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their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to
terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless; that their
sins have been too great to receive pardon. They will have a deep
sense of their shortcomings, and as they review their lives their hopes
will sink. But remembering the greatness of God’s mercy, and their
own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through
Christ to helpless, repenting sinners. Their faith will not fail because
their prayers are not immediately answered. They will lay hold of the
strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and the language of
their souls will be, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.”
Had not Jacob previously repented of his sin in obtaining the
birthright by fraud, God could not have heard his prayer and mer-
cifully preserved his life. So in the time of trouble, if the people of
God had unconfessed sins to appear before them while tortured with
fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed; despair would cut off
their faith, and they could not have confidence to plead with God for
deliverance. But while they have a deep sense of their unworthiness,
they will have no concealed wrongs to reveal. Their sins will have
been blotted out by the atoning blood of Christ, and they cannot bring
them to remembrance.
Satan leads many to believe that God will overlook their unfaith-
fulness in the minor affairs of life; but the Lord shows in His dealing
with Jacob that He can in no wise sanction or tolerate evil. All who en-
deavor to excuse or conceal their sins, and permit them to remain upon
the books of heaven, unconfessed and unforgiven, will be overcome
by Satan. The more exalted their profession, and the more honorable
the position which they hold, the more grievous is their course in the
sight of God, and the more certain the triumph of the great adversary.
Yet Jacob’s history is an assurance that God will not cast off those
who have been betrayed into sin, but who have returned unto Him with
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true repentance. It was by self-surrender and confiding faith that Jacob
gained what he had failed to gain by conflict in his own strength. God
thus taught His servant that divine power and grace alone could give
him the blessing he craved. Thus it will be with those who live in the
last days. As dangers surround them, and despair seizes upon the soul,
they must depend solely upon the merits of the atonement. We can do
nothing of ourselves. In all our helpless unworthiness we must trust
in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. None will ever perish