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Patriarchs and Prophets
Every soul is elected who will work out his own salvation with fear
and trembling. He is elected who will put on the armor and fight the
good fight of faith. He is elected who will watch unto prayer, who will
search the Scriptures, and flee from temptation. He is elected who will
have faith continually, and who will be obedient to every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The provisions of redemption are
free to all; the resultsof redemption will be enjoyed by those who have
complied with the conditions.
Esau had despised the blessings of the covenant. He had valued
temporal above spiritual good, and he had received that which he
desired. It was by his own deliberate choice that he was separated
from the people of God. Jacob had chosen the inheritance of faith.
He had endeavored to obtain it by craft, treachery, and falsehood; but
God had permitted his sin to work out its correction. Yet through all
the bitter experience of his later years, Jacob had never swerved from
his purpose or renounced his choice. He had learned that in resorting
to human skill and craft to secure the blessing, he had been warring
against God. From that night of wrestling beside the Jabbok, Jacob
had come forth a different man. Self-confidence had been uprooted.
Henceforth the early cunning was no longer seen. In place of craft and
deception, his life was marked by simplicity and truth. He had learned
the lesson of simple reliance upon the Almighty Arm, and amid trial
and affliction he bowed in humble submission to the will of God. The
baser elements of character were consumed in the furnace fire, the
true gold was refined, until the faith of Abraham and Isaac appeared
undimmed in Jacob.
The sin of Jacob, and the train of events to which it led, had not
failed to exert an influence for evil—an influence that revealed its
bitter fruit in the character and life of his sons. As these sons arrived
at manhood they developed serious faults. The results of polygamy
were manifest in the household. This terrible evil tends to dry up the
very springs of love, and its influence weakens the most sacred ties.
The jealousy of the several mothers had embittered the family relation,
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the children had grown up contentious and impatient of control, and
the father’s life was darkened with anxiety and grief.
There was one, however, of a widely different character—the elder
son of Rachel, Joseph, whose rare personal beauty seemed but to reflect
an inward beauty of mind and heart. Pure, active, and joyous, the lad