“I will not leave thee”

“Behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.”- Genesis 28:15

Here we have this promise in the case of a man of trials. More than either Abraham or Isaac, Jacob was the son of tribulation. He was now flying away from his father’s house, leaving the over-fondness of a mother’s attachment, abhorred by his elder brother, who sought his blood. He lies down to sleep, with a stone for his pillow, with the hedges for his curtains, with the earth for his bed, and the heavens for his canopy; and as he sleeps thus friendless, solitary, and alone, God saith to him “I will never, never leave thee.” Mark his after career: He is guided to Padan-aram; God, his guide, leaves him not. At Padan-aram Laban cheats him, wickedly and wrongfully cheats him in many ways; but God doth not leave him, and he is more than a match for the thievish Laban. He flees at last with his wives and children; Laban, in hot haste pursues him, but the Lord does not leave him; Mizpah’s Mount bears witness that God can stop the pursuer and change the foe into a friend. Esau comes against him; let Jabbok testify to Jacob’s wrestling, and through the power of Him who never did forsake His servant, Esau kisses his brother, whom once he thought to slay. Anon Jacob dwells in tents and booths at Succoth; he journeys up and down throughout the land, and his sons treacherously slay the Shechemites. Then the nations round about seek to avenge their death, but the Lord again interposes, and Jacob is delivered. Poor Jacob is bereaved of his sons. He cries-“Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and now ye will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me.” But they are not against him; God has not left him, for He has not yet done everything that He had spoken to him of. The old man goes into Egypt; his lips are refreshed while he kisses the cheeks of his favourite son, Joseph, and until the last, when he gathers up his feet in the bed and sings of that coming Shiloh and the scepter that should not depart from Judah, good old Jacob proves that in six troubles God is with His people, and in seven He doth not forsake them; that even to hoar hairs He is the same, and until old age He doth carry them. You Jacobs, full of affliction, you tried and troubled heirs of heaven, He hath said to you, each one of you-oh! believe Him! – “I will never leave thee; I will never forsake thee.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0477.cfm

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