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knavery or dishonesty. Somewhat similiar difficulties are encountered in God's approval of the despoilment of the Egyptians by the Israelites on the eve of their exodus, and in His tacit acquiescence in Rebecca's trick, whereby Esau lost and Jacob gained the paternal blessing and the rights of primogeniture. These and such like scriptural problems take on a simpler aspect when we remember, first, that God, being absolute Lord of all that is, can transfer temporal possessions from one to another without breach of the seventh commandment; secondly, that earthly goods are in the sight of God of little account—of no account, in fact, except in so far as they serve to promote such heavenly interests as the deliverance of His peoples from the bondage of sin, or their introduction into everlasting dwellings in His celestial land of promise; thirdly, that, as the words of Scripture have a twofold meaning, the literal and the spiritual, a passage which on its surface rehearses the violation of some virtue such as justice or truthfulness will, on closer inspection, be found to contain a hidden, spiritual sense wherein these or some other virtues are inculcated or extolled. Thus, deceitful Jacob is but a figure of the merciful Redeemer, who, covering Himself with our nature and our sins, impersonated us before His heavenly Father to obtain His forgiveness and His blessing. Finally, that no perfect parallel can ever be drawn between man and God, between earth and heaven, and the respective conditions of each. With these principles in mind we will readily see that the lesson of the