Three Steps Toward God                                                    1/16/49

 

Scripture:  Read Genesis 32: 22-30; and Genesis 33: 1-4.

 

Among a group of people who stood in a Gothic chapel was a student who had grown questioning and very critical.  As he stood there, he drew a question mark in a vacant niche of the chapel.  A companion asked him what that meant.  And he replied, “That is for God.”  An older, and more experienced man, a teacher, remarked concerning him, “That young man, engaged in putting symbols of doubt in places reserved for symbols of faith, is himself an all too apt symbol of the spiritual climate of these days.”

 

There are many ideas about God these days, some of them strong and forceful.  Theological opinions can be stated with no little assurance and eloquence.  In many circles one of the quickest and surest ways to stimulate discussion is to raise a religious question.  In most of the same circles, however, the discussion would yield to embarrassed silence if someone should suggest that the group engage in prayer.

 

The Bible speaks to our need at this point, as it does at so many points of our need.  The book of Genesis is at once strongly poetic and earthy.  Both characteristics of the writing carve out the truth like the image on a cameo.  Its teachings about God are dynamic, so that the great theologies of history are built upon its vivid literature.  However it seems that the entire Bible is less concerned with well-defined ideas than with right relationships.

 

One of the vivid stories of right relationships is that of Jacob, found in several chapters of the book of Genesis.  Jacob is one of the most earthy figures in literature.  He is a man of crafty plans and strong action, shrewd, clever, at times relatively unscrupulous, at some times quite admirable.  A thoughtful reading of his career will light up at least three turning points of his life which throw light on the progress of a man toward God.  His story, from the 27th chapter of Genesis on, would make interesting review-reading for you after you go home from church today.

 

We shall consider briefly today three of the landmarks of his career.  (1)  The first is in a lonely spot in the wilderness where Jacob - “took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar --- and he called the name of that place Beth-el.” What did that landmark signify?

 

The story begins with Jacob’s crafty plot to defraud his brother, Esau.  Favorite son of a mother who was schemingly concerned over his welfare, he plotted with her to defraud Esau of the birthright reserved for the eldest son of the Hebrew home of that day.  Jacob had served up an appetizing hunter’s stew to Esau, returned from the fields and so famished that food looked better than birthright - until Esau was again filled.  Jacob followed through after Esau’s lightly-spoken agreement.  With a clever bit of make-up as to hairy arms and general appearance, he received his blinded father’s irrevocable blessing in Esau’s stead.  When Esau went, later, to receive Isaac’s blessing and inheritance, and found it had already been given to Jacob, he was in a rage.

 

Terrified by Esau’s explosive wrath, Jacob fled for his life, intending to live with his uncle Laban, brother of Jacob’s mother.  On his first night alone in the wilderness, as he traveled, Jacob lay down with a stone for his pillow and slept fitfully dreaming.  To flee from the consequences of his guilt, from his conscience, from the God of right -- was proving more difficult than he had expected.  If Esau was not chasing him, he at least had a pursuer with whose persistent presence he had failed to reckon.

 

He dreamed of a ladder reaching clear up into the heavens, with angels ascending and descending.  Was it fear that thus reminded him of a God?  Or was it the voice of the good he had denied and still refused to face?  Or could it have been God?  Well, there was no doubt in the mind of Jacob.  So deeply moved was he by the certainty of God’s presence that he got up in the morning and erected his first landmark, a kind of altar to the God who was never left behind.

 

Even in God’s presence, however, Jacob continued shrewd and calculating.  He continued his bargaining, trying to get the best agreement he might, even from God.  “And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.’”

 

And Jacob, so far as he was concerned, did keep his bargain with integrity, faithfully setting aside the tenth that he had promised for the service of God.  This strengthened his assurance of an invincible ally.  It reinforced his shrewdness as a bargainer.  It led to prosperity for him.  But it did not make him a very lovely character to live with.  It left him the kind of fellow his associates must watch closely in each deal, lest his sharpness defraud them of what they had.  Any trustful Esau was still likely to get beaten out of his own.  Jacob purposed to be still in command, the center of his own life, manipulating his dealings even with God, as he had with his brother.

 

Religion is constantly open to that perversion.  I have had people solemnly assure me that it really works to tithe -- that the longer you pursue that practice, the more prosperous you become.  And they can often offer considerable evidence to support their contention.  A purposeful, disciplined, planned life has the essentials of financial success.  And I am for that discipline.  But proportionate giving motivated by the desire to get more for one’s self may also make a very unlovely character.  For such a life has made no high surrender to God.  Self still holds the reins and drives where it will, using the great practices of religion in attempting to manipulate God for its own ends.

 

Even prayer can be used on these low levels.  “O Lord save me from disgrace and I’ll go to church every Sunday for a year,” or “Spare, O God, the life of my loved one and I’ll do anything you want me to do within reason.”  Do you remember in the story of “Life With Father,” how Mr. Day promised to be baptized when he thought his wife was dying?  And with what characteristic convenience he tried to forget the promise when she was well again?

 

A man discovers that prayer is one of life’s most powerful energies.  And perhaps it opens doors even on the low level of selfish purpose when men persistently knock.  But that is not much like the prayer of our Lord.  His rule appears in the lines: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Even when Jesus asked for something in desperation, it was still the same in spirit.  In Gethsemane he prayed: “All things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.”  Jacob’s self stands in the center.  Jesus puts God in the center.

 

Well, Jacob prospered after he got to his Uncle Laban’s country.  There came a time, after many years there, that he decided to return home.  It was “about time;” for Laban and his sons were getting tired of Jacob’s handling of the family business.  He started out, and Laban caught up with him.  Through careful and shrewd assurances, Jacob made peace with Laban and the record says: “They took stones and made a heap --- and Laban said, ‘This is a witness between me and thee this day’ -- for he said, ‘The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.’”

 

These words are often used as a benediction invoked by friends on each other in parting.  They are lovely words of fellowship within a friendly group.  But they were hardly words of tender friendship when first used, but rather an expression of some suspicion and mutual distrust.  Each of those fellows had reason to distrust the other.  Jacob had served Laban seven years for his daughter Rachel.  And then Laban foisted off the elder daughter, Leah, on him.  So Jacob had to serve seven years more in order to get Rachel.  But he more than “got even” with the old man.  For Jacob got Laban to agree that he would pay Jacob, as wages for managing the family flocks, the sheep and goats that were spotted, while Laban would, of course, keep all the unspotted ones.  Jacob, by skillful breeding of the stock, saw to it that there were an abundant lot of spotted ones!  No wonder his sharpness led him to the place where he had to move again to escape the increasing resentment of Laban and Laban’s sons.

 

But Jacob was coming to find that God is an inescapable watchman who has set conscience to be our reminder in all our ways.  It is a second great step toward God when we find as did Jacob, that there is an inward monitor that will not approve a shameful act, even when men do not see.

 

A third place is marked in Jacob’s spiritual journey.  One the way back toward his home folks, including his outraged brother Esau, Jacob was not without apprehension.  He had with him his numerous family and servants, his flocks and all other possessions.  Travel was strenuous, but slow enough to give him much time for thought.  One night he stayed a little behind the family in order to be alone.  And it seemed that he wrestled all night with an unidentified adversary.  He refusing to surrender, his opponent struck him a blow from which he limped ever after.  “What is your name?” asked the adversary, and Jacob told him.  But when he asked the adversary for a name, no answer was given.  This is significant in the light of ancient eastern custom whereby it was thought that a man’s name conveyed his whole personality.  Jacob’s yielding his name was the orient’s symbol of surrender. 

 

Out of this deep spiritual experience Jacob came saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”  He “called the name of the place Peniel.”  His self-assurance gave way to the will to walk in understanding fellowship with his fellow men.  He met his brother, Esau, and worked out a reconciliation of their life-long feud.  He was thenceforth a new man, no longer seeking to manipulate God to his own designs, but giving his own life, instead, to the command of God.

 

These three long steps taken by Jacob are needful for us and our society today.  (1)  Beth-el, where he learned that God must be reckoned with and where he determined to deal with the infinite;  (2)  Mizpah, where he recognized that God is an inescapable inward monitor; and (3) Peniel, where he surrendered his own self-sufficiency to the directing will of God.  It is when you and I finally arrive at this third step that we can learn with all sincerity to pray, “Thy will be done” and to say with Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”  [Philippians 4: 13].

 

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, January 16, 1949.