Christians living in Western lands have been largely spared the open, violent persecution that some of our beloved brethren living in other countries experience daily. While we ought to thank God for these mercies and earnestly pray for our brethren, let’s remember that more difficult days are yet ahead for this poor world. Should our Lord leave His beloved assembly here a bit longer, these privileged lands will increasingly feel the effects of godlessness that is rushing in like a flood.
One’s boyhood was spent during the 1950s in a small, quiet, mid-central American town. During the nine years we lived there, I cannot remember one violent crime occurring. People, including children, freely walked about the streets in those quiet days and nights without fear. Most everyone knew everyone else, and there was at least some outward reverence of God, respect for the Bible, and a clear, public disapproval of immoral lifestyles. The closing of almost all merchants’ stores on the Lord’s Day also gave evidence of some public respect for God.
The past 40 years, however, have witnessed rapid deterioration in the social fabric of so-called Christian lands. Behavior which would have been rejected in earlier generations as corrupt and unacceptable is now considered perfectly normal and legitimate. Truly we do live in “difficult days”—times which, God’s Word tells us, will yet become darker, for “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:1313But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13)).
Viewing this sad ruin should cause us to realize afresh the vital necessity of walking in daily communion with our God. It is only as abiding in communion with the Lord that peace of heart and understanding of the times will be found.
Comfort in the Heat of the Day
The life of Abraham is a bright example of living by faith in trying times. Though his pilgrimage was not free of conflict and trial, he who is called “the Friend of God” (James 2:2323And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23)) walked to His glory, wonderfully sustained and blessed. It need be no different for believers today. Our blessed God is the same, His love is unfailing, and His promise to never leave or forsake His redeemed is unchanged.
In Genesis 18:11And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; (Genesis 18:1) we find dear Abraham in the wilderness occupying the proper position of a pilgrim—seated in his tent door. It was during the heat of the day, the time when pressures and trials are most severe, that we read, “The Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre.”
Fellowship With God—Sweet and Rich
It is encouraging to see that Mamre (fatness), where Abraham’s tent was spread, was in Hebron (communion; Gen. 13:1818Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. (Genesis 13:18)). The path of faith appears to unbelief as a dry and barren wilderness (even as the world ought to appear to faith), but how rich and sweet is that place of fellowship which each may enjoy with his God!
Thus it is that at this most trying time—the heat of the day—Abraham lifts up his eyes from that wilderness scene to see the Lord standing by him. Faith immediately discerns the divine Visitor, and Abraham desires that He might accept the hospitality of his home, finding His rest under the tree.
Calvary is the foundation of all communion with our God. He has found eternal rest and satisfaction in the work of His beloved Son on the cross, and thus there is now ground upon which we may have fellowship “with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:33That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3)).
Fellowship Enjoyed—Faith Tested
What joy Abraham had in serving the Lord—not only in serving, but standing by Him under the tree. This delightful fellowship enabled Abraham to walk the path of faith when great difficulties and testings confronted him. Let us consider three specific instances of difficulties that Abraham faced after he had enjoyed communion with the Lord. In each case his faith, supported by that sweet fellowship, rises above the trial and difficulty.
Looking Beyond Difficulty
“Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace” (Gen. 19:27-2827And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: 28And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. (Genesis 19:27‑28)).
It must have been a sorrow to Abraham’s heart to see that which he had interceded with the Lord about previously come under such solemn judgment. Had his prayers failed? Oh no! The sense of fellowship with God that he had enjoyed kept him from being discouraged in this difficult day. And the Lord did answer his intercessory prayer in a wonderful way. In the very next verse we read, “It came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow.”
The sin of those cities was so abominable that God must destroy them. Yet mindful of Abraham’s prayer, He spared Lot from the awful judgment. What a comforting thought this is to those who cry to God in prayer in dark days of trial and testing. Is it not often so that we know not what we should pray for as we ought, and yet we have the sweet assurance that the Spirit itself makes intercession for us. Fellowship with Himself gives wonderful assurance that He hears and answers according to divine love and wisdom and always far above all that we ask or think.
Overcoming Failure
“Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba” (Gen. 21:1414And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. (Genesis 21:14)).
What a difficult day this was when Abraham had to send his son, Ishmael, and Hagar away! That father’s heart—earlier beseeching the Lord, “O that Ishmael might live before Thee!” (Gen. 17:1818And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! (Genesis 17:18))—must have grieved at what his failure had wrought. Dear Abraham, who had provided a meal acceptable to the Lord, found that he did not have resources to provide what would sustain Ishmael and Hagar in the barren wilderness. But sustained by communion with the Lord, he does not hesitate to rise early in the morning and obey the Lord’s command.
Before long Abraham’s supply of bread and water gave out, and then Hagar’s faith and strength gave out, leaving poor Ishmael abandoned to die. But God’s promise to Abraham concerning Ishmael did not give out. The divine word of comfort came to Hagar! “Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is” (Gen. 21:1717And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. (Genesis 21:17)).
Giving Up All to God
“Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him” (Gen. 22:33And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. (Genesis 22:3)).
The most difficult trial in the path of faith now faces the man of faith as he walked in communion with God. Every hope and promise that Jehovah had made to Abraham centered in his beloved Isaac. But now all those promises of future blessing and glory must be laid on the altar, wholly given up to God. Does Abraham—who enjoyed such sweet fellowship—hesitate or falter at the moment of this supreme test? The words, “Abraham rose up early in the morning,” give eloquent answer. Even the most severe test that a father’s heart could experience was not able to turn aside from obedience one who enjoyed the peace of communion with God.
Abraham’s faith shone brightly when he uttered these words to the young men, as he and Isaac were about to go to the mountain: “Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you” (Gen. 22:55And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. (Genesis 22:5)).
May our God grant that each would earnestly seek to be found walking in communion with Himself. Until that blessed moment when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, let us walk as pilgrims and strangers, our dwelling a tent, its place the wilderness, separated from spiritual and moral corruption. When this is so, we too can lift up our eyes to behold the divine guest who always stands by His loved own.
Ed.