Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1544
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 20, 1880
“And Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.” Genesis 32:1,2.
“And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds and basins and earthen vessels and wheat and barley and flour and parched corn and beans and lentiles and parched seeds and honey and butter and sheep and cheese of kine, for David and for the people that were with him, to eat, for they said, The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.” 2Samuel17:27229.
LET us go even unto Mahanaim and see these great sights. First, let us go with Jacob and see the two camps of angels and then with David to observe his troops of friends. Jacob shall have our first consideration. What a varied experience is that of God’s people! Their pilgrimage is over a shifting sand; their tent is always moving and the scene around them always changing. Here is Jacob, at one time contending for a livelihood with Laban, playing trick against trick in order to match his father-in-law. Then he prospers and determines to abide no more in such servitude. He flees, is pursued, debates with his angry relative and ends the contention with a truce and a sacrifice. This unseemly family warfare must have been a very unhappy thing for Jacob, by no means tending to raise the tone of his thoughts, or sweeten his temper, or ennoble his spirit.
What a change happened to him when, the next day, after Laban had gone, Jacob found himself in the presence of angels! Here is a picture of a very different kind—the churl has gone and the cherubs have come—the greedy taskmaster has turned his back and the happy messengers of the blessed God have come to welcome the Patriarch on his return from exile! It is hard to realize, to the full, the complete transformation. Such changes occur in all lives but, I think, most of all in the lives of Believers. Few passages across the ocean of life are quite free from storm, but the redeemed of the Lord may reckon upon being tossed with tempest even if others escape. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Yet trials last not forever—clear shining comes after rain.
Change always works. We pass from storm to calm, from breeze to hurricane—we coast the shores of peace and then we are driven upon the sandbanks of fear. Nor need we be surprised, for were there not great changes in the life of our Lord and Master? Is not His life as full of hills and valleys as ours possibly can be? We read of His being baptized in Jordan and then and there visited by the Spirit who descended upon Him like a dove—then was His hour of rest. Who can tell the restfulness of Jesus’ spirit when the Father bore witness concerning Him, “This is My beloved Son”? But, we read directly afterwards, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” From the descent of the Holy Spirit to dire conflict with the devil is a change, indeed!
But another change followed it, for when that battle had been fought out and the triple temptation had been tried upon our Lord in vain, we read again, “Then the devil left Him and behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.” In a short space our Lord’s surroundings had changed from heavenly to diabolical and again from satanic to angelic. From Heaven to the manger, from walking the sea to hanging on the Cross, from the sepulcher to the Throne—what changes are these! Can we expect to build three tabernacles and tarry in the mountain when our Lord was thus tossed to and fro?
Beloved, you will certainly find that the world is established upon the floods and is therefore ever moving. Never reckon upon the permanence of any joy and thank God you need not dread the continuance of any sorrow. These things
come and go and go and come—and you and I, so far as we have to live in this poor whirling world, must be removed to and fro as a shepherd’s tent and find no city to dwell in. If this happen not to our habitations it will certainly happen in our feelings. From of old “the evening and the morning were the first day” and, “the evening and the morning were the second day.” The alternation of shade and sunshine, of setting and rising are from the beginning. Dawn, noon, afternoon, evening, darkness, midnight and a new morning follow each other in all things. So must it be—there is a need for clouds and showers and morning glories, “until the day break and the shadows flee away,” when we shall be fitted to bask in the beams of everlasting noon.
In the case before us we see Jacob in the best of company. Jacob, not cheated in Mesopotamia, but honored in Maha-naim. Jacob, not trying to outwit Laban, but gazing upon celestial spirits. He was surrounded by angels and he knew it. His eyes were open so that he saw spirits who, in their own nature, are invisible to human eyes. He became a Seer and was enabled by the inward eye to behold the hosts of shining ones whom God had sent to meet him. It is a great privilege to be able to know our friends and to discern the hosts of God. We are very apt, indeed, to realize our difficulties and to forget our helps. Our allies are all around us, yet we think ourselves alone. The opposition of Satan is more easily recognized than the succor of the Lord. Oh to have eyes and hearts opened to see how strong the Lord is on our behalf!