GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN MARCH 1971

CLASSIS EAST SOURCE AMOUNT

Friend in Clifton Gift 100.00

Friend in Prospect Park Gift 10.00

CLASSIS MIDWEST

Friend in G. Rapids Gift 10.00

Friend in Kalamazoo Gift 5.00

In G.R. Ch. Col. Gift 75.00

In G.R. Ch. Col. Gift 25.00

Friend in G. Rapids Gift 50.00

Friend in G. Rapids Gift 10.00

In G.R. Ch. Col. Gift 75.00

In G.R. Ch. Col. Gift 25.00

CLASSIS WEST

Lover of the Truth

in the South Gift 10.00

Sheboygan Church Collection 281.00

Friend in Rock Valley Gift 10.00

Lovers of the Truth

in the South Gift 10.00

CLASSIS FARWEST

Ft. Maclead Mission Club Gift 450.00

Port Alberni Mission Gift 67.76

TOTAL: $1,213.76

Dear Friends,

Again through the goodness of the Lord we are priviledged to list a nice income for the mission. We also like to thank everyone for their kind support for the mission work. May the Lord bless you and your gift. Mission work is a command of the Lord unto His church to bring His word unto the ends of the earth. May the Lord by His spirit bind this important work upon all of our hearts. Not only financially but also prayerfully. Oh how far short we come in our responsibility for our fellowman. That we may be given the prayer “Oh, Lord rise help and redeem us for thy mercy sake.” Boys and girls, are you thinking about the mission work? But above all are you thinking about your own poor soul, that must be saved now in this time or lost eternally? We read in the Bible that wonderful text, “this is a faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of who I am the chief.” May we all be given to experience that to the glory of God and the well being of our immortal souls. May the Lord remember all our mission workers in their lonely stations. The Lord willing next month we hope to write something about the mission work. In this respect we hope to include the expenses for January, February and March.

EXPENSES FOR VARIOUS MISSION CAUSES

Inheritance Publishers 300.00

Banner of Truth for printing purposes 300.00

Gideons 150.00

Macedonian Mission Society 500.00

Speedee Service 150.00

Bethlahem Mission 50.00

Rev. Van Woerden, Rhodesia 500.00

Mission Meeting Expense 141.25

Wycliffe 100.00

Belgium Mission 300.00

Spaanse Evangelical Mission 300.00

Holland Mission Fund 3,000.00

Bethesda Clinic 300.00

Trinitarian Bible Society 300.00

Mission Aviation Fellowship 250.00

Jewish Mission 100.00

TOTAL: $6,741.25

Dear Friends, we hope this is a satisfactory report. Greetings from the mission committee.

American General Mission Fund

Netherland Reformed Churches

of American and Canada

John Spaans, Treasurer

Plankinton, S. Dak. 57368

TIMOTHY MISSION FUND

We acknowledge with hearty thanks the gifts received during the month of March totalling $46.00. Two checks were sent out during the month, each in the amount of $100, one to the American General Mission Fund in support of Miss Ann Herfst and the other to Mr. D. Polder in the Netherlands in support of Rev. Kuijt and his co-workers in West Irian. May these gifts yet be to His glory and to the salvation of many souls.

REPORT IN BRIEF OF A VISIT TO AFRICA —

As mentioned in a previous issue, Rev. A. Vergunst and Rev. L. Huisman visited Africa earlier this year as delegates of the Mission Board in the Netherlands. Regarding their trip, Rev. Vergunst wrote in the Paulus magazine — “Now that we have returned from our visit to Africa, we are glad to have an opportunity to inform you of our experiences. We had a very fascinating trip and were able to obtain much firsthand information regarding mission work in South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, and Rhodesia. The trip had many interesting aspects.

“In the first place the purpose of our trip was for information, that is, to inquire further regarding the possibility of a mission station in South Africa, about which we have had considerable previous correspondence with the mission authorities. In the second place, our contact with various mission stations in the above mentioned countries has given us a much broader insight into the problems connected with mission work. We have learned much more than would have been possible from many books about this subject. We are deeply convinced of the many sacrifices being made in these areas in order for persons to labor in such difficult circumstances for the work of the Lord.

“The visit to Nigeria was for us the high point of our trip, for there we could see the work of our own mission in the vicinity of the Bethesda Clinic. From the bottom of our heart we must write that we were greatly impressed by the work that has been performed there. We did not visualize it as it was. The Lord has caused the work to truly be of great importance for a large area. Hundreds of people are daily brought into contact with the Word of God through our clinic.”

Rev. Huisman also wrote briefly about the trip. “We have seen the need with our own eyes, and must say that it is unimaginable. The poverty, the suffering because of a lack of good food, and not any less, the lack of water, have filled us with deep concern. Much must yet be done there. The water supply for dry seasons must be improved upon. They have already drilled for water in various places, but there is still not sufficient water. Sometimes they can not go deep enough because of rock formations which they cannot penetrate. In other places they do not find sufficient water in the ground.

“We were especially impressed by the attention given as they listen to the Word of God. In every place where our mission workers give help, prayer is offered, Scripture is read, and a portion of Scripture is explained. Also in the church it was very quiet during the service, and a noticeable change has become evident in the lives of some of them.

“May the Lord continually fill our hearts with His love, for then shall also these labors, under His blessing, not be without fruit.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENT FROM WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS IN NEW GUINEA

Dear Mission Friends,

Recently we received word from the Santa Ana office of the gift of $50.00 from the Timothy Mission Fund to Wycliffe Bible Translators. As there are not many folk who are regularly supporting us at this time, your gift was put towards our “emergency support”. We would like to thank you for your share in translating the Scriptures here in New Guinea.

A couple of weeks ago you may have heard in the news of the death of the Steinkraus family here in New Guinea. They were living in a village in the Tifalmin valley near the border of West Irian. At three o’clock one Sunday afternoon there was a large and completely unexpected landslide which buried the whole village. Most of the villagers were away at the time, but seven of them were in the village and they were killed along with Walt and Vonnie Steinkraus and their two children.

For eight years we were living in the tribe next to the Steinkrauses, and translated a quarter of the New Testament into the Telefol language. However, at present we are assigned to headquarters here at Ukarumpa to help other translators with their language problems. Our four children are with us and are happy in their school work and with their friends.

May the Lord encourage you and make you a blessing to others.

Yours sincerely,

Phyllis and Alan Healey

(Territory of Papua and New Guinea)

NOTES OUT OF THE CATECHISM CLASSES OF REV.J. FRAANJE

Lesson 2 part 2 Continuing the subject on the Holy Scripture.

The devil, so to speak, uses God’s people for all sorts of ungodliness as long as he can. You see that clearly in the life of Paul. He persecuted the disciples who adhered to Jesus as being the true Messiah and threatened to kill them. In Acts 9:1 it is recorded, “And Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” This is the way the devil used Paul with God’s permission. But when the time was ripe that he must be converted, (speaking reverently) the Lord said to Satan “Get off that horse now, he is my possession. You have used him long enough for your purposes. Now I shall make use of Paul.”

It happened in this way. When Paul was traveling to Damascus to persecute the Christians, having been ordered to do so by the Highpriest at Jerusalem, he saw a bright light on the way and heard God’s voice. The Lord opposed him in what he was doing and, unexpectedly, converted him for His purposes.

So the page was turned over to the other side. The Jewish Highpriests, with all their wisdom, could not visualize that Paul, who had been so zealous for the law of Moses, would be writing fourteen Epistles to the various congregations wherein he proved that we cannot be saved by keeping the law.

Was not that a wonderful way God used to cause His Word to be written? There is not enough time to speak about it further.

In closing, Rev. Hellenbroek asks this question in our lesson:

“May and must we read the Holy Scriptures?”

His answer is “yes”, because Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures,” etc.

But to receive true profit of this searching, he says it must take place:

1. In the fear of God. 2. With a praying heart. 3. Reverently 4. Attentatively and with spiritual judgment.

Rev. Hellenbroek was not in agreement with the Roman Catholic church in that matter. They forbade the laymen of the church to read the Bible. The laymen are the common uneducated people of the church. These are permitted to know only parts of it.

The Lord taught otherwise. Not only is it permitted to read the Bible but it is also an obligation.

He emphatically tells us to search.

Even so, the Lord has shown that He can still master the Roman church. Though they had hurriedly burned all the Bibles during the middle ages, so that the Holy Scripture was no longer known to the common people, the Lord pierced those dense dark ages with the bright light of His Word. He placed this light upon a candlestick so that it shown round about.

When do you think it was brightest?

Of course, each of you knows the history of the reformation and Martin Luther very well, do you not?

Martin Luther was lead in a way not very different from that experienced by Moses and Paul of whom we just spoke.

If Luther had remained a mineworker like his father, he perhaps would never have found the Bible. But because of the wish of his father he studied at school. His father wanted him to become an important person who would eventually earn very much money. This is something he as a mineworker had never been able to do. It first appeared that his plan would fail. While Martin was at school he became so poor he had nothing to eat.

Out of necessity, he would have to come home and work with’his father. It was customary in those times that the boys of the families would go out to beg bread or earn it in this or that manner. Martin Luther had a nice voice and could sing quite well. So he tried to get some food by singing little songs as he passed by the homes.

After awhile his nice voice drew the attention of Ursula Cotta, a rich lady in the city of Eisenach. She invited him to eat at her home and told him he was welcome to come every day. In that way Martin could resume his education at school and by receiving sufficient food could study better too.

God had given him a bright mind and as a consequence he was qualified to enter the university at the early age of eighteen.

His father’s wish was nearing fulfillment. After only a few more years Martin would be a great man in the world.

But the Lord had intentions that differed with those of old Hans Luther.

A hundred years before this time there was a man by the name of John Hus who preached the truth and was burned to death for doing so. The name “Hus” means goose in the Bohemian language and before he died he said, as if it were prophecy, “A goose is a bird that cannot fly high but from the ashes of this goose there will arise an eagle that will soar high and will attract all other birds to himself.”

This prophecy would be fulfilled in Martin Luther.

He was still a strict Roman Catholic. But once, while he was studying, something happened that brought a change to his entire life.

A certain historian wrote that Luther was a great lover of books and spent many solitary hours at the library of the High School. Once while he was looking over the books on the shelves, he found a book that was completely different from all the others. He took it from its place and opened it. To his amazement, he saw that it was a Bible; a complete translation of the entire Bible in the Latin language.

This was the first time he had ever seen a complete Bible. The Roman church chose single passages from the scriptures which they continually read in the church in the Latin language. Luther had never known that more of the Bible existed.

You can understand how amazed he was when he found books and epistles in the Bible of which he had never heard. He read it through completely. It was God’s time and Luther felt as if a new life was opened for him. The historian relates, “When He came to the words, ‘He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,’ he cried out ‘0 God, these words of comfort are given also to poor students such as I.’ “

That was the beginning of the great change in his life.

It would take too long to tell the complete history of Luther now. I hope that all of you are acquainted with it. But, the conclusion was, that Martin, stirred by the word of God, went to seek rest in a monastary. In those days it was the only known means of finding peace. You must understand that this was not at all to the satisfaction of his old father Hans. Instead of earning lots of money, his son now shut himself up inside four walls. He reasoned that that can only be the instigation of the devil.

But the Lord knew very well what He had in store for Martin. His written Word had its power and would have still further effect.

Luther was to be the great reformer of the church in Germany and his earlier education would be of excellent use in his translation of the Latin Bible and his many writings against the Roman church.

Do you see now, boys and girls, the preciousness of the written Word?

Our class time is at an end.

I hope and wish that this Word might be a sharp two-edged sword to your young hearts as it was to Luther’s. Because, even if it is not required of you to become reformers, it will be necessary for each one to be arrested by that Word in a personal way.

Do not mock with God’s Word nor speak of it in an unholy way. Remember, it is God’s Word. Do not neglect to read and search in it while you are still able to do so. There was a time when men were punished with death for reading the Bible. People hid loose pages of it in their shoes and clothes to be able to read parts of that precious Word.

Who knows what fearful times you will have to experience when you become older. And even though it does not become precisely as it was in Luther’s time, yet the Word of God could be denied us too. So, read and search it now, while you are in the flower of life. May the Lord bless it. The Lord is calling to you every day saying “Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not”, even though you pay no attention to Him. Now you play and flit about like a butterfly from one flower to another. But children, you have such a precious soul to be saved for eternity.

May the Holy Spirit keep you restless, so that you can find no peace in the world without Christ.

You cannot ever be at peace with God, though, with merely an open conscience nor with just tears and good works.

Luther discovered that too. May you be taught as he was: That only the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God cleanses from all sins.

Now boys and girls, I wish that the Lord would apply all this to your heart for a blessing to your young but never dying souls.

Lesson 3 will begin in the next issue.

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

“Of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive”

Acts 25:19

And well might Paul affirm it; for Jesus, after his resurrection, had spoken to Paul from heaven! Well might John the beloved apostle, give the church his repeated evidence to it; for Jesus not only made his appearance to John, in common with the other apostles, but in the island of Patmos appeared to hirh alone, and proclaimed himself under those glorious distinctions of character: “Fear not, I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore!” (Rev. 17, 18). And well might Peter testify to the same, as he did in the family of Cornelius, when he had such indisputable proofs for himself and the rest of his brethren the apostles, who were “the chosen witnesses of his resurrection: we did eat and drink with him (saith Peter) after he arose from the dead” (Acts 10:41). But, my soul! notice in what contempt this blessed truth is spoken of by the Roman governor, how little esteemed, and less regarded by the world, is that doctrine which is thy life. And are there not thousands in the present hour, like Festus, who, even if they do profess a belief of Jesus resurrection, are like him, unconscious of its vital effects on their hearts; and as to any of the saving influences resulting from it in the. descent of the Spirit upon them, have “never so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost!” My soul! how wilt thou prove the resurrection of Jesus in thine own experience, that, like Paul, thou may est with equal confidence speak of this ONE JESUS, this only One, this blessed One, who was truly and indeed dead, but whom thou affirmest to be alive? Pause over the question, and then look into the real testimonies of it in thine heart. Remember what thy Jesus said as a promise which should take place soon after his resurrection and return to his Father, when redemption-work was finished: “I will send the Holy Ghost the Comforter. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 16:26). Hence, therefore, if the Holy Ghost is come, then is Jesus risen and ascended; and then hath the Father also most fully confirmed his perfect approbation of the righteousness and death of Jesus, as the Surety of his people, in raising him from the dead, setting him on his own right hand, and sending down the Holy Ghost, agreeably to Christ’s promise. And dost thou know all these things in thine own experience? Is Jesus thy resurrection and life? Hath he recovered thee by the quickening influences of his Holy Spirit, from death to life, and from the power of sin and Satan to the living God? Is he now the daily life giving, life-imparting, life-strengthening source of all thy faith, and life, and hope, and joy? Is it Jesus that becomes to thee as the dew unto Israel, reviving, like the dew of herbs, the dry and unpromising wintry state, where there is no vegetation, and causing thee to put forth the tender bud afresh, when, without his influence, everything in thee was parched and withered? Oh! then, do thou proclaim it far and near, and let every one witness for thee, in every circle in which thou art called to move, that that one glorious Jesus, which was once dead, thou affirmest to be alive, and liveth for evermore. Precious Lord Jesus! how blessed are those sweet words of thine to my soul: “And because I live, ye shall live also!”

THE TWO HOUSES

I once knew a rich man who determined to have a very large and beautiful house built for himself. He bought a lot of ground in a beautiful part of the city, and took great pains to have the house built in the best manner. There were many spacious rooms and wide halls. It was planned so as to be warm in winter, and cool in summer. No expense was spared to have it as comfortable and complete a dwelling as could be found. No doubt, he looked forward to many years of enjoyment in his new elegant house.

At the same time that this large house was preparing for himself and his family, he another built for them. And there was a great difference between the two; for the second house had but one small room for the whole family, and that room was mostly underground. It had, indeed, strong walls, and was built of marble, but it had no windows, and but one small door; and that was made of iron. Yes, these two houses were built for the same people. The one was the living family, the other for the dead. For the small low house is the vault into which their bodies are to be placed, as one after another shall be called away from life.

The vault was soon finished, and it was ready long before the large house. And into which of them do you think the rich owner himself went first to take up his abode? strange as it may seem, he was ready for the vault before the fine dwelling was ready for him; and many months before the spacious rooms of the new house were fit to be inhabited, its builder was laid in the narrow, dark, and cold apartment, which he will not leave until the earth shall give up its dead at the last day.

This is a fact which ought to draw the attention of the young, but also the older folks. To you every thing in life seems bright and happy, and promising great enjoyment, and you forget its end, or imagine it too far off to be thought of. The house of the living is so large and beautiful, that it hides from your sight the house of the dead. But remember that, like the man I have been telling you of, you may have to lie down in the grave before you have entered upon the pleasures of life which you are expecting. If you are wise, by the grace of God, you will seek to live in such a manner as to be prepared both for life and death: to enjoy the one, and not fear the other. Jesus the Savior has said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” This is true in the most important sense possible. The true believer, whose sins are pardoned, and who is accepted in Christ, has the promise of a house which is not made with hands, but is eternal; not in this perishable world - in the heavens; and the passage from this life to that is not to die as the world speaks of death; it is to fall asleep on earth, and awake with God.

Blessed testimony of Asaph:

To live apart from God is death,
‘Tis good His face to seek;
My refuge is the living God,
His praise I long to speak.

Submitted

A CONTRAST

A few years ago the following accident occurred, forcibly illustrating the solemn truth of the words of the Lord Jesus, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36,37.

Mr. V. lived in London, and enjoyed a moderate income. He was a man of education, and exercised a certain amount of influence over the circle in which he moved. Brought up only with the outward forms of religion, he imbibed, when between forty and fifty years of age, a strong tendency to atheistic principles. He read many infidel books, and at last openly declared that he denied the existence of God, and that he believed the Bible to be wholly untrue. Besides this, he denied the immortality of the soul, and frequently asserted that “when a man died there was an end of him altogether!”

Just at the time when these terrible opinions appeared to be firmly rooted in his mind, he received most unexpected news. His great-uncle, who had emigrated to New South Wales some years before Mr. V.’s birth, but who had had no communication with relatives in England after leaving the “old country”, and was long thought dead, had purchased land, which after the lapse of time, had grown very valuable. The property was situated in what had become the best part of one of the largest towns in New South Wales, handsome streets and squares having been built upon it. The owner had never married, and had died at a great age without a will.

Search was made for the “next of kin” and Mr. V., the freethinker, was discovered to be the rightful heir of the immence property, estimated being worth more than a million of money.

On the receipt of this intelligence, Mr. V. determined to go at once to Australia, and take possession in person of his newly acquired estates; and, consequently, preparations were made for the long voyage, Mrs. V. intending to accompany her husband.

The Asiatic cholera was at this time raging in the metropolis, and before the appointed day for leaving London had arrived, Mr. V. was seized with that direful malady. In a few hours symptoms of so alarming a nature set in that the doctor dared not delay to tell the unhappy sufferer that death was very near.

The scene which then took place in that bedroom can never be effaced from the memory of those who witnessed it. It was as if a thick veil had been suddenly torn from the mental vision of the wretched sceptic, revealing unto him the awful future — judgment, hell and never-ending torment.’ Where were now his often-repeated assertations that there was “no God”? Where were his infidel reasonings — his profane arguments? Gone, like a puff of smoke before the wind, in the presence of the dread reality DEATH.

His cries of agony could be heard all over the house, and even by those who walked past it. He frequently exclaimed, “There is a God! I know there is, and I am afraid to meet Him! The pains of hell are upon me, and I shall soon be there!” In less than twenty-four hours after he was taken ill he was a corpse.

Oh, may this mournful history be a warning to any reader who may be listening in any degree to Satan’s lies about the truth of God’s Word! Serpent-like, he first tempted Eve to doubt what God had said, and is now a “roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8.

As a pleasing contrast to this dark picture, let me mention the case of a dear old Christian, whom I saw more than once in the infirmary of a London workhouse.

When rising to take leave of a poor sick woman, to whom I had been reading, I observed an aged woman lying on the next bed, looking very earnestly at me. “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom I have been speaking?” said I. Her worn countenance lighted up immediately, and, drawing a small book from under her pillow, she opened it, and saying, “Please read that,” pointing to the verse: —

“The Savior’s precious blood
Hath made my title sure;
He passed thro’ death’s dark raging flood,
To make my rest secure.”

“Yes,” she said, with her feeble, trembling voice, “that’s it! after much soul trouble and soul-cries, He has made my rest secure, and all through His precious blood applied to my lost and guilty soul! I’m just lying here waiting — waiting to go to Him in the glory! O, that His chariot would come.”

Dear old Mrs. Wightman! There she lay, without an earthly friend, but intensely happy in the love of God.

Oh, my readers, ponder these two cases. It is “the fool” who hath said in his heart, “NO GOD.” Such is the language of folly, of madness, whether in the heart, unexpressed, or on the lips, or openly avowed.

From — Faithful Words.

THE UNFULFILLED WISH

“And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died,) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.”

— Genesis 35:18.

The delightful experience of Jacob at Peniel is the forerunner of a new trial. This happens more often. This is God’s usual dealing with His people. The Lord gives strength against the day of adversity. If they are going to meet with reverses, then usually before they come the faithful God proves that the soul can depend upon Him. And also this heavenly meeting and communion at Peniel must serve for this end, that Jacob shall meet the future with a firm faith in his Jehovah.

The Lord thus keeps His eye upon the exile; the exile who has banished himself out of the home, but who, notwithstanding his sins, is not banished by God, nor forgotten of Him. And the Holy Scriptures tell us this blessed truth, whichall Jacob’s spiritual seed shall know: His eye is upon thee! From the sight of that Eye — how painful and troublesome at times, but at the same time how fortunate — you can never hide yourself. He lets you go your own way sometimes … to run aground; but He shall never let you go! To get stuck in the snare of sin, serves to find the way back again finally.

We will now consider how the Lord strikes the covenanter Jacob in the heart. Jacob is an exile, he has been banished; yes, but he is also a special Covenant-child. And Jacob is such even in a very special sense, namely, as ancestor of the Covenant-people. In his generation it will be brought to light who his “spiritual seed” shall be, that is, who with Jacob shall live and speak out of the same faith.

It is for this reason that Jacob’s history is described in such detail for the Church. The sin of Jacob, O yes, it is lamentable that we see it also in the Covenant-people; this is not something extraordinary;but the other, namely, that wrestling with God, that bowing before and under God, those pleadings for God’s mercy and upon His promises — this is all of great value in the Kingdom of God.

Jacob had experienced a delightful time at Peniel. He had seen God face to face. The idols have been buried. There was nothing between God and his soul: it was all peace and unity. His soul had been drawn into heaven.

But . .. without realizing it himself, Jacob had saved an idol; this idol was Rachel. That whole marriage had been more or less a hindrance for his spiritual life. And Rachel shall — even after the burial of all the idols — yet stand continually between Jacob and God again. And this may not be! Therefore the Lord takes her away from Jacob’s side. Otherwise Jacob can not grow spiritually.

Pause here a few moments, my friends! There are at times sins with which we cannot part; which hold us as with iron chains; they are our dearest sins. If we cannot break with them, then God will break them for us, and that causes pain because therein a part of ourselves, of our life, will go along.

The sins which God does not find before our conversion. He will certainly find afterwards. Do not forget that He will surely find them! Do you understand this? We must not only be converted, but also remain converted; and this is the most difficult.

See it in Jacob. There is a grave of idols at Shechem. This grave he has dug with great delight and zeal. But now — on the way to Ephrath — there another idol’s grave is added, and this causes his heart to bleed and ache.

Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. She brings forth her second son. He is the cause of her death. Not long ago she had angrily and presumptuously cried out: “Give me children, or else I die!” She now has children, and she now must die!

The midwife encourages her and says: “Fear not; thou shalt have this son also!” But Rachel knows better; she utters in groans and fears her death anguish. This child is her ruin. This son (and therein all the despair of her soul is expressed) must be called “Benoni,” that is, “The son of my sorrow”; or we would say in our Dutch language, “unfortunate child.” The child is born, and in bringing him forth, Rachel perishes. The flesh perishes with it.

And now think again about the well-known prophecy as we find it in Jeremiah 31:15. The descendants of Jacob have gone into banishment, being on the road to destruction. And the lamentation of Rachel, the lamentation of the flesh that perishes, was heard again. But the “son” is saved: the seed of the Covenant is also preserved in Babel.

And now lay next to this, the account of the murder of the infants by Herod at Bethlehem. Matthew refers to the prophecy of Jeremiah. There the desperate mothers cry and lament; again they raise the threnody of Rachel, the cry of lamentation for the dead. The flesh must perish and go down again; but the son, (mark this!), the Son is being saved!

Now behold that thus Jacob is deprived of his most beloved wife. With the sharpest arrow the Lord God has pierced the covenanter in the heart. Not long before, Jacob had erected a memorial at Bethel. Then it was all light and glory! He now must erect his second memorial upon Rachel’s grave. It is now all dark.

Jacob’s great inward conflict, standing by this grave, is similar to that which Asaph experienced, as we find in Psalm 73, who also did not understand why “waters of a full cup were wrung out to him.”

“But I with flowing tears
Indulg’d my doubts to rise;
‘Is there a God that sees or hears
The things below the skies?’
The tumults of my thought
Held me in hard suspense;
Till to Thy house my feet were brought,
To learn Thy justice thence.”

This complaint, this lamentation and mourning is not the end, however. The idol has been taken away from him so that the Lord shall be and shall remain his only God; that also his lamentation shall be changed into the song of praise: “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee”; nay, also not Rachel.

The exile is a covenanter; and the covenanter becomes a penitent. Let us consider this yet: How the Lord brings the penitent upon his right place.

Jacob knows that Rachel wanted the child to be called Benoni: “the son of my sorrow — unfortunate child.” This is Rachel’s testament, her last will. And we know that the last word and wish of a dying person is at all times sacred unto us. No one shall without great necessity neglect to fulfil it. It is the last thing we can do to show our love and attachment to our beloved ones who have died.

If Jacob shall now respect the dying wish of his beloved Rachel, then he must give the child the name of Benoni. Rachel depended upon this without a doubt. And why would Jacob herein not be willing to grant her desire?

But before Jacob writes this name in the family register, something takes place.

Jacob has felt the arrow which the Lord shot at his heart. This leads him to a good discovery, to repentance, contrition, and purification. The Lord is sure to always attain His purpose in and with His children. And all who fear the Lord know it well, that if the Lord chastises them, His whiplashes will at all times drive them in the right direction. His arrows will never miss.

Just so with Jacob. He at once observes very clearly that Rachel’s death means the demolition of his last idol. And … he thanked God for it! because the Holy Ghost performed it in his heart.

What precisely has been transacted between God and Jacob is not recorded with so many words in our Bible. The Holy Scripture usually spreads a veil over intimate meetings. If David, after his fall, comes to repentance; if Manasseh meets and finds the God of his father in the prison; if Peter meets his Savior after His resurrection — you do not read anything about what has then been spoken, bewailed, and confessed. Confession of sin and forgiveness remain a sweet secret, spoken about privately, and not accessible to any third party. The Lord our God is in this respect more merciful than people.

But the conclusion of our text, however, puts the thread into our hands, because from that it seems that Jacob has wrestled with God again; that it has come again to a clinging to his Redeemer: “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.”

A new fight of faith has been fought. Then Jacob knew it: Rachel’s death has become his life; her being taken away is his surrender and delivery. And he now does something that is directly against flesh and blood. He now commits a deed which faith alone is able to perform; a deed which only a child of God can do. This deed: Jacob did not comply with Rachel’s wish in respect to the name of the child! Through the grace of God, with a firm resolution he refused to name the child Benoni. Beholding the grave just dug for her, he answers Rachel, “No.” And, staring at the high heaven, he said to the Lord, “Yes!”

The idol has been buried!

Jacob here puts into practice: Whoso loves father or mother, wife or child above Me, is not worthy of Me. His youngest son shall not be called Benoni, but Benjamin. He shall not be called, “son of my sorrow,” but “son of my right hand, of strength.” Or, to speak simply and clearly, in him shall not live on the thought of “unfortunate child,” but of the “fortunate child.” Jacob has understood very well why Rachel had to be taken away from him. He has again found the paternal heart of His Father in heaven, and in that way salvation and happiness. Thus, his child shall have the name of Benjamin.

Is Jacob now delivered from this idolatry for good? Did he never make an idol of Rachel again? Has he — in a manner of speaking — let Rachel henceforward lay in her grave? Whoso believes this, does not yet know the depths and the depravity of the heart of man. We said at another time: Jacob’s sinful nature had been cut off at the root, but the root itself yet remained. God’s children in this life shall never be totally delivered from this root of sin and evil.

So it was with Jacob. Gradually the pleasant image of Rachel becomes alive before him again. This is very clear when we consider that he bestows all the love he had towards Rachel upon Jospeh. Joseph becomes the spoiled boy, his tender, cherished little plant — his revived idol! Joseph receives a coat of many colors, and such exceptional treatment, that his brothers become jealous about it. This is all because Jacob sees in Joseph his Rachel again.

But the Lord knows how to find Jacob, because He will not let go what His hand has begun. Suddenly his Joseph — and that also in a way of deceit! — is torn from the flesh. Again the idol must fall!

And yet Jacob is not finished learning the heavenly lesson. Still more instruction is necessary in self-denial. Now Benjamin becomes his darling. When the famine was sore in the land, com was to be obtained in Egypt. Thence the brothers go for the preservation of life. But this stern vicegerent has his head set upon seeing Benjamin. How hard it was for Jacob to see him go. Again the idol must fall!

Upon his deathbed, yes, then Jacob does not see his idol any more. He has now let his Rachel go for good. The ties are unbound. When he arranges his funeral, he then does not say: “I want to be buried on the way to Ephrath, next to my beloved Rachel.” No! Against the expectation of the flesh, it is heard from his dying lips: “Bury me in the cave of Machpelah, because there I have buried Leah!” Then the penitent came perfectly upon his right place. The glory of God’s power in Jacob’s life: sovereign grace and love. His Shiloh came to give him eternal rest in heaven.

Perhaps the most of our readers have the sign of the covenant on their foreheads, but are you a covenanter, as Jacob was? That you truly fear the Lord and belong to the sanctified seed of Jacob, cannot be read on your forehead. The important thing is, whether or not you have received some knowledge of the wrestlings of faith as seen in Jacob, and if you therein tread in his footsteps.

You are all sinners, as he was. But… do you know that struggle to subdue and overcome sin in you? Have you come as Jacob, as a guilty soul before God, confessing and bewailing your sins? Have you learned to let your soul sink in His sovereign grace? Is it your will, if being tried, to lose all things — your own life? Do you want to bury your idols? Your dearest idol also?

In one word: Did you cross out the name Benoni? And did you learn to write with the hand of faith in place of it, Benjamin?

If not, and things shall not change in your favor, you shall then with Rachel lament, groan, and sink forever into woe!

If so, blessed are you!

“Happy is the man that chooses
Israel’s God to be his aid;
He is blest whose hope of blessing
On the Lord his God is stayed.”
A pilgrim, like Jacob

(A Translation)

What, — is Christ to give everything for us, and we suffer no loss for Him? What, — is He to humble Himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and we never resign the least thing for conscience sake out of love to Him? Is this mutual affection? O dying sinner, shall the Son of God and Son of Man give Himself for thee, and yet such is thy hardened state and condition, that thou wilt never give up a mere trifle out of conscience for Him, to manifest thy love to Him? A base business this!

— Daniel Smart, 1856

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