Now, if we could turn in the Word of God to three passages. First of all, Romans 9. We will read this passage again, from verse 10.
And not only so; but Rebekah also, having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac—
for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth—
it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee My power, and that My name might be published abroad in all the earth.
So then He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He still find fault? For who withstandeth His will?
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why didst Thou make me thus?
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction;
and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom He also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
Then, if you will turn in the Old Testament to Genesis 25, from verse 21.
And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, wherefore do I live? And she went to inquire of the Lord.
And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.
Then, lastly, in the prophecy of Malachi: Malachi 1, the first three verses.
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated.
And Malachi 3:6:
For I, the Lord, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
Shall we just bow together in a word of prayer?
Beloved Father, we do want to thank Thee that we are found here in Thy presence this evening, and we thank Thee for the provision Thou hast made for us all. We thank Thee for that provision of cleansing from all defilement, from all that would alienate us from Thee or make it difficult for us to hear Thee.
We thank Thee for the provision of power that Thou hast given us, both to speak Thy Word and to hear Thy Word. And we look to Thee that Thou wilt shut us in with Thyself. Lord, let a spirit of quietness come upon us, and upon the little ones that are with us.
Grant, O Lord, that we, being shut in with Thee, shall hear Thy voice, and Thy Holy Spirit will work in our hearts to make Thy Word flesh and blood in us. O Lord, hear us, for we ask this together with thanksgiving in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I think that this little phrase that we have, not once but a number of times in the Bible, is perhaps one of the most wonderful and remarkable words that God ever spoke:
Jacob I have loved.
Only those who do not know their Bibles, or do not know the story of Jacob, or do not know something about his history and character, would not be surprised at this statement. For if you are ignorant of Jacob’s life, of the kind of person he was, you will not be surprised if God says, “I love Jacob.”
But if you know a little bit about Jacob, and especially if you know your own heart, then these words are radiant with the beauty of God’s grace and mercy and love:
Jacob I have loved.
The fact that it comes two or three times in the Book must mean that it is of some importance. Furthermore, it comes linked to one of the greatest themes in the Bible—not very popular today in our generation, but nevertheless still one of the greatest themes in the Bible—and that is the theme of election.
People sometimes say that the Old Testament ends with a curse because, technically, they take the very last word of the prophet Malachi, which says, “Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” This is a very legalistic way of reading the Book.
I do not think Malachi ends with a curse at all. I think Malachi ends with a declaration of God’s undying love for His people. We find it in these words at the very beginning:
I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and Esau I hated.
Then, even more remarkably, the word in Malachi 3:6:
For I, the Lord, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
You would think that He was going on to say, “Therefore, beware.” But instead He says, “For I, the Lord, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
In other words, the strength of God, the infinity of God, and the power of God are thrown on the side of the weak and sinful, though they are. How wonderful.
Now, as I said yesterday evening, in these times that are allotted to me, and that are my responsibility of bringing to you the Word of God and the burden that is on my heart, I want to speak about Jacob.
There is no character—no personality, I said last night—in the Bible who has had greater influence upon all that followed than Jacob.
We read everywhere through Scripture this wonderful title of God: the God of Jacob. Altogether apart from the other wonderful title, “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,” we find standing on its own this title again and again: “The God of Jacob.”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
That is to quote just one example from Psalm 46.
Or again, we have this other wonderful title: the Mighty One of Jacob. You think of Psalm 132. Remember those wonderful words of the psalmist that we sometimes sing about Zion:
For the Lord hath chosen Zion;
He hath desired it for His habitation.
This is My resting-place for ever:
here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
But it begins like this:
Lord, remember for David all his affliction;
how he sware unto the Lord,
and vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob:
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house,
nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
or slumber to mine eyelids;
until I find out a place for the Lord,
a tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.
Then, of course, of no other character have the people of God been named. The names Jacob and Israel have been given to the redeemed people of God forever. We find the prophet speaking to us as if we are Jacob—“O Jacob”—speaking of us all, Israel.
We are the Israel of God. We are no longer alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, for those of Gentile background have been made partakers in the commonwealth of Israel. By the grace of God, you have been grafted into that olive tree which is the Israel of God. How wonderful all this is.
But this term Israel, which we all think of as a nation, as a people, as a term for the redeemed people of God, actually began with a man called Jacob. God did something in his life and changed him into Israel. Then both the name Jacob and the name Israel were given to the people of God forever after.
Now, it seems to me that if that is the case, there must be something tremendous to learn about this man Jacob.
So tonight I want to begin by speaking about the love of God and Jacob. You may think straight away that this is a kindergarten subject: the love of God and Jacob.
“Well, we all know about the love of God, and we do not need to come to a conference to hear about the love of God. This is a Sunday-school theme. This is something we hear from many, many pulpits. We read about it in Christian magazines.”
But just wait. There is a good deal more about the love of God, I think, than just something sentimental. These wonderful words, “Jacob I have loved,” how tremendous they are when we remember the kind of person Jacob was.
Now, I do not want to do Jacob any disservice, and I do not want to demean him or devalue him. I have got to meet him one day, so I want to be very careful in anything I have to say about Jacob.
Jacob was not, as is so often understood in some circles, an ugly, mean, unattractive character. He is made out to be a swindler of swindlers, a deceiver of deceivers, a supplanter of supplanters, with every dark and evil thing nested in his heart.
He was made into a kind of ogre, a kind of Fagin and Shylock wrapped into one. Then God did a wonderful work, and the man became the gentler, sweetest saint you have ever seen. Now, this is not really true.
For one very interesting thing, Jacob must have been a highly intelligent and highly attractive man, because we find in Scripture some quite remarkable inferences. For instance, Leah wanted to get hold of him as much as Rachel. I take it he must have been somewhat attractive, since he was penniless at the time.
They were not marrying into riches, so what were they marrying into? There must have been something very attractive, very appealing, very becoming about this man.
It says in Scripture that he was a homely man—that is, he had a thing for the home. He was the kind of person who could do all kinds of things in the home. His brother was the athletic type, but it does not mean that Jacob was some round-shouldered, spineless creature who sat in a rocking chair all day.
The man was a businessman. It was in his heart. He was shrewd. He had acumen. It is very interesting, when you read the story clearly and objectively, that this man Jacob actually did not want to deceive.
In fact, he said to his mother, when she put the idea into his head, “But father will surely say, ‘I am a deceiver,’ when he hears that it is the voice of Jacob and feels my arms and neck and finds that I am smooth-skinned and not hairy like my brother Esau.”
It is also very interesting how scandalised Jacob was about his uncle Laban. When his uncle cheated him and swindled him, he says in a very indignant manner, on at least two occasions, once to his wife Rachel, “Your father deceived me.” On another occasion he said to Uncle Laban, “You cheated me and changed my wages ten times.”
Now, this means one simple thing: Jacob did not realise, or recognise, the strength of his own nature.
In other words, the problem with Jacob was not that he was some ugly, unattractive, mean, spineless creature belonging to the underworld. Rather, he had a nature that he could not control.
Now, there is an unlovely side to Jacob, and it may not have been on the surface. When his brother came in—his twin brother, after all, as we read in Genesis 25—faint and hungry, Jacob immediately said to him, when he smelled the food that Jacob was cooking and asked for a portion, “You will get the portion; only first sell me your birthright.”
He could not help it. The Bible says that Esau despised his birthright. He had no time for it. He had no time for the things of God. Jacob, with all his faults, valued the birthright.
He not only valued the birthright; he valued the blessing. In other words, deep down in Jacob’s heart was a recognition of divine things and their value.
Maybe he did not in his heart recognise so much the being of God, but he did recognise the value of eternal things. And he wanted them, because he realised somewhere deep down within him that those were the things that mattered.
What he could not control was his own natural strength and energy, and the way to obtain them. He could not wait for God. He had to work.
I suppose he must have known the prophecy that was given at his birth. His mother, who adored him, surely at some point must have said, “You know, before you were born, I went and asked of the Lord. I was having such a bad time.”
“And the Lord said to me, ‘There are two nations in your womb, and two peoples. One is stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.’”
Though I do not know—it is a technical question—who was really oldest, because they were born at the same time. It is not like two brothers had a couple of years between them. These two boys were born on the same date and in the same hour.
But one was born first, and the second was born with his arm wrapped round the other’s heel. It was highly significant.
In Hebrew, the word “heel” is aqeb, and so Jacob got the name Yaakov. It is very hard to put it into words, really, but it is a play on the word “heel” and the word “to displace somebody,” because he took hold of his heel as if he would pull him back and come out first.
That is putting it very crudely, but you understand what I mean—not in good midwifery language.
He was, at the very beginning, showing the trait that was to become more and more apparent as time went on.
Now, I find this an amazing story. Not only did he steal his brother’s birthright, but later he went to those incredible lengths, which his mother planned, to deceive his blind father and get the blessing.
Then later, when he went to his uncle Laban, you will remember that although God had said He would increase his flocks and prosper him, old Jacob had to help.
To this day, we do not understand exactly what all that stripping of poplar rods did. It has completely eluded agriculturists and agronomists. But he evidently thought that he was helping along a process by which those born would be speckled, streaked, or black.
It does not really matter whether it worked or it did not work, what he did. The fact of the matter is, he thought that he was getting the better of Uncle Laban.
Now, he knew very well that God had said that He would prosper him, but he could not wait for God. God could have done it without any of Jacob’s help, but he could not wait for God.
Now, I do not know; a little later on, when we talk more at length on this aspect of it, you will begin to see that this is our problem. We have thousands and thousands of people who see something of the Lord, but then they try to get the whole thing into operation.
The mess that follows is incredible. All of you know the kind of thing that happens when we barge into a family, just saved, and try to convert them all at gunshot. You know the kind of thing: tracts here, tracts there; books here, books there; words here, words there. So the family is sick to death of us.
The fact of the matter is, we have seen something, but we are trying our best to do the work of God. And it never works.
In the same way, think of the thousands who see what the house of God is—the church. But the scene is littered with tragedies because people have seen what the church is, and then they try to put it into operation.
We have apostles who are not apostles, and prophets who are not prophets. We have elders who are not elders. We have deacons who are not deacons. We have ministries that are not ministries. We have people supposed to be authorities sent by God, and they were never sent.
My God, what a mess the whole thing is. We take spiritual terms and we set up systems. We have hierarchies. We create whole routines.
And what is the problem? The problem is not that our heart does not want the Lord. The problem is, our heart does want the Lord. Our problem is the strength of our natural life. We cannot help it.
As soon as we see the value of a birthright, we are going to clinch the deal and get it—with God’s help. Then, when we see the value of the blessing, we will get the blessing. Maybe there has to be a bit of deception in it, but never mind. Somehow we have got to do it; it is not going to drop out of heaven on us, is it?
So if it means mother getting up to tricks, and sewing up calfskins, and somehow sounding gruff like twin brother Esau, well, the end justifies the means. After all, God had said before I was born that the elder would serve the younger.
And if God said that I am going to be prospered, then Uncle Laban—well, he was a bit of a swindler. I worked seven years, and later I got Leah.
After all, you would never think that your uncle would do something like that to you, would you? Seven years! I do not think there are many husbands here who have worked seven years to get their wives.
I can imagine you are shocked if you had worked seven years to get your aunt, and you did not get her but got her sister.
You think, “Oh dear, dear, dear. We did not really come to hear this.” But just wait. Our trouble is that we make the scriptural story so beautiful. We do not think of what it would be like for ourselves if we were in this kind of situation.
Jacob was scandalised by his uncle’s behaviour. It was grossly unfair to have worked seven years, and to work hard for seven years, and end up with somebody else.
Well, we will go into that on another night. What I am trying to say is this: how wonderful it is that God said, “Jacob have I loved.”
In spite of his failings, in spite of his weaknesses, in spite of his sin, in spite of iniquity, the word rings through the corridors of time:
Jacob I have loved.
You cannot explain the love of God. Some people say, “Well, of course, God saw something in Jacob that was beautiful. That is why He loved him.” I am not sure about that.
Listen to the way it is put in Deuteronomy 7, speaking about the people of God. This is how it says it in Deuteronomy 7:6:
For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for His own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples:
but because the Lord loveth you.
You have the same thought again in Deuteronomy 10:14-15:
Behold, unto the Lord thy God belongeth heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein.
Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you, above all peoples, as at this day.
Now, I find this quite remarkable, because what it says is this: the Lord set His love on you because He loveth you. Now, that is the only explanation. There is no other explanation.
Why does God love you? I may find some redeeming features about you as to why God loves you, but I can only say, when I ask myself, “Why does God love me?” I am totally at a loss. I cannot understand why God loves me.
I can only come back to this amazing statement:
The Lord hath set His love on you because He loveth you.
Do not ask me why people love other people. I sometimes see someone who loves somebody else so passionately, completely, and I wonder, “What on earth do they see in them?” But for that person, that one is the most beautiful creature that ever graced this earth—everything about them.
Love is an incredible thing.
Now, sometimes we like to think, “Ah, no, just wait. God loves us because He is going to use us.” It is not true. It is a lie. It is a lie.
When you come to a place where you fail, the devil will come to you and say, “God does not love you any more. You have lost your usefulness for Him. You have lost your value to Him. He does not love you.”
As if God is some kind of shrewd person, with business acumen, who only weighs the pros and cons and only sees what He is going to get out of you for eternity. No!
In some incredible manner that is far beyond our understanding, God loves me because He loves me, and He loves you because He loves you.
That is where the very heart of this whole matter lies. The people of God are given the names Jacob and Israel because you cannot explain the love of God for Jacob. There is no explanation for it. There is no reason for it. In one sense, it is irrational. It is the irrationality of love.
I find the wonder of God’s love tremendous. He did not say, as He could have said, “Israel I have loved.”
Now, if He said that, theologically I could understand. I would have said, “Of course. He loves Israel because Israel was the changed Jacob. Israel was the converted Jacob. Israel was the transformed Jacob. Israel was the Jacob God really desired and had in mind from the beginning.”
But God never said, “Israel I have loved.” He says—not once, but a number of times—“Jacob I have loved.”
He takes the lowest denominator. He takes the person at their worst and says, “I love him.” That is why I chose him: because I loved him.
The Apostle Paul, of course, puts it in words that are very strange to the twentieth-century ear, in those words in Romans 9. This is how he explains it:
That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
That is Romans 9:11-13. Then we read these wonderful words in verse 23:
That He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom He called.
Today these words come strangely to our ears. We are so democratic in our whole context of thinking that we find it almost hard—a thought, a concept—that we have to wrestle with. Then we feel that we can only be satisfied if we explain it away.
We cannot understand words like, “Esau I have hated.” We think that is terrible. “Vessels”—vessels that He endured with much longsuffering, vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. We say, “Oh, it seems so strange to our ears.”
But the positive side is glorious:
Vessels of mercy, afore prepared unto glory.
Now, I do not know what you get out of this, but this is what I get out of it: one tremendous thing. I know that I shall leave a lot of you on this point, but never mind; bear with me. This is the wonder of the Body. We all have a part to play, and maybe I am expressing a truth which is the opposite end of the pole to the truth that many of you have got hold of. I do not know.
But this I do know: my salvation did not begin with the decision I made. It goes back into before times eternal, into the very heart of God, and I defy anybody to explain it.
“Oh,” someone says, “do you not understand? God, in His foreknowledge, understood that you were going to decide for the Lord anyway, and chose you.” That I do not understand. Why did He not choose me at the time when I made the decision?
What does it mean that God might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, afore prepared unto glory?
Now, I am not saying that your decision is invalid. Thank God, if you came to a point where you made a decision—I do not know if you signed a decision card, put your hand up, went forward, knelt at some penitents’ stool, or whatever you did—thank God, He brought you to that place.
But what I want to know is the prehistory of it. And the prehistory is this:
Jacob I have loved.
Think of these wonderful words in John 15. You cannot squirm out of them.
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear much fruit.
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear much fruit. That mysterious word.
Now, I do believe in the responsibility that human beings have to exercise their will. But beyond that, I find the mystery of election. I shall never understand it, but I worship God for it.
John 6 has a few verses which I have never had satisfactorily explained to me by any of those who make so much of the free will of man. And here it is.