The principles of the Divine preference.
These are seen—
I. IN THE GREATER LOVE OF GOD FOR ZION THAN FOR ALL THE DWELLINGS OF JACOB. Not a few of those dwellings were spacious, magnificent, wealthy, adorned, and inhabited by men who feared God; but yet, because in Zion God's glory was more revealed, his grace seen, his truth declared, his people blessed, and because there that in man which God ever most of all delights in—the spiritual life, the life of trust, of love, of devotion to God—found its chief nourishment, expression, and delight, therefore the Lord loved the gates of Zion more, etc.
II. IN THE CHARACTERS GOD APPROVES. The name of Jacob suggests one of these at first sight apparently strange preferences. "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated." How many people have been puzzled over that statement, endorsed as it is by the actual dealing of God with the two men? Esau was a man richly endued with gifts such as men everywhere have highly esteemed. He had courage, affection, generosity, strength; whilst Jacob too seldom shows any quality which wins our admiration, and far too often he is guilty of that which excites contempt. And yet the Lord preferred him. The reason was that in him, however encrusted with what was sordid, base, and mean, there was yet the germ and seed, the potency and promise, of the life of God in his soul. There were reverence of and trust in God, and the yearning after the better life; there were the seeds of the life eternal, and they so sprang up at last that God's chosen name for himself was, "I am the God of Jacob." But in Esau, with all his magnificence, courage, and other virtues, there does not seem to have been anything of the kind.
III. IS THE COMPOSITION OF THE SCRIPTURES. What large space is given to what in human esteem seems the chronicling of very small affairs; whilst of the great empires, events, and personalities of the world, scarce any note is taken—none at all, except when and because they are brought into contact with the people of God! But for that they would have been passed over in complete silence. Palestine—what a little shred of the earth's surface it is! The Jews—what an insignificant people they have always been! Their great men—Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, and the rest—how small to ordinary human sight they appear! But how colossal were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and their heroes! Yet we learn scarce anything of them from the Bible. And the explanation is the same: in the little land, and amongst the despised people, the life of God was to be found as it was not in all the mighty ones of the world.
IV. IN OUR LORD'S PREFERENCE OF GRACE TO GIFTS. (See Luke 10:20.) His disciples were exultant over their gifts, but he tells them to rejoice rather in that grace which was the common inheritance of every faithful disciple. Gifts did not, and do not necessarily, carry along with them the life of God in the soul; but grace always does.
V. IS THE ORDERING OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE. What a series of changes does the history of the world show! Empires rising, falling, disappearing. What a fragment of the history of the whole is all that the most learned know! Oblivion has covered the records of well nigh all peoples. They had their day; were doubtless thought much of by their contemporaries, and more of by themselves; they did, we may be sure, many things—many of them, probably, great exploits, notable deeds. But who knows anything of them now? They all have "waxed old, like a garment, and as," etc. (Hebrews 1:12). But of the Church of God, the company of people who in all ages have loved and feared his Name, there has been no disappearance, their name has endured as none other has. God has preserved them alive, as it is this day.
VI. IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS. How contemptible that seemed in the apostolic age, and, to many, seems so still! Yet to it has been given power to effect a moral change in mankind that nothing else has ever been capable of. Philosophy has done her best; but she left, notwithstanding all her teachings, the whole world lying in wickedness. But "Christ and him crucified" was preached, and we know the result of that. It was, as it is, "the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth." Therefore has God put honour upon that preaching such as he has given to none other. Divine life is in it, as myriads of saved souls know, and it is not found elsewhere.
CONCLUSION. Remember that God acts upon these same principles in our own individual life. He loves everything, however mean it may seem, which leads our souls to him; he cares for nothing, however much esteemed, that leads them away from him.—S.C.