John Calvin Commentary Genesis 48:15

"And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath fed me all my life long unto this day," — Genesis 48:15 (ASV)

God before whom. Although Jacob knew that a dispensation of the grace of God was committed to him, so that he might effectually bless his grandchildren, yet he claims nothing for himself, but humbly resorts to prayer, so that he would not, in the least degree, detract from the glory of God.

For as he was the legitimate administrator of the blessing, so he needed to acknowledge God as its sole Author. And from this, a common rule is to be deduced for all the ministers and pastors of the Church. For though they are not only called witnesses of heavenly grace, but are also entrusted with the dispensation of spiritual gifts, yet when they are compared with God, they are nothing, because he alone contains all things within himself.

Therefore, let them learn willingly to keep their own place, so that they do not obscure the name of God. And truly, since the Lord by no means appoints his ministers with the intention of detracting from his own power, therefore, mortal man cannot, without sacrilege, desire to appear as anything separate from God.

In the words of Jacob we must note, first, that he invokes God, in whose sight his fathers Abraham and Isaac had walked; for since the blessing depended upon the covenant entered into with them, it was necessary that their faith should be a connecting link between them and their descendants.

God had chosen them and their posterity for a people to himself; but the promise was efficacious for this reason: because, being grasped by faith, it had taken a living root. And so it happened that they transmitted the light of succession to Jacob himself. We now see that he does not bring forward in vain, or unseasonably, that faith of the fathers, without which he would not have been a legitimate successor of grace by the covenant of God: not that Abraham and Isaac had acquired so great an honor for themselves and their posterity, or were, in themselves, so excellent, but because the Lord seals and sanctions by faith those benefits which he promises us, so that they will not fail.

The God which fed me. Jacob now turns to his own experiences, and states that from his youth he had constantly experienced, in various ways, the divine favor toward him. He had before made the knowledge of God received through his word, and the faith of his fathers, the basis of the blessing he pronounces; he now adds another confirmation from experience itself, as if to say that he was not pronouncing a blessing which consisted in empty words, but one of which he himself had enjoyed the fruit all his life long.

Now though God causes his sun to shine indiscriminately on the good and evil, and feeds unbelievers as well as believers, yet because he provides, only to the latter, the special sense of his paternal love in the use of his gifts, Jacob rightly uses this as a reason for the confirmation of his faith: that he had always been protected by the help of God.

Unbelievers are fed, even to the full, by the liberality of God; but they gorge themselves like swine, which, while acorns are falling for them from the trees, yet have their snouts fixed to the earth. But in God’s benefits this is the most important aspect: that they are pledges or tokens of his paternal love toward us.

Jacob, therefore, from the sense of piety with which the children of God are endowed, rightly presents, as proof of the promised grace, whatever good things God had bestowed upon him, as if to say that he himself was a decisive example to show how truly and faithfully the Lord had promised by covenant to be a father to the children of Abraham.

Let us also learn from this, carefully to consider and meditate upon whatever benefits we receive from the hand of God, that they may serve as supports for the confirmation of our faith. The best method of seeking God is to begin with his word; after this (if I may so speak) experiential knowledge is added.

Now while, in this place, the remarkable gratitude of the holy man is evident, yet this circumstance adds to his honor: that, while involved in many sufferings by which he was almost weighed down, he celebrates the continual goodness of God. For although, by the rare and wonderful power of God, he had been extraordinarily delivered from many dangers, yet it was a mark of a noble and courageous mind to be able to overcome so many great obstacles, to fly on the wings of faith to the goodness of God, and instead of being overwhelmed by a multitude of evils, to perceive the same goodness in the thickest darkness.