Ver. 1. And came to Beersheba.] A place, (1.) Consecrated to God’s worship; (2.) Where he and his fathers had met God, and received many mercies; (3.) That lay in his way from Hebron to Egypt. But say it had been out of his way; yet it had been nothing out of his way to go thither and seek God. A whet is no let; a bait by the way no hindrance; the oiling of the wheel furthers the journey. As it is, Tithe, and be rich; so, Pray, and be prosperous. But say it should be some prejudice; Is it not wisdom to make God’s service costly to us? Cannot he make us amends? “give us much more than the hundred talents?” (2 Chronicles 25:9) Is anything lost by his service? Prayer furthers thrift. The night of Popery will shame many of us; who in their superstitious zeal had this proverb, Mass and meat hindereth no man’s thrift. The very heathen offered sacrifices when they took journeys, as Festus witnesseth. Fest., lib. xiv.
Ver. 2. Here am I.] Josephus tells us, he said, Who is there? He seems never seriously to have read the Bible; but only in transcursu, et quasi aliud agens. Is not that then a proper excuse for the Church of Rome’s sacrilege, in robbing the common people of the Holy Scriptures, that she allows them to read Josephus, where they may find the history of the Old Testament more plainly and plentifully set forth than in the Bible! But Barclay, that made this apology, was of the mind, belike, of Walter Mapes, sometime archdeacon of Oxford, who, relating the gross simony (traffic in sacred things) of the Pope, for confirming the election of Reginald, bastard son to Jocelin, bishop of Sarum into the see of Bath, concludes his narration thus: Sit tamen domina materque nostra Roma baculus in aqua fractus, et absit credere quae vidimus; howbeit, far be it from us to believe our own eyes. Antiq., lib. i. Quod vero ad historiam Vet. Test. eam fuse et magis ex vulgi intellectu in Iosepho inveniunt. -Barcl. Paraen. Dr Sanderson.
Ver. 3. Fear not to go down into Egypt.] Cause of fear he might see sufficient; but God would have him not to look downward on the rushing and roaring streams of miseries that ran so swiftly under him and his posterity, but steadfastly fasten on his power and providence, who was his God, and the God of his father. He loves to perfect his strength in our weakness; as Elijah would have the sacrifice covered with water, that God’s power might the more appear in the fire from heaven.
Ver. 4. I will go down with thee.] That was as good security as could be. For if Caesar could say to the fearful ferryman, in a terrible storm, Be of good cheer, thou carriest Caesar, and therefore canst not miscarry; how much more may he presume to be safe that hath God in his company! A child in the dark fears nothing while he hath his father by the hand. And I will also surely bring thee up again.] So saith God to his dying people when they are to enter into the grave. He will surely bring them back from the jaws of death to the joys of eternal life. Yea, by rotting, he will refine their frail bodies; as the goldsmith melts a picture of gold, or bruised piece of plate that is out of fashion, to make it up better. And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.] An ancient and an honourable custom, in use among the Romans also, as Pliny tells us. The eyes are commonly open, lift up to heaven, when men are dying; unless they be such as that pope was, who, breathing out his last, said, Now I shall know whether the soul be immortal, or not. Or that desperate advocate in the court of Rome, mentioned by Bellarmine, who, dying, used these words, Ego propero ad inferos, neque est, ut aliquid pro me agat Deus. But Jacob had hope in his death; and Joseph had the honour of closing up those eyes, that shall shortly “see God” again “in the flesh.” (Job 19:26) Perge contra tempestatem forti animo: Caesarem fers, et fortunam Caesaris. Sic Benedic. IX, Alexander VI, and Leo X.— Bell., De Arte Moriendi, lib. ii. cap. 10.
Ver. 5. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba.] The word “rose up” is emphatical, and imports that his heart was lightened, and his joints oiled and nimbled, as it were, with the heavenly vision. As when he had seen God at Bethel, he “lift up his feet,” and went on his way lustily; (Genesis 29:1) so here, as fast as his old legs would carry him; as Father Latimer said to Ridley, when they were going to the stake. And as it is recorded of good old Rawlins White, martyr; that whereas before he was wont to go stooping, or rather crooked, through infirmity of age, having a sad countenance and very feeble complexion, and, with it, very soft in speech and gesture; now he went and stretched up himself, not only bolt upright, as he went to the stake, but also bare, with it, a most pleasant and comfortable countenance, not without great courage and audacity, both in speech and behaviour. In like sort, Jacob here, having sought God, and received a gracious promise of his presence and protection, rose up merrily from Beersheba, and doubts not to follow God whithersoever he shall lead him. Act. and Mon. Ibidem, fol. 1415.