This conduct in Rebekah is not to be defended. No excuse can be made for it; and it ought to meet with our decided abhorrence. By her artifices she practised a gross imposition upon her husband, Isaac; she threw a stumbling-block in the way of the ungodly Esau; for she furnished him with a plausible pretext for his enmity, not only to his brother, but also to religion, by persuading Jacob to act so treacherous and base a part. And, above all, she injured Jacob himself, using her authority and influence over him in tempting him to sin.

But we shall do well to note especially the root of all this wickedness. It was an evil heart of unbelief, and base distrust of God. The Almighty had plainly declared that Jacob should be preferred before Esau. But Rebekah had not confidence enough in Him who had decreed the event, to leave Him to use his own time and pleasure in bringing it to pass. Therefore, she basely dishonoured the power and faithfulness of God, by acting as though she supposed He needed her artifices for the effecting of his purposes. Knowing that the blessing, or at least the main thing contained in it, was designed for Jacob, she might, if she had pleased, have calmly expostulated with Isaac, who seems not to have understood God's meaning so well as herself; but if she could not have prevailed with him by honest methods to bless Jacob instead of Esau, she should have committed the matter to God by faith, who would doubtless have made his own promise good; and thus much sin and many evil consequences would have been avoided. However, she preferred her own devices.

So Jacob, following his mother's instructions, came unto his father, and said, "My father: and he said, Who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so

quickly, my son? and he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me."

Observe here what apt scholars we are in wickedness. Parents find it no easy thing to teach their children righteousness, but they are quick enough in learning impiety and deceit. Observe too, how one sin begets another, and, when evil has but for a season got the ascendancy in the heart, how readily and how abundantly it produces evil things. Here are four direct falsehoods almost in a breath; and the last, "because the Lord thy God brought it to me," is also as blasphemous a piece of hypocrisy as can well be imagined. God had no hand in these base contrivances. The father of lies was more likely to have been the instigator of them. But the form of godliness now suited Jacob's purpose, though he had so iniquitously been denying the power thereof.

However, sinful as the means were which Jacob and his mother used, they succeeded. For though, when the cheat was discovered, Isaac blessed Esau, saying, "Thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above," yet he added, "Thou shalt serve thy brother."

Isaac was now completely aware of Jacob's treacherous dealing, and, doubtless, being a very pious man, he could by no means approve of it. But he must also have discovered his own error. He had indeed been imposed upon, and so led to bless Jacob. But yet Esau, in losing the blessing, lost only that which he had no right to obtain. He had long since (as you read in the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis) shown his contempt for the privileges attached to it, by selling his birthright to Jacob for a meal's meat; for which act, he is said to have "despised his birthright,” and he is called in the New Testament the "profane" Esau.

God, the original Proprietor of all the blessing could convey, had declared that He awarded his free gifts to

6 Heb. xii. 16.

Jacob. "Therefore (says Isaac) he shall be blessed." As though he would say, What I did being deceived, I will now do with my eyes open. For now I see that I never ought to have thought of giving Esau the blessing. And basely as Jacob has conducted himself, I must not attempt to deprive him of that, with which God hath chosen to endow him. With him therefore shall remain the special benediction to which the privileges of the family are annexed. He shall inherit Canaan, and in his seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

We see here that God sometimes effects his righteous purposes by means of our unrighteous dealing; yea, and suffers his merciful purposes to take place in spite of his children's sins. Yet He does not hereby blemish his own actions, or in the least justify our wrong proceedings. If Jacob received the blessing notwithstanding his fraud and falsehood, we must adore God's unchangeableness and forbearance; but the event must not make us think at all more favourably of Jacob's conduct. By letting him obtain the blessing, God glorified his own truth; but He did not intend to show any approbation of Jacob's treachery, as if the end aimed at could excuse the base means employed.

But the sequel of the history will best evince this. We shall find, that though Jacob obtained the blessing, that so, (as the Apostle speaks,) "the purpose of God according to election might stand"," still his fraudulent manner of obtaining it, proved the occasion to him of very heavy afflictions during a great part of his subsequent life.

His brother Esau, as might naturally be expected from a man of his ungodly and impetuous disposition, was exceedingly enraged, and vowed vengeance against him. He hated Jacob, and said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob." So Jacob was obliged to fly from his father's house, and to sojourn as a banished

7 Rom. ix. 11.

man in the land of Haran. There, instead of a kind father, he met with a base and treacherous uncle, who treated him as a servant, cheated and oppressed him in the most mortifying manner; and, as if Providence would so order it, that evil should come home to him in his own kind, he who deceived his father by substituting himself for his elder brother, was himself deceived by his father-in-law, who having covenanted, after he had earned her by a hard servitude, to give him to wife the woman he preferred, substituted another for her. All this bondage, this life of banishment, this sharp experience of treachery, and oppression, and many mortifying distresses, which are related in the following chapters, Jacob would have avoided, had he looked to God to make good his own promise, instead of seeking the fulfilment of it by guile and treachery.

God would not falsify his word, therefore he had the blessing. But he had it not in peace and comfort, but with grief and chastisement, because he would lean on his own understanding, and dishonour God by his own sinful contrivances.

I thought it good at this time so far to explain to you this extraordinary narrative, because, when rightly understood, it contains much instruction; but it is easy to misunderstand it, and it has been often misconstrued and misapplied. Some writers, I know, have expounded the whole as if it were a sort of allegorical mystery, typifying the plan and method of man's redemption. Such modes of interpretation are sometimes admissible, but when we have no authority for them from other parts of Scripture, (as we have not in the case before us,) they must be admitted with extreme caution. The account we have been now considering, is a history of plain facts, setting forth the inconsistent and sinful conduct of two habitually pious persons, and showing the iniquity which is in the human heart. Considering the narrative in this first and obvious point of view, we have in it a striking instance of that admirable impartiality which so eminently distinguishes the history of the Bible from all other

histories in the world. Here are no false glosses put upon men's actions. Things are called always by their true names, and the sins of the eminent saints of God are as plainly told as their faith and virtues. Jacob, that great patriarch from whom the whole Church of God derived its name and pedigree, having acted in this particular instance like a child of darkness, his deed is simply narrated without comment or palliation. The lovers of darkness may make it a stumbling-block if they are so minded, and excuse their own frauds by drawing it into a precedent. But such as seek to know God's will in sincerity, and pray to understand his word, will learn a better lesson from an honest consideration of the whole transaction.

II. First then, my brethren, follow no man in all things; but be ye followers of good and godly men, only so far as they are followers of Christ. Jacob could practise frauds and treacheries. Noah could be drunken. Job was not perfect in patience and humility. Pious David could give foul occasion to God's enemies to blaspheme; and zealous Peter could deny his Master. Look you therefore to Jesus Christ, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously "." Whosoever injured Him, He forgave the injury. What cup soever his Father put into his hands, He drank it. Read and mark his actions; habituate yourselves to meditate upon them; pray for conformity to his image; never rest satisfied with the smallest sin, because you can find a precedent for it in a good man's life. But look to the perfect Man, and lament your distance from "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

Did pious Jacob cheat his father, and did wise. Rebekah school him to this iniquity? Be not ye high-minded, but fear. Take heed lest ye fall. Watch and pray, the very best of you, that ye enter not into

8 1 Pet. ii. 22, 23.