In the Worldwide Bible Class this morning we covered a remarkable portion of Luther’s Genesis commentary.
Here’s the context. Jacob is returning to the promised land. Esau is coming to meet him with an army of 400 soldiers. Jacob sends his family across the river in two camps, and then wrestles with the Lord Jesus through the night. At last, as the sun is rising, Jacob overcomes, and the Lord turns His face and kindness toward Jacob. Luther understands that this change occurred not only in the Lord, but also in Esau, and now Jacob’s tribulations are over. Faith has conquered.
Jacob then meets a friendly Esau, they exchange gifts, and Jacob and his family settle peacefully in Sukkoth.
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Luther notes:
At last, therefore, after his servitude, exile, and so many labors and temptations, God grants peace and rest to the patriarch Jacob so that he can live in safety and tranquillity with his family and flocks and care for his property in the domestic sphere as it becomes a father of a household. Accordingly, he builds a house, teaches, and governs.
The Holy Spirit regards it as worthy to describe all such matters so carefully, first, that He might show this change in the life of the saints in which tribulations and consolations are accustomed to succeed each other in turn just as in nature there are changes of day and night, winter and summer. God exercises the saints with great kindness and mercy that they may not become dull in peace and tranquillity and that they may not become heartbroken in adversity. The cross is necessary to humble the flesh so that it does not rebel and exercise dominion over the spirit. But affliction which is without an end or breathing spaces would shatter the spirit and drive it to despair. Therefore God in His wonderful goodness tempers these according to Paul’s rule in 1 Cor. 10:13: “God is faithful, and He will not let us be tempted beyond our strength.” Often, indeed, He allows temptation to reach its peak and the stage of ineffable groaning (cf. Rom. 8:26), but nevertheless with the temptation He also makes a way of escape, so that we do not succumb but are able to bear it, as Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:9: “We are struck down but not destroyed, etc.”
This is the doctrine of the entire Holy Scripture, which is set forth in this passage in the example of Jacob, namely, that there are alternations of tribulation and consolation for this reason, that the body of sin may be mortified and that it may not be exalted by pride, and then that the spirit may not be devoured by sorrow and exhausted by terrors. It is God’s will that precautions be taken against both courses, that we should not be proud according to the flesh and not despair according to the spirit but that we should proceed by the middle way between sorrow and joy, between boasting and disgrace. For in this way the patriarch Jacob had many temptations, but after all these he received consolation when he saw God’s face and that of his brother appeased. For after he crossed Penuel, his life was preserved, the night was past, and the sun shone forth. A little later another temptation will follow.
There is a second reason why the Holy Spirit set forth these matters, namely, to testify that all the works of the saints, however lowly and childish they may be, are pleasing and acceptable as good fruits in the sight of God. Included are not only those sublime theological virtues like contests with death, sins, and other temptations and the victories over the same fraught with great perils, but even those lowly, domestic, and humble services, so that we may learn to regulate our life in this manner that we may be certain that we are pleasing to God in all our acts of duty. I do not always pray, nor do I always meditate on the Law of the Lord and struggle continually with sin, death, and the devil; but I put on my clothes, I sleep, I play with the children, eat, drink, etc. If all these things are done in faith, they are approved by God’s judgment as having been done rightly.
(LW 6:178-180)
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By tribulation the Lord puts away the body of sin and keeps us from pride.
By consolation the Lord keeps us from sorrow and distress.
The result is repentance and faith, a confidence in the Lord’s great love for us.
Christ is risen!
PrBW
