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Changed Into His Likeness
by Watchman Nee
We
all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.
2 Corinthians 3,18, RSV
Chapter 16
THE PEACEABLE FRUIT
It is now time to glance over
the latter part of Jacob's history and see the evidences of the fruitfulness in
him of all this inward discipline by the Spirit of God. Already when Jacob met
Esau he was different. We find him uncertain, hesitant, not quite knowing what
to do, though clearly he still has in him a good deal of his old nature. Genesis
33. 4 tells us that he wept. Jacob did not weep easily. People with plenty of
plans do not; but Peniel had already weakened him.
At Peniel Jacob's name was
changed, and as we have just seen, the same thing was repeated at
Bethel
. Between the two there was a period of weakness and confusion, and this often
happens after God has once touched us. We have to learn to walk gently and very
carefully with God, and the lesson is not easy. Peniel therefore represents
weakness, whereas
Bethel
stands for cleanness and purity with no mixture at all. Moving from Peniel to
Bethel
we pass through a strange town, Shechem. We are weakened, and we do not know
quite where we are, nor whether if we move again we shall go wrong once more.
But praise God, His work has begun, and the foundation has been laid. There is
no way now of not being a cripple!
We shall always be learning,
but at some point we shall each learn that fundamental lesson, after which
nothing can be the same again. From that point there begins a knowledge of God
beyond anything we have ever dreamed. With it we enter upon a new experience of
the life of the Body, drawing us together with all His own. This is a setting in
which the fruit of the Holy Spirit's inward working readily manifests itself.
Thus from
Bethel
we are told that `Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, to Kiriath-arba
(the same is
Hebron
), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned' (35. 27).
Hebron
represents fellowship, mutuality, the place where nothing can be done
individually and in isolation. Until the flesh has been dealt with we do not
value fellowship. We find it easy and natural to go it alone. But now we find
the significance of being `together'.
Fellowship means among other
things that we are ready to receive of Christ from others. Other believers
minister Christ to me, and I am ready to receive. This may be an important
lesson, for some are born teachers who are always preaching to others and have
no use at all for receiving from anyone else. If I am like that, I surely need
to meet my Peniel. Then only can I come to
Bethel
and
Hebron
. But when we have come there, we know in our hearts that we cannot live without
others, that alone by ourselves we have no place, no ground to stand upon. The
Body is a divine fact. Just as no member of our body can live without all the
rest, just as the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee, or again
the head to the feet, I have no need of you, so is the body of Christ a sphere
of interdependence. How significant, then, when Jacob at length reached
Hebron
and was restored to the fellowship of his home!
This is not to say that Jacob
no longer needed God's discipline after Peniel. He did, and he got it. At
Shechem he was put in fear of his life (34. 30). At Bethel Rebekah's nurse
Deborah died (35. 8). On the way to
Bethlehem
his beloved Rachel herself was taken from him (35. 19). At Eder Jacob had more
trouble with his sons, this time with Reuben (35. 22). He reached
Hebron
to find his mother already dead, and here at length Isaac himself ended his
days (35. 29). God was disciplining Jacob, working in him a new character,
changing him into a different person.
From Genesis 37 onwards is
Jacob's brightest period. During these remaining thirty years he is full of
grace. We need not consider his last days as days of decline; they were
certainly not that, and compare quite favourably with those of Peter and Paul
and John. In the Old Testament it is Solomon whose last days are days of
declension, but these should not be taken as the experience of others. David's
end was better even than his beginning, for he was planning and preparing for
the building of the
Temple
. In the same way, Jacob in his last days became gracious and lovable. Comparing
his end with that of Abraham and Isaac we cannot fail to see that his is the
best. They faded away, as it were, whereas Jacob bore fruit. God revealed
Himself in this unpromising man.
From Genesis 37, that is from
the time Joseph was seventeen, Jacob retired into the background. Before that he
had always been on the go, always active, as though he had an internal
combustion engine driving him! He always had some project on hand, and always
seemed to have reserves of strength to carry it out. From the day of his birth
you could not stop him doing and talking, you could not arrest his perpetual
busy-ness.
But when he reached
Hebron
, he retired. Sometimes he came forward to speak or to act, but it was just
sometimes. He had nothing any longer driving him to this incessant doing. Seeing
what Jacob-was-for remember, he was himself quite unable to let off the
pressure-this was a most remarkable thing. But Jacob no", is a very lovely
character. He is quietly, blessedly fruitful.
Isaac is a type of Christ; but
Jacob is a type of the natural man. So Jacob must stop his incessant driving.
The Isaac side, the spiritual strength, must go on, but the natural strength
must come to a halt. Now Jacob is in the background; there is no other place
suitable for him. The movement of the flesh has to cease when God has dealt with
it.
Jacob, the cheat, the schemer,
lived for himself and cared nothing about others. There was no love expressed in
him. But from the time Deborah died, he experienced all sorts of family sorrows
and troubles. All those he had loved died. At
Hebron
he was left with nothing. Even his own eldest son had wronged him. Joseph was
the only one left.
But Jacob had begun to be
loving. He had ripened and mellowed. He was anxious about his sons, afraid of
trouble for them, concerned for their welfare. He wanted to know how they fared,
and so he sent Joseph to inquire.
Then Joseph also disappeared,
and Jacob had every reason to think he was dead. `It is my son's coat,' he said,
`an evil beast hath devoured him: Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces' (37.
33). Gradually everything he had loved had gone from him, and now this last link
with Rachel was broken. `And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to
comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down to
the grave to my son mourning. And his father wept for him.' No other verse in
Jacob's history is so poignant as this one.
Thirteen years passed by.
Joseph had already reached the place of power in
Egypt
. Again Jacob met with trouble. This time it was famine, and all his `wealth was
in cattle! So now his material wealth drained away.
There was just one loved
possession left, `the youngest' (42. 13) who had grown up to take the place of
Joseph and who remained with his father. Only little Benjamin was left to Jacob.
He `was more precious than all the others, but even he was not like Joseph who
seas lost. When it came to the second time that his sons must go to
Egypt
to buy food, Simeon was already held in prison there as a hostage, and they
could not go again without taking Benjamin with them. Can we not read the pathos
in Jacob's words: `Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon
is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me'? (42.
36). Here was a man `who had lived under the discipline of God's hand, changed
now, into a gentle, deeply feeling parent.
But the time came when
Benjamin, his last treasure, had to go. And it is here, in Genesis 43, that
Jacob comes into his name of
Israel
. `And their father Israel said unto them, If it be so now, do this; take the
choice fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a
little balm, and a little honey, spicery and myrrh, nuts and almonds: and take
double money in your hand; and the money that was returned in the mouth of your
sacks carry again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight: take also your
brother, and arise, go again unto the man' (43. 11-13). Here was a man, weak and
uncertain in himself, who could listen to the counsel of his sons. In these
proposals he displays, surely, not the stratagems of the past, but the courtesy
and kindness of maturity and experience. `And God Almighty give you mercy before
the man, that he may release unto you your other brother and Benjamin.' Now, for
the first time, Jacob speaks like this, using the name he learned at
Bethel
. How different he is! How God has stripped him of his confidence. `If I be
bereaved of my children, I am bereaved,' he cries, but yet he hopes that God
will have mercy. Knowing ourselves, and looking at Jacob with that inward
knowledge, we realize what God has done. Jacob has not yet reached his highest
peak, the seventeen years in
Egypt
. Here there is still discipline, but there is evident fruitfulness.
His sons returned at length
with news of Joseph. `Joseph is alive, and he is ruler over all the
land
of
Egypt
' (45. 26). Again he is
Israel
. Had it been twenty years earlier, Jacob would have cursed his sons for
deceiving him all this time. But not now, now he is mature; now his meekness
shines forth. `And
Israel
said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I
die.' He had learned deep lessons.
But though his father-heart
longed to go to Joseph, yet he feared (46. 1). Abraham had gone into
Egypt
and had sinned. Isaac had been on his way thither and had been forbidden to go.
Could he, even for Joseph's sake, go down into
Egypt
now? His natural love for his son must not be allowed to interfere with God's
purpose.
So he stopped half-way-and
here for the first time Jacob really shines. He came to
Beersheba
, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. He laid his all on the
altar. `To go, or not to go? The decision is Thine, for I am Thine.' This was
his attitude to God.
And God answered him. `I am
God, 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 I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon
thine eyes' (46. 34). That `fear not' shows us Jacob's fear; thank God for it!
It shows us too the reality of God's work upon him; for in this hesitation he
proves that he had gone further than either Abraham or Isaac. God did not have
to stop him at
Beersheba
. Jacob himself stopped, and took his stand upon the basis of the altar. In
these verses we see a different man entirely. Spiritual principles are ruling
him now; he cannot just please himself.
So they came at last to
Egypt
. `And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob
blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How many are the days of the years
of thy life? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage
are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of
my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my
fathers in the days of their pilgrimage: And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out
from the presence of Pharaoh' (Genesis 4-7. 7-10).
What a picture this is! Where
can we find a better? Who is this Jacob after all? Even Joseph was less than
Pharaoh in the kingdom, and Jacob himself was in fact no more than a refugee! He
was dependent upon Pharaoh for his very survival.
Pharaoh was his benefactor.
Years ago Jacob had called Esau `lord'. But now? Now he blessed Pharaoh.
`Without any dispute the less is blessed of the greater' (Hebrews 7. 7), and
Jacob knew he was the greater. For Jacob was now living in a different world, a
world where he stood before God. Pharaoh king of
Egypt
was the greatest monarch in the earth at that time. No nation in the world was
stronger than
Egypt
, so we would hardly blame Jacob if he had taken a servile attitude before him.
But all the old false humility had gone, and he stood on his new ground and
blessed Pharaoh. In just such a way Paul dared to express his wishes for the
spiritual good of king Agrippa (Acts 26. 29). `I would to God, that . . . not
thou only but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except
these bonds.' My fetters apart, my happiness is greater than yours-yes, even
yours O king!
`Few and bitter have been the
days of my pilgrimage.' Jacob felt things. He honestly felt now that his life
had not approached that of his fathers. Again he blessed Pharaoh, and then
quietly went out from his presence. How likeable this old man has become! It
would have been very easy for him now to have secured some glory for himself out
of Joseph's position. But he did not seek this. He remained in the background,
and that is where we must look for him now, for we cannot find him in the
foreground. The Jacob of long ago would have grasped at this chance of
prominence and fame, and there is no telling what he might have made out of it.
But now he is no longer Jacob; he is
Israel
. His very unobtrusiveness is the mark of God's great work in him, and is his
greatest value to God.
There remain seventeen years
of his life, in which nothing much seems to happen, but he goes on advancing and
shining ever more brightly. May God give to every one of us such an end.
`And the time drew near that
Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, if now I have
found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal
kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: but when I sleep
with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their
burying-place' (47. 29, 30). This is very notable indeed. There is no word from
Jacob about how he should live in
Egypt
; only of how he should be buried! His death and burial were connected with the
promise, the land, the covenant and the kingdom. He cared nothing about the
things he saw around him; only about these that lay in the unseen. The old Jacob
had been hard and severe. He had rebuked even Joseph for his dreams (37. 10).
Now, thirty years later, he says to his own son, `I pray thee, if now I have
found grace in thy sight . . .' There was not even a command here, but an
altogether new mellowness. `And Joseph said, I will do as thou hast said. And he
said, Swear unto me: and he sware unto him. And
Israel
bowed himself upon the bed's head.' In the New Testament it states that he
`worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff' (Hebrews 11. 21). He was still a
cripple, and he was still a pilgrim.
We have now an old man's
memories, but it is very striking to note what in fact Jacob remembered. `God
Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the
land
of
Canaan
, and blessed me' (48. 3). `And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died
by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some way to come
unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is
Bethlehem)' (48.7) He remembers his bond with God Almighty; and he remembers his
sorrows, that one he so greatly loved should have - died before reaching their
destination: this was Jacob now, towards God, and towards men.
There follows the blessing of
Joseph's sons. `
Israel
stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the
younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly;
for Manasseh was the firstborn.' When Joseph protested, and thinking his father
mistaken, tried to remove his hand from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's, Jacob
refused to be corrected. `I know it, my son, I know it,' he assured him. Here
once again we see him going beyond his father Isaac. What Isaac did in blessing
the younger son he did in ignorance, not knowing what he was doing; but here
Jacob certainly knew what he was at. Both men were blind, but Isaac was blind
inwardly. Jacob certainly was not; his spiritual insight overcame the weakness
of his body. `His younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall
become a multitude of nations.'
We come at last to the long
prophecy concerning the sons of Jacob in Genesis 49. For Jacob was a prophet who
had acquired a true insight into God's purposes. In this he was more than either
Abraham or Isaac. But what a price he paid for this prophecy! For he was
compelled to refer to his children's past, and how he must have seen himself in
them! This gave him a sympathy, an understanding, altogether different from the
old Jacob. At Shechem there had been a bitterness in his words to Simeon and
Levi: 'Ye have troubled me, to make me stink among the inhabitants of the land,
among the Canaanites and the Perizzites : and, I being few in number, they will
gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I
and my house' (34. 30). Now in verses 5-7 of chapter 49 this personal
vindictiveness has gone, and it is the sin which concerns him. `O my soul, come
not thou into their council; unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united.'
His motives had been purified through entering into God's suffering over sin.
And look too at his expression of trust, after he had described the future
rebellion of Dan: `I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!' (49. 18).
At his beginning Jacob had
been an utterly hopeless case. But Scripture tells us his story from his birth
right through to his death, and to our amazement we find that unpromising man
transformed into God's
Israel
. By the end of Jacob's life the kingdom was already there in the person of this
prince with God. If God could make such a vessel out of Jacob, surely he has a
plan for us.
In Galatians 6.16 Paul uses
the expression `the Israel of God' for the whole of God's people, showing that
Israel
was herself a type of the church. `The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of
Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his servant Jesus,' proclaimed
Peter, and went on to declare what miracles of divine grace should be
accomplished through His Name. Yes, God wants His people, all of us, to know Him
as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all three. He longs to see us
motivated by a Father's initiatives, wealthy with the Son's riches, and really
transformed by the patient nurture of the Spirit. For through us He has a work
to complete, a great purpose for mankind to bring to fulfillment. End
Table of
Contents Top
of Page
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Now
to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in
the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our
Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and
authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude
1:24-25
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