It has often been said that "the wheels of God's government grind slowly but surely." This comes out in a remarkable way in two incidents in the life of Jacob. While in the land of Padan-Aram the word of the Lord came to Jacob, "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow to me. Arise, depart out of this land and return to the land of thy kindred" (Gen. 31:13). To this Jacob willingly responded, but every fresh circumstance in the path of a saint brings new exercises. Well for us if the heart thus tested turns to God alone, and we prove "What is that good, perfect and acceptable will of God."

Jacob's flight from Haran was attended by the mercies of God, who tenderly preserved him and was greater than his fears, giving him favor in the sight of Esau, the brother he had so deeply wronged. One would think such signal mercies would energize the soul, so that nothing short of God's call to return to Bethel would suffice! But in Genesis 33:17-20 Jacob-"halted at Succoth, not as a pilgrim merely-as were his fathers, of whom we read in Hebrews, "By faith- Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise." But Jacob, we read, "built him an house, and for his cattle he made booths." Here was manifest declension, a giving up of the pilgrim character, a conformity to the world. He adopted the ways of the uncircumcised and yielded to the desire for ease and more convenient modes of living. Expediency took the place of absolute obedience to God's command, and Jacob and his family found a place among the Shechemites.

All this might have appeared trivial, and in the eyes of some Jacob's astuteness might be commendable, but the servant's business is to obey, and let us ever remember that happiness lies in obedience. One downward step from our God-given position may lead to disastrous consequences and bring untold sorrow.

Jacob's buying the land of the Hivite and building a house, led to a ten-year sojourn among the uncircumcised, and it is evident that while Jacob did "set up there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel" (God, the God of Israel) , thus recognizing God in the land, yet it was short of "Bethel," and did not rise to the height of God's revelation to the patriarchs. It was not purpose or promise that ruled him, but experience and expediency.

During this sojourn, Jacob's family were growing up. Little wonder that his one daughter, Dinah, attracted by the ways of the Shechemites, broke the bonds of propriety, and "went out to see the daughters of the land." The disastrous consequences as recorded in Genesis 34 brought life-long sorrow to Jacob; caused deepest shame and humiliation to his family, and (as he said to Simeon and Levi) made him "stink among the inhabitants of the land." Such was the painful reaping of what Jacob had sown.

And all this sorrow and trouble was necessary to arouse Jacob from his lethargy, and shake off the shackles with which he had bound himself and his family, that he might betake himself to Bethel. The memory of this dark and hateful day remained with Jacob until his dying bed, when he said:"Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel" (Gen. 49:5-7).

The second incident, from which we may also learn a lesson, carries us back to the time when Jacob and his wives and children fled from the face of Laban; but here Jacob was not the aggressor. Rachael had stolen her fathers' teraphim and hidden them under her camel's saddle (Gen. 31:32-35). Jacob evidently had no suspicion that his beloved Rachael was guilty of this shameful act, shameful not merely because she was a thief, but she had not hesitated to gratify her evil desire for "other gods" and thus shame Jacob's house. Perhaps Jacob was largely to blame in the matter. Possibly he had not raised the standard very high, while sojourning with Laban. Evidently his house was not so ordered before God as to make idolatry hateful to her in every way, so that she did not hesitate to deceive her father and play false to the God of Israel.

For the moment, God overruled in mercy, but it is a sad spectacle to see this chosen family carrying away idol-images stolen by the. wife, unknown to the husband.

This sorrowful experience of Jacob's remained with the patriarch, so that when the word, came to "go up to Bethel, and dwell there," the strange gods are still m the family possession. "And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there; make an altar to God that appeared to thee, when thou fleddest from the face of thy brother Esau." And Jacob said to his household, "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments; and we will arise and go to Bethel, and I will make there an altar to God that answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way I went" (Gen. 35:1-8).

At last Jacob is aroused to the seriousness of his lapse in Shechem! Ten valuable years had he wasted, years which ended in humiliation and sorrow. Instinctively Jacob feels he has to do with a God whose faithful love can brook no rival. If God's presence and blessing is to be known, every idol must go and His servant must be before Him in true self-judgment. The God of Bethel now made Himself known to Jacob in a new way. He is the "God of God's house," for we read, "Jacob built there an altar and called the name El-Bethel." This was a better, fuller, richer, title than El-Elohe-Israel, which limits God to Himself. Thus God in over-ruling mercy and in faithful love brings blessing out of failure. But His government remains. "And they journey to Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed.. . and the midwife said unto her, Fear not; for this also is a son for thee. And it came to pass as her soul was departing, she called his name Benoni (son of my sorrow), but his father called him Benjamin" (son of my right hand).

The name "Benoni" suggests at once God's moral government. Rachael had grievously sinned against God and her husband, and we have no evidence of any self-judgment on her part. She is now removed, a sad chastening for Jacob, as we see in Genesis 48:7, where on his dying bed the patriarch laments:"Rachael died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath."

The name she gave her son seems to express her sorrow, but Jacob has at last learned his lesson, and whatever may have been his sorrow at the loss of his beloved, he looks forward in hope-Benjamin is the son of his right hand.
Thus God brings blessing out of chastening, and leads our hearts from earth to heaven. It is surely significant that in Gen. 48:7, in speaking of Rachael's death, Jacob says of Ephrath, "the same also is Bethlehem." It would certainly appear that Jacob looked for the fulfilment of God's promise made at Luz (afterward called Bethel), through his beloved Rachael, but when there was but a little way to come to Ephrath (fruitful) his hopes were shattered by the death of his beloved. "The same also is Bethlehem" at once suggests the coming of the One in whom "all the promises of God are Yea and Amen." In Micah 5:2 we read, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." J. W. H. Nichols