By W. F. COLLIER, LL. D.
_Call of Abraham._—The next important step chronicled in the Mosaic
history of man is the call of Abraham, ten generations after Noah.
Abram was born 1996 B. C. Ur, a Chaldæan city, was his birthplace.
Terah, Abram’s father, removed from Ur to Haran, in Mesopotamia.
The Lord spake to Abram while residing in Haran, when he was
seventy-five years old, and commanded him to leave his father’s house,
to separate himself from his kindred, to depart from his country, and
to go to a land that should be shown him.
The Lord said to him, “I will make thee a great nation, and 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 the families of the earth be blessed.” Abram, in
obedience to this command, set out with his wife Sarai, and his nephew
Lot, taking with him his flocks and herds, and journeyed into the
land of Canaan. Having arrived, his first act was to erect an altar,
and sacrifice to the Lord. From this place he moved to the east of
Bethel, and again built an altar and worshipped. A famine drove him
from his new home into Egypt, where was an abundance of food. Having
spent some time in the land of the Pharaohs, he returned to Canaan,
greatly enriched by his sojourn in Egypt. Soon after the return from
Egypt Lot separated himself from Abram, and settled in the valley of
the Jordan, while Abram sought the hill country, and finally sat down
in the neighborhood of the ancient city of Hebron. The king of Chaldæa
made a raid on the cities of Canaan, and carried off Lot, with other
prisoners. This fact coming to the knowledge of Abram, he immediately
set out to rescue his relation. Having over three hundred servants, he
attacked the camp of the invaders at night, set them to flight, and
rescued his nephew.
This is the first battle recorded in history.
When Abram was one hundred years old the Lord’s promise was renewed to
him. His name was changed to Abraham, the name of his wife to Sarah;
and Isaac, through whom the promise of a great progeny was to be
fulfilled, was born. When Isaac was forty years old, Abraham sent his
servant to Mesopotamia to obtain a wife for him. His second cousin,
the grand-daughter of his father’s brother, was selected, and she
consented to go back with the servant and marry her kinsman. From this
marriage two sons were born, Esau and Jacob. By the right of birth Esau
possessed certain advantages, which Jacob purchased of him by dressing
him some food when returning faint and hungry from the chase, thereby
supplanting him. He afterwards, by deceiving his father, who was nearly
blind, obtained from him the parental blessing conferred only upon the
first born. This so enraged his brother, that Jacob sought safety in
flight, and went to his mother’s brother in Mesopotamia. There he was
kindly received, and after a short time had elapsed he entered into the
service of his uncle, and agreed to labor for him seven years for his
youngest daughter. Having fulfilled his part of the contract, Laban,
his uncle, gave him his _eldest_ daughter. When Jacob discovered the
deception his father-in-law had practiced upon him, he demanded Rachel.
Laban, however, required him to serve another seven years, which he
did. After the second marriage he continued still to live with Laban,
and received as pay a share of his flocks. In securing this share, he
was thought by his brothers-in-law to have practiced unfair means,
hence they became hostile to him. His father-in-law also having become
unfriendly, he fled, and returned to his native land with his family
and his flocks. Laban pursued and overtook him, and though their
meeting was far from being friendly, they entered into an agreement,
and gave pledges that they would not annoy each other in future. Jacob
then pursued his journey. As he approached his native country he sent
presents to his brother Esau, who came out to meet him, and they became
reconciled.
Jacob journeyed on to Canaan, and sat down in the city Shalim. Soon
after he removed to Hebron, the home of his childhood. He was rich
in flocks and herds, and his neighbors respected and feared him. In
accordance with the patriarchal mode of life, his twelve sons and
one daughter remained with him, who, with their wives, children, and
servants, made a large family or tribe.
_Joseph._—Jacob treated the children of Rachel, his beloved wife,
with greater tenderness than he did those of Leah, his first wife,
and Joseph was his favorite. The partiality shown to this son so
enraged his brothers that they determined to get rid of him. They
found an opportunity to carry out their design under the following
circumstances. The older brothers having been absent with their flocks
so long that their father became anxious about their safety, and sent
Joseph to search for them. As they beheld him afar off they plotted
to murder him; but, taking the advice of Reuben, they imprisoned him
in a pit in the wilderness. Soon after his confinement a caravan of
traveling merchants passed, and to these they sold Joseph into slavery,
telling their father that he had been destroyed by wild beasts. The
merchants carried him into Egypt, and disposed of him to Potiphar,
the commander of the king’s guards. In Potiphar’s house he rose to
great eminence as a servant; but falling into disgrace through a false
accusation, he was thrown into prison. While in prison his conduct was
so exemplary and submissive, that he gained the favor of the jailor,
and was allowed the freedom of the prison. Later on he was summoned
to appear before the king to explain certain dreams which troubled
Pharaoh. Appearing before the great monarch, Joseph disclaimed all
power in himself to explain the meaning of what had appeared to the
mind of the king, but modestly and reverently said the Lord of his
fathers would show the signification. The king having told his dreams,
Joseph predicted seven years of great plenty, to be succeeded by seven
years of dearth, and advised Pharaoh to build vast granaries and fill
them, during the years of abundance. The advice was immediately acted
upon, and Joseph was elevated to the rank of governor of all Egypt,
and the erection of storehouses, and the filling of them with grain,
was entrusted to him. The years of plenty came and passed away, and
were succeeded by tedious years of sore famine. While the Egyptians had
stores of food laid up by the providence and foresight of Joseph, the
neighboring nations, having exhausted their stock of provisions, were
obliged to go to Egypt to buy. The dearth oppressing the inhabitants of
Canaan, Joseph’s brothers came down to purchase also. While on a second
visit to buy food, they were made aware that their despised and hated
brother, whom they had sold into slavery, was the governor of Egypt.
Having made himself known to them, they were overwhelmed with surprise
and fear; but he most magnanimously pardoned and comforted them by
saying, “Be not grieved or angry with yourselves that ye sold me
hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life.” (Genesis
xlv: 5, 7.) “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the
earth, and to save yourselves for a great deliverance.”
Joseph’s father and all his family were at once brought into Egypt,
and established with their flocks and herds on the eastern bank of the
lower Nile, where Joseph nourished them, and where they prospered for
many generations, until a new king arose, who knew not Joseph.
_The Exodus._—The part of Egypt in which Joseph had settled his family
was one of the most fertile parts of the valley of the Nile. Skirted
on the south by hills, it sloped off to the northwest toward the
Mediterranean Sea, thus affording the most favorable exposure for the
purpose of the pastoral life which the Israelites led. For more than a
century they pursued their quiet employment, and were treated by the
Egyptians with respect and consideration, in memory of Prince Joseph.
The prosperity and increase of the Israelites, with their distinctness
as a people, alarmed the Egyptian powers, who turned their attention to
some means to cripple them and arrest their increase. Oppression was
resorted to. Privileges were withheld, and severer tasks imposed, until
one tremendous groan went up from the land of Goshen to the God of
their fathers. In spite of all the oppression and injustice practiced
upon this people, they throve and increased in numbers.
The Lord heard the cry of the outraged Hebrew slave, and permitted his
enemies to afflict him, that he might find the country hateful, and
feel that he was only a sojourner, who was to seek a promised land, the
land promised to his father, Abraham. Their burdens became intolerable.
Moses, their leader, applied to Pharaoh to allow them to depart from
the country; but the king refused, and God afflicted the Egyptians with
dreadful plagues, until they prayed the Israelites to depart. They set
out with all their effects, moving toward Arabia, and on reaching the
shores of the Red Sea they became aware of the fact that Pharaoh, with
his army, was pursuing.
Hemmed in on either side by hills, the sea before them, and their
enemies behind, they were overwhelmed with despair. But now the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, their fathers, delivered them with
a great deliverance, for, at his command, the sea opened and allowed
them to pass over in safety. Pharaoh, pursuing, led his chariots and
horsemen into the bed of the sea, and the returning waters engulfed
them. All were destroyed, not _one_ escaped; a terrific exhibition of
the wrath of the Almighty. The Israelites journeyed on toward Canaan,
the land of promise, spending forty years in the desert of Arabia,
living in tents, subsisting on manna, which they found on the ground
in the morning, and on the flesh of birds, which came to them every
evening, making their whole journey a series of miracles and special
providences. They finally reached the Jordan, which, like the Red
Sea, opened for them, and allowed them to pass over dry-shod. The
inhabitants of the land were driven out, and the weary wanderers, who
had crossed and recrossed their path in the rocky wilds and desert
sands of Arabia, sat down in the land of their fathers, and became
dwellers in permanent habitations.
[_January 28._]