We may comfortably trust God with our safety, while we carefully keep to our duty. If God be our Guide, he will be our Guard.
3. He humbly acknowledges his own unworthiness to receive any favour from God, (v. 10.) I am not worthy; it is an unusual plea. Some would think he should have pleaded that what was now in danger, was his own, against all the world, and that he had earned it dear enough; no, he pleads, Lord, I am not worthy of it. Note, Self-denial and self-abasement will become us in all our addresses to the throne of grace. Christ never commended any of his petitioners so much as him who said. Lord I am not worthy, (Matt. 8. 8.) and her who said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table, Matt. 15. 27. Now observe here, (1.) How magnificently and honourably he speaks of the mercies of God to him. We have here, mercies, in the plural number, an inexhaustible spring, and innumerable streams; mercies and truth, that is, past mercies given according to the promise, and further mercies secured by the promise. Note, What is laid up in God's truth, as well as what is laid out in God's mercies, is the matter both of the comforts, and the praises, of active believers. Nay, observe, it is all the mercies, and all the truth; the manner of expression is copious, and intimates that his heart was full of God's goodness. (2.) How meanly and humbly he speaks of himself, disclaiming all thought of his own merit, "I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, much less am I worthy of so great a favour as this I am now suing for." Jacob was a considerable man, and, upon many accounts, very deserving, and, in treating with Laban, had justly insisted on his merits, but not before God. I am less than all thy mercies; so the word is. Note, The best and greatest of men are utterly unworthy of the least favour from God, and must be ready to own it upon all occasions. It was the excellent Mr. Herbert's motto, Less than the least of all God's mercies. Those are the best prepared for the greatest mercies, that see themselves unworthy of the least.
4. He thankfully owns God's goodness to him in his banishment, and how much it had out done his expectations. "With my staff I passed over this Jordan, poor and desolate like a forlorn and despised pilgrim;" he had no guides, no companions, no attendants, no conveniences for travel, but his staff only, nothing else to stay himself upon; "and now I am become two bands, now I am surrounded with a numerous and comfortable retinue of children and servants:" though it was his distress that had now obliged him to divide his family into two bands, yet he makes use of that for the magnifying of the mercy of his increase. Note, (1.) The increase of our families is then comfortable indeed to us, when we see God's mercies, and his truth, in it. (2.) Those whose latter end greatly increases, ought, with humility and thankfulness, to remember how small their beginning was. Jacob pleads, "Lord, thou didst keep me when I went out only with my staff, and had but one life to lose; wilt not thou keep me now that so many are embarked with me?"
5. He urges the extremity of the peril he was in. Lord, deliver me from Esau, for I fear him, v. 11. The people of God have not been shy of telling God their fears; for they know he takes cognizance of them, and considers them. The fear that quickens prayer, is itself pleadable. It was not a robber, but a murderer, that he was afraid of; nor was it his own life only that lay at stake, but the mother's and the children's, that had left their native soil to go along with him. Note, Natural affection may furnish us with allowable acceptable pleas in prayer.
6. He insists especially upon the promise God had made him, (v. 9.) Thou saidst, I will deal well with thee, and again in the close, (v. 12.) Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good. Note, (1.) The best we can say to God in prayer, is, what he has said to us. God's promises, as they are the surest guide of our desires in prayer, and furnish us with the best petitions, so they are the firmest ground of our hopes, and furnish us with the best pleas. "Lord, thou saidst thus and thus; and wilt thou not be as good as thy word, the word upon which thou hast caused me to hope? Ps. 119.49. (2.) The most general promises are applicable to particular cases. "Thou saidst, I will do thee good; Lord, do me good in this matter." He pleads also a particular promise, that of multiplying his seed. "Lord what will become of that promise, if they be all cut off?" Note, [1.] There are promises to the families of good people, which are improvable in prayer for family mercies, ordinary and extraordinary, ch. 17. 7. Ps. 112. 2.—102. 28. [2.] The world's threatenings should drive us to God's promises.
{{{1}}}13. And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand, a present for Esau his brother; 14. Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15. Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she-asses, and ten foals. 16. And he delivered them into the hands of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. 17. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou ? And whose are these before thee ? 18. Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. 19. And so commanded he the second and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, on this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him, 20. And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. 21. So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. 22. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women-servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. 23. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.}}
Jacob having previously made God his Friend by a prayer, is here prudently endeavouring to make Esau his friend by a present. He had prayed to God to deliver him from the hand of Esau, for he feared him; but neither did his fear sink into such a despair as disspirits for the use of means, nor did his prayer make him presume upon God's mercy, without the use of means. Note, When we have prayed to God for any mercy, we must second our pravers with our endeavours; else, instead of trusting God we tempt him; we must so depend upon God's providence, as to make use of
