Abraham: September 2010

Abraham

Before these introductory remarks are written, the articles of the issue are selected and read. In reading them, I was stuck by that fact that when Abraham lived by faith, his life was more simple, but when his faith failed, his life became more complicated. Even Abraham’s greatest test of faith was dealt with in a simple manner. He “rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son.” He simply, immediately obeys. By contrast, when unbelief takes Abraham down into Egypt, he counsels his wife on what to say to conceal their true relationship. Then, during this time, his wife gets an Egyptian servant, and she in turn greatly complicates Abraham’s life and the life of his descendents to this day. It is well for us to remember that faith simplifies, while unbelief complicates. Trust in God leaves to Him the ways and means; trust in man depends on man’s complicated schemes. Present society has become very complicated, but it does not produce contentment or happiness. When the Son of Man rules over the earth, life will return to a simpler lifestyle: “Every man under his vine and under his fig tree” (Mic. 4:4).

The Call of Abraham

Genesis 12:1-10

The people of God were always morally, and must necessarily be, separate from the world. But Abram was the expression of something different, for he was the first to be publicly called out of this world. Also, God was breaking the ties of nature, for he was not merely to be a godly man in his family, but a godly man called out of his family. This distinguished the call of Abram —the public assertion of the claims of God over His people. The call of Israel out of Egypt is somewhat analogous, though it was not said to Israel, “Come out,” but to Pharaoh, “Let My people go.” Thus it was not, in the case of Israel, the invitation of the power of grace to those who were its subjects to break the tie, but the assertion of the power of God over the enemy, breaking down every claim of the world. In the case of Abram, it was love working, not a claim of power. It was grace made effectual in its working in the heart of Abram.

The Tie of Nature

For a time, however, the tie of nature was not broken: Abram went out with Terah his father. He did not leave his father’s house; he did not fully surrender himself to the Lord’s will at once, and therefore the Lord could not show him the land of Canaan. Abram had left a great deal, but he stopped short of Canaan. It is true he had left his country and his kindred, but he had not left the nearest tie of nature — his father’s house; therefore God could not show Canaan to him. He was clinging to Terah and going but halfway with God; thus he stays in Haran. So it is with us, for if we are still wanting that which naturally belongs to us, there will not be the full entering into those things that God is ready to show us. All the communications of God to Abram, as to what Canaan was, took place after, or consequent on, his arrival in Canaan. God puts the position in which he is to be in direct contrast with natural ties. He said to Abram, “Get thee out ... unto a land that I will show thee.” God had called him, and the call implied a claim. It was not merely the question of the public government of the world; Abram is entirely separated from that. He is to be a stranger to his father’s house and a stranger still when brought into Canaan. It was the Lord’s love resting on an individual and associating him with all that He had in His mind, while putting him into the place of all the promises of blessing. We see what he was called out from in Joshua 24:2: ”Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.” Men were not merely wicked, but God having manifested in the deluge the power of government in the world, Satan got hold of that power in the minds of men, who were thus led to worship devils, to whom they ascribed the power, and not to God.

It was this which formed the occasion of this public testimony for God in separating Abram from all around him; it separated him totally from every tie which was recognized in the world. He was not merely to be righteous and to be a worshipper, but he was to be connected with a glory the world had lost sight of, for it had put the devil in God’s place. Thus it says in Acts 7:2, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham.” God calls Abram out from the world to a glory set before him. The world is not

set right, but left just as it was, and we find now a special link of connection set up between God and Abram. God reveals Himself to him and says, Come out unto a land “that I will show thee.” The life of Abram depended on an immediate, present connection between himself and God, which was to be kept up by the Lord making good all He has promised. So the Lord reveals Himself to our souls and gives His word as a sure ground of our conduct. Blessed be God, we can count upon His infallible faithfulness and live by faith in daily, constant, unceasing dependence on Him, to lead on to the possession of the desires of our hearts. But we find also that the Lord’s promises involved the acting of Abram likewise, for while he stays with Terah, God cannot bring him into Canaan. He could not enjoy Terah and Canaan together. The blessing to faith is only found in the path of faith.

Conflict and Rest

In all that is spoken of Canaan, it is not rest that is before us. Look at the Book of Joshua; there it is conflict. Does Abram get rest? He had not so much as to set his foot upon, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob — a heavenly position, but with conflict, for the Canaanites are still there. The rest to which God calls us we do not get now. We sit down in heavenly places in Christ, but we have to fight with wicked spirits in heavenly places. The saint is called into a place of rest, but as yet gets nothing.

Worship

“The Lord appeared unto Abram” (Gen. 12:7). He now appears to him in the land. It is not the call which sets us in the place of worship, but as soon as we enter the land, then we can worship, because our relationship with God is known, settled and enjoyed. Before it is the walk of faith, but that is not worship. So we, as seated in the heavenly places, can worship, knowing our relationship as sons. “There built he an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord” (Gen. 12:7). In Hebrews 11:8-10, we get three things as regards the power of faith in Abram. First (vs. 8): “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” He went in simple, present dependence, leaning on the promise of God. There was the life of faith. Second, when in the land (vs. 9): “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” The Lord’s appearing to him was the foundation of his worship, and there he built his altar. The Lord further explains His purposes to him, and he got prophetic knowledge. But it was not this which sustained Abram’s soul. He could say, “I know now how it is all to be accomplished. It is in my seed, and not in myself. I am a stranger here.” How then was his soul sustained while he was a stranger? Third (vs. 10): “He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Thus Abram’s soul was not merely brought to worship, but he was sustained by a closer communion with that God who had chosen him, in faith that He would build the city Himself.

The Glory of God

I have been struck that in Revelation 4, speaking of the throne of God’s government, there are peoples, angels, assemblies, living creatures — a whole population there — but when I come to the heavenly city (Rev. 21), there is a high wall, streets, gates of pearl, but where are the people? No is one there, because the people are lost in the idea of the glory of God and the Lamb, and nothing else is thought of (though we know it is the Lamb’s bride), for God and the Lamb are there. It was looking for this city which made Abram a pilgrim and a stranger. The world could not understand him, and it might have said, “Now that Abram is in the land, what has he got?” Nothing, for he could not explain to them how it was, but he had seen by faith that city of which God was the builder. We see, then, Abram is called, and having entered by faith into the conditions of the calling, he gets into the land. There he has a present revelation of the Lord, which is the ground of his worship, but he did not have rest; the Canaanite was there.

If God has called me out, I must leave the world just as it is, and not think of setting it right. You cannot hold relationship with Christ and the world at the same time. The worship of God is founded on the knowledge of the heavenly position we are in, being called out of the world into fellowship with Himself. We do not have a single thing in common with the world, but we can sing of redemption, just as if we were now in heaven. My relationships with God will not be in the least changed when I get home; they will be just the same then as they are now. He has set us in Christ, and we can say, as in Deuteronomy 26:3, “I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country” — not shall come. We are there and have the understanding of how God will accomplish His promises — ”in thy seed.” Not the earthly rest in the fulfillment of promise to man, but heavenly rest where He dwells, where the glory of God does lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

It is well for our souls to have the relationship into which we are called distinctly before our minds, that we may know how to worship and be sustained by the strength which it supplies. And if the foundations of the earth are out of course, I am not of it. Having the sentence of death in myself, I shall not fear death, but we shall have the comfort and joy of the place to which we belong. The sweetness of a calm is better known when the storm is raging without. May the Lord give us the true revelation of Himself.

Adapted from J. N. Darby

The Experiences of Abraham

The experiences of the heart occupy a large place in the thoughts of Christians. It is, nevertheless, important always to judge them by the Word of God. These experiences are the expression of the inward state of the heart and of our relations with others, as well as of the sentiments which our conduct, in these same relations, produces in our hearts and in our consciences.

The life of Abraham is an interesting example in support of this. It is true that neither the law nor the fullness of grace had been as yet revealed. Nevertheless, as we see in Hebrews 11, the principles of the life of faith on the promises of God were in general the same for him and us.

The Walk of Faith

Abraham himself failed in faith on some occasions, but in general his life was a walk of faith with God. This is the reason why his experiences are far more intimate with God and more simple than those of Jacob. With one single exception, Abraham always remained in the land of promise. He was indeed a stranger and pilgrim, because the Canaanites dwelt there, but he was in relation with God and walked before Him.

At first when God had called him, he had not fully answered this call. It is true he indeed left his country and kindred, but not his father’s house, and so he did not arrive in Canaan. It is true he had given up a great deal; he had gone from Ur in Chaldea, but he came no farther than Charran and rested there. So it is with the heart that has not learned that it belongs entirely to God. It is only in conformity with the call of God that we can enter into the position of the promise.

After the death of his father Terah, Abraham started at the command of God, and they set out to come into the land of Canaan, and they entered into it. Here we have the position of the heavenly people. Placed by the grace and power of God in a heavenly position, of which Canaan is a figure, they dwell there; they have everything in promise, but nothing as yet in possession. The Lord revealed Himself to Abraham in calling him; He reveals Himself anew to him in the place which he now knew and which he was going to possess: “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Gen. 12:7). Such is, in general, our confidence in God, that we shall possess really in future that which we know now as strangers.

A Tent and Altar

“There builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared to him.” He serves God and enjoys communion with Him. Thence he goes on to another place and there pitches his tent; he builds anew an altar to the Lord and calls on the name of Jehovah (vs. 8). He is a pilgrim in the land of promise, and that is his entire history. We dwell in the heavenly places, we enjoy them by faith, and we have communion with God, who brought us thither. Abraham’s tent and altar in this place give a character to his whole history, and all the experiences of faith consist in that.

His unbelief brings him into Egypt (vss. 10-21). There he had no altar. An Egyptian servant-maid becomes afterwards the occasion of his fall and a source of trouble to him. She is, as we learn in Galatians 4:24-25, a type of the law, for the law and the flesh are always in relationship with each other. The grace of God brings Abraham back, but he does not regain an altar till he has returned to the place where he first pitched his tent and to the altar which he had built before; there he has communion afresh with God (Gen. 13:3-4).

Nothing of the World

The promises of God are the portion of Abraham. He lets Lot take what he pleases: “Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee from me. If thou choosest the left, I will take the right; and if thou take the right, I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of Jordan, which, before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, was watered throughout until one comes to Zoar, like the garden of the Lord, and like the land of Egypt. And Lot chose for himself the whole plain of Jordan” (Gen. 13:9-11). Lot is the type of a worldly believer. He takes that which, for the moment, appears the better part, and he chooses the place over which the judgment of God is suspended. Abraham had given up everything according to the flesh, and God shows him the whole extent of the promise. He gives him a visible proof of that which He has given him and confirms it to him forever (vss. 14-18). Lot, the worldly believer, is overcome by the princes of the world. Abraham delivers him. With the servants of his house, he overcomes the power of the enemy (ch. 14:1-21). He will receive nothing of the world. He says to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth, if from a thread even to a sandal-thong, yes, if of all that is thine, I take anything ... ; that thou mayest not say, I have made Abram rich” (ch. 14:22-23 JND).

Afterwards God reveals Himself to Abraham as his buckler and great reward. He promises him a posterity at a time when his body was now dead; justified by faith, he receives the confirmation of the promises of God, who binds Himself by a sacrifice, type of the sacrifice of Christ. Then the inheritance is shown him in its details (Gen. 15).

The Law and the Promise

Following the counsels of the flesh, Abraham desires for a moment the fulfillment of the promise by the law, that is to say, by Hagar. But thus he only learns that it is impossible that the child of the law should inherit with the child of promise. Then God reveals Himself anew as God Almighty. He tells him that he shall be the father of many nations and that God will be his God forever (Gen. 17:1-14). The posterity according to the promise is promised again (Gen. 17:15-19).

After that, God once more visits Abraham and gives him positive promises respecting the approaching birth of his son (Gen. 18:9-15). He looks upon him as his friend, saying, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” (Gen. 18:17 JND). He communicates to him His thoughts concerning the world, and Abraham converses with Him freely and in perfect peace. He prays for those who had forgotten the Lord (Gen. 18:23-33). It was necessary that Abraham should again experience, in the case of Ishmael, that the law produces sadness and anguish, and at the court of Abimelech he learned to know that when unbelief is in action, it only produces troubles and sorrow. But God, in His faithfulness, watches over him, as well as over the mother of the posterity.

Afterwards, Abraham was tried in the highest degree, till he had to give up everything according to the flesh and even the promises. But the promises in a Christ raised in figure are confirmed to Christ Himself and, in Him, to all the spiritual posterity of Abraham (ch. 22:15-19); compare Galatians 3:16-18.

Pilgrimage and Adoration

Abraham then has learned by a fall that neither the law nor the promise are of any avail for the flesh; nevertheless, in general, his peculiar experiences consisted in pilgrimage and adoration, all the time he continued in the promised land. We have now remarked that his life is characterized by a tent and an altar. The whole experience, the whole life of the faithful Abraham, consists almost entirely of worship, intercession and revelations from God, so that he learned to comprehend these latter with increasing clearness and accuracy. He passed his time in the place to which God had called him. The revelations of God were for him rich, sweet and admirable. His knowledge of God was intimate and deep, his personal experiences happy and simple, for he walked with God who had revealed Himself to him in grace.

Selected from J. N. Darby

Refusing and Choosing

No one takes the path of faith without being tested. The test is allowed to discover, on the one hand, our weakness, and, on the other, the grace and faithfulness of God. In Abraham’s history, the test came in the form of a famine. Under the pressure of his need, he followed the dictates of mere common sense and, for a time, “went down into Egypt.” Instead of counting upon God to sustain him, he goes down to the world for help. Having taken this false step, he finds that, though his immediate needs are met, he fears that he will be killed in order to satisfy the lusts of Egypt. Left to his own devices, he sinks below the level of the world and acts a lie. Abraham even acquires riches, but at what a cost! In Egypt he can pitch no tent and raise no altar, nor call upon the name of the Lord. Yet, in spite of all failure, God is faithful to His own and acted on behalf of his failing servant. In result, when the deceit is discovered, Abraham is dismissed by the world, for Pharaoh says, “Behold ... thy wife: take her, and go away.”

Recovery From Failure

Abraham has been dismissed from Egypt. Where he goes is a matter of indifference to the world. Abraham, however, was a true man of faith, though, like ourselves, he at times breaks down in the path of faith. Having tasted the blessedness of the outside place, nothing will satisfy his soul but getting back into the place of blessing from which his feet had strayed. So we read, “Abram went up out of Egypt ... into the south ... and he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been ... unto the place of the altar” (Gen. 13:2-4). As with every truly restored soul, he retraces his path step by step until, once again, he is found in his stranger and pilgrim character with his tent, as a worshipper with his altar, and as a dependent man calling upon the name of the Lord.

Result of Failure

The restoration of Abraham is complete, but the effect of his failure upon Lot at once comes to light. In Lot we see the man of nature who can make a fair profession, but cannot take the path of faith that leads outside the world. In Abraham, we have seen the man of faith who, acting according to the word of the Lord, takes the outside place, though at times he may fail in this path. In Lot we see a true believer who takes the outside place, not in faith in God, but under the influence of man. Already we have read that when Abraham departed from Haran, “Lot [went] with him” (Gen. 12:4). Again, when Abraham went up out of Egypt, we read, “Lot went with him” (Gen. 13:1). Now, for the third time (Gen. 13:5) Lot is described as the man “which went with Abram.”

Lot represents a large class who take up a right position outside the world, but do so under the influence of a friend or relative rather than from personal exercise and faith in God. From the beginning of his path, Lot was characterized by walking in the light of another. When the test comes, believers who walk in the light of another will break down and give up a path about which they never had any exercise and for which they have no personal faith.

The Snare of Riches

How often, too, the test today takes the form that it did in the story of Abraham and Lot. As we read, “There was a strife.” We learn further that the immediate cause of the strife was their possessions. We do well to notice the twice-repeated statement that they were not able to dwell together, and the deeply significant cause of the division, “for their substance was great.” How often, since then, believers have been divided by jealousy of one another’s spiritual gifts or temporal riches. The abuse of spiritual gifts was a source of division in the assembly at Corinth. Poverty might have led them to cling to one another; their riches became a cause of division.

In the case of Abraham and Lot, their temporal riches became the occasion of division. When Abraham started upon the path of faith, Lot went with him, and they took “all their substance,” but it was no cause of strife (Gen. 12:5). In Egypt, however, Abraham acquires great wealth so that after his restoration we read that he “was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” The wealth that he acquires through turning aside from the path of faith becomes a cause of strife and division between brethren. Striving together, these brothers cease to be a witness to God before the Canaanites and the Perizzites that dwelt in the land.

The Position of Faith

Nevertheless, Abraham is a restored man in a true position with a right motive, whereas Lot, though in a right position, is only a follower of others. Therefore, while strife becomes the sad occasion of revealing the worldly-mindedness of Lot, it also brings to light the heavenly-mindedness of Abraham, who can renounce things seen. Abraham says, “Let there be no strife, I pray ... between me and thee ... for we be brethren.” The man who is in a position for which he has not faith will, in the end, become a source of strife among brethren and had better separate from the man whose faith he cannot follow.

Abraham, with the heavenly country before him, can afford to renounce the present world with its prospect of ease and plenty. Lot can choose, and if he takes the best according to nature and sight, Abraham will be content to take the path that God chooses for him, knowing that it will end in the land of promise with all its blessedness.

The Choice of the Flesh

Without seeking direction from God, Lot chooses his path according to sight. It was an alluring sight and had promise of present ease and plenty. Everywhere there was water for his flocks, without the labor of digging wells. So fruitful was the plain that it was “even as the garden of the Lord.” Most significant of all, it was “like the land of Egypt.” Having followed Abraham into Egypt, Lot had acquired a taste for Egypt’s pleasures and had strengthened his desire for ease and plenty.

So Lot chooses all the plain of Jordan and gives up the separate path. There was nothing gross or wrong in choosing a well-watered plain, but it proves that the heart is not set on the unseen land of God’s promise. Moreover, the real danger of the well-watered plains is that Satan had reared Sodom in their midst.

Abraham remains in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwells in the cities of the plain. Having left the path of faith, his way is ever downward, for we next read that he “pitched his tent toward Sodom.” We learn that for Lot there is no recovery. Lower and lower he sinks, until at last he passes from the scene under a cloud of shame and dishonor.

The Confession of Faith

Abraham, freed from the encumbrance of his worldly-minded nephew, receives fresh communications from the Lord. Lot had allowed himself to be guided by the sight of his eyes apart from the direction of the Lord. Now Abraham uses his eyes, but at the direction of the Lord, for, when Lot was separated from him, the Lord said, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art” (Gen. 13:14). He is to look in every direction at the land which the Lord has given him. It is well for us if we too set our minds on things above and seek to enjoy every part of the revelation that God has given to us of the world to come — the heavenly country with its city which has foundations.

In this sense, we can still answer to the Lord’s direction to Abraham when He said, “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee” (Gen. 13:17). Set free from mere followers, rising above all petty strife and allowing the Lord to choose his path, Abraham enjoys a rich unfolding of the world to come, for which, in patience, he waits.

H. Smith, adapted

The Trial of Abraham’s Faith

Genesis 22

The circumstances through which Abraham passed in chapters 20-21 were most important indeed. An evil which had long been harbored in his heart had been put away; the bondwoman and her son, who had so long retained quiet possession of his house, were cast out, and he now stands forth as “a vessel ... sanctified and meet for the master’s use and prepared for every good work.”

“It came to pass after these things, that God did tempt [or try] Abraham” (Gen. 22:1). Here Abraham is, at once, introduced into a place of real dignity and honor. When God tries an individual, it is a certain evidence of His confidence in him. We never read that “God did tempt Lot” — no, the goods of Sodom furnished a sufficiently strong temptation for Lot, but not so with Abraham. He lived more in the presence of God and was therefore less susceptible to the influence of that which had ensnared his nephew.

The Test

Now, the test to which God submits Abraham — the furnace in which He tries him — marks at once a pure and genuine metal. Had Abraham’s faith not been of the highest character, he would assuredly have winced under the fiery ordeal through which we behold him passing in this beautiful chapter. When God promised Abraham a son, he believed the promise and it “was accounted unto him for righteousness.” “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” But then, having received this son, having realized the truth of the promise, was there not a danger that he would rest in the gift instead of the Giver? Was there not a danger that he would lean upon Isaac, in thinking upon the future seed and future inheritance, rather than upon God Himself who had promised him the seed? Surely there was, and God knew that. He therefore tries His servant in a way, more than anything, calculated to put him to the test as to the object on which his soul was resting.

The grand inquiry put to Abraham’s heart, in this wondrous transaction, was, “Are you still walking before the Almighty God, the quickener of the dead?” God desired to know whether he could apprehend in Him the One who was just as able to raise up children from the ashes of his sacrificed son as from the dead womb of Sarah. In other words, God desired to prove that Abraham’s faith reached forth, as someone has observed, to resurrection, for if it stopped short of this, he never would have responded to the startling command, “Take now, thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Gen. 22:2). But Abraham “staggered not.” He at once responds to the call. God had asked for Isaac, and Isaac must be given, and that too without a breath of murmur. He could give up anything or everything so long as his eye rested upon “the Almighty God.”

Worship

Notice the point of view in which Abraham puts this journey of his to Mount Moriah: “I and the lad will go yonder and worship.” Yes, it was an act of worship, for he was about to lay upon the altar of the Quickener of the dead the one in whom all God’s promises centered. It was an act of worship — most elevated worship, for he was about to prove that no other object filled his soul but the Almighty God. Hence, what calmness! what self-possession! what pure devotion! what elevation of mind! what self-renunciation! He never falters throughout the scene. He saddles the ass, prepares the wood, and goes to Mount Moriah, without giving expression to one anxious thought, although, as far as human eye could see, he was about to lose the object of his heart’s most tender affection — the one upon whom, to all outward appearance, the future interests of his house depended.

The Well-Beloved

Abraham, however, showed most fully that his heart had found a nearer and dearer object than Isaac, dear as he was. He showed also that his faith was resting upon another object altogether with reference to the future interests of his seed and that after the birth of Isaac he was as simply resting upon the promise of Almighty God as before it. Behold, then, this man of faith as he ascends the mount, taking with him his “well-beloved”! What a scene of breathless interest!

It strikes me that we get, in Abraham’s journey to Mount Moriah, a remarkable type of the scene afterwards exhibited at Calvary, when God was really providing Himself a lamb. We can see the Father and the Son who, in company, ascend the mount and carry out the gracious work of redemption in the unbroken solitude of that place.

Resurrection

How must the angelic hosts have watched this illustrious father from stage to stage of his wondrous journey, until at last they beheld his hand stretched forth with the knife to slay his son — that son for which he had so long and ardently wished and for which he had so steadily trusted God. Then again, what an opportunity for Satan to ply his fiery darts! What abundant room for such suggestions as, “What will become of the promises of God with regard to the seed and the inheritance, if you thus sacrifice your only son? Beware that you are not led astray by some false revelation. Or: If it be true that God has said so and so, does not God know that, in the day you sacrifice your son, all your hopes will be blasted? Further, think of Sarah; what will she do if she loses Isaac, after having induced you to expel Ishmael from your house?” All these suggestions, and many beside, the enemy might bring to bear upon the heart of Abraham. Nor would Abraham himself have been beyond those thoughts and reasoning, which at such a time would likely arise within him. What then was his answer to all such dark suggestions? Resurrection! “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb. 11:17-19).

Resurrection is God’s mighty remedy for all the mischief and ruin introduced by Satan. When once we arrive at this point, we have done with the power of Satan, the last exercise of which is seen in death. Satan cannot touch the life that has been received in resurrection, for the last exercise of his power is seen in the grave of Christ; beyond that he can do nothing. Hence the security of the church’s place: Her “life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Blessed hiding place! May we rejoice in it more and more each day.

C. H. Mackintosh, adapted

Abraham’s Victories

The battle of the kings is recorded in Genesis 14. As long as it was merely a contest between them, Abraham has nothing to say to it. Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds. But as soon as he hears that his kinsman Lot is involved in that struggle, he stirs himself.

Everything, as we read, is beautiful in its season. There is a time to build, and a time to pull down. There was a time for Abraham to be still, and a time for Abraham to be active; a time to be silent, and a time to break silence. And he understood the time. Like the men of Issachar afterwards, he knew the time and what Israel ought to do. God’s principles were Abraham’s rules. Lot was taken prisoner, and the kinsman’s part was now Abraham’s duty. The battlefield in the vale of Siddim shall be his now, as the tent had been his till now in the plains of Mamre. The mind of God had another lesson for him than that which he learned while the potsherds of the earth were alone in the conflict, and a time to break silence calls him out at the head of his trained servants.

The Right Time

This intelligence of the mind of Christ in a saint is excellent and beautiful indeed, and everything is beautiful in its season. Out of season the very same action is defiled and disfigured. The material of an action is not enough to determine the character of an action. It must be seasonable likewise. Elijah, from his elevation, may call down fire from heaven on the captains and their fifties, and so the two witnesses in the day of Revelation 11. But it will not do for the companions of the lowly, rejected Jesus to act thus on the Samaritan villagers, in Luke 9. It is only in its season that anything is really right. How was the garden of Gethsemane which had been made sacred by the sorrows of the Lord Jesus soon disfigured by the blood which Peter’s sword drew there! What a stain on that soil, though the power of Christ was present to remove it! But another sword was doing right service when it hewed Agag in pieces, for when vengeance is demanded, when the trumpet of the sanctuary sounds an alarm for war, vengeance or war will be as perfect as grace and suffering.

But there is more than this in our patriarch at this time. Two victories distinguish him—one over the armies of the kings and the other over the offers of the king of Sodom.

The first of these Abraham gained because he struck the blow exactly in God’s time. He went out to the battle neither sooner nor later than God would have had him. He waited, as it were, till “he heard the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees” (2 Sam. 5:24). Victory was therefore sure, for the battle was the Lord’s, not his. His arm was braced by the Lord, and this victory of Abraham’s was that of a sling and stone, or of the jawbone of an ass, or of a Jonathan and his armor-bearer against a Philistine host, for Abraham’s was but a band of trained servants against the armies of four confederated kings.

The second, still brighter than the first, was achieved in virtue of fellowship with the very springs of divine strength. The spirit of the patriarch was in victory here, as his arm had been before. He had so drunk in the communication of the King of Salem — had so fed on the bread and wine of that royal, priestly stranger — that the king of Sodom spread out his feast in vain. The soul of Abraham had been in heaven, and he could not return to the world.

J. G. Bellett, adapted

Abraham’s Sons

In considering Abraham’s sons, we would like to look at Isaac and Ishmael in the light of their history and in the light of what they represent. We know, of course, that Abraham had others sons by Keturah, but since Isaac and Ishmael are the prominent ones, we will reflect on them a little.

After God had called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees and made promises to him, Abram reminded the Lord (Gen. 15:3) that He had not given him any heir. He almost complains that “a son of my house will be mine heir” [that is, one of his servants] (Gen. 15:3 JND). God’s response was that “he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” (Gen. 15:4). Although it would be some time before this promise was fulfilled, yet here was God’s word that there would be a child born by promise. Sad to say, the lapse of years caused Abram and Sarai’s faith to fail, and Abram acted on Sarai’s suggestion that he take her Egyptian maid Hagar as his wife and have a child by her. As it was with Abram, so it may be in our own lives; we often find that we fail in the very thing that is normally our strong point. Moses failed in his meekness, Job failed in his patience, and we find that Abram, noted all through the Word of God for his faith, failed in this very thing. It is in our strong points that we have to be most on guard, for self-confidence can make us leave the path of dependence on the Lord.

Ishmael

The result of this union was the birth of Ishmael, a full fourteen years before Isaac was born. His character was predicted before he was born, for the Lord told Hagar that he would be “a wild-ass of a man, his hand against every man, and every man’s hand against him” (Gen. 16:12 JND). But the time came when the true son of promise was born, and at the feast when Isaac was weaned, Ishmael is found mocking. Sarah asked that he and his mother be sent away, and when the Lord assured Abraham that this was the right thing to do, he sends them away. We read that Ishmael became an archer, dwelling in the wilderness. He eventually married a wife from Egypt and had twelve sons. It is also recorded that Esau married a daughter of Ishmael, as well as his other wives who were Hittites.

Ishmael and his descendants (probably the Bedouin Arabs) have been a thorn in the side of Israel all down through the ages, and their character answers to that prophesied of him. They were evidently allied with the Midianites in their oppression of Israel during Gideon’s time, and as time went on, the various tribes that descended from his twelve sons were likely assimilated gradually into other ethnic groups. But God knows where they are, and they are mentioned in Psalm 83 as being allied with other nations that take counsel against Israel, saying, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation” (Psa. 83:4). It is well-known that this feeling is prevalent among many of the Arab people today and is not restricted to those descended from Ishmael.

The Descendants of Ishmael

There are several things to be noticed in all of this. First of all, we must be clear that not all those known as Arabs are descendants of Ishmael. The Syrians and those in Iraq, for example, are not descended from Ishmael. Also, the lack of good records so long ago, combined with the mingling of various tribes and peoples over the centuries, has blurred some of the distinctions between various Arab groups. However, many so-called Arabs in the Middle East do claim to be descendants of Ishmael. Most important, it is claimed that Mohammed was an Ishmaelite, although this is highly questionable. Not only is it claimed that he descended from Abraham through Ishmael, but also preeminence is claimed for Ishmael’s family, inasmuch as he was Abraham’s firstborn as to time. It is claimed that Ishmael was the child of promise, not Isaac, and that the Jews have corrupted Scripture to make it appear to be Isaac. It is alleged that he, and not Isaac, was offered on the altar on Mount Moriah. An appeal has even been made to Deuteronomy 21:15-17, where the law states that a firstborn son must always be given the double portion in the inheritance, even if he were the son of the wife that was hated. Thus one scripture is used to discredit another.

On the one hand, we see the havoc and trouble that a lack of faith has caused, and that decisions made thousands of years ago affect the world even today. It is a solemn lesson for us, for while our decisions may not affect the world for centuries, they often have far-reaching effects. Let us order our lives in faith and in the fear of God. Yet God has firmly decreed that “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Gen. 21:12), for he was the child of promise. Those who oppose this will be found to be fighting against God. God may allow the king of the north to overrun the land of Israel in a coming day, but it remains that any confederacy that purposes “that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (Psa. 83:4) is doomed to judgment. “Let them be put to shame, and perish: that men may know that Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth” (Psa. 83:17-18). Islam claims to believe and respect the early books of the Old Testament, yet in the name of promoting predominance for Ishmael and ultimately for Islam, the Koran contradicts much of the Word of God. Most seriously, the Lord Jesus Christ is relegated merely to be a great prophet and is not owned as the eternal Son of God. All who oppose God’s purposes concerning His Son will come to ruin.

The Son of Promise

Any doubt as to Isaac’s being the son of promise is put to rest in the New Testament, where Paul uses Isaac and Ishmael as a picture of the new and old covenants respectively. Ishmael, born of a “bondmaid” and “born after the flesh,” typifies the old covenant under law. This covenant, given at Mount Sinai, put Israel under a law that they could not keep, and thus “gendereth to bondage.” Isaac was born to Sarah, a “freewoman,” and was “by promise.” He typifies the new covenant under Christ, where the blessings are by grace and not dependent on man. As believers today, we come under the blessing of the new covenant, although the church is not in a covenant relationship with God. Thus the instruction to us is, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son,” for “we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free” (Gal. 5:30-31). The believer is not under law, but under grace.

However, there is something more to be noticed in this allegory. If the unbelieving descendants of Ishmael will come under God’s judgment for their implacable hatred of Israel, then God will surely judge unbelieving Israel, too. The Jews who go on in unbelief today take great pride in their descent from Abraham, as children of promise, just as did the Pharisees during the time that our Lord was on earth. However, in taking their place under the old covenant, they are spiritually like Ishmael, although they would no doubt be horrified by the comparison. “Jerusalem which now is ... is in bondage with her children” (Gal. 4:25). Having rejected their Messiah, the unbelieving Jews remain under the curse of a broken law and will not escape God’s righteous judgment simply because they are the children of promise. Rather, they will experience the most awful judgment from the Lord in the great tribulation, for they are more responsible than others.

But then, after they have been through that terrible ordeal, during which time God will preserve some of them, He will bring them back into blessing in their land. This time, however, it will be on the ground of grace and the work of Christ, for they will not be able to claim any blessing on their own merit. In that day all will be compelled to own them as God’s people, for “all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed” (Isa. 61:9).

W. J. Prost