ABRAHAM.
ABRAHAM is one of the great men in the world’s religious history. Why
he is so can not be well understood and appreciated without at least
a brief view of the state of the world religiously considered at the
date of his call, and the demand thence resulting for the new religious
instrumentalities of which Abraham was in a sort “the head-center.”
In the age before the flood religion had never really flourished. We
read of a time when “men began to call on the name of the Lord,” and
something approximating toward system and concentration appears to
have been introduced. But the record is silent as to any marked result
except so far as it may appear in the piety of individual men, _e. g._
Enoch and Noah. Apparently the religious element failed even to hold
its own against the on-rushing tides of worldliness. Even the sons of
godly fathers formed unhallowed marriage connections, and consequently
were borne rapidly down the broad current of degeneracy and moral
corruption till only one family remained to represent the piety of all
that generation. There was a fatal lack of moral forces.――――The flood
was a vigorous moral lesson in itself; and besides this, the race
started afresh from the seed of this one pious family. Ten generations
bring us to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, near the old cradle of the
race. The history of religion during this period from Noah to Abraham
is exceedingly meager. Gathering up the few fragmentary notices which
emerge from the general darkness in the age of Abraham, we find that
his father’s family in ancient Ur “served other gods” (Josh. 24: 2);
that Abraham, journeying toward the south country of Palestine,
sojourned awhile in Gerar and was there drawn into grave temptation
by the apparent godlessness of the people, since he apologizes on this
wise for representing Sarah to be his sister and not his wife: “Because
I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will
slay me for my wife’s sake” (Gen. 20: 10, 11). The same temptation
befell him previously in Egypt (Gen. 12: 10–20)――probably indicating
the same inward thought based on the same apparent public morality.
Then we have the horrible wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah where not
ten righteous men could be found. And sad to say, we see a very low
tone of religious and moral life in the family even of Lot, who as the
nephew and special associate of Abraham should represent the better
elements of society.――――Akin to these special facts is the general one
that the personal history of Abraham through a full century of somewhat
extensive travels and various experience brings him into contact with
God-fearing men in only the single case of Melchizedek. Apart from this
one brief but wonderful interview (Gen. 14: 18–20) the recorded history
of Abraham gives the impression of a godly man working his way for the
most part _alone_, amid godless people on every hand――alone save as the
Lord testifies of him――“I know him that he will command his children
and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord
to do justice and judgment” (Gen. 18: 19).――――The case of Melchizedek,
“a priest of the Most High God” and also “king of Salem”――a man so
venerable in piety, in personal presence apparently, in power and in
years, that even Abraham received his blessing and “gave him tithes of
all”――this is the one sole bright spot on the otherwise dark religious
life of the world as known through the history of Abraham. We marvel
that Abraham, so far as appears, never met Melchizedek before and
never saw him again. It seems strange that two such men, so kindred in
character and spirit, each almost alone breasting the strong currents
of prevailing wickedness, should not have formed at least an infant
Christian Association to stand by each other and bring their joint
light to a common focus in the midst of the world’s deep and far
spreading moral darkness. But God had a certain great plan to bring out
with Abraham and his own way of doing it. It is plain there was need
of this new plan. The cause of piety and truth was in peril and called
for some “new departure”――some yet untried method and power. The world
was waiting for some Abraham――_i. e._ for just the system of which
the great and godly Abraham was the prominent figure and the historic
representative.
* * * * *
The patent points in this new system, put in briefest words,
were――_Abraham the head_ of a great family; the _founder_ of a great
nation; the _representative_ of the family covenant and its first and
illustrious exemplar; the _progenitor_ of the Great, long-promised
Messiah; and coupled with his lineal posterity, the _repositories_
of God’s truth and promises――_his offspring_, the people with whom
God dwelt and was publicly worshiped for ages in the presence of the
idolatrous nations of the earth; over whom God became their visible
earthly Sovereign, their recognized King and God.――――Thus the Lord
laid the foundation for progressive manifestations of himself and for
a growing development of religious truth and of its legitimate forces
from age to age till the Messiah should appear.
* * * * *
Plainly we may recognize among the divine purposes in this new system,
1. In general――to conserve, concentrate, augment and perpetuate the
religious and moral forces of revealed truth.
2. In particular:
(1.) To utilize all the best elements of the family relation, turning
to fullest account parental care and affection and the facilities
furnished by nature to parents for the training and culture of their
offspring. The germinal idea of this great family covenant lies in the
promise, so often reiterated――“I will be a God to thee and to thy seed
after thee” (Gen. 17: 7, 10, 19). A marvellous wealth of significance
lies in these brief words; for what can be more rich and all-embracing
than this――“I will be a God to thee”――thy God; all that a God can
become to man made in his image; his loving Friend, his “Shield and
exceeding great reward”; his hope and joy and trust; and to crown all,
his glorious salvation! Surely this cup of blessings is rich and full
enough to meet the largest wants of any individual human heart. But
when man becomes a father――when woman becomes a mother――a new love is
born in the soul and new wants are thence begotten, for the parental
heart instinctively cries out as the heart of Abraham did――“O that
Ishmael might live before thee”! Even so――responds the great parental
heart of God――I know the heart of a parent; therefore I said “I will be
a God to thee _and to thy seed after thee_”; not to thee alone but to
thee, and also, not less, to thy beloved offspring besides.
* * * * *
The _one comprehensive condition_ for the fulfillment of this great
promise is briefly indicated in the case of Abraham, of whom God
said――“I know him that he will command his children and his household
after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and
judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath
spoken of him” (Gen. 18: 19). The Lord knew that Abraham would fulfill
the conditions so conscientiously and well that he could fulfill
his promise. The conditions are thus incidentally brought out――viz.
parental fidelity and authority; the early culture and training
of his household; consecration, the prayer and the faith which are
legitimately begotten of this covenant and naturally correlated
to it;――these are obviously the fitting conditions upon which the
fulfillment of this covenant on God’s part must depend.――――But, O, the
wealth of blessings garnered up within its bosom for those who walk in
the steps of Abraham with like precious faith and like godly nurture!
How wonderfully does piety become self-perpetuating in the family
line from generation to generation of those who take this covenant to
their inmost heart and find God in it ever faithful and ever true and
evermore “mighty to save” as he hath said!
Here, strange to say, some good men would thrust in a peremptory
limitation, asserting that this family covenant is Abrahamic and Jewish
only; good for them, but not good for the Christian age; good in the
national but not in the family sense and application thereof.――――But
what is the logic of such a limitation? Was the love of parent for
offspring lost out of the human heart at the coming of Christ? Or
did the Lord forget at that point how deeply he had implanted this
love in human bosoms? Or did he think that piety, under the improved
auspices of the gospel age, could thrive without the help of this
family covenant? Or did he reason thus――that the gospel age having
the advantage of the Jewish in so many points, could afford to forego
this family promise, and yet not on the whole fall below the Abrahamic
dispensation?――――Or in another point of view, looking at the evidence
rather historically than logically, it is claimed, as I understand the
argument, that Christ did not renew the promise――“A God to thee and
to thy seed after thee”; and therefore it did not pass over into the
gospel age.――――To which I reply; The real question is――not, Did Christ
_renew_? but, Did he _annul_? Did he say――I have come to make void
the law, not to fulfill? Did he say――That family covenant which the
patriarchs loved so dearly, in the faith of which they trained their
sons and daughters into the love and service of their fathers’ God, has
well done its work and can stand no longer? Did he labor to reconcile
the parental heart of his Jewish disciples――loving their dear little
ones so tenderly――to this sudden withdrawal of divine promise――to
this sore bereavement of hope and slaughter of faith? Was this what
he meant when he said; “Suffer the little children to come unto me
and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven”? Or was
this the meaning of Peter when in the first Pentecostal sermon he
proclaimed――“The promise (of the Holy Ghost) is to you _and to your
children_” (Ac. 2: 39)? Or could this have been the purpose of Paul
when he testified; “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed
and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3: 29)?――――The proof that
the gospel age ruled out the great family covenant is by no means
apparent.――――It should be considered that the covenant is one thing;
circumcision another. The covenant does not of necessity die because
circumcision is discontinued. The covenant existed before circumcision
and could be operative without it; indeed could live without any
visible sign or seal, if so the Lord pleased.――――Nor does the
perpetuity of this covenant turn on the proof that baptism takes in
all respects the place of circumcision. Whether it does fill the same
place or does not, the covenant standeth sure. There is value in an
external rite or seal――else God had never enjoined it. But it falls
exceedingly far short of being the thing of chief value.
Into the argument respecting the change from the old seal to a new one,
it is not in place here to enter.
This class of moral sentiments and social affections looks _forward_
in the line of human generations from parent to offspring. Another
class of no small value looks _back_ reverently, not to say proudly, to
_honored ancestors_. Here also Abraham’s name became a positive power
upon his posterity――not indeed of the very highest efficiency――not
altogether proof against being corrupted to the pampering of national
pride and even of personal self-righteousness, for bad men might learn
to say, “We have Abraham for our father.” Yet still it can not be
questioned that for long ages the name and history of Abraham bore the
precious savor of his faith and of his staunch fidelity as the servant
of the living God. It was the prestige of a name both great and good,
and served to perpetuate his piety among millions of his offspring.
In this direction all those qualities in Abraham which made him truly
great as well as eminently good become elements in this new scheme
for augmenting the spiritual and moral forces of God’s kingdom among
men.――――It can not be amiss, therefore, to linger here a moment and
study this wonderful man. Verily the Lord found the right man for his
purposes in Abram, then living in “Ur of the Chaldees.” He called him
to leave kindred (save the few who joined him in this migration); to
leave also all there was to him in country――the land of his fathers’
sepulchers; and travel several hundred miles to a strange unknown
land. Abram heard and recognized God’s voice; he bowed to his authority
and went. This first recorded illustration of his faith in God and
obedience made its impression upon future ages――as we may see in the
words of Joshua (24: 2, 3); of Nehemiah (9: 7, 8); of Stephen (Acts
7: 2–5); and of the writer to the Hebrews (11: 8–10)――which last may
be taken as a specimen of all. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
Not a little might be said of many of the lesser yet really noble
qualities of Abraham’s character――how magnanimous he appears in his
bearing toward Lot (Gen. 13: 5–9); how dignified before the sons of
Heth (Gen. 23: 3–16); how hospitable in entertaining three strangers
who came up as he sat in his tent door in the heat of the day (Gen. 18:
1–16) when he “entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13: 2); how humble,
reverent yet earnest in his intercession for Sodom (Gen. 18: 23–33);
how fearless, daring and wonderfully efficient in the rescue of Lot
from the plundering hordes of the East (Gen. 14: 13–24); how unselfish
in refusing to participate in the recovered booty:――but all these
qualities fade like stars before the sun when seen in the presence of
his wonderful faith and unflinching obedience to the commands of the
Lord his God.
The most signal manifestations of his faith and obedience cluster about
three several points in his history; viz. his call to go forth from his
ancestral home and country; his waiting twenty-five years for the birth
of his one son of promise; and the command to offer this only son in
sacrifice.
That first call revealed the man. It was but to hear God’s voice; and
forthwith he “conferred not with flesh and blood.” He seems not to
have paused a moment to question the Lord about the conditions, or to
consider the hardships; and he never “looked back.”
Next that promise of a son, standing so long unfulfilled; year by
year the human probabilities fading, dying out, till at length they
are utterly dead, and nothing remained save the naked promise! This
was indeed training Abraham’s faith _to wait_. Inasmuch as God’s
chosen plan of introducing the Messiah involved long ages of waiting
and trusting and living on simple promise, this was by no means a
profitless or uncalled for illustration of the nature, the value, and
the power of _faith_ as in man toward God.
High above either of these cases, in point of the fierceness of
the trial and the wonderful spirit of calm and steadfast faith
and endurance, stands the case of God’s command and his consent
to sacrifice his son Isaac (Gen. 22). The record puts this case in
the foreground as to _trial_: “God did tempt Abraham”――not in the
sinful sense――tempting to make him sin; but in a sense appropriate to
God――subject him to a terribly searching trial. First, God called him
by name “Abraham”! Then said――“Take now thy son, thine only son”――that
son of promise in whom all thy hopes and all thy heart’s affections
have been so long concentrated――that son “whom thou lovest”――take him
and go, far away three days’ journey to a mountain which I will point
out, and there “_offer him up for a burnt-offering_”!
Was Abraham shocked? Did he stagger under this stunning blow? Did he
pause to debate the matter with God? Did he beg that the awful agony
might be at least delayed till he could collect himself and prepare
for a trial so unexpected, so sudden, so terrible to bear? The record
gives no hint of any thing of the sort. Abraham had heard God’s voice
many times before and could not have had the first doubt as to its
identity. If the least doubt had crossed his mind he surely would have
said――“Lord, this seems so unlike Thee: Is it not Satan, thine enemy?
I can not move one step until I know of a certainty that this is thine
own voice.”――――But there was no relief in this direction. Yet we almost
instinctively ask――Did not Abraham expostulate? Did he not say――O my
Lord, this Isaac is the son of thine own promise, my only hope for
that great and long promised posterity; and what wilt thou do for _thy
truth_? Besides, the deed is so shocking, so revolting to a father’s
heart! Moreover, hast thou not said――“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by
man shall his blood be shed”? And what an example this will be before
all the tribes of the earth! How it will encourage them on to murder
their children in sacrifice to their gods!
We can readily make up what may seem to us very strong arguments
against obedience to such a command; but it does not appear that
Abraham whispered in his heart the first one of them. The only hint
we have of his deep thoughts in the case comes through the writer to
the Hebrew Christians――“Accounting that God was able to raise him up
even from the dead.” Plainly the Lord meant to show that his command
when made known unquestionably is to be obeyed without debate――with
no misgivings, no faltering, no fear. So Abraham moved firmly on,
saying not a word to Sarah, keeping his counsel even from his two
chosen servants and from his son; holding the strange secret in his
solitary――shall we say, _sad_ bosom?――――No; for there is not the first
note of sadness throughout this wonderful transaction. Look at those
three days of ongoing journey. Ah, was not this a long time to think
over the strange deed! And those intervening nights――was there any
sleep to his eyes while this terrible suspense lay still between the
command and its execution?――――So far as appears Abraham moved on with
unshaken fortitude and undisturbed calmness. Certain it is that he
never lost his self-possession, for he continued to plan carefully
and even sharply against disturbing influences. He could not trust his
servants to stand by; so he halted them at a distance back from the
scene. He kept the awful secret from his son Isaac until he had him
bound and laid on the altar and the uplifted blade was ready to fall!
This was the obedience of faith! The wonderful illustration stands
out before all the ages with God’s seal of approbation broadly stamped
upon it.――――When the trial had fully reached its culminating point
and no room remained for doubt that Abraham would obey God at every
cost, fearless of consequences, or rather committing all consequences
to his God, then God’s angel interposed! A ram was provided for the
sacrifice and the son of promise went back to a more happy home with
a more happy father, doubly blessed in the renewed approbation of his
covenant-keeping God. No wonder that God proceeded then to make that
covenant stronger and broader and richer than ever before! No wonder
Abraham stamped into the very name of this ever memorable locality one
of the grand moral lessons of the scene――“Jehovah Jireh”――_In the mount
of the Lord, himself will provide!_ When you come to the mount of last
and utmost emergency, the Lord will have salvation ready! His angel
will appear; the ram of sacrifice will be there; and Isaac may go in
peace!
* * * * *
According to the common law of Christian experience, God’s methods
with Abraham were _progressive_; his manifestations of himself moved on
by successive stages; much this year but more the next; so much indeed
at the first that it must have seemed to the good man very great, but
more and greater were yet to come. The successive epochs at which God
appeared to Abraham to talk with him of the great covenant are very
distinctly marked in the history――of such sort as many a Christian
might record in his own personal life-history.
1. In the outset of Abraham’s history is that eventful _call_ which
brought him out from “Ur of the Chaldees,” the narrative of which
stands Gen. 12: 1–3. In the promise made to him then the leading
points were――“I will make thy name great”; “I will make of thee a great
nation”; “thou shalt be a blessing and in thee shall all the families
of the earth be blessed”; I will stand by thee to bless all who bless
thee and to curse whosoever may curse thee.――――This must have raised in
Abram’s mind large expectations and assured him that Jehovah was indeed
his own God.
2. Immediately after Abram’s arrival in Canaan (Gen. 12: 7) the Lord
appeared to him specially to identify that as _the_ land which he had
promised (Gen. 12: 1) to show him and to give to his posterity. There,
as in each new home, Abram built an altar and in devout worship called
on the name of the Lord who had thus appeared to him.
3. Next, after his magnanimous bearing toward Lot (13: 7–9, 14–18) in
which he seemed ready to waive all claim to any territory Lot might
choose to occupy. The Lord bade him lift up his eyes toward every
point of the compass, all round about and reiterated his grant of the
whole――“All the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy
seed forever.” Also, that his seed should be as the dust of the earth.
His generous magnanimity toward Lot in nowise damaged his standing with
God or his rights in the goodly land of promise.
4. A yet richer scene of divine manifestation followed Abram’s rescue
of Lot from the plundering horde of the great Eastern kings (Gen. 15).
The first words were significant and precious: “Fear not, Abram; I
am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward.” Abram knew enough
of human nature and of the resentful, lawless spirit of those warlike
kings to see that he was exposed to their vengeance and that they might
return any day with more military force than his household could muster.
It was therefore at once timely and kind in the Lord to meet him at
this point with this comforting assurance: “Fear not; I am thy shield”;
I stand between thee and those vengeful foes: my strong arm shall be
a wall of fire round about thee. Moreover Abram had nobly refused to
appropriate to his personal use even a thread or a shoe-latchet of the
booty brought back from his routed enemies――whereupon the Lord said,
“I will be thine exceeding great reward.”――――Truly when a man’s ways
please the Lord, he not only keeps his enemies at peace with him but
makes all things go well.――――On this re-appearance the Lord promised
him a son more distinctly than ever before, and posterity as the
stars in number. Here it is said definitely――“Abraham believed God and
God counted it to him for righteousness.” His faith pleased God, and
because of it, God accepted him and he stood as one who is “_all right_
before God.”――――Remarkably the Lord at this time identified himself to
Abraham as the same God who had appeared to him in his fatherland and
called him forth into Canaan and said, This is the very land I then
promised to give thee; to which Abraham replied (v. 8), “Whereby shall
I know that I shall inherit it”? At once the Lord proceeded to ratify
his covenant in the usual Oriental manner. A heifer, a she-goat and
a ram――one from each species commonly used in sacrifice――are brought
forward; each is cut into two parts; the parts are laid asunder; a
turtle-dove and a young pigeon, also used for sacrifice in certain
contingencies, were added but not cut in two. Then when night came on,
a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and the Lord gave him in vision certain
prophetic views of his posterity; and ratified the covenant by passing
(in the symbol of fire and smoke) between the severed parts of the
sacrificial animals. Of this method of ratifying covenants we have
historical traces in Jer. 34: 18–20. We have also early and decisive
indications of the same mode in the fact that at least in the Hebrew,
Greek and Latin tongues the word for ratifying a covenant means
primarily to _cut_. The phrase is, _to cut a covenant_. The prominent
thing in the transaction was the cutting of the animal in twain that
the contracting parties might pass solemnly between the parts of it. It
seems to be assumed that the contracting parties virtually imprecated
upon themselves a like doom if they proved faithless to their covenant.
5. At the next eventful appearance Abraham had been waiting in
faith for the son of promise a quarter of a century and was perhaps
tempted to think the fulfillment fast becoming impossible. Pertinently
therefore the first words of the Lord were――“_I am the Almighty God!_
Walk before me and be thou perfect”; fear nothing; my covenant stands
fast. I will multiply thee exceedingly! Abraham fell on his face and
God talked with him, reiterating his promise of posterity, giving
unwonted prominence to the family feature of his covenant――“a God
to thee and to thy seed after thee”――and instituting the rite of
circumcision.
6. The sixth and last recorded appearance followed the triumph of
Abraham’s faith in the sacrifice of his only son. In this the Lord
re-affirmed the great elements of his promise――posterity as the stars
of heaven; triumphant over their enemies; a blessing to all the nations
of the earth.――――Thus at successive and somewhat remote intervals and
mostly on special occasions the Lord manifested himself to his servant
to confirm his faith, to enlarge the range of promise and to signify
his pleasure in the obedient trustful life of his friend.
Such is the religious history of Abraham as related to his covenant
God. Corresponding to this is the history of his posterity, the Hebrew
nation. To them as to their patriarchal father God manifested himself
through long ages, at successive points, _e. g._ in their Egypt life;
in his uplifted arm over Pharaoh to bring them forth in the memorable
Exodus; at the Red Sea; at Sinai; all through their wilderness life;
at the Jordan crossing; in the conquest of Canaan, and onward, onward,
till the coming at length of that greater Seed of Abraham in whom most
signally were all the nations of the earth to be blessed. But to the
details of this latter history we must give more definite attention in
their place and order.
* * * * *
One other special feature in the great covenant with Abraham should be
noticed.
In many respects this covenant made Abraham and his posterity a
peculiar people, discriminating broadly between them and every other
nation, and accumulating the blessings of God upon them in no stinted
measure. It might be apprehended that such exclusiveness would beget
bigotry, national pride and self-righteousness; but, with wisest
forethought, the Lord put into this covenant one counteracting element
of great power, viz. that _he ordained them to be a blessing to all the
nations of the earth_. “In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed.” It was never the thought of God that the
Hebrew people should live to themselves and for themselves――should
garner their own store-house full of heavenly blessings and leave
all other peoples to shift for themselves as best they might. No;
God’s plan contemplated the culture in their souls of the broadest
benevolence, and this, pressed into service by a sense of largest
responsibility to meet the revealed purposes of God as to their work.
Into this great system which made them his peculiar people, he put,
openly and clearly, the germinal idea of a salvation to be provided for
the wide world――this covenant people to be the almoners of all these
blessings to the otherwise benighted and perishing nations. Properly
understood and duly regarded, this germinal idea would have developed
in their hearts and lives the true missionary spirit, would have given
at once both breadth and depth to their piety, would have made them
feel that God had great thoughts of mercy for the whole race of man,
and had honored them as his ministers in giving this salvation to every
creature. At the very least here was opened a thoroughly rich field for
prayer, the broadest scope for real sympathy with the benevolence of
the Great Father of all the nations and a powerful antidote against the
narrow exclusiveness which might otherwise have shrunk and shriveled
their piety and narrowed their aspirations to themselves and their
land. How often in the heart of the good men of later times――the men
like Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah,――must the kindling thought have been
sprung by this great germinal promise――_When shall these things be?_
When shall the full fruitage of these great promises be realized? What
have we to do to hasten the coming of that sublime consummation?
* * * * *
It remains to speak more definitely of the promises made to Abraham _as
including the great Messiah_.
In this as in most other Messianic prophecies, the argument is
threefold;
(1) The language obviously _admits_ the Messiah, _i. e._ may be
construed without violence to apply to him, or at least to _include_
him:
(2) Its meaning is so broad that it _must_ include him; the blessings
are too great to be supposed possible without him――apart from him: and
(3) The inspired writers of the New Testament found the Messiah in this
prophecy.
The substance of the prophecy is in the words――“In thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22: 18 and 26: 4). Beyond
question this _may_ include the Messiah as the author of these really
universal blessings――blessings for all the nations of the earth. Nay
more; the blessings are too great, too broad, too far reaching to admit
any supposable interpretation short of the Messiah and the gospel age.
Historically no fulfillment less broad than the Christian can possibly
be made out. In Christ and in him only can this prediction be fulfilled.
And to crown all, our Lord himself testifies; “Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day; and _he saw it and was glad_” (Jno. 8: 56). It
may be noticed that the word used by our Lord was not _me_, my person;
but “my _day_”――the gospel age; the great events of it; the wonderful
results of my coming――which is no doubt the exact truth. It was rather
what was to be achieved by Christ in the way of blessings upon all
the nations than what lay in Christ’s _person_ definitely that Abraham
prophetically saw.
Paul adds his testimony that these words refer to Christ;
(a.) Affirming (Gal. 3: 8)――“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the nations [‘heathen’] through faith, preached before the
gospel to Abraham, saying, ‘In thee shall all nations be blessed.’”
“Preached before” is simply predicted, revealed by prophecy, with the
accessory idea that the thing revealed was the gospel, the news of
salvation.――――(b.) To show that in his view the burden and fullness
of this prophecy are Christ and nothing less or other than Christ, he
says in this connection (v. 16); “Now to Abraham and to his seed were
the promises made. He saith not――And to _seeds_ as of many, but as of
one――And to thy _seed_, which is Christ.”
Waiving any special effort to justify Paul’s argument from the singular
number of the word “seed,” his testimony is certainly valid to the
point for which I have adduced it, viz. that Paul saw Christ in this
prophecy. How much soever the principles of exegesis may reluctate,
they certainly will not deny that he interprets the prophecy concerning
Christ. Their complaint would be that he ties it down to Christ too
exclusively.
It must be held therefore that the promises made to Abraham really
include a prophecy of Christ. We could not infer from the record in
Genesis how well Abraham understood the reference to the Messiah. But
the allusions to this point in the New Testament give us light, our
Savior most distinctly declaring――Abraham rejoiced that he might see
my day; _he saw it_――with great joy. The writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, speaking of Abraham and the patriarchs as not having received
the promised blessings but as seeing them from afar and embracing them,
has in mind specially their faith in the promised heavenly city (Heb.
11: 10, 13, 14, 16), yet not to the exclusion of him who prepares those
mansions for his people (Jno. 14: 2, 3). His testimony is in point to
show that Abraham looked beyond the earthly side of those blessings to
the heavenly; rested not in the earthly Canaan, not in the multitude of
his lineal sons and daughters; but reached out beyond these to the city
that hath eternal foundations and to the blessings of the Great Messiah,
good for all the nations of the earth. The nearer and lesser blessings
had a power of suggestion, lifting his thought to the more remote and
greater. A man who talked with God so intimately can not be supposed
to have missed these grand ideas of the gospel age and of the heavenly
state which we are sometimes wont to regard as the special, not to say
exclusive, revelations of the New Testament.
_Sodom and Gomorrah._
Involved in this history of Abraham, there occurs this ever memorable
case of sudden and most fearful judgment upon the ungodly in this
world――the overthrow of the cities of the plain. Sodom and Gomorrah
only are mentioned by name in Gen. 13: 10 and 19: 24, 28); in several
cases for brevity, Sodom only; but Moses (Deut. 20: 23) and Hosea
(11: 8) speak of Admah and Zeboim as also overthrown. These were
contiguous and (in Gen. 14: 2) confederate cities. The narrative
sets forth their appalling and absolutely universal wickedness. Other
references suggest the causes or occasions (Ezek. 16: 49, 50), and
intimate that the better life and the reproving testimony of Lot were
powerless (2 Pet. 2: 7, 8).
The narrative also makes prominent the immediate agency of God in this
destruction. “The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah fire and
brimstone from the Lord out of heaven” (Gen. 19: 24). “When Abraham
looked toward Sodom and all the land of the plain, lo, the smoke of
the country went up as the smoke of a great furnace” (v. 28).
The case became for all future time a standard illustration of God’s
most sudden, fearful and utter destruction of the wicked. (See Deut.
29: 23 and Isa. 13: 19 and Jer. 20: 16 and 50: 40 and Amos. 4: 11 and
2 Pet. 2: 6 and Jude 7.) It classes itself naturally with the deluge of
Noah’s time and with the fall of Pharaoh’s host in the Red Sea, and the
swallowing up of Korah and his company in the wilderness――all combining
to show that God never lacks the means or the power to begin his
threatened retribution upon the wicked here in time whenever he deems
it wise for the moral ends of warning.
The question of secondary agencies is of altogether secondary
importance. It may well suffice us that _God’s hand was there_. It
matters but little whether he made use of the agencies of the natural
world――lightning and the combustible materials of that locality,
or otherwise. That these natural agencies were employed is perhaps
probable.――――The locality of those cities is undoubtedly identified,
viz. at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, now and for many ages
submerged though in quite shallow water. The adjacent soil affords
bitumen and other inflammable substances in abundance, indicating
with great probability that a prodigious discharge of electricity
ignited the whole region, fire from the Lord out of heaven gleaming and
crashing; the atmosphere all ablaze with flames and the very ground on
which the city stood burning with terrible fury. It might seem that the
deep moral pollutions of its people had doomed that vast plain to be
first purified by fire and then sunk from human view for all the coming
ages by its subsidence beneath the waters of the Dead Sea.――――In view
of this appalling scene, how terribly significant become the words of
Jude――“Set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal
fire”! How easily and yet how fearfully can the Almighty execute the
judgments written against guilty sinners who scorn his words of warning
and dare his vengeance!
“_The Angel of the Lord._”
Cases occur in Old Testament history in which the Lord appears in
visible form and is called interchangeably “the Lord” and “the Angel
of the Lord.” See the personal history of Hagar (Gen. 16: 7, 13); of
Abraham (Gen. 18: 2, 16, 33 and 22: 11, 15–18); of Jacob (Gen. 31:
11–13, 16); of Moses (Exod. 3: 2, 4, 6, 7, etc., and 23: 20–23); of
Gideon (Judg. 6: 11, 12, 14, 20–23) and of Manoah (Judg. 13: 18, 22).
The term “angel” means in general a messenger; but is manifestly
applied and therefore is applicable to the visible manifestations of
God himself, supposably of the second person of the Godhead, _i. e._
God as made manifest to mortals. The cases above referred to are
entirely decisive as to the usage of the phrase, “The Angel of the
Lord” in some cases (not relatively many) to denote the very Presence
of the Lord himself coming down to reveal himself to his people. In Gen.
18: first three men appear before Abraham; he entertains them. Two of
them go on toward Sodom; one remains talking with Abraham. It is said
“Abraham stood yet before the Lord”; then drew near and offered that
remarkable prayer of intercession for Sodom; after which “the Lord went
his way and Abraham returned to his place.”――――In Gen. 22, when Abraham
had stretched forth his hand to slay his son, “the angel of the Lord
called to him out of heaven.” Shortly after (vs. 15–18) “the angel of
the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By
myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; etc.... Because thou hast obeyed
my voice.” This can be no other than the very God.――――The passages
above referred to from the history of Moses are striking. In Exod. 23:
20–23 we read: “Behold I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the
way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. _Beware
of him_” (_i. e._ not to offend him) “and obey his voice; provoke him
not; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for _my name is in
him_”――name, as usual in the sense of the very qualities of character
of which the name is a significant indication.