Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2379
“Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look, one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get down there, and buy for us there; that we may live, and not die.” Genesis 42:1,2.
JACOB had reached an age in which natural vigor had gone out of him. He was getting very old and was worn and weary, yet here he seems to lead the way in providing for his family. It was he who spoke to the younger men, his sons, and urged them to go down into Egypt to buy food. Jacob was of a timorous disposition in his latter days—he had an old man’s fear of that which is high and the grasshopper had become a burden to him—yet he proposed to his sons that they should make a venturesome journey into Egypt! It was a great undertaking for them, for they were stay-at-homes, and not travelers. They were shepherds, whose time was occupied in looking after the welfare of their flocks, and not in roaming over foreign countries. They thought it would be a burdensome responsibility and a perilous risk to cross the desert and go down into Egypt, yet Jacob proposed this to them as the only way of escape from famine and death. Here is an instance in which an aged father woke up his sons to action by telling them good news and by chiding them because of their despairing looks and words.
I am going to use the passage in this way. There are many persons who are sitting down in a kind of stupor. They have no hope and, therefore, they are doing nothing at all. They need to be told the good and blessed tidings concerning salvation and to be urged to make a right use of that news and to avail themselves of the provision of which they are informed. I shall give myself, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, to the happy task of following out that line of thought under these three heads. First, despair is useless. “Why do you look, one upon another?” Secondly, hope is well-grounded. “I have heard that there is corn in Egypt.” Thirdly, action is reasonable. “Get you down there, and buy for us there; that we may live, and not die.”
I. First, DESPAIR IS USELESS.
I have never heard, yet, of anybody who derived any good from despair. Let me correct myself, there is a kind of despair which is the work of the Spirit of God. I wish that you all felt it—a despair of self-salvation, a despair of washing away your own sin, despair of obtaining any merit of your own by which you can become acceptable in the sight of God—but men never come to it unless the Spirit of God brings them. We are always ready to hope in ourselves with that self-conceited hope which is abhorrent to God. And it is a great mercy when, at last, the Spirit of God, like the hot blast of the Sirocco, passes over the green field and every flower therein is withered! What said the Prophet? “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness, thereof, is as the flower of the field: the grass withers, the flower fades: because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it: surely the people is grass.” That is a blessed kind of despair! But of any other sort of despair, in reference to eternal things, I cannot say anything that is good. I believe that Giant Despair has his dungeons full of the skeletons of men—he is a giant and devours those who come in his way—and he never helped a pilgrim on the road to the Celestial City. He never worked any good to any soul that came under his power. I cannot set you free from his grasp, but I can and do pray that the Spirit of God may deliver you out of his clutches!
These sons of Jacob looked upon one another despairingly, it seems, and their old father watched their looks till, at last, he asked them, “Why do you look, one upon another?” Their looks expressed great sadness. They had never before been in such a plight. No corn for the asses, no bread for the children, no food for themselves. Not one of them smiled,
but grim sadness sat on every countenance, and all their faces gathered blackness. One looked at his brother and saw that he was sad. And that brother looked at the next one and perceived that he was mournful and gloomy. The light of a man’s countenance is often like the shining of the sun—one bright face will make another full of joy and gladness—but when all the sons of Jacob were sad, their sadness was increased as they looked, one upon another. Now, when a man knows that he has no hope. When he feels that he cannot save himself. When he hungers for the Bread of Life and yet has none of it—when he looks to others who are in same case, and they only reply, “It is even so. We are also starving. We are lost”—well, then, it is a sad, sad business altogether.
Next, their faces expressed inability. Judah looked on Reuben and Reuben stared back at his brother, as much as to say, “Do not gaze at me, Judah, for I cannot do anything! I have emptied my last sack of corn.” Then Reuben looked across to Simeon and Simeon turned to Zebulon—and they all shook their heads and each one said—“It is no use looking to me. I cannot relieve you in this time of famine, even in the slightest degree. I have more than I can do to take care of my own wife and children.” So is it when one sinner looks upon another sinner. If really awakened to a true sense of his condition in the sight of God, each one says, “I cannot help you. I cannot even help myself.” There are a number of foolish virgins with their lamps all gone out, and they have not a drop of oil between them and, therefore, not one of them can help another. So, sadness and inability are both implied in old Jacob’s question to his sons, “Why do you look, one upon another?”