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 Acts 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 (Genesis 43:7; Esther 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 (Genesis 11:31-32).—
Genesis 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).—
Genesis 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 Genesis 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 Acts 3:25; Galatians 3:8; Galatians 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.— Genesis 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—
Genesis 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” (Genesis 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” (Galatians 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. (Galatians 3:8-16.)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 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” (Nehemiah 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” (Galatians 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.)
Genesis 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 (Psalms 32:1-2; Romans 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?” (Ephesians 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).
Genesis 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! Genesis 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! Genesis 12:1-9. Here we have—
1. The Call (Genesis 12:1);
2. The Command (Genesis 12:1);
3. The Covenant (Genesis 12:2);
4. The Conditions (Genesis 12:3);
5. The Compliance (Genesis 12:4);
6. The Conversion (Genesis 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! Genesis 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! Genesis 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! Genesis 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! Genesis 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 (Genesis 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 (Genesis 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.”