THE call of Abraham was a new departure, if we may so say, in the ways of God.
Man had been tried and tested in various ways, both before and after the flood, and the result was always failure and sin. Now idolatry had appeared, for the earliest notice we have of it is in the family of Terah, the father of Abraham, as we read in Joshua 24, “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood [Euphrates] in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods;” and God, instead of restoring what has fallen, calls out a people as a distinct testimony to Himself, in separation from the world. “The God of glory,” as Stephen says in Acts 7, appeared to Abraham while still he dwelt in Mesopotamia, and said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.”
At first Abraham stopped short. He left his country and kindred, but not his father’s house; and it was not till after the death of Terah, that he fully responded to the call of God, as we see from Acts 7. Hence the account in Genesis begins, “Now the Lord had said unto Abraham,” &c.; and a little lower down we read,” so Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him.” There was an interval after he left Ur of the Chaldees, and before he entered Canaan, during which he stayed at Charran.
The path of faith is a path contrary to the natural mind of man, and even things right and lawful in themselves may often hinder us from pursuing it, besides, we naturally like to be guided by sight and sense instead of by faith. But this path of faith, illustrated so remarkably in the life of Abraham, is just that to which God calls His people now; only that they have, what the patriarchs had not, Christ as the perfect example of one who ran the whole of that path from beginning to end; the Holy Spirit indwelling, and all the privileges which belong to the full revelation of the Father in the Son.
There were many things calculated to hold Abraham in Mesopotamia. Reason and prudence would have argued that it would be very unwise to leave his country and family relations, and to go into a land where he had nothing tangible to depend upon. But the way of faith is not the path of human reason; and besides, Abraham had the word of the God of glory―this was enough. He was not left to choose a land for himself; he was to be guided simply by the Word of God; “unto a land that I will show thee,” said the Lord.
Abraham was governed by God’s will, not his own; by faith, being called, he obeyed (Heb. 11), and went out, not knowing whither he was going.
Obedience and dependence are principles which mark the path of faith; and we have the perfect example of this in our blessed Lord Himself.
He ran the whole course of faith from beginning to end without a single falter, and never swerved from the place of dependence and obedience, never acting apart from His Father’s will. He could say, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” Again, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent ME.” Perfect light always shone on His path, for it was always one of unwavering dependence. What an example for us!
Abraham does not settle down in the land; he “passed through” the land where the Canaanite dwelt; and, as has been truly remarked, what distinguished him was, his tent and his altar. The inspired commentary in the New Testament tells us that “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob.” Faith in God, and obedience to His call, made him a pilgrim and a stranger, and a sojourner. Then God appears to him in the land, and he builds an altar unto the Lord; this constitutes him a worshipper. This is just, in type, the position of the Christian; he is a pilgrim and a stranger in the world; his home is on high, where Jesus is, at God’s right hand. No doubt God uses the various trials and difficulties of the way to wean His people from the world and show them that this is not their rest; but it is only as faith is in exercise and Christ is the object before the heart, that we can enter into what it is to be a pilgrim and a stranger and a worshipper.
Soon a test arises, for “there was a famine in the land,” and it was a “grievous” one. Abraham went down to Egypt, but we do not read that he had any command to do so; and he had certainly got out of the path of simple obedience and dependence on God. Here he makes an agreement with Sarah to say she was his sister―it was expediency, not faith, and it led to his denying the relationship before Pharaoh. After all, there was only One who ever walked the whole course of faith unwaveringly―the Lord Jesus Himself. We find Abraham saying Sarah was his sister again when he went to Gerar, but God comes in in grace on both occasions. Isaac also denied the relationship, when with this same Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. The more the church got into the world, the weaker the sense of her true relationship to Christ became; in fact the great mass of Christians know little or nothing of what it is to be united to Christ, though this blessed truth is so plainly taught in the New Testament. We do not find that Abraham had any altar in Egypt; but when he comes back to Bethel, where his tent and altar had been at the first, there he calls on the name of Jehovah.
(To be continued.)