We are sure to bring unmixed sorrow upon ourselves when we take ourselves, our circumstances, or our destinies out of the hands of God. Thus it was with Jacob, as we may see in the sequel of his life. (Gen. 27:35.) Whoever observes Jacob's life after he had surreptitiously obtained his father's blessing will perceive that he enjoyed very little worldly felicity. His brother purposed to murder him, to avoid which he was forced to flee from his father's house. His uncle, Laban, deceived him, as he had deceived his father, and treated him with great rigor. After a servitude of twenty-one years, he was obliged to leave him in a clandestine manner, and not without danger of being brought back, or murdered by his enraged brother. No sooner were these fears over than he experienced the baseness of his son Reuben in defiling his bed. He had next to bewail the treachery and cruelty of Simeon and Levi toward the Shechemites; then he had to feel the loss of his beloved wife; he was next imposed upon by his own sons, and had to lament the supposed untimely end of Joseph; and to complete all, he was forced by famine to go into Egypt, and there died in a strange land. So just, wonderful, and instructive are all the ways of God.
As to Rebekah, she was called to feel all the sad results of her cunning actings. She, no doubt, imagined she was managing matters most skillfully; but, alas! she never saw Jacob again. So much for management! How different it would have been had she left the matter entirely in the hands of God! This is the way in which faith manages, and it is ever a gainer. "Which of you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?"We gain nothing by our anxiety and planning; we only shut out God, and that is no gain. It is a just judgment from the hand of God to be left to reap the fruits of our own devices; and I know of few things more sad than to see a child of God so entirely forgetting his proper place and privilege as to take the management of his affairs into his own hands.
The birds of the air and the lilies of the field may well be our teachers when we so far forget our position of unqualified dependence upon God.
" Commit thy ways unto the Lord ; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."