So spoke the patriarch Jacob when Joseph had been made away with, Simeon was detained in Egypt, Benjamin threatened, and his remaining sons were suspected by him and distrusted; when at his door was a grievous famine, enemies or strangers round about, evil in prospect, and in the past a number of sad remembrances. Thus did Almighty God remind His people that the world was not their rest.
I. In Jacob is prefigured the Christian. What he said in dejection of mind, the Christian must say, not in dejection, not in complaint or impatience, but calmly, as if confessing a doctrine "'All these things are against me,' but it is my portion; they are against me, that I may fight with and overcome them." If there were no enemy, there could be no conflict; were there no trouble, there could be no faith; were there no trial, there could be no love; were there no fear, there could be no hope.
II. To passages like these it is natural to object, that they do not belong to the present time, that so far from Christians being in trouble because they are Christians it is those who are not Christians who are under persecution. The answer is that affliction, hardship, and distress arethe Christian's portion, both promised and bestowed, though at first sight they seem not to be. If Christians are in prosperity, not in adversity, it is because, by disobedience, they have forfeited the promise and privilege of affliction.
III. Take up thy portion then, Christian soul, and weigh it well, and learn to love it. There is an inward world which none see but those who belong to it an inward world into which they enter who come near to Christ. They have a portion in destinies to which other men are strangers; and, having destinies, they have conflicts also. Never, while the Church lasts, will the words of old Jacob be reversed All things here are against us, but God; and if God be for us, who can really be against us?
J. H. Newman, Selection from Parochial and Plain Sermons,p. 113; also vol. v., p. 284.
References: Genesis 42:36. Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Sermons Preached at St. Paul's,No. 18; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation,vol. ii., p. 371; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiv., No. 837; Old Testament Outlines,p. 19. Genesis 42:38. S. W. Skeffington, Our Sins and Our Saviour,p. 90. Genesis 43 M. Dods, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph,p. 231; F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis,p. 156; W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister,p. 122.Genesis 43:6. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 96. Genesis 43:14. R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis,vol. ii., p. 194. 43:15-45:3. Ibid.,p. 205.Genesis 43:27. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year,vol. i., p. 350.