第一週・週四
晨興餧養
創三一40～41 我白日受乾熱銷磨，黑夜受寒霜侵蝕，不得合眼睡着，我常是這樣。我這二十年在你家裏…服事你…，你十次改了我的工價。
來十二11 一切的管教，當時固然不覺得喜樂，反覺得愁苦；後來卻給那藉此受過操練的人，結出平安的義果。
現在我們要來看雅各。…我們知道所有的都得接受，若不接受，我們就是虛空的，就甚麼都沒有。但是為甚麼我們不接受，而要在那裏自己作呢？為甚麼不藉着生命的律來得勝，而要藉着意志來得勝呢？這裏有一個原因，就是…因為還有雅各的原則在那裏—肉體的活動在那裏，魂的能力在那裏，天然的生命在那裏。為甚麼我們在道理方面知道神是一切的起頭，而在實際方面我們又要自己起頭呢？我們把道理記住了兩週，到第三週就忘記了，自己又起頭了。所以這樣，是因為有雅各在這裏。…我們必須看見神是萬有的頭，必須看見我們是一個接受的人，同時還必須看見我們天然的生命不能活動。…子的應許我們能不能接受，父的道路我們能不能行走，就要看到底我們有沒有受聖靈的管治，天然的生命有沒有被祂摸一下。這一個，我們要從雅各身上來看（倪柝聲文集第二輯第十五冊，一○頁）。
📖信息選讀
亞伯拉罕是對我們說到父，以撒是對我們說到子，至於雅各，是對我們說到聖靈。…雅各一生的歷史，都是代表聖靈的管治。你在這裏看見有一個人是狡猾的，是詭計多端的，是會欺騙人的；但是你也看見這一個人有聖靈在那裏一步一步的管治他。他抓住他哥哥的腳跟，但他還是作了弟弟。不錯，他用一碗紅豆湯騙了他的哥哥。但是後來離開家庭的是他，不是他的哥哥。不錯，長子的名分被他得來了，但是逃難的是他，不是他的哥哥。不錯，他得着了他父親的祝福，但是飄流在外的是他，不是他的哥哥。到了他舅舅那裏，他要娶拉結，但是拉班先給他的是利亞，不是拉結。他二十年之久，白日受乾熱銷磨，黑夜受寒霜侵蝕（創三一40）。…這一切都是聖靈的管治，都是聰明人所受的熬煉。…天然的生命，要被神壓出去。雅各一生的經歷，就是給我們看見聖靈的管治。
亞伯拉罕給我們看見甚麼都是出乎神，我們不能憑着自己作甚麼。以撒給我們看見一切都是神所賜給的，我們應當接受。但是，我們雖然接受了，如果沒有受聖靈的管治，還會出毛病。這是雅各所給我們看見的。主總得有一天，把你摸一下，把你大腿窩的筋扭了，把你天然的生命對付了，然後你纔會變成一個謙卑的人，然後你纔會變成一個戰兢恐懼跟從主的人。…我們是何等容易出主張，何等容易不禱告就說話行事，何等容易不在神面前等候就有把握。神要把你天然的生命厲害的摸一下，神要把你天然的生命打斷了，給你看見靠着自己不能作甚麼；從那一天起，你纔是一個瘸腿的人。瘸腿不是說你不能走路，而是說你每走一步路，就知道自己的不行，知道自己是一個瘸腿的人。所有認識神的人都有這一個共同的特點。…還想自己有辦法、自己有把握、自己有能力的人，是沒有受過聖靈管治的人（倪柝聲文集第二輯第十五冊，一一至一四頁）。
參讀：亞伯拉罕以撒雅各的神，第九章。
WEEK 1 — DAY 4
Morning Nourishment
Gen. 31:40-41 Thus I was: By day the dry heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years have I been in your house; I served you…, and you have changed my wages ten times.
Heb. 12:11 Now no discipline at the present time seems to be a matter of joy, but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised by it.
Now let us come to Jacob…We know that everything we have comes by receiving and that if we do not receive anything, we will be left with vanity and emptiness. But we still do not receive, and we still try to do things ourselves. Why? We do not overcome by the law of life; instead, we try to overcome by our own will. Why? One reason is that the principle of Jacob is still in us. The activity of the flesh is still present, the power of the soul is still present, and the natural life is still present. We know doctrinally that God is the Initiator of everything, yet in reality we initiate many things. We remember a doctrine for two weeks, but by the third week we have forgotten it. Then we try to initiate something again. We behave this way because Jacob is still present within us…We have to see that God is the Head of all things. We have to see that we are those who receive. At the same time, we have to see that our natural life must be checked…Whether or not we can receive the promise of the Son and whether or not we can take the way of the Father depend on whether we accept the discipline of the Holy Spirit and whether we are willing to have our natural life touched. We can see this from the life of Jacob. (CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” p. 11)
Todays Reading
Abraham speaks to us of the Father, Isaac speaks to us of the Son, and Jacob speaks to us of the Holy Spirit…Jacob’s history is a type of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. We see a crafty person who was filled with schemes and deceits. But at the same time, we see a person whom the Holy Spirit disciplined step by step. He held his older brother’s heel, yet he still ended up being the younger brother. He supplanted his brother with a pottage of lentils and usurped the birthright, but he, not his brother, eventually had to run away from home. He received his father’s blessing, but he, not his brother, became a wanderer. When he went to stay with his uncle, he wanted to marry Rachel, but Laban gave him Leah, not Rachel first. For twenty years, the drought consumed him in the day, and the frost consumed him by night (Gen. 31:40)… All these experiences were the discipline of the Holy Spirit; they were the trials that a clever man had to go through…The natural life has to be pressed out. Jacob’s history is a picture of the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
Abraham shows us that everything is of God; we cannot do anything by ourselves. Isaac shows us that everything comes from God, and our place is to receive. But if we only receive and do not have the discipline of the Holy Spirit, something will go wrong. This is what Jacob shows us. One day the Lord will come to us, touch us, and twist the hollow of our thigh; He will deal with our natural life. Then we will become humble and follow the Lord in fear and trembling…How easy it is for us to make proposals, and how easy it is for us to act without prayer. How easy it is for us to develop a confidence apart from God. God has to touch our natural life in a drastic way; He has to break apart our natural life and show us that we can do nothing by ourselves. From that day on, we will be lame men. Being lame does not mean that we cannot walk; rather, it means that every time we walk, we realize our weakness and our lameness. This is the common trait of all those who know God…All those who are still resourceful, confident, and powerful have not experienced the discipline of the Holy Spirit. (CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” pp. 12-14)
Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” ch. 9
