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The Glory of the Lamb
and
The Lamb-life
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notes of bible teaching
given by pastor o. stockmayer, at a gathering
of god’s children, in london, april, 1891
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I
The Opened Heavens
Gen. 28:10-22
Have you considered what was Jacob’s great
fault, when God the Lord met him that night at Bethel? It is, a
fault into which we have all fallen; one of the principal
characteristics of our fallen nature; to take Divine things into our
human hands; to grasp with our own eyes, ears, hands, Divine power
and promises. You see the end of such efforts. Jacob had an eye and
ear for Divine things which his brother Esau had not, but he had
this way of taking Divine things into his own hands. Jacob, by a
lie, succeeded in stealing Divine blessing, but at what a cost! Oh,
it costs dear when we take Divine things into human hands! We cannot
do it without burning our fingers, and spoiling, marring, perverting
our way for the future.
Jacob must fly to save himself from the murderous hands of his
brother. We see him the first night of his flight, alone, his own
home shut against him! How the Lord in His infinite mercy meets him;
not as it were from the top of Sinai, but from the top of Mount
Zion; not according to his deserts, but according to His own
wondrous, boundless mercy, His heavenly gifts. The Lord does not
withdraw from the man who has proved himself utterly unworthy; who
has honored the gifts, but has not honored his God.
It was a wonderful vision which Jacob saw; a throne of light,
AN
OPEN HEAVEN!
Oh, how often has God to wait till we have been
cut off from all human hopes, our earthly heaven of prosperity
blocked, before He can open to us the spiritual Heaven! Yes, we have
perverted our way, and we must eat the fruit of that way, till at
last our eyes are opened to see Him; till the wandering child, who
had gone astray, has eyes for heavenly things.
What did Jacob see that night? What many Christians see at the
moment of their conversion;—an open Heaven! He saw what he had never
conceived of; a ladder, a way of communication between Heaven and
this dark, dismal world. Heaven had been black to Jacob, veiled in
dark clouds to the guilty outcast; no father at hand, no mother, no
brother, —alone;—and now Heaven opens! The Father’s heart opens to
the poor fugitive; he finds a refuge in the shadow of the Almighty.
Jacob has no one to guide him, to tell him the way, but the Lord God
holds out to him His protecting hand. “I will guide thee, keep thee,
clothe thee, nourish thee; take Me as thy Father. Recognize what
comes of grasping Divine things by thy self-efforts and thy
stratagems; fall down at the feet of thy merciful Father; let Me be
thy God, and thou shalt have all. I will bless thee, and make thee a
blessing. I will give thee all that which thy scheming and lying
have failed to accomplish; a blessing greater than thy keenest
intellect, thy utmost imagination and longings could have reached.
There is no need for thee to know now where thou art going. I will
not leave thee till I have done it all.”
What a comment on, and illustration of 2 Cor. 12:9, “My grace is
sufficient for thee.” A wandering fugitive, with a spoiled life and
a devious path,—with such a God to rely upon!
He awakes (ver. 16),—“Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it
not.” He had no idea that he would meet God there; yet it was no
dream, but a Divine vision, a reality. Had he dreamed, it would have
been of vengeance, persecution, death, fear, darkness; but instead
of these, sudden light bursts in upon him. Unexpectedly the Lord
Himself has opened the Heavens—and Jacob is afraid!
That opened Heaven has been kept open for us since Christ passed
into the Heavens; and now we are seated, with Him, in heavenly
places. Yet, alas, how often God’s children meet together and do not
expect to meet God! Is it so now? Is there one who has come in sad
and wandering; and suddenly, unexpectedly finds that God is here,
knowing him in his deepest needs?
The Lord offered to keep Jacob always under an open Heaven; in
constant communication with the Father standing above the ladder.
Jesus is the Ladder (John 1:51); Jesus as known in His life for us.
He came into the world in a body like ours; and He delivered that
body to crucifixion and the grave, that He might take us with Him on
His Cross and in His grave, and keep us under the opened Heaven of
constant communion with Him. Yes, He wills to take with Him to the
Cross and grave, the “flesh,” the “old man” of every fallen
son of Adam who will commit his whole life, past, present, and
future, into His hands; that henceforth he may live in newness of
life; spirit, soul, body, all for Him—an opened Heaven!
Brethren, have you done as Jacob did? His answer is pitiful (ver.
20-21): “If God will keep me in the way that I go,”—it is his
place to go with God! “If God is to keep him, God must also guide
him.” “If—if—” alas, for the self-life! Jacob goes on his own way;
he does not give heed to, nor abide by, what God had shown him: he
is not “obedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). O
brother, O sister! How many children of the New Covenant are not
children of faith! Like Jacob, they cannot realize that God has for
them an opened Heaven; they fear, they bargain. Is it possible to
have met with God, and not have surrendered the whole being to Him;
to have followed consecration meetings, and yet not have learned
that one simple thing, —
TO
LIVE; SURRENDERED
to the Lord our God? It is the only simple
life. When the light of Heaven suddenly shone about Paul, and Heaven
was opened to his sight, he fell down at the feet of Jesus, and
yielded himself altogether to Him. And Paul remained the willing
prisoner of Jesus all his life. He was “not disobedient to the
heavenly vision.” Guided step by step, walking all through his life
under an open Heaven, —what a contrast he presents to Jacob, who
sought to grasp Divine promises with his own hands. The Lord give us
obedient, simple hearts! Amen. |