Jacob's Remembrance of Past Blessings
C. Bradley, M. A. Genesis 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which you have showed to your servant… I. JACOB'S THANKFUL REMEMBRANCE OF HIS PAST BLESSINGS. II. THE SOURCE TO WHICH JACOB HERE TRACES HIS BLESSINGS, 1. He refers his blessings first to the mercy of God; for observe, he calls them mercies, and this shows us that he traced them all to God's free bounty and grace. 2. But the patriarch mentions also here, the truth of God. He couples it, you observe, with mercy, and this blending together of these two things as the source of our mercies is very remarkable in Scripture. "Not unto us, O Lord," says David, "not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake." "God will send forth His mercy and truth." "Mercy and truth are met together." "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." And in Jacob's case the connection between these two things is very plain. He deserved nothing of God; whatever, therefore, God bestowed on him came from God's mercy. But God promised to bestow many blessings on him; these blessings, therefore, when bestowed might be said to come also from God's truth. Mercy made the promise and prepared the blessings; truth fulfilled the promise and sent the blessings. III. THE TIME WHEN JACOB THUS REMEMBERED HIS BLESSINGS. We well know when we remember mercies; it is generally when they are first given us, and the heart is warmed and glowed by the first possession of them. And very little disappointment and vexation will, almost at any time, drive away all our thankfulness for them. Men, generally, never dream, when they get into trouble, of taking up the language of praise. But look back to the circumstances under which this patriarch thus thinks of mercy and truth. If we went no farther than the text, we should say he has just received some new proof of God's love to him. There he is, we should say, once again travelling, with joy and gladness, his native plains, and pitching his tent there in security and peace. But not exactly thus; he is in an extremity, and a very painful one. And yet, before any deliverance or any prospect of deliverance appears, we hear Jacob talking of mercy and truth; and he blesses God for His past goodness. IV. THE EFFECT PRODUCED IN JACOB BY THE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS MERCIES — OR ONE OF THE EFFECTS. I allude to this, a deep sense of his own unworthiness and nothingness. "I am less than all Thy mercies" — less, not only than the most signal of them, but less than any, the least of them; I cannot think of any one of them that is not larger than I am. He seems to dwindle away to nothing in his own view as he contemplates God's mercy towards him. There is no proportion between these mercies and myself; it is not only mercy, but abundant, marvellous mercy, that has bestowed them on me. And what has brought him into this state of feeling is, doubtless, a vivid remembrance at this time of those mercies. As his mind ran over them from year to year, tracing their multitudes and ways, there was something connected with them which he could not pass over — the vileness and nothingness of the creature on whom they had been bestowed. He thought, perhaps, of the baseness of his conduct which had driven him at first from his father's house; but, if that did not enter his mind, he thought, doubtless, of the ingratitude and many sins that had stained him since. A sense of God's love towards you lays you humble; and there is a tradition among the Jews, that all through his life this man was kept down. It is said, as a proof of his humility, that he had in his hand the staff which he carried with him over Jordan, when he went to Padan-aram; that he never afterwards parted with his staff; that it was upon this he leaned when he blessed the sons of Joseph, and that it was lying by him when he died. Now, let me ask you, Do you understand this truth? Have you ever experienced anything like it? Have the mercies of God towards yourselves ever made you shiver, as it were, from a sense of your guiltiness and nothingness? (C. Bradley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. WEB: I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.