It were "vain
to rise up early, and to sit up late, and to eat the bread of
carefulness," if the Lord did not build the house and prosper the
labor! It is He that gives you power to get wealth. Our daily bread
comes from the granary of Providence. The store most ample, or the
measure most scant must, alike, be traced to the one all-bountiful
hand. And, once more, God's hand is to be seen in the place in which we
live. If Esau lives in mount Seir, it is because God appoints him to be
there–and if Israel goes down to Egypt, it is for the same reason. If
you and I move from one place to another, it is sweet to see the cloud
moving before us and to know that the Lord directs our ways. "The steps
of a good man are ordered of the Lord."

But I need not instance cases. The hand of the Lord has been with some
of us, for good, from our cradle even until now! And we believe that He
who has led us so far will still lead us until we arrive at the House
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!

II. Secondly, we have another lesson to learn from our text, and that
is upon, "I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau," twin children born of
godly parents. In that birth there was joy, but sorrow came by it as
well as joy. What joy there was in Isaac's house that day, for we read
that it had been a matter of prayer in the family! See Genesis 25:21.
It had been a grief to Isaac that, married at 40 years of age, he had
lived 20 years in married life without a child, although he had the
promise of a seed. Later on it happened that Esau and Jacob were born.
There was joy! Yes, double joy, because two sons to build up their
father's house. Ah, had they known it, there was grave cause for
mingled emotion in that double birth!

We read that 40 years after Esau married, he took unto himself two
Canaanite wives, "which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to
Rebekah." Yes, we may fondly promise ourselves that children born of
godly parents will be an unalloyed comfort to them and yet it may not
be so. Children are certain cares and doubtful comforts. They may bring
to their parents such sorrow that they may be inclined to think the
barren happier than the fruitful. Hence it is well for us to leave our
hopes of posterity with God–and if we reckon that in a childless house
we have missed a great joy, we ought, also, to reckon that we have
missed a mint of trouble by the same fact!

Your children are not born in Grace, but they are the children of
nature–and that being the case, you may have to see in one of
them–God grant it may be in no more–an Esau, yes, a profane person
who will sell his birthright and become an enemy of the people of God!
Esau was born of admirable parents, and so an Esau may be found to your
boundless grief in your own family. It has been so, before, with
others, and it may be so with you. The lion's whelp has been found in
the sheep's fold; the vulture has been hatched in the dove's nest.
There was great hope, certainly, of both boys born in Isaac's house,
for we look that godly parents should train up their children in the
way that they should go, so that when they are old they may not depart
from it–therefore both Esau and Jacob were most hopefully started.

But Esau was not trainable. He was a wild man, went his own way and
became a follower of rough sports, "a cunning hunter, a man of the
field." And soon he became profane, as often happens to those whose
chief pursuits are sporting. Ah, me! Ah, me! How often the brightest
hopes have been blasted and those who appeared to be floating on the
current which flows towards Heaven have been drifted back and lost on
the forlorn shores of unbelief! It is a great advantage to you, my dear
young Friend, to have been born into a Christian family, but I charge
you, do not trust in it as though it were, in itself, a guarantee of
salvation! Isaac, the beloved of God, has Esau for a son.

Mind that! David had to sorrow over Absalom, and Hezekiah over
Manasseh. You may be the Esau of your family. Is it so? May God grant
that such a dreadful portion may not be chosen by you! Remember that
your brother who has lived with you, slept with you and grown with you,
side by side, may be gracious and you may remain ungodly. Is it so now?
Oh, that the Holy Spirit may come and work upon you till you and your
brother are one in Christ, like James and John, Peter and Andrew!
Father, do you find a division in your house? Then pray to God, even as
Abraham prayed for Ishmael,

"Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!" Pray for your wayward boy!
And, oh, you that are in the family and have, through Divine mercy,
become a Jacob and not an Esau, ascribe it all to Sovereign Grace and
give God the praise!

But forget not your brother! While he lives, have hope for him and see
what you can do that he, also, may rejoice in the Lord. But, ah, if we
could read the future when we look at our little children, we should
rejoice with trembling! And as we cannot read the future, it is fit
that we should pray with earnestness. We have prayer often at dying
beds–why have we not more prayer in the chamber of birth? Surely, when
an immortal spirit starts upon its endless career, it is well for us to
cry to God and ask others to join with us in the loving, earnest prayer
that the Holy Spirit may cause the newly-born to be born again as soon
as they are able to know Jesus and believe in Him! There stands the
fact–in birth there is joy tempered with godly fear, hope mingled with
sacred anxiety and high advantage which may yet most sadly end in
deepened responsibility and increased sin!

III. Thirdly, and very briefly, we have next to view WORLDLINGS AND
THEIR POSSESSIONS. "I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it." That
is to say, Esau, as compared with Jacob, appeared to have the best of
it, for he had "Mount Seir, to possess it," but poor Jacob had not a
foot of land that he could call his own except the family sepulcher at
Machipelah, in which, afterwards, he slept the sleep of the righteous.
Why does God so often give possessions to ungodly men? Why do they
flourish? Why do they have their portion in this life?

Is it not, first, because God thinks little of these things and
therefore gives them to those of whom He thinks little? "Why," said
Luther, in his day, "the whole Turkish empire is but a basket of husks
that God gives to the hogs and, therefore, He hands it over to the
unbelievers." So often wealth and riches are but so much wash which the
great Husbandman gives to the swine on His estate. Something infinitely
better is reserved for the Lord's own family! The rich blessing of true
Grace He reserves for His children and heirs. It shows how little God
thinks of kingdoms, empires and great riches, for He leaves these, full
often, to the worst of men!

How few saints have ever worn crown or coronet! A holy man once said
that the kings who have gone to Heaven might almost be counted on your
fingers. See what small account the Lord makes of the world's best
store! Do you wish that ungodly men should have less? For my part, I am
reconciled to their present prosperity, for it is all they will ever
have. Poor souls, let them have as much of it as they may, here, for
they will have nothing hereafter. Besides, they have no God–and having
no God, it would take a great many fortunes to make a godless man's
portion worth a straw! If the graceless could gain all worlds, what use
would they be to them when they come to die? Their own souls lost and
no comfort in Christ, and no joy in the Spirit–what have they gained,
after all? Let the worldlings have the husks.

Let none of us ever cry, "I gladly would fill my belly with the husks
that the swine eat." Let those have the treasures of this present evil
world who have nothing else! Never quarrel with the Lord for saying, "I
gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it." Besides, these comforts may
lead them to reflect upon God's bounty to them and, at any rate, they
ought to move them to repentance. It is my earnest hope that many an
ungodly man, whom God has highly favored in the things of this life,
may be influenced by the Spirit of God to say, "Why should I continue
to rebel against God who has been so kind to me? He has prospered me
and taken care of me. Why should I not turn to Him, and become His
servant?" At any rate, gratitude for mercies received should produce
repentance for sins committed.

But worldly goods have no necessary connection with ungodliness. There
is no infection in harvest stores, nor iniquity in the wealth which
comes of commerce. In themselves, gold and silver are harmless metals.
There have been men who have enjoyed the abundance of this world, and
yet have inherited the world to come. Not many great men after the
flesh are chosen, but there is a great difference between, "not many,"
and, "not any." Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the women who
ministered unto Christ of their substance had a fair measure of the
comforts of this life–and used them for their Lord. It was not
Solomon's wealth that brought him down so low–his unrestrained
passions were his ruin, else might he have held all his treasures and
held his God, too.

Pray, therefore, that the rich may be brought to Christ! Why should not
that fish be taken which has the silver shekel in its mouth? Why may
not Matthew, the publican, be called from the receipt of custom? Is
there not yet another Zac-chaeus to be renewed by Grace? May not their
indebtedness to God be used as a plea with the wealthy to give
themselves to Him who has already given them so much? It was no fault
in Jonah that he felt pleasure under the shade of his gourd– the fault
lay in making a god of that gourd! There is no evil in having goods,
but there is great evil in making those goods

our chief good. Yet, Brothers and Sisters, so it is that the men of
this world usually have the most of it. I do not say the best of it.

It is and always will be a mystery, as long as the world stands, that
the wicked often flourish and the righteous suffer. Read the Book of
Job. Read the 37th Psalm; read the 73rd Psalm and see how holy men and
wise men have been perplexed and troubled by the method of the Divine
Providence. To see wickedness on a throne and righteousness in a
dungeon, pride enshrined in honor and holiness rolled in the kennel is
a serious trial of our confidence in God–and yet there are weighty
reasons why it should be so for a while. Not without wisdom does the
Lord say, "I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it."

IV. Now comes the fourth point and a great mystery, too. Here are THE
CHOSEN OF GOD AND THEIR TRIALS. "I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to
possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt." That is
their portion. They must go down into Egypt because of famine. And they
must suffer there under a tyrant's iron rod, so that they may become
familiar with the drudgery of slaves. They must be strangers in a
strange land and be sorely bruised beneath the foot of the oppressor.
The escutcheon of their nation was to be "a smoking furnace and a
burning lamp." Moses saw Israel as well as God when he beheld a bush
burning with fire but not consumed. Is not this a strange thing?

To him whom God loves best He allots the hardest conditions. Esau's
sons are dukes, but Jacob's seed are drudges! Esau reigns, but Israel
serves! Esau set his nest on high, but Israel crouched by the reeds of
the river. The worldling would read the Scripture as if it said, "As
many as I love, I caress and pamper"–but the Lord speaks not so–His
Words are, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." "Whom the Lord
loves He chastens and scourges"–those are very hard words–"scourges
every son whom He receives." To carnal reason this seems straining!
Faith, alone, can explain it.

Israel and his children went down into Egypt, first, for their
preservation. So God brings His people into trial often to preserve
them from the world and its evil influences; from themselves and their
natural pride; from Satan and his puffing up. By sorrow and adversity
the children of God are driven to their knees, brought near to their
great Father and kept in fellowship with Him. Sanctified afflictions
are spiritual promotions. The salt and bitterness of sorrow often
preserve men from the gall and bitterness of sin.

They went down into Egypt, next, for their improvement, for the family
of Jacob was in a mournful condition and by no means fit to be used of
the Lord. The story of Jacob's family is a strangely sad one, perhaps
Scripture does not contain more mournful pages. The evil influence of
polygamy is clearly seen, blended within the errors of Laban's house
and envenomed by the foul example of the Canaanites among whom they
sojourned. It was time that they should shift their quarters–they were
neither getting good nor doing good. It looked as if the Patriarch
would beget an ignorant, quarrelsome, vicious race–and so they were
sent down into Egypt that trouble might teach them better manners. God
often thrusts His people into adversity that He may improve them,
awaken them, instruct them and ennoble them.

See to it, Brothers and Sisters, that the Lord's design be fulfilled in
you to the fullest. May the anvil and the file, the crucible and the
flame work in you a clearance of dross and rust, and make you pure and
bright. They also went down into Egypt for their education. The chosen
seed needed teaching! They were getting to be rustic, not to say
barbarous, in their manners–acquirements and knowledge were scant
among them. They must go down into the seat of ancient learning to
acquire arts and sciences and civilization. In Egypt, a race, which,
otherwise had been a mob must be consolidated into a nation! A band of
willful men must be trained to discipline and obedience. The Lord said,
"Out of Egypt have I called My son," because Egypt was his school of
learning, his drill ground of discipline. We are ignorant, rebellious
and willful till the Lord trains us. "Before I was afflicted I went
astray; but now have I kept Your Word."

The Lord teaches us on the blackboard of adversity and we are often
rapped over the knuckles by the stern Master! It is wonderful what we
learn when we are taken among the thorns! I hardly think that I have
learned anything except in affliction! At least I know this–I owe more
to the hammer, the anvil, the file and the furnace than I do to all the
green meadows and flowing brooks and singing birds that I have ever
seen or heard! I fear that I have learned little beyond that which has
been whipped into me! And though I am not fonder of the rod than you
are, I confess that such sweet fruit grows on the bitter branch of
trial that I would fear to be long without it. I would rather weep
within the Lord's chosen than laugh within the reprobate! By unhallowed
mirth fools grow more foolish, but by sanctified trials wise men become
yet wiser. For future usefulness it is well that we have present sorrow
and, like Jacob, go down into Egypt.

And they went down to Egypt, again, that God might display His great
power in them. I would not care to be Esau on Mount Seir when once I
see Pharaoh's hosts drowned and Israel marching through the depths of
the sea!–and when I hear the song of the Israelite maidens and the
shouts of the men, "Sing you to Jehovah, for He has triumphed
gloriously; the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea." It is
worth while to go down into Egypt to come out of it with a high hand
and an outstretched arm! Oh, the glory of the Lord in His redeemed! Oh,
the lofty destiny of the tried people of God! Oh, the sublimity of
their lives, even now! There is God in them! There is God about them.
He heads the van and brings up the rear! They are as signs and wonders
in their generations. He has blessed them–yes, and they shall be
blessed.

It matters little that Esau has Mount Seir for a possession–Israel has
her God! No foot of land, perhaps, you call your own. You do not know
where your next suit of clothes will come from and God has kept you on
short commons and multiplied your straits and needs. Never mind–yours
is the lot of the chosen–for "Jacob and his children went down into
Egypt." That is where the story ends, according to my text, but you
know the story does not end there at all, for out of Jacob and his
children came the Son, the Scepter and the Throne! The Godhead took up
the seed of Israel and now, today, He that sprang of Jacob's loins,
according to the flesh, sits on the highest Throne of God and reigns
supreme! The Shiloh has come and it matters nothing what Egypt brought
of sorrow unto Jacob's seed, seeing that out of them, at the last, came
the King and Savior of men!

If Jesus is ours, the rest is a small affair. Give me Christ and I ask
for nothing else! Having faith in Jesus, I can leave all things with
the great Disposer of events. Christ and a crust–the promise and a
parish coat! Grace and an almshouse! Cannot a saint be more than
content with these? So have I set before you the varying lots of God's
own people and of the wicked. I hope that you are ready to say that you
would rather suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. God help you to make that wise choice
and to make it at once! May His Spirit lead you to take the Lord Jesus
to be your All in All! Amen.