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Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Genesis 12:1-4 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land.
Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.
I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'
So Abram went, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abram. That…
1. Now the Lord had said unto Abram. That an absurd division of these chapters may not trouble the readers, let them connect this sentence with the last two verses of the previous chapter. Moses had before said, that Terah and Abram had departed from their country to dwell in the land of Canaan. He now explains that they had not been impelled by levity as rash and fickle men are wont to be; nor had been drawn to other regions by disgust with their own country, as morose persons frequently are; nor were fugitives on account of crime; nor were led away by any foolish hope, or by any allurements, as many are hurried hither and thither by their own desires; but that Abram had been divinely commanded to go forth and had not moved a foot but as he was guided by the word of God. They who explain the passage to mean, that God spoke to Abram after the death of his father, are easily refuted by the very words of Moses: for if Abram was already without a country, and was sojourning as a stranger elsewhere, the command of God would have been superfluous, ‘Depart from thy land, from thy country, and from thy father’s house.’ The authority of Stephen is also added, who certainly deserves to be accounted a suitable interpreter of this passage: now he plainly testifies, that God appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran; he then recites this oracle which we are now explaining; and at length concludes, that, for this reason, Abraham migrated from Chaldea. Nor is that to be overlooked which God afterwards repeats, (Genesis 15:7,) ‘I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees;’ for we thence infer, that the Divine Hand was not for the first time stretched out to him after he had dwelt in Charran, but while he yet remained at home in Chaldea. Truly this command of Gods respecting which doubts are foolishly entertained, ought to be deemed by us sufficient to disprove the contrary error. For God could not have spoken thus, except to a man who had been, up to that time, settled in his nest, having his affairs underanged, and living quietly and tranquilly among his relatives, without any change in his mode of life; otherwise, the answer would have been readily given ‘I have left my country, I am far removed from my kindred.’ In short, Moses records this oracle, in order that we may know that this long journey was undertaken by Abram, and his father Terah, at the command of God. Whence it also appears, that Terah was not so far deluded by superstitions as to be destitute of the fear of God. It was difficult for the old man, already broken and failing in health, to tear himself away from his own country. Some true religion, therefore, although smothered, still remained in his mind. Therefore, when he knew that the place, from which his son was commanded to depart, was accursed, it was his wish not to perish there; but he joined himself as an associate with him whom the Lord was about to deliver. What a witness, I demand, will he prove, in the last day, to condemn our indolence! Easy and plausible was the excuse which he might have alleged; namely that he would remain quietly at home, because he had received no command. But he, though blind in the darkness of unbelief, yet opened his eyes to the beam of light which shot across his path; while we remain unmoved when the Divine vocation directly shines upon us. Moreover, this calling of Abram is a signal instance of the gratuitous mercy of God. Had Abram been beforehand with God by any merit of works? Had Abram come to him, or conciliated his favor? Nay, we must ever recall to mind, (what I have before adduced from the passage in Joshua,) that he was plunged in the filth of idolatry; and now God freely stretches forth his hand to bring back the wanderer. He deigns to open his sacred mouth, that he may show to one, deceived by Satan’s wiles, the way of salvation. And it is wonderful, that a man, miserable and lost, should have the preference given him, over so many holy worshippers of God; that the covenant of life should be placed in his possession; that the Church should be revived in him, and he himself constituted the father of all the faithful. But this is done designedly, in order that the manifestation of the grace of God might become the more conspicuous in his person. For he is an example of the vocation of us all; for in him we perceive, that, by the mere mercy of God, those things which are not are raised from nothing, in order that they may begin to be something.
Get thee out of thy country. This accumulation of words may seem to be superfluous. To which also may be added, that Moses, in other places so concise, here expresses a plain and easy matter in three different forms of speech. But the case is quite otherwise. For since exile is in itself sorrowful, and the sweetness of their native soil holds nearly all men bound to itself, God strenuously persists in his command to leave the country, for the purpose of thoroughly penetrating the mind of Abram. If he had said in a single word, Leave thy country, this indeed would not lightly have pained his mind; but Abram is still more deeply affected, when he hears that he must renounce his kindred and his father’s house. Yet it is not to be supposed, that God takes a cruel pleasure in the trouble of his servants; but he thus tries all their affections, that he may not leave any lurking-places undiscovered in their hearts. We see many persons zealous for a short time, who afterwards become frozen; whence is this, but because they build without a foundation? Therefore God determined, thoroughly to rouse all the senses of Abram, that he might undertake nothing rashly or inconsiderately; lest, repenting soon afterwards, he should veer with the wind, and return. Wherefore, if we desire to follow God with constancy, it behaves us carefully to meditate on all the inconveniences, all the difficulties, all the dangers which await us; that not only a hasty zeal may produce fading flowers, but that from a deep and well-fixed root of piety, we may bring forth fruit in our whole life.
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Unto a land that I will show thee. This is another test to prove the faith of Abram. For why does not God immediately point out the land, except for the purpose of keeping his servant in suspense, that he may the better try the truth of his attachment to the word of God? As if he would say, ‘I command thee to go forth with closed eyes, and forbid thee to inquire whither I am about to lead thee, until, having renounced thy country, thou shalt have given thyself wholly to me.’ And this is the true proof of our obedience, when we are not wise in our own eyes, but commit ourselves entirely unto the Lord. Whensoever, therefore, he requires anything of us, we must not be so solicitous about success, as to allow fear and anxiety to retard our course. For it is better, with closed eyes, to follow God as our guide, than, by relying on our own prudence, to wander through those circuitous paths which it devises for us. Should any one object, that this statement is at variance with the former sentence, in which Moses declared that Terah and Abram departed from their own country, that they might come into the land of Canaan: the solution is easy, if we admit a prolepsis (that is, an anticipation on something still future) in the expression of Moses; such as follows in this very chapter, in the use of the name Bethel; and such as frequently occurs in the Scriptures. They knew not whither they were going; but because they had resolved to go whithersoever God might call them, Moses, speaking in his own person, mentions the land, which, though hitherto unknown to them both, was afterwards revealed to Abram alone. It is therefore true, that they departed with the design of coming to the land of Canaan; because, having received the promise concerning a land which was to be shown them, they suffered themselves to be governed by God, until he should actually bestow what he had promised. Nevertheless it may be, that God, having proved the devotedness of Abram, soon afterwards removed all doubt from his mind. For we do not know at what precise moment of time, God would intimate to him what it was his will to conceal only for a season. It is enough that Abram declared himself to be truly obedient to God, when, having cast all his care on God’s providence, and having discharged, as it were, into His bosom, whatever might have impeded him, he did not hesitate to leave his own country, uncertain where, at length, he might plant his foot; for, by this method, the wisdom of the flesh was reduced to order, and all his affections, at the same time, were subdued. Yet it may be asked, why God sent his servant into the land of Canaan rather than into the East, where he could have lived with some other of the holy fathers? Some (in order that the change may not seem to have been made for the worse) will have it, that he was led thither, for the purpose of dwelling with his ancestor Shem, whom they imagine to have been Melchizedek. But if such were the counsel of God, it is strange that Abram bent his steps in a different direction; nay, we do not read that he met with Melchizedek, till he was returning from the battle in the plain of Sodom. But, in its proper place, we shall see how frivolous is the imagination, that Melchizedek was Shem. As it concerns the subject now in hand, we infer, from the result which at length followed, that God’s design was very different from what these men suppose. The nations of Canaan, on account of their deplorable wickedness, were devoted to destruction. God required his servant to sojourn among them for a time, that, by faith, he might perceive himself to be the heir of that land, the actual possession of which was reserved for his posterity to a long period after his own death. Wherefore he was commanded to cross over into that country, for this sole reason, that it was to be evacuated by its inhabitants, for the purpose of being given to his seed for a possession. And it was of great importance, that Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, should be strangers in that land, and should by faith embrace the dominion over it, which had been divinely promised them, in order that their posterity might, with the greater courage, gird themselves to take possession of it.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 From the flood to this time were four hundred…
From the flood to this time were four hundred twenty and three years.
In appointed him no certain place, he proveth so much more his faith and obedience.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram,…
Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Ver. 1. Now the Lord had said to Abram.] But was not this to command him to do that which was against nature? No, but only against corrupt nature, which must be denied, and mortified, or there is no heaven to be had. Father and friends must be hated (that is, not loved, as "Esau have I hated"), where they hang in our light, or stand in our way to keep us from Christ. {Mat 10:37}
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Get thee out of thy country.] This is a hard saying to flesh and blood; for, Nescio qua natale solum ,& c. But hard or not hard, it must be done, because God bids it; and difficulty, in such a case, doth but whet on heroic spirits, making them the more eager and resolute. It pleased David well to be set to fetch a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. God’s kingdom must be taken by violence. It is but a delicacy to dream of coming there in a featherbed. Too many, with Joseph, dream of their preferment, but not of their imprisonment. He that will be Christ’s disciple here, and co-heir hereafter, must deny himself; that is an indispensable duty. Abram was old-excellent at it.
And from thy kindred, and father’s house.] Who set out fair with Abram - as did likewise Orphah with Ruth - but settled in Haran, which was also in Chaldea, not far from Ur, and would go no farther, after the old man’s death. There they had feathered their nests, gathered substance, and got souls, that is servants; {Gen 12:4} and, therefore, there they would set up their staff, and afterwards turned again to idolatry. {Gen 31:30; Gen 31:53 Jos 24:2} Many follow God as Samson did his parents, till he light upon a honeycomb; or as a dog doth his master, till he meet with carrion; and then turn him up. Demas forsook God, and embracing this present world, became afterwards a priest in an idol-temple, as Dorotheus tells us.
Unto a land that I will show thee.] Yet told him not whither, till he was upon the way, but "called him to his foot," {Isa 41:2} that is, to follow him, and his direction. Magnus est animus qui se Deo tradidit , saith Seneca. Eundum quocunque Deus vocarit , saith another, etiamsi in ea loca migrandum esset -
“ Pigris ubi nulla campis
Arbor aestiva recreatur aura:
Quod latus mundi nebulae malusque
Iupiter urget .”
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The Lord had said, to wit, in Ur of…
The Lord had said, to wit, in Ur of the Chaldees, by comparing Gen 11:31, with Act 7:2-4; or, did say, again, i.e. renewed the command in Haran, whilst Abram might possibly linger there, as afterwards Lot did in Sodom, longer than he should. But the former interpretation is more probable, because Moses speaks here of that command of God which came to Abram before he was gone from his
kindred and
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father's house, and therefore before he came to Haran. And this command was given to Abram either immediately, or by Shem, then the governor of God's church.
From thy father's house; from the family of Nachor, which was now become idolatrous, Gen 31:30; Jos 24:2; and consequently their society was dangerous and pernicious; and therefore God mercifully snatcheth him as a brand out of the fire.
A land that I will show thee; which as yet he nameth not, for the greater trial and exercise of Abram's faith and patience: compare Isa 41:2; Heb 11:8.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 We have here the call by which Abram was…
We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience and also to separate him and set him apart for God, and for special services and favours which were further designed. The circumstances of this call we may be somewhat helped to the knowledge of from Stephen's speech, Act 7:2, where we are told, 1. That the God of glory appeared to him to give him this call, appeared in such displays of his glory as left Abram no room to doubt the divine authority of this call. God spoke to him afterwards in divers manners; but this first time, when the correspondence was to be settled, he appeared to him as the God of glory, and spoke to him. 2. That this call was given him in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran; therefore we rightly read it, The Lord. had said unto Abram, namely, in Ur of the Chaldees; and, in obedience to this call, as Stephen further relates the story (Act 7:4), he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran, or Haran, about five years, and thence, when his father was dead, by a fresh command, pursuant to the former, God removed him into the land of Canaan. some think that Haran was in Chaldea, and so was still a part of Abram's country, or that Abram, having staid there five years, began to call it his country, and to take root there, till God let him know this was not the place he was intended for. Note: If God loves us, and has mercy in store for us, he will not suffer us to take up our rest any where short of Canaan, but will graciously repeat his calls, till the good work begun be performed, and our souls repose in God only. In the call itself we have a precept and a promise.
I. A trying precept: Get thee out of thy country, Gen 12:1. Now,
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1. By this precept he was tried whether he loved his native soil and dearest friends, and whether he could willingly leave all, to go along with God. His country had become idolatrous, his kindred and his father's house were a constant temptation to him, and he could not continue with them without danger of being infected by them; therefore Get thee out, yalak - Vade tibi, Get thee gone, with all speed, escape for thy life, look not behind thee, Gen 19:17. Note, Those that are in a sinful state are concerned to make all possible haste out of it. Get out for thyself (so some read it), that is, for thy own good. Note, Those who leave their sins, and turn to God, will themselves be unspeakable gainers by the change, Pro 9:12. This command which God gave to Abram is much the same with the gospel call by which all the spiritual seed of faithful Abram are brought into covenant with God. For, (1.) Natural affection must give way to divine grace. Our country is dear to us, our kindred dearer, and our father's house dearest of all; and yet they must all be hated (Luk 14:26), that is, we must love them less than Christ, hate them in comparison with him, and, whenever any of these come in competition with him, they must be postponed, and the preference given to the will and honour of the Lord Jesus. (2.) Sin, and all the occasions of it, must be forsaken, and particularly bad company; we must abandon all the idols of iniquity which have been set up in our hearts, and get out of the way of temptation, plucking out even a right eye that leads us to sin (Mat 5:29), willingly parting with that which is dearest to us, when we cannot keep it without hazard of our integrity. Those that resolve to keep the commandments of God must quit the society of evil doers, Psa 119:115; Act 2:40. (3.) The world, and all our enjoyments in it, must be looked upon with a holy indifference and contempt; we must no longer look upon it as our country, or home, but as our inn, and must accordingly sit loose to it and live above it, get out of it in affection.
2. By this precept he was tried whether he could trust God further than he saw him; for he must leave his own country, to go to a land that God would show him. He does not say, "It is a land that I will give thee," but merely, "a land that I will show thee." Nor does he tell him what land it was, nor what kind of land; but he must follow God with an implicit faith, and take God's word for it, in the general, though he had no particular securities given him that he should be no loser by leaving his country, to follow God. Note, Those that will deal with God must deal upon trust; we must quit the things that are seen for things that are not seen, and submit to the sufferings of this present time in hopes of a glory that is yet to be revealed (Rom 8:18); for it doth not yet appear what we shall be (Jo1 3:2), any more than it did to Abram, when God called him to a land he would show him, so teaching him to live in a continual dependence upon his direction, and with his eye ever towards him.
II. Here is an encouraging promise, nay, it is a complication of promises, many, and exceedingly great and precious. Note, All God's precepts are attended with promises to the obedient. When he makes himself known also as a rewarder: if we obey the command, God will not fail to perform the promise. Here are six promises: -
1. I will make of thee a great nation. When God took him from his own people, he promised to make him the head of another; he cut him off from being the branch of a wild olive, to make him the root of a good olive. This promise was, (1.) A great relief to Abram's burden; for he had now no child. Note, God knows how to suit his favours to the wants and necessities of his children. He that has a plaster for every sore will provide one for that first which is most painful. (2.) A great trial to Abram's faith; for his wife had been long barren, so that, if he believe, it must be against hope, and his faith must build purely upon that power which can out of stones raise up children unto Abraham, and make them a great nation. Note, [1.] God makes nations: by him they are born at once (Isa 66:8), and he speaks to build and plant them, Jer 18:9. And, [2.] If a nation be made great in wealth and power, it is God that makes it great. [3.] God can raise great nations out of dry ground, and can make a little one to be a thousand.
2. I will bless thee, either particularly with the blessing of fruitfulness and increase, as he had blessed Adam and Noah, or, in general, "I will bless thee with all manner of blessings, both of the upper and the nether springs. Leave thy father's house, and I will give thee a father's blessing, better than that of they progenitors." Note, Obedient believers will be sure to inherit the blessing.
3. I will make thy name great. By deserting his country, he lost his name there. "Care not for that," says God, "but trust me, and I will make thee a greater name than ever thou couldst have had there." Having no child, he feared he should have no name; but God will make him a great nation, and so make him a great name. Note, (1.) God is the fountain of honour, and from him promotion comes, Sa1 2:8. (2.) The name of obedient believers shall certainly be celebrated and made great. The best report is that which the elders obtained by faith, Heb 11:2.
4. Thou shalt be a blessing; that is, (1.) "Thy happiness shall be a sample of happiness, so that those who would bless their friends shall only pray that God would make them like Abram;" as Rut 4:11. Note, God's dealings with obedient believers are so kind and gracious that we need not desire for ourselves or our friends to be any better dealt with: to have God for our friend is blessedness enough. (2.) "Thy life shall be a blessing to the places where thou shalt sojourn." Note, Good men are the blessings of their country, and it is their unspeakable honour and happiness to be made so.
5. I will bless those that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee. This made it a kind of a league, offensive and defensive, between God and Abram. Abram heartily espoused God's cause, and here God promises to interest himself in his. (1.) He promises to be a friend to his friends, to take kindnesses shown to him as done to himself, and to recompense them accordingly. God will take care that none be losers, in the long run, by any service done for his people; even a cup of cold water shall be rewarded. (2.) He promises to appear against his enemies. There were those that hated and cursed even Abram himself; but, while their causeless curses could not hurt Abram, God's righteous curse would certainly overtake and ruin them, Num 24:9. This is a good reason why we should bless those that curse us, because it is enough that God will curse them, Psa 38:13-15.
6. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This was the promise that crowned all the rest; for it points at the Messiah, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. Note, (1.) Jesus Christ is the great blessing of the world, the greatest that ever the world was blessed with. He is a family blessing, by him salvation is brought to the house (Luk 19:9); when we reckon up our family blessings, let us put Christ in the imprimis - the first place, as the blessing of blessings. But how are all the families of the earth blessed in Christ, when so many are strangers to him? Answer, [1.] All that are blessed are blessed in him, Act 4:12 [2.] All that believe, of what family soever they shall be, shall be blessed in him. [3.] Some of all the families of the earth are blessed in him. [4.] There are some blessings which all the families of the earth are blessed with in Christ; for the gospel salvation is a common salvation, Jde 1:3. (2.) It is a great honour to be related to Christ; this made Abram's name great, that the Messiah was to descend from his loins, much more than that he should be the father of many nations. It was Abram's honour to be his father by nature; it will be ours to be his brethren by grace, Mat 12:50.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Now the Lord had said unto Abram,.... In Ur…
Now the Lord had said unto Abram,.... In Ur of the Chaldees, before he came and dwelt in Charran, as seems from Act 7:2 and so Aben Ezra interprets it; but Jarchi and others think, that what follows was said to him in Haran, and so the words may be more literally rendered (u), "and the Lord said unto Abram"; after the death of Terah, who died in Haran; and indeed it is highly probable there were two appearances of God to Abram, and that the same words, or very near the same, were spoken to him at two several times, first in Ur of the Chaldees, and then in Haran:
get thee out of thy country; the land of Chaldea, and the city of Ur, which was in it, or out of Mesopotamia, in which, when taken in a large sense, were both Ur and Haran; and this country was now become idolatrous, for though it was first inhabited and peopled by the posterity of Shem in the time of Arphaxad, yet these, in process of time, degenerated from the true religion, and fell into idolatry. The same Maimonides (w) calls Zabaeans, in whose faith and religion, he says, Abram was brought up, and who asserted there was no other God but the sun, moon, and stars; and these Zabaeans, as he relates from their books and annals, say of Abram themselves, that he was educated in Cuthia, and dissented from the common people; and asserted, that besides the sun, there was another Creator; to whom they objected, and so disputes arose among them on this subject: now Abram being convinced of idolatry, is called out from those people, and to have no fellowship with them; it is literally in the Hebrew text (x), "go to thee out of thy country"; for thy profit and good, as Jarchi interprets it; as it must be to quit all society with such an idolatrous and superstitious people:
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and from thy kindred; as Nahor his brother, and his family, who are not mentioned, and seem to be left behind when Terah, Abram, Lot, and Sarai, came out of Ur of the Chaldees; though it looks as if afterwards Nahor did follow them to Haran or Padanaram, which are the same, and where he continued, and therefore is called his city; see Gen 24:10 so with great propriety Abram might be called a second time to leave his kindred as well as his country; and certain it is, Haran, or Padanaram, as well as Ur of the Chaldees, is called by himself his country, and Nahor and his family his kindred, Gen 24:4.
and from thy father's house; or household, his family, which better agrees with the second call at Haran, than with the first at Ur; for, upon the first call, Terah and his family came along with Abram, and therefore this phrase is omitted by Stephen, who speaks of that call, Act 7:3 but Terah dying at Haran, his house or family went no further, but continued there with Nahor; only Abram and Lot, upon this second call, went from thence, as the following history makes it appear; and so Abram left, as he was bid, his father's house and family to go, as it follows:
unto a land that I will show thee; meaning the land of Canaan, though not mentioned, and seems to be omitted for the trial of Abram's faith; hence the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 11:8 observes, that "he obeyed and went out, not knowing whither he went"; and yet it is said, that, when he and Terah came out of Ur of the Chaldees, "they went forth to go into the land of Canaan", Gen 11:31 and, when he and Lot went first from Haran, the same is said of them, Gen 12:5 it is probable the case was this; there was no mention made at first what land he was to go to, and when he prepared for his journey he knew not where he was to go, but afterwards it was revealed to him that Canaan was the land, and therefore set out in order to go thither; and still, though he might know the place by name where he was to go, he might neither know the way to it, nor what sort of country it was for quality or quantity; and therefore God promises to show him the way, and direct his course right unto it, and give him a view of it, that he might see what sort of a country, and how large it was, that he would give to his posterity. This call of Abram is an emblem of the call of men by the grace of God out of the world, and from among the men of it, and to renounce the things of it, and not be conformed unto it, and to forget their own people and their father's house, and to cleave to the Lord, and follow him whithersoever he directs them.
(u) "et dixit", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius. (w) More Nevochim, par. 3. c. 29. p. 421. (x) "vade tibi", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius, &c.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 From henceforward Abram and his seed are almost the…
From henceforward Abram and his seed are almost the only subject of the sacred history. In this chapter we have,
I. God's call of Abram to the land of Canaan ver. 1, 2, 3.
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II. Abram's obedience to this call, ver. 4, 5.
III. His welcome to the land of Canaan, ver. 6-9.
IV. His occasional remove into Egypt, with an account of what happened to him there. Abram's flight and fault, ver. 10-13. Sarai's danger and deliverance, ver. 14-20.
We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him apart for God. The circumstances of this call we may be somewhat helped to the knowledge of, from Stephen's speech, Acts vii, 2, where we are told, 1. That the God of glory appeared to him to give him this call, appeared in such displays of his glory as left Abram no room to doubt. God spake to him after in divers manners: but this first time, when the correspondence was to be settled, he appeared to him as the God of glory, and spake to him. 2. That this call was given him in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and in obedience to this call, he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran or Haran about five years, and from thence, when his father was dead, by a fresh command, he removed him into the land of Canaan. Some think Haran was in Chaldea, and so was still a part of Abram's country; or he having staid there five years, began to call it his country, and to take root there, till God let him know this was not the place he was intended for. Get thee out of thy country - Now, (1.) By this precept he was tried whether he loved God better than he loved his native soil, and dearest friends, and whether he could willingly leave all to go along with God. His country was become idolatrous, his kindred and his father's house were a constant temptation to him, and he could not continue with them without danger of being infected by them; therefore get thee out, (Hebrew.) vade tibi, get thee gone with all speed, escape for thy life, look not behind thee. (2.) By this precept he was tried whether he could trust God farther than he saw him, for he must leave his own country to go to a land that God would shew him; he doth not say, 'tis a land that I will give thee nor doth he tell him what land it was, or what kind of land; but he must follow God with an implicit faith, and take God's word for it in the general, though he had no particular securities given him, that he should be no loser by leaving his country to follow God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–4 God calls Abram to leave Haran and go into…
CHAPTER XII
God calls Abram to leave Haran and go into Canaan, 1;
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promises to bless him, and through him all the families of
the earth, 2, 3.
Abram, Sarai, Lot, and all their household, depart from Canaan, 4, 5;
pass through Sichem, 6.
God appears to him, and renews the promise, 7.
His journey described, 8, 9.
On account of a famine in the land he is obliged to go into Egypt, 10.
Fearing lest, on account of the beauty of his wife, the Egyptians
should kill him, he desires her not to acknowledge that she is his
wife, but only his sister, 11-13.
Sarai, because of her beauty, is taken into the palace of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, who is very liberal to Abram on her account, 14-16.
God afflicts Pharaoh and his household with grievous plagues on
account of Sarai, 17.
Pharaoh, on finding that Sarai was Abram's wife, restores her
honourably, and dismisses the patriarch with his family and their
property, 18-20.
NOTES ON CHAP. XII
Verse 1. Get thee out of thy country] There is great dissension between commentators concerning the call of Abram; some supposing he had two distinct calls, others that he had but one. At the conclusion of the preceding chapter, Ge 11:31, we find Terah and all his family leaving Ur of the Chaldees, in order to go to Canaan. This was, no doubt, in consequence of some Divine admonition. While resting at Haran, on their road to Canaan, Terah died, Ge 11:32; and then God repeats his call to Abram, and orders him to proceed to Canaan, Ge 12:1.
Dr. Hales, in his Chronology, contends for two calls: "The first," says he, "is omitted in the Old Testament, but is particularly recorded in the New, Ac 7:2-4: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was (at Ur of the Chaldees) in Mesopotamia, BEFORE HE DWELT IN CHARRAN; and said unto him, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land (γην, a land) which I will show thee. Hence it is evident that God had called Abram before he came to Haran or Charran." The SECOND CALL is recorded only in this chapter: "The Lord said (not HAD said) unto Abram, Depart from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto THE LAND, הארץ HA-arets, (Septuagint, Την γην), which I will show thee." "The difference of the two calls," says Dr. Hales, "more carefully translated from the originals, is obvious: in the former the land is indefinite, which was designed only for a temporary residence; in the latter it is definite, intimating his abode. A third condition is also annexed to the latter, that Abram shall now separate himself from his father's house, or leave his brother Nahor's family behind at Charran. This call Abram obeyed, still not knowing whither he was going, but trusting implicitly to the Divine guidance."
Thy kindred] Nahor and the different branches of the family of Terah, Abram and Lot excepted. That Nahor went with Terah and Abram as far as Padan-Aram, in Mesopotamia, and settled there, so that it was afterwards called Nahor's city, is sufficiently evident from the ensuing history, see Ge 25:20; Ge 24:10; Ge 24:15; and that the same land was Haran, see Ge 28:2; Ge 28:10, and there were Abram's kindred and country here spoken of, Ge 24:4.
Thy father's house] Terah being now dead, it is very probable that the family were determined to go no farther, but to settle at Charran; and as Abram might have felt inclined to stop with them in this place, hence the ground and necessity of the second call recorded here, and which is introduced in a very remarkable manner; לך לך lech lecha, GO FOR THYSELF. If none of the family will accompany thee, yet go for thyself unto THAT LAND which I will show thee. God does not tell him what land it is, that he may still cause him to walk by faith and not by sight. This seems to be particularly alluded to by Isaiah, Isa 41:2: Who raised up the righteous man (Abram) from the east, and called him to his foot; that is, to follow implicitly the Divine direction. The apostle assures us that in all this Abram had spiritual views; he looked for a better country, and considered the land of promise only as typical of the heavenly inheritance.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Gen 12:1. We have here the call whereby Abram…
Gen 12:1. We have here the call whereby Abram was removed from, the land of his nativity into the land of promise. This call was designed both to try his faith and obedience, and also to set him and his family apart for God, in order that the universal prevalence of idolatry might be prevented, and a remnant reserved for God, among whom his true worship might be maintained, his oracles preserved, and his ordinances established till the coming of the Messiah. God seems also, by sending him into Canaan, a country given up to the most gross, cruel, and barbarous idolatry, even the sacrificing of their own children to their idols, to have intended that he, and the other patriarchs descended from him, should be witnesses for God to these nations before their destruction; which is the plan God has generally, if not always, pursued; seldom, if ever, destroying a people for their wickedness, till he has sent his truth, in one form or another, and his witnesses among them.
Concerning the circumstances of this call, we may receive further information from Stephen’s speech, Act 7:2, where we are told, 1st, That the God of glory appeared to him, to give him this call, and that in such displays of his glory as left Abram no room to doubt. 2d, That this call was given him in Mesopotamia; and that, in obedience to this call, he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran or Haran about five years: and from thence, when his father was dead, by a fresh command, he removed him into the land of Canaan. Get thee out of thy country — Now, by this precept, he was tried whether he loved God better than he loved his native soil, and dearest friends: and whether he could willingly leave all to go along with God. His country was become idolatrous, his kindred and his father’s house were a constant temptation to him, and he could not continue with them without danger of being infected by them; therefore God said, Get thee out. Hereby also he was tried whether he could trust God farther than he saw him; for he must leave his own country to go to a land that God would show him; he doth not say, it is a land that I will give thee: nor doth he tell him what land it was, or what kind of land; but he must follow God with an implicit faith, and take God’s word for it in general, that he should be no loser by leaving his country to follow God.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 - The Call of Abram
- The Call of Abram
6. שׁכם shekem Shekem, “the upper part of the back.” Here it is the name of a person, the owner of this place, where afterward is built the town called at first Shekem, then Flavia Neapolis, and now Nablous. אלון 'ēlôn “the oak;” related: “be lasting, strong.” מורה môreh In Onkelos “plain;” Moreh, “archer, early rain, teacher.” Here the name of a man who owned the oak that marked the spot. In the Septuagint it is rendered ὑψηγήν hupseegeen.
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8. בית־אל bēyt-'êl, Bethel, “house of God.” ים yam “sea, great river, west.” עי ‛ay, ‘Ai, “heap.”
9. נגב negeb “south.”
The narrative now takes leave of the rest of the Shemites, as well as the other branches of the human family, and confines itself to Abram. It is no part of the design of Scripture to trace the development of worldliness. It marks its source, and indicates the law of its downward tendency; but then it turns away from the dark detail, to devote its attention to the way by which light from heaven may again pierce the gloom of the fallen heart. Here, then, we have the starting of a new spring of spiritual life in the human race.
Gen 12:1-3
Having brought the affairs of Terah’s family to a fit resting point, the sacred writer now reverts to the call of Abram. This, we have seen, took place when he was seventy years of age, and therefore five years before the death of Terah. “The Lord said unto Abram.” Four hundred and twenty-two years on the lowest calculation after the last recorded communication with Noah, the Lord again opens his mouth, to Abram. Noah, Shem, or Heber, must have been in communication with heaven, indeed, at the time of the confusion of tongues, and hence, we have an account of that miraculous interposition. The call of Abram consists of a command and a promise. The command is to leave the place of all his old and fond associations, for a land which he had not yet seen, and therefore did not know. Three ties are to be severed in complying with this command - his country, in the widest range of his affections; his place of birth and kindred comes closer to his heart; his father’s house is the inmost circle of all his tender emotions. All these are to be resigned; not, however, without reason. The reason may not be entirely obvious to the mind of Abram. But he has entire faith in the reasonableness of what God proposes. So with reason and faith he is willing to go to the unknown land. It is enough that God will show him the land to which he is now sent.
Gen 12:2-3
The promise corresponds to the command. If he is to lose much by his exile, he will also gain in the end. The promise contains a lower and higher blessing. The lower blessing has three parts: “First, I will make of thee a great nation.” This will compensate for the loss of his country. The nation to which he had hitherto belonged was fast sinking into polytheism and idolatry. To escape from it and its defiling influence was itself a benefit; but to be made himself the head of a chosen nation was a double blessing. Secondly, “And bless thee.” The place of his birth and kindred was the scene of all his past earthly joys. But the Lord will make up the loss to him in a purer and safer scene of temporal prosperity. Thirdly, “And make thy name great.” This was to compensate him for his father’s house. He was to be the patriarch of a new house, on account of which he would be known and venerated all over the world.
The higher blessing is expressed in these remarkable terms: “And be thou a blessing.” He is to be not merely a subject of blessing, but a medium of blessing to others. It is more blessed to give than to receive. And the Lord here confers on Abram the delightful prerogative of dispensing good to others. The next verse expands this higher element of the divine promise. “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” Here the Lord identifies the cause of Abram with his own, and declares him to be essentially connected with the weal or woe of all who come into contact with him. “And blessed in thee shall be all the families of the ground.” The ground was cursed for the sake of Adam, who fell by transgression. But now shall the ground again participate in the blessing. “In thee.” In Abram is this blessing laid up as a treasure hid in a field to be realized in due time. “All the families” of mankind shall ultimately enter into the enjoyment of this unbounded blessing.
Thus, when the Lord saw fit to select a man to preserve vital piety on the earth and be the head of a race suited to be the depository of a revelation of mercy, he at the same time designed that this step should be the means of effectually recalling the sin-enthralled world to the knowledge and love of himself. The race was twice already since the fall put upon its probation - once under the promise of victory to the seed of the woman, and again under the covenant with Noah. In each of these cases, notwithstanding the growing light of revelation and accumulating evidence of the divine forbearance, the race had apostatised from the God of mercy, with lamentably few known exceptions. Yet, undeterred by the gathering tokens of this second apostasy, and after reiterated practical demonstration to all people of the debasing, demoralizing effect of sin, the Lord, with calm determination of purpose, sets about another step in the great process of removing the curse of sin, dispensing the blessing of pardon, and eventually drawing all the nations to accept of his mercy. The special call of Abram contemplates the calling of the Gentiles as its final issue, and is therefore to be regarded as one link in a series of wonderful events by which the legal obstacles to the divine mercy are to be taken out of the way, and the Spirit of the Lord is to prevail with still more and more of men to return to God.
It is sometimes inadvertently said that the Old Testament is narrow and exclusive, while the New Testament is broad and catholic in its spirit. This is a mistake. The Old and New Testaments are of one mind on this matter. Many are called, and few chosen. This is the common doctrine of the New as well as of the Old. They are both equally catholic in proclaiming the gospel to all. The covenant with Adam and with Noah is still valid and sure to all who return to God; and the call of Abram is expressly said to be a means of extending blessing to all the families of man. The New Testament does not aim at anything more than this; it merely hails the approaching accomplishment of the same gracious end. They both concur also in limiting salvation to the few who repent and believe the gospel. Even when Abram was called there were a few who still trusted in the God of mercy. According to the chronology of the Masoretic text, Heber was still alive, Melkizedec was contemporary with Abram, Job was probably later, and many other now unknown witnesses for God were doubtless to be found, down to the time of the exodus, outside the chosen family. God marks the first symptoms of decaying piety. He does not wait until it has died out before he calls Abram. He proceeds in a leisurely, deliberate manner with his eternal purpose of mercy, and hence, a single heir of promise suffices for three generations, until the set time comes for the chosen family and the chosen nation. Universalism, then, in the sense of the offer of mercy to man, is the rule of the Old and the New Testament. Particularism in the acceptance of it is the accident of the time. The call of Abram is a special expedient for providing a salvation that may be offered to all the families of the earth.
In all God’s teachings the near and the sensible come before the far and the conceivable, the present and the earthly before the eternal and the heavenly. Thus, Abram’s immediate acts of self-denial are leaving his country, his birthplace, his home. The promise to him is to be made a great nation, be blessed, and have a great name in the new land which the Lord would show him. This is unspeakably enhanced by his being made a blessing to all nations. God pursues this mode of teaching for several important reasons. First, the sensible and the present are intelligible to those who are taught. The Great Teacher begins with the known, and leads the mind forward to the unknown. If he had begun with things too high, too deep, or too far for the range of Abram’s mental vision, he would not have come into relation with Abram’s mind. It is superfluous to say that he might have enlarged Abram’s view in proportion to the grandeur of the conceptions to be revealed.
On the same principle he might have made Abram cognizant of all present and all developed truth. On the same principle he might have developed all things in an instant of time, and so have had done with creation and providence at once. Secondly, the present and the sensible are the types of the future and the conceivable; the land is the type of the better land; the nation of the spiritual nation; the temporal blessing of the eternal blessing; the earthly greatness of the name of the heavenly. And let us not suppose that we are arrived at the end of all knowledge. We pique ourselves on our advance in spiritual knowledge beyond the age of Abram. But even we may be in the very infancy of mental development. There may be a land, a nation, a blessing, a great name, of which our present realizations or conceptions are but the types. Any other supposition would be a large abatement from the sweetness of hope’s overflowing cup.
Thirdly, these things which God now promises are the immediate form of his bounty, the very gifts he begins at the moment to bestow. God has his gift to Abram ready in his hand in a tangible form. He points to it and says, This is what thou presently needest; this I give thee, with my blessing and favor. But, fourthly, these are the earnest and the germ of all temporal and eternal blessing. Man is a growing thing, whether as an individual or a race. God graduates his benefits according to the condition and capacity of the recipients. In the first boon of his good-will is the earnest of what he will continue to bestow on those who continue to walk in his ways. And as the present is the womb of the future, so is the external the symbol of the internal, the material the shadow of the spiritual, in the order of the divine blessing. And as events unfold themselves in the history of man and conceptions in his soul within, so are doctrines gradually opened up in the Word of God, and progressively revealed to the soul by the Spirit of God.
Gen 12:4-5
Abram obeys the call. He had set out from Ur under the revered guardianship of his aged father, Terah, with other companions, “as the Lord had spoken unto him.” Lot is now mentioned as his companion. Terah’s death has been already recorded. Sarai is with him, of course, and therefore it is unnecessary to repeat the fact. But Lot is associated with him as an incidental companion for some time longer. The age of Abram at the second stage of his journey is now mentioned. This enables us to determine, as, we have seen, that he departed from Ur five years before.
Gen 12:5
This is the record of what is presumed in the close of Gen 12:4; namely, the second setting out for Kenaan. “Abram took.” He is now the leader of the little colony, as Terah was before his death. Sarai, as well as Lot, is now named. “The gaining they had gained” during the five years of their residence in Haran. If Jacob became comparatively rich in six years Gen 30:43, so might Abram, with the divine blessing, in five. “The souls they had gotten” - the bondservants they had acquired. Where there is a large stock of cattle, there must be a corresponding number of servants to attend to them. Abram and Lot enter the land as men of substance. They are in a position of independence. The Lord is realizing to Abram the blessing promised. They start for the land of Kenaan, and at length arrive there. This event is made as important as it ought to be in our minds by the mode in which it is stated.
Gen 12:6-9
Abram does not enter into immediate possession, but only travels through the land which the Lord had promised to show him Gen 12:1. He arrives at “the place of Shekem.” The town was probably not yet in existence. It lay between Mount Gerizzim and Mount Ebal. It possesses a special interest as the spot where the Lord first appeared to Abram in the land of promise. It was afterward dedicated to the Lord by being made a Levitical town, and a city of refuge. At this place Joshua convened an assembly of all Israel to hear his farewell address. “So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shekem” Jos. 24:1-25. The particular point in the place of Shekem where Abram halted is the oak of Moreh; so called, probably, from its planter or owner. The oak attains to great antiquity, and a single tree, well grown, becomes conspicuous for its grandeur and beauty, and was often chosen in ancient times as a meeting-place for religious rites.
And the Kenaanite was then in the land. - This simply implies that the land was not open for Abram to enter upon immediate possession of it without challenge. Another was in possession. The sons of Kenaan had already arrived and preoccupied the country. It also intimates, or admits, of the supposition that there had been previous inhabitants who may have been subjugated by the invading Kenaanites. Thus, אן 'āz then alludes to the past, as in Gen 4:26. Some of these former inhabitants will meet us in the course of the narrative. It admits also of the supposition that the Kenaanites afterward ceased to be its inhabitants. Hence, some have inferred that this could not have been penned by Moses, as they were expelled after his death. If this supposition were the necessary or the only one implied in the form of expression, we should acquiesce in the conclusion that this sentence came from one of the prophets to whom the conservation, revision, and continuation of the living oracles were committed. But we have seen that two other presuppositions may be made that satisfy the import of the passage. Moreover, the first of the three accounts for the fact that Abram does not instantly enter on possession, as there was an occupying tenant. And, finally, the third supposition may fairly be, not that the Kenaanites afterward ceased, but that they should afterward cease to be in the land. This, then, as well as the others, admits of Moses being the writer of this interesting sentence.
We are inclined to think, however, that the term “Kenaanite” here means, not the whole race of Kenaan, but the special tribe so called. If the former were meant, the statement would be in a manner superfluous, after calling the country the land of Kenaan. If the proper tribe be intended, then we have evidence here that they once possessed this part of the land which was afterward occupied by the Hivite and the Amorite Gen 34:2; Jos 11:3; for, at the time of the conquest by Abram’s descendants, the mountainous land in the center, including the place of Shekem, was occupied by the Amorites and other tribes, while the coast of the Mediterranean and the west bank of the Jordan was held by the Kenaanites proper (Josephus v. 1; xi. 3). This change of occupants had taken place before the time of Moses.
Gen 12:7
And the Lord appeared unto Abram. - Here, for the first time, this remarkable phrase occurs. It indicates that the Lord presents himself to the consciousness of man in any way suitable to his nature. It is not confined to the sight, but may refer to the hearing 1Sa 3:15. The possibility of God appearing to man is antecedently undeniable. The fact of his having done so proves the possibility. On the mode of his doing this it is vain for us to speculate. The Lord said unto him, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” “Unto thy seed,” not unto thee. To Abram himself “he gave none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on” Act 7:5. “This land” which the Lord had now shown him, though at present occupied by the Kenaanite invader. “An altar.” This altar is erected on the spot which is hallowed by the appearance of the Lord to Abram. The place of Shekem might have been supposed to have received its name from Shekem, a son of Gilead Num 26:31, did we not meet with Shekem, the son of Hamor, in this very place in the time of Jacob Gen 34:2. We learn from this the precariousness of the inference that the name of a place is of later origin because a person of that name lived there at a later period. The place of Shekem was doubtless called after a Shekem antecedent to Abram. Shekem and Moreh may have preceded even the Kenaanites, for anything we know.
Gen 12:8-9
From the oak of Moreh Abram now moves to the hill east of Bethel, and pitches his tent, with “Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.” These localities are still recognized - the former as Beiten, and the latter as Tell er-Rijmeh (the mount of the heap). Bethel was “a place,” adjacent to which was the town called “Luz at the first” Gen 28:19. Jacob gave this name to the place twice Gen 28:19; Gen 35:15. The name, then, was not first given at the second nomination by him. It follows that it may not have been first given at his first nomination. Accordingly we meet with it as an existing name in Abram’s time, without being constrained to account for it by supposing the present narrative to have been composed in its present form after the time of Jacob’s visit. On the other hand, we may regard it as an interesting trace of early piety having been present in the land even before the arrival of Abram. We shall meet with other corroborating proofs. Bethel continued afterward to be a place hallowed by the presence of God, to which the people resorted for counsel in the war with Benjamin Jdg 20:18, Jdg 20:26, Jdg 20:31; Jdg 21:2, and in which Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves 1Ki 12:29.
On the hill east of this sacred ground Abram built another altar; and called upon the name of the Lord. Here we bare the reappearance of an ancient custom, instituted in the family of Adam after the birth of Enok Gen 4:26. Abram addresses God by his proper name, Yahweh, with an audible voice, in his assembled household. This, then, is a continuation of the worship of Adam, with additional light according to the progressive development of the moral nature of man. But Abram has not yet any settled abode in the land. He is only surveying its several regions, and feeding his flocks as he finds an opening. Hence, he continues his journey southward.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Said: not after his father’s death, but before he…
Said: not after his father’s death, but before he left Ur; (Menochius) unless, perhaps, Abram received a second admonition at Haran, which, from his dwelling there with his father, &c., is styled his country. He leaves his kindred, Nachor and his other relations, except Sarai and Lot, who go with him unto Chanaan; and even his own house, or many of his domestics and effects, and full of faith, goes in quest of an unknown habitation, Hebrews xi. 8. (Haydock) --- St. Stephen clearly distinguishes these two calls of Abram. From the second, the 430 years of sojournment, mentioned Galatians iii; Exodus xii, must be dated. (Calmet) --- This is the third grand epoch of the world, about 2083, when God chooses one family to maintain the one faith, which he had all along supported. See Worthington &c.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The Genesis of the patriarchal faith in the promise…
SECOND PERIOD
The Genesis of the patriarchal faith in the promise and of the covenant religion; of the antagonistic relation, between the faith in the promise and heathenism; of the harmonious oppositions between the patriarchs and the human civilization of the heathen world. Patriarchal religion and patriarchal customs.—Gen_12:1 to Gen_36:43
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A
ABRAHAM, THE FRIEND OF GOD, AND HIS ACTS OF FAITH. Gen_12:1 to Gen_25:10
FIRST SECTION
The call of Abram. The emigration to Canaan. The first promise of God. His companionship with Lot. The first manifestation of God in Canaan, and the first homeless alienage in the land of promise. Abram in Egypt and Pharaoh
Gen_12:1-20
1Now the Lord had said [rather, said] to Abram, Get thee [for thyself, לְךָ] out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee [through a revelation]. 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed [not bless themselves, which is expressed by the use of the Hithpael, Gen_22:18]. 4So Abram departed [went forth] as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance [gains] that they had gathered, and the souls [all the living] that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.
6And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem [shoulder, ridge or water-shed] unto the plain [grove] of Moreh [teacher, owner]. And [Although] the Canaanite was then [already] in the land. 7And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. 8And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel [house of God] and pitched his tent, having Bethel [now Beitin] on the west [seawards], and Hai [heaps] on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed, going on still [gradually further and further] toward the south. 10And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. 11And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon [or of fair appearance]: 12Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. 13Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
14And it came to pass, that when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. 15The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh [Fürst, פֶרַע]: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep [small cattle] and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses and camels. 17And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? 19Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife; now, therefore, behold thy wife, take her and go thy way. 20And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS
1. The age and state of the world at the patriarchal period. A multitude of nations who were to share in the salvation, through the faith of Abram, were not yet born into the world, especially the Roman and English people. The Germanic tribes lay still in the bosom of the Scythian nomadic life. A thousand years must roll away before the development of the Greek life, and a much longer period before the historical appearance of Rome. The foundation of the patriarchal family, out of whose fuller development into the twelve tribes the Jewish people sprang, begins with Abram. Patriarchalism appears still as the fundamental form under which the popular life exists and works. But out of this constitution a multitude of small kingdoms have grown up in Canaan and Syria. The first feeble attempt at founding a grand world-monarchy was made by Nimrod at Babel and Nineveh. In Egypt the kingdom of the Pharaohs already existed. The formation of national divisions began with the migrations of the people, and to these we may probably trace the rise of castes. The mechanical resemblance of the kingdom of heaven in the dynasty Hia in China appears to have been complete in its outline and characteristic features, before the definite foundation of the organic and living kingdom of heaven was begun in Abram.
2. The Biblework will treat more fully of the land of Canaan in the division, “Book of Joshua.” We refer in passing to the Bible-dictionaries, the geographies, and journals of travellers. See also Zahn: “The Kingdom of God,” i. p. 105. In this section we notice especially Sichem, Bethel, Ai, and the central part of Palestine; the South, especially the vicinity of Hebron and Sichem (now Nablous) lying between Gerizim and Ebal, about eighteen hours from Jerusalem and sixteen from Nazareth, marks the northern principal residence of the patriarchs. Hebron (also Kirjath-Arba, from the giant Arba, now El Kalil, i. e., friend, beloved, in honor of Abram), southerly about eight hours from Jerusalem, a very old city, the city of Abram and David, lying in a blooming and beautiful region, was their principal dwelling-place in the south. Their central residence is the region of Bethel (the name is here anticipated—originally Luz, Gen_28:19, now the ruins of Beitin), and Ai (the old Canaanitish royal city, Jos_7:2, two hours easterly from Beitin, northerly from Jerusalem, now Medineh), an elevated rich pasture-ground.
3. The nomadic life forms the natural basis of the patriarchal society. The Greek term nomad (νομάς from νομός pasture-ground) designates the herdsman in a specific sense, as one who roams with his herds over uncultivated tracts, which as commons are in one aspect wastes, in another pasture-grounds. The nomads are thus pastoral tribes and nations which have no fixed dwelling-place. According to the Conversations-lexicon, “they stand higher in the scale of human society than the tribes who live by hunting and fishing, and lower than those who follow agriculture and trade, and belong essentially to the grade of barbarians.” But as an original form of human life, and indeed as the form of the most quiet and retired life, the nomadic state is the basis upon which both the highest human culture and the most extreme savage wildness rest. Original thoughtful minds grew up to be the spiritual princes of humanity in the quietude of the nomadic life; mere common natures grew wild and savage under the same influences. The nomadic state still covers large portions of the race. “In Europe we find only weak nomadic tribes on the great steppes skirting the Black sea, and in the high uncultivated northern latitudes, there Tartar and Turkish, here Finnish tribes. Asia and Africa are the congenial homes of the nomadic life. Nearly all the Finnish, Mongolian, and Turkish tribes, and the mixed tribes which have sprung from them, in the steppes and wastes in the northern, central, and border Asia are nomads; so also the Kurds and Bedouin Arabs of border Asia and North Africa, and nearly all the tribes of Southern Africa, Caffres, Betschuanas, Koranas, and the Hottentots. In South America the Gauchos, and in many respects some Indian tribes, are to be regarded as nomads.” For the nomadic tribes of the East see Schröder, p. 273, Kohlrausch, a description of the Caravan March, p. 282. For the shepherd, headsman, wilderness, tents, see the articles in Winer [Kitto, Smith, Bible dictionaries.—A. G.]
4. The Period of the Patriarchal Religion, and Form of Religion. “In the New Testament the term πατριάρχης is applied to Abraham, Heb_7:4, to the twelve sons of Jacob, Act_7:8 f., and to David, Act_2:29. Generally it designates the sacred ancestors of the early periods of the Israelites (Tob. 6:21, Vulgate) whom Paul, Rom_9:5; Rom_11:28, calls οἱ πατέρες. Hence it has become customary even in historical language to call all the fathers of the early human races, and especially of the Israelitish people (including the twelve sons of Jacob), who are referred to and distinguished in biblical history, Patriarchs (German Erzvater). Its history, from the old theological point of view, is given by J. H. Heidegger, exercitat. select. de historia sacra patriarchar. (Amsterdam, 1667–8, Zürich, 1729), and is, perhaps, more critically treated by J. Jak. Hess: “History of the Patriarchs” (Zürich, 1776). Winer. The patriarch is the beginner or founder of a race or family (the word is formed from ἄρχω and πατριά). The Hebrew designation רֹאשׁ אָבוֹת, which the Septuagint translates ἄρχοντες τῶν πατριῶν (1Ch_9:9; 1Ch_24:31), but in 1Ch_27:22, where the Hebrew term is שָׂרֵי שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, and 2Ch_19:8, ὁ πατριάρχης, does not refer to our patriarchs (which Bretschneider labors in his lexicon to authorize), but to the heads of individual branches of the tribes of Israel. Even in the New Testament, as is clear from Act_2:29, the word has a more comprehensive meaning. In Herzog’s Real-Encyclopedia, article Patriarchs, there is a threefold distinction drawn between the biblical and theological, the Jewish usage as to the synagogue officers, and the churchly and official idea of the word. The Jews, e. g., even after the destruction of Jerusalem, call the presidents of the two schools at Tiberias and Babylon, patriarchs. In the Christian Church all bishops were originally termed patriarchs, but the council of Chalcedon limited the name to those renowned bishops who had raised themselves above bishops, and metropolitans. Here we are dealing only with the biblical and theological meaning of the term. In this relation we must distinguish the general, the narrower, and the most restricted idea of the word. In the general and widest sense, all the theocratic ancestors are included in the term, since the patriarchal faith, as the faith of salvation, forms the highest unity running through the Old and New Testaments. In the wider, earlier usual acceptation, the patriarchal period is viewed as including the pious ancestors of biblical history, from Adam to the twelve sons of Jacob, or to the Mosaic era. See Winer, the article in question, the work of Heidegger above referred to, and Hase’s Hutterus redivivus (Religio patriarchalis antediluviana et postdiluviana). Still, Hess, in his history of the patriarchs, has correctly placed the patriarchs before Abram in an introductory history, and begins the history itself with Abram. The earlier division of the Old Testament revelation into patriarchal, Mosaic, and prophetic religion (i. e., form of religion) is not now at all satisfactory. This division must be completed in one direction through the period of the national Israelitish piety or religiousness (from Malachi to Christ), and in the other through the period of the symbolic original monotheism from Adam to Abram, which may be again divided into the two halves of the antediluvian and postdiluvian primitive history. The symbolic monotheism is distinguished from the patriarchal period both as to form and essence. As to the form of the revelation, the symbol has there the first place, the explanatory word the second (paradise and the paradisaic word, the rainbow and the covenant with Noah); but in the history of the patriarchs the word of revelation holds the first rank, and the signs of the theophany enter in a second line, as its confirmation. Thus also the patriarchal religion stands in a relation of opposition and coherence with the Mosaic system. “The Mosaic system is a remoulding of the patriarchal religion so far as Israel, grown into a people in Egypt, may require a preparatory, and thus a legal and symbolic instruction as to the nature of the faith of Abram and to receive that faith; it is a lower form of that religion so far as the religious life, which already in the patriarchs began to be viewed as an inward life, is here set before the people, who are strangers to it, as an external law; but is also a higher form of that religion so far as the ideas of the religion of promise are unfolded in the law, and in this explicit form are introduced into the life of the people. The law, however, is not the fundamental type of the Old Testament, but the faith of Abram. In the patriarchal religion the word of God is prominent, the symbol is subordinate; the Mosaic system, as also the primitive religion, brings the symbol into prominence (although the symbol as an institution). In Abram the divine promise occupies the foreground, the divine command rests upon it; in the legal period, as to the outward appearance the relation is just the reverse. Evidently the patriarchal religion, as also the prophetic period succeeding to the Mosaic system, regarded in a narrower sense, bears a marked resemblance to Protestantism, while the Mosaic system appears as the primitive type of the Mediæval Catholic Church.” (See Herzog’s Encyclopedia, article Patriarchs.)
As to its nature, the faith of Abram is distinguished from the faith of the pious ancestors in this, that he obtains and holds the promise of salvation, not only for himself, but for his family; and from the Mosaic system, by the fact that it expressly holds the promised blessing, in the seed of Abram, as a blessing for all people. In reference to the first, there were earlier lines of the promise: the line of Seth in contrast to that of Cain, the line of Shem in opposition to those of Japheth and Ham. But the line of Seth, through its corruption, is gradually lost in the line of Cain, and the line of Shem forms no well-defined opposition to the one all-prevailing heathenism. It is gradually infected with the taint of heathenism, while on the other hand pious believing lives appear in the descendants of Japheth and Ham. Melchisedec, with his eminent piety, belongs to the Canaanitish people, and thus to the family of Ham. During the whole period of the symbolic primitive religion, the theocratic and heathen elements are mingled together. The dark aspect of this religion is a mythological, ever-growing heathenism; its light side the symbolical, ever-waning, primeval monotheism. Heathenism gathers gradually, as a general twilight, through which glimmer the men of God, as individual stars. Thus Melchisedec stands in the surrounding heathenism. In a religious point of view he is ἀπάτωρ, ἀμήτωρ, ἀγενεαλόγητος. And he is so far greater than Abram, as he stands as the last shining representative in the Old Testament of the primitive religion looking backwards to the lost paradise (which, however, did not entirely cease in the whole Old Testament period, and is not absolutely extinguished even in later periods of the world); while Abram stands as the first representative of the decided religion of the future, who, as such, has already the promise, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, who is neither ἀγενεαλόγητος nor ἀπάτωρ, since the beginning of his calling appears already in his father, Terah. But the old religion develops itself more definitely into the religion of the future at every step, when the corruption for the time has reached such a degree, that faith, looking out beyond the present and the judgment resting upon it, must fix in its eye a new beginning of salvation. Thus it was in Noah, thus also later in the Messianic prophets. But while Noah out of the flood of waters saved a new race of men, Abram has, through the overflowing flood of heathenism, to found a new particular people of faith, who should be a blessing for all. The blessing is already a very advanced idea of the salvation. For Eve the salvation assumes the idea of victory, for Lamech, rest, for Noah, the preservation of the divine name and the human race; for Abram, it forms the opposition to the curse. For as the curse is the endless, mysterious, progressive destruction of life, so the blessing is the endless, mysterious, progressive enriching and conservation of life. As the condition, indeed, Abram must go out from the heathen world. It is only as in opposition to it, that he can introduce the blessing which is promised in his seed. The pious forefathers had indeed already taken the first step of faith (Hebrews 11). They have, by faith in the creation of the world, uttered the denial of the independence of matter, the fundamental dogma of heathenism (Heb_11:3). Abel has taken the second step of faith; he has introduced the sacrifice of faith into the world, and on account of it sacrificed his own life. Enoch has taken the third; he sealed the faith in the new life and rewards beyond the present. Noah carried faith on to the salvation of God in the divine judgments. Abram, through the required renunciation of the world, introduced the Israelitish faith of the future, the hope for the eternal inheritance of God, and its introduction through the inheritance of his blessing. It was the legitimate result of his renunciation of the world that he sealed it through the sacrifice of Isaac. The succeeding patriarchs have developed this faith more fully, each in his own way. Isaac learned to prefer the first-born of the spirit before the first-born of blood; Jacob pointed out Judah as the central line of blessing within the blessings of his sons; Joseph proved his fidelity to the promise until his death. Thus was prepared the renunciation and the calling of Moses. (Taken from Lange’s article in Herzog’s Encyclopedia.)
With the introduction of the Abrahamic religion (see the foregoing section) correspond its mild nature and form, and its rich development. As to the first, it must be observed that Abram, notwithstanding the decisive character of his separation from heathenism, still opposes himself to the heathen without any fanaticism. Hence it is said indeed, “Get thee out!” but the second word follows immediately: “thou shalt be a blessing, and in thee shall be blessed, or shall bless themselves, all the families of the earth.” Hence the patriarchs stand upon a friendly footing with the princes of Canaan. In the point of marriage alone, warned by the history of the Sethites, they dreaded theocratic misalliances (Gen_24:3; Gen_27:46). In the fourth generation the first historical characteristic type of fanaticism appears in the deed of Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34). The judicial and solemn disapproval of this deed by Jacob (Gen_49:5) marks the true spirit of the Israelitish religion; the bold commendation of this deed in the book Judith (Gen_9:2) reveals the later pharisaic Judaism. Even the mixed marriage is legal except in the case of the proscribed Canaanites; and to the questionable and unhappy connections, e. g. of Esau, there are opposed the blessed connections of Joseph and Moses. The only matter of question is whether there is such a certainty of faith that the believing party may raise the unbelieving into the sphere of faith. This was precisely that which modified the crime of Thamar; her fanatical attachment to the house of Jacob, or the tribe of Judah. Mild as was this patriarchal spirit of separation (because it was actually spirit) it was just as strict in the other aspect. Hence there are relative distinctions of the elect from those who are less strictly the chosen, running down through the family of Abram, first in the opposition between Isaac and Ishmael, then in that between Jacob and Esau, finally in the sharp distinctions in the blessings of Jacob. (From the same article.)
As to the development of faith in the patriarchal period, it proceeds from the acts of faith in the life of Abram, through the endurance (or patience) of faith in the life of Isaac, to the conflicts of faith in the life of Jacob; but in the life of Joseph the opposition between the sufferings and the glory on account of faith, comes into clear and distinct relief. The promise also unfolds itself more and more widely. The blessing of the descendants of Abram, who should inherit Palestine, divides itself already in the blessing of Isaac upon Jacob, into a blessing of the heavens and the earth, and Jacob’s authority to rule announces more definitely the theocratic kingdom. But in the blessing of Jacob upon Judah, the Shiloh is designated, as the prince of war and peace, to whom the people should be gathered (a further extract from the article in question, p. 199). For the periods of the history of the covenant, see Kurtz, p. 135. For the nature of the patriarchal history, Delitzsch, p. 241–249; [also Baumgarten, Commentary, p. 165–168: Keil, p. 123–125.—A. G.]
[Kurtz arranges the history of the covenant under the following periods or stages: the period of the family, including the triad of patriarchs with the twelve sons of Jacob; the period of the people, having its starting point in the twelve sons of Jacob, and running through the Judges; the period of the kingdom; the period of the exile and restoration; the period of expectancy; and the period of the fulfilment.—A. G.]
[Delitzsch holds, as we may abridge and condense his views, that the patriarchal history is introductory to the history of Israel, and is completed in three parts—the histories of the three patriarchs. The personal history of the patriarchs revolves around the promise as to Israel, and Canaan its inheritance. The characteristic trait of the patriarchs is faith. This faith shows itself in the whole mighty fulness of its particular elements in Abram; ceaselessly struggling, resolutely patient and enduring, overcoming the world. He is the type of the conflicts, obedience, and victory of faith—πατὴρ πάντων τῶν πιστευόντων. His loving endurance repeats itself in Isaac, his hopeful wrestlings in Jacob. ’Επ’ ἐλπίδι παρ’ ἐλπίδα is their motto. The promise and faith are the two correlated factors of the people of God. Renouncing the present, and in the midst of trials, its life passes in hope. Hope is its true life, impulse, and affection. Desire is Israel’s element.
Viewing the patriarchal history from the central point of that history, the incarnation of God in the fulness of time, its position in the history of salvation may be thus defined. There are seven stages in this history: 1. The antediluvian time, both paradisaic and after paradise, during which God was personally and visibly present with men, closing with the flood, when he retires into the heavens and from thence exercises his judicial and sovereign providence. The goal of history is thenceforward the restoration of this dwelling of God with men. The history has ever tended towards this goal. 2. The patriarchal time during which God manifested himself personally and even visibly upon the earth, but only at times and only to a few holy men, the patriarchs, at important points in the history of salvation; and even these revelations cease from Jacob to Moses. The revelation of God in the name יהוה, i. e. as the one coming down into history, and revealing himself in it, belongs to this time of the completed creation, of the opening redemption of Israel, His peculiar people. 3. The Israelitish period prior to the exile, during which God did not reveal himself personally and visibly as in the patriarchal period to a few, and to these only at times, but to a whole people and permanently, but still only to a people and not to mankind. There are two distinguishable epochs in this period. In the first Israel is led by the Angel of Jehovah in the pillar of cloud and fire—the glorious and gracious presence of God, visible for the whole people. The second is that of the presence of God in the temple and in the word; in the temple for Israel, but only through the mediation of priests, in the word, but only through the mediation of prophets. But even this lower, less accessible temple-presence ceases when Israel filled up the measure of its iniquities. The glory of Jehovah departed from the temple. As God at first withdrew his manifested presence from the race and destroyed it with the flood, so now from the Jewish people, and abandons Jerusalem to destruction. As the first stage of the history closes with a judgment from the ascended God, and the second in the long profound silence from Jacob to Moses, so the third again ends like the first. 4. The time succeeding the exile, at its commencement not essentially different from the close of the third period. God was present in the word, but the ark of the covenant, the covering, the cherubim, the Urim and Thummim, and, more than all, the Shechinah, the visible symbol of the presence of Jehovah, were wanting in the temple. But prophecy itself grew speechless with Malachi and Daniel. The people complain, We see not our signs, there is no more any prophet (Psa_74:9). They named Simon the brother of the Maccabeean Jonathan the ἡγούμενος καὶ ἀρχιερεὺς εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, but it was ἕως τοῦ ἀναστῆναι προφήτην πιστόν. Thus forsaken of God, and conscious of its forsaken state, the true Israel passed through this fourth stage of the history, a school of desire for believers waiting and longing for the new unveiling of the divine countenance. Then at last the dawn broke, Jehovah visited his people, and in the mystery now unveiling itself θεὸς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί completes in far-surpassing glory the antitype of Paradise. 5. The time of the life of Christ in the flesh. It is now true in the most literal and real sense, ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν. But at first Israel alone saw him. The rays of his glorious grace reach the heathen only as an exception. But his own received him not. They nailed the manifested in the flesh to the cross. But he who ἐξ ἀσθενείας died, rose, ἐκ δυνάμεως θεοῦ, and ascended into heaven. He withdrew himself from the people who had despised him. But as Jehovah, after he had seated himself upon his heavenly throne, sent down at the close of the first stage the judgment of the flood, at the close of the third works the destruction of Jerusalem, so now the God-man ascended into heaven abandons Jerusalem to destruction and Judah to an exile which still endures. For Israel he will come again, but in the fire of judgment; and for believers he will also come again, but not visibly nor in the fire of judgment, but in the fire of the Spirit. 6. The stillenduring present, the time of the spiritual presence of the incarnate God in his church. This presence is both more than the visible presence of Christ in the days of his flesh, and less than the visible presence of the exalted one in which it reaches its enlargement and completion. We must not forget that the Spirit sent upon us from the glorified Son of Man is so far the παράκλητος as he comforts us on account of his absence; that all the desire of the Christian is to be at home with Christ; and that the hope of the whole church is embraced in the hope for the revelation of Christ. Without sharing in the exaggerated estimate of the miraculous gifts by the Irvingites, it cannot be denied that our time resembles the second part of the post-exile period, and that the church now, as believers then, desires the return of the wonderful intensity and gracious fulness of the spiritual presence in the primitive church. This desire will receive its fulfilment in the glorious time of the church upon the earth. 7. But the seventh stage of the history of salvation, which endures through the Æons of Æons, will first give full satisfaction to all the desires of all believers, and bring that glorious, transcendent restoration of the paradisaical communion with God in the incarnation, to its final perfection. The new Jerusalem (Rev_21:8) is the antitype of Paradise. The communion of God with the first man to be redeemed, has now become his communion with the finally redeemed humanity. His presence is no longer a transitory alternating, now appearing then vanishing, but enduring, ever the same, and endless; not limited to individuals nor bound to localities, but to all, and all-pervading; not merely divine, but divine and human; not invisible, but visible; not in the form of a servant, but in unveiled glory. God ascends no more, for sin is for ever judged and the earth has become as heaven. He descends no more, for the work of redemption is complete, the whole creation keeps its solemn sabbath, God rests in it, and it rests in God; Jehovah has finished his work, and Elohim is now all in all, πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν. See Delitzsch, p. 239–249.—A. G.]
5. The fundamental form of divine revelation, particularly of the revelation of the old covenant, and still more particularly of the patriarchal period (see p. 48, Introd.). The historically-completed fundamental form of the divine revelation of salvation, is the revelation of God in Christ, the God-man, i. e. in one distinct, unique life, wherein the divine self-communication and revelation, and the human intuition of God, are perfectly united in one, while yet as elements of life they are clearly distinguished from each other. The progressive revelation must correspond in its outline and characteristic features to this goal to which it tends. In its objective aspect it must be through theophanies, in its subjective the vision of the revelation of God, in its plan, tendency, and development, Christophanies; the chief points in the interchange between God manifesting himself personally and the receptive human spirits in the pre-figurations of the future advent of Christ. The individual phases in the development of this form of revelation are these: (1) The revelation of God through the symbolism of heaven and earth; visibly for the paradisaic spiritual and natural clear-sighted vision; and coming out in particular words and representations of God, addressed to the ear and eye, promptly, according to the necessities of human development, and according to the energy of the Spirit of God, who translates the signs into words. The form of the primitive religion. (2) The self-revelation of God in the form of an angelic appearance, distinct from his being; the pre-announcement of the future Christ, or the Angel of Jehovah in reciprocal relation and action with the unconscious seeing, as in vision, resting upon the unconscious ecstasies of believers, manifesting himself first through the miraculous report or voice, then through miraculous vision, i. e. first through the word, then through the figurative appearance. The form of the patriarchal religion. (3) The revelation of God, distinguishing his face, i. e. his gradual incarnation, from his being, or nature, or the angel of his presence in reciprocal relation and action, with the conscious visions, based upon unconscious ecstasies. The Angel of his face, or the face. The fundamental form of the Mosaic system. (4) The appearance of Jehovah himself in his glory, in the brightness of his glory, surrounded by angelic forms, in reciprocal relation with the conscious visions, resting upon the conscious ecstasy of the prophets, or Jehovah appearing in his divine Archangel and with his angel-bands over against the prophets overwhelmed and trembling, drawing gradually nearer to the incarnate angel of the covenant (Mal_3:1). The fundamental form of the prophetic period. (5) The hidden preparation for the advent of the angel of the covenant, in the period of national religiousness; his work in the depths of human nature. (6) Christ the Angel of the Covenant, the unity of the divine revelation and the human intuition of God, and therefore also upon the divine side the unity of God and his Angel, and upon the human side the unity of the spiritual intuitions and the natural vision of Christ.
We have already, in what we have thus said, as indeed elsewhere (Leben Jesu, p. 46; Dogmatik, p. 586; Herzog, “Encyclopedia,” The Patriarchs of the Old Testament), stated our view of the Angel of the Lord; but we must here repeat that in our conviction the exegetical prejudice, ever coming into greater prominence, that the Angel of the Lord is a creature-angel, as also the prejudice in reference to the supposed angels (Genesis 6), burdens, obscures, and confuses in a fatal way, Old Testament theology, and leaves no room for a clear psychology of the faith of revelation, an intuitive Christology, or an organic unity of biblical theology.
In regard to this point, Kurtz has undertaken with great zeal the defence of the erroneous interpretation, although he had earlier defended the true one, “History of the Old Covenant,” p. 144, 2d ed. We introduce here his reference to the state of the question before we enter upon its discussion. “The views of interpreters, as to the nature and being of the Angel of the Lord (מַלְאַךְ יְהוָֹה, also called מַלְאַךְ הָאֱלֹהִים) who appears first in the patriarchal history, have been divided into two classes. The one sees in him a representation of the deity, entering perceptibly the world of sense, in a human form, and thus is to be regarded as the prefiguration of the incarnation of God in Christ; the other sees in him an angel, like other angels, but who, because he appears in name and mission as a representative of Jehovah, is even introduced and spoken of as Jehovah; indeed, himself speaks and acts as Jehovah. The first view has already made a beaten path for itself in the oldest theology of the synagogue, and in the theological doctrine of the Metatron, of that, from God emanating, godlike revealer of the divine nature, has assumed a definite shape and form, although embracing foreign elements (comp. Hengstenberg: ‘Christology,’ iii. 2. pp. 31–86). It was adhered to by most of the Fathers (Hengstenberg, as above), and with these must be counted the old churchly Protestant theologians. In recent times it has been defended most decidedly and fully by Hengstenberg (i. pp. 125–142, 2d ed.; and iii. 2. pp. 31–86), who, with the Fathers and the old Protestant theologians, recognizes in the angel of the Lord the manifested God, the logos of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and holds this view to be so widely developed in the history of the Old Testament revelation, that it lays the foundation for the doctrine of the logos in the Gospel by John (compare his ‘Commentary on the book of Revelation,’ i. p. 613). Sack (Comment. theol., Bonn, 1821), had already discussed the question, and reached the conclusion, that the angel of the Lord is identical with Jehovah, but that the term does not designate a person distinct from him, but merely a form of manifestation, on which account he prefers to render מַלְאַךְ ‘the commission’ rather than ‘the sent’ (comp. his Apologetik, 2d ed. p. 172). In the footsteps of these two last-named persons, the writer of this [Kurtz] sought to prove, in Tholuck’s Anzeiger, 1846, No. 11–14, that the Maleach Jehovah is God, as presented in the authors of the Old Testament; appearing, revealed, entering into the limitations of space and time, as perceptible by the senses, distinguished from the invisible God, in his exalted and therefore imperceptible existence, above the world of sense, and removed from all the limitations of space and time; still without bringing it to a full, distinct consciousness, whether this distinction was merely ideal or essential, whether it was to be regarded as supposed for the moment, or grounded in the very nature of God. The most important parts of this essay were included in the first edition of this work. Delitzsch: ‘Biblical and Prophetical Theology,’ p. 289; Nitzsch: ‘System;’ T. Beck: ‘Christian Science of Doctrine;’ Keil: ‘Book of Joshua,’ p. 87; Hävernick: ‘Old Testament Theology,’ p. 73; Ebrard: ‘Christian Dogmatics,’ vol. i.; J. P. Lange: ‘Positive Dogmatics,’ p. 586; Stier: ‘Isaiah, not Pseudo Isaiah,’ p. 758, and others, all agree in the same exhibition of this theological question.
“The other view has found a defender in Augustin: De Trinitate, 11. 3, and meets the approval of the Catholic theologians under the influence of their view of the adoration of angels; and of the Socinians, Arminians, and Rationalists, from their opposition to the ecclesiastical doctrine of the Trinity. In more recent times, however, some eminent persons, who are entirely free from these interested motives, have adopted this view, viz., Steudel, in his Pfingstprogramme for 1830, and in his ‘Old Testament Theology,’ p. 252 ff.; Hofmann: Weissagung und Erfüllung, i. p. 127, and Schriftbeweis, pp. 154–159 and 321–340; Baumgarten: ‘Com.’ p. 195; Tholuck: ‘Gospel by John,’ 6th ed. p. 52; Pelt: ‘Theological Encyclopedia,’ p. 241; and still more recently, Delitzsch, renouncing his earlier view, and adopting that of Hofmann: ‘Com. on Genesis,’ p. 249. Between Steudel and Hofmann there is, however, this difference, that the former sees in the Maleach Jehovah an angel especially commissioned by God for each particular case—it being left undetermined whether it is one and the same or not, while, in Hofmann’s view, it is one and the same angel-prince, who here, as the Maleach Jehovah, later as the captain of the hosts of the Lord (Jos_5:14), as the angel of his face (Isa_63:9), under the personal name of Michael (Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; Dan_12:1), as the representative of Jehovah, controls the commonwealth and history of Israel (Weissagung und Erfüllung, pp. 131, 132). In his later work, however, Hofmann has modified his view so far, that the angel who performs this or that work is ever a definite angel, but the same one is not destined for all time, while it is still true that Israel has his prince, his special angel, who is named Michael (Schriftbeweis, p. 157).
“Barth has in a most peculiar way attempted to unite the views of Hengstenberg and Hofmann: ‘The Angel of the Covenant. A Contribution to Christology. A Letter to Schelling.’ Leipzig, 1845. He holds, with Hengstenberg, the divine personality, and with Hofmann, the angelic created nature of the Maleach Jehovah, and unites the two views through the assertion of a past assumption of the angelic nature of the logos, analogous to his later incarnation. We leave this view unexamined, as utterly baseless.”
Kurtz closes his reference (in the 2d ed.) with the explanation, that he finds himself in the same position as Delitzsch, constrained by his conviction to adopt the view of Hofmann.
According to the view of the old ecclesiastical theology, the (First) argument in favor of the self-revelation of God, in the Angel of the Lord, is the personal and real identity in which this Angel-name always appears. If Maleach Jehovah, Maleach Elohim, may designate, some one angel of the Lord, in a peculiar appearance, still it must be kept in view here, that from Genesis 16 onwards this name, with slight and easily explained modifications, is a standing, permanent figure. Hofmann replies: Maleach Hamelech is not the king himself, but the king’s messenger. So also Maleach Jehovah is not Jehovah himself. Certainly! so also the king’s son is not the king himself. According to Hofmann’s view, therefore, it must follow that the Son of God is not God. The nature of God in his self-distinction is exalted far above that of earthly kings.
Secondly. The Angel of Jehovah identifies himself with Jehovah. He ascribes to himself divine honors, divine determinations (Gen_16:10-11; Gen_18:10; Gen_18:13-14; Gen_18:20; Gen_22:12; Gen_22:15-16 , etc., etc.). Some one objects: The prophets also identify themselves in a similar way with Jehovah. This is simply an incorrect assertion. There is no authentic passage in which the prophet, in the immediate announcement of the word of God, does not in some way make a clear distinction between his person and the person of Jehovah. The examples which Delitzsch quotes, that ambassadors have identified themselves with their kings, rest upon the political rights and style of ambassadors, and are as little applicable to the style of a creature-angel as to that of apostles and prophets.
Thirdly. The writers of the history, and the biblical persons, use promiscuously the names Angel of Jehovah, and Jehovah, and render to this angel divine honor, in worship and sacrifice (Gen_16:13; Gen_18:1-2; Gen_21:17-19; Gen_22:14; Gen_48:15-16, etc.). Our opponents answer: It is not high treason when an officer, in the name and commission of the king, as the representative of the person of the king, receives the homage of the subjects. It is not his own person, but the person of the king, whom in this case he represents, which comes into strong relief. With this halting, limping comparison, they seek to justify the conduct of the men of faith in the Old Testament, who, in their view, rendered freely and without reproof divine honor to a creature-angel, and did this constantly, whenever this angel appears, notwithstanding the Old Testament abhors and condemns the deifying of the creature, and that here the express divine watchword is: “My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images” (Isa_42:8).
The following reasons are urged in favor of the supposition of a creature-angel:
a. The name angel designates, throughout, a certain class of spiritual beings. Kurtz formerly replied to this that the name angel is not one of nature but of office (Mal_2:7; Hag_1:13). Although the name angel now indeed points in many cases to a certain class of spiritual beings, still the fact that there are symbolic angel-forms is a sufficient proof that the Angel of the Lord need not necessarily be regarded as a being of that class of spirits.
b. Hofmann urges that since the advent of Christ the New Testament speaks of the ἄγγελος κυρίον (Mat_1:20; Luk_2:9; Act_12:7). Kurtz has answered that in the places quoted the expression designates a different person from the Maleach Jehovah of the Old Testament, or even of the speech of Stephen (Act_7:30). He recalls this reply, however, with the remark that if Matthew and Luke had even had a suspicion that the ἄγγελος κυρίου in the Old Testament always designated the Son of God, who has since become man in Christ, they would never have used this expression even once in reference to a creature-angel. With this conception of angelic appearances the transition to Hofmann’s view was surely possible and easy. To his objection (p. 120) we reply, that the incarnate Christ at Bethlehem could just as well be made by God to assume an angelic form, near at hand and remote, as the Logos of God in the preparatory steps to his incarnation. To Kurtz this wonderful manifestation of the “ubiquity” of Christ is only a “pure idea” or fancy. But just as (Gen_18:19) the two angels who went to Sodom are distinguished from the Angel of Jehovah before whom Abraham stood with his intercessory prayer, and as Paul (Gal_3:19) suggests the distinction between the angel giving the law at Sinai and the Angel of his face, who was the Christ of the Old Testament (1Co_10:4), so we can distinguish in the New Testament between the two men or the two angels at the grave of the risen one (Luk_24:4; Joh_20:12), or the two men upon the Mount of Olives (Act_1:10) on the one side, and the angel who announces the birth of Christ on the other. Only Matthew, in his solemn and festive expression, has embraced these two angels in one symbolic form of the Angel of the Lord, and this indeed upon good grounds, since in the resurrection or the second birth of Christ the Logos was active, as in his birth at Bethlehem.
c. Baumgarten urges: Why should the Angel of the Lord first appear to the Egyptian bondwoman, Genesis 16? Kurtz and Delitzsch have, in their earlier works, given various replies to this question. We answer with another question: Why should the risen Christ first appear to Mary Magdalene, and not to his mother or John? We think, according to the simple law, that the Lord reveals himself first to the poorest, most distressed and receptive hearts. It is, besides, a mere supposition that the Angel of the Lord has first appeared here, where he is first named with this name, as we shall see further below.
d. Kurtz urges again: It lies against the idea of a continuous development of the knowledge of the historical salvation, in the Holy Scriptures, if there is actually in the very beginning of the Old-Testament history so clear a consciousness of the distinction between the unrevealed and revealed God, and this consciousness is ever becoming more obscure in the progress of the Old Testament, but has vanished entirely and forever in the New Testament. But this is all as manifestly a pure supposition as when Hofmann thinks the Old Testament cannot speak of the self-distinction of God because in that case it would anticipate the doctrine of the Trinity. That indeed is the organic development of revelation from the Old to the New Testament, that the revelation of the Trinity in the divine being was introduced through the revelation of the duality. But when the form of the Angel of the Lord in Genesis, passes to the Angel of his face, or the personified face of Jehovah himself in Exodus, then to the prince over the armies of God in Joshua, and finally to the Archangel, the Angel of the Covenant of the later prophets, the organic development of the doctrine in question is manifest.
e. Kurtz remarks again the fact that in the New Testament the law is said to be ordained by angels or spoken by the angel (Act_7:53; Gal_3:19; Heb_2:2), as in favor of the doctrine of the created angel. Here he plainly refutes himself. For Paul (Gal_3:19) clearly refers to this feature of the law, that it was ordained by the angel, in order to show that the law was subordinate to the promise given to Abram. But if the mediation through angels is a mark of the imperfection of the law, it follows that Abram could not have received the promise through such a mediation of a created angel. To this end he presses especially the appeal to (Heb_2:2) “the great superiority of the promise to the law is derived from this, that the law was announced δι’ ἀγγέλων but the gospel διὰ τοῦ κυρίου.” For the answer see Romans 4 where the promise to which the law is subordinated appears as the yet undeveloped gospel of the old covenant.
f. Heb_13:2 refers to the three men who appeared to Abram in the plains of Mamre (Genesis 18). But why not to the two angels whom Lot received (Genesis 19)? The words can refer only to a peculiar kind of hospitality, Abram knew, however, that the men who were his guests were of a higher order, while Lot appears not to have known it at the beginning.
g. The angel-prince Michael (Dan_10:13; Dan_10:21; Dan_12:1) has the same position which the Maleach Jehovah has in the historical books. But that Michael cannot be the Logos is clear, since he is not the only שׂר גדול. Gabriel appears as a second archangel (Dan_8:16; Dan_9:21), (Tob_12:15), adds Raphael and (4 Ezr_4:1) still further Uriel. When I now, from the identity of Gabriel or Michael with the appearing figure in Revelation 1, draw the conclusion,—Gabriel or Michael are symbolical manifested images of Christ (as the old Jewish theology saw in Michael the manifested image of Jehovah), and thus the one symbolical angel-form of the Angel of the Lord or angel-prince has branched itself into the seven archangel forms of the coming Christ. Kurtz finds in these forms “pure ideas” or fancies. But I call them the veiled angelic modes of the revelation and energy of Christ, in the foundation, limits, and life of humanity and history. But Michael had need of help (Dan_11:1). Indeed! that can in no case be said of the Logos (Luk_22:43).
h. Zec_1:12, the Angel of the Lord was subordinated to Jehovah. The Angel of Jehovah as the intercessor for Israel prays to Jehovah of hosts (compare the high-priestly prayer John 17).
i. Mal_3:1, the Messiah was named the Angel of the Covenant. “But,” Kurtz argues, “if Malachi had intended by the Angel of the Covenant the Angel of Jehovah, he would certainly so have named him.” Then Moses could not have meant the Angel of the Lord when he speaks of the Angel of his face. Certainly it is true that in the Angel of the Covenant the union of the divine form of the Angel of Jehovah and of the human Son of David, as the divine-human founder of the New Testament, is prophetically consummated.
k. The Angel of his face (Exo_23:20), of whom Jehovah says, My name is in him (Exo_32:34; Exo_33:15; Isa_63:9), is according to Kurtz the same with the Angel of Jehovah in Genesis. But now (Exo_32:34) Jehovah appears so to distinguish this angel from himself that we cannot think of him as one with Jehovah. We cannot indeed freely use the ingenious answer to this difficulty by Hengstenberg,1 which Kurtz contests (see p. 154). But the opposition here is not this, that either a created angel goes with Israel, or the Logos-angel, but this, that he would not longer himself be present in the camp of Israel (Exo_33:5), but beyond it (Gen_12:7), that thus a stricter distinction and separation should be made between the impure people and his sanctuary.
l. In the history of the three angels who visit Abram in the plains (the oaks) of Mamre (Gen_18:19), not only the one angel who remains with Abram enters as Jehovah, but the two others, so soon as they were recognized by Lot in their super-earthly being, were addressed by him with the names of God, Adonai, etc. Kurtz, overlooks here the change of persons which appears in the narrative (Gen_19:17-19). The peculiar work of the two angels continues until Gen_12:16. They lead Lot out of the city and set him without (before) the city. The angels now retire to the background, and Jehovah comes into view and says, “Escape for thy life.” That Jehovah had gone up from Abram into heaven, and here again stands before Lot, can only be a source of error to the literal conception, which attributes to Jehovah a gross corporeal form, and in the same measure the local changes in space. We do not wonder now that Lot clings to the vanishing angel-forms with the cry, Adonai. Now the one unique appearance presents itself clearly before him (Gen_19:21). Then (Gen_19:24) Jehovah rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven. Without a perception of the change of different voices and visions, and the corresponding change of different revelations, any one will have great difficulty in finding his way through this statement of the struggles of Lot.
We now bring into view the gradual development of the specific revelation of God, which begins with the call of Abram. Hofmann asks: Ought we not to expect that the manifestations of God, so far as they form a preparation for the coming of Christ, should from the very beginning of the history of salvation, and not first from Abram, be described as manifestations of the Maleach Jehovah? The whole distinction between the primitive and patriarchal religion is thus overlooked. The faith of salvation first takes on the form of a definite religion of the future and becomes a more definite preparation for the incarnation of Christ, in the faith of Abram. Hofmann himself, as he in other places admits that the Maleach Jehovah is the one only form of theophany in the history of the old covenant, notwithstanding the numerous changes in the designation of the revelation: e. g. “Jehovah appeared,” etc., deprives the implied objection in the above question of any force. Indeed, the appearance of the Maleach Jehovah is announced with the patriarchal revelation. It is recorded (Gen_12:1), And Jehovah said to Abram. Starke holds, agreeing with the older theologians, that the Angel of the Lord (see Gal_3:16) is the Son of God himself. But Stephen (Act_7:2) says the God of glory (δόξα) appeared to our father Abram when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran. The question meets us here therefore: In what relation does the Maleach Jehovah stand to the δόξα or כָּבוֹד of Jehovah? In Luk_2:9 there is a very significant parallelism—ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐπέστη αὐτοῖς, καὶ δόξα κυρίου περιέλαμψεν αὐτούς, i. e. both ideas are bound together in the closest manner and by an inward tie. In Exo_24:16, Exo_40:34, the δόξα of Jehovah is in the same way intimately connected with Jehovah. But in Genesis 33 the δόξα of Jehovah, Gen_12:18, is fully identified with the face of Jehovah, Gen_12:20. According to Gen_12:14 (compared with Gen_12:2 and Isa_63:9), the face of Jehovah is identical with the Angel of his face. The Angel of Jehovah is thus the manifested figure of Jehovah, in the same way as his δοξα. The glory fills the holy of holies, and Jehovah appears in the holy of holies (Exo_40:34 and other passages). According to Isa_6:3 the revelation of the δόξα of Jehovah shall fill the whole earth (compare Eze_1:28; Eze_3:12, etc.). In Tit_2:13 Christ who comes to judgment is described as the δόξα (glorious) appearing of the great God, and in Heb_1:3 he is styled ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης θεοῦ. It is certain that the word δόξα has a manifold signification, and that when used to designate the theophany it points rather to the manifested splendor of the Spirit, than to the spirit of this glorious appearance. (Hence it is closely connected with the pillar of cloud and of fire.) But so much is clearly proved, that the δόξα of Jehovah can properly be personally united with Jehovah himself, with Christ, but not with any creature-angel. It is now in accordance with the course of development, as it is with the character of the patriarchal theophany, that it should begin with the miraculous report or voice, the word (Gen_12:1), and advance to the miraculous vision or manifestation (Gen_12:7). For the word of Jehovah is in the first place the primary form of revelation in the time of the patriarchs, and in regard to the vision, it is the more interior (subjective) event, which appears already in a lower stage or grade of the development in the line of visions. After the separation of Abram from Lot (Gen_13:14) he receives again the word of Jehovah, which blesses him for his generous course, and in a way corresponding with it. So also after his expedition (Gen_15:1). The blessings in both cases correspond to his well-doing: to his renunciation of the better portions of the land, the promise of the whole land is given, and to the pious man of war, God gives himself as a shield and reward. In the important act of the justification of Abram (Genesis 15), the miraculous appearance enters with the word of Jehovah. The word of the Lord came to him in vision. If now the Angel of the Lord first appears under this name in the history of Hagar (Gen_16:9), we have the reason clearly given. Hagar had learned faith in the house of Abram, and its power to behold as an organ of vision was developed in accordance with her necessities. But the Angel of Jehovah, as the Christ who was to come through Isaac, had a peculiar reason for assisting Hagar, since she for the sake of the future Christ is involved in this sorrow. Besides, there is no increase of the divine revelation in this appearance; Abram saw Jehovah himself in the Angel of Jehovah, and Sarah also in the manifestation of Jehovah sees above all the Angel.
Between Abram’s connection with Hagar and the next manifestation of Jehovah there are full thirteen years. But then his faith is strengthened again, and Jehovah appears to him (Gen_17:1). The most prominent and important theophany in the life of Abram is the appearance of the three men (Genesis 18). But this appearance wears its prevailing angelic form, because it is a collective appearance for Abram and Lot, and at the same time refers to the judgment upon Sodom. Hence the two angels are related to their central point as sun-images to the sun itself, and this central point for Abram is Jehovah himself in his manifestation, but not a commissioned Angel of the Lord. Thus also this Angel visits Sarah (Gen_21:1; compare Gen_18:10). But the Angel appears in the history of Hagar a second time (Gen_21:17), and this time as the Angel of God (Maleach Elohim), not as the Maleach Jehovah, for the question is not now about a return to Abram’s house, but about the independent settlement with Ishmael in the wilderness. The person who tempts Abram (Gen_22:1) is Elohim—God as he manifests himself to the nations and their general ideas or notions, and the revelation is effected purely through the word. Now also, in the most critical moment for Abram, the Angel of the Lord comes forward, calling down to him from heaven since there was need of a prompt message of relief. In the rest of the narrative this Angel identifies himself throughout with Jehovah (Gen_12:12; Gen_12:16). To Isaac also Jehovah appears (Gen_26:2), and the second time in the night (Gen_19:24). He appears to Jacob in the night in a dream (Gen_28:12-13). Thus also he appears to him as the Angel of God in a dream (Gen_31:11), but throughout identified with Jehovah (Gen_12:13). Jehovah commands him to return home through the word (Gen_31:3). Laban receives the word of God in a dream (Gen_31:24). The greatest event of revelation in the life of Jacob is the grand theophany, in the night, through the vision, but the man who wrestles with him calls himself God and man (men) at the same time. According to the theory of a created angel, Jacob is not a wrestler with God (Israel), but merely a wrestler with the Angel. It is a more purely external circumstance which God uses to warn Jacob through the word to remove from Shechem (Gen_35:1). In the second peculiar manifestation of God to Jacob after his return from Mesopotamia (Gen_35:9), we have a clear and distinct reflection of the first (Gen_32:24). In the night-visions of Joseph, which already appear in the life of Isaac, and occur more frequently with Jacob, the form of revelation during the patriarchal period comes less distinctly into view. But then it enters again, and with new energy, in the life of Moses. The Angel of Jehovah (Exo_3:2) is connected with the earlier revelation, and here also is identified with Jehovah and Elohim (Gen_12:4). But he assumes a move definite form and title, as the Angel of his face, since with the Mosaic system the rejection of any deifying of the creature comes into greater prominence, and since it is impossible that the face of God should be esteemed a creature.
The reasons which are urged for the old ecclesiastical view of the Angel of the Lord, are recapitulated by Kurtz in the following order: 1. The Maleach Jehovah identifies himself with Jehovah. 2. Those to whom he appears recognize, name, and worship him as the true God. 3. He receives sacrifice and worship without any protest. 4. The biblical writers constantly speak of him as Jehovah. We add the following reasons: 1. The theory of our opponents opens a wide door in the Old Testament for the deifying of the creature, which the Old Testament everywhere condemns; and the Romish worship of angels finds in it a complete justification. 2. The Socinians also gain an important argument for their rejection of the Trinity, if, instead of the self-revelation of God, and of the self-distinction included in it in the Old Testament, there is merely a pure revelation through angels. As the fully developed doctrine of the Trinity cannot be found in the Old Testament, so no one can remove from the Old Testament the beginnings of that doctrine, the self-distinction of God, without removing the very substructure on which the New Testament doctrine of the Trinity rests, and without obscuring the Old Testament theology in its very centre and glory. 3. It would break the band of the organic unity between the Old and New Testaments, if it could be proved that the central point in the Old Testament revelation is a creature-angel, and that the New Testament revelation passes at one bound from this form to that of the God-man. The theory of the creature-angel in its continuation through a colossal adoration of angels, points downwards to the Rabbinic and Mohammedan doctrine of angels which has established itself in opposition to the New Testament Christology, and is bound together with that exaggerated doctrine of angels in more recent times, which ever corresponds with a veiled and obscure Christology. On the other hand, it removes from the New Testament Christology its Old Testament foundation and preparation, which consists in this, that the interchange between God and men is in full operation, and must therefore prefigure itself in the images of the future God-Man_1:4. The doctrine of angels itself loses its very heart, its justification and interpretation, if we take away from it the symbolic angel-form which rules it, as its royal centre, i. e. that angelic form which, as a real manifestation of God, as a typical manifestation of Christ, as a manifestation of angels, has the nature and force of a symbol. But with the obliteration of the symbolic element, all the remaining symbolic and angelic images, the cherubim and seraphim, will disappear, and with the key of biblical psychology in its representation of the development of the life of the soul, to an organ of revelation, we shall lose the key to the exposition of the Old Testament itself. 5. Augustin was consistent when, with his interpretation of the Angel of Jehovah as a creature-angel, he decidedly rejects the interpretation which regards the sons of God (Genesis 6) as angel-beings; for the assumption of angels who, as such, venture to identify themselves with Jehovah, notwithstanding they are in peril, and abandon themselves to lustful pleasures with the daughters of men until it issues in apostasy and a magical transformation of their nature, combines two groundless and intolerable phantoms. We hold, therefore, that Old Testament theology, in its very heart and centre, is in serious danger from these two great prejudices, as the New Testament from the two great prejudices of a mere mechanical structure of the Gospels, and of the unapostolic and yet more than apostolic brothers of the Lord. (See the defence of the old ecclesiastical view in the Commentary by Keil,2 also with a reference to Kahnis, de Angelo Domini diatribe, 1858. The assertion of the opposite view held by Delitzsch in his Commentary, meets here its refutation).
6. The aspect of all theophanies as visions. It is a general supposition, that divine revelation is partly through visions, or through inward miraculous sights and sounds. We must, however, bring out distinctly the fundamental position, that every theophany is at the same time vision, and every vision a theophany; but that in the one case the objective theophany, and in the other the subjective vision, is the prevailing feature. The subjective vision appears in the most definite form in dream-visions, of which Adam’s sleep, and Abram’s night-horror (chs. 2 and 15), are the first striking portents. It develops itself with great power in the lives of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and is of still greater importance in the lives of Samuel and Solomon, as also in the night-visions of Zechariah. We find them in the New Testament in the life of Joseph of Nazareth and in the history of Paul. It needs no proof to show that the manifestations of God or angels in dreams, are not outward manifestations to the natural senses. In the elements of the subjective dream-vision, veils itself, however, the existing divine manifestation. But what the dream introduces in the night-life, the seeing in images—that the ecstasy does in the day or ordinary waking life (see Lange: “Apostolic Age”). The ecstasy, as the removing of the mind into the condition of unconsciousness, or of a different consciousness, is the potential basis of the vision, the vision is the activity or effect of the ecstasy. But since the visions have historical permanence and results, it is evident that they are the intuitions of actual objective manifestations of God. Mere hallucinations of the mind lead into the house of error, spiritual visions build the historical house of God. But in this aspect we may distinguish peculiar dream-visions, night-visions of a higher form and power, momentary day-visions, apocalyptic groups or circles of visions, linked together in prophetic contemplation, and that habitual clear-sightedness as to visions which is the condition of inspiration. But that theophanies, which are ever at the same time Angelophanies and Christophanies, and indeed as theophanies of the voice of God, or of the voice from heaven, of the simple appearance of angels, of their more enlarged and complete manifestations of the developed heavenly scene—that these are always conditioned through a disposition or fitness for visions, is clear from numerous passages in the Old and New Testaments. (2Ki_6:17; Dan_10:7; Joh_12:28-29; Joh_20:10-12; Act_9:8; Act_12:7-12; Act_22:9-14.
In theology the psychological aspect of revelation has been hitherto very much neglected. All possible forms of revelation have been placed side by side without any connection. Starke says, the Son of God has appeared to believers under six forms or ways: 1. through a voice and words; 2. in an assumed form either of an angel, at least under that name, or in the form of a man, prefiguring his future incarnation; 3. in a vision; 4. in dreams; 5. in a pillar of cloud and fire; 6. especially to Paul, in a light from heaven.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The call of Abram and his migration to Canaan until he reaches Sichem (Gen_12:1-7). The call of Abram demands from him a threefold renunciation, increasing in intensity from one to the other: 1. Out of thy country.—The fatherland. The land of Mesopotamia as it embraced both Ur of the Chaldees and Haran.—2. And from thy kindred.—The Chaldaic descendants of Shem.—3. From thy father’s house.—Terah and his family (Gen_11:31-32). With the threefold demand it connects a threefold promise: 1. Of the special providence of God, leading him, indeed, to a new land (see Hebrews 11); 2. of the natural blessing of a numerous seed (Gen_13:16; Gen_15:5; Gen_17:2; Gen_17:6; Gen_17:16; Gen_18:18; Gen_21:13; Gen_22:17); 3. of a spiritual blessing for himself, and in its wide extension to all the families of the earth, making his name glorious, and constituting about his person in its spiritual import and relations the great contrast between the subjects of the blessing and the curse.—And will make thy name great.—That is, as the divinely blessed ancestor and father of a renowned people (Knobel). The name of the father of believers should shed its light and wield its influence through the world’s history.—Thou shalt be a blessing.—Lit: Be thou a blessing. It is a superficial view of this word which interprets it, thy name shall become a formula of blessing (Kimchi, Knobel: so that those who desire the greatest happiness shall wish themselves as happy as Abram). It is through the union of men with him (in that they pronounce and wish him blessed), that the mercy and blessing of God passes over to them, and through their enmity to him, which only reveals itself in calumnies and blasphemies3 they draw upon themselves the curse of God. The prelude to the blessing and the curse flowing through and from the Church. The curse: (Gen_3:14; Gen_3:17; Gen_4:11; Gen_5:29; Gen_9:25; Gen_27:29).—In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.4—The rendering it as reflexive is arbitrary, since we have the special form of the hithpael to express this, and the interpretation all families shall desire that their prosperity may be as thine, is shallow and incorrect (Jarchi, Clericus and others). The reflexive rendering is not necessary, indeed, in Gen_48:20.—V. 4. The obedience of Abram. He left what he was required to leave, and took with him what it was in his power to take, Lot, although Lot was a burden to him rather than a source of strength (see article Lot, in the “Bible Dictionaries”). The emigration was the more heroic, since he was 75 years old, and his father was still living5 (Genesis 11). He probably went by Damascus (see Gen_15:2).—V. 5. The souls that they had gotten.—Strictly, made, descriptive of the gain in slaves, male and female.6—Sichem.—The first resting-place of Abram, who came to the place Sichem,7 and, indeed, to the oaks of Moreh (Deu_11:30), the oak-grove of Moreh.—Moreh.—Probably the name of the owner. Knobel: the oaks of instruction, which appear to be the same with the oaks of divination (Jdg_9:37). It is not probable that Abram would have fixed his abode precisely (as Knobel thinks) in a grove, which according to heathen notions had a sacred character as the residence of divining priests. The religious significance of the place may have arisen from the fact that Jacob buried the images brought with him in his family, under the oak of Shechem (Gen_35:4). The idols, indeed, must not be thrown into sacred but profane places (Isa_2:20). But, perhaps, Jacob had regard to the feelings of his family, and prepared for the images, which, indeed, were not images belonging to any system of idolatry, an honorable burial. At the time of Joshua the place had a sacred character, and Joshua, therefore, erected here the monumental stone, commemorating the solemn renewal of the law. Thus they became the oaks of the pillar at which the Shechemites made Abimelech king (Jdg_9:6).—Then also the Canaanite was in the land.—This explains why in his migrations he must pass through the land to Sichem, to find a place suitable for his residence.8 It does not follow from this statement, either that the narrative originated at a time when the Canaanite was no longer in the land, or that the term here designates only a single tribe of this name, which in the time of Moses dwelt upon the sea-coast, and in the valley of the Jordan (as Knobel thinks), comp. Gen_13:7; Gen_34:30. It is a tradition of the Jews, that Noah had assigned Africa as the home of the children of Ham, but that the Canaanites had remained in Canaan against his command, and that therefore Abram, the true heir, was called thither. Gen_12:7. The first appearance of Jehovah in vision. Abram’s life of faith had developed itself thus far since he had entered Canaan, and now the promise is given to him of the land of Canaan, as the possession of the promised seed. The second progressive promise9 comp. Gen_13:15; Gen_13:17; Gen_15:18; Gen_17:8; Gen_26:3; Gen_28:4; Gen_28:13; Gen_35:12. Abram’s grateful acknowledgment: the erection of an altar, and the founding of an outward service of Jehovah, which as to its first feature consisted in the calling upon his name (cultus), and as to its second, in the profession and acknowledgment of his name.10 Thus also Jacob acted (Gen_33:20; Jos_24:1; Jos_24:26). Bethel, Jerusalem, Hebron, Beersheba are places of the same character (i. e., places which were consecrated by the patriarchs, and not as Knobel thinks, whose consecration took place in later times, and then was dated back to the period of the patriarchs). Abram’s altars stood in the oaks of Moreh, and Mamre, in Bethel, and upon Moriah. Abram, and the patriarchs generally, served also the important purpose of preaching through their lives repentance to the Canaanites, as Noah was such a preacher for his time. For God leaves no race to perish unwarned. Sodom had even a constant warning in the life of Lot.
2. Abram’s migration through Canaan from Sichem to Bethel and still further southwards(Gen_12:8-9). The want of pasture for his herds, the presentiments of piety, the yielding of the patriarch to the divine guidance, led him further southwards to a new residence east of Bethel. He pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai. “In the time of the Judges there was a sanctuary of Jehovah at Bethel (1. Sam. Gen_10:3), and at one time also it was the abode of the ark of the covenant (Jdg_20:18; Jdg_20:26). In later times it was the chief seat of the illegal worship (cultus) established by Jeroboam (1Ki_12:29; Amo_7:10), and hence its name Bethel in the place of the old name Luz (Gen_28:19; Jos_18:13; Jdg_1:23). In Genesis it bears this name already in the time of the patriarchs, who here received manifestations of God and offered sacrifices to him (Gen_13:4; Gen_28:22; Gen_35:7).” Thus Knobel explains the name as if there was an internal necessity for denying the fact of the consecration of Bethel through the dream and vision of Jacob. But that Bethel should be geographically known as Luz by the Canaanites, long after the patriarchs had made it theocratically Bethel, involves no real difficulty.11—Abram journeyed (broke up his encampment and went).—The whole statement brings to view and illustrates the nomadic life, as also the allusion to his dwelling in tents.12—Going on still toward the South.—The southern part of Canaan toward the wilderness, a rich pastureland. A particular definite residence in Hebron is spoken of in Gen_13:18.
3. Abram’s journey to Egypt(Gen_12:10-20).—There was a famine in the land.—The frequent famines are a peculiar characteristic of early times and of uncivilized lands. Egypt as a rich and fruitful land was even then a refuge from famine, as it was in the history of Jacob (Joseph., Antiq. xv. 9, 2).—Say, I pray thee (or now, still), thou art my sister.—The women at that time went unveiled, and this receives confirmation from the Egyptian monuments. The custom was changed after the conquest of the land by the Persians. Sarah was ten years younger than Abram (Gen_17:17), and, therefore, about 65 years of age. In the patriarchal manner of life, her age would not make so deep a mark; and there is no real ground for questioning the continuance of her youthful bloom and beauty. It is more remarkable that Abram should adopt the same course again (Genesis 20), and that Isaac should once have imitated his example (Gen_26:7). Modern criticism in this case, as often in other cases, chooses rather to admit, that there is a remarkable confusion in the narrative, than that there should have been a remarkable repetition of the same act. “It is held with good reason,” says Knobel, “that one and the same event lies at the foundation of these three narratives.” But the result of the first act of Abram did not necessarily restrain him from the second, and Isaac, especially in moments of anxiety, may have easily yielded himself to a slavish imitation of his father’s conduct. The name Abimelech lays no real ground for the identity of the second and third narrative, since this was a standing title of the kings of Philistia, as Pharaoh13 was of the kings of Egypt. According to (Gen_20:13) Abram had already in his migration from Haran arranged with Sarah the expression referred to for his protection while among strangers, and this explains the repetition of the act, the prominent point in the moral problem (see below). “The Hebrew consciousness,” says Knobel, “pleased itself with the thought that on different occasions the ‘mothers’ were objects of admiration for their beauty, while they were kept from insult, and their husbands protected in their rights by God.” Since the “Israelitish consciousness” has not concealed by silence that Leah, the mother of the larger part of the Jews, was not beautiful, we may trust its account of the beauty of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, and the more so since the beauty of that type appears still in Jewish women. It must be observed also that by the side of the Hamitic women in Egypt and Canaan, Semitic women, even when advanced in years, would be admired as beauties. Abram desired that Sarah should say that she was his sister, lest he should be killed. If she was regarded as his wife, an Egyptian could only obtain her, when he had murdered her husband and possessor; but if she was his sister, then there was a hope that she might be won from her brother by kindly means. The declaration was not false (Gen_20:12), but it was not the whole truth. Knobel.
Gen_12:15. And commended her before Pharaoh.—“Modern travellers speak in a similar way of oriental kings, who incorporate into their harem the beautiful women of their land in a perfectly arbitrary way.” Knobel. “The recognition of Sarah’s beauty is more easily explained, if we take into view that the Egyptian women, although not of so dark a complexion as the Nubians or Ethiopians, were yet of a darker shade than the Asiatics. The women of high rank were usually represented upon the monuments in lighter shades for the purpose of flattery.” Hengstenberg. “According to older records the Egyptian court consisted of the sons of the most illustrious priests.—Into Pharaoh’s house, i. e., harem.” Schröder.
Gen_12:16. The possessions of the nomadic chief. “According to Burkhardt and Robinson all the Arabic Bedouin hordes do not own horses. Strabo already relates this as true of the Nabatæans (p. 16).” Knobel. The horse does not appear with the patriarchs, and as a costly, proud animal, both as a war-horse and in ordinary use, was generally in the theocratic view regarded as a symbol of worldly splendor.
Gen_12:17. The Lord plagued Pharaoh with great plagues [blows].—They were such plagues of sickness as to guard Sarai from injury (Gen_20:4; Gen_20:6).
Gen_12:18. This Pharaoh is not hardened like the later king of that name. He concludes that he is punished for the sake of Sarai. Whence he draws this conclusion we are not told.14—V. 20. Now follows the dismissal of Abram, but still a dismissal full of honorable accompaniments. “Pharaoh’s conduct moreover shows how under all that idolatry which then held the Egyptians in its embrace, there was still existing a certain faith in the supreme God, and a kind of reverential fear before him.”
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Keil: “The history of the life of Abram from his calling to his death unfolds itself in four stages, whose beginnings are marked by divine revelations of special significance. The first stage (chs. 12–14) begins with his calling and emigration to Canaan; the second (chs. 15, 16) with the promise of an heir and the formation of the covenant; the third (chs. 17–21) with the establishment of the covenant through the change of name and the introduction of the covenant-sign of circumcision; the fourth (chs. 22–25:11) with the trial or temptation of Abram for the preservation and perfecting of his faith. All the divine revelations to him proceed from Jehovah, and the name Jehovah prevails through the whole life of the father of the faithful, the name Elohim appearing only where Jehovah, according to its significance, would have been entirely out of place, or less appropriate.” Viewing his life with respect to his faith, the first Section (chs. 12–14) marks peculiarly the calling of Abraham; the second states his justification, confirmed through his reception into the covenant of Jehovah—obscured, but not weakened, through the erroneous workings of his faith in his connection with Hagar (chs.15, 16); the third states his consecration to be the father of the faithful, and therewith the legal separation of his house, and the establishment of his mild and yet strictly marked relations to the heathen (Genesis 17-21); the fourth treats of the sealing or confirmation of his faith. (From these we must distinguish as a fifth Section the time of the solemn festive rest of his faith, or the evening of life (chs. 23–25:10). For the nature of the patriarchal history, compare Delitsch, above.
2. The translation of Stier (Gen_12:1), the Lord had said, is based upon an incorrect interpretation of the passage, in accordance with a misunderstanding of the words of Stephen (Act_7:3). As the first call of Abram in Ur is by no means excluded here by the second call in Haran, so in Acts, the second calling in Haran is not excluded by the first in Ur. The first calling was plainly to Abram and his father’s house. In the call before us he was told to go out from his father’s house, while his father with the rest should remain in Haran. Starke also fails to distinguish these two callings correctly.15
3. The particularism entering with the calling of Abram must be viewed as the divine method of securing universal results. “In the particular we see the general, in the individual the whole, in the small the great; Abram’s calling is the seed out of which springs the great tree under whose shade many nations rest; all indeed shall one day rest.” Lisco.—There is no mere external preference for Israel in the Old Testament. God has, in his word, threatenings and judgments, dealt as strictly with Israel as with any people; with peculiar strictness, indeed, according to the peculiar gifts and graces which Israel had received. But the proper restriction is the truest universality. “In the example of the Jewish people God declares, that which was concealed, the method and law of his wisdom, and authorizes us to apply it for direction in our own lives, and to other subjects, people, and events.” A quotation in Lisco.—The elements of Abram’s character: heroic faith, humility, and self-sacrifice, energy, benevolence, and gentleness. His call in the East: Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans trace their origin back to him. The purer elements of Islamism come from him.
4. The calling of Abram: 1. In its requisitions; 2. in its promises (see the Exegesis); 3. in its motives, a. The grace of God. The election of Abram. The choice of God reflects itself in the dispositions of men, the gifts of believers. As every people has its peculiar disposition, so the race of Abram, and especially the father of it, had the religious disposition in the highest measure, b. The great necessity of the world. It appeared about to sink into heathenism; the faith must be saved in Abram. c. The destination of Abram. Faith should proceed from one believer to all, just as salvation should proceed from one Saviour to all. The whole Messianic prophecy was now embraced in Abram.16
5. The calling of Abram to the pilgrimage of faith (Heb_11:8). His migration: 1. into Canaan; 2. through Canaan; 3. to Egypt; 4. his return. His calling and migrating an example of the calling and pilgrimage of his race.—A type of the calling and pilgrimage of all believers.
6. The character of the life of faith: a. The experience of faith. Personal revelation of God, the personal providence of God. b. The work or concession of faith. Personal trust and personal obedience.
7. The word of God to Abraham, sealed through the manifestation of God in Canaan, as the word of the gospel is sealed to the believer through the sacrament. Keil: “The promise was raised from its temporal form to its real nature through Christ, through him the whole earth becomes a Canaan.”
8. Abram and the companions of his faith. Sarai, Lot. The blessings and perils of the companionship of the faithful. “The father of believers and his successors appear constantly in the Bible as one whole: hence it is said so often, ’To thee will I give this land (Gen_15:7, etc.)’ ” Gerlach.
9. The solitude of the nomadic life of the patriarchs, a source of the life of prayer and illumination—a prerequisite for the higher revelation. The solitude of Moses, the prophets (“by the rivers of Babylon,” “in the desert,”) of John the Baptist, of Christ the Lord, of the Christians in deserts, of the mystics in the cloisters of the middle ages, of Luther (Jacob Böhme, Fox, etc.). In tranquil retirement. “Abram was a rich, independent herdsman, just as the Bedouin chiefs are still in the deserts and the broad pasture-grounds of Syria, Arabia, and Palestine.” Gerlach. There were already a variety of pursuits; huntsmen, husbandmen, and shepherds. Their separations and variances (Gen_43:32; Gen_46:34). For the tents, deserts, pasturages (uncultivated regions), see Bible Dictionaries.
10. The consecration of Canaan, through the manifestations of God, and the altars of Abram (as well as of the other patriarchs). The heavenly signs of the Church of Christ; the setting apart of the old earth, to a new. The chosen land a type of the Christian earth and of Paradise. “Abram takes his church with him.” Calwer Handbuch.
11. Abram’s altars, or his calling upon the name of Jehovah, is at the same time a testimony to his name. The true worship is a source of the true missionary—the cultus itself a mission.
12. Abram’s maxim or rule, to report that Sarah was his sister.17 It was determined upon in the early period of his migrations (Gen_20:13), but was here first brought into use, and from its successful issue was repeated once by himself, and once imitated by Isaac. It was with respect to his faith a fearful hazard. Faith is at the beginning un certain as to the moral questions and complications of life. Every broad view of the general is at first an uncertain view as to the particular. Thus it is in the broad synthetic view in science; it is at first wanting in reference to the critical and analytical knowledge as to the particular. Still the scientific Synthesis is the source of all true science. And thus faith, the great synthesis of heaven, is at first uncertain as to the moral problems of the earthly life. The history of all the great beginnings of faith furnishes the proof. But still, the great life of faith is the source of all pure and high morality in the world. Abram’s venture was not from laxity as to the sanctity of marriage, or as to his duty to protect his wife; it was from a presumptuous confidence in the wonderful assistance of God. It was excused through the great necessity of the time, his defenceless state among strangers, the customary lawlessness of those in power, and as to the relation of the sexes. Therefore Jehovah preserved him from disgrace, although he did not spare him personal anxiety, and the moral rebuke from a heathen. It is only in Christ, that with the broad view of faith, the knowledge of its moral human measures and limitations is from the beginning perfect. In the yet imperfect, but growing faith, the word is true, “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” As a mere matter of prudence, Abram appeared to act prudently. He told no untruth, although he did not tell the whole truth. His word was, at all events, of doubtful import, and therefore, through his anxious forecast, was morally hazardous. But the necessity of the time, the difficulty of his position, and his confidence that God would make his relations clear at the proper time, serve to excuse it. It was not intended to effect a final deception: his God would unloose the knot. In his faith Abram was a blameless type of believers, but not in his application of his faith to the moral problems of life. Still, even in this regard, he unfolds more and more his heroic greatness. We must distinguish clearly between a momentary, fanatical, exaggerated confidence in God, and the tempting of God with a selfish purpose (see the history of Thamar, Rahab). Baumgarten is not correct when he says: “Abram abandons his wife, but not so Jehovah.” The modern stand-point is too prominent even in Delitzsch; “He thus thinks that he will give the marriage-honor of his wife a sacrifice for his self-preservation; at all events, he is prepared to do this.” Abram knew from the first, that the promise of blessing from Jehovah was connected with his person. Hence the instinct of self-preservation is lost in the higher impulse for the preservation of the blessing. And if, in relation to this impulse, he placed his marriage in a subordinate position, this occurred certainly from his confidence in the wonderful protection of Jehovah, and the heroic conduct of Sarai. His syllogism was doubtless morally incorrect, but it rested upon an exaggeration of his faith, and not upon moral cowardice.18 Upon any opposing interpretation, the same conduct of the patriarchs could not possibly have been repeated a second and third time. Jehovah himself could not have recognized any tempting of God, nor any moral baseness, in his conduct; but indeed concerns himself in the leading of Abram’s faith (as in the life of Stilling), while he prepares for the presumptuous and erroneous syllogism of his faith its deserved rebuke. In a similar way Calvin recognizes the good end of Abram, but at the same time remarks that he failed in the choice of his means.
13. That the Bible speaks in this frank and simple way of the female beauty, as it does generally of beauty in life, and the world, shows how free it is from the gloomy, morose, monkish asceticism, while, however, it does not conceal the perils of beauty.
14. The Pharaoh of this early period, and more simple life, had already his courtiers, flatterers, and harem. How soon the misuse of princely power has been developed with the power itself! In this case, too, as it often occurs, the prince is better than his court. Pharaoh treats the patriarch with honor, humanity, and a magnanimity which must have put him to shame.
15. As we find recorded in Genesis the beginning of polygamy, of despotism, of the harem, and even of unnatural sexual crimes, so also we have here the first corporeal punishment of these sexual sins in the house of Pharaoh. We are not told, indeed, what was the particular kind of punishment, but it is represented as sent for these sins of Pharaoh.
16. Delitzsch holds, that the silence of Abram under the reproof of Pharaoh, is a confession of his guilt. “Ashamed and penitent, he condemns himself.” It would be very difficult, on this interpretation, to explain the twofold repetition of this act in the life of Abram and of Isaac. We may not transfer our judgment of the case to the stage of the moral development of Abram.
17. The history of Sarai, in whose person God guards the future mother of Israel from profanation, is at the same time a sign of the fact, that God preserves the sacred marriage in the midst of the corruption of the world.
18. Among the rich possessions which fell to Abram in Egypt, more through the protection and blessing of God, than his own prudence, was most probably the Egyptian maid, Hagar, who afterwards exerted so important an influence upon his course of life. Eliezer, of Damascus, and Hagar, from Egypt, are undesigned testimonies to the genuine historical character of the account of his migration from Mesopotamia to Canaan, and from Canaan to Egypt.
19. Abram’s return from Egypt at this time, was already in some sense a return home, and a type of the Exodus of his descendants from Egypt.19
20. The significance of the wonderful land of Egypt for the history of the kingdom of God. Its connection with Canaan, and its opposition. How often it moves down to Egypt (Egypt lay lower than Canaan), and from thence moves back again! There the Hamitic spirit blooms, here the Semitic (Ziegler); there are enigmas, here mysteries; there miracles of death, here of life; there the Pharaohs, here spiritual princes.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See the Doctrinal and Ethical paragraphs.—Jehovah. 1. The profound significance of the name; 2. its eternal value and importance.—Calling of Abram.—Three first proofs of his faith: 1. He must go out from his country and his father’s house, into a strange land; 2. he finds in Palestine “no continuing city,” and soon suffers from famine; 3. he must go further to Egypt, in danger of his life, marriage, and hope.20—Abram at his altars a preacher of repentance for the Canaanites.—His pilgrimage.—The companions of his faith.—The providence of God over the lives of believers.—The infallible faith of Abram, and his errors in the applications of his faith, or of his life: 1. That infallibility does not prevent these errors; 2. but it prevents their dangerous consequences, and at last removes them.—The consecration of Canaan.—The blessings of faith.
Starke: Wurtemberg Bible: Gen_12:1. The call from the condition of sin, or true conversion, springs not from one’s own strength, etc., but only from the grace of God.—Cramer: Whoever will be a follower of God, must separate himself from the world and its wickedness, must leave all consolation and help in the creature, and place his confidence only and alone in the Lord.—If we follow the call of God, we are always in the right way.—The promises of God are yea and amen.
Gen_12:3. Whoever wishes and does good to the saints, will receive good again, but whoever wishes and does them injury, must meet with calamity.
Gen_12:4-5. The strength of faith can do away with time, and present future things as if present.21—Upon Gen_12:13. Since Abram was continually dependent upon the grace of God, he must feel his weakness, which betrays him into manifold acts of insincerity and sins. For, 1. he acted from fear, when he should still have looked to God; 2. he gave out that Sarai was his sister, when she was his wife; 3. he had great guilt in the sin of Pharaoh; 4. he thought to secure his own safety, while he placed Sarai and her chastity in the greatest peril.—Even in the greatest saints, there are many and various defects and transgressions.—God leads his own out of temptation, even when they have fallen.—Osiander: God avenges the injustice and disgrace, which are inflicted upon his elect.—Lisco: Abram obeyed because he trusted God; the two together constitute his faith.22—Wherever Abram comes, in his nomadic life and wanderings, he works for the honor of God.
Gen_12:13. The failures of this chosen man of God appear, upon a closer survey, as sins of weakness, which, on the one hand, do not destroy his gracious standing with God, but on the other render necessary in him a purifying, providential training. The providence of God watches over his elect.—Gerlach: In the simple, vivid narrative of the life of Abram, every step is full of importance.
Gen_12:3 is the expression of the more perfect covenant-relationship and communion. His friends are the friends of God, his enemies the enemies of God. God will himself reward every kindness shown to him, and avenge every injury (in word and deed), Psa_105:13-15.
Gen_12:13. In the deception which Abram uses, as in the later instances of Jacob and Moses, we see a weakness and impurity of faith which did not yet rely perfectly upon the help of God in his own way and time, but selfishly and eagerly grasped after it. It is not without reproof.
Calwer Handbuch: The command of God follows the promise (Gen_12:3). This advances upwards through six steps, until, at the most advanced, the Messiah appears, who should spring from the descendants of Abram. I will make thee a great nation, natural and spiritual—and still his wife was unfruitful—will bless thee—and still he did not possess a footbreadth of land—will make thy name great—and yet he must be a stranger in a strange land.—In thee shall be blessed,23 etc. This promise was repeated to him seven times: the third promise of the Messiah.—The word of God never excuses the imperfections of believers.—Bunsen: Abram is the eternal model of all exiles, and the true father of the pilgrim-fathers of the seventeenth century (of the pilgrims of faith of all times, Hebrews 11).—And make thy name great. The Arabians, after Isa_41:8, call Abram the friend of God.—Schröder: For a long time, as is evident from examples in the family of Abram, God had permitted the truth and its marred image to stand side by side. There must come at the last a moment of perfect separation, a moment of declared distinction between truth and falsehood. This moment also actually came.—Luther: It is cheering, therefore, and full of consolation, when we thus consider how the church began and has increased.—With him it is so arranged that he cannot remove his foot from his native ground, without planting it upon an entirely distinct region—the region of faith.—Krummacher: The East still resounds with the name of Abram.
Gen_12:3. Abram becomes to many a savor of death unto death (2Co_2:16), although he himself should not curse. That is the prerogative of God, he should only be a blessing.—Blessing and making blessed is the destination of all the elect.—Baumgarten: Gen_12:10. Famine in the land of promise is a severe test for Abram. For the land is promised to him as a good which should compensate all his self-denial.
Gen_12:13. In fact, there are found in the oldest histories frequently, here and there, the seeds of the later more developed boasted cunning and prudence.—Passavant: (Abram and his children). Abram was great before God. How so? Through faith. Faith does it. Go out of thy land. The father-land is dear to us. But now it avails, etc.—He went out with his God.—Schwenke: “Hours with the Bible.” Does not the call come to thee also: Go out?—And go in faith? A life in faith is a continual proving—a permanent test.—Heuser: (The Leadings of Abram.) Abram in his pilgrimage: 1. The goal for which he strove; 2. the promises which secured its attainment; 3. the dangers under which he stood; 4. the divine service which he rendered.—Taube: The calling of Abram, a type of our calling to the kingdom of God: 1. As to its demands; 2. as to its gracious promises.24—W. Hofmann: It is through Abram that we receive all the sacred knowledge until we reach back to paradise; all that afterwards was preserved for us by Moses came through his mind and heart.—It was the believing look to the past, which fitted Abram to look on into the future. Delitzsch: The facts (Abram in Egypt) are related to us, not so much for the dishonor of Abram, as for the honor of Jehovah.25
Footnotes:
[1][Hengstenberg holds that after the sin with the golden calf, God threatened the people that the Maleach Jehovah, the uncreated angel, should no longer go with them, but a lower, subordinate, created angel; but that in answer to the prayer of Moses he again permits the uncreated angel to accompany them.—A. G.]
[2][The statement and defence, by Keil, of the ordinary view held by the Church, is admirable, and completely satisfactory. As it is now within the reach of the English reader, it is not necessary to quote it here. Those who would see this subject thoroughly and exhaustively treated, may consult Hengstenberg’s “Christology,” 2d ed., pp. 121-143 of vol. i. and 31–86 of the 2d part of vol. iii.—A. G.]
[3][קִלֶּל the reproaches—blasphemous curses of men—in distinction from אָרַר the judicial curse of God. Keil.—A. G.]
[4][We must not miss here the fundamental meaning of the ב in, while we include its instrumental sense, through. Abram is not only the channel but the source of blessing for all. Keil.—A. G.] [The families refers to the division of the one human family into a number of families or races. (See Gen_10:5; Gen_20:31). The blessing of Abram will bind into unity the now dissevered parts of the race, and transform that curse which now rests upon all the earth on account of sin, into a blessing for the whole human race. Keil.—A. G.] [The Old Testament is as broad and catholic in its spirit as the New Testament. Murphy, pp. 262, 263.—A. G.]
[5][But according to Act_7:4, his father was dead. Terah died when he was 205 years old, and as Abram left Haran when he was 75 years old, he must have been born when Terah was 130 years old, and thus have been the younger son of Terah.—A. G.]
[6][Not only gotten as secular property but had made obedient to the law of the true God. Wordsworth.—A. G.]
[7][See Jacobus: “Notes on Genesis,” vol. i. pp. 227, 228.—A. G.]
[8][The author of Genesis evinces in this clause a knowledge of the Canaanites, and presupposes their character to be known in such a way as a late writer could not do. Jacobus, p. 228.—A. G.]
[9][Abram is the first person to whom the Lord is said to have appeared, and this is the first place at which the Lord is said to have appeared to Abram, and at this place Christ, the Lord of glory, first revealed himself as the Messiah (Joh_4:26; to the Samaritan woman (the type of the Gentile Church). Wordsworth, p. 66—A. G.]
[10][He thus also took possession of the land in the name of his covenant God. See Bush, 364; Jacobus, 229.—A. G.]
[11][“Jacob gave his name to the place twice (Gen_28:19; Gen_35:15). As the name was not first given in the second instance, so it may not have been in the first. Accordingly we meet with it as an existing name in Abram’s time, without being constrained to account for it by supposing the present narrative to have been, composed in its present form after the time of Jacob’s visit. On the other hand, we may regard it as an interesting trace of early piety having been present in the land even before the arrival of Abram.” Murphy.—A. G.]
[12][“He had left his house at Haran, and now dwelt in tents as in a strange country” (Heb_11:9). Wordsworth.—A. G.]
[13][“פַרְעֹה from the Coptic Ouro with the masculine article pi or p, Pouro, king. The dynasty and residence of the king cannot be certainly determined. But it is worthy of notice that there is no trace here of the later Egyptian contempt for the nomadic life and occupation; a fact which speaks decidedly for the antiquity and historical character of the narrative.” Kurtz.—A. G.]
[14][V. 19. So I might have taken, Heb. And I took. The construction of the Hebrew does not require the supposition that she actually became his wife. Our version, though not literal, gives no doubt the correct sense. If the present narrative admitted of any doubt, the doubt is removed by a reference to the parallel case, Gen_20:6.—A. G.]
[15] [“There is no discrepancy between Moses and St. Stephen. St. Stephen’s design was, when he pleaded before the Jewish Sanhedrim, to show that God’s revelations were not limited to Jerusalem and Judea, but that he had first spoken to the father of Abram in an idolatrous land, Ur of the Chaldees.”
“But Moses dwells specially on Abram’s call from Haran, because Abram’s obedience to that call was the proof of his faith.” Wordsworth.
There is no improbability in the supposition that the call was repeated. And this supposition would not only reconcile the words of Stephen and of Moses, but may explain the fifth verse: “And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.” Abram had left his home in obedience to the original call of God, but had not reached the land in which he was to dwell. Now, upon the second call, he not only sets forth, but continues in his migrations until he reaches Canaan, to which he was directed.—A. G.]
[16] [“With the closing word of the promse, ‘in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed,’ the final goal of all history is proclaimed, for there is nothing beyond the blessing of all the families of the earth. Thus the whole fulness of the divine purpose in reference to the salvation, is stated in the call of Abram, and connected with him in the closest manner. For the בְךָ does not designate any relation whatever of Abram to the general blessing, but designates him as the organic means or instrument through which blessing should come.” Baumgarten.—A. G.]
[“The Apostle Paul expounds the promise (Gal_3:16), showing: 1. that by its express terms, it was made to extend to the Gentiles; and, 2. that by the term ‘seed’ is meant Christ Jesus. The promise looks to the world-wide benefits of redemption which should come through Christ, the seed of Abram.” Jacobus, p. 225.—A. G.]
[17][See Hengstenberg’s Beitrüge, iii. p. 526 ff.—A. G.]
[18][We are not to be harsh or censorious in our judgments upon the acts of these eminent saints. But neither are we called upon to defend their acts; and if the view of Lange does not satisfy every one, it is well to bear in mind that the Scripture records these acts without expressing distinctly any moral judgment upon them. It impliedly condemns. The Scripture, however, contains clearly the great principles of moral truth and duty, and then oftentimes leaves the reader to draw the inference as to the moral quality of the acts which it records. And its faithfulness in not concealing what may be of questionable morality, “in the lives of the greatest saints shows the honesty and accuracy of the historian.” Wordsworth says well: “the weaknesses of the patriarchs strengthen our faith in the Pentateuch.”—A. G.]
[19][“The same necessity conducts both him and his descendants to Egypt. They both encounter similar dangers in that land—the same mighty arm delivers both, and leads them back enriched with the treasures of that wealthy country.” Kurtz.—A. G.]
[20][There does not seem to he sufficient ground for the conjecture of Murphy, that Abram was now pursuing his own course, and venturing beyond the limits of the land of promise, without waiting patiently for the divine counsel; and that he went with a vague suspicion that he was doing wrong. There is reason to believe, that all the movements of the patriarch were not only under divine control, but were a part of God’s plan for the testing and developing of his faith. It was a sore trial to leave the land promised to him, so soon after he had entered it. See also paragraph 20, above.—A. G.]
[21][Gen_12:7. “Wherever he had a tent, God had an altar, and an altar sanctified by prayer.” Henry.—A. G.]
[22][Faith receives the promise, and leads to obedience.—A. G.]
[23][The promise receives its first fulfilment in Abram, then in the Jews, more perfectly when the Son of God became incarnate, the seed of Abram, then further in the church and the preaching of the gospel, but finally and fully when Christ shall complete his church, and come to take her to himself.—A. G.]
[24][Abram also is an illustrious example to all who hear the call of God. His obedience is prompt and submissive. He neither delays nor questions, but went out not knowing whither he went, Heb_11:8.—A. G.]
[25][Hengstenberg says: The object of the writer is not Abram’s glorification, but the glorification of Jehovah.—A. G.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–4 THE CALL OF ABRAM, Gen_12:1-3.
THE CALL OF ABRAM, Gen_12:1-3.
The history now narrows again to a single branch of the family of Terah — Abram and his descendants. The other branches, which are only incidentally alluded to hereafter as they are connected with the fortunes of the covenant people, remained in Chaldea at least for generations, and a large portion of them settled around the wells of Haran, where, in the days of Isaac and Jacob, we find them forming a community which furnished these patriarchs wives of their kinsfolks, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, while the sons of Abram were still sojourners among the children of Ham. It was now more than four centuries since God’s last revelation to Noah, and the blessing of Shem. The scattered nations were fast sinking into idolatry; but that the knowledge of God was yet in the earth, incidental notices, as that of “Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the most high God,” sufficiently declare. Where there was such a priest, and a royal priest, there must have been established worship and a number of worshippers. Probably the history of Job, the patriarch of Uz, wherein, as Ewald says, the manners, customs, style of thought and expression are all of the pre-Mosaic age, furnishes another example of genuine faith in the true God among a people who had never heard of the Abrahamic covenant.
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But Abram was now called from the family of Terah to be a blessing to the whole earth; the father of a missionary nation, who should preserve and disseminate the knowledge of the true God through all nations and ages. His whole life was to be an education in faith, which is the root of true religion. “Every movement in the physical and ethical history of Abraham is fraught with instruction of the deepest interest for the heirs of immortality. The leading points in spiritual experience are here laid before us. The susceptibilites and activities of a soul born of the Spirit are unfolded to our view. These are lessons for eternity.” — Murphy. It is in this way that the biblical history is so profitable for doctrine, counsel, and instruction in righteousness.
1. The Lord had said — Rather, the Lord said. The pluperfect rendering was adopted by our translators from a supposed necessity of harmonizing this verse with Act_7:2. But it is not necessary to suppose the writer here refers to a second call, which Abram received in Haran. According to a usage often noticed in these pages, the writer goes back and takes up his narrative at a point previously recorded — so we may believe, with Stephen, that this call of Abram occurred “before he dwelt in Haran.” The history of Terah was in the last chapter finished, and now begins the continuous history of the chosen seed from the great event in which it had its birth. It was a Jewish tradition, as we see from the book of Judith, that the descendants of Terah were driven out from Chaldea because they refused to follow the prevalent idolatry: “For they left the way of their ancestors, and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew: so they [the Chaldeans] cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia, and sojourned there many days. Then their God commanded them to depart from the place where they sojourned, and to go into the land of Canaan.” Jdt_5:8-9.
Get thee out — Go for thyself; a special command. Note four particulars in this divine call. 1) Abram was to leave his native country, the fertile land where his fathers had dwelt for centuries, with its cities and its civilization, the mountains and noble rivers of his childhood. 2) His kindred, the stock of Eber, whom he left in Chaldea. 3) His father’s house, the family of Terah, whom he left in Haran. The closest earthly ties were to be broken. 4) He was to go forth, he knew not whither, unto a land that God should show him. Heb_11:8. He was to exchange the town and the pastoral life for that of the nomad; to leave the massive temples of Chaldea to build altars here and there in the wilderness. But by faith he saw his father-land, his home, in the promise of God. Heb_11:14.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. Now the lord said] Lit. “and Jehovah said.”…
1. Now the lord said] Lit. “and Jehovah said.” The narrative opens with characteristic simplicity, and with the abruptness possibly indicating its selection from a group of similar traditions.
the lord said] Here, as elsewhere, we must not suppose that “the word of Jehovah” was accompanied either by any external manifestation, or by an audible sound. God in old times “hath spoken unto the fathers” even as He speaks now to those who hear His voice, “in divers manners” (Heb_1:1).
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out of thy country … kindred … father’s house] See Gen_24:7. The threefold tie of land, people, and home, is to be severed. Abram is to lay the foundations of the Chosen People independently of any obligation or favour due to local environment or personal association. He is to rely only on his God. Thus the first trial of the patriarch’s faith requires him, (a) to renounce the certainties of the past: (b) to face the uncertainties of the future: (c) to look for and to follow the direction of Jehovah’s will. Cf. Heb_11:8, “by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out … and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
the land that I will shew thee] The country is not designated by name: an additional test of faith.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 (1) Now the Lord had said unto Abram.—Heb., And…
XII.
(1) Now the Lord had said unto Abram.—Heb., And Jehovah said unto Abram. There is no new beginning; but having briefly sketched the family from which Abram sprang, and indicated that he had inherited from them the right of primogeniture, the narrative next proceeds to the primary purpose of the Tôldóth Terah, which is to show how in Abram Jehovah prepared for the fulfilment, through Israel, of the prote-vangelium contained in the promise made to Eve at the fall (Gen_3:15). The rendering “had said” was doubtless adopted because of St. Stephen’s words (Act_7:2); but it is the manner of the Biblical narrative to revert to the original starting point.
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Thy country.—A proof that Abram and his father were no new settlers at Ur, but that the race of Shem had at this time long held sway there, as is now known to have been the case.
Thy kindred.—This rendering is supported by Gen_43:7; but it more probably means thy birthplace. It is the word translated “nativity” in Gen_11:28. where its meaning is settled by the prefixed “land;” and the sense is probably the same here. If so, the command certainly came to Abram at Ur, though most of the versions suppose that it happened at Haran.
A land that I will shew thee.—In Gen_11:31 it is expressly said that the land was Canaan, but possibly this knowledge was concealed from the patriarch himself for a time, and neither he nor Terah knew on leaving Ur what their final destination would be.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Genesis 12
Genesis 12
The book of Genesis is, for the most part, taken up with the history of seven men, namely, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. There is, I doubt not, a specific line of truth brought out in connection with each of those men. Thus, for example, In Abel me have the great foundation truth of man’s coming to God, in the way of atonement - atonement apprehended by faith. In Enoch, we have the proper portion and hope of the heavenly family; while Noah presents to us the destiny of the earthly family. Enoch was taken to heaven before the judgement came; Noah was carried through the judgement into a restored earth Thus, in each, we have a distinct character of truth, and, as a consequence, a distinct phase of faith. My reader can pursue the subject fully, in connection with Hebrews 11; and I feel assured he will find much interest and profit, in so doing. We shall now proceed with our immediate theme, namely, the call of Abraham.
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By comparing Gen. 12: 1, Gen. 11: 31, with Acts 7: 2-4, we learn a truth of immense practical value to the soul. "The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. (Gen. 12: 1) Such was the communication made to Abraham - a communication of the most definite character, designed of God to act upon Abraham’s heart and conscience. "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into a land that I shall show thee. Then went he forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran, (or Haran;) and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell." (Acts 7: 2-4) The result of this communication is given in Gen. 11: 31, "And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go the land of Canaan: and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there...... and Terah died in Haran."
From all these passages taken together, we learn that ties of nature hindered the full response of Abraham’s soul to the call of God. Though called to Canaan, he, nevertheless, tarried at Haran, till nature’s was snapped by death, and then, with unimpeded step he made his way to the place to which "the God glory" had called him. This is full of meaning. influences of nature are ever hostile to the full and practical power of "the calling of God." We are sadly prone to take lower ground than that which the divine call would set before us. It needs great simplicity and integrity of faith to enable the soul to rise to the height of God’s thoughts, and to make our own of that which He reveals.
The apostle’s prayer (Eph. 1: 15-22) demonstrates how fully he, by the Holy Ghost, entered into the difficulty with which the Church would ever have to contend in seeking to apprehend "the hope of God’s calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints;" because, evidently, if we fail to apprehend the calling, we cannot walk worthy" thereof. I must know where I am called to go, before I can go thither. Had Abraham’s soul been fully under the power of the truth" that God’s calling was to Canaan, and that too, lay "his inheritance," he could not have remained in Charran. And so with us. If we are led by the Holy Ghost into the understanding of the truth, that we are called with a heavenly calling; that our home, our portion, our hope, our inheritance, are all above, where Christ sitteth at God’s right hand," we could never be satisfied to maintain a standing, seek a name, or lay up an inheritance, on the earth. The two things are incompatible: this is the true way to look at the matter. The heavenly calling is not an empty dogma, a powerless theory, nor a crude speculation. It is either a divine reality, or it is absolutely nothing. Was Abraham’s call to Canaan a speculation? Was it a mere theory about which he might talk or argue, while, at the same time, he continued in Charran? Assuredly not. It was a truth, a divine truth, a powerfully practical truth. He was called to Canaan, and God could not, possibly, sanction his stopping short thereof. Thus it was with Abraham, and thus it is with us. If we would enjoy the divine sanction and the divine presence, me must be seeking, by faith, to act upon the divine call. That is to say, we must seek to reach, in experience, in practice, and moral character, the point to which God has called us, and that point is full fellowship with His own Son - fellowship with Him in His rejection below, fellowship with Him in His acceptance above.
But, as in Abraham’s case, it was death that broke the link by which nature bound him to Charran; so, in our case, it is death which breaks the link by which nature ties us down to this present world. We must realise the truth that we have died in Christ, our head and representative - that our place in nature, and in the world, is amongst the things that were - that the cross of Christ is to us what the Red sea was to Israel, namely, that which separates us, for ever, from the land of death and judgement. Thus only shall we be able to walk, in any measure, "worthy of the calling wherewith we are called" - our high, our holy, our heavenly calling - our "calling of God in Christ Jesus."
And, here, I would dwell, for a little, on the cross of Christ in its two grand, fundamental phases, or in other words, the cross as the basis of our worship and our peace and our testimony, our relation with God, and our relation with the world. If, as a convicted sinner, I look at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ I behold in it the everlasting foundation of my peace, I see my "sin" put away, as to the root or principle thereof, and I see my "sins" borne. I see God to be in very deed, "for me," and that, moreover, in the very condition in which my convicted conscience tells me I am. The cross unfolds God as the sinner’s Friend. It reveals Him in that most wondrous character, as the righteous Justifier of the most ungodly sinner. Creation never could do this. Providence never could do this. Therein I may see God’s power, His majesty, and wisdom: but what if all these things should be ranged against me? Looked at, in themselves, abstractly they would be so, for I am a sinner; and power, majesty, and wisdom, could not put away my sin, nor justify God in receiving me.
The introduction of the cross, however, changes the aspect of things entirely. There I find God dealing with sin in such a manner us to glorify Himself infinitely. There I see the magnificent display and perfect harmony of all the divine attributes. I see love, and such love as captivates and assures my heart, and weans it, in proportion as I realise it, from every other object. I see wisdom, and such wisdom as baffles devils and astonishes angels. I see power, and such power as bears down all opposition. I see holiness, and such holiness as repulses sin to the very furthest point of the moral universe, and gives the most intense expression of God’s abhorrence thereof, that could possibly be given. I see grace, and such grace as sets the sinner in the very presence of God - yes, puts him into His bosom. Where could I see all these things but in the cross? Nowhere else. Look where you please, and you cannot find aught that so blessedly combines those two great points, namely, "glory to God in the highest," and "on earth peace."
How precious, therefore, is the cross, in this its first phase, as the basis of the sinner’s peace, the basis of his worship, and the basis of his eternal relationship with the God who in there so blessedly and so gloriously revealed? How precious to God, as furnishing Him with a righteous ground on which to go in the full display of all His matchless perfections, and in His most gracious dealings with the sinner! So precious is it to God that, as a recent writer has well remarked, ALL that He has said - all that He has done, from the very beginning, indicates that it was ever uppermost in His heart. And no wonder! His dear and well-beloved Son was to hang there, between heaven and earth, the object of all the shame and suffering that men and devils could heap upon Him, because He loved to do His Father’s will, and redeem the children of His grace. It will be the grand centre of attraction, as the fullest expression of His love, throughout eternity."
Then, as the basis of our practical discipleship and testimony, the cross demands our most profound consideration. In this aspect of it, I need hardly say, it is as perfect as in the former. The same cross which connects me with God, has separated me from the world. A dead man is, evidently, done with the world; and the believer, having died in Christ, is done with the world; and, having risen with Christ, is connected with God, in the power of a new life, a new nature. Being thus inseparably linked with Christ, he, of necessity, participates in His acceptance with God, and in rejection by the world. The two things go together. The former makes him a worshipper and a citizen in heaven, the latter makes him a witness and a stranger on earth. That brings him inside the veil; this puts him outside the camp. The one is as perfect as the other. If the cross has come between me and sins, it has just as really come between me and the world. In the former case, it puts me into the place of peace with God; in the latter; it puts me into the place of hostility with the world, i.e., in a moral point of view; though, in another sense, it makes me the patient, humble witness of that precious, unfathomable, eternal grace which is set forth in the cross.
Now the believer should clearly understand, and rightly distinguish between, both the above phases the of cross of Christ. He should not profess to enjoy the one while he refuses to enter into the other. If his ear is open to hear Christ’s voice within the veil, it will be open also to hear His voice outside the camp. he enters into the atonement which the cross has accomplished, he should also realise the rejection which it necessarily involves. The former flows out of the part which God had in the cross; the latter, out of the part which man had therein. It is our happy privilege, not only to be done with our sins, but to be done with the world also. ALL this is involved in the doctrine of the cross. Well, therefore, might the apostle say, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Paul looked upon the world as a thing which ought to be nailed to the cross; and the world, in having crucified Christ, had crucified all who belonged to Him. Hence there is a double crucifixion, as regards the believer and the world; and were this fully entered into, it would prove the utter impossibility of ever amalgamating the two. Beloved reader, let us deeply, honestly, and prayerfully ponder these things; and may the Holy Ghost give us the ability to enter into the full practical power of both the phases of the cross of Christ.
We shall, now, return to our theme.
We are not told how long Abraham tarried at Haran; yet God graciously waited on His servant until, freed from nature’s clog, he could fully obey His command. There was, however, no accommodation of that command to the circumstances of nature. This would never do. God loves His servants too well to deprive them of the full blessedness of entire obedience. There was no fresh revelation to Abraham’s soul during the time of his sojourn in Haran. It is well to see this. We must act up to the light already communicated, and then God will give us more. "To him that hath shall more be given." This is God’s principle. Still, we must remember, that God will never drag us along the path of true-hearted discipleship. This would greatly lack the moral excellency which characterises all the ways of God. He does not drag, but draw, us along the path which leads to ineffable blessedness in Himself; and if we do not see that it is for our real advantage to break through all the barriers of nature, in order to respond to God’s call, we forsake our own mercies. But, alas! our hearts little enter into this. We begin to calculate about the sacrifices, the hindrances, and the difficulties, instead of bounding along the path, in eagerness of soul, as knowing and loving the One whose call has sounded in our ears.
There is much true blessing to the soul in every step of obedience, for obedience is the fruit of faith; and faith puts us into living association and communion with God Himself. Looking at obedience, in this light, we can easily see how distinctly it is marked off, in every feature of it, from legality. This latter sets a man, with the entire burden of his sins on him, to serve God, by keeping the law; hence, the soul is kept in constant torture, and, so far from running in the path of obedience, it has not even taken the very first step. True obedience, on the contrary, is simply the manifestation or outflow of a new nature, communicated in grace. To this new nature God graciously imparts precepts for its guidance; and it is perfectly certain that the divine nature, guided by the divine precepts, can never, by any possibility, resolve itself into legality. What constitutes legality is the old nature taking up God’s precepts and assaying to carry them out. To attempt to regulate man’s fallen nature, by God’s pure and Holy law, is as useless and absurd as anything can be. How could fallen nature breathe an atmosphere so pure? Impossible. Both the atmosphere and the nature must be divine.
But not only does the blessed God impart a divine nature to the believer, and guide that nature by His heavenly precepts, He also sets before it suited hopes and expectations. Thus, in Abraham’s case, The God of glory appeared unto him." And for what purpose? To set before His soul’s vision an attractive object - "a land that I will show thee." This was not compulsion, but attraction. God’s land was, in the judgement of the new nature - the judgement of faith far better than Ur, or Charran: and albeit, he had not seen the land, yet inasmuch as it was God’s land, faith judged it to be worth having, and, not only worth having, but, also, fully worth the surrender of present things. Hence, we read, "by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive as an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went." That is to say, "he walked by faith, not by sight." Though he had not seen with his eyes, he believed with his heart, and faith became the great moving spring in his soul. Faith rests on a far more solid ground than the evidence of our senses, and that is, the word of God. Our senses may deceive us, but Gods word never can.
Now, the entire truth of the divine nature, together with the precepts which guide, and the hopes which animate it - the whole of the divine doctrine respecting these things, is completely thrown overboard by the system of legalism. The legalist teaches that we must surrender earth in order to get heaven. But how can fallen nature surrender that to which it is allied? How can it be attracted by that in which it sees no charms? Heaven has no charms for nature; yea, it is the very last place it would like to be found in. Nature has no taste for heaven, its occupations, or its occupants. Were it possible for nature to find itself there, it would be miserable. Thus, then, nature has no ability to surrender earth, and no desire to get heaven. True, - it would be glad to escape hell and its ineffable torment, gloom, and misery. But the desire to escape hell, and the desire to get heaven, spring from two very different sources. The former may exist in the old nature; the latter can only be found in the new. Were there no "lake of fire," and no "worm" in hell, nature would not so shrink from it. The same principle holds good in reference to all of nature’s pursuits and desires. The legalist teaches that we must give up sin before we can get righteousness. But nature cannot give up sin; and as to righteousness, it absolutely hates it. True, it would like a certain amount of religion; but it is only with the idea that religion will preserve it from hell fire. It does not love religion because of its introducing the soul to the present enjoyment of God and His ways.
How different from all this miserable system of Legalism, in every phase thereof, is "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God!" This gospel reveals God Himself coming down in perfect grace, and putting away sin by the sacrifice of the cross; putting it away, in the most absolute manner, on the ground of eternal righteousness, inasmuch as Christ suffered for it, having been made sin for us. And not only is God seen putting away sin, but also imparting a new life, even the risen life of His own risen, exalted, and glorified Son, which life every true believer possesses, in virtue of being linked, in God’s eternal counsels, with Him who was nailed to the cross, but is now on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. This nature, as we have remarked, He graciously guides by the precepts of His holy word, applied in power by the Holy Ghost. He also animates it by the presentation of indestructible hopes. He reveals, in the distance, "the hope of glory" - "a city which hath foundations" - "a better country, that is an heavenly" - "the many mansions" of the Father’s house, on high - "golden harps" - "green palms," and "white robes" - "a kingdom which cannot be moved" - everlasting association with Himself, in those regions of bliss and light, where sorrow and darkness can never enter - the unspeakable privilege of being led, throughout the countless ages of eternity, "beside the still waters, and through the green pastures" of redeeming love. How different is all this from the legalist’s notion? Instead of calling upon me to educate and manage, by the dogmas of systematic religion, an irremediably corrupt nature, in order that thereby I may surrender an earth that I love, and attain to a heaven which I hate, He, in infinite grace, and on the ground of Christ’s accomplished sacrifice, bestows upon me a nature which can enjoy heaven, and a heaven for that nature to enjoy; and, not only a heaven, but Himself the unfailing spring of all heavens joy.
Such is God’s most excellent way. Thus He dealt with Abraham. Thus He dealt with Saul of Tarsus. Thus He deals with us. The God of glory showed Abraham a better country than Ur or Charran. He Saul of Tarsus a glory so bright, that it closed his eyes to all earth’s brightest glories, and caused him to count them all "but dung," that He might win that Blessed One who had appeared to him, and whose voice spoken to his inmost soul. He saw a heavenly Christ in glory; and, throughout the remainder of his course, notwithstanding the weakness of the earthen vessel, that heavenly Christ and that heavenly glory engrossed his whole soul.
"And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land." The presence of the Canaanite in God’s land would, necessarily, prove a trial to Abraham. It would be a demand upon his faith and hope, an exercise of heart, a trial of patience. He had left Ur and Charran behind, and come into the country of which "the God of glory" had spoken to him, and there he finds "the Canaanite." But there, too, he finds the Lord. "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will give this land." The connection between the two statements is beautiful and touching. "The Canaanite was then in the land," and lest Abraham’s eye should rest upon the Canaanite, the present possessor of the land, Jehovah appears to him as the One who was going to give the land to him and to his seed for ever. Thus Abraham was taken up with the Lord, and not with the Canaanite. This is a full of instruction for us. The Canaanite in the land is the expression of the power of Satan; but, instead of being occupied with Satan’s power to keep us out of the inheritance, we are called to apprehend Christ’s power to bring us in. "We wrestle, not with flesh and blood,......but with spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies." The very sphere into which we are called is the sphere of our conflict. Should this terrify us? By no means. We have Christ there - a victorious Christ, in whom we are "more than conquerors." Hence, instead of indulging "a spirit of fear," we cultivate a spirit of worship. "And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." "And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and Pitched his tent." The altar and the tent give us the two great features of Abraham’s character. A worshipper of God, a stranger in the world - most blessed characteristics! Having nothing on earth - having our all our all in God. Abraham had not so much as to set his foot upon;" but he had God to enjoy, and that was enough.
However, faith has its trials, as well as its answers. It is not to be imagined that the man of faith, having pushed out from the shore of circumstances, finds it all smooth and easy sailing. By no means. Again and again, he is called to encounter rough seas and stormy skies; but it is all graciously designed to lead him into deeper and more matured experience of what God is to the heart that confides in Him. Were the sky always without a cloud, and the ocean without a ripple, the believer would not know so well the God with whom he has to do; for, alas! we know how prone the heart is to mistake the peace of circumstances for the peace of God. When everything is going on smoothly and pleasantly, our property safe, our business prosperous, our children and servants carrying themselves agreeably, our residence comfortable, our health excellent, everything, in short, just to our mind, how apt we are to mistake the peace which reposes upon such circumstances, for that peace which flows from the realised presence of Christ. The Lord knows this; and, therefore, He comes in, in one way or another, and stirs up the nest, that is, if we are found nestling in circumstances, instead of in Himself.
But, again, we are frequently led to judge of the rightness of a path by its exemption from trial, and vice versa. This is a great mistake. The path of obedience may often be found most trying to flesh and blood. Thus, in Abraham’s case, he was not only called to encounter the Canaanite, in the place to which God had called him, but there was also "a famine in the land." Should he, therefore, have concluded that he was not in his right place? Assuredly not. That would have been to judge according to the sight of his eyes, the very thing which faith never does. No doubt it was a deep trial to the heart, an inexplicable puzzle to nature; but to faith it was all plain and easy. When Paul was called into Macedonia, almost the first thing he had to encounter was the prison at Philippi. This, to a heart out of communion, would have seemed a death-blow to the entire mission. But Paul never questioned the rightness of his position. He was enabled to "sing praises" in the midst of it all, assured that everything was just as it should be: and so it was; for in the prison of Philippi was one of God’s vessels of mercy, who could not, humanly speaking, have heard the gospel, had not the preachers of it been thrust into the very place where he was. The devil was made, in spite of himself, the instrument of sending the gospel to the ears of one of God’s elect.
Now, Abraham should have reasoned in the same way, in reference to the famine. He was in the very place in which God had set him; and, evidently, he received no direction to leave it. True, the famine was there; and, moreover, Egypt was at hand, offering deliverance from pressure; still the path of God’s servant was plain. It is better to starve in Canaan, if it should be so, than live in luxury in Egypt. It is better far to suffer in God’s path, than be at ease in Satan’s. It is better to be poor with Christ, than rich without Him. Abraham had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and men servants, and maid servants, and she asses, and camels." Substantial proofs, the natural heart would, doubtless, say, of the rightness of his step, in going down to Egypt. But, ah! he had no altar - no communion. Egypt was not the place of God’s presence. He lost more than he gained by going thither. This is ever the case. Nothing can ever make up for the loss of our communion with God. Exemption from temporary pressure, and the accession of the greatest wealth, are but poor equivalents for what one loses by diverging a hair’s breadth from the straight path of obedience. How many of us can add our amen to this? How many, in order to avoid the trial and exercise connected with God’s path, have slipped aside into the current of this present evil world, and thereby brought leanness and barrenness, heaviness and gloom, into their souls? It may be they have, to use the common phrase, "made money," increased their store, obtained the world’s favour, been" entreated well" by its Pharaohs, gotten a name and a position amongst men; but are these a proper equivalent for joy in God, communion liberty of heart, a pure, uncondemning conscience, a thankful, worshipping spirit, vigorous testimony, and effectual service? Alas! for the man that can think so. And yet all the above incomparable blessings have been often sold for a little ease, a little influence, a little money.
Christian reader, let us watch against the tendency to slip aside from the narrow, yet safe, the sometimes rough, yet always pleasant, path of simple, wholehearted obedience. Let us keep guard - jealous, careful guard, over "faith and a pure conscience," for which nothing can compensate. Should trial come, let us, instead of turning aside into Egypt, wait on God; and thus the trial, instead of proving an occasion of stumbling, will prove an opportunity for obedience. Let us, when tempted to slip into the course of the world, remember Him: who gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God, and our Father." (Gal. 1: 4) If such was His love for us, and such His sense of the true character of this present world, that He gave Himself, in order to deliver us from it, shall we deny Him by plunging again into that from which His cross has for ever delivered us? May God Almighty forbid! May He keep us in the hollow of His hand, and under the shadow of His wings, until we see Jesus as He is, and be like Him, and with Him for ever.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 Vers. 1-5. Designed to trace the outward development of…
Vers. 1-5. Designed to trace the outward development of God"s kingdom on the earth, the narrative now concentrates its attention on one of the foregoing Terachites, whose remarkable career it sketches with considerable minuteness of detail, from the period of his emigration from Chaldea to his death at Hebron in the land of Canaan. Distinguished as a man of undoubted superiority both of character and mind, the head of at least two powerful and important races, and standing, as one might say, on the threshold of the historical era, it is yet chiefly as his life and fortunes connect with the Divine purpose of salvation that they find a place in the inspired record. The progress of infidelity during the four centuries that had elapsed since the Flood, the almost universal corruption of even the Shemits portion of the human family, had conclusively demonstrated the necessity of a second Divine interposition, if the knowledge of salvation were not to be completely banished from the earth. Accordingly, the son of Terah was selected to be the founder of a new nation, in which the light of gospel truth might be deposited for preservation until the fullness of the times, and through which the promise of the gospel might he conducted forward to its ultimate realization in the manifestation of the woman"s seed. Partly to prepare him for the high destiny of being the progenitor of the chosen nation, and partly to illustrate the character of that gospel with which he was to be entrusted, he was summoned to renounce his native country and kinsmen in Chaldaea, and venture forth upon an untried journey in obedience to the call of Heaven, to a land which he should afterward receive for an inheritance. In a series of successive theophanies or Divine manifestations, around which the various incidents of his life are grouped in Ur of the Chaldees, (Act_7:2) at Moreh in Canaan, (Gen_12:7) near Bethel (ibid. 13.), at Mature (ibid. 15., 17.), and on Moriah (ibid. 22.) he is distinctly promised three things a land, a seed, and a blessing as the reward of his compliance with the heavenly invitation; and the confident persuasion both of the reality of these gracious promises and of the Divine ability and willingness to fulfill them forms the animating spirit and guiding principle of his being in every situation of life, whether of trial or of difficulty, in which he is subsequently placed. The miraculous character of these theophanies indeed has been made a ground on which to assail the entire patriarchal history as unhistorical. By certain writers they have been represented as nothing more than natural occurrences embellished by the genius of the author of Genesis (Eichhorn, Bauer, Winer), as belonging to the domain of poetical fiction (De Wette), and therefore as undeserving of anything like serious consideration. But unless the supernatural is to be in toto eliminated from the record, a concession which cannot possibly be granted by an enlightened theism, the Divine appearances to Abraham cannot be regarded as in any degree militating against the historical veracity of the story of his life, which, it may be said, is amply vouched for by the harmony of its details with the characteristics of the period to which it belongs (cf. Havernick"s "Introduction," Nor does the employment of the name Jehovah in connection with these theophanies warrant the conclusion that the passages containing them are interpolations of a post Mosaic or Jehovistic editor (Tuch, Bleek, Colenso, Davidson). "Such a hypothesis," says Keil, "can only be maintained by those who" misunderstand the distinctive meaning of the two names, Elohim and Jehovah (q.v. on, Gen_2:4) and arbitrarily set aside the Jehovah in Gen_17:1, on account of an erroneous determination of the relation in which El Shaddai stands to Jehovah." Indications of the literary unity of the patriarchal history will be noted, and replies to objections given, in the progress of the Exposition.
Now the Lord. Jehovah = the God of salvation, an indication that the narrative is now to specially concern itself with the chosen seed, and the Deity to discover himself as the God of redemption. The hypothesis that vers. 1-4 were inserted in the fundamental document by the Jehovist editor is not required for a satisfactory explanation of the change of the Divine name at this particular stage of the narrative. Had said. Literally, said. In Ur of the Chaldees, according to Stephen, (Act_7:2) reverting, after the usual manner of the writer, to the original point of departure in the Abrahamic history (Aben Ezra, Mede, Piscator, Pererius, Calvin, Willet, Rosenm Dathins, Alford, Murphy, "Speaker"s Commentary"); or in Haran, after Terah"s death, as the first call given to the patriarch (LXX, Chaldee, Syriac, Raschi, Lyra, Keil, Kalisch, Dykes), or as a repetition of the call addressed to him in Ur (Clarke, Wordsworth, Inglis). Luther conjectures that the call in Ur was given fortasse per patti. archam Shem;" but if the authority of Stephen be recognized, this was the occasion of the first theophany vouchsafed to Abram. Get thee out. Literally, go for thyself, a frequent Hebraism, expressive of the way in which the action of the verb returns upon itself, is terminated and completed (cf. Gen_21:16 Gen_22:2; Isa_31:8 Son_2:11; vide Ewald"s "Hebrew Syntax," hence, though not necessarily emphatic, it may be equivalent to "Go thou," whoever else remains behind (Jarchi, Ainsworth, Bush). Of thy country. A proof that the date of the call was while Abram was in Ur (Calvin), though if Ur was at Edessa (vide supra) the patriarch could scarcely have been said to be from home. And from thy kindred. At Ur in all probability Nahor and Milcah were left behind; at Haran, Nahor and his family, if they had already arrived thither, and according to some (Kalisch, Dykes) Terah also. And from thy father"s house. Ie. if they will not accompany thee. No Divine interdict forbade the other members of the family of Terah joining in the Abrahamic emigration. Unto a (literally, the) land that I will show thee. Through a revelation (Lange), or simply by the guidance of providence. The land itself is left unnamed for the trial of the patriarch"s faith, which, if it sustained the proof, was to be rewarded by the exceeding great and precious promises which follow: according to one arrangement, seven in number, one for each clause of the next two verses (Cajetan, Willet); according to another, four, corresponding to the clauses of the second verse, the last of which is expanded in the third (Keil); according to a third, six, forming three pairs of parallels (Alford); according to a fourth, and perhaps the best, two, a lower or personal blessing, comprising the first three particulars, and a higher or public blessing, embracing the last three (Murphy).
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HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 1-5.
The preparations of grace.
We may call this the genesis of the kingdom of God.
I It is FOUNDED in the word of the Divine covenant, the faith given by Divine grace to individuals, the separation unto newness of life.
II The one man Abram gathers round him a small SOCIETY, kindred with him by the flesh, but bound to him doubtless by spiritual bonds as well. Tiros God has sanctified the family life by making it as the nidus of the spiritual genesis. When the new kingdom began its course in the Messiah, he drew to himself those who were previously associated by neighborhood, relationship, and familiar intercourse in Galilee. The Divine does not work apart from the human, but with it and by it.
III The PROMISE was that of Abram should be made a great nation, that he should be blessed and a blessing, and his blessing should be spread through all families of the earth. The structure which Divine grace rears on the foundation which itself lays is a structure of blessed family and national life.
IV The land of CANAAN may not have been indicated with positive certainty to the migrating children of God, but it was enough that he promised them a land which he would hereafter show them. "A land that I will show thee." There was the certainty that it was a better land: Get thee out of thy country, because I have another for thee. The day-by-day journey under Divine direction was itself a help to faith to make the promise definite. The stay at Haran, from whence the pilgrimage might be said to make a true start, was itself a gathering of "souls" and "substance" which predicted a large blessing in the future. When once we have followed the word of God"s grace and set our face towards Canaan we soon begin to get pledges of the future blessings, laid-up riches of soul and substance, which assure us of the full glory of the life to come.
V Even in that first beginning of the kingdom, that small Church out of Ur of the Chaldees, there is the evidence of that individual VARIETY OF CHARACTER AND ATTAINMENT and history which marks the whole way of the people of God. Lot was a very different man from Abram. As the story of this little company of travelers develops itself we soon begin to see that the grace of God does not obliterate the specialties of human character. Out of the varieties of men"s lives, which to us may seem incapable of reconciliation, there may yet be brought the onward progress of a Divine order and a redeeming purpose. R.
HOMILIES BY W. ROBERTS
Ver. 1.
The voices of God at the opening of the world"s eras.
I AT THE OPENING Or CREATION. "And God said, let there be Light.
II AT THE OPENING OF REDEMPTION. "And God said, I will put enmity between thee and the woman," &c. ;
III AT THE OPENING OF THE OLD DISPENSATION. "And God said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country.
IV AT THE OPENING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. "And God said, This is my beloved SON?
V AT THE OPENING OF THE ETERNAL STATE God will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father. W.
HOMILIES BY F. HASTINGS Ver. 1.
Abraham called.
the Lord God had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country," &c. The record of Abraham"s life is second only in beautiful simplicity to that of Christ. There are certain correspondences between the two. ;
I A SUMMONS WAS GIVEN TO ABRAHAM. It was from the Lord. We know not the form. It was explicit. He was to leave all. It was an unmistakable summons, and it was repeated. Such calls are generally opposed to carnal inclinations. Dangers beset the one who should respond to the call, for "the Canaanite was then in the land.
II THE SUMMONS WAS SUSTAINED BY A PROMISE of guidance to the land. The first call was to a land, the second to a definite place. God did not at first tell Abraham that he would give him the land, but only "show" it. God does not reveal all the riches of his grace at once. The promise was sufficient. Abraham went forth from the plain of Chaldea to the land which God would make through him and his descendants the most renowned in the world. Ever listening to a voice unheard by others Abraham was led. Sublime faith of the patriarch; he looked for "a city that had foundations. H.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee…
Gen_12:1-3
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country
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Abrahams action
His obeying the call and command of God, wherein four circumstances are very remarkable.
1. The time when it was when God called.
2. The place from whence God called him.
3. The country whither he was called.
4. The reason or end why he was thus said unto by the great God.
I. First of the first, to wit, THE TIME WHEN ABRAHAM WAS CALLED. It was while he lived in Ur of the Chaldees; for Abraham lived with his father Terah in that place, and in Haran, or Charan, a city of Mesopotamia, till he was seventy-five years old (Gen_12:4, and Act_7:2-4). There and then did the God of glory appear to Abraham (Gen_11:28). This that blessed pro-martyr Stephen (being filled with the Holy Ghost) intimateth, to convince those superstitious and bloodthirsty Jews (who conceited that religion was confined to Canaan or Jerusalem) that Abraham had the true religion even in Chaldea and in Charan, before ever he saw Canaan or received circumcision, or before any ceremonies were appointed by the ministry of Moses, and before there was either tabernacle or temple. When Abraham dwelt with his father on the other side of Euphrates, and served idols (Jos_24:2), even then did God call him out of his country, making him to follow His call to obedience, not knowing whither he went (Heb_11:8), no, nor much caring, so long as he had God by the Hand, or might follow Him as his Guide step by step. By faith Abraham when called obeyed (Heb_11:8). The Greek word imports reverence and obedience. He did not stop his ear to this great Charmer (Psa_58:4-5), but he listened and hearkened to Gods call with an awful respect. Thus Abraham did not dispute, but dispatch Gods command; but immediately departed without solicitation or carnal reasonings against it (Gen_12:4). His inner and outer man were relatives; so it should be with us.
II. The second circumstance is THE PLACE FROM WHENCE, which is two fold.
1. Ur.
2. Haran.
(1) Parents ought not to hinder their children from good and from obedience to God. Here Terah, the old father, did not rebuke Abraham his son for being too full of fancy, nor charged him (upon his blessing) to abide in his native country, and not to be so fantastical as to follow so fond a call that told him not of the place whither he was to go; he did not say to his son, Wilt thou leave a certainty for an uncertainty, or wilt thou be wiser than all thy forefathers? etc. Let parents learn from hence to further, and not to hinder, their children in the good ways of God; honour is the reward of the former, but dishonour (if no more) of the latter.
(2) Mans heart needeth many pulls from Gods hand before man can complete his obedience to God. Here God gives Abraham two calls or pulls before he pulled him to the Land of Promise. The first pull bringeth him only from Ur to Haran; there he settleth, and gathereth much goods Gen_12:5).
(3) All carnal respects must be subject to the spiritual, and all carnal relations must be bewailed (Deu_21:11-12), yes, and relinquished (Psa_45:10).
(4) Divine vocation and adoption floweth wholly and solely from free grace. Nimrods Church (as one saith) had almost swallowed up Abraham, while he was young, serving other gods as well as Nabor and Terah, who (as some Rabbins say) got his living by making and selling of images. Yet out of this root so idolatrous, both on father and mothers side, the whole stock of Israel sprang, to be an adopted people to God. Even Abraham, as well as the rest, until God called him to His foot (Isa_41:2) from the feet of idols, and from this bell of Babel, were he born at that time. This doth most highly advance the greatness of the free grace of God, thus to call whom He will (Mar_3:13), and to have mercy on whom He will Rom_9:15-16). God found even Abraham himself ungodly Rom_4:2; Rom_4:5); but He did not leave him so. God must make us good, or He will never find us so.
III. THE PLACE WHITHER ABRAHAM WAS CALLED. This was not named. God did not tell it him in his ear, yet showed it him to his eye (Gen_12:7; Gen_13:14).
1. Wherever Abraham was, his chief care was to be going on still toward the south (Gen_12:9), as towards the sun. So should all the children of Abraham travel towards the Sun of Righteousness (Mal_4:2), setting forth early as morning seekers (Pro_8:17), and making progress in grace (2Pe_3:18), as from glory to glory (2Co_3:18).
2. His first care in all places where he came was to build an altar to his God; and so it should be ours. We are a kingdom of priests (1Pe Rev_1:6), and we have an altar (Heb_13:10), which is Christ, who sanctifies the sacrifice (Mat_23:19); we should build this altar in our hearts Eze_36:26).
3. Abraham built his altars, although the Canaanites were then n the land; and it is a wonder they did not stone him for so doing, which certainly they would have done had not God restrained them. Thus ought all the spiritual seed of Abraham to shine as lamps in the midst of a crooked and cursed generation (Php_2:15; Mat_5:16; 1Pe_2:12), holding forth the word of life. We should set up our altars in sight and despite of idolaters, as Abraham, and call them Jehovah nissi, the Lord is my banner, as Moses did (Exo_17:15).
4. Abraham was the first man who had God most familiarly appearing to him; and the sight of the Canaanite did not so much discourage him as the sight of his God did encourage him (1Sa_30:6).
5. We should look upon our all with a pilgrims eye, and use our all with a pilgrims mind. It was a mighty work of Abrahams faith to behave himself as a stranger on earth, because he knew himself a citizen of heaven Heb_11:9-10, etc.); so we (Eph_2:19-20).
IV. THE END WHY GOD CALLED ABRAHAM. It was only to take possession of Canaan, not to enjoy it as a present inheritance; for we find that he was famished twice out of this good Land of Promise. First into Egypt Gen_12:10); and, secondly, into Gerar, the Philistines country Gen_20:1). Yet did he ever make Canaan his retreating place, sojourning in it for a hundred years--the remnant of his life. From which learn--
1. The most fruitful land may be made barren for the wickedness of those that dwell in it (Psalm evil. 34). God can famish our Canaan to us Zep_2:11).
2. Suppose we be forced into Egypt or Philistia, to seek for that we cannot find in a famished land of promise; yet this is our best retreating place when God heals our backslidings (Hos_14:4). Alas! we are over-apt to slip out of the land of promise, as Adam was out of paradise, and Abraham out of Canaan; but the Lord keeps the feet of His saints (1Sa_2:9). Obj. Though Heb_11:8 saith, God called Abraham to Canaan to receive an inheritance there; and Act_7:5 saith, Yet God gave him no inheritance in it, not so much as to set his foot on.
These two seeming contradictory places are thus reconciled:
1. Abraham did inherit Canaan mystically, as that land was a type of heaven. God may deny literally, yet grant mystically or spiritually.
2. He did inherit it in his posterity (though not in his person) 430 years after the promise (Gal_3:17). Thus God kept His promise with him; and so He doth with us, though we see not the performance thereof.
This was Abrahams ease; yet took he possession of the land because of his title to it, which was threefold.
1. By way of promise. God made Canaan to belong unto Abraham by making a promise of it to him no less than four times (Gen_12:7; Gen_13:15; Gen_15:7; Gen_17:8). This promise of God (being a four-fold cord) Abraham accounts his best freehold. Thus it is with all the faithful, as it was with the father of the faithful: such have the spirit of truth to assure them of their interest in Divine promises (2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5; Eph_1:14). It is an earnest. This makes them exceeding rich, though they see not the actual performance of them in their day. Wealth lieth in good bills and bonds, under Gods own hand and seal, all signed in His word, and sealed by His spirit. He therefore accounts heavenly promises far better than earthly performances. As Abraham did only take possession of Canaan, which afterwards he was to inherit, so a Christian takes possession of heaven, with his name written in it (Luk_10:20), and with his heart panting towards it (2Pe_3:12).
2. By way of conquest. Canaan belonged to Abraham in his conquering Chedarlaomer, etc. (Gen_14:4; Gen_15:17). This great king was the son of Elam, the son of Shem (Gen_10:22), and, according to Noahs prophecy--Canaan shall be Shems servant (Gen_9:26)--this Chedarlaomer was lord over the Canaanites and over those chief cities which stood in the plains of Jordan. Abraham conquers him in battle; so Canaan became the conquerors by conquest; he became the heir of Canaan. The history holds forth this mystery: that all Christians, the children of Abraham, are by their new birth born heirs of heaven, the celestial Canaan; they should therefore be valiant for it (Jer_9:3).
3. By way of purchase Canaan was Abrahams. Though all the land was his by promise, yet he procures only a burying place by purchase (Gen_23:16, etc.), not having a foot of it for his own present possession. This purchased burying place was an earnest for all the rest; hence all the patriarchs dying after desired to be buried in it (Gen_47:30; Gen_50:25). A sepulchre of ones own was a sign of firm possession (Isa_22:16).All his children must write after his copy of obedience, which, in its transcendency, hath a threefold excellency. It was an obedience so transcendant as to be--
1. Without hesitation.
2. Without reservation.
3. Without limitation. Of these in order--
1. It was obedience without hesitation. He used no disputation in the case; he falls not upon arguing with God in any carnal reasonings against his call and command, saying, I cannot apprehend any urgent occasion why I should forsake my own native country; and may not I justly suspect it no better than a piece of sublime folly to go I know not whither, and to leave a certainty for an uncertainty? Is not one bird in the hand (as saith the proverb) better than two in the bush? He doth not allege, Lord, first satisfy my scruples, and convince my judgment that it is my duty, and then will I follow and obey Thee. No, he doth not dispute, but despatch; he cloth not say (as those recusants in the gospel said), Suffer me first to go and bury my father (Mat_8:21); or, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go to prove it, etc. (Luk_14:18-20). Neither did Abraham dare to do as better men than those aforesaid, even as Moses (Exo_3:11; Exo_4:1-31; Exo_10:1-29; Exo_11:1-10; Exo_12:1-51; Exo_13:1-22), or as Jeremy (Jer_1:6), who both do bring in theircarnal reasonings strongly to confute God and His call. It is not a good angel, but the evil one that opens our mouths to make replies upon such a sovereign Master. Our Lord is wiser for us than we can be for ourselves; our fleshly wisdom is enmity against God (Rom_8:7).
2. As Abrahams obedience was without hesitation, or any contrary disputes against Gods call, so it was without reservation he resigns up himself to the command of God, not by halves, but wholly, without any ifs or ands, as we say. What we do herein must be done with our whole heart, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength. God gives a whole Christ to us, and shall not we give a whole heart to Him?
3. As Abrahams obedience was without hesitation and reservation, so it was without limitation. It is too, too common with us, as it was with Israel, to limit the Holy One of Israel (Psa_78:41), especially in four respects:
1. In respect of time.
2. Of place.
3. Of means.
4. Of manner.
Nay, even professors themselves will not own God, unless He appear to them in their own manner; whereas God showeth Himself in divers manners (Heb_1:1). Hence have we many famous remarks, as--
1. That though blind obedience as to man is abominable, yet as to God it is highly commendable; such as this of Abrahams was.
2. Though this obedience of Abraham was a blind obedience as to his own will, yet was it not so as to Gods will; for Gods will was the rule of Abrahams obedience.
3. Though Abraham knew not whither he went (Heb_11:8), yet he knew well with whom he went, even One with whom he was sure he could not possibly miscarry.
4. Abraham knew not, yet followed, not knowing whither. But we know (from the sure word of prophecy) whither our way leadeth--to wit, to heaven. It is a shame for us not to follow. Abrahams following God blindfold brought him to the earthly Canaan; but our following God with our eyes opened will bring us to the heavenly country. (C. Ness.)
Abraham: the emigrant
The call and migration of the patriarch suggest two thoughts.
I. THE RISE OF PERSONAL RELIGION. Piety may vary in its form in different persons and times, but in its spirit it is unchanging.
1. It takes its rise in God. Abram was called. Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, etc. It was not poverty that drove Abram from his native country; it was not persecution; it was not that love of a migratory life which is natural to an Oriental: his journey to Canaan was wholly due to a spiritual inspiration. God chose Abram (Neh_9:7) to be a child of grace--a justified sinner (Gal_3:8). It was God who gave this son of idolaters all his grandeur of soul and his marvellous appreciation of the true and the eternal. The conversion of every believer is similar. Personal religion always takes its rise in God--in His sovereign choice (2Ti_1:9), in His Divine power (JohnPhp 1:6), and in His wonderful love (Eph_2:4-5). No sinner has ever of his own accord quitted his native land of spiritual darkness and death.
2. It is the fruit of a Divine revelation. Jehovah revealed himself to Abram as the one living and true God, and in summoning him to emigrate to Canaan, made him a magnificent promise. The God of Shem is now the God of Abram. We are not to understand, indeed, that the patriarchs religious knowledge was at first either extensive or minute. But as each successive revelation was made to him, he learned more of the nature of God, and of the sublimity of his own destiny, until at length he was able to rejoice in the anticipation of the coming of Christ (Joh_8:56) and in the hope of a glorious immortality (Heb_11:10; Heb_11:13-16). Had the God of Glory not appeared to him, the patriarch would in all likelihood have died a pagan in the land of his fathers. Religion cannot be generated in any heart apart from a Divine revelation of some sort. There must be some knowledge of the truth.
3. It is the product of an earnest faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed. The truth that was made known to him would have had no influence upon him had he not believed it. Not reason alone is the basis of personal religion, for reason alone would lead to rationalism. Neither is it feeling alone, for that would develop into mysticism. The man of God is a man of faith.
II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONAL RELIGION. Piety has its fundamental and formative principles, but it has also its developments of these. It has fruits as well as roots. Abrams piety developed in a complete renunciation of his old life; and the new life which he henceforth followed had at least three strongly marked characteristics. It was--
1. A life of implicit trust in God. Abrams first act of faith was followed by a confirmed habit of trustfulness. He struck the roots of his soul deep down into the invisible.
2. A life of conscious strangeness on the earth. Abram was content to be a stranger and a sojourner in the holy land.
3. A life which shall merge into a blessed immortality. Abram longed for a fatherland, but not for the land of his earthly forefathers. He might have re-crossed the Euphrates, but he never did so. The home that he learned with increasing eagerness to desire was the dwelling place of his Father in heaven (Heb_11:10; Heb_11:14-16). How large the personal interest which the believer has in heaven! He shall yet dwell in it as his fatherland. (Charles Jerdan, M. A. , LL. B.)
The call of Abram
I. In the call of Abram we see AN OUTLINE OF THE GREAT PROVIDENTIAL SYSTEM UNDER WHICH WE LIVE. II. GREAT LIVES ARE TRAINED BY GREAT PROMISES. The promise to Abram--
1. Throws light on the compensations of life.
2. It shows the oneness of God with His people.
3. It shows the influence of the present over the future.
III. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CENTRAL FIGURES IN SOCIETY, men of commanding life, around whom other persons settle into secondary positions. This one man, Abram, holds the promise; all the other persons in the company hold it secondarily.
IV. ABRAM SET UP HIS ALTAR ALONG THE LINE OF HIS MARCH.
V. The incident in Gen_12:10-12 shows WHAT THE BEST OF MEN ARE WIZEN THEY BETAKE THEMSELVES TO THEIR OWN DEVICES. As the minister of God, Abram is great and noble; as the architect of his own fortune, he is cowardly, selfish, and false.
VI. NATURAL NOBLENESS OUGHT NEVER TO BE UNDERRATED (Gen_12:18-20). In this matter Pharaoh was a greater, a nobler man than Abram.
VII. The whole incident shows THAT GOD CALLS MEN TO SPECIAL DESTINIES, and that life is true and excellent in itself and in its influences only in so far as it is Divinely inspired and ruled. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Abrams training
I. ALL THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM WAS A SPECIAL TRAINING FOR A SPECIAL END. Chosen, as are all Gods instruments, because he was capable of being made that which the Lord purposed to make him, there was that in him which the good Spirit of the Lord formed, through the incidents of his life of wandering, into a character of eminent and single-hearted faithfulness.
II. THIS WORK WAS DONE NOT FOR HIS OWN SAKE EXCLUSIVELY. He was to be a father of many generations. The seed of Abraham was to be kept separate from the heathen world around it, even until from it was produced the Desire of all nations; and this character of Abraham was stamped thus deeply upon him, that it might be handed on through him to his children and his childrens children after him.
III. And so to A WONDERFUL DEGREE IT was; marking that Jewish people, amongst all their sins and rebellions, with such a peculiar strength and nobleness of character; and out in all its glory, in successive generations, in judge and seer and prophet and king, as they at all realized the pattern of their great progenitor, and walked the earth as strangers and pilgrims, but walked it with God, the God of Abraham and their God. (Bishop Samuel Wilberforce.)
A call from God
I. AT SOME TIME IN OUR LIVES A CALL FROM GOD SENDS ITS TRUMPET TONE THROUGH EACH OF OUR SOULS, as it did when Abraham heard it, and he went forth with the future stretching broad and far before him
II. GODS CALL TO ABRAHAM WAS:
1. A call to closer communion with Himself.
2. A call which led him to break with his past.
3. A call into loneliness.
III. The reason why so many of us, who are good and honourable men, never become men of great use and example and higher thought and true devotion, IS THAT WE DARE NOT BE SINGULAR. We dare not leave our kindred or our set. We will not leave our traditional views and sentiments, and we cannot leave our secret sins. God speaks, and we close our eyes and turn away our heads, and our hearts answer, I will not come. How long will all this last? Will it last until another solemn voice shall speak to us, and at the call of death we say, I come? (W. Page-Roberts, M. A.)
Lessons from the life of Abraham
I. Notice FIRST THE CALL OF ABRAHAM.
1. The call was addressed to him suddenly.
2. It required him to forsake his country and his kindred, while giving him no hope of return.
3. It sent him on a long and difficult journey, to a country lying more than three hundred miles away. Yet Abraham obeyed in willing submission to the command of God.
II. Notice ABRAHAMS CONQUEST OVER THE KINGS. This is the first battle recorded in the Word of God. It was after his rescue of Lot that Abraham was met by the mysterious Melchizedek. An awful shade of supernaturalism still rests upon this man, to whom some of the attributes of the Godhead seem to be ascribed, and who is always named with God and with Gods Son. There are two lessons deducible from Abrahams conquests.
1. That military skill and experience are often easily vanquished by untaught valour, when that is at once inspired by impulse, guided by wisdom, and connected with a good cause.
2. That Christian duty varies at different times and in different circumstances.
III. Notice THE COVENANTS WHICH WERE ESTABLISHED BETWEEN ABRAHAM AND GOD. From them we learn--
1. Gods infinite condescension.
2. Our duty of entering into covenant with God in Christ. From the history of Abraham we see that Gods intention was:
(1) To secure to Himself one great accession from the idolatrous camp.
(2) To send Abraham as a forerunner and a first step into the land which God had selected as His peculiar prosperity.
(3) To create a family link of connection between God and a distinct race of people for long ages. (G. Gilfillan.)
The call of Abram
The life of Abram approaches completeness. In the Scriptures more space is devoted to him than to all that went before him put together. In the narrative before us we have the starting point of all that was illustrious and good in his life, and, we might almost say, of all Gods gracious interpositions for the race. It is also full of valuable instruction, certain interesting points of which it is our present purpose to notice.
1. It reminds us of Gods patient concern for the ways and welfare of men. The call of Abram was a summons to leave the land of his birth and early associations, and to go forth, under Divine leadership, to another of which he should be told. The purpose of the call was that, in him, the race might religiously start anew.
2. The narrative reminds us of the discrimination with which God selects and trains the instruments of His merciful purposes. His elections and selections are unexplained and often great mysteries. But never are they without reason. Divine sovereignty does not disregard the fitness of things, nor willingly suffer powers to go to waste. The choice fell upon Abram because he was the right man. He had natural gifts of no common order. That he was able to break away from the powerful force of custom and surrounding opinion, even at the Divine command, evinced independence and strength. The ready respect paid him by small and great was a testimony to his commanding powers. Upon the single occasion when valour for the right moved him to go out to battle against certain marauding kings, he displayed military genius which in other times might have made him a great general. It was not, however, for his natural gifts, but for his moral qualities chiefly, that he was selected. He was a man of large faith and prompt obedience.
3. Again, we have here a reminder of the fidelity with which God sustains and cheers those who promptly obey. With a view to such cheer and support it may have been that Abrams first stopping place was in the delicious plan of Moreh, the place of Sichem, of the luxuriant verdure of which travellers speak in the most enthusiastic terms. Says Professor Robinson, We saw nothing to compare with it in all Palestine. To new converts God often grants special foretastes of their final reward, visions of light and cheer. But delightful as was this sight and rest, it was not all. To Abram, at Sichem, was granted a vision of God Himself.
4. Note, again, the outward expression here shown to be natural to a vigorous faith. Without any distinct command, so far as appears, at Sichem, his first halting place in Canaan, Abram makes haste to build an altar unto the Lord. This he does again at Bethel. Yet again we find him doing the same at Beersheba and at Hebron. These altars were intended to be channels of worship and memorials of Divine mercies. By means of them he publicly professed his own faith in a strange land, and consecrated his promised possession to the Lord. By such means he also the more effectually guarded his children and household against the ensnaring influence of idolatrous and worldly neighbours. And all this he did with cost. Not only did it consume time and labour, it required courage. Abram was a wanderer among peoples proud, fierce, and vindictive; whose worship was idolatry; and among whom his singularity and the rebuke of his example would both provoke derision and excite hostility. Yet never does he withhold or conceal the expression of his reverent faith.
5. Last of all, we have here a hint of the kind of greatness most gratefully and lastingly remembered. It is four thousand years since Abram lived, and yet his memory not only survives, it is green. By multitudes it is cherished with homage and affection. In a recent public address, the missionary Dr. Jessup told this story of his sainted father. In the latter years of his life he was afflicted with a peculiar kind of paralysis. His memory was cleft in twain. That of secular things was gone. His legal knowledge, his great law library, his court house, his old associates on the bench of Pennsylvania, and even the names of his own children, were forgotten. But the Bible, the family altar, the church, the missionary work, and his Saviour Jesus Christ, were all fresh in his memory as ever. The worldly had faded; the spiritual was green. So it may be with all the good in the world to come. So it measurably is now. They see worth and beauty only in that which allies to God. In good mens hearts only the good will have everlasting remembrance. It was his simple trust and prompt, steadfast obedience, the entire self-abnegation with which he surrendered everything to the Divine call, which made him for all after-ages, and in the memories of the good, the hero that he was. By like childlike confidence and cheerful self-surrender we may win like approval with God, if not equal greatness in human sight. (H. M. Grout, D. D.)
A call to emigrate
Abrams emigration teaches by example precisely the same profound and universal lesson of spiritual life which Jesus taught in words: Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple. St. Francis of Assisi, and many like him, have read this evangelical call to renounce the world too literally. Nevertheless, if we would choose and pursue the heavenly country to which God is calling us, there must be in the heart of each of us a virtual leaving of father and mother, a forsaking of all that we have, in order to be Christs followers. Of this we have the first great type in the emigration of Abram. Besides, God cut him off from kindred that He might draw him closer to Himself. If renunciation for Gods sake be the condition of strong piety, solitary converse with God is its nurse. Emigration often does a great deal for a man. By throwing him back for aid upon his own resources, it teaches him to help himself, and develops the manhood that is in him. The emigration of a godly man at Gods call does still more for him. It forces him to lean much on God, Who becomes his only constant comrade and unfailing helper. It throws him back at each emergency upon the spiritual resources of faith, and trains into full maturity the graces of his religious nature. Inwardly, Abram could hardly have become the spiritual hero he was in later life, if he had not been forced to walk through the long trials of his exile with nothing but the unseen eternal God for his shield, and compelled to brood through homeless years over the mighty thoughts which God had uttered to his faith. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)
The call to religion
The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself. Religion is relative to the individual. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Divine summons
I. THIS CALL INVOLVED HARDSHIP. Each step of real advance in the Divine life will involve an altar on which some dear fragment of the self life has been offered; or a cairn beneath which some cherished idol has been buried.
II. BUT THIS CALL WAS EMINENTLY WISE.
1. Wise for Abraham himself. Nothing strengthens us so much as isolation. So long as we are quietly at rest amid favourable and undisturbed surroundings, faith sleeps as an undeveloped sinew within us; a thread, a germ, an idea. But when we are pushed out from all these surroundings, with nothing but God to look to, then faith grows suddenly into a cable, a monarch oak, a master principle of life.
2. Wise for the worlds sake. It is impossible to move our times, so long as we live beneath their spell; but when once we have risen up, and gone, at the call of God, outside their pale, we are able to react on them with an irresistible power. Archimedes vaunted that he could lift the world, if only he could obtain, outside of it, a pivot on which to rest his lever. Do not be surprised then, if God calls you out to be a people to Himself, that by you He may react with blessed power on the great world of men.
III. THIS CALL WAS ACCOMPANIED BY PROMISE. As a shell encloses a kernel, so do the Divine commands hide promises in their heart. If this is the command: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; this is the promise: And thou shalt be saved. If this is the command: Sell that thou hast and give to the poor; this is the promise: Thou shalt have treasure in heaven. If this is the command: Leave father and mother, houses and lands; this is the promise: Thou shalt have a hundred fold here, and everlasting life beyond.
IV. THIS CALL TEACHES US THE MEANING OF ELECTION. It was not so much with a view to their personal salvation, though that was included; but that they might pass on the holy teachings and oracles with which they were entrusted.
V. THIS CALL GIVES THE KEY TO ABRAHAMS LIFE.
1. He was from first to last a separated man.
2. But it was the separation of faith. Abrahams separation is not like that of those who wish to be saved; but rather that of those who are saved. Not towards the cross, but from it. Not to merit anything, but, because the heart has seen the vision of God, and cannot now content itself with the things that once fascinated and entranced it; so that leaving them behind, it reaches out its hands in eager longing for eternal realities, and thus is led gradually and insensibly out and away from the seen to the unseen, and from the temporal to the eternal. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
A call to emigrate
1. In the selection of men to be the organs or channels of His grace, Gods freedom of choice never excludes some natural fitness in the person chosen. When Abram, escorted by sorrowing relatives to the brink of the great flood, did finally set his whole encampment across the Euphrates and turn his face to the dreaded desert, which stretched, wide and inhospitable, between him and the nearest seats of men, he gave his first evidence of that trust in the unseen Eternal One, leading to unquestioning, heroic obedience, which must even then have formed the basis of his character, and of which his later life was to furnish so many illustrious examples.
2. The emigration of Abram, however, had other ends to serve besides testing his personal fitness to become the father of trustful and loyal souls.
(1) For one thing, it was advisable to make a clean break in the continuity of his family history. Only in this way could he become really a fresh point of departure for the human race. Had he remained in Padan-Aram. Abram would have been simply one among his brethren, a sheikh of influence among neighbour sheikhs, a continuator of the Terah name, not the originator of a new epoch.
(2) It was of still greater consequence to break him off from contact with the unwholesome influences which were already at work within his own family. To withdraw into a strange land, meant the abandonment of himself to the guidance of God alone. True piety, in its more masculine and self-conscious stages, always involves some such renunciation of natural supports. It does not always require a literal separation from home or friends, but it does require the withdrawal of the hearts deepest dependence from earthly props or ministers, in order to rest in a self-contained and unaided trust Upon the Unseen Arm. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)
Abram the pilgrim
I. THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE LIFE OF FAITH.
1. Natural ties.
2. A desire to be satisfied with the present and visible.
3. Imperfect knowledge of the future.
II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LIFE OF FAITH.
1. A firm belief in the testimony of God.
2. A proper estimate of the visible.
3. A worshipping life.
4. To be undismayed at improbabilities.
III. THE BLESSINGS OF SUCH A LIFE.
1. More than compensation for every natural loss.
2. Inward happiness in being the means of doing good to others.
3. It leads to a life of spiritual and eternal sight. (Homilist.)
The call of Abraham
1. Gods patience with sinful men is one of His most wonderful attributes. God makes a third trial in the call of Abram. So it often is with individual men. He makes and renews His gracious offers.
2. When the hour comes for some great work of God, He always has the man ready at His call.
3. When God commands, man has nothing to do but to obey. Obedience is the highest test of piety (Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23).
4. Genuine obedience is founded in faith.
5. The highest attainment of a Christian is a consecrated will. Learn this under the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.
6. Every Christian is called of God to go out from the world and be separate. This sometimes involves painful and reluctant sacrifices. Old habits, old appetites, old friends, old associations, old modes of thought and action, may have to be abandoned, and the struggle may be severe. But, He that loveth father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me Mat_10:37-38).
7. Goodness is the only true greatness. No king, or noble, or hero of the earth bears such an honourable name as his who is known in the Book of books as The friend of God! (E. P. Rogers, D. D.)
The Divine call
I. A SUMMONS WAS GIVEN TO ABRAHAM FROM THE LORD.
1. It was explicit.
2. Unmistakable.
3. Repeated.
4. Contrary to the carnal inclinations.
II. THE CALL WAS SUSTAINED BY A PROMISE--the promise of guidance. The first call was to an indefinite land, the second to the land. This explains why there was a temporary residence in Haran. God did not tell him He would give him the land, but only that He would guide him to it. God does not reveal all the riches of His grace at once; that might overpower the soul. (F. Hastings.)
Abrahams call
I. ABRAHAM THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL.
1. A preeminent pattern or type of faith.
2. The first in whom the doctrine of justification by faith was clearly and openly displayed.
3. The federal head of all believers, Jewish or Gentile, receiving promises and commands which related less to himself than to his spiritual seed in every age.
II. ABRAHAM SETTING OUT ON HIS APPOINTED PILGRIMAGE.
1. His early life.
2. His call.
3. His destination.
4. His obedience.
III. OUR SETTING OUT FOR THE BETTER COUNTRY.
1. God speaks to us--by His Word; by His Spirit.
2. His call opens with a warning and reproof, and closes with a blessing.
3. The promise is indefinite.
4. Our walk is to be one of faith; purely so.
Conclusion:
1. Let us address the pilgrims.
2. Let us address those who stay among the idolaters. (T. G.Horton.)
The call of Abraham
I. GODS CALL.
1. The call was from the Lord. He put into Abrams mind good desires, and helped him to bring them to good effect.
2. The call was a distinct command. Abram was told to do something which was not easy; to give up much that was dear to him.
3. The call was accompanied by many gracious promises.
(1) God promised to guide him.
(2) God promised him posterity.
(3) God promised him renown.
(4) Chiefly, God promised to make him a blessing.
Thus the call to renounce is accompanied by an assurance that the believer shall receive at Gods hands great things.
II. ABRAHAMS FAITH.
1. Abraham did what God told him.
2. Abraham went where God led him.
3. Abraham remembered God at every stage of his journey. (W. S. Smith, B. D.)
A new dispensation
1. The election and selection of what became the people of God. Step by step we see in the history of the patriarchs this electing and separating process on the part of God. Both are marked by this two-fold characteristic: that all is accomplished, not in the ordinary and natural manner, but, as it were, supernaturally; and that all is of grace.
2. We mark a difference in the mode of Divine revelation in the patriarchal as compared with the previous period. Formerly, God had spoken to man, either on earth or from heaven, while now he actually appeared to them, and that specially, as the Angel of Jehovah, or the Angel of the Covenant.
3. The one grand characteristic of the patriarchs was their faith. The lives of the patriarchs prefigure the whole history of Israel and their Divine selection. (Dr. Edersheim.)
Separated from the world
It is a remarkable fact, that while the baser metals are diffused through the body of the rocks, gold and silver usually lie in veins; collected together in distinct metallic masses. They are in the rocks but not of them . . . And as by some power in nature God has separated them from the base and common earths, even so by the power of His grace will He separate His chosen from a reprobate and rejected world. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Deaf to Gods call
Some of us are as dead to the perception of Gods gracious call, just because it has been sounding on uninterruptedly, as are the dwellers by a waterfall to its unremitting voice. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Individual selection
The principle of individual selection in the matter of all great ministries is in keeping with the principle which embodies in a single germ the greatest forests. It is enough that God give the one acorn; man must plant it and develop its productiveness. It is enough that God give the one idea; man must receive it into the good soil of his love and hope, and encourage it to tell all the mystery of its purpose. So God calls to Himself, in holy solitude, one man, and puts into the heart of that man His own gracious purpose, and commissions him to expound this purpose to his fellow men. God never works from the many to the one; He works from one to the many. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Abraham--his call, justification, faith, and infirmity
I. HE IS CALLED BY THE LORD; by the immediate interposition of Jehovah. The God of glory, as Stephen testifies, appears to him;--there is a visible manifestation of the Divine glory; and the Divine voice is heard. The call is very peremptory--authoritative and commanding; and it is also very painful--hard for flesh and blood to obey. But along with the call, there is a very precious promise, a promise of blessings manifold and marvellous.
II. ABRAHAM COMMENCES HIS PILGRIMAGE AMID MANY TRIALS.
1. Sarai is barren.
2. He knows not whither he is going.
3. He breaks many ties of nature, the closest and the dearest.
4. His father is removed by death.
5. On reaching Canaan nothing is as yet given; he is a stranger and a pilgrim, wandering from place to place, from Sichem to Moreh, from Moreh to Bethel, pitching his tent at successive stations, as God, for reasons unknown, appoints his temporary abode (Gen_12:6-9).
6. And wherever he goes he finds the Canaanites; not congenial society and fellowship, but troops of idolaters; for the Canaanites were then in the land.
7. As if all this were not enough to try him, even daily bread begins to fail him. There is a famine in the land (Gen_12:10); and what now is Abram to do? He has hitherto been steadfast; he has builded an altar wherever he has dwelt, and has called on the name of the Lord (Gen_12:7-8). He has at all hazards avowed his faith, and sought to glorify his God; but it seems as if, from very necessity, he must at last abandon the fruitless undertaking. He is literally starved out of the land. Why, then, should he not go back to his ancient dwelling place, and try what good he can do, remaining quietly at home? What wonder can it be, if, in such circumstances, his high principle should seem for once to give way, through Satans subtlety, and his own evil heart of unbelief?
III. In Egypt, accordingly, for a brief space, the picture is reversed, and THE FAIR SCENE IS OVERCLOUDED. This man of God, being a man still, appears in a new light, or rather in the old light, the light of his old nature. He is tempted, and he falls; consulting his own wisdom, instead of simply relying on his God. He falls through unbelief; and his fall is recorded for our learning, that we may take heed lest we fall. In this incident, the temptation, the sin, the danger, and the deliverance, are all such as, in Abrams circumstances, might have befallen us. (H. S. Candlish, D. D.)
The call of Abraham
I. IT WAS MANIFESTLY DIVINE. This call could not have been an illusion, for--
1. To obey it, he gave up all that was dear and precious to him in the world. He could not have made such a sacrifice without a sufficient reason.
2. The course of conduct he followed could not have been of human suggestion. Abraham was not driven from his country by adverse circumstances, or attracted by the premise of plenty elsewhere. But he left a condition which would then be considered as prosperous, and cheerfully accepted whatever trials might await him.
3. The history of the Church confirms the fact that the call was Divine. The Christian Church was but a continuation of the Jewish, with added light, and fresh blessings. That Church must have had an origin in the dim past, sufficient to account for the fact of its existence.
II. IT DEMANDED GREAT SACRIFICES. Upon the Divine call, Abraham was not immediately rewarded with temporal blessings. Appearances were altogether against his deriving any advantages from obedience.
III. IT WAS AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH. The promise was made in general terms, and the good things to come, as far as Abraham was personally concerned, placed at an inaccessible distance.
1. Faith is required to brave the terrors of the unknown.
2. Faith trusts in God.
3. In religious faith there is an element of reason. Faith is not contrary to, only beyond, reason. To follow the promptings of faith is the noblest act of human reason.
IV. IT WAS ACCOMPANIED BY PROMISE. The promises made to Abraham may be considered in a two-fold light.
1. As they concerned himself, personally, He would have compensation for all the worldly loss he would have to endure.
(1) For the loss of country, God promised that He would make him a great nation.
(2) For the loss of his place of birth, God promised to bless him with a higher prosperity.
(3) For the loss of family distinction God promised to make his name great. Abraham had to leave his fathers house, but he was destined in the Providence of God to build up a more famous and lasting house. These promises may be considered--
2. In his relation to humanity. God said, Thou shalt be a blessing. This promise implied something grander and nobler than any personal benefits which Abraham could inherit. It was the higher blessing-the larger benefit. Religion means something more than the selfish enjoyment of spiritual good, and he who only considers the interests of his own soul has failed to catch the true spirit of it. Man approaches the nature of God when he becomes a source of blessing to others. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Abraham was to be a blessing to mankind in the highest sense. As a further expansion of this blessing promised to Abraham--(1) His cause was henceforth to be identified with the cause of God. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee (Gen_12:3). God promised further, so to take sides with Abraham in the world, as to make common cause with him--share his friendships, and treat his enemies as His own. This is the highest possible pledge. This threatening against hostile people was signally fulfilled in the case of the Egyptians, Edomites, Amalekites, Moabites, Ammonites, and the greater nations--Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian, Greek, and Roman, which have fallen under the curse of God as here denounced against the enemies of the Church and kingdom of Christ. The Church is Gods. Her enemies are His. Her friends are His also, and no weapon that is formed against her shall prosper, for He who has all power given unto Him shall be with her faithful servants, even to the end of the world.
3. He was to be the source of the highest blessing to mankind. In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (T. H. Leale.)
The call of Abram
I. ABRAMS GENEALOGICAL CONNECTION.
1. He was of Shemitic stock.
2. The Shemitic stock was the theocratic line.
II. ABRAMS CALL.
1. This call was peremptory.
2. This call was gracious.
III. ABRAMS OBEDIENCE.
1. Prompt.
(1) Hesitation destroys the virtue of obedience.
(2) Promptness is the glory of true obedience.
2. Thorough.
3. Courageous.
IV. ABRAMS RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES AND CHARACTERISTICS.
1. He was honoured with personal visitations from Jehovah.
2. His faith in the Divine promise was reassured.
3. His piety was real, habitual, and practical.
Lessons:
1. The characteristic of God as exemplified in the call of Abraham. Graciousness.
2. The essential condition of realizing the fulness of Divine blessing. Obedience.
3. The universal characteristic of true believers. Worship. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The call of Abram
1. The grace of it. There appears no reason to conclude that he was better than his neighbours. He did not choose the Lord, but the Lord him, and brought him out from amongst the idolaters.
2. Its peremptory tone:--get thee out. The language very much resembles that of Lot to his sons-in-law, and indicates the great danger of his present situation, and the immediate necessity of escaping, as it were, for his life. Such is the condition of every unconverted sinner, and such the necessity of fleeing from the wrath to come, to the hope set before us in the Gospel.
3. The self-denial required by it.
4. The implicit faith which a compliance with it would call for. Abram was to leave all, and to go--he knew not whither--unto a land that God would show him. If he had been told it was a land flowing with milk and honey, and that he should be put in possession of it, there had been some food for sense to feed upon: but to go out, not knowing whither he went, must have been not a little trying to flesh and blood. Nor was this all; that which was promised was not only in general terms, but very distant. God did not tell him He would give him the land, but merely show him it. Nor did he in his lifetime obtain the possession of it: he was only a sojourner in it, without so much as a place to set his foot upon. (A. Fuller.)
Call and promise
In all Gods teachings the near and the sensible come before the far and the conceivable, the present and the earthly before the eternal and the heavenly. Thus Abrams immediate acts of self-denial are leaving his country, his birthplace, his home. The promise to him is to be made a great nation, be blessed, and have a great name in the new land which the Lord would show him. This is unspeakably enhanced by his being made a blessing to all nations. God pursues this mode of teaching for several important reasons.
1. The sensible and the present are intelligible to those who are taught. The great Teacher begins with the known and leads the mind forward to the unknown. If He had begun with things too high, too deep, or too fax for the range of Abrams mental vision, He would not have come into relation with Abrams mind. It is superfluous to say that He might have enlarged Abrams view in proportion to the grandeur of the conceptions to be revealed. On the same principle He might have made Abram cognisant of all present and all developed truth. On the same principle He might have developed all things in an instant of time, and so have had done with creation and providence at once.
2. The present and the sensible are the types of the future and the conceivable. The land is the type of the better land; the nation of the spiritual nation; the temporal blessing of the eternal blessing; the earthly greatness of name of the heavenly. And let us not suppose that we are arrived at the end of all knowledge. We pique ourselves on our advance in spiritual knowledge beyond the age of Abram. But even we may be in the very infancy of mental development. There may be a land, a nation, a blessing, a great name, of which our present realizations or conceptions are but the types. Any other supposition would be a large abatement from the sweetness of hopes overflowing cup.
3. These things which God now promises are the immediate form of His bounty, the very gifts He begins at the moment to bestow. God has His gift to Abram ready in His hand in a tangible form. He points to it and says, This is what thou presently needest; this I give thee with My blessing and favour.
4. But these are the earnest and the germ of all temporal and eternal blessing. Man is a growing thing, whether as an individual or a race. God graduates His benefits according to the condition and capacity of the recipients. In the first boon of His goodwill is the earnest of what He will continue to bestow on those who continue to walk in His ways. And as the present is the womb of the future, so is the external the symbol of the internal, the material the shadow of the spiritual in the order of the Divine blessing. (Prof. J. G. Murphy.)
The advantage of change
As Gotthold was examining with delight some double pinks, which at the time were in full blossom, he was told by the gardener that the same plants had in former years borne only single flowers, but that they had been improved and beautified by repeated transplantations, and that in the same manner a change of soil increases the growth, and accelerates the bearing of a young tree. This reminded Gotthold that the same happens to men. Many a man who at home would scarcely have borne even single flowers, when transplanted by Divine Providence abroad, bears double ones; another, who, if rooted in his native soil, would never have been more than a puny twig, is removed to a foreign clime, and there spreads far and wide and bears fruit to the delight of all.
Leaving all to follow God
I have been in Africa for seventeen years, and I never met a man yet who would kill me if I folded my hands. What has been wanted, and what I have been endeavouring to ask for the poor Africans, has been the good offices of Christians--ever since Livingstone taught me, during those four months that I was with him. In 1871, I went to him as prejudiced as the biggest atheist in London. To a reporter and correspondent, such as I, who had only to deal with wars, mass meetings, and political gatherings, sentimental matters were entirely out of my province. But there came for me a long time for reflection. I was out there away from a worldly world. I saw this solitary old man there, and asked myself, How on earth does he stop here--is he cracked, or what? What is it that inspires him? For months after we met I simply found myself listening to him, wondering at the old man carrying out all that was said in the Bible--Leave all things and follow Me. But little by little his sympathy for others became contagious; my sympathy was aroused; seeing his piety, his gentleness, his zeal, his earnestness, and how he went quietly about his business, I was converted by him, although he had not tried to do it. How sad that the good old man should have died so soon! How joyful he would have been if he could have seen what has since happened there! (H. M. Stanley.)
A great promise
Great lives are trained by great promises. God never calls men for the purpose of making them less than they are, except when they have been dishonouring themselves by sin. His calls are upward; towards fuller life, purer light, sweeter joy.
1. Look at this promise as throwing light upon the compensations of life. Abram is called to leave his Country, his kindred, and his fathers house, and, so far, there is nothing but loss. Had the call ended here, the lot of
Abram might have been considered hard; but when did God take anything from a man, without giving him manifold more in return? Suppose that the return has not been made immediately manifest, what then? Is today the limit of Gods working time? Has He no provinces beyond this little world? Does the door of the grave open upon nothing but infinite darkness and eternal silence? Yet, even confining the judgment within the hour of this life, it is true that God never touches the heart with a trial without intending to bring in upon it some grander gift, some tenderer benediction.
2. Look at this promise as showing the oneness of God with His people: I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee. The good man is not alone. Touch him, and you touch God. Help him, and your help is taken as if it were rendered to God Himself. This may give us an idea of the sublime life to which we are called--we live, and move, and have our being in God; we are temples; our life is an expression of Divine influence; in our voice there is an undertone of Divinity.
3. Look at this promise as showing the influence of the present over the future: In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This is a principle, rather than an exception of true life. Every man should look upon himself as an instrument of possible blessing to the whole world. One family should be a blessing to all families within its influence. We should not be looking for the least, but for the greatest interpretations of life--not to make our life as little and ineffective as possible, but to give it fulness, breadth, strength: to which the weary and sorrowful may look with confidence and thankfulness. Christianity never reduces life to a minimum: it develops it, strengthens it in the direction of Jesus Christs infinite perfectness and beauty. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Gods promises
Gods promises are the comfort of my life. Without them I could not stand for an hour in the whirl and eddy of things, in the sweep and surge of the nations; but I cannot tell how He will fulfil them, any more than I can tell from just what quarter the first flock of blue birds will come in the spring. Yet I am sure that the spring will come upon the wings of ten thousand birds. (H. W. Beecher.)
Gods promises mysteriously dated
Gods promises are dated, but with a mysterious character; and, for want of skill in Gods chronology, we are prone to think God forgets us, when, indeed, we forget ourselves in being so bold to set God a time of our own, and in being angry that He comes not just then to us. (W. Gurnall.)
Gods promises present though not always seen
When the traveller starts by the railway, on a bright summer day, writes Champneys, his attention is drawn to the friends who stand to bid him good-bye; and as the train moves on more and more rapidly, the mile and half and quarter mile posts seem racing past him, and the objects in the far distance appear rapidly to change their places, and to move off the scene almost as soon as they have been observed upon it. Now the long train, like some vast serpent, hissing as it moves swiftly along, plunges underground. The bright sun is suddenly lost, but the travellers eye observes, for the first time perhaps, the railway carriage lamp; and though it was there all the while, yet because the sun made its light needless, it was not observed. Gods promises are like that railway light. The Christian traveller has them with him always, though when the sun is shining, and prosperity beaming upon him, he does not remark them. But let trouble come, let his course lie through the darkness of sorrow or trial, and the blessed promise shines out, like the railway lamp, to cheer him, and shed its gentle and welcome light most brightly when the gloom is thickest, and the sunshine most entirely left behind.
On promptitude in obeying the Divine call
There is an hour in all, ay, even in heathen and sensual minds, when the cry is heard, Come away hither, seek the far country; strike out on the spiritual and everlasting deep, looking not behind thee, cutting every tie that binds thee to this world, and be led to this, less by the hope of what is before, than by the horror of what is around, and by a simple-minded reliance upon the promise of thy God. In various manners and at divers times does this cry come, and in divers manners is it treated. Some obey, like Abraham, at once, and set out in search of the land before the voice has ceased to vibrate in their ears. Others delay for a while, and say, like Felix, Go thy way for this time, and when I have a more convenient season I will give thee an answer--a season which never comes. Others begin the journey with considerable promptitude and with great alacrity, but speedily become offended, turn round, and walk no more with Jesus; like Pliable, the first fit disenchants them in their childish anticipations, and they retrace their steps. Others are slow but sure in obeying the call of God; they perhaps hang off for a time, they count the cost, they consult, with the town clerk of Ephesus, and do nothing rashly, till the alarm of their hearts and the tumult of their doors become intolerable, and perhaps, as with Faithful, the man Moses steps in and tells them, that if they do not begone, he will burn their house over their heads, and then they address themselves to their journey. And others do not even enter into momentary parley; do not even at the knock condescend to look over the window, but abruptly, fiercely, and forever, refuse. The conduct of this last class is simply insane; it is that of a dying patient who excludes the physician, or of a man whose house is burning and will not permit the engines to play around it. The conduct of those who delay indefinitely the journey is only one shade less absurd, since the Paul once gone seldom returns; and though he were returning, there might be no inclination to hear him. The conduct of those who go forward a little way, and turn back at the first difficulty, is more contemptible still; it is cowardice coupled with folly; it is mean madness. He that deliberates, acts somewhat more wisely; but he too loses time; whereas, since we live in a world where death delays not, where judgment does not linger, nor damnation slumber, the loss of an hour may be the loss of all. Promptitude, valuable in all matters, is of the last importance in the affairs of the soul. Beware of saying, Serious things tomorrow. This saying once cost a man dear. It was a governor in Greece, against whom a conspiracy was formed. The night for its perpetration had arrived. He was engaged at a feast. A letter was handed in, and he was told to read it instantly, because it contained serious things. What was his reply? He thrust the letter under his pillow, and grasped again the wine cup, and cried out--Serious things tomorrow! But that tomorrow never came. At midnight was there a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh! The conspirators entered, disguised in the dress of females, and they killed the governor, with the letter lying unread beneath his pillow. Now let us imitate the manly decision and unfaltering firmness of Abraham. As we would reach Abrahams bosom, let us begin immediately to pursue Abrahams journey. Ledyard said, Tomorrow. Say we, Today. (G. Gilfillan.)
Abrahams call
This was Gods first revelation of Himself to Abraham. Up to this time Abraham to all appearance had no knowledge of any God but the deities worshipped by his fathers in Chaldea. Now, he finds within himself impulses which he cannot resist and which he is conscious he ought not to resist. He believes it to be his duty to adopt a course which may look foolish, and which he can justify only by saying that his conscience bids him. He recognizes, apparently for the first time, that through his conscience there speaks to him a God who is supreme. In dependence on this God he gathered his possessions together and departed. So far, one may be tempted to say, no very unusual faith was required. Many a poor girl has followed a weakly brother or a dissipated father to Australia or the wild west of America; many a lad has gone to the deadly west coast of Africa with no such prospect as Abraham. For Abraham had the double prospect which makes migration desirable. Assure the colonist that he will find land and have strong sons to till and hold and leave it to, and you give him all the motive he requires. These were the promises made to Abraham--a land and a seed. Neither was there at this period much difficulty inbelieving that both promises would be fulfilled. The land he no doubt expected to find in some unoccupied territory. And as regards the children, he had not yet faced the condition that only through Sarah was this part of the promise to be fulfilled. But the peculiarity in Abrahams abandonment of present certainties for the sake of a future and unseen good is, that it was prompted not by family affection or greed or an adventurous disposition, but by faith in a God whom no one but himself recognized. It was the first step in a life-long adherence to an Invisible, Spiritual Supreme. Under the simple statement The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, there are probably hidden years of questioning and meditation. Gods revelation of Himself to Abram in all probability did not take the determinate form of articulate command without having passed through many preliminary stages of surmise and doubt and mental conflict. But once assured that God is calling him, Abraham responds quickly and resolutely. The revelation has come to a mind in which it will not be lost. As one of the few theologians who have paid attention to the method of revelation has said: A Divine revelation does not dispense with a certain character and certain qualities of mind in the person who is the instrument of it. A man who throws off the chains of authority and association must be a man of extraordinary independence and strength of mind, although he does so in obedience to a Divine revelation; because no miracle, no sign or wonder which accompanies a revelation can by its simple stroke force human nature from the innate hold of custom and the adhesion to and fear of established opinion; can enable it to confront the frowns of men, and take up truth opposed to general prejudice, except there is in the man himself, who is the recipient of the revelation, and a certain strength of mind and independence which concurs with the Divine intention. That Abrahams faith triumphed over exceptional difficulties and enabled him to do what no other motive would have been strong enough to accomplish, there is therefore no call to assert. During his afterlife his faith was severely tried, but the mere abandonment of his country in the hope of gaining a better was the ordinary motive of his day. It was the ground of this hope, the belief in God, which made Abrahams conduct original and fruitful. That sufficient inducement was presented to him is only to say that God is reasonable. There is always sufficient inducement to obey God; because life is reasonable. No man was ever commanded or required to do anything which it was not for his advantage to do. Sin is a mistake. But so weak are we, so liable to be moved by the things present to us and by the desire for immediate gratification, that it never ceases to be wonderful and admirable when a sense of duty enables a man to forego present advantage and to believe that present loss is the needful preliminary of eternal gain. (M. Dods, D. D.)
Divine direction in everyday affairs
So, even a journey may be the outcome of an inspiration! Theres a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may. I feel life to be most solemn when I think that inside of it all there is a Spirit that lays out ones days work, that points out when the road is on the left and when it is on the right, and that tells one what words will best express ones thought. Thus is God nigh at hand and not afar off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And thus, too, are men misunderstood: they are called enthusiasts, and are said to be impulsive; they are not safe men; they are here today and gone tomorrow, and no proper register of their life can be made. Of course we are to distinguish between inspiration and delusion, and not to think that every noise is thunder. We are not to call a maggot a revelation. What we are to do is this: We have to live and move and have our being in God; to expect His coming and long for it; to be patient and watchful; to keep our heart according to His word; and then we shall know His voice from the voice of a stranger, for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. If God be our supreme consciousness He will reveal His providence without cloud or doubtfulness. I think it can be proved that the men who have done things apparently against all reason have often been acting in the most reasonable manner, and that inspiration has often been mistaken for madness. I feel that all the while you are asking me to give you tests by which you may know what is inspiration, you have little or nothing to do with such tests--you have to be right and then you will sure to do right. Possibly Abram may have got more credit for this journey than he really deserves. It is true that he knew not whither he went, and by so much this is what is called a leap in the dark; but Abram knew two things--
1. He knew at whose bidding he was going, and--
2. He knew what results were promised to his faith. To get a man to leave his country, his kindred, and his fathers house, you must propose or apply some very strong inducement. Now, it is worth while to take notice that from the very beginning God has never given a merely arbitrary command: He has never treated a man as a potter would treat a handful of clay: the royal and mighty command has always ended in the tenderness of a gracious promise. God has never moved a man merely for the sake of moving him; merely for the sake of showing His power: this we shall see in detail as we move through the wondrous pages, but I call attention to it now as strikingly illustrated in the case of Abram. Some of you yourselves may remember the words Get thee out, who have forgotten the accumulated and glorious blessing. Let us be just unto the Lord, and remember that He treats us as His sons and not as irresponsible machines. (J. Parker, D. D.)
And thou shalt be a blessing
A blessing to be diffused
When God called Abraham, and, in Abraham, the Jewish nation, He cradled them in blessings. This is the way in which He always begins with a man. If ever, to man or nation, He speaks otherwise, it is because they have made Him do so.
I. Many of us account religion rather as a possession to be held, or a privilege to be enjoyed, than as a life which we are to spread, a kingdom we are bound to extend. Consequently our religion has grown too passive. It would be healthier and happier if we were to cast into it more action.
II. Wherever Abraham went he shed blessings round him, not only by his prayers and influence, but by the actual charm of his presence. As Abraham was a blessing to the Jews, still more were the Jews a blessing to the world.
III. Then came the climax. He who so blesses with His blood, He who did nothing but bless, He was of the seed of Abraham.
IV. As joined to the mystical body of Christ, we are Abrahams seed, and one of the promises to which we are admitted is this, Thou shalt be a blessing. The sense of a positive appointment, of a destiny to do a thing, is the most powerful motive of which the human mind is capable. Whoever desires to be a blessing must be a man of faith, prayer, and love. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Usefulness
I. EVERY GOD-TRUSTING MAN IS A CENTRE OF BLESSING. Because God is at the centre of his soul.
II. A DEVOUT MAN IS A BLESSING TO THOSE WHO CAN RECEIVE HIS INFLUENCE.
III. THE MEASURE OF OUR FAITH DETERMINES THE BLESSING WE SHALL TRANSMIT TO OTHERS.
IV. TO BE A BLESSING THROUGH THE POWER AND FAVOUR OF GOD, IS THE HIGHEST HONOUR IN THE WORLD. (F. Hastings.)
Blest becoming a blessing
I. THE ASSURANCE OF DIVINE BLESSING IN CONNECTION WITH THE DIVINE CALL.
II. THAT SPIRITUAL BLESSING CAN ONLY BE REALIZED AND ENJOYED IN THE EXERCISE OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE.
III. ONE GREAT PURPOSE OF GOD IN ELECTING AND BLESSING US IS, THAT WE MAY BECOME INSTRUMENTS OF BLESSING TO OTHERS.
IV. THERE IN AN ORDER AND A MEASURE APPOINTED BY GOD IN BLESSING US AND MAKING US INSTRUMENTS OF BLESSING. (G. W. Humphreys, B. A.)
Man must be good before he can do good
Before you can do good you must be made good; for who will look for water from a drained river, or that sweet grapes should grow upon a withered vine? (W. Secker.)
The blessed of God, a blessing to others
I. With regard to THE SPEAKER, it is the Lord Jehovah Himself. He alone can bless His people. I do not say, but the Lord may make use of the smallest instrumentality to bless His children. I do not deny the ministration of angels, though one knows so little about it. I do not undervalue their untiring zeal and great unwearied love. I believe they are always as ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them, who shall be heirs of salvation. Neither do I deny the instrumentality of man; and God may, and does, bless man to man. But all these things are but the streams--or the channels; the great source is God Himself. No one can bless the souls of His people but God Himself. Our wants are too many for any but God to supply them; our sins are too many for any but God to pardon them; our corruptions are too great for any but God to subdue them. Our waywardness is such, that nothing less than infinite patience could bear with us. And even the desires of the new nature are so great, that all heaven could not satisfy them, but as God fills all heaven with Himself.
II. But observe now, secondly, TO WHOM IT IS THAT THIS PROMISE BELONGS. I am quite ready to believe, and to acknowledge, that it was spoken primarily and especially to Abraham; but thanks be to God, we have been taught by the blessed Spirit, I trust, to know that there is not a promise in Gods Word but the child of God has it for his inheritance. The Lord has such a people; and they are dear to Him as the apple of His eye. He has chosen them in Christ Jesus before the world was; they are redeemed by precious blood; He forms them for His glory; He moulds them to His image, and they shall show forth His praise. No language can describe how precious they are to Him. He sees them in His Son; beholds them in the Beloved. They are dear to Him; the holy image in which they are renewed is precious to Him. The fruit of His own workmanship shall never perish, shall never be annihilated, shall never be destroyed. Their lives are precious to Him; and their deaths are precious. Their services are precious; the very tears they shed for sin are precious; the sighs that heave their bosom for sin, are all precious to Him. To them He looks; with them He dwells; and they are His jewels, and not one of them shall be lost. But yet they are a needy people, and they want His blessing. They want infinite power to sustain them; they want infinite wisdom to guide them; they want infinite love to bear their infirmities and weaknesses; and they want the patience of a God, to endure them to the end. Leave them to themselves, and they are no blessing, and can communicate no blessing to those around them; nay, leave them to themselves, and they shall be a curse to all around them. But these are they that are here spoken of as the inheritors of the promise--blessed through Abraham, and blessed with faithful Abraham.
III. Consider, thirdly, the riches--THE WONDROUS RICHES, THAT ARE TO BE FOUND IN THIS BLESSING. I will bless thee. Ah! what is there not included in this one idea? What limit is there, what boundary? What adequate conception can we form of the words--I will bless thee? It is not a mere general promise; it is a peculiar, personal, individual promise. For while all the members form one body, yet each member stands alone, and wants its own individual blessing; and each child of God wants his own individual blessing, and he has this individual promise given to him personally, the same as if there were no other upon the face of this earth. But here is another promise concerning them: not only I will bless thee, but I will make thy name great. This would almost seem as if it must belong exclusively to Abraham. The name of Abraham, you know, was a sort of object of idolatrous worship to the Jew: We be Abrahams seed, said they, and were never in bondage to any man. Think not, preached John the Baptist, to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. He brought down their high thoughts, their carnal confidences, their reposing in Abraham, and laid them low; and there was no greater hindrance that He had to contend with than this. The parallelism, I confess, seems to cease here; and yet it is but in look--it is not in reality. I know the world has all mean words and mean names for the child of God. A saint--oh! it is the scorn of the world; it is the very ridicule of the world. Good man--man of piety--excellent man!--that may do; but a saint!--it is a term of ridicule. A saint? what a termof glory! Set apart by God, from before all worlds, for Himself; purchased by the blood of the everlasting covenant, and sanctified by God the eternal Spirit. See what a name this is; it is indeed a great name. A Christian--everyone has that name now; yet if I look at what a real Christian is, what a name it is! Anointed of the Holy Ghost with that unction that cometh down from Aaron, the true High Priest, our true Aaron, our great Melchisedec, flowing down from His head to the very skirts of His clothing; partaker of that Divine unction that teacheth all things; what a name of glory is His! Compared with it, all earthly names sink just into nothing. Children! dear children! And, a brother of Christ! But let me rather dwell on the third clause--thou shall be a blessing. There is something deeply affecting in the thought that an ungodly man is no blessing; he can be no blessing. Oftentimes he is the very opposite of blessing. An ungodly man is an evil, be he where he may. How many a father is a curse to his whole family! How many a mother is a plague sore to her whole family! How many a child is as a curse to all around! These things are not imaginations; they are truths--awful, solemn truths. But the child of God is a blessing, wherever he is. Wherever he acts as a child of God, in proportion as he bears the image of his Master, and reflects that image, he is a blessing; however feeble his gift, however small his grace, however circumscribed his place, he is a blessing, wherever he is and whatever he does. How shall I set before you the blessing attending holy example? Who can say how great a blessing attends the bold avowal of principles, the bold declaration of truth, the bold manifestation that we are on the Lords side? (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The smile of God
I have seen in an African desert a beautiful patch of green, a luxurious blending of graceful palm waving grass, rippling spring, pendent fruits, and tropic flowers--an island of verdure, refreshment, and comfort, in the midst of a sea of sand, of dreary brushwood, and of stunted thorn. Hither came both man and beast, hot with travel, scorched with heat, oppressed with hunger, faint with thirst, and found food and drink, shelter and repose. The negroes who dwelt in the surrounding region called the weary tract around The Torment, because it was hard, dry, difficult, inhospitable. The patch of natural garden ground in the centre they called by an African word which means a god or a spirit in a good temper, or rather, the smile of God. The smile of God! Verily a good name and a beautiful; a smile that lightens the heart and cheers the lot of every drooping traveller that passes that way. As he gazes with hand-shaded eyes through the haze of the desert heat, and catches a glimpse of the green isle upon the border line, that smile of God begets a smile on his own tired and weary face, and with quickened step and hopeful eye he presses thitherward and rejoices in its cool and grateful shade! It may well be called The Smile of God! Just what that green oasis is to the tribes of Ham, the God-trusting, God-fearing man is to his fellow men, a centre of blessing, a precious possession, nothing other, nothing less than the Smile of God. It is not enough that you carry your light in a dark lantern, and flash it out on a Sunday, or on some occasion of special feeling, and then withdraw it as suddenly, to leave blinking spectators rather more uncertain as to your moral whereabouts than before; but rather like the electric flame, which is only toned down by the medium in which it burns, your humanity should exhibit the veiled but glowing light of life and love Divine that dwells behind. I remember seeing, on a certain festive occasion, nearly a thousand men marching through the streets of a northern city when the clock in the minster steeple was tolling out the midnight hour. Neither moon nor star appeared in the sombre sky, and the lamps along the streets were but as twinkling beads of light which vainly tried to lighten the gloom of the dull November air. But wherever the procession went, wherever the tramping of their feet was heard, the light, clear, full, and brilliant, lit up the streets and houses, illumined statues, and was flashed back from every window and every gilded sign. Every face shone bright, every form stood clear, and the dull, dark night, right up into the gloom above, glowed and gleamed as with the light of morn. How was this? Every man carried a pitch pine torch; each flashed its little measure of light upon the sombre gloom, and altogether they conquered darkness and created day! As a disciple of Christ, it is given to the Christian, not so much to carry a torch as to be a torch. He himself is to be set alight, and is to move in and out through the worlds sad shadow land, a peripatetic illumination, showing the beauty of goodness--dispensing the knowledge of God. Yours, O Christian, be it to exhibit all holy virtues, all kindly charities, all manly attributes, all Christly compassions, all godly speech and deed; and remember that if you are to be a true Christian, an Israelite indeed, the friend of God, the disciple of Christ, the heritor of heaven--you are to be--must be--a blessing! It is not enough that you are not a curse, thatyou do no ill and work no harm. The poisonous upas tree and the barren fig tree shall both be east into the fire. The captured rebel, caught red-handed, and the sentinel asleep at his post, alike are doomed. To cease to do evil is only the lesser half of the Christians code of law--he must learn to do well. Note, again, that just in proportion as a Christian is a blessing, he has a blessing. Kind words, they say, have kind echoes, but that is not all the truth. The echoes are more musical than the original, because God mingles a benediction in the tone. It is hard to say whether the sea or the land is the greater gainer by the race for giving: the sea into which the silver streams are rolled, or the land on which the jewels of the clouds are scattered, like the largess of a king.
And the more thou spendest
From thy little store,
With a double bounty,
God will give thee more.
I have said that the Christian is to be a blessing; that according as he is a blessing he has a blessing; but before all this comes something else. It is said of Abram, Thou shalt be a blessing; but there are vital words before that. Hark! I will bless thee. Thats how it is. Neither Abram nor you can either be a blessing or have a blessing, in the full, clear, and joyous sense, unless it be imparted from above. If this stream of blessing is to rise in your own soul, ripple along your pathway and cool the lips of others in its flow, then all your springs must be in God. He must be all in all--He, the God from whom all blessings flow. (J. J. Wray.)
Blessed and blessing
Grass-feeding animals while cropping their pastures are scattering and disseminating the seeds of the grasses; and the birds and insects while thrusting their beak or proboscis deep down into the nectaries of the flowers, are gathering and depositing again the fertilizing pollen.
The treasure house of grace
Survey this treasure house of grace; how rich! how full! The believer may say, This heritage is all my own. Measure, if it be possible, the golden chain which extends from one hand of God in eternity past to the other in eternity to come. Every link is a blessing. Behold the starry canopy. The glittering orbs outshine all beauty, and exceed all number. Such is the firmament of Christ. It is studded with blessings. But millions of worlds are less than the least; and millions of tongues are weak to tell them. Mark how they sparkle in the eye of faith. There are constellations of pardons. In Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin. There is the bright shining of adoption into the family of God. As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God. There is the milky-way of peace, perfect peace, heavens own peace. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. There is the morning star of sin destroyed. God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from His iniquities. There is the lustre of Divine righteousness. This is His name, whereby He shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. There is the light of life, I give unto them eternal life. There is all glory. The glory, which Thou gavest me, I have given them. There is the possession of all present, and the promise of all future good. All things are yours, things present--things to come. There is the assurance that nothing shall harm. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Such is the blaze of blessings, on which the believer calmly gazes. But reader, are they yours? (Dean Law.)
The blessed life illustrated in the history of Abraham
It would seem the simplest thing in the world to come at once and be blest. Why not? Welt, there is a secret mistrust of God. Is not Abraham called upon to give up home, and kindred, and country, and everything? And we tremble. Our ways are not Gods ways; and our thoughts are not Gods thoughts. What He counts a blessing we dread rather than desire. We lose the blessed life through fear. Then there is a dulness, an inertness, a spiritual apathy about us. Like a talk about pictures to a blind man, like the pouring forth of a musicians soul to one who is utterly unsympathetic--alas! so does our God make His appeal to us. Sad enough it is that the appeal of God to the world should be unheeded and rejected. The Blessed Life--the Life of Faith--grows out of the knowledge of God; it is as we come to see how really good and loving our God is; how really blessed are His purposes concerning us; how lofty is the calling wherewith He doth call us; how graciously and tenderly He fulfils His purpose; thus is it that we learn to surrender ourselves wholly to Him for His own.
I. The blessed life is A REVELATION FROM GOD. Think of life as it presented itself to Abraham without God. Here am I in this pleasant and goodly land, he might have said to himself; a land endeared to me by the memory of my fathers and as the home of my people. Here are my friends; here is my business; my flocks and herds; my fertile pastures; and my faithful servants. Now I will set to work and do the best I can, toiling diligently day by day, and seeking at once to enrich myself and others by my labour. I have a goodly wife, whom my heart loves right well; who is as true to me as I am to her; who is watchful of my interests and eager for my comfort; diligent, thrifty, managing well. Then here have I also the opportunity of doing good. My brother Terah has left an orphan son. I will adopt him, and make him my care, and will seek his welfare; I will do by him as honestly and generously as if he were my own. I will set myself boldly against wrong; and I will set myself resolutely on the side of all that is good, and true and right in the world. So let me live and labour; and when my work is done I will lay me down and rest with my fathers. Yet all this time there lay about this man a larger life--infinitely higher, and deeper, and broader: a life opening up a new world, unfolding new capacities; a life blessed and enriched and ennobled by the Presence of God. Think of the soul finding its rest in God; the loneliness of life lost in His presence; the common toil glorified as His service; hope made boundless by His promise; and fear driven away by His abiding and eternal care! So God stood and called Abraham: Come forth into a land that I will show thee. And Abraham passed out into a life where his relation should be with the worlds Redeemer; where his example should stimulate the faithful of all time; to become a man whom all nations should call blessed. Into that fuller and larger life God is ever seeking to lead us by the revelation of Himself: I will bless thee;. . .thou shalt be a blessing.
II. The blessed life is A REVELATION OF GOD. It is quite possible for us to know God without entering into the fulness of the blessed life. Our dwellings limit the amount of heaven that we see by the size of the skylights; a foot square may admit light enough for a days work, and it may sometimes admit so much as half-an-hours sunshine. That is different from darkness, and much better. But that, too, is different from stepping out under the great heaven, being arched and domed about by it, and to find the golden sunshine flooding earth with blessedness and flashing in a myriad forms of beauty. I will bless thee; that blessing can only be ours when we let God Himself come to us. They who; rant the gifts of God only, and not Himself, must ever go without the best gift: that which is more than all gifts. The blessed life begins only when He Himself is welcomed, trusted, and loved, and when His will is accepted and rested in. I will--the blessed life begins with the heart reception of that I and of that will. And I am blest exactly in proportion as that I will becomes my will. I will bless thee. I have my thought and estimate of what is good; and my desires go forth eager for a score of things which seem to make up the true blessedness of life. By these desires my purposes are shaped, and life itself is determined. Yet what do I know? See, here in the doorway of the mothers house is the little child. Like us, it too has its thought of what is good, and has the fullest confidence in its judgment and wisdom. It thinks it knows all the world, and can manage quite well without anybodys help. So away it goes out on to the crowded pavement; on across the perils of the streets; now amidst the roar of the traffic and rush of carriages it stands bewildered and lost. There is but one safety; but one blessedness. It is to put the hand in His, to accept His guidance, to surrender the will to Him, to make His way my way, quite sure that the truest blessing I can find is to let God have His own will and His own way with me in everything. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God. The blessed life is that into which God only can lead us.
III. The blessed life is A REVELATION FOR ME. When we get as far as this do we begin to sigh? Yes, I know all this is what I ought to be; and of course it is what I want to be! But it is such hard work: struggling striving, failing. Stay a moment. Have you not begun the sentence at the wrong end? The first word is I, not thee. Put it in the right order. First, I--God comes to thee; make room. I will--not what you are, but whatGod wills is what you have to think of next. I will bless. There, throw back the shutters, and let the sunshine in. I will bless--thee. That is the right order: leave that thee until you get the other side of the blessing. When I begin with myself, what blessed life is possible? But when I begin with God, the blessed life is just the commonplace, and the highway wherein I do walk. I will bless thee. Of course He will; He can do nothing but bless. Was not this fair world once in chaos and darkness: a dreary waste? but, lo! it made room for Him and His Will; and then the stars shone in the heavens, and the dry land appeared, and the grass grew, and the fishes swam, and the beasts roamed, and the birds sang, and at last there was the finished bliss of Paradise, and all was very good. To make room for Him and for His will is alway to make room for blessing. Yet neither Paradise nor heaven have such a wondrous manifestation of Gods eagerness to bless as that with which He meets us in all the rich provisions of His grace. I will bless thee. It is not only as we count will. With us to will is oftentimes as idle as to wish. Hemmed in by a thousand hindrances, our lofty will is mocked by the cruel defiance of our circumstances. But when our God saith, I will, it cannot be broken. Almighty Power doth wait to make that will fulfilled.
IV. In all the world there is BUT ONE THING THAT CAN HINDER GOD. It is not in the material upon which He works, nor is it in the conditions in which that material is placed. The only hindrance God can ever know is in my will. When the I will of God is met with the I will of my heart, then there is no power in heaven or hell that can thwart or hinder. (Mark Guy Pearse.)
On being a blessing
A young lady was preparing for the dance hall, and, standing before a large mirror, placed a light crown ornamented with silver stars upon her head. While thus standing, a little fair-haired sister climbed in a chair and put up her tiny fingers to examine this beautiful headdress, and was accosted thus: Sister, what are you doing? You should not touch that crown! Said the little one, I was looking at that, and thinking of something else. Pray, tell me what you are thinking about--you, a little child. I was remembering that my Sabbath school teachersaid, if we save sinners by our influence, we should win stars to our crown in heaven; and when I saw those two stars in your crown, I wished I could save some soul. The elder sister went to the dance, but in solemn meditation; the words of the innocent child found a lodgment in her heart, and she could not enjoy the association of her friends. At a seasonable hour she left the hall and returned to her home; and going to her chamber, where her dear little sister was sleeping, imprinted a kiss upon her soft cheek, and said: Precious sister, you have won one star for your crown; and kneeling at the bedside, offered a fervent prayer to God for mercy.
Joy of doing good
Well do I remember when I first knew the Lord how restless I felt till I could do something for others. I did not know that I could speak to an assembly, and I was very timid as to conversing upon religious subjects, and therefore I wrote little notes to different persons setting forth the way of salvation, and I dropped these written letters with printed tracts into the post, or slipped them under the doors of houses, or dropped them into areas, praying that those who read them might be aroused as to their sins, and moved to flee from the wrath to come. My hears would have burst if it could not have found some vent. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The life of faith
Now of this character, with so many claims to fame, it is a very notable thing that the New Testament dwells only on one feature, and passes by all those of which we have spoken. One thing, and one thing only, is kept to the front in all the life of this hero: It is his faith. The Hebrew, treasuring as no other people did, and with greater reason than any other people had, the pride of their race, can record of their father Abraham nothing but his faith in God. This lives and shines, eclipses everything else. Faithful Abraham, this is his title; Abraham believed, this is his achievement; by faith Abraham, this is the secret of his triumph. Take that fact and dwell upon it. You will find in it the secret of the blessed life: that life is great, is true life, only as it is the outcome of our faith in God. We need to hear it until we believe it, that our fitness for service is not in the strength of intellect, not in the vastness of wealth, not in the genius, not in the greatness which the world counts great; Gods estimate of us--the only true estimate--is by the measure of our faith. Our worth lies in our faith. He who will set God ever before him, and then in Gods own strength, will go out and do the will of God, he, and he only, is the man who can come to be amongst Gods heroes. Only the man who is very intimate with the Most High will be entrusted with the secrets of God, and commissioned for active service. The blessed life is the life of faith. But does that greatly help us? It sounds all true enough, and we accept it as if its familiarity were the warrant of its orthodoxy. But what is the life of faith? Faith seems such a vague, indefinite, intangible something, a happy phrase by which we conceal our ignorance. Well, whatever it is, it is a gain certainly to have it embodied in real flesh and blood, to find a living man with a wife and a great many servants, some of them troublesome; and children, not always agreeing; and cattle and sheep, for whom it was hard to find food sometimes; and neighbours, who could be very disagreeable; and relations, who were sometimes very selfish; a man, too, who could make mistakes like other people. Certainly it is helpful to have the blessed life lived out in our own very nature, and in our commonplace world. (Mark Guy Pearse.)
Abrahams conversion
The birthplace of Abraham was Ur of the Chaldees, away to the Northeast of Palestine, beyond the river Euphrates. It is plain that the family of Abraham, like almost all the rest of the world at that time, was idolatrous, Joshua speaks of it: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods. A legend comes down to us of the story of Abrahams conversion which is very beautiful, and certainly may be true that as he lay upon the mountain height amidst his flock at night, there rose a star so brilliant and beautiful in the great arch of heaven that Abraham was filled with the glory of it, and said: This is my god; this will I worship. But, lo! as the still hours of the night passed by, the star sank down and was gone. And he said: Of what avail is it that I worship my god if it die out in the darkness and I see it no more? Then above the hills there rose the moon and flooded all the earth with silvery light, and quenched the stars. And Abraham hailed it, saying: Thou art fairer and greater than the star, thou art my god, for thou art worthier. But lo, it too hastened away and sank in darkness. And Abraham cried: If my gods forsake me, then am I as others that do err! Soon rose the sun, in radiant splendour. It scattered the darkness and his doubts. And he said: Thou, thou art my god, greater than moon and star. I will worship thee. But at even the sun sank, and like the moon and star, it too was gone. Then was Abraham alone; but as he gazed into heaven there came the thought of One behind the star, the moon, the sun--the Maker of them all. And Abraham cried: O my people, I am clear of these things, I turn my face to Him who hath made the heavens and the earth; He only is my God. (Mark Guy Pearse.)
Diffusers of happiness
Some men move through life as a band of music moves down the street, flinging out pleasures on every side through the air to everyone, far and near, who can listen. Some men fill the air with their presence and sweetness, as orchards, in October days, fill the air with the perfume of ripe fruit. Some women cling to their own houses like the honeysuckle over the door, yet, like it, fill all the region with the subtle fragrance of their goodness. How great a bounty and a blessing is it so to hold the royal gifts of the soul that they shall be music to some, and fragrance to others, and life to all! It would be no unworthy thing to live for, to make the power which we have within us the breath of other mens joy: to fill the atmosphere which they must stand in with a brightness which they cannot create for themselves. (H. W. Beecher.)
Family life
St. Paul finds the key to the constitution and the order of the human home in the spiritual sphere. Christian philosophy is inevitably transcendental--that is, it believes that earthly things are made after heavenly patterns, and that the things seen and temporal can only be fully understood by letting the light fall on them from the things which are not seen and eternal. It was the redemption of the home when Christs redeeming love to the world was made the pattern of its love. That home is the highest in which love reigns most perfectly.
I. THE HOME IS THE INSTRUMENT OF A DOUBLE EDUCATION, Its function is to develop the Divine image in parent and in child.
II. AS THE FIRST STEP TO THE FULFILMENT OF HIS PURPOSE IN RESTORING MAN TO HIS OWN IMAGE, GOD SET THE SOLITARY IN FAMILIES. He laid the foundation of the home as the fundamental human institution, the foundation of all true order, the spring of all true development in human society. Out of the home State and Church were to grow; by the home they were both to be established. And so God took the dual head of the first human home, the father and mother, and made them as gods to their children, and He sent them there to study the pain and the burden of the godhead as well as the power and the joy. This was the only way by which man could gain the knowledge of the mind and heart of God. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
The influence of Christianity on the purity and happiness of families
If it shall be seen that Christianity has done that for the world which no other system of philosophy or religion has ever effected--if its influence has been so mighty as, wherever it has comes to have civilized the savage--to have raised men in the scale of being, till they have become the first amongst nations; if in every instance, when it has had its proper influences it has exalted the individual above his race, transforming the most vicious into a model of virtue--then we have a new class of arguments in its favour, scarcely less conclusive than those more direct evidences which we first mentioned. An unprejudiced observer cannot deny that all this is true. It is a matter of too much notoriety to be controverted. The Christian nations have, at this moment, such a superiority over all others. I have to place before you, tonight, a single instance of the operation of this mighty agency, in its influence on the purity and happiness of families. I propose to show you in what manner Christianity prevents, or rectifies, the evils of domestic life, and contributes to the happiness of families. It does this in two ways.
I. By the influence of its laws on the community.
II. By the operation of its principles on the minds of individuals.
I. Let us view THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN LAWS ON A COMMUNITY.
1. The laws of all those nations which are called Christian are, to a considerable degree, founded on the Christian code.
2. The laws which regulate the marriage contract have an important influence on human happiness. There are three points which we shall notice as applicable to our subject.
(1) Marriage, according to the Christian religion, is a union between a single pair: the husband being permitted to have but one wife, and the wife but one husband.
(2) The Christian law makes marriage between two parties binding for life.
(3) But Christianity provides relief for the greatest injury which a husband or a wife can suffer by making adultery a dissolution of the marriage tie.
3. On the happiness of woman, Christianity has a most special influence. In temporal things she is more indebted to it than man. Her exact place in the social scale is defined in the Scriptures. Christianity, by investing her with equal religious privileges, has forbidden her husband to treat her as a being of an inferior order. There is neither male or female, but all are one in Christ Jesus.
II. I have to show you how it contributes to the happiness of families BY THE OPERATION OF ITS PRINCIPLES ON THE MINDS OF INDIVIDUALS.
1. The first moral principle of Christianity is love. He only is a real Christian in whom this is predominant. His religion teaches him that his love must be all-pervading and quenchless. His God is represented as love. His Saviour is love incarnate, the embodiment and manifestation of Divine love to our world. On this perfect model the Christians character must be formed. The whole system of Christian ethics is only a development of the same principles. The gospel, throughout, inculcates the most perfect courtesy and politeness: not that false and hollow code which consists of polished manners and a specious hypocrisy; but that real courtesy which seeks the happiness of others. That which the man of high life professes to be, the Christian really is. He is humble, and the servant of all. He esteems others more highly than himself. Self-denial is a duty which he has practised, as long as he has been a Christian.
2. The principles and precepts of Christianity are not merely general things which apply to the mass of mankind; but they are adapted to particular cases, and especially to domestic duties.
3. Now, such being the operation of Christianity on the character, the residence of one Christian person in a family must have an important influence on the happiness of the whole. The Christian religion qualifies alike for every station. To have learned the lesson of the gospel gives dignity and lustre to the humblest duties.
4. If such be the happy influence shed on a family by one Christian member, how much greater will it be when the head of the family is a Christian. The character and example of the master must have a great influence on the household. Besides, his will is the law by which all things are regulated and controlled. The character of the whole, will, to a considerable degree, reflect the colour of his.
5. How happy must that family be, all the members of which act on the principles of Christianity. In concluding this discourse, I would offer the following practical remarks for your consideration.
I. Recollect that what you have heard this evening is only a small and very subordinate part of the evidence in favour of the truth of Christianity. That evidence is large and conclusive, as I noticed at the commencement of this lecture. He who is in doubt should examine the whole with serious attention and candour, for his own sake: for it cannot be concealed that his everlasting happiness depends on the question.
II. Do not fall into the common mistake of misjudging Christianity by the conduct of Christians. Religion is not chargeable with the fault of its disciples. Whatever the actions of Christians may he, the rule which is given for the direction of their life is perfect. The question at issue is, not what men are, but what Christianity.
III. AS A MATTER OF DOMESTIC POLICY, YOU SHOULD ADOPT CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES. Nothing is so conducive to the happiness of families: it is therefore a point of wisdom to introduce Christian regulations.
IV. If the beneficent influence of Christianity on domestic life tends to prove its Divine origin, THIS ARGUMENT SHOULD PERSUADE YOU TO RECEIVE IT AS A REVELATION FROM HEAVEN. If it be a revelation from heaven it is worthy of all acceptation. Not confined in its influence to the narrow circle of domestic life, nor to the present world, its sublime scheme extends beyond the visible universe, and grasps eternity. It interposes between man and God, and saves the sinner from hell. (S. Spink.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 Now the Lord had said] More literally this may…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Now the Lord had said] More literally this may read, “The Lord said,” and may refer to a call to leave Haran, and not to that which Abram received in Ur, of which Stephen speaks in Act_7:2, and which was a short time previous (Jacobus).—Abram] Heb. High father—a distinguished progenitor of a race.—Get thee out] Heb. Go for thyself. The command was pre-eminently to him and for his advantage; though others were not excluded, as the history shows.—Of thy country] The fatherland, the land of Mesopotamia, as it embraced both Ur of the Chaldees and Haran (Lange).—And from thy kindred] Alford renders “the place of thy birth,” such being the general meaning of this word. Still, in other places, it plainly signifies kindred (Gen_43:7; Est_8:6), and this is the probable meaning here. Abram’s kindred would be the Chaldaic descendants of Shem.—From thy father’s house] Terah and his family (Gen_11:31-32).—
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Gen_12:2. And thou shalt be a blessing] Heb. Be thou a blessing. He is to be not merely a subject of blessing, but a medium of blessing to others. It is more blessed to give than to receive. And the Lord here confers on Abram the delightful prerogative of dispensing good to others (Murphy).—
Gen_12:3. And curse him that curseth thee] Heb. Those that make light of thee will I curse. The verb signifies to treat as vile, worthless, or contemptible. This is included in cursing, which is the imprecation of evil.—In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed]. These words have given occasion for much contention on the part of rationalist interpreters. Knobel, who is the best example of them, would understand them, that all the families of the earth should bless with (or, in) thee, i.e. wish themselves blessed in—by the example of—Abraham; wish for themselves blessedness like his. This rendering he defends by chapter Gen_48:20, “In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh.” The objection to this is that the verb is in the passive voice, not bless, but be blessed. On such a matter we may further remark that we may well leave the New Testament writers, to whom Hebrew was familiar, to decide for us which of the senses should prevail. And this has been plainly and emphatically done. See Act_3:25; Gal_3:8; Gal_3:14. Notice that literally the expression is, “all the families of the ground,” so that the blessing is an echo of the primal curse (Alford).—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_12:1-3
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM
The last chapter dealt with the human race as a whole, and thus furnished the elements of a universal history. In this chapter that history is contracted and becomes national. It is not the design of Scripture to record the famous deeds of all men everywhere, to trace the development of the kingdoms of this world, but rather to unfold the spiritual dealings of God with the race. The sacred historian, therefore, after marking the downward tendency of mankind, now calls attention to a man on whom God’s light had shined, who was to be the only hope of a world which had well nigh perished in the ruins of its corruption. God chooses Abraham that He might make him a worthy ancestor of the children of faith, and the founder of a nation by means of which he was to illustrate the ways of His Providence and grace. The knowledge of God had well nigh perished from the world, and the call of Abraham was a spiritual revival—a fresh starting place in the religious history of mankind. In the call of Abraham, we may observe—
Gen_12:1. That it was manifestly Divine. The patriarch did not by study and meditation discover the course of duty which he afterwards obeyed. The idea did not arise in his own mind, but was suggested to him from a source purely Divine. St. Stephen says that “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham.” There was some visible manifestation of the Divine glory, and an authentic voice was heard. Since the last recorded communication from heaven, 422 years had passed away, and now God speaks again to Abraham. This call could not have been an illusion, for—
1. To obey it, he gave up all that was dear and precious to him in the world. He gave up country, home, friends, and entered upon an untried path, committing himself to unknown chances. He could not have made such a sacrifice without a sufficient reason. The early Christians submitted to persecution, even unto death, because they knew that the alleged facts of their religion were true. The conduct of Abraham can only be explained by the fact that he acted upon a real communication from God, and not from an impression.
2. The course of conduct he followed could not be of human suggestion. Abraham was not driven from his country by adverse circumstances, or attracted by the promise of plenty elsewhere. He might have followed the usual policy of the world, and made the best of things as they are. But he left a condition which would then be considered as prosperous, and cheerfully accepted whatever trials might await him. The whole of his character and destiny were changed. Natural causes cannot account for so sudden and marked a change. The “word” of God alone has power like this. An ignorant idolator cannot be turned to the ways of true religion, and a life of faith, without the operation of a Divine power. Flesh and blood could not have revealed this to Abraham.
3. The history of the Church confirms the fact that the call was Divine. The Christian Church was but a continuation of the Jewish, with added light, and fresh blessings. That Church must have had an origin in the dim past, sufficient to account for the fact of its existence. If the world had lapsed into idolatry this new spiritual nation could not have arisen, unless God had raised up a founder for it—a new centre around which He could gather a chosen people. The Church can be traced back to the grey morning of history in which one great figure appears, which shines through all the succeeding ages, and still will shine until the course of man on earth is run. The blessings which the Church has enjoyed, and still shall enjoy, throughout all time, are the blessings which God promised to Abraham. The Church of God is a fact, and something strange and unusual must have happened in the past history of the world to account for it. The name of Abraham is so closely connected with the doctrines of the Gospel, as delivered in the New Testament, that to throw doubt upon the reality of his history would go very far towards destroying the foundations of the Christian religion. Christian believers now do but repeat the history of this patriarch, for they are all called of God, as was Abraham.
II. It demanded great sacrifices. Upon the Divine call, Abraham was not immediately rewarded with temporal blessings. Appearances were altogether against his deriving any advantages from obedience. He was called upon to make great sacrifices, with no human prospect of compensation.
1. He had to sever the ties of country. It is natural for a man to love his native land, the scenes of his earliest years and first impressions. A man’s country becomes hallowed in the course of years by many tender associations. The youth may leave his native land with little regret, but to the old man it is like tearing some firm attachment from his heart. To have been suddenly called to leave his country must have been no small trial to Abraham.
2. He had to sever the ties of kindred. Natural relationships form a strong bond of unity, and awaken a peculiar love. A man must have a stronger affection for his own flesh and blood than for the rest of the human race. He clings with a fond attachment to those who were the guardians of his early life. These are the most sacred of natural ties, and to sever them touches the deepest fountains of human emotion. Abraham was called upon to make this sacrifice at a time when he could feel it most.
3. He had to sever the ties of home. This is narrower than kindred and signifies all the dear and precious things that form our domestic circle, or lie nearest our heart. Man has a kind of instinctive belief in a home, some sacred spot where he can find rest and comfort and be secure from invasion. There he has sanctuary. To sever the ties of home with the prospect of some sufficient advantage elsewhere may be justified as a call of duty, or devotion to some high principle; still the act itself is a real sacrifice. Abraham had reasons for leaving his home; yet in making up his mind to this he must needs have felt the pangs which nature gives.
III. It was an example of faith. The promise was made in general terms, and the good things to come, as far as Abraham was personally concerned, placed at an inaccessible distance. God did not tell him that He would give him the land, but merely show it to him. And as a fact of history he did not possess the good land. To act upon a promise like this required strong faith.
1. Faith is required to brave the terrors of the unknown. Abraham went forth upon his untried journey without any clear idea as to where he was going, or what might await him along his course. The unknown is ever the terrible, and we can only enter it with any confidence or hope when supported by the mysterious power of faith. Spiritual men derive the whole force and energy of their superior life from the influence of the distant and unknown. Faith is the power which links these to the present, and makes them a reality to the soul.
2. Faith trusts in God. Abraham did not know where he was going, but, like St. Paul, he knew “whom he had believed.” That faith which merely believes the truth concerning God is dead, but that faith which believes in God is powerful and energetic. Such faith is not an attachment to some system of truth which the mind may languidly receive; it is trust in a person. “Abraham believed God.” By the adoption of certain forms, and assents to creeds, we may have corporate religion, but personal religion can only arise from the soul’s direct dealings with its God. God did not explain all the reasons of His strange commands and dealings to Abraham, yet Abraham trusted Him.
3. In religious faith there is an element of reason. Religion does not require us to exercise a blind faith. We have to venture something, but still we have sufficient reason to justify us in the step. The called of God may demand of us that we should go beyond what reason could point out, but never that we should act contrary to reason. The children of the truth recognise the voice of truth as soon as they hear it. There is something in the nature of their souls to which the truth is agreeable. There is a purer instinct in man, which to follow is the highest reason. Abraham was one of those to whom God appeared, and he felt that it was reasonable to obey the high command. It was enough for him to know that it was God who spoke, and God could only have a high and worthy purpose in view in all His commands to the children of men. To follow the promptings of faith is the noblest act of human reason.
IV. It was accompanied by promise. Though God does not explain all the reasons of His dealings to believers, and show them every step of the way in which they shall be led, yet He gives them sufficient encouragement by promises of future good. Abraham was assured that the advantages of obedience would be great. To employ an expression of Matthew Henry’s, he might be a “loser for God, but not a loser by Him.” The promises made to Abraham may be considered in a twofold light.
1. As they concerned himself, personally. He would have compensation for all the worldly loss he would have to endure. The nature of the affections of the soul cannot endure that they should remain without a proper object. If one hope is taken away from a man, he must have another. If he is forbidden to love some object unworthy of his affection, some other must be provided for him. Abraham had to lose much, and it was necessary that he should have reason for believing that God would be able to give him much more than this. There is a “better and an enduring substance” which more than compensates for all the sacrifices which faith demands. The several promises made to Abraham corresponded, in each case, to the sacrifices he was called upon to make.
(1) For the loss of country, God promised that He would make him a great nation. His own nation was fast sinking into idolatry, and had he remained in it he must have caught the contagion of the times, and continued ignorant of the true religion. It was a double blessing to be delivered from such a nation, and to be made the head of another for which such an illustrious history was preparing.
(2) For the loss of his place of birth, God promised to bless him with a higher prosperity. Abraham had much to leave behind—all his prospects of wealth and comfort, but God said, “I will bless thee.” That blessing included all prosperity; as much as was needful, and sufficient for this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.
(3) For the loss of family distinction, God promised to make his name great. Abraham had to leave his “father’s house,” but he was destined in the Providence of God to build up a more famous and lasting house. These promises may be considered—
2. In his relation to humanity. God said, “Thou shalt be a blessing.” This promise implied something grander and nobler than any personal benefits which Abraham could inherit. It was the higher blessing—the larger benefit. Religion means something more than the selfish enjoyment of spiritual good, and he who only considers the interests of his own soul has failed to catch the true spirit of it. Man approaches the nature of God when he becomes a source of blessing to others. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Abraham was to be a blessing to mankind in the highest sense. Along his line were to flow all the benefits of salvation, and all the precious gifts of the covenant of grace. Other men have blessed the world with useful works and inventions, and with the gifts of literature and science, but he who is chosen by God to be an instrument in the world’s salvation is the greatest benefactor to the race. As a further expansion of this blessing promised to Abraham—
(1.) His cause was henceforth to be identified with the cause of God. “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee” (Gen_12:3). “God promised further, so to take sides with Abraham in the world, as to make common cause with him—share his friendships, and treat his enemies as His own. This is the highest possible pledge. This threatening against hostile people was signally fulfilled in the case of the Egyptians, Edomites, Amalekites, Moabites, Ammonites, and the greater nations—Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian, Greek, and Roman, which have fallen under the curse of God as here denounced against the enemies of the Church and kingdom of Christ. The Church is God’s. Her enemies are His. Her friends are His also, and no weapon that is formed against her shall prosper, for He who has all power given unto Him shall be with her faithful servants, even to the end of the world” (Jacobus).
3. He was to be the source of the highest blessing to mankind. “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Heb. Of the ground. The ground was cursed in Adam, now it was to be blessed in Abraham. The world was to be blessed in families, for the family is the first of all relationships, the most lasting of all institutions, and the best representative of the love of God, who is the Father of all mankind. By virtue of the Sonship of Christ Jesus we are made members of the household of God. It is God’s design to bless the world by means of a family, hence in the fulness of time His own Son took flesh and blood of the children of Abraham, entered into our human relationships that He might bless all the families of the earth. In all this, there are three great principles involved.
(1) That it is God’s plan to help man by means of man. The system of mediators prevails throughout all human affairs. Nature ministers to us, and we have to minister one to the other. God brought spiritual succour to the human race, not directly but by means of the family of Abraham.
(2) That it is God’s plan to help man by means of the human in conjunction with the divine. No one of the human race, however illustrious, could redeem mankind. All were tainted by sin, stricken by the same disease, equally weak and impotent to save. It was necessary, therefore, for God to take hold on human nature in order to procure the salvation of mankind. Hence St. Paul teaches that by the seed of Abraham, by which the world was to be blessed, was meant Jesus Christ. “He saith not, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ” (Gal_3:16). The promise made to Abraham does not distinctly mention the God-man, yet in the progress of revelation it gradually narrows to this. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ, and though dimly, yet still with a real perception, of which this is the account.
(3) That the catholic spirit belongs to all stages of inspiration. The Old Testament is not narrow, exclusive, and confined, for it speaks here of blessings to come to all families of the earth. The New Testament can have no wider aim, and merely speaks of this gracious purpose as being accomplished. God’s design to construct a family of saints built upon the Sonship of Christ was revealed to Abraham, and therefore St. Paul declares that in this promise the Gospel was preached to him beforehand. (Gal_3:8-16.)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_12:1. God’s speaking to man—
(1) Should inspire reverence and worship;
(2) should put an end to doubt;
(3) should be a sufficient basis for faith;
(4) should command obedience.
Revelation consists of communications made by God to men, who, to say the least, were above the average of mankind in purity and nobility of character.
The call of Abraham—
(1) A manifestation of the grace of God. Others may have been as worthy, or, if not, they might have been fitted for such a purpose, but the Divine choice rested upon him. Here was grace, by which God takes the lead in human salvation, and in calling men to special services in the Church. Abraham did not choose the Lord, but the Lord him.
2. Peremptory. There was no room for debate. Abraham must obey at once, for the danger was great. The world was fast sinking into idolatry, and provoking the judgment of God. The faith must be saved in a man of heaven’s choice.
3. Authoritative. There was a clear revelation from God. The authority could not be questioned. A man must not contend with his Maker.
4. Painful. Obedience to it was hard for flesh and blood.
5. It required faith. The voice that called was authoritative and commanding, yet since the believer cannot know all the journey, or through what untried things he shall have to pass, he must exercise faith. God’s promise to Abraham was such as he could not immediately realise, and to the end of his life he would have to exercise faith. Yea, he died in faith.
A similar command is virtually given to us. We are not, indeed, called to leave our country and connections, but to withdraw our affections from earthly things, and fix them upon things above, we are called. The world around us lies in wickedness; we are not to love it or the things that are in it; we are rather to come out from it, and to be crucified to it; we are to regard it as a wilderness through which we are passing to our Father’s house, and in our passage through it to consider ourselves as strangers and pilgrims. If we meet with good accommodation and kind treatment, we are to be thankful; if we meet with briars and thorns in our way, we must console ourselves with the thought that it is the appointed way, and that every step still brings us nearer home. We are to be looking forward to our journey’s end, and to be proceeding towards it, whatever be the weather, or whatever the road. Thus we are to fulfil our pilgrimage to the heavenly Canaan in the same spirit as did Abraham to the earthly.—(Bush.)
When “God chose Abraham” (Neh_9:7) it was an act of free and sovereign grace. He did not, on this occasion, make choice of Melchizedek, who was already in the Holy Land, and was faithfully sustaining there the offices of a king of righteousness and peace, and a priest of the Most High God. The Lord is found of those who seek Him not. He comes to Abraham dwelling afar off, and if not hostile, at least indifferent, to the truth; to him He reveals Himself—him He chooses—him He calls. To Abraham, while yet ungodly, God, intending to “justify the heathen through faith, preaches the Gospel, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Gal_3:8).—(Candlish.)
The call of Abraham was the first act of God towards the formation of a Church. It was the design of God that faith should proceed from one believer to all, in like manner as from one Saviour redemption should flow to all.
It is common to find that a nation imbibes the spirit of its founder. Nimrod, the founder of the Assyrian monarchy, was a conqueror, and the Assyrians were pre-eminently a conquering nation. But in the founder of the Jewish nation we find, not a conqueror, nor a law-giver, but a saint, remarkable only for this, that he lived with God; and therefore we may expect to meet with what is really the case, not a profane history, but the history of piety.—(Robertson.)
Gen_12:2. The promise, “I will make of thee a great nation,” required faith in a most eminent degree.
1. There was the barrier of a natural improbability. Sarai was barren, which was a difficulty in the way of his faith, hard to be overcome. Abraham felt that afterwards, and lent himself to a device for bringing about the promise by means which God had not appointed.
2. The promise could not receive sufficient fulfilment until after his death. A great nation can only be built up in the course of long centuries.
3. Abraham had not the encouragement of example. There was no nation then existing that could be called truly great. A believer has great encouragement when he can look back upon what God has done for His saints in the past, when he hears of the “noble works that God did in their days;” but Abraham had not this. He had to face things altogether new and untried.
A nation which God makes, though it may not actually fulfil the Divine ideal, must possess some elements of spiritual work not enjoyed by any other. Abraham was the father of a nation which preserved pure the revelation of God, and out of which the true monarch of human souls was to arise.
The promise had reference to things which could be but of small account to an eye of sense; but faith would find enough in it to satisfy the most enlarged desires. The objects, though distant, were worth waiting for. He should be the father of a great nation, and what was of greater account, and which was doubtless understood, that nation should be the Lord’s. God Himself would bless him; and this would be more than the whole world without it. He would also make his name great; not in the records of worldly fame, but in the history of the Church; and being himself full of the blessing of the Lord, it should be his to impart blessedness to the world. “I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing.” This promise has been fulfilling ever since. All the true blessedness which the world is now, or shall hereafter be possessed of, is owing to Abraham and his posterity. Through them we have a Bible, a Saviour, and a Gospel. They are the stock on which the Christian Church is grafted. Their very dispersions and punishments have proved the riches of the world. What then shall be their recovery but life from the dead! It would seem that the conversion of the Jews, whenever it shall take place, will be a kind of resurrection to mankind. Such was the hope of this calling. And what could the friends of God or man desire more?—(Fuller.)
What constitutes a great nation?
1. A nation where righteousness dwells is great. Abraham was accounted righteous before God, being justified by faith. He stamped his own spirit and character upon his nation, whose history has furnished long lines of remarkable saints.
2. A nation on which God’s blessing descends is great. No nation can be truly great that does not keep and cherish the revelation of God. There must be the possession of spiritual truth before the highest blessing can be enjoyed. It was this that made the Jews superior to other nations in the chief things which concern man.
(1) They had the most noble conceptions of God. Among the heathen nations the idea of God was debased by the most degrading conceptions. A few superior minds could reach to better and purer thoughts of the Divinity, yet how cold are their abstractions when compared with the majesty of the idea furnished by the Hebrew Scriptures! It was only in Judah that God was truly known, and in Israel that His name was truly great.
(2) They had the purest morality. What a contrast between the moral law of the Jews and that of the nations around them throughout the whole course of their history! God’s blessing conveys the inheritance of the highest moral principles.
(3) They felt that they were the subjects of Divine government. The religion of the Jews taught them that they were not under the rule of fate or chance, but of Providence. They learned to trace all their disasters to disobedience to God. What nation was ever taught as they, by so severe a discipline, that a people can only fail through lack of righteousness!
3. That nation is great which is a source of blessing to others. The Jewish nation gave the world the Scriptures and a Redeemer. No nation can be truly great from which the Word of God and the blessings of the Gospel do not go forth to others. To be the centre of spiritual life and light is the highest distinction.
His believing this so unhesitatingly and so manifestly with all his heart—his taking God simply at His word, asking no questions and raising no difficulties—is itself a wonder. He might have started many objections, and made many anxious inquiries. How can these things be? How can he, whose wife is barren, be the father of a great nation? How can he, who is a man of unclean lips, be at once so graciously received into favour, when his eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts? And how is he to become so awful a sign of trial, and so fruitful a source of good, to his brethren, and to all men? But Abram stands not upon any such scruples. He takes the plain testimony of the God of glory—“I will bless thee;” I, who alone can bless, and whose high prerogative and right to bless none may question—I will bless thee; and if I justify, who is he that condemneth? It is enough. Abraham believes—“Be it unto me, Lord, according to thy word”—and he is blessed in believing; blessed, as having his iniquity forgiven, his transgressions covered, his sin imputed no more, and his spirit freed from guile (Psa_32:1-2; Rom_4:6-8), even as the spirit of a little child is free from guile when he is found trusting at once, implicitly and for ever, his parent’s eye, word, and heart. But have we not in all this something more than an exercise of belief competent to the natural man? Have we not that faith which is “the gift of God?” (Eph_2:8.)—(Candlish.)
I will magnify, or make thy name great. This concerns his repute, because, being called from his own, he might justly fear disrespect among strangers. God encourageth him by this that He will make his name famous, that is for piety, virtue, goodness, and power. It contains—
1. A greatening of all good, which is the ground of true honour and respect among the best.
2. A greatening of the fame and report of all this in the ears of the inhabitants of the earth. Now this was effected both in Abram’s person and in his seed. And such a good and great name is a precious ointment, a sweet blessing.—(Hughes).
Gen_12:3. Such an assurance is the highest pledge of friendship and favour that can be given, and sets forth the privileges of the Lord’s chosen in the most impressive light. The strictest leagues and covenants of kings and princes contain no stronger bond of alliance than the engagement to regard each other’s friends and enemies as common friends and enemies.—(Bush).
God considers as done to Himself the wrongs and insults done to His people.
God deals with nations according to their treatment of His people. The Church is a serious factor in the political history of the world.
God is in league for the offensive part, to be an enemy also unto his enemies. Two words are here used—
1. That upon the part of the enemy signifieth to set light by, and so to vilify or reproach, which God takes notice of to Judges
2. The word upon God’s part is to curse unto perdition; so much is God incensed against the enemies of His covenanted ones.—(Hughes).
In Abram is this blessing laid up as a treasure hid in a field to be realised in due time. All the families of mankind shall ultimately enter into the enjoyment of this unbounded blessing. Thus, when the Lord saw fit to select a man to preserve vital piety on the earth and to be the head of a race fitted to be the depository of a revelation of mercy, He at the same time designed that this step should be the means of effectually recalling the sin-enthralled world to the knowledge and love of Himself. The race was twice already since the fall put upon its probation—once under the promise of victory to the seed of the woman, and again under the covenant with Noah. In each of these cases, notwithstanding the growing light of revelation and accumulating evidence of the Divine forbearance, the race had apostatised from the God of mercy with lamentably few known exceptions. Yet undeterred by the gathering tokens of this second apostasy, and after reiterated practical demonstration to all men of the debasing, demoralising effects of sin, the Lord, with calm determination of purpose, sets about another step in the great process of removing the curse of sin, dispensing the blessing of pardon, and eventually drawing all the nations to accept His mercy. The special call of Abram contemplates the calling of the Gentiles as its final issue, and is therefore to be regarded as one link in a series of wonderful events, by which the legal obstacles of the Divine mercy are to be taken out of the way, and the spirit of the Lord is to prevail with still more and more of men to return to God.—Murphy.
The passage contains a clear intimation of what God Himself, whose judgment is according to truth, regards as the source of the truest and richest blessings to the children of men. It is not wealth, fame, power, sensual pleasure, or mental endowments, but the gift of His own Son as a Saviour, the bestowment of the Holy Spirit, the pardon of sin, peace of conscience, and the high and purifying hopes connected with eternal life. This is the inheritance that makes us truly rich; and utterly vain, foolish, and fatal it is to seek it from any other source.—(Bush).
The first promise of a Messiah was victory through the seed of the woman. The second promise was blessing for all mankind. Thus God gradually reveals His gracious purpose with ever-enlarging ground of encouragement and hope.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Abram and History! Gen_12:1-20.
(1) The unchanged habits of the East, says Stanley, render it a kind of living Pompeii. The outward appearances, which, in the case of the Greeks and Romans, we knew only through art and writing—through marble, fresco, and parchment—in the case of Jewish history we know through the forms of actual men living and moving before us, wearing the same garb, speaking almost the same language as Abram and the patriarchs.
(2) From Ur of the Chaldees, remarks Landels, comes forth, in one sense, the germ of all that is good throughout succeeding generations. His appearance, like that of some great luminary in the heavens, marks an epoch in the world’s history. A stream of influence flows from him—not self-originated, but deriving its existence from those heaven-clouds of Divine dew of blessing resting upon this lofty summit of his soul.
(3) Widening as it flows, and promoting, in spite of the occasional checks and hindrances it meets with, spiritual life and health, that stream is vastly more deserving of exploration and research than the streams of the Lualaba and Niger, or the sources of the Nile and Zambesi. Such exploration and research will be productive of incalculable benefit to those who engage therein with right motives and aspirations.
“Truth springs like harvest from the well-ploughed field,
And the soul feels it has not searched in vain.”—Bonar.
Father of Faithful! Gen_12:1-9. Here we have—
1. The Call (Gen_12:1);
2. The Command (Gen_12:1);
3. The Covenant (Gen_12:2);
4. The Conditions (Gen_12:3);
5. The Compliance (Gen_12:4);
6. The Conversion (Gen_12:7); and
7. The Considerations.—The call was from God. The command was to leave his native land. The covenant was protection and preservation, etc. The condition was that of simple trust and confidence. The compliance was that Abraham journeyed first to Haran, thence to Canaan. The conversion of Abraham was evidently the erection of the “altar,” erected wherever he pitched his tent. And the considerations are
(1) That God calls and commands each of the sons of men to come out from a world lying in wickedness, and make life a pilgrimage to heaven.
(2) That God covenants and conditions with each of the sons of men obeying this call to crown their lives with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
(3) That God counts and compensates for all sacrifices and sufferings endured in complying with His call with the Crown of Life that fadeth not away.
“One of the chivalry of Christ! He tells us how to stand
With rootage like the palm, amid the maddest whirl of sand.”—Massey.
Darkness and Light! Gen_12:1.
(1) In the early Genesis of Creation we have the material chaos and darkness, succeeded by the introduction of light. Here we have God saying in the moral world, as He had uttered before in the natural, “Let there be light.” As Stanley Leathes says: The light was making itself manifest after the Babel chaos and gloom. And that which made manifest was light. The proof that it was light was in the light which it diffused; just as when, with closed eyes, I am told that a light has been brought into the midnight room of darkness, I open them to have proof that there is light. Abraham could have no higher proof.
(2) Other gods had not cared for him—had held no communication with him—had not made themselves known to him as living beings; but this Being had. He had come out of the darkness and made light all about Him. He had come out of the silence and spoken with the voice of the Word of God. He had convinced Abram that He lived, and that from Him all living creatures enjoyed life. Abram believed God; and obedience quickly followed.
(3) When Richard I. returned in disguise to England, after his escape from the Austrian dungeons, the peasants required evidence that he was indeed the king. Richard appeared amongst them; he spoke to them; he performed such feats of strength as Richard only was known to achieve; he showed them his signet-ring. They were satisfied. Believing that “Richard was himself again,” they immediately tendered him their allegiance, and complied with his royal requirements to proceed with him. Faith, i.e. true faith, cannot be separated one from the other,—they are more intimately joined than the Siamese twins.
“Therefore look and believe, for works will follow spontaneous,
Even as the day the sun; for Christian works are no more than
Animate faith and love, as flowers are the animate springtide.”—Longfellow.
Demand and Supply! Gen_12:1.
(1) That God called Abram is the Mosaic utterance under Divine Inspiration. But had there been no craving in Abram’s mind and heart, no yearning after the Infinite, no aspirations after a knowledge of the true God, “O that I knew where I might find Him?” Was there no demand answering to the supply? Was there no craving to be met by the gratification? Surely. It is only reasonable to suppose that Jehovah responded to the heart-hunger of Abram. To him the bread of idol-knowledge and of creature-worship was as bone-dust or fruit of Sodom. The hunger was appeased only at the cost of moral dyspepsia—of spiritual leanness. The aspiration became intenser.
(2) The law of growth through craving is, as Ladd remarks, fundamental; it is capable of illustration from every form of animal life. Put life into matter, and you get as one of its earliest exhibitions the same phenomenon, which remains with the life until its extinction; you get craving, which, being met by supply, becomes the minister of higher life and growth. In the souls of men this instinctive craving under various forms acts as the spur of the rider to drive men towards the Divine, in which alone they can find satisfaction and rest.
“Every inmost aspiration is God’s angel undefiled;
And in every “O my Father!” slumbers deep “Here, My child.”—Dscheladeddin.
Abram’s Aspiration! Gen_12:2.
(1) No more beautiful description of the methods of intellectual and spiritual vitality can anywhere be found than is given us in the Duke of Argyll’s “Reign of Law.” He unfolds the relations of the external force of the earth to the internal force which moves the bird’s wing.
(2) What God does for nature He does not deny to man. He puts a force in the soul. That soul can float beside the albatross, at rest, where there is nothing else at rest in the tremendous turmoil of its own stormy seas, which has received the Divine Force.
(3) Under Divine tuition Abram was trained to beat down resistance from without by force that answered from within. Shall we say that God enabled Abram to use—as the bird uses the breezes of air—his soul’s yearning after Himself?
“God found one worthy to be drawn
From out the deepening social night,
And set him as a star of dawn,
And herald of the greater Light.”
Abram’s Separation! Gen_12:3. “We may apply,” says Gibson, “the same term to Abram, which the Apostle Paul applies to himself, when he says, ‘Separated unto the Gospel of God.’ As a skilful schoolmaster trains his pupil by a regular graduated series of lessons, so God trained Abram by a series of separations. His first lesson, and one in the acquiring of which the patriarch proved an apt scholar, was when he separated from Ur of the Chaldees by Divine command (Gen_12:1). Then another lesson had to be acquired when he was again summoned to leave Charran behind. Having graduated in this standard, he underwent separation from Canaan itself (Gen_12:6), when he erected his tent as a pilgrim and stranger in the land, and his altar as a mountain, from whose lofty summit faith’s eye might descry the heavenly home on high. Again, we find him at school in Egypt, learning the lesson of separation from the world more and more. And this repeated separation was not for his sake only, or that of his descendants by birth, but for the “world’s sake.” “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” As a good man has wide sympathies and aims in the education of his child, so with God. If the Christian father educates his son for the sake of his fellow-creatures as well as for his own, surely much more would the Divine Father be educating Abraham for the sake of “all the families of the world.”
“At God’s commandment self-exiled,
Alone he left his native clan,
Led forth by faith, like a blind man
Led by a simple-hearted child.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Gen 12:1, etc.
Gen 12:1, etc.
I. In the call of Abram we see an outline of the great providential system under which we live.
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II. Great lives are trained by great promises. The promise to Abram (1) throws light on the compensations of life; (2) it shows the oneness of God with His people; (3) it shows the influence of the present over the future.
III. There will always be central figures in society, men of commanding life, around whom other persons settle into secondary positions. This one man, Abram, holds the promise; all the other persons in the company hold it secondarily.
IV. Abram set up his altar along the line of his march.
V. The incident in Gen 12:10-12 shows what the best of men are when they betake themselves to their own devices. As the minister of God, Abram is great and noble; as the architect of his own fortune, he is cowardly, selfish, and false.
VI. (Gen 12:18-20). Natural nobleness ought never to be underrated. In this matter Pharaoh was a greater, a nobler man than Abram.
VII. The whole incident shows that God calls men to special destinies, and that life is true and excellent in itself and in its influences only in so far as it is divinely inspired and ruled.
Parker, vol. i., p. 192.
Gen 12:1
I. All the life of Abraham was a special training for a special end. Chosen, as are all God’s instruments, because he was capable of being made that which the Lord purposed to make him, there was that in him which the good Spirit of the Lord formed, through the incidents of his life of wandering, into a character of eminent and single-hearted faithfulness.
II. This work was done not for his own sake exclusively. He was to be "a father of many generations." The seed of Abraham was to be kept separate from the heathen world around it, even until from it was produced the "Desire of all nations"; and this character of Abraham was stamped thus deeply upon him, that it might be handed on through him to his children and his children’s children after him.
III. And so to a wonderful degree it was; marking that Jewish people, amongst all their sins and rebellions, with such a peculiar strength and nobleness of character; and coming out in all its glory, in successive generations, in judge and seer and prophet and king, as they at all realised the pattern of their great progenitor, and walked the earth as strangers and pilgrims, but walked it with God, the God of Abraham and their God.
S. Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 165.
References: Gen 12:1.—J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 337; J. B. Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, p. 1; Parker, vol. i., p. 186.
Gen 12:1-3
(with Gen 9:1-9)
No one has ever doubted that the words in Gen 9:1-7 are a Divine blessing upon the human race.
I. There is something especially appropriate in this language to the inhabitants of a restored earth. Compare it with the simple records of the garden life of Adam, and you perceive that you are entering upon a more advanced stage in human history. Two steps in advance have been taken: (1) Every man is now his brother’s keeper. Every man is shedding his own blood when he sheds his brother’s blood. The words "every man’s brother" expanded the principle of the family to a higher power. They declared that the race was a family; they intimated that society was to be built up on the recognition of an actual relationship among the different members of it; (2) a higher dignity is put upon life than it had before, whether it dwells in a man or only in an inferior creature.
II. This is the first occasion on which we meet with the phrase "covenant." Man was a party to the covenant in the sense that he might believe or disbelieve the sign which was said to bear that Divine testimony. All his future acts would depend on this difference, because they would depend upon the question whether he worshipped a being in whom he trusted, or one whom he regarded as an enemy. Man lives by faith; and till faith is called forth in him he is still but an animal with the capacities of a spirit.
III. The history of Abram is the grand illustration of this truth. Every unfaithful man of the race of Abram, every unfaithful man anywhere, would be a god; he would not claim the right of knowing God and being like Him. Therefore all such were tempted to make gods of their own, and to forget the living God. Abram’s faith consisted in not doing this—in acknowledging the Lord to be God. He believed God’s promise. He counted it the highest blessing and glory, not that he should be blessed, but that he should be the channel of blessing to multitudes unknown.
F. D. Maurice, The Patriarchs and Law-Givers of the Old Testament, p. 68. Reference: xii 1-3.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 394.
Gen 12:1-4
I. At some time in our lives a call from God sends its trumpet tone through each of our souls, as it did when Abraham heard it, and he went forth with the future stretching broad and far before him.
II. God’s call to Abraham was: (1) a call to closer communion with Himself; (2) a call which led him to break with his past; (3) a call into loneliness.
III. The reason why so many of us, who are good and honourable men, never become men of great use and example and higher thought and true devotion, is that we dare not be singular. We dare not leave our kindred or our set. We will not leave our traditional views and sentiments, and we cannot leave our secret sins. God speaks, and we close our eyes and turn away our heads, and our hearts answer, "I will not come." How long will all this last? Will it last until another solemn voice shall speak to us, and at the call of death we say, "I come"?
W. Page-Roberts, Liberalism in Religion, p. 178.
Gen 12:2
When God called Abraham, and, in Abraham, the Jewish nation, He cradled them in blessings. This is the way in which He always begins with a man. If ever, to man or nation, He speaks otherwise, it is because they have made Him do so.
I. Many of us account religion rather as a possession to be held, or a privilege to be enjoyed, than as a life which we are to spread, a kingdom we are bound to extend. Consequently our religion has grown too passive. It would be healthier and happier if we were to cast into it more action.
II. Wherever Abraham went he shed blessings round him, not only by his prayers and influence, but by the actual charm of his presence. As Abraham was a blessing to the Jews, still more were the Jews a blessing to the world.
III. Then came the climax. He who so blesses with His blood, He who did nothing but bless, He was of the seed of Abraham.
IV. As joined to the mystical body of Christ, we are Abraham’s seed, and one of the promises to which we are admitted is this, "Thou shalt be a blessing." The sense of a positive appointment, of a destiny to do a thing, is the most powerful motive of which the human mind is capable. Whoever desires to be a blessing must be a man of faith, prayer, and love.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 293.
References: Gen 12:2.—J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 113; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 205.
Gen 12:3
I. A double stream of narrative runs through the first four books of the Pentateuch. One of these may be called the Priestly narrative—the other, the Prophetical narrative. The text sets before us one of the characteristic features of the Prophetical narrative—that consciousness of the ideal destiny of Israel which developed afterwards into the definite hope commonly called Messianic. Unfettered by the political and material limitations of his age, the narrator discerns in dim outline the far-off goal of Israel’s history, and enables his reader to discern it with him. We have first the familiar Protevangelion of the third chapter, where hope already steps in to alleviate the effects of the fall. Then comes the blessing given to Shem, and then the promise of our text.
II. What is the source of this conception of the ideal destiny of Israel which dominates so many points of the Old Testament? Israel was the people of Jehovah. They knew that the God of heaven and earth had really become their God, and had separated them to Himself as a peculiar people. Israel is the people of God: here is the fruitful germ of their whole future. The earliest records of the Old Testament are inspired by the consciousness of a noble ideal, which, so far from proving itself an illusion, was more or less completely realised. We may notice some of the more salient aspects of its development: (1) The establishment of the monarchy forms an epoch in Israelitish history. The monarchy created in Israel a sense of unity, and gave a new impulse to national feeling. (2) The great prophets amplify in different directions the thought of Israel’s ideal future. (3) In the great prophecy of Israel’s restoration, which occupies the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, we find the nation no longer viewed as an aggregate of isolated members, but grasped as a whole, dramatised as an individual, who stands before us realising in his own person his people’s purposes and aims. In his work as prophet he endures contumely and opposition, and though innocent himself, he sacrifices his life for others. Such is the personality upon whom, in the mind of Isaiah, the future alike of Israel and the world depends. In Christ as King and Christ as Prophet, the Founder and Head of a new social state, the hope of Israel, which but for His advent had been as an illusion or a dream, finds its consummation and its reward.
S. R. Driver, Oxford University Herald, Oct. 31st, 1885.
"All the families of the earth."
St. Paul finds the key to the constitution and the order of the human home in the spiritual sphere. Christian philosophy is inevitably transcendental—that is, it believes that earthly things are made after heavenly patterns, and that the "things seen and temporal" can only be fully understood by letting the light fall on them from the things which are not seen and eternal.
It was the redemption of the home when Christ’s redeeming love to the world was made the pattern of its love. That home is the highest in which love reigns most perfectly.
I. The home is the instrument of a double education. Its function is to develop the Divine image in parent and in child. The sentence on man after the fall was disciplinary, while on the tempter it was penal. The sentence on the tempter was utter and final degradation, while on man it was literally a sentence to a reformatory school. In sorrow, toil and tears, he was to learn how the devil had cheated him, in the hope that when he had learnt that lesson his heart might be open to the instruction of God once more.
II. As the first step to the fulfilment of his purpose in restoring man to his own image, God set "the solitary in families," He laid the foundation of the home as the fundamental human institution, the foundation of all true order, the spring of all true development in human society. Out of the home State and Church were to grow; by the home they were both to be established. And so God took the dual head of the first human home, the father and mother, and made them as gods to their children, and He set them there to study the pain and the burden of the godhead as well as the power and the joy. This was the only way by which man could gain the knowledge of the mind and heart of God.
J.Baldwin Brown, The Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 341,
From the text we learn three things: (1) there was to be a seed, a natural seed, including a spiritual seed, and this again including an individual seed. (2) The seed of Abraham is to have a relation to all the families of the earth. As Abraham was not a head of all mankind, like Adam or Noah, it was necessary to emphasize the universality of the blessing. (3) The benefit conveyed by the seed is here characterised by the word blessed. Blessing is like mercy in this: that it sums up in one word the whole salvation of which the Bible is the gospel. It involves redemption and regeneration, both of which are necessary to salvation.
J. G. Murphy, The Book of Daniel, p. 12. Reference: Gen 12:3.—Expositor, 2nd Series, vol. viii., p. 200.
Gen 12:4-5
(with Act 16:10)
I. Taken together, these texts may be paraphrased geographically, by saying that they contain a direction to the Law and the Gospel to move westwards, like the sun. The forefather of the Jews was ordered to quit his home for a land that looked westwards; the Apostle of the Gentiles was ordered to commence travelling westwards, turning his back on the east. One text limited the earlier dispensation to a single branch of the Semitic race; the other threw open the later dispensation to all the families of the earth. As we cast our eyes upwards along the stream of time to the call of Abraham, we are met on all sides by decisive tokens of a worldwide purpose. Abraham was called 430 years before the law was given; but could any place have been selected more felicitously for its programme than the country to which Abraham moved? Palestine was, by desert, river, and mountain, as closed to the east as it lay open by sea to the west; and thus was as fitted for a nation that was to be kept separate for ages in utter exclusiveness and isolation, as it was also ready to become the starting-point at another time of a system with cosmopolitan aims, and designed especially to spread in the west. That system had hardly been inaugurated before it commenced moving of itself, slowly and majestically, to a destination traced for it by no human hand.
II. The inspired writers themselves never dreamt of the Gospel turning out, as it has done, an essential maritime power. Instead of the Gospel diverging eastwards to convert the east, the east poured westwards in countless hosts after the Gospel. Nation after nation burst over Europe with the vehemence of a cyclone, and shattered in pieces the whole fabric of the Roman empire. All the new comers became followers of Christ. The most striking part of the Gospel programme is yet to come—namely, the conversion of the Jews. The Jews have been compelled to wait as long for their conversion as the Gentiles did for their call; yet both events were foretold with the 6ame clearness at the beginning of each dispensation. The conversion of the Jews, whenever it occurs, will be like the transformation scene of the old English play, a scene of overpowering brilliancy, the beginning of the end.
E. S. Ffoulkes, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates’ Journal, Oct. 26th, 1876. Reference: Gen 12:4.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vi., p. 89.
Gen 12:6
This is one of the most comforting verses in the Bible. It is so simple and yet so sure. It tells us that the end is certain if the beginning is right.
I. The text is written from heaven’s side of the question. It is the history—put in short—of all the saints who ever went to glory. They took a long journey, and at last they got safely home. The rest—how it was, why it was, all that makes up the interval—is the grace of God.
II. There were difficulties by the way: why are we not told of them? Because from the mountain top the way by which we have travelled looks level and easy. Things that were great at the time seem so small from that height that we do not care to see them.
III. What is it really to set out? It is to recognise and answer God’s call. The great secret of life is to have a strong aim. All through his life Abraham had one single object in view. It was Canaan. The record of each antediluvian patriarch was, "He lived so many years, and he died." That is one side of the picture, but there is another: "They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came."
J. Vaughan, Sermons, Eleventh Series, p. 221. Reference: Gen 12:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 843.
Gen 12:10
Went down from one civilisation to another, went down from one society to another, went down from one religion to another. Man is a traveller—not in one sense, but in all senses; and he is always travelling. We have to go out into the world; the question is, How are we going?
I. A widened world always tries a man’s first faith and first ways of doing things; he gets the true perspective as he moves through widening space. Abraham went down from Ur of the Chaldees with a very narrow policy, and when he came into great Egypt he encountered the new civilisation with a lie. When a young man comes from comparative quietness and leisure to the bustle and strife of a great city, he must expect to have his faith rudely and constantly attacked. Christianity has to fight for every inch of its progress.
II. The great thing to be kept in mind is, that we have to enter into a hundred new worlds. We do not enter into the world once for all: within the world there are a thousand other worlds. We need guidance and preparation in view of the new worlds and Egypts into which we have to go. There has been only one man in this world who could safely go into every circle and society which this world contains. Jesus Christ was His name. With the spirit of Christ you can go anywhere and everywhere, and you can give all languages a new accent and a new meaning, and lift up all the relations of life into a nobler significance.
Parker, The Fountain, June 9th, 1881.
I. Egypt was to Abraham, to the Jewish people, to the whole course of the Old Testament, what the world with all its interests and pursuits and enjoyments is to us. It was the parent of civilisation, of learning, of royal power, of vast armies. From first to last this marvellous country, with all its manifold interests, is regarded as the home and refuge of the chosen race. By the stress laid on Egypt the Bible tells us that we may lawfully use the world and its enjoyments, that the world is acknowledged by true religion, as well as by our own natural instincts, to be a beautiful, a glorious, and, in this respect, a good and useful world. What was permitted as an innocent refreshment to Abraham, what was enjoined as a sacred duty on Moses and Apollos, what was consecrated by the presence of Christ our Saviour, we too may enjoy and admire and use. Power and learning and civilisation and art may all minister now, as they did then, to the advancement of the welfare of man and the glory of God.
II. The meeting of Abraham and Pharaoh, the contact of Egypt with the Bible, remind us forcibly that there is something better and higher even than the most glorious or the most luxurious or the most powerful and interesting sights and scenes of the world. The character and name of Abraham, as compared with that of the mighty country and the mighty people in the midst of which we thus for an instant find him, exemplify, in the simplest yet strongest colours, the grand truth that ’Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ To be in the world, but not of it; to use it without abusing it,—this is the duty which we find it so hard to follow; but it is the very duty which Abraham first, and our Lord afterwards, have set before us.
A P. Stanley, Sermons in the East, p. 1.
Genesis 12, etc.
I. Notice first the call of Abraham. (1) The call was addressed to him suddenly; (2) it required him to forsake his country and his kindred, while giving him no hope of return; (3) it sent him on a long and difficult journey, to a country lying more than three hundred miles away. Yet Abraham obeyed in willing submission to the command of God.
II. Notice Abraham’s conquest over the kings. This is the first battle recorded in the word of God. It was after his rescue of Lot that Abraham was met by the mysterious Melchizedek. An awful shade of supernaturalism still rests upon this man, to whom some of the attributes of the Godhead seem to be ascribed, and who is always named with God and with God’s Son. There are two lessons deducible from Abraham’s conquests: (1) that military skill and experience are often easily vanquished by untaught valour, when that is at once inspired by impulse, guided by wisdom, and connected with a good cause; (2) that Christian duty varies at different times and in different circumstances.
III. Notice the covenants which were established between Abraham and God. From them we learn: (1) God’s infinite condescension; (2) our duty of entering into covenant with God in Christ.
From the history of Abraham we see that God’s intention was: (1) to secure to Himself one great accession from the idolatrous camp; (2) to send Abraham as a forerunner and a first step into the land which God had selected as His peculiar property; (3) to create a family link of connection between God and a distinct race of people for long ages. Abraham was to be the microcosm to the coming macrocosm of the Jewish people, as they and their polity again were to be the microcosm to the sublimer macrocosm of Christianity.
G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega, vol. i., p. 308.
References: Gen 12—Parker, vol. i., p. 192; F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 33; R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. i., p. 181; S. Leathes, Studies in Genesis, p. 96. Gen 13:4.—Parker, vol. i., p. 362
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 Gen 12:1 - Gen 12:9.
Genesis
AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH
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Gen 12:1 - Gen 12:9.
I
We stand here at the well-head of a great river-a narrow channel, across which a child can step, but which is to open out a broad bosom that will reflect the sky and refresh continents. The call of Abram is the most important event in the Old Testament, but it is also an eminent example of individual faith. For both reasons he is called ‘the Father of the Faithful.’ We look at the incident here mainly from the latter point of view. It falls into three parts.
1. The divine voice of command and promise.-God’s servants have to be separated from home and kindred, and all surroundings. The command to Abram was no mere arbitrary test of obedience. God could not have done what He meant with him, unless He had got him by himself. So Isa 51:2 put his finger on the essential when he says, ‘I called him alone.’ God’s communications are made to solitary souls, and His voice to us always summons us to forsake friends and companions, and to go apart with God. No man gets speech of God in a crowd. If you desired to fill a person with electricity, you used to put him on a stool with glass legs, to keep him from earthly contact. If the quickening impulse from the great magnet is to charge the soul, that soul must be isolated. ‘He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.’
The vagueness of the command is significant. Abram did not know ‘whither he went.’ He is not told that Canaan is the land, till he has reached Canaan. A true obedience is content to have orders enough for present duty. Ships are sometimes sent out with sealed instructions, to be opened when they reach latitude and longitude so-and-so. That is how we are all sent out. Our knowledge goes no farther ahead than is needful to guide our next step. If we ‘go out’ as He bids us, He will show us what to do next.
‘I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.’
Observe the promise. We may notice that it needed a soul raised above the merely temporal to care much for such promises. They would have been but thin diet for earthly appetites. ‘A great nation’; a divine blessing; to be a source of blessing to the whole world, and a touchstone by their conduct to which men would be blessed or cursed;-what was there in these to fascinate a man, unless he had faith to teach him the relative importance of the earthly and the heavenly, the present and the future? Notice that the whole promise appeals to unselfish desires. It is always, in some measure, elevating to live for a future, rather than a present, good; but if it be only the same kind of good as the present would yield, it is a poor affair. The only really ennobling faith is one which sets before itself a future full of divine blessing, and of diffusion of that blessing through us, and which therefore scorns delights, and for such gifts is content to be solitary and a wanderer.
2. The obedience of faith.-We have here a wonderful example of prompt, unquestioning obedience to a bare word. We do not know how the divine command was conveyed to Abram. We simply read, ‘The Lord said’; and if we contrast this with Gen 12:7, ‘The Lord appeared . . .and said,’ it will seem probable that there was no outward sign of the divine will. The patriarch knew that he was following a divine command, and not his own purpose; but there seems to have been no appeal to sense to authenticate the inward voice. He stands, then, on a high level, setting the example of faith as unconditional acceptance of, and obedience to, God’s bare word.
Observe that faith, which is the reliance on a person, and therefore trust in his word, passes into both forms of confidence in that word as promise, and obedience to that word as command. We cannot cut faith in halves, and exercise the one aspect without the other. Some people’s faith says that it delights in God’s promises, but it does not delight in His commandments. That is no faith at all. Whoever takes God at His word, will take all His words. There is no faith without obedience; there is no obedience without faith.
We have already said enough about the separation which was effected by Abram’s journey; but we may just notice that the departure from his father’s house was but the necessary result of the gulf between them and him, which had been opened by his faith. They were idolaters; he worshipped one God. That drove them farther apart than the distance between Sichem and Haran. When sympathy in religion was at an end, the breach of all other ties was best. So to-day, whether there be outward separation or no, depends on circumstances; but every true Christian is parted from the dearest who is not a Christian, by an abyss wider than any outward distance can make. The law for us is Abram’s law, ‘Get thee out.’ Either our faith will separate us from the world, or the world will separate us from our faith and our God.
The companionship of Lot, who attaches himself to Abram, teaches that religion, in its true possessors, exercises an attractive influence over even common natures, and may win them to a loftier life. Some weak eyes may discern more glory in the sunshine tinting a poor bit of mist into ruddy light than in the beam which is too bright to look at. A faithful Abram will draw Lot after him.
‘They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.’ Compare this singular expression with Gen 11:31, where we have Terah’s emigration from Ur described in the same terms, with the all-important difference in the end, ‘They came’ not into Canaan, but ‘unto Haran, and dwelt there.’ Many begin the course; one finishes it. Terah’s journeying was only in search of pasture and an abode. So he dropped his wider scheme when the narrower served his purpose. It was an easy matter to go from Ur to Haran. Both were on the same bank of the Euphrates. But to cross the broad, deep, rapid river was a different thing, and meant an irrevocable cutting loose from the past life. Only the man of faith did that. There are plenty of half-and-half Christians, who go along merrily from Ur to Haran; but when they see the wide stream in front, and realise how completely the other side is separated from all that is familiar, they take another thought, and conclude they have come far enough, and Haran will serve their turn.
Again, the phrase teaches us the certain issue of patient pilgrimage and persistent purpose. There is no mystery in getting to the journey’s end. ‘One foot up, and the other foot down,’ continued long enough, will bring to the goal of the longest march. It looks a weary journey, and we wonder if we shall ever get thither. But the magic of ‘one step at a time’ does it. The guide is also the upholder of our way. ‘Every one of them appeareth before God in Zion.’
3. The life in the land.-The first characteristic of it is its continual wandering. This is the feature which the Epistle to the Hebrews marks as significant. There was no reason but his own choice why Abram should continue to journey, and prefer to pitch his tent now under the terebinth tree of Moreh, now by Hebron, rather than to enter some of the cities of the land. He dwelt in tents because he looked for the city. The clear vision of the future detached him, as it will always detach men, from close participation in the present. It is not because we are mortal, and death is near at the furthest, that the Christian is to sit loose to this world, but because he lives by the hope of the inheritance. He must choose to be a pilgrim, and keep himself apart in feeling and aims from this present. The great lesson from the wandering life of Abram is, ‘Set your affection on things above.’ Cultivate the sense of belonging to another polity than that in the midst of which you dwell. The Canaanites christened Abram ‘The Hebrew’ {Gen 14:13}, which may be translated ‘The man from the other side.’ That is the name which all true Christians should deserve. They should bear their foreign extraction in their faces, and never be naturalised subjects here. Life is wholesomer in the tent under the spreading tree, with the fresh air blowing about us and clear sky above, than in the Canaanite city.
Observe, too, that Abram’s life was permeated with worship. Wherever he pitches his tent, he builds an altar. So he fed his faith, and kept up his communion with God. The only condition on which the pilgrim life is possible, and the temptations of the world cease to draw our hearts, is that all life shall be filled with the consciousness of the divine presence, our homes altars, and ourselves joyful thankofferings. Then every abode is blessed. The undefended tent is a safe fortress, in which dwelling we need not envy those who dwell in palaces. Common tasks will then be fresh, full of interest, because we see God in them, and offer them up to Him. The wandering life will be a life of walking with God, and progressive knowledge of Him; and over all the roughnesses and the sorrows and the trivialities of it will be spread ‘the light that never was on sea or land, the consecration’ of God’s presence, and the peacefulness of communion with Him.
Again, we may notice that the life of obedience was followed by fuller manifestations of God, and of His will. God ‘appeared’ when Abram was in the land. Is it not always true that obedience is blessed by closer vision and more knowledge? To him that hath shall be given; and he who has followed the unseen Guide through dimly discerned paths to an invisible goal, will be gladdened when he reaches the true Canaan, by the sight of Him whom, having not seen, he loved. Even here on earth obedience is the path to fuller knowledge; and when the pilgrims who have left all and followed the Captain of salvation through a deeper, darker stream than Abram crossed, have touched the other side, God will appear to them, and say, as the enraptured eye gazes amazed on the goodly land, ‘Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.’
Continue to Part II - ABRAM AND THE LIFE OF FAITH
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The History of Abraham
The History of Abraham
At this point the specific purpose of the writer of the Pentateuch begins to appear more clearly. Speaking generally, that purpose is to trace the development of the kingdom of God in the line of Israelitish history. To this subject the preceding chapters of Genesis have formed an introduction, dealing with universal history, and indicating the place of Israel among the other nations of the world. The narrative now passes from universal history to the beginnings of the chosen people and their subsequent fortunes. The connecting link is furnished in the person of Abraham, and interest is now concentrated on him, and the promises made to him.
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Abraham is one of the very greatest figures in the religious history of the human race. Three great religions look back to him as one of their spiritual ancestors, and accept him as a type of perfect faith and true religion, viz. the Jewish, the Mohammedan, and the Christian. The world owes to him its first clear knowledge of the true God, His spiritual and holy nature, and the way in which He is to be served and worshipped. How much of this Abraham may have brought with him from Ur of the Chaldees we do not know. Recent discovery points to a very close connexion between the religions of Babylonia and Israel. That need not surprise us, nor does it impair the truth and value of the biblical narrative. Every religious system, not excepting Christianity itself, is based upon the foundations of the past. What we find in Abraham is a new point of departure. Religious beliefs, opinions, laws, and ideals, which he inherited, are, by a power which we cannot explain but can only define as the inspiration of God, purified and elevated, with the result that religion starts afresh with him on a higher level. The affirmation of the truth of monotheism and the rejection of human sacrifice in the worship of God would, apart from other considerations, make Abraham rank among the foremost religious reformers the world has seen.
In recent times an attempt has been made to date the beginnings of Israel's religion from Moses, and to represent the patriarchs as 'shadows in the mist' of antiquity of whose personal existence and religious views nothing can be said with certainty. In particular the attempt has been made to reduce Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to later personifications of ancient tribes. The patriarchs, it is said, were not individuals but tribes, and what are represented as personal incidents in their lives are really events, naively and vividly described, in the history of the various tribes to which the nation of Israel owed its descent. In some cases such personification of tribes may be admitted; e.g. Canaan, Japheth, and Shem clearly represent tribes in the blessing of Noah (Gen_9:25-27; Gen_10:1-32), cp. also intro. to Genesis 49. The same is true of Ishmael in Gen_16:12, and of Esau, who is called Edom in Gen_25:30; Gen_36:1, Gen_36:8, Gen_36:19. But admitting that there may be an element of truth in this theory, and that the biographies of the patriarchs may have been idealised to some extent by the popular feelings and poetical reflection of later times, the view that sees in the story of the patriarchs nothing that is personal and historical is certainly extreme and improbable. Popular imagination may add and modify but it does not entirely create. It requires some historical basis to start from. That basis in the case of Abraham and the other patriarchs is popular oral tradition, and that this preserved a genuine historical kernel cannot be denied. The amount of personal incident, the circumstantiality, the wealth of detail contained in the patriarchal narratives, can only be rightly accounted for on the ground that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were real historical personages; leaders of distinct national and religious movements, who made their mark upon the whole course of subsequent history. Some time ago, when an utterly impenetrable veil of obscurity hung over all contemporary profane history, the biblical narrative of the patriarchs could find no corroboration elsewhere. But of late a flood of light has been thrown upon ancient Assyria, illuminating the very period to which Abraham belongs. A background has been provided for the patriarchal age; and our increasing knowledge of Babylonian civilisation and religion goes to substantiate the historical nature of the stories of Abraham and the other patriarchs, and shows that they might well be the products of such a country and such an age. We may go further, and say that later Jewish history seems to require such a historical basis as the patriarchal narratives furnish, as its starting-point and explanation. Abraham, and not Moses, is the father of the Jewish nation, and the founder of its distinctive religion. It was no new and unknown God in whose name Moses spoke to his brethren in Egypt. He was able to appeal to Israel in the name of a God who had already revealed Himself, in the name of 'the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' See Exo_3:6; Exo_4:5, and note on the former passage.
The sections of the history of Abraham (Genesis 12-25) which are attributed to the Priestly source are the following: Gen_11:27-32; Gen_12:5; Gen_13:6, Gen_13:11-12; Gen_16:1-3, Gen_16:15-16; Gen_17:1-27; Gen_19:29; Gen_21:1, Gen_21:2-5; Genesis 23, Gen_25:7-17. Those which form part of the Primitive narrative are: Gen_12:1-4, Gen_12:6; Gen_13:5, Gen_13:11, Gen_13:12-18; Genesis 14, 15, Gen_16:4-14; Genesis 18, 19 (except Gen_19:29), 20, 21 (mostly), 22, 24, Gen_25:1-6, Gen_25:18-34. They afford a good example of the characteristic differences in style of the two sources, as explained in the art. 'Origin of the Pentateuch.'
The Call of Abraham. The Removal to Canaan. The Visit to Egypt
1. Had said] RV 'said,' when he was in Haran. In what manner the call came to Abraham, whether through some outward incident which he recognised as the prompting of Providence, or through the suggestions of the Divine Spirit in his inmost soul, we do not know. Anyhow he regarded it as divine and authoritative, and it was too definite tobe misunderstood. Get thee out of.. and from.. and from] The repetition emphasises the complete severance of all connexion with his early home and friends. A land that I will shew thee] The fact that the land was not named increased the demand on Abraham's faith and made his self-surrender the more absolute; cp. Hebrews 11.
2. Thou shalt be a blessing] RV 'Be thou a blessing,' i.e. the very embodiment of blessing: blessed thyself, and the source of blessing to others.
3. In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed] or, 'bless themselves.' Through Abraham and his descendants men everywhere would come to know God as One and Holy, and to long for 'the Desire of all nations.'
4. Lot went with him] Haran, Lot's father, was dead, Gen_11:28.
5. They went forth to go] Haran, the starting-place, was some 300 miles from Canaan. They would go through Syria, halting perhaps at Damascus (see Gen_15:2), then proceeding southwards through Bashan to the fords of the Jordan S. of the Sea of Galilee, and thence to Shechem in the centre of Palestine. The souls that they had gotten] i.e. their slaves. The land of Canaan] the ancient name of Palestine. At this time much of Syria and Canaan was ruled by the Amorites, who were for centuries the dominant race.
6. Sichern] RV 'Shechem.' The term 'the place of Shechem' intimates that this was an ancient sanctuary, and this is confirmed by Gen_35:4; Dt; Gen_11:29; Gen_27:4; Jos_8:33; Jos_24:26. The 'terebinth (or turpentine tree) of the director' (as we may render plain of Moreh) points to the same conclusion. Most likely there was a grove of trees, the rustling of whose leaves was interpreted as an oracle (cp. 2Sa_5:24). Oracles of this kind were much resorted to. The Canaanite] see on Jos_13:7.
7. The Lord appeared unto Abram] see on Gen_12:1. The faith of Abraham, in leaving Haran in obedience to the divine call, is now rewarded by the definite promise of possession of the land by his descendants. There builded he an altar] thus consecrating the place to God, who had there manifested Himself to him. The building of an altar was the recognised act of worship: cp. Gen_8:20; Gen_13:18, etc.
8. Beth-el] 5 m. S. of Shechem; see on Gen_28:19. Hai] or, Ai, near Bethel.
9. The south] or, 'the Negeb,' the district between Palestine and the wilderness N. of Sinai. It forms a transition from the cultivated land to the desert; and, though not fertile, yields much pasture for flocks; see Jos_15:21-32.
10-20. Abraham's visit to Egypt. Owing to a famine, to which Palestine is sometimes liable if the winter rains fail, Abraham moves down to Egypt. There, owing to the inundations of the Nile and the system of irrigation practised, crops rarely failed, and neighbouring countries had their wants supplied: cp. Act_27:6, Act_27:38. Egypt was already a highly civilised country in Abraham's time. Many of the pyramids were built long before his day.
The patriarch on this occasion appears in a very unfavourable light. Admitting the great dangers which threatened him at the hands of a licentious despot, admitting also that among Easterns duplicity is admired rather than scorned, the readiness he showed to risk his wife's honour in order to secure his own safety, and his lack of trust in God's protection, are inexcusable. But we esteem our Bible all the more for its candour in not hiding the faults of its greatest characters. Of only One can it be said that He was 'without sin.'
13. Thou art my sister] Sarah was Abraham's half-sister (Gen_20:12). By this prevarication he doubtless thought the danger to himself would be less than if he had confessed that she was his wife.
15. Pharaoh] the official title of the kings of Egypt; cp. Pharaoh-Necho (2Ki_23:29). It is the Egyptian word Pr'o, 'great house,' which was originally applied to the royal palace and estate, and afterwards to the king: cp. our use of the word 'Court' to designate the king and his household. It is probable that at this time Egypt was governed by Asiatic conquerors known as the Hyksôs, or Shepherd kings: see Intro, to Exodus.
16. It is usual in the East to give presents to the bride's relatives on such occasions, to make, in fact, payment for the bride; cp. Exo_22:16; Rth_4:10. Camels] It is doubtful if these were used by the ancient Egyptians. Perhaps the Semitic conquerors of Egypt may have introduced them from Asia at this period.
17. Cp. Psa_105:14, 'He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Now the Lord
Now the Lord
The Fourth Dispensation: Promise. For Abraham, and his descendants it is evident that the Abrahamic Covenant (See Scofield "Gen 15:18") made a great change. They became distinctively the heirs of promise. That covenant is wholly gracious and unconditional. The descendants of Abraham had but to abide in their own land to inherit every blessing. In Egypt they lost their blessings, but not their covenant. The Dispensation of Promise ended when Israel rashly accepted the law Exo 19:8. Grace had prepared a deliverer (Moses), provided a sacrifice for the guilty, and by divine power brought them out of bondage Exo 19:4 but at Sinai they exchanged grace for law. The Dispensation of Promise extends from Gen 12:1 to Exo 19:8, and was exclusively Israelitish. The dispensation must be distinguished from the covenant. The former is a mode of testing; the latter is everlasting because unconditional. The law did not abrogate the Abrahamic Covenant Gal 3:15-18 but was an intermediate disciplinary dealing "till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made"; Gal 3:19-29; Gal 4:1-7. Only the dispensation, as a testing of Israel, ended at the giving of the law.
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See, for the other six dispensations: (See Scofield "Gen 8:21").
INNOCENCE (Gen 1:28) CONSCIENCE (Gen 3:23) HUMAN GOVERNMENT (Gen 8:21) LAW (Exo 19:8) GRACE (Joh 1:17) KINGDOM (Eph 1:10)
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 12 The First Events in Abram’s Life
CHAPTER 12 The First Events in Abram’s Life
1. The call and the promise (Gen 12:1-3)
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2. Abram’s obedience (Gen 12:4-6)
3. The second communication of Jehovah (Gen 12:7-9)
4. Abram in Egypt and first denial of Sarai (Gen 12:10-20)
We come now to a new beginning, the Abrahamic covenant. It marks the beginning of that wonderful race, the seed of Abraham, the people of Israel. Abraham’s name is mentioned 74 times in the New Testament. How closely his history is interwoven into New Testament doctrine. This may be learned by consulting the following passages: Joh 8:56; Act 7:2; Rom 4:1-16; Gal 3:6-18; Heb 11:8-19; Jas 2:21-23. What a satanic lie it is to brand the existence of this great man of God as a myth! Such is often done in “Christian” (?) schools and pulpits. We give a few hints on this chapter:
The sovereign grace of God in the call of Abram. Shem had the promise of the Name. Jehovah was to reveal Himself in Shem. We learned from the eleventh chapter that the line of Shem had run into decay and was departing from God. In the midst of this ruin in which Abram was involved, he became the object of divine election and Jehovah in His grace manifested Himself to Abram and called him.
The delay at Haran. “The God of Glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran.” “Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt at Charran; and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell” (Act 7:2-4). The call came to Abram in Mesopotamia. They left their country and dwelt in Haran. Here Abram tarried till his father Terah died. The delay in going to the land to which God had called him was on account of Terah. Typically, Terah stands for the flesh, the ties of nature. This is always in the way to carry out fully the call of God and enter into full and blessed realization of God’s calling. While delaying in Haran (Haran means “parched”), God did not reveal Himself anew to Abram.
Death set Abram free, and by death freed from the ties of nature he journeyed on to the land of Canaan. The death of Terah, the liberating factor in Abram’s experience, is typical of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have died in Him. The cross of Christ has set us free.
Abram was “sanctified unto obedience.” Sanctified means “separated.” The call of God meant separation for Abram. “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house.” Now there was no further delay. “Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken to him.” The calling involved obedience which was readily yielded. All this is typical of the individual believer.
It was by faith. What faith is stands here fully manifested. “By faith Abraham, when he was called out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went” (Heb 11:8). He took God’s infallible Word and left all; walked by faith and not by sight; he hoped for things he saw not. Faith ever finds its most precious resting place upon the naked Word of God.
The promises. “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will also bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen.12: 2 and 3). And all God promised to Abram He hath kept. Every word has been literally fulfilled. Nations upon nations who hated Abraham’s seed, his natural descendants, have found to their great sorrow how true Abraham’s God is. These promises still hold good. To the seed of Abraham belong still the promises (Rom 9:4). The nations of the earth, all the families are unconsciously waiting to be blessed by Abraham’s seed. Salvation is still of the Jews.
Abram worships. He built an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him. Again he built an altar, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he called upon the name of Jehovah. The revelation of Jehovah produces worship. The basis of worship is a conscious and precious relation with Jehovah. Abram knew Jehovah’s grace toward him, therefore he worshipped Him and called upon His name.
Abram’s failure was the result of leaving Bethel and going down to Egypt (typical of the world).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 God Calls Abraham
God Calls Abraham
v. 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee. Here the real story of Abram, or Abraham, begins, to which the author has led up in a very skilful manner. God gave him a command which imposed upon him a threefold renunciation, Abram was to leave his fatherland, both Haran and Ur of the Chaldees being included in Mesopotamia. He was to forsake the members of his tribe, the other Chaldaic descendants of Shem, all of them now addicted to heathenism. He was to go forth even from his father’s house, that of Terah and his family. The expressions are purposely heaped to indicate that it meant for Abram a complete severing of family ties: leaving everything behind that he had ever held near and dear but his wife, he was to journey, as a stranger, into a land which he would see by and by.
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v. 2. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing;
v. 3. and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Here are promises of both temporal and spiritual blessings. To the first belongs the fact that Abram’s descendants were to be so great in number as to be a great nation. But of far greater importance are the promises that refer to spiritual gifts. For that Abram’s name should be great, that the blessing of the Lord should rest upon him, that he should be distinguished so highly among men as to receive the thankful praises and the blessings of men and be shielded against any curse, that in him should be blessed all the families and tribes of the earth, all mankind: all this does not refer to any mere outward wealth which the Lord intended to shower upon Abram. The blessing rather, as the repetitions and extensions show, Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18; Gen 26:4, indicated that Abram (or Abraham) was to be a source of everlasting spiritual gifts and blessings through his seed, through one descendant in the great and blessed nation which would call him father, namely, through the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Act 3:25-26; Gal 3:16. The prophecy of the Seed of the woman, which had been narrowed down in a general way in the blessing upon Shem, was here given expressly to Abram and to the nation which was to descend from him.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4 This word is used to mark a new part…
Now
This word is used to mark a new part of the story.
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Go from your country, and from your relatives
"Go from your land, from your family"
I will make of you a great nation
Here "you" is singular and refers to Abram, but Abram represents his descendants. AT: "I will start a great nation through you" or "I will make your descendants become a great nation" (See: Metonymy)
make your name great
The word "name" represents the person's reputation. AT: "make you famous" (See: Metonymy)
you will be a blessing
The words "to other people" are understood. AT: "you will be a blessing to other people" (See: Ellipsis)
whoever dishonors you I will curse
"I will curse whoever treats you in a shameful way" or "if anyone treats you as worthless, I will curse him"
Through you will all the families of the earth be blessed
This can be made active. AT: "I will bless all the families of the earth through you" (See: Active or Passive)
Through you
"Because of you" or "Because I have blessed you"
translationWords
Yahweh
Abraham
household
nation
name
bless
curse
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–4 12:1-9 Through Abram’s faith and family, God began restoring…
12:1-9 Through Abram’s faith and family, God began restoring the blessing. God called Abram from a pagan world to begin a new nation; his promises to Abram later became a covenant (ch 15). • God’s call to Abram later helped convince the Israelites to leave Egypt and go to the land God promised to Abram. It also reminded the Babylonian exiles of their need to return to their own land (e.g., Isa 51).
12:1-3 These verses are structured around two commands to Abram: Leave and be a blessing (see study note on 12:2). Each directive is followed by three promises conditioned upon obedience.
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12:1 Abram knew that he should leave, but he did not know where he was going. Obedience required faith.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.