“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Whatever that word may be, faith receives it and acts upon it. It does not reason, does not ask the how and the why; it judges that God deserves to be trusted, and that is enough for it. Such was, in a large and blessed way, the faith of the patriarch Abraham. God spoke to him, and he broke at once with idol worship, for there was nothing else around him in Ur. God said, 'Go away from this place,' and away he goes. Goes where, he knows not. He simply acts upon the word, “Unto a land that I will show thee.” Human wisdom would have said, 'Why not continue to dwell in my native land? I can build there an altar to the Lord; it will be a new thing, a striking testimony; people will be attracted by it, converted to the true and living God by means of it, and thus much good will result.' So speaks a worldly Christian, pretending that by mixing with the world he will help to convert it, and, if not all the world indeed, at least his immediate surroundings to God. It is as good as saying, 'I know better than God.' Abraham was not of that class of believers, He rightly esteemed that God knew better than he, and so off he starts, on God's word, for the unknown country.
Thereupon God makes to him wonderful promises, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Here a tottering faith would have said, 'I don't understand; a family, however small, I have not, and how could all the families of the earth be blessed in me?' A strong faith answers by, “So Abram departed, as Jehovah had spoken unto him.” He had no other reason, but judged that “as Jehovah had spoken unto him,” this was the best and weightiest reason of all.
When he reaches the land of Canaan, the LORD appears unto him and makes a new promise, still more astonishing than the first, inasmuch as it lets out a great secret of the divine mind, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” The first promise was personal; now a seed is spoken of. What would that seed be? Abram does not raise such a question. He feels so sure of God, that upon this word he instantly builds an altar unto Jehovah. He takes the attitude of a worshipper; that is, of one who has much to thank God for. How admirable such a faith is, growing, as it does, step by step—a great example, but at the same time a great rebuke to us who, with so much to thank God for, have so little of the worshipping spirit.
After the patriarch has separated from Lot, his brother's son and a very poor companion on the way of faith, the promise is renewed, “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 I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.” Such a promise, so persistently reiterated, Abram could only treasure up in his heart, without asking for an explanation. There was in him something of the spirit of our Lord's mother: “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” God is greatly honored by such an attitude.
But the explanation will come. In chapter 15 Abram elicits it by his question, “Lord, GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?... Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is my heir.” To this God replies, no longer as in a riddle, but explicitly, “This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” —in which an addition is made to the previous promises. The Lord had said before, “All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” This concerns Israel. Then He said besides, “I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” This applies to the nations at large. Now He says, “Look toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” Here we have a heavenly family and by this the promise is completed. As Abram receives it with full consent, it is written of him, “He believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Thus does he become “father of them that believe” —father of all the families of faith, father of those of the earthly, calling, both Jews and Gentiles, and father of those called for heaven, “the father of us all,” as Paul writes in Rom. 4.
In Gen. 17 we draw near the time when the Lord will make good His pledges to Abram. As a sort of prelude He begins by changing his name Abram (high father) into Abraham (father of a multitude), and that of Semi (dame) into Sarah (princess). This change is significant, followed as it is by the divine declaration, “I will bless her, and give thee also a son of her, and she shall be a mother of nations: kings of peoples shall be of her.” In the next chapter the time of the child's birth is formally appointed, “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.” In chap. 21 The son is born.
But in chap. 22 we come to a trial sore enough to shake the faith of any man. Yet the patriarch staggers not, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” What a cut was this to his loving heart—who can say? And the three days' journey, and Isaac's question, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?” All this was heart-rending to the father. Again, “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.” Isaac knew not what was forthcoming. Yet at the supreme moment, when he saw that he was to be the victim, “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Abraham knew all, and nevertheless nothing could deter him. Was it through hardness or insensibility? Far be the thought. Does he love the less that only son? Rather the more. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down My life.” Again we ask, What was it then that made him equal to the sacrifice? It was that, step by step and in proportion as God revealed His purpose and pledged His promises, he had got to know and understand God, and therefore to fully rely on Him. On his part, it was not blind, but intelligent, obedience. This we learn from Heb. 11:1919Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19), “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” He believed in Him who was the God of resurrection and, as such, able to give him back in, his hands the loved object he surrendered. He accounted that having received him by a miracle, by a miracle he could receive him back. And so it was, in a figure or parable. Admirable faith!
Resurrection separates Isaac from his mother (chap. 23.). He lives (in figure) in the power of an endless life; she dies. Her tent remains empty for a time, which is the present time as regards Israel. Isaac appears now a solitary man; but solitary he cannot be long. His father had a purpose concerning him. He will now send Eliezer, his faithful steward, to fetch a wife for his loved son (chap. 24.). Forthwith the servant-ruler starts on his errand, strictly following the instructions of his master as he had sworn to him. He has but this one business before him. No tarrying anywhere. A fervent prayer when he reaches the spot, a prayer at once answered. As soon as he has come to the house of Laban, even before accepting to take any food, he must tell out his mission and put the decisive test, “If you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. He was not to come back alone. Consulted, Rebekah, the chief party concerned, answers without hesitation, “I will go.” The solemn transaction being thus settled, the journey back is straightway undertaken. The faithful servant feels that he has nothing more to do in that place. On his way to it, his one absorbing thought was to find a wife for his master's son; as he leaves it, his one absorbing thought is to present to Isaac the one he had betrothed to him by a golden earring and two bracelets. The meeting takes place at the well Lahai-roi—a significant name. Rebekah is at once received into favor and brought into Sarah's tent, and thus Isaac, no longer solitary, is comforted after his mother's death.
All this part of Abraham's life, from the call of God to the sending for a wife for his son is deeply instructive, so great are the lessons of faith he gives to each one of us. But if profoundly interesting from a simply historical point of view, it is still more so from a typical one. It is an allegory by which God's secret purpose is gradually unfolded. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” This was in view of man. Man was put at the head of the present World, lord over it all. He lost his dominion through sin, became the slave of Satan, who snatched it from him and boldly offered it to our Lord when he tempted Him in the wilderness, as though he had been the legitimate owner of it, on condition that the Lord would fall down and worship him, the liar, and the usurper. Did he expect our blessed Lora would be content to receive it on such terms? If so, he received a richly deserved rebuke. Let him in the face of the first man's powerlessness, detain for some time longer this world ruined all over by his subtlety and be prince as well as god of it—the day is coming when, as the apostle writes, “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
For a long time did a riddle attach to the promises made to Abraham. They could only be realized in a son and he had no son. So with God: He had a Son, an only Son, and for ages kept Him hid in His bosom. “Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.... Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.” This was the language of the Son when He was hid in the bosom of the Father. But the time came when Abraham was not only promised but given a son, who was to be his heir. So with God again. In due course, or “when the fullness of the time came, He sent forth His Son, born of a woman.” He sent Him forth, not to take possession of the earth, though it was His by right of creation, but to purchase it anew by redemption so as to be qualified to deliver it from the thralldom of sin and set it, thus delivered, “into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” Hence the sacrifice of Isaac in figure and the sacrifice of the Cross in reality.
First of all the Son humbles Himself. He says in the language of the 8th Psalm, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet.” What a contrast between the first and the last Adam! “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Self-exaltation dragged the first man into the mire; lowliness, obedience unto death and the death of the cross, led the Son of man to the throne. Seated there, all things have been put under His feet. Faith sees Him crowned with glory and honor, and waits patiently for the day when He will take His great power and reign.
But between His exaltation and His appearing in glory a long time was to elapse. During that time, His connection with Israel being broken, would He remain without any of the spoils of His victory on the cross? Not so. He wrought for God's glory in that mighty conflict, and, in return, God would forthwith give Him an object on which His thoughts and affections could be centered. Following Moriah came the sending of Eliezer after a wife for Isaac, and we may be sure that all the time that lasted the journey of the faithful servant, Isaac followed him in thought. What did he go to meditate about in the field at eventide? Was he not on the look out for the return of the messenger? Had he not, so to speak, counted the days that the absence was to last? And does he not come forth just at the right moment to meet the bride so ardently longed for?
This is precisely what is going on now. Ten days after Christ's ascension the Holy Ghost came down and commenced His journey in the interest of the Son and Heir. He has been at it ever since, patiently, yet without respite, gathering those who have heard and received His message, and who are to form the bride of the true Isaac. He does not work for Himself. a As the Father sent His Son to be glorified by Him, so did He send His Holy Spirit to glorify His Son. The title of Heir and Bridegroom does not belong to the Father, whatever His personal glories may be and are, but to Him who endured the suffering of death; and it is the Spirit's delight to own and proclaim the rights of the Son, as Eliezer found his delight in the rehearsal of the riches and dignities of Abraham's son. To God's Son He attracts souls, telling them of His redemption-work, of His infinite love, of what they will be enriched with in receiving Him—a blessed sample of which we have in Ephesians and Colossians. He draws them to the happy meeting-spot, acquainting them more and more fully with the loved and loving One who is about to descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God to call His redeemed to join. Him in the clouds and follow Him to the Father's house.
Sarah's tent, in type, for the earthly bride—Israel re-gathered; the Father's house for the heavenly bride—the church—and for the friends of the Bridegroom.
P.C.