General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

SERMON

L. C. SHEAFE

Thursday, April II, 7, P.M.

(Concluded.)

heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 237.9

The savory dish was partaken of the father’s parting blessing was bestowed, Jacob had kissed his father in thanks, and moved-out of the apartment. The curtain had hardly fallen behind Jacob as he went out, when Esau came in, hope and joy beaming in his countenance, with the savory dish all prepared. Notice the record: “And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father. Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 237.10

It sounded strange to Isaac; and he spoke in words like these: “Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy first-born, Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 237.11

Yes; that old patriarch realized now that a deception had been practiced upon him, and he trembled exceedingly. He then told Esau that Jacob had been there, and had obtained his blessing. That strong man, Esau, who did not fear the beasts of the field, nor the fierce, marauding bands that roved over the plains and across the mountains, trembled here in the presence of his father. He trembled because his father’s blessing, for which he had hoped, had been bestowed upon another. He forgot, though, that he sold his birthright back yonder; and when the time came to receive it, he still wanted it. GCB April 15, 1901, page 237.12

A good many of us have sold out our birthright and privileges. Then when the emergency comes, we wonder why we can not have access to the throne, and why we can not get hold on God. David reminds us of this in the forty-ninth psalm, fifth verse: “The iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?” or, “the iniquity of my heels have taken hold upon me.” The sins of the past came up around him, and surrounded him on every hand. There is many a man who, when he is along in years, looks back upon his past sins, and the iniquities of his heels compass him about. He finds his way hedged in, and he can not see his way out. Esau met just that condition in his experience. Thus he pleaded with his father for the blessing. Esau said that Jacob had been rightly named, for he had supplanted him twice. Then he pleaded before his father, and said, O my father, have you not one more blessing? Have you not another blessing that you can bestow on me? His father said. I have made you your brother’s servant; and what more can I do for you? Here is the blessing that the father bestowed upon Esau in answer to his earnest plea: “And Isaac his father answered, and said unto him. Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the due of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother: and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 237.13

This was the blessing that Isaac bestowed upon Esau. The wronged brother began to think, and, with clenched fist and closely shut teeth, he said, when “the days of mourning for my father are at hand: then will I slay my brother Jacob.” The mother overheard the expression, and said to Jacob, You will have to leave; your brother is determined, when the days of mourning for your father are past, to slay you. The mother came to the front again, and formulated another plan. She went in before Isaac. She said she did not want Jacob to take a wife of the people of that country, and asked Isaac’s consent to send their son off to Laban, that he might take a wife from her people. So Isaac called in Jacob, and blessed him, and sent him away. GCB April 15, 1901, page 237.14

Esau meant to take the thing in his own hands, and so wreak vengeance on Jacob. Brethren, would it not be well to let God square the account? But Esau was determined to square these accounts himself; and so Jacob fled for his life. You remember as you read here in the Word the account with which you are all familiar, that on a certain night he heaped up stones for a pillow. These were a hard pillow for a tired man to rest upon. But Jacob was skirting the back country, keeping off the principal thoroughfares for fear his brother would overtake and slay him by the way. He had the blessing of his father, he had the promise of God; and he who has the blessing of the Lord need not hurry; he can afford to wait. Yes, he can “wait on the Lord.” And Jacob, hard as his lot was, piled up the stones here, and laid down there to rest upon that hard pillow. The word of the Lord says, too, that he slept; so he must have found rest. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.1

The lot of the majority of mankind is hard. Have we faith enough in God to rest in the hard lot? Get the rest, the soul-rest, that God alone can give. Jacob found it. There on the cold ground, with only stones for a pillow, he had a dream, and saw the heavens open, with a ladder reaching from the earth to heaven, upon which angels ascended and descended. At the head of that ladder the Lord himself stood; and Jacob heard the voice of the Lord his God at the head of the ladder: and here is what the Lord said: “And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed: and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad, to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.2

He also said. “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” A wonderful blessing, surely! This man resting upon the ground,—this man who was yet in his sins, yet in his rebellion, God loved for what he might become,—loved him even in that condition; and in his promises, reaching away down past that time, was intimated what God would make of that man. I am glad to-night to know that that is true, and that God sees that which he can produce in us when he is through with us. He saw that in Peter, you remember. But those who knew Peter best could see in him nothing but shifting sands. Jesus Christ saw through that shifting sand, and saw that which caused him to call Peter a rock. People wondered why. But Jesus saw what men could not see. So God saw that which he would finally make of Jacob. Jacob remembered the words of God, and in the morning he said: This is the house of God, and the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. Until then he had failed to recognize that truth. Circumstances into which we are thrown at times seem hard. To us they are too stern, and we look up into the face of God to ask why these must be so. We keep on asking why; but if we would only look up, and rest, and believe, we should see, as Jacob saw, the Lord standing at the head of the ladder, and the blessing of God descending, and we should be able to say, The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.3

The best lessons of life are learned in hard experiences, and this is the school through which all humanity must pass. Under these we get our best glimpses of God’s love, and see the matchlessness of his own power. In such times we see God is nearer to us, and are able to realize our own helplessness and nothingness, and the almightiness of our God. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.4

The Lord promised to be with Jacob whithersoever he went, and to bring him back in prosperity. The individual who has these promises of God is safe from harm until his work is done. None of the powers of earth, among men or demons, can ever thwart the tide of onward progress of the individual who has rightly related himself to God, and is anchored on the promises of Jehovah. He can wait on the tide and be of good courage. Oftentimes when God would bring a man up to this point, he starts him down that way. When he would bring Joseph to the throne, he started him toward the prison. God was with Joseph all the way, and in his own time, Joseph reached the throne. That man who puts his faith and confidence in God need not hurry; he can wait on the Lord and be of good courage, for victory is surely his. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.5

Before Jacob left that place, he made a bargain with the Lord. He was famous at driving a bargain. Now, said he, if you bring me back here in peace and prosperity, I will give you the tenth of all you give me. Then he called the place Bethel,—” the house of God.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.6

Have you ever found a Bethel? Have you ever found a hard place, where you saw God as you never saw him at any other time? Have there been dark experiences through which you have passed, and through which you have had a clear view of heaven? The Lord in his infinite power and matchless splendor is trying to clear the way for you, and so a bright view of the living God is put into every fiber of your being. Jacob started on his journey with new strength, new hope, and new aspirations. He went down to Padan-aram and connected himself with his uncle, Laban. He there agreed to labor with him for seven years for Rachel, and the seven years seemed as but one day because he loved her so much. But at the end of the seven years, Laban gave him Leah, and so he labored seven years more for Rachel, making fourteen years. Then he labored six years more with Laban, twenty years in all. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.7

But the Lord promised Jacob at Bethel that he would bring him back home again; and Jacob grew rich down there with Laban. He was a shrewd man, was Jacob,—you remember how he dealt with the cattle, and the pains he took to bring it around so that the strong were his, and the weak were Laban’s. He is the type of the average shrewd man of to-day. He was looking out for number one all the time; that was the one who was constantly before him. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.8

But the Lord said to Jacob. Now it is time to be going home. Jacob realized now that Laban was not as friendly to him as he used to be, and Laban’s sons were a little envious of Jacob, because his herds were so increased. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.9

So Jacob called his family together, and told them it was time for him to be going home,—that God had spoken to him, and he must go. They agreed to go with him. So he got together all his flocks, and herds, his family, and servants, and goods, and prepared to leave that country. Laban was off on a three-days’ journey shearing his sheep when word was brought to him that Jacob had fled. As Laban pursued his son-in-law, but before he overtook him, the angel of God said to Laban, “See that thou speak not to Jacob either good or ill.” Laban accused Jacob of stealing his gods. Search was made, but they were not found. Then Jacob arraigned Laban before his brethren and friends. Finally they came to an agreement, and raised up a heap of stones, which they named Mizpah. One was not to pass over that heap of stones to the other to do him harm, and so Laban left Jacob to go on his journey. GCB April 15, 1901, page 238.10

One trouble was passed, but Jacob saw another. He was rid of Laban, but Esau was before him. True twenty years had rolled away since he left his angry brother. But that sin was still remembered. Length of time does not remove sin from the record books of God. There was and is only one way to get rid of sin. Sometimes men think that because the sin was committed so long ago, it does not matter now. Most people have forgotten. Yes, that may be true; people may have forgotten it; but there are two who have not forgotten it. God and your own conscience tell you of it. Jacob knew this, and so feared Esau. He was therefore moved to make some preparation by which to appease the offended Esau. So he sent out presents, and instructed his servants to say, when they met Esau, that his servant Jacob had sent these to his lord Esau. Jacob remembered the deception which he had practiced, and remembered the feeling Esau had toward him. He remembered clearly and distinctly why he had gone away. The vision that he had at Bethel was clear and plain to him; the promise he had made to God there was clear. God had prospered him; he was on his way home. But could he meet Esau in peace, and how? All preparation was made that Jacob might appease the wrath of Esau, and then he sent his family, and servants all across the brook Jabbok, and was left alone. Then “there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” He knew that, being in the condition in which he was, he was at variance with God. He knew he had lost his hold on Jehovah: and he wanted to be reconciled with God; he wanted God’s peace in his heart. GCB April 15, 1901, page 239.1

I can see that strong man pacing to and fro under the shadow of those trees by the brook, a great tempest in his soul. He did not see anything about him, did not notice any of the sounds around him; but just paced to and fro, while the awful struggle went on in his soul. He felt that every man’s hand was against him, and as he walked to and fro in that wilderness, there was a great hand laid on Jacob’s shoulder. Jacob turned and grappled with what he supposed to be his adversary, and the Word of the Lord tells us here that all that night a man wrestled with Jacob. Sometimes he was down, sometimes up, sometimes here, and sometimes there; but the struggle went on, and not a word was spoken. Jacob struggled as for life. The whole strength and power of his being was up. He realized that his life was at stake. Something must be done. He had wrestled with his brother Esau and conquered; he had wrestled with Laban, and overcome him, but who now was this? So he put forth all his power to overcome and throw the one whom he supposed was his adversary. All that night that struggle went on. As the gray streak of the dawn began to come, the angel said to Jacob, “Let me go.” Jacob declared that he would not let him go. The angel put forth his hand and touched his thigh, and the thigh of Jacob was out of joint. You remember what Job said. Fear me, fear me. O my friends; for the hand of God has touched me! So the hand of God touched Jacob. He could not longer wrestle, because his thigh was out of joint. The angel still said, “Let me go.” Jacob said, “I will not let thee go,” and he just tightened his grip on the angel, for now he realized that his adversary was the angel of the Lord, his friend. So he asked for a parting blessing. He could not get the blessing from God by his own might, or his own power, any more than you and I can. But he learned to cling; just got hold and held on, that was all. “Simply to thy cross I cling.” Jacob got hold of God’s promises. Have you got hold of them? Do not let them slip, hold hard, just hold; that is all God wants. GCB April 15, 1901, page 239.2

Beloved, God is well pleased with that faith that lays hold on him, and will not let go until the blessing comes. It is your privilege and mine to get the blessing that way. It is not by might nor power, nor by the strength of your arm, the brawn of your muscle, or the sharpness of your brain or of your wit, but it is simply by the faith and love and power of your heart that lay hold upon the eternal God and waits. One of the hardest lessons humanity has to learn is to wait. It is so hard to wait; but he who waits on God will not be disappointed. May God help us to wait. May God help us to get hold; and when we get hold, let us cling. GCB April 15, 1901, page 239.3

The Lord tells us how Jacob prevailed. You remember in Hosea the Lord makes it clear, so we can see just how he gained the victory. I will read a verse or two in this twelfth chapter: “He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed.” How?—“He wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us.” How did he get it?—O, he laid hold on God, he wept and made supplication. GCB April 15, 1901, page 239.4

This was the time and place where Jacob came face to face with his sins. God knows, if no human soul does; and there is a good deal of truth in the old adage, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” You will remember Jacob came face to face with his sin. He had seen it in the distance before; but now the only way to get peace, and to be reconciled with God was to meet this sin face to face, and confess it before God with a broken and contrite heart, and accept from God the pardon and the cleansing from sin that God alone can give. Jacob confessed his sin, and the floodlight of God’s glory came into his soul to give him peace. I can see Jacob when that struggle was over, and witness the sweet peace of God as it came into his very being, bringing the radiance of light from his countenance to light up the whole place. It had been a dark night, but the glory of the Lord was then round about. GCB April 15, 1901, page 239.5

The angel of God said to Jacob, “What is thy name?” He answered, Jacob. He was ashamed of his name. What does the name “Jacob” mean?—A supplanter. Now that angel said, I will change your name; “thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 239.6

O beloved! to-night is not that what we need? Don’t we need power with God? Sometimes we start to get power at the other end,—power with men; but if we get power with God, we shall have the power with men. Let us get it. So the Lord changed his name. GCB April 15, 1901, page 239.7

Now, said he, you are a prince, “for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men.” As we look out on the broad field, and see humanity crying under the awful weight of sin, with condemnation resting down upon the whole human family, and so little being done to bring the light of the glorious gospel of the truth of Jesus Christ to the hearts and mind of the people, we wonder at times whether or not this truth that we believe is real. May the Lord help us, beloved, to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty! May he so fill our hearts with a longing desire to take hold by a living faith on the power of God, that the blessing may rest upon us. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.1

Jacob came up that morning from that struggle by the brookside, and his face was radiant with glory, because he had seen the Lord face to face, as it were. But the family, the friends, and the servants on yon side of the brook notice, as Jacob comes up, that he is limping. Ever after that night, says the word of the Lord, Jacob limped as he walked, and he carried the mark of that night’s struggle with him all the rest of his life’s journey. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.2

So the loved ones and friends and servants gathered around him, and asked where he had been, and what was the matter. “You look so different from what you have for the last few days and weeks! Why, you seem to be another man!” Beloved, he was another man. I can see them as they gather in his tent, when he unfolds his heart to them. He tells them all the past, and how deep down in sin he had been, and I can hear him say, “I have been keeping this in my heart and life, burdensome though it was: and last night deliverance came! Yes, I met the Lord face to face, and all night long I struggled there with this rebellious heart of mine, and God gained the victory. I yielded myself, and now the peace of God has come into my soul, and I am free. I can meet Esau now.” Yes, he did not care now. He could meet Esau. Let Esau do what he would, it would make no difference to Jacob. It is sin, beloved, that makes cowards of us all. The man whose heart is clear and clean before God fears nothing or nobody. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.3

So now Jacob was free. I suppose he must have thought how foolish he had been all these years to carry that thing. “Why did I not have this freedom, why did I not have this light, why did I not have this joy before this?” Why is it, friends, that some of us here in this audience have not that same freedom? Why is it that we have lost the joy of our salvation? Why is it that the spiritual thermometer registers away below zero with many of us? Why is it that we are not coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty? O, why is it that our cup of joy is not running over with the praises of God, welling up from our hearts and lives? There is something back there that we have yet to meet. Some could say, “The iniquity of my heels shall compass me about.” You can not make progress with these. Let us meet and face them as Jacob faced his, and get the victory through Jesus Christ. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.4

The Lord tells us that “men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Then he gives us that example of the importunate widow, who came before the judge of a certain city, saying, “Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a while;” but she held on, and kept pleading, and finally the judge said he did not fear God or man, but because that widow had continually come until she had wearied him, he would adjust her cause and avenge her. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.5

You remember, too, the Syro-Phenician woman who came out pleading with Jesus, and “besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.” The disciples said, “Send her away; for she crieth after us;” but Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Finally she came and fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But Jesus said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. If she could not get a loaf, she would take a slice; and if she could not get a slice, she would pick up the crumbs that fell from the master’s table. Praise the Lord! Beloved, if the Lord would enable us by grace divine to pick up the crumbs of his grace and love, it would lead us up to a slice, and then a loaf, and then into the fullness of God’s love and grace. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.6

Then he admonishes us here in the Word, beloved, that we are to be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Then the Lord tells us, you remember, here in the thirtieth chapter of Jeremiah, that there is a time coming, in the experience of the people who are living in the closing hours of this world’s history, like unto the time of Jacob’s trouble. You know how Jacob gained the victory. You know what he had to go through before he gained that victory. He met God alone. Let me tell you to-night, beloved, that sometimes men get it into their minds that because they are identified with a certain people, or a certain denomination, or a certain church, that that guarantees them heaven. But it does not. This matter has to be a personal, individual affair. We must each meet God for ourselves. Jacob wrestled alone. It is not how we have stood as a whole, or as a Conference, or as a denomination but, how do we stand as individuals? God does not save men in crowds. He deals with the individual heart; and so let us make this an individual affair. If everybody else is wrong, let us each personally make up our minds that as individuals we shall be right with God. If somebody goes that way, or this way, that is not a criterion for us. But let us get founded on the firm rock. God’s word, that we may know what God would have us do. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.7

I want you to see by a study of the Word of the Lord, that there has never been a night so dark, but what there has been a dawn, a daybreak. It was a long night that Jacob wrestled with the angel: but that night had a daybreak. There may be dark experiences through which some of us are passing. There may be clouds resting down over our lives; there may be clouds in our home, or in our family relation. There may be things in existence that seem to hamper and hinder us; and there may come times when darkness seems to gather about our pathway, and as we look up, the sky seems to be black over our head. But let me tell you, the day will break. Yes, there is always a daybreak. Just wait for it, and hold on until the day does break. While we are in the darkness, do not let go; do not let go when you are in the darkness, but hold on to God by living faith, and be assured of his promise that the light will come. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.8

Then I would have you remember this truth from the life of Jacob and his struggle. What is our need, and what the source of our supply?—God is the source of our supply. Know the way to him. Know his courts, and then enter in, and plead in God’s appointed way for the blessing that you see you need. Then in this matter of life’s struggle, with its difficulties, with its obstacles, with its temptations, with its allurements, with the constant changes that are coming along our pathway, we need the character and the real, divine truths of God constantly set before us, that we may know the way, that they may be as guide-boards and sign-posts directing our steps on life’s pathway as we make our onward march. GCB April 15, 1901, page 240.9

While Jacob struggled with the difficulties that confronted him, he had the promise of God that he should come again to his father’s house in peace and prosperity. This promise of God stood before him all through his struggle. And I would say to you tonight, beloved, let us remember God’s promise. When difficulties confront us, remember God has made this promise to us. He said to Jacob that he would bring him back in prosperity and peace to his father’s house. He sent his presents on to Esau, and the servants returned. Jacob asked them: “Did you meet him?” They said, “Yes.” “What did he say?” “He did not say anything.” “Well, what did you see?” said Jacob. “We saw Esau coming, and he has four hundred armed men with him.” GCB April 15, 1901, page 241.1

That looked like war, but Jacob did not run. Jacob was canopied with the Spirit and power of God, and he could go up and meet four hundred armed men, lame, cripple as he was, without an armed man in his company, without a sword and without a single spear, without a trained host of men. He could go up with his family and his flocks and herds and meet Esau, even though he had a band of four hundred armed men. The man who puts his confidence in God can meet all the powers of sin that may confront him, if he envelops himself with the shield of protection that God has provided for those who trust him. GCB April 15, 1901, page 241.2

And it was an affecting meeting, too, of these two brothers.—Jacob coming with his company, and Esau with his. They stopped, and out from each company came the men.—Jacob from his side, and Esau from his. Jacob limped as he went across the plain, and yet he started off as fast as he could to meet his brother. They ran and bowed down seven times, as they came toward one another, and when they met, fell on one another’s neck, and kissed each other. Jacob was first reconciled with God, and then he could be reconciled with his brother. Let us get straight with the Lord, brethren. Then these things that seem so crooked and tangled straighten out very easily. Instead of Jacob having to come in conflict with these four hundred armed men, after he had become reconciled with God, he met his brother in peace, they embraced each other, and recognized that they were brothers. GCB April 15, 1901, page 241.3

Do you know to-night, beloved, that that is one of the great lessons that God is trying to teach to the people in the work to-day,—that he is the common Father of all, and we are all brethren? But we are slow to learn the lesson, and the Lord has to put us over the road, time and time again. GCB April 15, 1901, page 241.4

But I am glad the Lord is so patient and kind and tender with us. I am glad he is longsuffering; glad that he waits; glad that he gives us another chance. May the Lord help us. Oh, may we get hold by living faith, and wrestle with the angel of God until this blessing that Jacob obtained is the portion of every one of us. When we reach the high-water mark in this Conference, may the tide not be permitted to recede. When the tide is at its height, it is time to push out. Have you yet launched your craft on the crest of the spiritual wave? GCB April 15, 1901, page 241.5

I would say, in closing, that the Lord is gracious to his people, longsuffering, and tender, and that he permits us to pass through severe and trying experiences that he might teach us a lesson. Jacob found that it was just as far from Laban’s house back to the old home as it was from his old home to Laban’s house. It is just as far to God’s house as the way we came from there, and that is the distance you have to travel in going back. There are no short cuts. You can not cross lots. We have to go back over that same road we came down over. And when the Lord wants us to go home, let us get all our effects together and go. GCB April 15, 1901, page 241.6

Shall we let little difficulties deter us?—By no means. It is time now that we were standing near to the Lord. You remember that on one occasion it was said that the Spirit of the Lord was present to heal, but no one was healed. Let us then, to-night, take the promises of God by living faith, and remember that He says that it is not by might nor by power but by his Spirit. If the Spirit of the Lord is in each of our hearts, we can go forth from this General Conference to our work with our hearts imbued with his Spirit. Men and women will be converted and we shall be perfected as instruments in the hands of the Lord, to point them to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. May the Lord enable us, brethren, to do that same thing. GCB April 15, 1901, page 241.7