CHAPTER X.

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.