IT has been a question which has been suggested to the writer of these lines, how it came that Abraham, whose course was in faith outside the circumstances around him, should arm his servants for the rescue of Lot? He did this also manifestly with the approval of God.
The difficulty seems to arise from ignorance of the variety in the dispensations of God, which many believing persons remain in; in whose course, therefore, there is far less clearness, than acting in faith and full knowledge would produce. They confine themselves to the question of the peace of their own souls, and are often long before they comprehend, even if ever they do, the difference of dispensations as God successively revealed them. The vacillating nature of their peace, which is a case that too often occurs, does not arise from their not being the objects of God's unfailing grace in Christ Jesus, but from practically failing by their not taking that position which accords with the grace they enjoy.
God revealed Himself in the Garden as Lord God, the Creator of an order that was "very good," with prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There was an obedience and righteousness in accordance with this revelation of God. Without resting on what was between-when Noah came out of the ark, a new order with government was established, and responsibilities in accordance with it. When the law was promulgated, there was another-when Christ came, another. What David did in regard to the subjection of the laud and surrounding nations, was under God's eye, done on consultation with God, and in accordance with the revelation of God, as God of Israel.
Christ coming from the bosom of the Father, declaring Him and His love and grace; and with right to Jerusalem, to Judea, and the world, does not call for twelve legions of angels; but "when He was reviled, reviled not again, and committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously." He took on Himself the form of a servant, and humbled Himself even to the death of the cross, and did not resist evil, setting us an example as to conduct which had another exaltation in view.
Christ in the coming dispensation will come as David did, overcoming His enemies, and with the saints who have suffered for Him and with Him, in confession of an absent Lord, their Master, take possession of the world, of which they are heirs with Him, because they did not contend.
Now, the question that has arisen as to the consistency of Abraham's rescuing Lot by force of arms with the place he took outside all the circumstances of the land he lived in, will be settled on a. nearer examination of the dispensation of God then existing.
What place in the dispensation of God did this act of Abraham take? As to the land of Canaan, he had not so much as a foot in it, bowed himself before the sons of Heth, and bought a burying-place according to the full price of the money of the merchant, and was under no obligation for that which he was to receive at the hand of God alone, four hundred years afterward.
Isaac followed in the same steps. His father had dug wells, but the herdsmen of Abimelech drove his herds-men away from two in succession, and he yielded and went on till he found " room."
Jacob, forgetting his standing and the faith of his father and of Abraham bought land of the sons of Hamor, at Shechem, to his tents in. The sad scenes of Shechem followed in reproof of his not keeping Abraham's faith. In escaping thence, he buries every idol, and goes to Bethel, the place of Abraham's first entrance to the land of promise, and to begin anew. Happy is it to be allowed to begin anew! We see, therefore, clearly the dispensation of strangership in which Abraham moved in the land, and of which God had promised him possession.
The question now remains-Did Abraham act out of the order of dispensation that God placed him in, in arming his servants, and rescuing his nephew Lot by force of arms from the kings that had taken him prisoner? The faith of the Christian in the world is touched upon in this matter.
I can enjoy most exceedingly the type of the delivery of the remnant of a future day by a victorious Christ, and I find even the names of the nations leagued against Christ, in those leagued against Abraham, but that would not satisfy the question as to Abraham's act; but I find one clue in this transaction, that Abraham had not lost sight of his confession,:-He rescued Lot, but he would not take anything of the spoils, lest it should be said that the people of the land, with whom he now stood, for it was in an attack made on them that Lot had been made prisoner, had made Abraham rich. Abraham was not guided by circumstances at all, nor did he mix himself with the circumstances of the land in which he was a stranger. He owned Melchizedek, but he was the priest of the Most High God,-the representative of Him who, as Priest and King, shall reign eventually there.
On the occurrence of Lot's captivity, who had, from his having joined the nations, lost his all, as he did finally on the destruction of Sodom, as the consequence of his settlement among them; Abraham comes forward for his deliverance (the righteous but inconsistent Lot) from the hands of the four nations situated outside the land of Canaan, which was the land in which, because of the dispensation and promises of God, he always remained passive (but, yet, ever cared for) in the hands of God, using neither aggression nor self-defense. He walked as a stranger outside all the circumstances of the place he was in. We are in the Canaan of this world, and it is to the faith of Abraham Scripture makes the appeal.
Christ, if I may so speak, followed, and we are called to do so by the same faith, in a place God has not yet made ours by inheritance with Christ, joint heirs with Him, as Heir of God. He shall possess the earth and reign: over it, as Canaan shall under Him be given to Israel... Christ does not take present possession, nor do we contend for our rights, nor for His. It is the faith of Abraham not to do so. It only has a more extended scope. We are strangers in a place to which we are heirs. If you can find a place outside that which Christ shall possess and reign over, and you reign with Him, you may be then warranted to do as Abraham did, if you find a righteous man to be delivered.
With Abraham it was, from faith to faith, as it should be with the believer. His position led him by grace (which was revealed to him by God) to the faith of " a city not built with hands, eternal in the heavens," and thus made him (Christ being of his seed) heir of the world.
For us, we say,-
" Our home is-in heaven, our home is not here;"
not only inheritors of the kingdom, for which it is given to suffer, but having presently a heavenly portion in Christ, blessed with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him. Citizens there, strangers and as it were by accident here, where our Lord was rejected, we wait for the Son from heaven.
Now, the faith that brings me to the cross for my peace is so necessary to me, that it seems as easy as possible, for it is of grace. It could not be but alone of God and in God, and outside of me, to bring me to God; and in the Son I have settled peace and life, and a new calling, a heavenly one, and an earthly one by the confession I have to make.
Peace and life and our heavenly place are all so manifestly of grace (though all is of grace-and take care that we hold it thus, that we faint not), and possession so fully assured in the Son, that
"On earth the song begins,"
and faith says, with Miriam, " He hath brought us into His holy habitation" though the wilderness is before us.
Now, there are difficulties and trials in passing through the wilderness, and contests when once we taste what the land is; and opposition and enmity the farther we advance. But what are such contests? The contests are such as the righteous and holy Jesus, confessing His Father, had; they are not three hundred armed servants.
The rule is all the reverse-" He that taketh the sword, shall perish by the sword"; he that clotheth himself with the world, perisheth by the world. Here is the PATIENCE AND FAITH of the saints.
On a late occasion, a brother eloquent in the Scriptures said, that it was a mystery to him that the saints did not suffer-in fact, that they were not persecuted. The answer given was, that it was no mystery at all. As long as they profess but their heavenly privileges, the world can wish them joy in contempt of them. It can say, " Go up; we will stay below." But the word makes known to the saints the earthly confession, acknowledgment, and duty to the Lord, an exclusive Master, to whom all things of right belong. He came to make the claim, and was driven out; but the time shall come, that every knee shall bow in heaven and in earth and in hell-compulsively in the case of the rebels, but with joy to those that glory in the Lord; but all, without exception, shall confess Him to be LORD, to the glory of God the Father.
By grace and mercy we are called to the peace that is by Jesus Christ, and admitted now as to a secret which the world has not, and which distinguishes it as the world, viz., to the knowledge of His claim, and acknowledge Him as LORD. And right needful it is; for it is written, " Whosoever shall confess Jesus- LORD, and shall believe in his heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, shall be saved." Confess with his mouth Jesus -Lord (for so it is). Here begins, the opposition from the world. It will not be an opposition to our behaving righteously, soberly, and justly in an evil age; who shall harm you on that account? but owning openly another LOUD than him the world have as lord (and not only as respects worship). One Jesus, not King, which was either Jewish or a perverted intelligence, but LORD, to the glory of God the Father. It is a question between the world and the saints as to their course and confession, and the great question between God and the world. Though in heavenly relationship by grace, I am on earth; in heaven it is not dangerous to own Him-LORD. All acclaim Him as such. On earth it is dangerous, because' the world is lying in the power of the wicked one, who is, the rival of the LORD, and will remain so till destroyed by Him when He comes. In hell! Hell without distinction gives its allegiance to Satan.
Christ is as much to me LORD, as if I were already partaker of the inheritance. Thence the reward of it, because I own Him where disowned, and I receive reward for works and duties when in them I am serving Him. Let us keep to the text of the word and to the thoughts of the Rejected One: He that followeth me shall be where I am he that serveth me, him shall my Father honor. If we keep to the text of the word, to the obedient ear, questioning will cease. To be partakers of heaven, or of the glory that shall be revealed, equally point out the path in which Jesus walked perfectly, and Abraham • walked, so as to be an example outside the circumstances and outside the principles in which the world and the nations walk, even if some of the ordinary circumstances of life seem similar.
As Abraham rescuing Lot, and the consistency of this act is what was first the occasion of these remarks, and nothing may stand in the way of his being a very special example of the course of faith, I will conclude with a few words from Rom. 12:1212Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; (Romans 12:12), where he is called -" The father of circumcision [spiritually] to them also who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of our father Abraham, which he had yet being uncircumcised." The God of glory had appeared to Abraham, and taken him from his home, his kindred, and his father's house, to take up an entirely new set of circumstances, and to place his relationships under God, which they had not been.
The Lord of glory has appeared to us. All that men bargain for in this world, and according to this world, is because they disown Christ as the Lord of glory. "He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."