THE GOD OF BETHEL
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"I am the God of Bethel." Genesis 31:13.
God is now His own Artist. Hitherto, the divine portraits upon which we have gazed with such sacred delight, were drawn by human hands, "holy men of God, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," presenting such views of the character of God as met the varied conditions of His people; thus confirming our previous observation, that each title and perfection of God harmonized with some particular need of His Church. But, in the present chapter of our work, the Great I AM shall present His own Divine likeness, drawn with a vividness and fidelity such as He only could command. "I am the God of Bethel."
Who can mistake the Artist, or question the identity of the picture? The language of the one is too stately and commanding, and the likeness of the other too divine and life-like, to admit of a moment's doubt. It is Jehovah who speaks, and speaking of Himself, says "I am the God of Bethel." The word "Bethel" means, "the House of God," and the occasion on which it was thus used marked a memorable event in the history of Jacob, suggesting some spiritual reflections appropriate and profitable to the Christian and devout mind.
The patriarch was now an exile and a wanderer, fleeing from the vengeance of Esau. He had, on this occasion, been journeying more than four hundred miles through wild and inhospitable deserts; and at night, weary and footsore, he took a stone for a pillow, and laid himself down on the cold, dewy earth to sleep. That was a memorable night in his history. While he slept, a vision of singular character and glory appeared to him. It was a 'ladder,' its foot resting on the earth, and its top in heaven. Ascending and descending this mystic communication between the two worlds, innumerable angels were seen, 'ministering spirits,' doubtless, sent from heaven to 'minister' to this tried servant of God. But the most significant and glorious part of this vision was the appearance of Jehovah at the top of the 'ladder,' addressing the lonely and desolate patriarch slumbering at its foot. The words which He uttered, and the tones in which He spoke, were well calculated to quell the fears, to comfort and assure the mind of God's servant, now passing under the corrective hand of a righteous yet loving Father– a fugitive from man's rage, yet 'beloved of God,'– a lonely exile, yet waited on by angels– a stranger and destitute, yet the heir of the very land upon which he lay– single and alone, yet destined to be the head of a race countless as the dust of the earth, and through whom, as concerning the Messiah, "all the families of the earth should be blest."
Not less consolatory and assuring was the gracious promise of the Divine presence and care which God spoke to him on that memorable night: "Behold I am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go, and will bring you again into this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken to you of." What a vision of glory, and what a night of repose must that have been to the desolate mind, lonely spirit, and weary body of the patriarch! How he must have desired to prolong it, and how have regretted its close! And when he awoke, we marvel not at the wondering exclamation of his awe-stricken mind, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not"– that is, I did not expect such a vision of God in such a place.
"He was afraid and said, What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God—the gateway to heaven!" The next morning he got up very early. He took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named the place Bethel—house of God."
God, in a subsequent period of his history, reminded him of this memorable incident, doubtless with a view of strengthening his faith and comforting him under a new and severe trial through which he was then passing- the grinding avarice and base treachery of Laban, his father-in-law. Speaking to him again in a dream, God said, "I have seen all that Laban does unto you." Mark, God notes all the unkindness and injustice done to His saints, and will vindicate their wrong, and avenge the wrong-doer.
"I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, and where you made a vow unto me." What an unfolding of the character of God is here! What tender love, what covenant faithfulness, what Almighty power! Surely, if ever God gave Jacob a song in the night season of woe, it was now! Angels must have bent an ear to that song, and have learned new strains from its melody. God's dealings with men, His dealings especially with His Church, must form a subject of profound study and of rich instruction to these celestial students. The Church is their Bible, in the marvelous history of which its election and redemption, its calling and keeping, its grace and glory- they see the will, and study the mind, and fathom the heart, of Jehovah– "Which things the angels desire to look into."
Here we may for a moment pause, and in faith appropriate to ourselves the promise which God made to His servant Jacob, "Behold I am with you." That promise was not his alone, but is ours also, on whom the ends of the world are come. We are taught that, "no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation"- that is, that no individual believer has a personal and sole right to any part of God's Word, exclusive of other believers; but that, as there is "one God and Father of all," "of whom the whole family on earth and in heaven is named," so the promises of God, from Adam downward, are the property alike of all the children of that one family, not a solitary member, the obscurest and the weakest, being exempt.
Oh, what a uniting truth is this! How should it constrain us to recognize and love as brethren all the members of the one and indivisible family of God, even though they may occupy different apartments, and feed at different tables, in the one Great House, than ourselves. God loves them all; Christ died for all, and recognizes in all His own divine image; and the Holy Spirit dwells alike in all, and seals on the lips of all, "Abba, Father!"
We repeat, what an exceeding great and precious promise of our covenant God is here- intended for all saints, intended, my beloved, for you! "Behold I am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go." What is the New Testament but the echo of the Old? Hear we not the echo of this promise in the words of Jesus spoken to His disciples on the eve of His departure from them, when, like the patriarch, they were to be left as orphans in the world, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Take hold of this divine promise of your Lord, repeated with yet more earnest emphasis, and given under yet more affecting circumstances than it was to Jacob, and Jehovah Jesus will make it good in your individual and daily experience. God in Christ is with you, His child, and will keep you in all places where His providence leads you. No time or circumstance shall interpose to prevent its fulfillment.
How soon did God fulfill His promise in Jacob's experience! Listen to his touching admonition with Laban, "In fact, except for the grace of God—the God of my grandfather Abraham, the awe-inspiring God of my father, Isaac—you would have sent me off without a penny to my name. But God has seen your cruelty and my hard work. That is why he appeared to you last night and vindicated me." Our God is unchangeable. The same divine faithfulness and love are pledged to make good the same divine promise in your history. Like Jacob, you may be an exile and a wanderer from the land of your birth, and from the home of your parents. But Jacob's God is your God, and the promises made to Isaac and to Jacob, were equally made to all their spiritual seed, were made, beloved, to you.
Oh! then, embrace in faith, and clasp to your lonely heart, this precious promise that God in Christ is with you in all places, and will never leave nor forsake you. You are not alone. You are not Fatherless, nor homeless; you are neither a fugitive nor an orphan. Oh, no! Christ, your Friend and Brother, is with you. His heart is your dwelling-place, and His Father is your Father, and His God is your God. "Happy is he that has the God of Jacob (the God of Bethel) for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God."
We have remarked upon the word "Bethel," as signifying the House of God. This naturally suggests the subject of our present chapter– PRAYER, or, communion with God, as "the God of Bethel." The believer has a Bethel everywhere, since there is no place where God is not. The pious home, the secret closet, the public sanctuary, and even the fields where he walks at eventide to meditate, is a Bethel– the place where God in Christ meets him and communes with him from above the mercy-seat.
Next to the revelation of God as the God of atonement, the God that pardons sin, the most needed and precious revelation of Him is, as the God that hears and answers prayer. Prayer is everything to the believer. It is his vital element, the right hand of his power, his invincible armor, the feet with which he runs in the way of obedience, the wings which uplift his soul to God, and which waft him within the veil of glory. But let us, on so interesting and important a subject, exchange these general observations for a few particulars illustrative of the nature, privilege, and influence of prayer.
Our first and most natural inquiry relates to the OBJECT of prayer. To whom is prayer properly to be addressed? Reason would answer, God; but revelation goes further, and explains who God is, and the Triune relation He sustains to us as the Being that it answers prayer, and to whom all flesh should come. We are at once brought in contact with the revealed truth, that prayer is addressed to the Triune-Jehovah, and yet separately and equally, to each distinct Person in the Godhead. There may be a mystery in this statement to some minds, even as there is a mystery in the doctrine of the Trinity itself. But, let it be observed that, if the human mind could fully comprehend this truth, either God must cease to be divine, or man must cease to be human.
But we may possibly simplify this statement by presenting it in a kind of syllogistic form, thus- There are Three distinct Persons in the one God- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is the Divine Object of Prayer; therefore, each distinct Person in the Godhead is a Being to whom it is proper that prayer should be separately, divinely, yet unitedly addressed. We get this truth in the Epistle to the Ephesians (2:18), a passage which affords one of the most remarkable and conclusive evidences of the doctrine of the Trinity found in the Bible, "Through Him (Christ), we both (Jew and Gentile) have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Apart from the clear light in which this text places the doctrine of the Trinity- a doctrine upon which the entire superstructure of Christianity rests- its relation to the article of prayer is as conclusive as it is beautiful. We have here God the Father as the Object of prayer- God the Son, as the Medium of prayer- and God the Spirit, as the Author of prayer. Each as a Divine Person is thus essentially engaged in the divine act of receiving prayer, as each one is embraced in the believer's act of offering prayer. There exists no inferiority of nature, as there is nothing subordinate in office- the Father receiving, the Son presenting, the Spirit inspiring, the prayers of all saints, and these Three essentially and indivisibly One.
Let us address our thoughts, in the first place, to the FATHER. What a warrant and encouragement have we in prayer to approach the "God of Bethel" as a Father! Such is His divinely paternal relation to us. It is the highest relation He sustains. To pardon our sins is a great act of His grace; but to adopt us into His family, a yet greater. It were a great act of the sovereign's clemency to pardon the criminal at the bar; it were a yet more transcendent act of the royal favor to adopt that criminal as his son, and share with him the dignity and privileges of his throne. But all this our God has done, "having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."
Concerning this view of prayer, how explicit is the teaching of God's Word in reference to the paternal relation of God! "You shall call Me FATHER, and shall not turn away from Me" These are wonderful words of God Himself. With such a warrant, what child of God will hesitate, through unbelief or unworthiness, to approach God in prayer as his Father? When we have God's warrant, we have the strongest ground to believe. He cannot go higher than His own word, confirmed by an oath, and sworn by Himself: "for when He could swear by nothing greater, he swore by Himself." Here, then, is His own word of invitation, bidding you draw near to Him as a Father, yes, as our Father. Hesitate not to recognize His paternal relation, and, though it may be with the lisping accents of a babe, draw near, and cry, "My Father."
The apostle inculcates the same truth, illustrated by his own example. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in earth and in heaven is named." Here you have the example of one who esteemed himself the "chief of sinners," and "less than the least of all saints," bowing his knees in prayer to God as his FATHER, yes, as the Father of the one family of God. Why, then, should we hesitate? Why stand afar off, trembling in the bonds of a slave, when we may draw near in the free spirit of a child?
But, more illustrious and mightier than all, is the precept and the example of Christ himself. Listen to the holy precept; " When you pray, say, our FATHER who is in heaven." One great design of Christ's conning was to dissipate the clouds of ignorance and guilt which gathered around the human mind concerning the Fatherhood of God. Until He dissolved and scattered those clouds, no man, by his own ingenuity or research, could discern this wondrous truth. Here are our Lord's emphatic words; "My Father has given me authority over everything. No one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
And how touching and forcible His own filial example! How frequently the endearing name of Father breathed from His lips, in language like this- "O Father, Lord of heaven and earth," "Righteous Father," "My Father." Behold, then, beloved, the God of Bethel as your Father, and approach Him in prayer as such, with a heart dissolved and poured out in filial love and communion at His feet. Your highest attainment in the divine life is to arrive at the assurance of your adoption, and your highest privilege as a believer is to commune with God as your Father. This His Spirit can give you.
Many, alas! are satisfied with knowing no more of the parental relation of God than what they learn in a continuous and parrot-like repetition of "Our Father who is in heaven." But this will not bring us to the Father's house. This will furnish no title or fitness for the many-mansioned home of heaven. And yet thousands of poor formalists, it is feared, have descended into the shades of eternal despair with these very words upon their lips!
But we hope better things of you, O humble and sincere believer in Jesus! You have not in the school of Christian experience, and in the region of your own heart's plague and nothingness, so learned Christ. Approach Him, then, in prayer as a child, beloved of God, as one standing in, and accepted through, Christ, and pour out your heart before Him, emptied of all its sorrow, sin, and need, as into the listening ear and loving heart of your Father in heaven.
Come as a child! Are you in need? "Your Father knows that you have need of these things." Are you in sorrow? "As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him." Have you sinned, and are you returning as a humble penitent to His feet? "And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Is the cloud of adversity darkening, is the wave of sorrow swelling, is trouble near? "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?" Has the stroke fallen? Has the flower faded? Is the strong and beautiful staff broken? "My Father, not my will, but Yours be done." These, my beloved reader, are but the several parts of the magnificent Litany, breathing from the heart and uttered by the lips of a humble child of God bowing the knee before Him in the filial, loving, obedient spirit of a child.
Equally with the Father is the SON an object of prayer. Who can doubt it, at all intelligently acquainted with the Bible, and taught experimentally the truth as it is in Jesus? And yet that some have mooted this point, whom we might suppose to have been better instructed, and from whom we should have expected an enlightened and spiritual acquaintance with the truth, shows how important it is that we should "prove all things," while we "hold fast that which is good." If Christ is God, as essentially and most truly He is, then it equally follows that He is a Being to whom prayer is rationally, properly, and scripturally to be addressed. Who can reasonably doubt the Scripture warrant and propriety of addressing prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is acquainted with the history of the early Church, and is conversant with the numerous examples illustrating the fact? The informed reader will not fail to recall to mind the famous letter of Pliny addressed to the Emperor Trajan, furnishing an explicit and unbiased testimony to the practice and purity of the early Christians, especially as it bears upon the point in question- divine worship addressed to Christ. "When they were assembled together," says Pliny, "they sang a hymn to Christ as God."
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