In the opening verse of this chapter, we have a principle fraught with comfort and encouragement to us—a principle eminently calculated to call out into full exercise a spirit of true devotedness to the Lord. We observe here, the Lord’s grace in acknowledging and accepting the sacrifice laid upon His altar—the willing offering of the devoted heart of His servant. Our God is never slow in owning such things, nor in rewarding them a hundredfold. Abram had just been manifesting a spirit of self-denial in refusing the attractive offers of the King of Sodom. He had refused to be enriched from such a source, and had taken “the Most High God” for his portion and his reward, therefore the Lord comes forth to confirm the soul of his servant with these words, “Fear not, Abram, I AM thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” “God is not unrighteous to forget the work and labor of love” (Heb. 6:10). A similar principle is presented to us in chapter 13 where Abram is seen giving way to Lot, in the matter of choosing the land. Abram’s whole anxiety in that matter was about the Lord’s honor, as maintained in the harmonious walk of “brethren” before the “Canaanite and the Perizzite.” “Let there be no strife,” says he, “between me and thee... for we he brethren.” Nor did Abram desire to suppress the strife, by exacting concessions from Lot. No; he was willing to concede everything himself—to surrender every claim—to sacrifice every advantage, provided the strife were suppressed “Is not the whole land before thee?” Take what you please—possess yourself of the fairest spot in all the region round about. Here, as some one has observed, is the liberality—the unselfishness of faith. What was land to Abram in comparison with the Lord’s glory? Nothing. He could give up anything, or everything, for that. How then does the Lord meet this self-sacrifice on the part of His servant? Just as He does in this xv. chapter, by coming in, in the plenitude of His goodness, to make it up to him a hundredfold. “Lift up now thine eyes.. for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee” (13:14, 15). How truly gracious it is of the Lord to enable Hi; servant to make a sacrifice for Him, and then reward that sacrifice by a vast increase of blessing. Such are His ways—His ever adorable ways.
We are now called to trace in Abram the development of a feature which, in a special manner, demonstrates the high order of his communion with God. After all God’s revelations and promises to him, his soul still breathes after an object without which all besides was defective. True, he had surveyed, with the eye of faith, the promised inheritance —the magnificent gift of divine benevolence; yet, notwithstanding all this, was there a great desideratum—a mighty blank. He sighed for a SON. A son alone could render complete, in Abram’s estimation, all his previous privileges. “And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold to me thou hast given no seed: and lo, one born in my house is mine heir” (vers. 2, 3). Now, we have, in tracing the path of this remarkable man, beheld him, at times, displaying some very noble features of character. His generosity—his high elevation of mind—his pilgrim-like habits—all these things denote a man of the very highest order; yet I hesitate not to say, that we find him, in the passage just quoted, exhibiting a temper of soul, more in harmony with the mind of heaven than anything we have met hitherto. Abram desired to have his house enlivened by the cry of a child. He had been long enough conversant with the spirit of bondage breathed by “the steward of his house,” but the titles of lord and master, though all very good in their place could not satisfy the heart of Abram, for Abram had been taught of God, and God ever instructs His children in those things which He loves, and which He exhibits in His dealings with them. And I would just observe, in connection with this, that we see in the case of the prodigal in Luke 15, the development of a principle very much in connection with what we have been saying. He says, in the very midst of all his misery “I wilt arise and go unto my Father, and will say unto him, Father.” Here we have a fine feature in the character of this poor wanderer. He had such a sense of the grace of him against whom he had sinned, that he could yet say “Father,” notwithstanding his long course of rebellion and folly.
But let us observe with what accuracy Abram lays hold of the great principle afterward brought out by the Spirit in Romans 8. “If children, then heirs.” Abram felt that sonship and heirship were inseparably connected, so much so, that without the former the latter could not be. This is the meaning of his question, “Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram rightly judged that to have “no seed” was to have no inheritance, for the word is not if stewards or servants, then heirs, but “if children, then heirs” (Rom. 8:17).
How very important it is that we should ever bear in mind, that all our present privileges and future prospects stand connected with our character as “sons.” It may be all well and very valuable, in its right place, to realize our responsibility to act as “faithful and wise stewards,” in the absence of our Master; still the most ample privileges—the highest enjoyments—the brightest glories, which belong to us through the grace and mercy of our God, stand intimately connected with our character and place as “sons.” (Comp. John 1:12; Rom. 8:14, 19; 1 John 3:1, 2; Eph. 1:5; 5:1; Heb. 12:5.)
In the vision presented to us in the close of our chapter, and which was granted to Abram as an answer to his question, “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” we have a further illustration of the teaching of Romans 8. Abram is taught by the vision, that the inheritance was only to be reached through suffering —that the heirs must pass through the furnace, previous to their entering upon the enjoyment of that which God was reserving for them; and I doubt not that, were we more deeply and experimentally taught in the divine life, we should more fully apprehend the moral fitness of such training. Suffering then, is not connected, in this chapter, with sonship, but with heirship; and so we are taught in Romans 8. “If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” Again, we must, “through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The Lord Jesus Himself, likewise, stands as the great illustration of the principle upon which we are dwelling. He occupied the place and enjoyed the favor of a Son from before all worlds, (Prov. 8) yet ere He could lay His hand upon the inheritance He must pass through suffering. He had a baptism to be baptized with, and was straitened (συνεχομενος) until it was accomplished. So also when He remembered that “a corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die,” or else abide alone, His soul was “troubled.” Now, we are to “know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings,” before we can know Him in the fellowship of His glory; hence it is that the palmed multitude mentioned in Revelation 7 had to pass through “great tribulation” (τηϛμεγαλιψεως) ere they reached their peaceful, heavenly home. Passages of Scripture might be multiplied in proof of this point, but I will merely refer to the following, viz.—Phil. 1:29; 1 Thess. 4; 2 Thess. 1:5; 1 Tim. 4:10; 2 Tim. 2:12; 1 Peter 5:10.
But, in this remarkable vision, there are two points which, as they appear prominently in the whole of Israel’s after history, deserve to be particularly noticed. I allude to “the smoking furnace, and the burning lamp.” (ver. 17.) It has been well observed, by a recent writer, that Israel’s history might be summed up in these two words, “the furnace and the lamp.” Egypt was a trying furnace to the seed of Abraham. There the fire burned fiercely, but it was soon followed by “the burning lamp” of God’s own deliverance. The cry of the suffering seed had come up into the ears of Jehovah. He had heard their groanings and seen their afflictions, and had come down to display above their heads “the lamp” of salvation. “I am come down to deliver them,” said He to Moses. Satan might take delight in kindling the furnace, and in adding to its intensity, but the blessed God, on the other hand, ever delighted in letting the rays of His lamp fall upon the dark path of His suffering heirs. So, when Jehovah had, in the faithfulness of His love, brought them into the land of Canaan, they again and again, kindled a furnace by their sins and iniquities; He, as frequently, raised up deliverers in the persons of the judges which were as so many lamps of deliverance to them. Further, when by their aggravated rebellion, they were plunged into the furnace kindled at Babylon, even there we observe the glimmerings of “the burning lamp,” and finally it shone out for their full deliverance, in the decree of Cyrus.
Now, the Lord was constantly reminding the children of Israel of the above truth. He says to them, “But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace.” (Deut. 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51.) Again, “Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers, in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace.” (Jer. 11:3, 4.)
Finally, we may ask, are the seed of Abraham now suffering in the furnace, or are they enjoying the lamp of God?—for they must be experiencing either the one or the other—the furnace, assuredly. They are scattered over the face of the earth as a proverb and a byword, a reproach and a hissing among all the nations of the earth. Thus are they in the iron furnace. But, as it has ever been, “the burning lamp” will assuredly follow “the smoking furnace,” for “all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” (Isa, 59:20; Rom. 11:26.)
Thus we see how that Israel’s eventful history has all along stood connected with the smoking furnace and the burning lamp, here seen in vision by Abram. They are either presented to us in the furnace of affliction, through their own sin, or enjoying the fruits of God’s salvation; and even at this moment, when, as has been already observed, they are manifestly in the furnace, we can witness the fulfillment of God’s promise, so often repeated, “And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a lamp (margin) always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen Me to put My name there.” (1 Kings 11:36; 15, x 4; 2 Kings 8: 19; Psalm 132:17.) If it be asked where does this lamp shine now? Not on earth, for Jerusalem, the place of its earthly display, is “trodden down of the Gentiles,” but the eye of faith can behold it shining with undimmed luster “in the true tabernacle,” where it will continue to shine “until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in;” and then, when the furnace, seen in this chapter by Israel’s great progenitor, shall have been heated to the very highest degree of intensity, when the blood of Israel’s tribes shall flow like water round the walls of Jerusalem, even then, shall the blessed lamp come forth from the place where it now shines, and cast its cheering rays upon the dark path of the oppressed and sorrowing remnant, bringing to mind those oft-illustrated words, “O ISRAEL, THOU HAST DESTROYED THYSELF; BUT IN ME IS THY HELP.”