OH 8:56" Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it
and was glad."
THERE are three things here stated. 1st. " Abram rejoiced to see my day;" i.e., as I take it, anticipatively by faith. Whatever that day was, it had been the subject of revelation or promise to the patriarch, and became the object of his desire.
2ndly. " He saw it." What he had before looked forward to, he at some time subsequently realized: not
by faith, anticipatively, for if so the Lord's words "and he saw it," are only a repetition of what he had just said.
3rdly. The seeing the day referred to made Abraham glad. To regard " my day," as signifying the day of the Lord's glory as King of Israel, the head and center of millennial blessedness, is to fall short of the truth that is in the Lord's mind. Because, 1st, that is the day of the Son of man, and it is not in that character that the Lord is presenting Himself in the chapter in which the passage before us occurs. He is the Son of man it is true, and so speaks of Himself in ver. 28, and in chap. 6., etc. etc.,
but not as propounding or enforcing that truth', but rather that He, the Son of man, was indeed and in truth the Son of God. Moreover Abraham did not see that day except by faith anticipatively; so that if that be still insisted on as the meaning of the blessed Lord, the passage would, in other words, run thus:-" Your father Abraham rejoiced to anticipate my day, and he anticipated it and was glad." This would be tautology which the Lord's words exclude, since to see may be either by faith or in fact.
In John's Gospel the Lord presents Himself in His divine person and claims as the Son of the Father: the sent and the subject one indeed, who, although His mind and will were necessarily in absolute and essential unison, with the Father's, nevertheless exercised them down here, not in independency, but only as from moment to moment He waited upon and received the communications of the Father: the Son can do nothing of Himself (John 5:1919Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John 5:19), etc., etc.)
As Son of God He is the source and embodiment of all that is perfect in blessedness abstractedly, and the knowledge of Him thus by faith, links the soul with Him, and introduces it into the fellowship of the life, the light, and the liberty that pertain to Himself, as before, above, independently of, and beyond all dispensations in which angels or men could sin or Himself could suffer.
It is, I believe, to this blessedness in special contrast with anything that their boasted adherence to Moses could in their own thoughts confer upon the Jews, that the Lord referred when He said to those Jews that believed on Him, " If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," ver. 31; and again, in ver. 36, " If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Moses was faithful in God's house, but as a servant, and the law, of which he was minister, could gender only to bondage. But they were ignorant of this. Moreover they resented the Lord's gracious words by claiming to be descended from Abraham. " We be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any; how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?" This reference to Abraham called forth from the Lord's lips a statement well calculated to convict them of bondage; a statement too which included Abraham, and made even him but a poor impersonation of freedom; Whosoever committeth sin is the bondsman of sin." But Abraham had also in a very special manner abandoned the ground of faith and of grace, and brought upon himself and his house the yoke of a bitter bondage; " This Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children," Gal. 4:2525For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. (Galatians 4:25).
She expressed the Mosaic covenant which gendereth to bondage. So that being Abraham's seed did not necessarily involve freedom; Ishmael was as much his seed as Isaac. The Lord's words, in ver. 35, " and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son," etc., seem plainly to indicate that Ishmael and Isaac were in His mind. But if these Jews were ignorant of all this, and neither understood their own condition, nor cared for the deliverance and blessing into which the Son alone could bring them, it had not been so with Abraham. He groaned, doubtless, as Sarah did, under the consequences of his folly in distrust of God and the confidence of flesh, so that, at Sarah's instigation, he was willing to get rid of the burden, but God suffered him not till Isaac, the true son, the child of promise being come, sonship with all its privileges and blessings, should be introduced, and the bond-woman and her son could no longer continue; " Cast out the bond-woman and her son, for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman " Gal. 4:3030Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. (Galatians 4:30). Compare Gen. 16:5-95And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee. 6But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. 7And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. 8And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. 9And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. (Genesis 16:5‑9); and 21. 1-12. This day of the Son was the object of the faith and the desire of Abraham even from the beginning, " What wilt thou give me seeing I go childless," etc. Gen. 15; but how much more in connection with Agar and Ishmael; and in due time he saw it and was glad. What a contrast Abraham thus presents to those who, in the chapter before us, were claiming to be his seed, who were indeed, in one sense, his seed but not his children (see verses 37 and 39). They were under the bondage of sin and of the law, of this the sojourn of Agar and Ishmael in the house of Abraham was but a type; and there in their midst and speaking to them was the true Isaac, the everlasting Son of the everlasting Father, seeking to lead them into the liberty and blessing of sonship; but they would not, they sought to kill him, this did not Abraham. That Son and that day which they were despising in the blessed Lord's person and at His hand, Abraham in type rejoiced to see, and he saw it and was glad.