Alone, in the secret of the divine presence, separated for a little while from the outer world, and even from the activities of the Lord's work, let thy thoughts be engaged, 0 my soul, with that which will lead thee into the closest and sweetest communion with divine and heavenly things. The inner sanctuary is the true place for thy meditations. There, the sevenfold light of the golden candlestick shines without a veil. There is no need of a veil now; sin has been put away and God glorified. The same stroke that slew the Lamb, rent the veil. But it was rent from the top—from God's point of view—by God's own hand. Christ and His ransomed ones enter into the holiest of all without a veil; accepted in the Beloved; no more conscience of sins; liberty of access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Matt. 27:5151And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; (Matthew 27:51); Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6); Heb. 10:22For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. (Hebrews 10:2); Rom. 5:22By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2).
Such solitude is needful, it is indispensable. Not only -will thy communion be thereby deepened, but thy loins will be afresh girded for work and thy sword whetted for further conflict.
The revelations of God's love to us are intended, as they are fitted, to draw our hearts nearer and nearer to Himself. And where couldst thou find, my soul, a scene of more exquisite beauty than is laid in Gen. 24 and the scriptures which immediately surround it, and form part of the scene? Here we have shadowed forth the Father's purposes of love concerning His Son, the heir of all things, the passing away of Israel, the call of the bride and her heavenly home. But before dwelling on the principal features of chapter 24, thou wilt do well to glance briefly at chapters 22., 23. These consecutive chapters, under the light of the New Testament, are full of Christ, Israel, and the church.
The Typical Death And Resurrection Of Isaac
The house of Abraham being now cleared of the bondwoman and her son, and his own moral condition thoroughly judged before the Lord, he is called to pass through a great trial of faith in the offering up of his son Isaac. But it is most interesting and instructive to observe the Lord's dealings with Abraham in secret before he is called to this bright and public manifestation of his faith, and of his intelligence in the mind of God. Man of faith, and man of God, though Abraham was, we learn from chapter 20 that he had long cherished in his heart a subtle expediency of unbelief as to the specious plea of Sarah being his sister. " And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me; at every place where we shall come, say of me, he is my brother." This was false and of Satan; and proved the guilty cause of his weakness and failure again and again. But now, through mercy, the truth is told; the idol is cast out of the heart; the sin is confessed, his soul is strengthened, and he never falls into the same sin again. But, O, pause here a little, my soul, and learn a lesson so needed in the midst of present circumstances.
Mark the danger of allowing an idol a place in the heart; of maintaining a secret reserve there which is dishonoring to the Lord and ruinous to the life of faith; of acting under any guilty agreement with another, though it may have the semblance of truth, while the conscience knows that it is not perfectly right before God. There can be no real blessing, no triumphs of faith, until the evil, whatever may be its form, is judged in its very roots, openly confessed, and given up. This may be humbling work, but it must be gone through. Half measures will never do for God; He must have reality, truth in the inward parts. It was truly humbling, degrading work for Abraham, and that too in the eyes of the world. He was forced to confess his deception to Abimelech king of Gerar, and receive his rebukes. And Sarah too suffers dishonor in the sight of strangers, and is reproved by the king. " Behold he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other; thus she was reproved." So let Christ be a complete covering to thine eyes, the filling up, and satisfying of thy heart. Have Him only. No reserves, no compacts, no idols, have Him only as the covering of thine eyes.
But the Lord. who is full of compassion and tender pity, after all this, greatly honored His servant in the eyes of Abimelech and all his people, and in him foreshadows the exaltation of the Jew over the Gentile in the latter day, to the glory of Jehovah, the everlasting God. Chapter 21:22, 34.
In chapter 22 a new scene opens to us, and a deeper character of events follow. It begins with, " And it came to pass after these things." This is significant as to Abraham's state of soul. It was at bright moment in his history and full of meaning. The Gentile comes seeking protection of the Jew, his blessing on his family and descendants, and enters into covenant with him. The God of glory is now before the mind of Abraham. He is strong in faith giving glory to God—the Lord of heaven and earth. " And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God." Here we see three things—the altar, the grove, and the well: expressive symbols of the millennial day, when Jew and Gentile will be united in peace and blessing. All is joy and happy communion with the mind of God. Ishmael is dismissed, the idol dethroned, and the house of Abraham established in the son of promise. He was now in a fit state of soul to stand the severest test that any saint of God ever passed through. But carefully note, my soul, the immediate connection between prayer and service, between communion in secret and power in public, between Abraham " calling on the name of the Lord," and his readiness to obey the call of God in offering up his son. Scarcity of bread turns him aside from the path of faith when looking to circumstances and listening to the voice of nature, but nothing turns him aside now, or causes him even to hesitate for a moment; his eye is fixed on God, the everlasting God, the God of resurrection.
"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lowest, and get thee unto the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And 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 into the place of which God had told him." Never was faith put to such a test as this; but Abraham, through communion with God, is equal to the trial. He knows God, trusts in God, reckons on God, and is prepared to give up everything for Him; even his son, his only son, Isaac, the heir of promise, the one through whom all blessing was to flow both to Jew and Gentile. He rose up early in the morning; he made haste to obey; accounting that God was able to raise up Isaac even from the dead; from which also he had received him in a figure. (Heb. 11) He had already received Isaac as it were from the dead, and he now lays him bound on the altar at the word of God, in the sure and certain hope that God would raise him up again. The promise was God's, that was enough for faith, though, alas! it is not always enough for the believer. Unless there be simple faith in God Himself, and obedience to His word, the believer may often fail.
But the actual moment for faith's unequaled trial has come. Draw near, my soul, and meditate on its brightest displays and its greatest triumphs. It has no parallel even in the book of God. Abraham has reached the appointed place. " Behold, the fire and the wood;" said. Isaac to his father, " but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" What words were these to a father's heart? But mark the tranquil answer of faith. " And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." His eye rested on God, not on his beloved Isaac. He believed God, lie trusted God, all his springs -were in him: this was the secret of his strength and his victories. " And Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou past not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son."
The faith of Abraham is now fully proved. God is known and trusted as the God of resurrection; this was the secret of strength in the hour of trial. He could trust God with a sacrificed Isaac; knowing that all he had given up in death would be received back again in resurrection. Thus God was glorified and Abraham justified by these reckonings of faith. But our chief object in referring to this remarkable scene, is not so much the faith of the father as the death and resurrection of the son. " For though he was spared the actual death to which Abraham freely gave him up, the type of death as a sacrifice is fully carried out by the substitution of the ram caught in the thicket and slain by the father." Thus we see the deeper mysteries of the cross shadowed forth in this remarkable type; even the love of God in the gift and in the death of His Son, for whom no ram was caught in the thicket. God " spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.'' And, oh, wondrous, precious, mysterious faith, Christ, the Fountain of life, submits to death by the puny arm He had created. But in faith He died, and gave up Himself on the cross, and all that was dear to Him, into the hands of the Father, to be received again in resurrection. And now we have in Him, as the risen Man, resurrection life, with all its untold and eternal blessedness. God so loved the world that He gave His Son, and Christ so loved the church that He gave Himself for it, so that faith can now delight itself in the fullness of divine love, and personally say, looking up to the risen Man in the glory, He loved me and gave Himself for The cross of Calvary and the altar of Moriah are now seen and enjoyed in the light of a risen and glorified Christ.