The experiences of the heart occupy a large place in the thoughts of Christians. It is, nevertheless, important always to judge them by the Word of God. These experiences are the expression of the inward state of the heart and of our relations with others, as well as of the sentiments which our conduct, in these same relations, produces in our hearts and in our consciences.
The life of Abraham is an interesting example in support of this. It is true that neither the law nor the fullness of grace had been as yet revealed. Nevertheless, as we see in Hebrews 11, the principles of the life of faith on the promises of God were in general the same for him and us.
The Walk of Faith
Abraham himself failed in faith on some occasions, but in general his life was a walk of faith with God. This is the reason why his experiences are far more intimate with God and more simple than those of Jacob. With one single exception, Abraham always remained in the land of promise. He was indeed a stranger and pilgrim, because the Canaanites dwelt there, but he was in relation with God and walked before Him.
At first when God had called him, he had not fully answered this call. It is true he indeed left his country and kindred, but not his father’s house, and so he did not arrive in Canaan. It is true he had given up a great deal; he had gone from Ur in Chaldea, but he came no farther than Charran and rested there. So it is with the heart that has not learned that it belongs entirely to God. It is only in conformity with the call of God that we can enter into the position of the promise.
After the death of his father Terah, Abraham started at the command of God, and they set out to come into the land of Canaan, and they entered into it. Here we have the position of the heavenly people. Placed by the grace and power of God in a heavenly position, of which Canaan is a figure, they dwell there; they have everything in promise, but nothing as yet in possession. The Lord revealed Himself to Abraham in calling him; He reveals Himself anew to him in the place which he now knew and which he was going to possess: “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Gen. 12:7). Such is, in general, our confidence in God, that we shall possess really in future that which we know now as strangers.
A Tent and Altar
“There builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared to him.” He serves God and enjoys communion with Him. Thence he goes on to another place and there pitches his tent; he builds anew an altar to the Lord and calls on the name of Jehovah (vs. 8). He is a pilgrim in the land of promise, and that is his entire history. We dwell in the heavenly places, we enjoy them by faith, and we have communion with God, who brought us thither. Abraham’s tent and altar in this place give a character to his whole history, and all the experiences of faith consist in that.
His unbelief brings him into Egypt (vss. 10-21). There he had no altar. An Egyptian servant-maid becomes afterwards the occasion of his fall and a source of trouble to him. She is, as we learn in Galatians 4:24-25, a type of the law, for the law and the flesh are always in relationship with each other. The grace of God brings Abraham back, but he does not regain an altar till he has returned to the place where he first pitched his tent and to the altar which he had built before; there he has communion afresh with God (Gen. 13:3-4).
Nothing of the World
The promises of God are the portion of Abraham. He lets Lot take what he pleases: “Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee from me. If thou choosest the left, I will take the right; and if thou take the right, I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of Jordan, which, before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, was watered throughout until one comes to Zoar, like the garden of the Lord, and like the land of Egypt. And Lot chose for himself the whole plain of Jordan” (Gen. 13:9-11). Lot is the type of a worldly believer. He takes that which, for the moment, appears the better part, and he chooses the place over which the judgment of God is suspended. Abraham had given up everything according to the flesh, and God shows him the whole extent of the promise. He gives him a visible proof of that which He has given him and confirms it to him forever (vss. 14-18). Lot, the worldly believer, is overcome by the princes of the world. Abraham delivers him. With the servants of his house, he overcomes the power of the enemy (ch. 14:1-21). He will receive nothing of the world. He says to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth, if from a thread even to a sandal-thong, yes, if of all that is thine, I take anything ... ; that thou mayest not say, I have made Abram rich” (ch. 14:22-23 JND).
Afterwards God reveals Himself to Abraham as his buckler and great reward. He promises him a posterity at a time when his body was now dead; justified by faith, he receives the confirmation of the promises of God, who binds Himself by a sacrifice, type of the sacrifice of Christ. Then the inheritance is shown him in its details (Gen. 15).
The Law and the Promise
Following the counsels of the flesh, Abraham desires for a moment the fulfillment of the promise by the law, that is to say, by Hagar. But thus he only learns that it is impossible that the child of the law should inherit with the child of promise. Then God reveals Himself anew as God Almighty. He tells him that he shall be the father of many nations and that God will be his God forever (Gen. 17:1-14). The posterity according to the promise is promised again (Gen. 17:15-19).
After that, God once more visits Abraham and gives him positive promises respecting the approaching birth of his son (Gen. 18:9-15). He looks upon him as his friend, saying, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” (Gen. 18:17 JND). He communicates to him His thoughts concerning the world, and Abraham converses with Him freely and in perfect peace. He prays for those who had forgotten the Lord (Gen. 18:23-33). It was necessary that Abraham should again experience, in the case of Ishmael, that the law produces sadness and anguish, and at the court of Abimelech he learned to know that when unbelief is in action, it only produces troubles and sorrow. But God, in His faithfulness, watches over him, as well as over the mother of the posterity.
Afterwards, Abraham was tried in the highest degree, till he had to give up everything according to the flesh and even the promises. But the promises in a Christ raised in figure are confirmed to Christ Himself and, in Him, to all the spiritual posterity of Abraham (ch. 22:15-19); compare Galatians 3:16-18.
Pilgrimage and Adoration
Abraham then has learned by a fall that neither the law nor the promise are of any avail for the flesh; nevertheless, in general, his peculiar experiences consisted in pilgrimage and adoration, all the time he continued in the promised land. We have now remarked that his life is characterized by a tent and an altar. The whole experience, the whole life of the faithful Abraham, consists almost entirely of worship, intercession and revelations from God, so that he learned to comprehend these latter with increasing clearness and accuracy. He passed his time in the place to which God had called him. The revelations of God were for him rich, sweet and admirable. His knowledge of God was intimate and deep, his personal experiences happy and simple, for he walked with God who had revealed Himself to him in grace.
Selected from J. N. Darby