THIS was said by God to Abram ― the man that God promised to bless, as also to make him a blessing. All the families of the earth are to be blessed in him. Abram had been told by the Lord in chapter 13:14, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever”; and that seed, he was told, should be as the dust of the earth, numberless. Man is at home in the things of earth; they interest him, but to look up to heaven is to look away from earth. The heavens declare the glory of God, and Abram is bidden to look thitherward. What is feeble man, even in the presence of the glory of God in creation? “He telleth the number of the stars, he calleth them all by their names”, and He challenges Abram as to his ability to number them; but with this challenge came the promise “So shall thy seed be”. What an array of glory the heavens of God presented to childless Abram! It was all above and beyond human nature, and the earth in which that nature lived, but faith found its resting place in the word of Jehovah. Abram “believed in the Lord ant he counted it to him for righteousness”. We read in Romans 4:20,20He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; (Romans 4:20) “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but found strength in faith, giving glory to God”. My reader, do you give glory to God through looking toward heaven? In doing so you look away from self and earth to the place of God’s glory, and that is where Jesus now lives. Hence it is written, “Know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham”. And again, “o they which be of faith are blessed with believing Abraham”. He who telleth the number of the stars knows well each one who trusts Him. Again, we read of childless Abraham that he was “fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able also to perform”. Down the ages of time this blessing of Abraham has come to the thousands of Gentiles who believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
“In Him they stand a heavenly band, Where He Himself is gone.”
Turn now with me to Isaiah 53 ― to that part which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading when Philip accosted him, and note these words: “Who shall declare His generation, for His life is taken from the earth”. This refers to Him who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. As living on the earth He had no generation. Those He had gathered round Himself in His ministry here forsook Him and fled when He was crucified. He regathered them when risen from the dead. He had said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”. So it was written in Isaiah, “When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed”. And again, “He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied”. Thus was a company secured to Him beyond death in the power of His resurrection life. As He breathed this into them on the evening of His victory over death, we are conscious indeed of their being His generation. The Holy Spirit was sent from heaven in order that this generation might be continued. He is for believers now, not only “the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus”, but also “the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead”, and this fact ensures the quickening of these mortal bodies because they have been indwelt by the Spirit. How blessedly a generation is assured to Christ. As belonging to Him who was the promised seed of Abraham, they are also “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:2929And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)). But He who was the promised seed of Abraham was in the truth of His Own Person Son of God, and proved to be so by resurrection. Faith in Christ Jesus makes believers in Him far more than children of Abraham, they are sons of God; and because it is so, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying Abba, Father.
If we now look toward heaven, we see Jesus, the heavenly Man, there crowned with glory and honor; and we know that as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Who shall speak of that resurrection morn when the hosts of the redeemed, all bearing the image of Christ, shall meet Him on the cloud ― “His own” ― to be forever with Him?
T. H. R.