It is good to see a saint finish well, and one thing positive we can say about Jacob is that he finished well. We see him in Genesis 47-49 in a more spiritual character than ever before. We ought to expect to see progress and maturity in the saints. It is beautiful to see Jacob coming out at the end better than he ever did before. God looks for that. We ought to be exercised to come out a spiritual people at the end. We see Jacob here in the place of dignity and true greatness before men, a worshipper before God, and in the intelligence of God's mind about everything.

In the New Testament it has been a special object of the Lord to show us how His chief servants finished. He allowed Peter, Paul, and John all to write letters at the very end of their course. Peter said, "Shortly I must put off this my tabernacle" (2 Peter 1:14), but he was full of power; he had before him the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The vision on the holy mount was as bright and distinct in his soul as when it took place. Paul said that he was already being poured out, and the time of his release was come (2 Timothy 4:6). Second Timothy was like his Last Will and Testament, but he was full of the vigor and courage of life. John tarried until he was about one hundred years old, and then he wrote his Gospel, full of "Him that is from the beginning." It is beautiful to see that they did not decline. In the three apostles there was no dimming of spiritual vision, and no weakening of spiritual power.

In one sense there is greater danger as we go on. If not going on in the power of the Spirit we shall be more and more identified with the flesh, and with what we are naturally; but if walking in the Spirit we shall become more spiritual.

In the end of Chapter 47, "Israel bowed himself [or worshipped]" and we are told in Hebrews 11:21 that he "worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff." In the consciousness of God's faithfulness to His purpose he worshipped. He so embraced in faith all the promises and the inheritance that there was nothing left but to worship. If everything is displaced from our affections and thoughts but that which God has given us we will be worshippers.

—Abridged