Chapter 31:
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| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
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Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Revelation Exodus
Genesis 31
The following commentary covers Chapters 29 through 35.
Jacob's
two wives — the Gentiles and Israel
I have no doubt that in
the two wives, as I have said, we have the Gentiles and
Israel: Rachel first loved on the earth, but not
possessed; but Leah the fruitful mother of children.
Rachel had children also afterwards on the earth. Rachel,
as representing the Jews, is the mother of Joseph, and
later of Benjamin, that is, of a suffering Christ
glorified among the Gentiles, while rejected of Israel;
and of a reigning Christ, the son of his mother's sorrow,
but of his father's right hand.
The deceiver
deceived, but preserved according to God's promise
Jacob's personal history
is the sad tale of deceit and wrong done to him; but God,
as He had promised, preserving him throughout. What a
difference from Eliezer and Abraham, where the power and
character of the Holy Ghost is seen! Here providence
preserves, but it is Jacob's history. He is bitterly
deceived as he had deceived, but preserved according to
promise. At the return of Jacob the hosts of God came to
meet him. He receives a new and wondrous proof of God's
mighty and gracious care, which should have recalled
Bethel to him. But this does not remove his terror. He
must anew use the means of unbelief, and sends children
and wives and all on before, and presents after presents
to appease Esau; but his strength was not there. God
would not leave him in the hands of Esau, but He deals
with him Himself. He wrestles with him, sustaining at the
same time his faith in the wrestling; and, after making
him feel his weakness, and that for all his life, gives
him, in weakness, the place and part of victor. He is a
prince with God, and prevails with God and with
men—victory in conflict with a God who is dealing
with him, but no revelation of, or communion with Him.
The dealings of
God with a soul who does not walk with Him
This is a wonderful scene:
the dealings of God with a soul that does not walk with
Him. It is not, however, the calm communion of Abraham
with Jehovah: Abraham intercedes for others, instead of
wrestling for himself. So also, though God gives Jacob a
name and so far recognises his relationship with Himself,
He does not reveal to Jacob His name, as He had done to
Abraham. Jacob, too, still employs his deceitful ways;
for he had no thought of going to Seir, as he said. But
he is delivered from Esau, as from Laban, and at last
establishes himself at Shechem, buying lands where he
ought to have remained a stranger. God removes him out of
it, but by strange and humbling circumstances; still
God's fear on the nations preserves him. He is not yet
back to the point where God had given him the promises
and assured the blessing; that was at Bethel. Here,
however, he was able to build an altar, using, at the
same time, the name which exalted his own position, and
which took the ground of the blessing which had been
granted to him; an act of faith, it is true, but which
confined itself to the blessing, instead of rising up to
the Blesser. This, indeed, he was not properly able to do
yet. God was dealing with him, and he was, in a measure,
thinking on God; but proper communion was not there: so
is it in like case with us.
However, God led him
onward, and now tells him to go up to the place whence he
had set out, and there build an altar, where he had
entered into covenant with God, the faithful God, who had
been with him all the way in which he went. But what a
discovery is made here! He must now meet God Himself, and
not simply be dealt with for his good—God's name
still unknown, no full revelation of Him. And this is a
great difference. Now he must meet Him.
He remembers—he knew
it well, although he paid no attention to it until he had
to meet God—there were false gods in his family.
Meeting God Himself—not in secret and mysterious
struggle, but face to face, so to speak—brings all
to light. He purifies himself, and the false gods are
removed, and he goes up to Bethel. There God reveals
Himself openly to him, in grace making known His name,
unasked, to him as to Abraham, and confers upon him anew
the name of Israel, as if he had not received it before.
Rachel gives birth to him who, child of his mother's
sorrow, is the son of his father's right hand (remarkable
type of Christ the Lord); for this is, figuratively, the
establishment of the promise in power in his person,
though the former standing of Israel, represented by
Rachel, must disappear; but her remembrance is kept up in
the land.
Chapter 31:
| Calvin
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Revelation Exodus
This version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1995 by L. Hodgett. Used by permission. The files of the Synopsis found on this site may not be reproduced without permission from L. J. L. Hodgett, Stem Publishing. A special thanks to L. J. L. Hodgett and Stem Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament.
Genesis
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