Oh Jacob, Oh Israel

OH JACOB, OH ISRAEL tremendous turnaround...all of grace copyright Doug Blair, Waterloo, ON, 2016

Castle Keep

The truth you have kept As the stronghold’s one treasure The Ages would change it

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They scarce know its measure And mortals would flinch As Circumstance calls But you Lord are constant Your rule never falls The clean and the good Are extolled in your Book And widow and orphan Alone to you look Compassion unequaled Whatever the cost A rock for the drowning A home for the lost And this brings great comfort For men are mere dust And princes just passing While you keep our trust The heart of your Castle Intact for all time A truth ever righteous I thrill to call mine.

Psalm 146: 5 Happy is h ​ e that hath the God of Jacob for his help​, whose hope is in the Lord his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: ​which keepeth truth for ever:

The Context

Jacob's name translated “cheat” or “supplanter”. Imagine parents making such a call for a child! And cheat he did. Tricked a gluttonous elder brother out of his birthright for a single savoury meal. Tricked an

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elderly father into granting him the blessing rightly due to Esau by disguising himself. Tricked father-in-law Laban into a scheme whereby careful breeding of types of sheep in the flock led to a large share of livestock for Jacob.

But then in a time of difficulty there came an encounter with God's angel.

A wrestling match of signal proportion. “I will not let you go unless you bless me and tell me who you are.” Eventually the angel wounded his leg and it was over. The man was told that he had found favour with God through his importunity, and would thereafter be named Israel (a prince who has found favour with God).

And this is the way with God. He knows all about us; brings us to wit's end corner; brings us to repentance; leaves us with confirming evidence of a radical change in standing and a “limp in the leg”.

Thou Worm, Jacob

“Fear not, thou worm Jacob…I will make thee a threshing instrument with teeth” . Isa. 41:14- 15

Could any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath the passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken; it can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one into the other.

He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit, He can endow with strength by which a noble mark is left upon the history of the time. And so the

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“worm” may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. He can bend them all to our good. In God’s strength we can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace.

When God gives us wills like iron, we can drive through difficulties as the iron share cuts through the toughest soil. “I will make thee,” and shall He not do it?

—Dr. J. H. Jowett

That Ladder (Helpful entry in Come Ye Apart by ​J. R. Miller​) “I am the way & no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 A way always leads somewhere: Jesus is the way from earth to heaven, and also from heaven to earth. Through Him we get to God, and through Him God comes to us. He is the true and only ladder whose foot rests on the earth, and whose top reaches up to the very glory of God. In His humanity Jesus comes down to the lowest depths of human need and sorrow. Had He been God only, and not man, He could not have done this. The incarnation was the letting of the ladder down until it rested in the deepest valleys. There is now no spot of shame or guilt in this world from which there is not a ladder of light, with its celestial steps leading upward to God and heaven.. For, while Christ’s humanity brings the ladder down to earth’s places of sorest need, His divinity carries the ladder up past the shining stars into the very midst of the glory of God.

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On one page of the New Testament we find Jesus on a cross, dying in darkness and shame, between criminals. We open another page, and we see that same Jesus in the midst of the heavenly brightness, wearing still the wound marks, but crowned in glory. Behold the ladder from earth to heaven! A ladder is a way for feet to climb: Christ is the way, therefore, by which sinners can go up out of their sins to the purity and blessedness of heaven.

One thing to mark specially is that there is but one way. Christ is the only Mediator. We can enter the Father’s family only through Him. Grace can come to us only through Him. There is, then, no choice of ways: if we do not go by this one way we can never reach home. Nor must we forget that a way is meant to be walked in. We must put our feet on this ladder and go up rung by rung until we reach the topmost step, which will be heaven.

Isaiah Forty-Three Don’t you get it?

I am rescue And a shield from fire And torrents And persistent Calling hither.

You are mine.

You have faltered In the strange gods Wayward children Prone to mimic.

Just as Jacob Tried to flee my Grip Divine.

Cease the struggle I am ravished

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By the beauty Still kept hidden.

Out of bondage To be gathered In due time.

He Remembers It All and Loves

Isaiah 43: 1But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. 2When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 3For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

My wife Hilary got this scripture with particular force recently. It has always comforted us to see how God remembers the man as "cheat" and as "prevailing prince", for these are the meanings of the two names Jacob and Israel.

Could it be that the Lord foresaw the patriarch in both of these dispositions. First as the scheming manipulator who robbed his brother Esau of rights of primogeniture, and robbed his future father-in-law Laban of flocks. Next He saw the vulnerable man wrestling with the angel 'til break of day and refusing to let go until the angel had given his name and visit's purpose and personal blessing.

God now speaks of both men, the same man, in endearing terms of love and support. Past shortcomings are not mentioned. It is the future...the

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future, which matters. The true Israel of God. A new man inherits this future. He takes with him thankfully a remembrance in his limping leg, the leg wounded by the angel in the night of his change.

In a fallen world the Lord cannot guarantee an easy ride. There will be, however, a "coming through".

Galatians 6: 15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 16And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.​

As the Firstborn

A wonderful foreshadowing of Gospel delight appears in Genesis 48.

Joseph has brought his two sons by an Egyptian wife to his father Jacob for the traditional blessing. These boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, are half-breeds, not fully of the lineage of Abraham, God's friend. Their grandfather says the following: 5 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.

He has chosen to give them the same standing and favour as his first born. They have simply submitted themselves to his gracious blessing.

We are told in Romans 8 that we have been adopted and given the position of joint heirs with God's "firstborn", Jesus. He looks upon us with the same eyes of satisfaction and love which He casts upon His victorious obedient Son. This realization should free us from

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condemnation and any sense of feebleness. We understand more clearly now Paul's triumphant declaration in ​1 Corinthians 1: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

One more thing to be added about Genesis 48​.​The grandfather places his hands upon the heads of the two boys while making the pronouncement, the right hand upon the younger and the left upon the older. Joseph attempts to correct this, according to a law of primogeniture, but Jacob remains firm in his decision. The child of mercy and not of law shall have the greater blessing. It is in the grandfather's sovereign discretion. He has crossed over his two arms in making the blessing as he has, foreshadowing the work of the Cross at Calvary.

Jacob I bless you sons And gather feet up Around me in my bed.

So little time until The final lowering Of my head.

And how I see That naught a promise

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Of my God’s good will Has failed me In this mortal mill.

The wheat is ready.

The garner waits.

And I scarce notice All the lies and hates That marred my trek.

The leg still hurts.

An angel’s work That left my schemes A wreck.

Wrestled, I did With the Heavenlies Til break of day.

Lost, but came out A Prince From meanest clay.

Unite My Heart You must do it You must draw me To that place of perfect peace Where your truth Becomes my balance And your smile my heart’s release.

I am tired of double motives And the soul pushed to and fro’ I would rather listen to you For directions where to go.

And the past proved you are worthy

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To receive my utmost trust.

What a marvel!

Heaven stoops down, Daily shepherds wayward dust.

Other fears now Duly quieted By the one fear of your law And the comfort of your keeping Fills this settled heart with awe.

All Included

Would you like To end the blaming And the sense of Ne’er do well Would you like To flee the darkness And the looming Threat of hell Would you like To catch the Son-rise Whether sky is Gray or bright Would you like To thrill in Day’s tasks Then a settled Sleep at night?

All included Through the Saviour

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Who has suffered In our stead And endured The crash of Judgment In the way That Father led.

We are called To serve Christ’s mission We are called To Love extreme All the impulse Straight from Heaven To assist In Father’s dream.

(Romans 8: 1-6)

Of Whom Shall I Be Afraid?

Psalm 27:​ 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

I can still hear the powerful tenor voice of Larnelle Harris pounding out this lyric, and repeating "the Lord is the strength of my life". Dear believer, have you the witness of his all-capable fathering of you? Do you see it in the scriptures? Do you sense it in the hidden man of the heart?

Does He come with calm in the midst of a storm? Does He leave you laughing at your strategies when you neglected Him? Does He bring to your recollection the many rescues and guiding impressions. Does a strange word of comfort or assurance startle you in the night?

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Toward the end of the Psalm the writer states, "13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living". I will repeat it... "in the land of the living".

Goodness of the Lord?

Did he not shepherd the massive Exodus from Egypt with Moses? Did He not engulf the armies of Pharaoh in the sea? Did He not enter into David's stone launched at Goliath? Did He not cool the flames of the furnace meant to kill the three Hebrew youths? Did He not sculpt that twisting cordillera that you flew over on your holiday? Did He not whip up the angry storm on the open bay and then, just as easily, bring it to a calm? Does He not delight the oriental farmer with the patter of rain for his only crop? Does He not know the time of calving of that Holstein in the Oxford County field? Does He not observe the hungry young ravens which cry from the cedars? Does He not soothe the jagged nerves of staff in the Emergency Ward? Does He not paint the soothing glory of the evening sky? And this Father and His goodness are yours, and yours for good. Of whom then, shall you be afraid?

Jail Doors Spring Open

2 Corinthians 3: 7But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the

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face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? ​9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the

ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

10For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

What a wonderful shift in gears occurs between the 2nd and 3rd chapters. Paul has been referring to his earlier rebuke of a sinful man at Corinth. That man has repented. It is time now to reconcile him to the church and its healing balm. Law and rules had lanced the wound, but they would not provide permanent cure.

Paul calls the laws of Moses (in fact any rules of good behaviour) a ministration of condemnation​. A fault-finding tribunal. There are so many requirements. Impossible to do them all.

But then he offers by way of rescue the ​ministration of righteousness​. By faith and by application of the Spirit one can step up

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to a place of right-standing before God. And it is all thanks to the perfect obedience of another - Jesus. We simply give credit to that finished work, and claim it as our own.

We have here described for us a victorious step from death unto life, from heavy custody unto liberty. Thereafter love and thanksgiving fuel zealous fires of holy living and service.

Thank you for taking interest in these few Gospel thoughts.

You might wish to take a look at one of our blogs: http://issuudotcomslashdewane.wordpress.com/

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http://momentsmidstream.blogspot.com/ blaredub@gmail.com

Prayer Heavenly Father As members of your family of faith, we have had our moments of brokenness, repentance and overwhelming self-doubt. In some of those moments you have lovingly revealed yourself as the answer for life’s big questions and indescribable peace and fellowship. You have called us and wooed us.

We think of Peter on the shore of Galilee after the resurrection. He sees Jesus and rushes for a private moment. He remembers the disgrace of his denials of the Lord. But Jesus makes no mention of them and only asks ‘Do you love me​ now?​ ’ There is no condemnation. Three times He asks, as if to undo the shame of the three denials. Peter’s heart is enlarged as he answers Yes again and again and again.

Thank you for your love and forgiveness Father. Jesus’ finished work has won my heart. You have my attention and you have my next breath.

Amen.

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