These two chapters give us an account of Abram’s effort to obtain the promised seed by hearkening to the voice of his wife, and also of God’s mode of teaching him the unprofitableness of such an appeal to the mere energy of nature as that which his effort involved.
At the very opening of Abram’s course we find his faith put to the test in the matter of the famine, but here we find him tried in quite another way, a way moreover, which involved a far higher exercise of faith and spiritual power. “His own body now dead and the deadness of Sarah’s womb;” although, in the main, “he considered them not,” must have acted upon his mind to a considerable extent.
Now, as in the case of the famine already alluded to, Egypt was at hand, holding out a refuge from anxiety as to present supply, so here, “an Egyptian maid,”—one of those maid-servants, doubtless, which Abram had gotten during his sojourn in that evil place—was presented to him as a relief in the time of anxiety touching the promised seed. “Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.”
But why introduce the element of bondage into his house? Why did not Abram’s mind shrink from the thought of “the bondwoman and her son” as much as it had shrunk from the thought of “the steward of his house?” Might not the question, “Lord, what wilt thou give me,” be asked in connection with one as well as the other? Surely was as much opposed to the divine economy to grant the inheritance to the seed of “a bondwoman,” as to a “servant.” In either case it would be an allowance of the claims of nature, which cannot be.
The principles involved in this act of Abram’s are fully laid open to us in the inspired commentary given in the Epistle to the Galatians. There we read, “Abram had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of ice all.” (chap. 4:22-26.)
The churches of Galatia had been led away from the simplicity and liberty of Christ and had returned to “the flesh.” They were beginning to substitute religious ceremonies for the energies of the Spirit of Christ. Hence it is that the Apostle, in the course of his reasoning with them on their unhappy movement, refers to the matter recorded in our chapters, and the way in which he expounds it to them renders it unnecessary to dwell longer upon it. This step of Abram’s only “gendered to bondage;” it introduced an unhealthy and an unhappy element into his house which, as we shall see when we proceed further with our subject, he had to expel ere he could reach the highest point of elevation in his course.
In chapter 17 we have God’s remedy presented to us, and most consolatory it is to observe how the Blessed One at once comes in in order to lead back His servant to the simple yet difficult position of faith in Himself—simple, because therein we have but one object with which to be occupied—difficult, because therein we have to contend against the workings of “an evil heart of unbelief,” leading us to “depart from the living God.”
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I AM THE ALMIGHTY GOD; walk before ME, and be thou perfect.” Here was at once the effectual cure for all impatient anxiety. “I am Almighty” —I can quicken the dead—I can call those things that be not as though they were—I can, if needs be, raise up of stones, children unto you—no flesh shall glory in My presence. “I am Almighty, walk before Me and be thou perfect.”
It is perhaps one of the finest principles with which the mind can be occupied, that our God desires that He may ever be learned, in the variety of His perfections, by the need of His people. We have already met a striking illustration of this important principle, in the matter of Abram’s conflict with the king of Sodom, in chapter 14. There, when Abram was tempted by the offers of the enemy, he round relief in the apprehension of God’s character as “the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth.” The character of the communion into which Melchizedek led the soul of Abram was suited to the circumstances in which he stood. So is it exactly in this 17th chapter. Communion with God as “the Almighty” was the sole remedy for impatient anxiety as to the fulfillment of any promise.
Now, when once the Lord exhibits Himself in His character of “Almighty,” there can be no obstacle whatsoever to the outflow of His grace; for, when almighty power and almighty grace combine in behalf of the sinner, faith may count upon a rich and on abundant harvest.
The promises, therefore, with which this chapter abounds are just such as we might have expected.
“I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (17:6-8.) Surely these are promises which almighty grace alone could utter, almighty power alone fulfill.
The above promises stand connected with “the covenant of circumcision” which is specially important as looked at in connection with Abram’s effort to obtain the seed otherwise than by the operations of God’s own hand. It would be profitable to dwell for a little upon the doctrine of this covenant of circumcision but my design in taking up this history, is not by any means to handle it in a doctrinal way, but rather to draw from it some of those valuable principles of a decidedly practical tendency with which it so richly abounds; and therefore I pass rapidly over chapters xvi., xvii. which contain a mine of precious doctrinal truth quite sufficient to occupy a separate treatise.
Ere closing my observations on this section of our narrative, I would add that it is faith alone which can enable one to listen, as Abraham here does, to the promises of Almighty God, and when faith listens, God will surely continue to speak. Abram here gets his name changed to Abraham, and the Lord unfolds to him the future greatness and number of his seed, while Abraham hearkens in the unquestioning silence of faith. But when the “Almighty God” goes on to say with reference to Sarai, “As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.” (vers. 15, 16.) He is at once overwhelmed by the pledges of such marvelous power and grace to be exercised towards him. They exceeded anything he had as yet known, and “Abraham fell on his face.” This is very instructive. Abraham with his face in the dust, overcome by the plenitude of almighty power and grace! Surely, we may say, while dwelling upon such a scripture as this, it is only faith that can rightly entertain the “Almighty God,” it alone can give Him His due and proper place and honor Him as He should be honored. When the Almighty displays Himself, self must be excluded, hence we find that Abram is set aside in all this—Sarai is lost sight of— “the bondwoman and her son” are, for the moment, put far out of view, and nothing is seen but “the Almighty God” in the sovereignty and fullness of His grace and power, and the faith that could lie prostrate in the dust, in silent adoration of such a display of the divine glories.
How different is this from the preceding chapter! There we find Abram hearkening to the suggestion of Sarai his wife, with regard to the bondwoman—here we find him hearkening to the voice of Jehovah, as Almighty, who is about to quicken the dead womb of Sarah, and to call those things that be not as though they were, that no flesh might glory in His presence. There it is Abram and Sarai without God —here it is God without Abram and Sarai. In a word, there it is flesh—here it is spirit—there it is sight—here it is faith. Wondrous contrast! Exactly similar to that afterward displayed by the Apostle to the churches of Galatia, when he sought to restore them from the sad influence of “the beggarly elements” of the flesh and the world, to the full liberty wherewith Christ had made them free.