THE HEAP OF WITNESS
‘And Laban said, This heap is a heap of witness between me and thee this day.’
I. God had appeared to Laban the previous night and warned him against doing any harm to Jacob. Compelled thus to abandon his real object, he can but explain the hot haste with which he has pursued his nephew, at such a loss of time and at so busy a season, by alleging a desire to give a parting parental salute to his daughters and grandchildren, and recover some household images which have been stolen from him. The cautious Jacob carefully restrains himself until a search has been made throughout the camp without result, and even makes a kind of apology for his unceremonious and secret departure.
But he is no sooner sure of his ground than he breaks out into hot and defiant words against his father-in-law, and relieves his mind of a long series of complaints against him during his twenty years’ sojourn with him, which his natural timidity had hitherto caused him to bear in silence. When at length calmer feelings prevail on each side, Laban proposes that they should make a solemn covenant with each other. It may be the hill-top above them was already known as a sacred spot, and may have received the name of Mizpah from the people of the land, as was the case with other similar spots. Thither, then, uncle and nephew ascend, each attended by his sons and brethren and the chief men of his company. Jacob selects the spot. From among the fragments of rock lying around he takes one larger than the rest, rolls it to the place, and sets it up on end. Holding it thus in position, he bids all those assembled bring each one his stone and pile around it until a considerable heap has been accumulated. This done, Laban as the elder first approaches it, and laying his hand upon it, while the rest of the company stand around and look on, he addresses Jacob in their hearing, saying, ‘This heap shall be a witness between me and thee this day.’ If Jacob should afflict his daughters; if he should take beside them other wives; or if he should pass beyond this spot with harmful projects towards Laban—then this heap should be a silent witness of the broken faith, and God should see and judge between them. ‘Jegar-sahadutha,’ says Laban, speaking in the Syrian tongue—‘The heap of witness shall this heap be called.’
II. Jacob has now his part to perform. Laban’s fears, indeed, are but pretences to afford him plausible cover for retreat after so hot a pursuit. Jacob has no such intentions as the oath he is asked to make would seem to attribute to him. He can, therefore, the more easily enter into the covenant which Laban requires him to ratify. Stretching out his hand in his turn, and laying it upon the heap, he gives the undertaking required of him—‘Swearing by the fear of his father Isaac.’ And he, too, solemnly names the heap, calling it in the Hebrew language Galeed, meaning, as before, ‘the heap of witness.’ Thenceforward the spot came to be known among the Hebrew people by both its old and its new name, ‘Mizpah Galeed’—the watch-tower from which the Lord Himself would watch over covenants there made, the heap which should silently bear witness to the words of promise spoken.
The covenant thus ratified was followed by a sacrifice offered upon the mount, and a feast of which all partook.
—Rev. J. Wagstaff, b.d.
Illustration
(1) ‘ “The fear of his father Isaac”—what does that mean? The word “fear” should be printed with a capital F, and you will find it is printed so in the Revised Version. “The Fear”—that is the name which Isaac gave to his God. Laban sware “by the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor,” that is, he sware by Jehovah, and by the idol whom their common ancestor worshipped as God. But Jacob—it is this I wish to emphasise—sware by “the Fear of his father Isaac,” that is, Jacob sware by Him whom Isaac worshipped as “the Fear.” All these Old Testament patriarchs and saints had their own name for the God whom they served; to one He was “the Rock,” to another “the Shield,” to another “the Shepherd”; but to Isaac He was “the Fear,” “the Dreadful One,” or “the Terror.”
That was Isaac’s name for God. What think ye of God? How do we name Him? What is He to us? “Nothing is easier,” says John Henry Newman somewhere, “than to use the name God and to mean nothing by it.” “I believe in God”—so begins the Apostles’ Creed; and we must all begin there—there is the foundation, the starting-point. “He that cometh to God must believe that He is.” ’
(2) ‘A midshipman, who was about to leave the sailor’s home, where he had been converted, came to the superintendent on the day of going on board, and asked him to write on a card, in plain bold characters, the words, “I am a Christian.” When he was asked his object, he said, “As soon as I get on board I shall go to my hammock, and put this card where everybody can see it; it will save a lot of trouble, for everyone will know at once which side I am on, and will expect me to keep true to it.” This is raising the heap of witness.
Let us raise that heap, let me help you rear it, gather stones, and pile them into the form of that cross by which the world was crucified to St. Paul and he to the world.’
(3) ‘One idea underlies this incident—the sacredness of truth. Here we are taught to remember that there is One who hears our spoken promises and avenges all departures from fidelity and truth. He watches over the compacts which men make with each other, and takes note of falsity and perjury; of broken faith and untruthfulness in all its forms.’