CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 25:8. Gave up the ghost, and died.] “The two verbs are identical in meaning: the repetition belongs to the solemnity of the narrative.” (Alford.) In a good old age. Not as to length of years, but in the sense of a happy old age, being blessed both outwardly and inwardly. Full of years. The Heb. has merely “full.” The meaning is that he was satisfied with his experience of life, and ready to depart. Was gathered to his people “This does not relate to burial, for this was not so: Abraham’s “people” dwelt at this time in Haran, and he was buried at Hebron. Besides which, the fact of burial is here, and in many other places, specified over and above. (Genesis 15:15; Genesis 35:29; 1 Kings 2:10; 1 Kings 11:43.) Nor is it a mere synonym for dying: for in many places, as here, it is specified over and above the fact, here repeatedly expressed, of death. (Genesis 25:17; Genesis 35:29; Genesis 49:33; Numbers 20:26; Deuteronomy 32:50.) The only assignable sense, therefore, is that of reference to a state of further personal existence beyond death; and the expression thus forms a remarkable testimony to the O.T. belief in a future state.” (Alford.)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 25:7-11
THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF ABRAHAM
I.—His death.
1. It was the peaceful close of a long life. “An hundred threescore and fifteen years” were “the days of the years” of Abraham’s life. It was a life which had not attained to the days of the years of the life of his father, still it was one of great length. His life’s mortal day was tranquil at the close. “He gave up the ghost and died.” Such is the simple account of the sacred historian, suggesting to us that it was not by a sudden shock, or by sharp disease, but by slow natural decay that Abraham drew to his end. His long life was according to God’s promise made to him many years ago, “Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace: thou shalt be buried in a good old age.”
2. It was the close of a satisfied life. He died “an old man, and full.” Not simply full of years, but satisfied with his experience of this life. Life is not only a length which is measured by the course of years, but it is also a capacity which is to be filled up. It is what we think, enjoy, and feel that makes life rich, and not the mere length of time during which we have lived. The full life is to be satisfied with the loving favour of God.
3. It was an introduction to a new and better life. “He was gathered unto his people.” This expression is distinguished from departing this life, and also from being buried. His fathers had died, but they were not then dead. Their souls were still living. He was about to join that assembly of departed spirits. The first step in the history of the body after death is burial, but the first step in the history of the soul is its introduction to the companionship of those who have passed through death into the invisible world. Thus do these words speak to us of immortality: the faith of the patriarchs could not be satisfied with the short span of life allotted to man on earth. It looked for an eternal life.
II. His burial.
1. It was an honourable one. He was buried in a family sepulchre which was purchased for a large sum of money. His vast possessions, his venerable age, and noble character would cause him to be held in great estimation of all the people. They would bring their honour and veneration to the newly-opened grave of such a man. High in the admiration of all who knew him, Abraham had such a burial as can only be accorded to a great and good man.
2. It was an occasion for peace among the members of his family. “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him.” Whatever enmities were between these brothers, these were silenced in the presence of death. They met together at the grave of their father to render him the last offices of filial affection. Thus death brings together those who will not associate as friends, at other times, and will bring us all together sooner or later.
3. It was the occasion of further blessing to the living. “After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac.” Abraham was dead, but God was still carrying on His work. Individuals perish from amongst men, but God was still accomplishing His purposes throughout the ages of human history. When one good man dies, the blessing of God departs not, but rests upon those who are left behind. They inherit the promises made to the great and good who are gone, and the precious memories of their sainted lives. And the very place where Isaac dwelt reminded him of the Divine source from whence he was to expect every blessing. It was Lahai-roi, which means the well of the Living One who seeth me.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 25:7. His years were an hundred and seventy-five. He survived Sarah thirty-eight years, and Isaac’s marriage thirty-five. His grandfather lived a hundred and forty-eight years, his father two hundred and five, his son Isaac a hundred and eighty, and his grandson Jacob a hundred and forty-seven; so that his years were the full average of that period.—(Murphy).
The days of the years. A peculiar and impressive mode of computing time, as if intended to intimate that we are creatures of a day, whose life is to be reckoned rather by “the inch of days than the ell of years.” Thus died this venerable patriarch, the father of the faithful, after having sojourned as a stranger and pilgrim in the land of promise one hundred years. His life, though shorter by far than that of his illustrious predecessors, was yet much fuller of incidents and events. The event of his decease is but briefly related. Most instructive would it have been to have stood in imagination by the side of his dying bed, and to have heard his assurances of the mercy and faithfulness of Him in whom he had believed, and who had led him through the mazes of so long a pilgrimage. Nothing of this, however, has been vouchsafed to us, and, except for the purpose of our gratification, nothing more of it was needed. After such a life of faith and piety, there is little need of inquiring into the manner of his death; we know that it could not have been otherwise than full of peace and hope. From the earthly, he no doubt looked believingly forward to the heavenly Canaan, the land of immortal rest, and thither, after a long and honourable course below, we have every assurance that he was graciously received. (Luke 16:22).—(Bush).
The years of human life come to a matter of days at the last.
Let us hastily recapitulate his history, so chequered by vicissitudes. He began his wanderings at Chanan; then seeking a new country, he entered Canaan, feeding his flocks there as long as pasture lasted, and then passed on. After that we find him still a wanderer, driven by famine to Egypt; then returning home, parting with Lot, losing his best friend, commanded to give up the dearest object of his heart, and at the close of life startled almost to find that he had not a foot of earth in which to make for his wife a grave. Thus throughout his life he was a pilgrim. In all we see God’s blessed principle of illusion by which He draws us on towards Himself. The object of our hope seems just before us, but we go on without attaining it; all appears failure, yet all this time we are advancing surely on our journey and find our hopes realised not here but in the kingdom beyond. Abraham learnt thus the infinite nature of duty, and this is what a Christian must always feel. He must never think that he can do all he ought to do. It is possible for the child to do each day all that is required of him; but the more we receive of the spirit of Christ, the larger, the more infinitely impossible of fulfilment will our circle of duties become.—(Robertson).
Genesis 25:8. We also observe this in Abraham, that he was not a hero but a saint. There have been three ages of the world.
1. That in which power was admired, when strength, personal prowess, was the highest virtue; then God was described as a “man of war.”
2. That in which wisdom was reverenced. Then we have Solomon the wise, instead of Saul the strong; and then the wisdom of God is felt to be in contrivance, rather than in power.
3. That in which goodness was counted best. Then God and nature were felt to be on the side of right, and virtue was counted better than wisdom, that is the age in which Christianity can begin, the fulness of times is come. And it is three such seasons that we personally go through. In boyhood we reverence strength; in youth, intellect; in riper years, the milder graces of the heart. Now what is remarkable is, that Israel began with, not a hero, nor a wise man, but a saint. Abraham is not the warrior, nor the sage, but the father of the faithful. Hence the perennial progressive character of the Jewish religion. It is not a thing that can come to an end. Abraham, the man of faith, is the forerunner of the Lord of Love.—(Robertson).
Full of days. The Heb. has simply “full.” Our translators have supplied the word “years.” The Targ. Jon. renders it, “saturated with all good.” The previous expressions would seem sufficient to denote the fact of his longevity, the present we think to be better understood of his having had in every respect a satisfying experience of life; he had known both its good and its evil, its bitter and its sweet, and he now desired to live no longer; he was ready and anxious to depart. It seems to be a metaphor taken from a guest regaled by a plentiful banquet, who rises from the table satisfied and full. Thus Seneca, remarking in one of his Epistles that he had lived long enough, says, Mortem plenus expecto, “fully satisfied, I wait for death.”—(Bush).
Mere length of days cannot give a man Divine wisdom. Age has only a real value when it is dignified by piety, and strong in the hope of immortality. What has time done for that man who has come to hoary hairs, and yet has not learned wisdom, which is the knowledge of what is the true end of life! The lapse of years, to eat, to drink, to sleep, to pace the weary round of habit and of mortal labours, is not life. Life must be measured—as geometricians would say of solid bodies—in three dimensions. It must enclose some substantial good. Life has a capacity which must be filled with knowledge, truth, and love. Every day is a measure which we should fill up with holy feelings and deeds. Our true worth before God depends upon what we have filled our lives with. By our spiritual diligence we become “rich towards God,” and not by any claim derived from the honours of age. The true age of the soul must not be reckoned by time, but by the books we have read, the agreeable objects we have seen, the sublime impressions we have derived from the grand works of nature around us or from this scene of man, and the spiritual thoughts and joys which have stirred our heart.
“Life’s more than breath and the quick round of blood;
’Tis a great spirit and a busy heart.
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs.
He most lives, who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”—(Festus.)
Thus there is in man’s life a certain capacity into which a great mass of thought and feeling may be compressed. The study of a single science may be said to prolong our existence—or, to speak more correctly—to deepen and widen it; for we become conscious of a thousand pleasant thoughts, while slow and indolent minds who only measure life by our clock time are conscious of only one. The ingenuity of the human mind has invented devices which can economise power, so that we can press matter of greater density into the capacity of life. La Place has said that “the invention of logarithms has lengthened the life of the astronomer.” In like manner, spiritual life depends upon the wealth a man has in him, and not upon the question of years. Elihu, who stands up as a spokesman on behalf of God, in his disputation with Job, tells us how that one inexperienced youth having the Spirit is wiser than the most venerable age without the teaching of that Spirit. (Job 33:7-9).
“He was satisfied with length of days, for his eyes had seen the salvation of God.” (Psalms 91:16). He had experienced enough of the Lord’s loving kindness in the land of the living. For it is not by the common and ordinary measures of the successive seasons as they roll on, that this fulness of years in a spiritual point of view, is to be estimated;—nor even by those public and domestic events which men often set up as landmarks beside the stream of time, or the beaten path of life;—but by what the faithful and patient pilgrim has seen of the salvation of God, and what he has tasted of the Divine goodness on the earth. Is he full? Is the pilgrim satisfied? Is he ready to depart? It is not because he can reckon some threescore and ten revolutions of the sun; or it may be fourscore; or even like Abraham, “an hundred, threescore, and fifteen.” Nor is it because he can say of the various sources of interest and pleasure upon earth,—I have drunk of them all. But it is because he has eaten of the bread of heaven and drawn water out of the wells of salvation; because he has been partaker of the unsearchable riches of Christ. He has lived long in the earth—his days may have been many in the land;—not in proportion to the anniversaries of his birth which he has celebrated, but in proportion to the tokens of Divine love that he has received, the gracious dealings of God with his soul that he has noted, and the wonders of grace and mercy that he has witnessed in the church of the redeemed,—does the believer reckon himself to have lived long on the earth! This, and this alone, is the godly man’s real test or criterion;—this is his scriptural and spiritual standard of old age,—his scriptural and spiritual measure of “length of days.”—(Candlish).
To be gathered is not to cease to exist, but to continue existing in another sphere. His peoples, the departed families, from whom he is descended, are still in being in another not less real world. This, and the like expression in the passage quoted, give the first fact in the history of the soul after death, as the burial is the first step in that of the body.—(Murphy).
Genesis 25:9-10. Thus his body took possession of the Promised Land, as his soul went to take possession of that heavenly land which Canaan typified.
At the grave of Abraham,—
1. Ishmael appears in a favourable light. He shows filial affection, an interest in the destiny of his family, submission to that Almighty power which is above all.
2. Enmities are buried. Disputes are now forgotten before this opened grave. Hope is gathered for the future. Ishmael could not but wish that the blessings of his father might fall upon him. He was shut out from many favours of the Covenant; still he too was God’s creature, and there were reserves of blessing even for him.
Isaac and Ishmael in brotherly cooperation. Ishmael was the eldest son, dwelt in the presence of all his brethren, and had a special blessing. The sons of Keturah were far away in the East; very young, and had no particular blessing. Ishmael is therefore properly associated with Isaac in paying the last offices to their deceased father. The burying place had been prepared before. The purchase is here rehearsed with great precision as a testimony of the fact. This burial ground is an earnest of the promised possession.—(Murphy).
Abraham, therefore, in purchasing a grave for Sarah was merely providing a final resting place for himself. How certain, and often how sudden, the transition from the funeral rites, we prepare for others to those which others prepare for us! Were we to leave out of view the spiritual and eternal blessings confered upon Abraham, how humble would be the conclusion of so grand a career. Vision upon vision, covenant upon covenant, promise upon promise, conducting only to a little cave in Hebron! But from the Divine declaration uttered three hundred and thirty years after this event, “I am the God of Abraham,” it appears that his relation to God was as entire at that time as at any former period in his whole life. “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living;” and the faithful of all past ages live with God, and their dust is precious in His eyes, in whatever cavern of the earth, or recess of the ocean it may be deposited. Isaac and Ishmael were now present at the burial of their father. Though previously at variance, they now unite in sympathetic sorrow at the grave of Abraham. The latter must have been “a wild man” indeed not to have been tamed at least into a temporary tenderness by such an event. A wise Providence often works a forgetfulness of past resentments by the common calamities visited upon families and kindred. They tend to reconcile the alienated, to extinguish bitterness and strife, to rekindle the dying embers of filial duty and brotherly love. Isaac and Ishmael, men of different natures, of opposite interests, rivals from the womb, forget all animosity, and mingle tears over a father’s tomb. Let the lesson thus afforded be carefully learned by all who bear the paternal relation, and let them be admonished to go and do likewise.—(Bush).
Genesis 25:11. The death of God’s saint’s does not interrupt the flow of His mercy towards those who are left behind in the world.
It was necessary in those countries to fix their residence by a well, and it is no less necessary, if we wish to live, that we fix ours near to the ordinances of God. The well where Isaac pitched his tent was distinguished by two interesting events;—
1. The merciful appearance of God to Hagar, from whence it received its name; the well of Him that liveth and seeth me. Hagar or Ishmael, methinks, should have pitched a tent there, that it might have been to them a memorial of past mercies: but if they neglect it, Isaac will occupy it. The gracious appearance of God in a place, endears it to him, let it have been to whom it may.—
2. It was the place from the way of which he first met his beloved Rebekah; there therefore they continue to dwell together.—(Fuller).
This verse is an appendix to the history of Abraham, stating that the blessing of God which he had enjoyed till his death, now descended upon his son Isaac who abode at Beer Lahai-roi. The general name God is here employed because the blessing of God denotes the material and temporal prosperity which had attended Abraham in comparison with other men of his day. Of the spiritual and eternal blessings connected with Jehovah, the proper name of the author of being and blessing, we shall hear in due time.—(Murphy).
THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM
The notice of the death of a distinguished man is usually regarded as incomplete without at least an attempt to analyse and sum up his history, as well as to delineate his character.
The recorded life of the patriarch might almost seem to be left to the church as an exercise and trial of the very faith upon which he himself was called to act. In every view he is a test as well as an example of believing loyalty to God. The outward aspect of his course is exhibited in a few of its most striking particulars, but we have no key, or scarcely any, to the inward interpretation of it. We have little or no insight into his private and personal experience. There is no access behind the scenes; no unfolding of those hidden movements of soul which have their external types, and nothing more, in the vicissitudes of a strangely chequered history. But we have a general principle under which the whole is to be classed. Abraham lived and walked by faith. We should endeavour to trace the workings of that believing reliance upon God which furnishes the solution and explanation of his history. The eras of his history may be classed under two comprehensive heads,—the one reaching from his first call to the remarkable crisis of his full and formal justification (Ch. Genesis 11:27; Genesis 15:21); and the other from his unsteadfastness in the matter of Hagar to the final trial and triumph of his faith in the sacrifice first, and then in the marriage of his son Isaac (Genesis 16:1 to Genesis 24:67). During the first of these periods, his faith is chiefly exercised upon the bare promise itself made to him by God. During the second, it has to do mainly with the manner in which the promise is to be fulfilled.
THE FIRST PERIOD
This consists of an almost dramatic series of events,—beginning with a very humble and commonplace transaction, but ending in what elevates the patriarch to a high rank in the sight both of God and man.
I. Abraham comes before us as an emigrant. But he is an emigrant, not of his own accord, but at the call and command of God (Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:5). The first stage from Ur to Haran is accomplished without a breach in the family. But at Haran the oldest member of the company is cut off, for “Terah died in Haran.” Why should the very commencement of Abraham’s movement be so ordered as to imply that he must leave his father’s bones to rest,—neither in the place from which he goes, nor in the place which God has promised to him,—but as it were by the wayside, on the very outset of his pilgrimage? Surely it is not for nothing that he is appointed to set up as his first milestone his parents’ tomb. It is an emphatic initiation into his calling as destined henceforth to be a stranger on the earth.
II. Abraham comes before us as a stranger. We find him entering Canaan, and beginning his migratory sojourn in that country (Genesis 12:6; Genesis 13:4). It is not an ordinary movement or transition from one settled habitation to another. The peculiarity here is that the emigrant arrives at the place of his destination, and finds it a place of wandering still. He is warned, the very instant he sets his foot in the land, that he is to have but a wayfarer’s passing use of its accommodation, although ultimately, in connection with it, a rich inheritance awaits him. A partial famine in Canaan is appointed that he may be driven down into Egypt;—that perpetual type of estrangement and bondage, from whence it is a standing rule of the Divine procedure that all the Lord’s chosen ones shall experience a signal deliverance,—as it is written, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.” (Genesis 12:10-20; Matthew 2:13). Nor is it wonderful that in such circumstances the incidental failure as well as the habitual firmness of his holy trust in God should be made manifested. Wherever he went Abraham “built an altar unto the Lord.” (Genesis 12:7-8; Genesis 13:4). Everywhere and always he openly observed the worship of the true God, to whatever misunderstanding or persecution it might expose him, in a land in which his God, as well as himself, was a stranger. The transaction in Egypt was the one blot which disfigures the picture. We can understand and feel how that faith which could thus ordinarily sustain unshaken so frail and fallible a man, must have been beyond any exercise of mere human resolution, and how truly it may be said to have been “the gift of God.”
III. Abraham comes before us in an aspect of bright moral beauty. (Genesis 13:5-18). Never does Abraham appear in a more attractive light than in his courteous and kindly dealing with his kinsman Lot. The wisdom of his attempt to allay domestic strife by the proposal of an amicable separation, is cleared from every suspicion of a sinister or selfish policy, by the admirable disinterestedness with which Abraham leaves the choice of the whole land to Lot, and the cheerfulness with which he acquiesces in Lot’s preference of the better portion. In a worldly point of view, it was no inconsiderable sacrifice that Abraham made. When we find him frankly consenting to his kinsman’s evident desire to found a colony for himself,—nay more, willingly surrendering to him the choicest vales of which the country could boast, and retaining only the ruder and wider outfields as his own,—we may well admire the generosity and self-denial of this entire transaction. And we may well trace these noble qualities to no ordinary motive of mere human virtue, but to that Divine grace which alone enabled Abraham, as a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, to sit loose to the attractions of earthly possessions and earthly privileges, and to have his treasure and his heart alike in heaven. (Matthew 6:21). This instance of heavenly-mindedness is owned and blessed of God at the time. For no sooner does Abraham manifest his willingness to forego present good for the sake of peace, and out of the confidence he has in God, than he reaps a present reward. The Lord graciously renews to him, and in more emphatic and explicit terms than ever before, the promise of an inheritance for himself and for his seed;—“And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes” etc. etc. (Genesis 13:14-17). Thus by the example of His gracious dealing with Abraham, the Lord ratifies the assurance which His believing people in all ages may have, that they shall fare none the worse, either in this world or in the next, for any sacrifices they may make or any sufferings they may endure. (1 Timothy 4:8; Luke 18:29-30).
IV. A more open and signal evidence of the Divine countenance awaits the patriarch. The plot of that moral drama which opens with Abraham’s offer and Lot’s choice very speedily developes itself. The war of the kings (Genesis 14) is a striking commentary on the previous narrative. The plain where Lot settles, watered by the Jordan, sheltered by sunny hills on either side, and basking in the full smiles of a most genial clime, has become populous and rich. The highest cultivation has clothed the fields with luxuriant fruitfulness; cities of no mean name crown the heights along the banks of the river; and the valley has proverbially got the name of the “garden of the Lord.” But the moral does not keep pace with the material improvement of the land. Unheard of profligacy characterises their manners. Crime and effeminacy are in the ascendant. (Genesis 13:13). Thus the country of Lot’s choice presented a tempting object to the cupidity of the surrounding tribes, while the slothful and sensual corruption of its inhabitants seemed to expose them as an easy prey to their less civilised, perhaps, but more hardy neighbours. A war of petty principalities broke out. A few chieftains, allured by the riches and encouraged by the luxury of the far-famed cities of the plain, made a predatory incursion into the territories where Lot had fixed his home, defeated the native chiefs in a pitched battle, and swept away the persons and the property of the vanquished, in the indiscriminate plunder of a successful fray. That Lot and his household should suffer in the turmoil, was but too natural a result of his covetousness in grasping at a share of the prosperity of the wicked. And it might have seemed no more than just that he should be left to reap the fruits of his own sin and folly. But the instant he hears of his nephew’s calamity; he rushes to the rescue. Forgetful of all past unkindness, unmoved by Lot’s undutiful and unworthy preference of his own interests to those of his benefactor and friend, Abraham thinks only of the plight into which his brother’s son had fallen. Collecting the members of his numerous and well-ordered household, he suddenly organises a powerful army, places himself as a general for the emergency at their head, pursues the triumphant host, and recovers the spoil. It is a noble retaliation and reply on the part of Abraham to Lot’s selfish want of consideration. It is a glorious revenge. It is truly “heaping coals of fire upon his head.” But the transaction has a further meaning, as an instance and example of Abraham’s faith. Not only is it an illustration of the generosity of his character, but also of his deep spiritual insight into the promises of which he was the heir. For
(1), his right to take up arms, even in defence of his kinsman, depended upon his possessing a sovereign authority in the land. There is deliberation and dignity about this whole adventure, as far as Abraham is concerned. His is the port of royalty. For once he asserts the prerogative which consciously belongs to him. He interposes as ruler and owner of the promised inheritance. And
(2), how anxious he is, while declining any recompense that might stamp his enterprise with the least taint of a mercenary motive (Genesis 14:22-24), to render at the same time most marked and studious homage, and that of a religious kind, to one mysteriously bearing the joint offices of king and priest, and the joint appellations of righteousness and peace. (Genesis 25:18-20). For we cannot fail to see, especially with the light which the apostolic commentary sheds upon it, (Hebrews 7), how strong must have been the patriarch’s faith, at once in the promised inheritance and in the promised Saviour. It was faith which moved Abraham to assure so strangely the unwonted character of a prince entitled to levy war. It was faith which also led him to give so remarkable and unequivocal an expression of his willing subjection to the illustrious Being whom Melchisedec prefigured;—and to whom, as “priest upon His throne,” all the spiritual seed of Abraham are ever willing to give the undivided glory of every victory achieved by them, or for them, over those enemies who would be spoilers of the spiritual heritage which God has in the families that call upon His name.
V. Consider Abraham in his private communion with God. In the case of Abraham, great in the contrast between his public and his private life. On the one side you see a brave general, at the head of a conquering army, and playing a right royal part among this world’s potentates and princes. On the other hand, you seem to see a moping and melancholy recluse, idly wandering alone at midnight, a star-gazer, a dreamer, imagining ideal glories in some visionary world to come. The transition is most startling, from the hostile din of tumultuous strife to the serene solitude of a colloquy with God beneath the silent eloquence of the starry heavens! But Abraham is at home in either scene. The object of his one singular and abrupt appearance on the stage of public affairs being attained, and his right as the royal heir of the land being once for all asserted, he retires again into the seclusion which as a pilgrim he prefers. And he gives his undivided care to the carrying forward of the Divine purposes. But Abraham is found in secret communion with God as to certain thoughts which vex him in connection with the promised blessing. He complains not unnaturally of his still desolate condition as regards the future. (Genesis 15:2-3). And the complaint is wonderfully and graciously met in that transaction under the midnight starry sky, on which, all throughout scripture, the assurance of Abraham’s acceptance, as justified by faith, is made to turn. (Genesis 15:4-6). It is the hour of universal slumber. But near that silent tent two figures are to be seen; the one like unto the Son of God—the other a venerable form bending low in adoration of his Divine companion. And as we listen and overhear the strange colloquy that ensues,—in which apart altogether from any corroborative sign on which he might lean, the patriarch simply believes the Divine assurance, that childless and aged as he is, a progeny as numerous as the stars awaits him,—we cannot but own that it is indeed a mere and simple exercise of faith alone, without works or services of any kind whatever, that is the instrument of his salvation, and the means of his finding favour with God. And we cannot but acquiesce in the Divine testimony respecting his justification,—so frequently repeated with reference to this single and solitary incident in this history:—“Abraham believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3; Romans 4:9; Romans 4:22; Galatians 3:6). But though faith alone is the “hand” by which Abraham on this occasion appropriates the justifying righteousness pledged to him, it is not a faith that is content indolently to acquiesce in the darkness of entire ignorance respecting the ways of that God upon whose mere word it so implicitly relies. The patriarch follows up his believing submission with the earnest enquiry, “Lord whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Genesis 25:8). And in reply, he has the covenant of his peace ratified by a very special sacrifice (Genesis 25:9; Genesis 25:12; Genesis 25:17). And he obtains also an insight both into the future fortunes of his seed, and into the destiny awaiting himself. As to his seed, he is informed, that though the delay of four centuries is to intervene, through the long suffering of God, until “the iniquity of the Amorites is full.” (Genesis 25:16),—they are at last to possess the whole extent of the land reaching “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” While as to himself, he is to understand that his inheritance is to be postponed to the future and eternal state, and that the utmost he has to look for in this world is a quiet departure when his pilgrimage is over. (Genesis 25:15). Thus, justified by faith, the patriarch is made willing to subordinate all the earthly prospects of his race to the will of Him in whom he has believed; and as for himself, to live by the power of the world to come. We may look upon this midnight scene,—with the remarkable covenant transaction which closes it, unfolding to the patriarch, with a clearness and precision altogether new, the Divine purpose respecting his own and his seed’s inheritance of the land,—as the climax of what we may call the first part of Abraham’s walk of faith. Abraham acquiesces in the purposes of God with unhesitating confidence, though he knows not how it is possible, old and childless as he is, to have them ever brought to pass and made good.
THE SECOND PERIOD
Abraham has shown how unreservedly he can give credit to God for the fulfilment of His mere word, however incredible it might seem to the eye of sense. Will he also and equally give credit to God for the fulfilment of it in his own way?
I. In this new trial, the patriarch’s faith appears at first to fail. He is waiting for some step to be taken with a view to his having that heir “out of his own bowels,” (Genesis 15:4)—whom God has told him of. And this mere waiting becomes a sad weariness to flesh and blood. Can no expedient be adopted for giving effect to the Divine decree? To try something—to try anything—is easier than to “be still.” So Abraham, growing impatient of the Lord’s delay, listens to the plausible suggestions of his partner; and complying with her fond desire “to obtain children,” he suffers himself to be betrayed into that sin in the matter of Hagar which brought so much domestic evil in its train. For the offence, though not in his case prompted by carnal appetite, bore nevertheless the fruit which the like offence always bears;—blunting the conscience, hardening the heart, and unfitting the whole inner man for the Divine fellowship and favour. And in the dreary blank of the long interval that elapses between the birth of Ishmael and the next recorded communication from on high,—a period of thirteen years (Genesis 16:16; Genesis 17:1), during which a dark cloud seems to rest upon the patriarch, such as nothing short of a fresh call and new revival can dispel,—we trace the miserable fruit of his backsliding. But,
II. The manner of the patriarch’s revival is eminently gracious. (Isaiah 64:7-8; Psalms 118:18). First, there is a mild rebuke of his former unbelief and guile, in the announcement and invitation, “I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1). The Almighty God. Why didst thou then distrust My ability to make good My own promise at My own time and in My own way? Why didst thou walk in the crooked path of carnal policy? Rather walk before Me. Live as in My sight, and as having all that concerns thee safe in My hands. “And be thou perfect.” Stoop to no doubtful compromise or plausible proposal of human sublety and skill. With this gracious censure hinted, the interrupted intercourse on the part of God with His friend is resumed. There is a relenting tenderness in the Lord’s assurance, (Genesis 17:2), as if He could no longer refrain from returning to visit and bless his faithful servant. Yes! In spite of all that has passed, “I will make my covenant between me and thee.” It is indeed a reconciliation that may well overwhelm and overpower the receiver of so great a kindness under a sense of unutterable humiliation, gratitude, and awe;—“And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him.” (Genesis 25:3). The interview that follows is one of the spiritual epochs in Abraham’s life. The covenant is renewed with more explicit promises than ever (Genesis 25:3-8). The patriarch is henceforth to be known not as Abram merely, but Abraham,—not “the father of elevation,” but “the father of a great multitude.” And still further to confirm his faith and hope, the significant seal of the covenant, the rite of circumcision is ordained. (Genesis 25:9-14). This whole procedure was fitted to recover Abraham out of the depths into which he had been falling, bringing him back to the safe and simple attitude of waiting patiently for the Lord’s own fulfilment of His purposes.
III. The culminating point of Abraham’s exaltation in connection with his conduct towards Lot. He has power as a prince to prevail with God, and affords a signal instance and evidence of the acceptableness of intercessory prayer (Genesis 18:19). The particulars of this great incident give us the most elevated idea of the place Abraham has in the Divine heart. He is treated by God as His “friend.” Thus the Lord visits him as a friend, and along with two attendant angels, accepts his hospitality and sits familiarly at his table (Genesis 18:1-8). The Lord converses with him as a friend not only of those things concerning the patriarch himself—such as the terms of the Covenant and the near approach of the time when Sarah shall have a son—but, what is a more special proof of friendship, the Lord opens up to him His purpose as governor among the nations;—as if He could not hide from Abraham what He was about to do, but must admit him to His councils, and confer with him with regard to them (Genesis 25:16-22). Thereafter, in the unprecedented and unparalleled liberty of speech granted to the patriarch as he pleads for the doomed cities, and in assurance that what was done for the deliverance of Lot was done in remembrance of Abraham (Genesis 19:29); we see the highest honour conferred on him of which human nature can well be considered capable.
IV. The next scene presents to us the patriarch grievously humbled. After the catastrophe of Sodom, which broke up his family, Abraham is cast abroad as a wanderer again. He is brought into fresh contact with the people and the princes from whose lawless corruption of manners he has so much to apprehend (Genesis 20:1). The new “strength” which “through faith” Sarah is at this time receiving to “conceive seed” (Hebrews 11:11) implying probably the supernatural return of somewhat of her former attractive fairness (Genesis 12:11)—is an additional embarrassment to the wanderer, and makes the present exposure of his family among strangers peculiarly unseasonable. In such circumstances, his old expedient unhappily suggests itself to him again (Genesis 20:2). He is betrayed into a repetition of the mean and cowardly offence which on a former occasion not only provoked the Lord’s displeasure, but dishonoured Him before the heathen. And though the same overruling hand that had brought good out of evil before, interposes now to avert the calamity, still the patriarch himself is sufficiently rebuked. (Genesis 25:8-10). For his own name’s sake, indeed, the Lord will not suffer His gracious purposes to be frustrated, as by the sinful timidity of His servant they might have been. The holy race must be beyond insult or suspicion. The manner in which Abraham and his household escape is enough to show that it is the Lord’s sovereignty; and not any virtue in the creature, that secures the purity and permanence of a seed to serve Him while sun and moon endure. (Genesis 25:11-18).
V. The actual fulfilment of the promise does not completely abolish all strife between the flesh and the spirit. We find traces of a hesitancy and halting as to the acceptance of the heir. Abraham halts between two opinions, manifesting a sort of lurking preference for “the son of the bond-woman, born after the flesh,” over “the son of the free-woman, born after the spirit.” (Galatians 4:22-30). He is scarcely reconciled to the suggestion of his partner, even by the interposition of God Himself, and the repetition of the Divine decree that by this time ought to have been familiar, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” (Genesis 25:12). But the patriarch makes a final surrender of the confidence he had been tempted to build upon his first born and now well-grown child Ishmael. It is a strong exercise of faith to which he is thus called;—such as would be needed when the Saviour of mankind lay a helpless infant in the manger, with tyrants plotting His destruction,—and when a spiritual mind must, notwithstanding, apprehend the whole weight of God’s eternal purposes and man’s everlasting welfare as hanging on the single and slight thread of that little child’s preservation!
VI. The scene on Mount Moriah forms the climax of Abraham’s walk of faith. Abraham is now required in more trying circumstances than before “against hope to believe in hope.” For to believe before Isaac’s birth was not really so hard a thing as to continue to believe in spite of Isaac’s death. Then he had to believe before a sign was given—now, he has to believe although the sign once given is withdrawn. Before Abraham got Isaac, it was difficult for him to realise the possibility of the promise being fulfilled; and now that Isaac is to be lost to him, he might almost be expected to utter such words of melancholy despondency as fell from the lips of the two disciples journeying to Emmaus, “We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” (Luke 24:21).
God’s people may find themselves in an hour of darkness and season of trial with no “child of promise” in their heart or life to which they may cling. The fairest and most promising evidence of grace may be giving way. Again is the believer cast back upon that simple trust in the mere word of God that sustained him at the first. Nor in such an emergency will anything suffice to uphold him but a firm reliance on the omnipotence of God. The most startling contradictions that perplex the eye of sense cannot stand in the way of His faithfulness and truth. In spite of the failure of many an Isaac, the God of grace is able to make good all that He has spoken;—not now perhaps, or even in this world, or on this side of death at all,—but at all events in that resurrection state to which, after all, faith chiefly looks. The aged believer, like Abraham, may have many a sad and searching trial, cutting off all his former experiences, and leaving him without sign. But his God and Saviour are still the same. He may still say, “I know whom I have believed.”
VII. The closing incidents in Abraham’s eventful life. His grief for the death and care for the burial of Sarah,—the successful plan that he adopted to secure a suitable wife for Isaac,—his own entrance a second time into the marriage state,—his becoming thus literally as well as spiritually the father of many nations,—his timely settlement of his worldly affairs,—his quiet death in a good old age,—his burial at which both his sons, Ishmael and Isaac took part;—these might well demand particular notice. But a single general remark will suffice. The quiet domestic chronicle of death and marriage comes in with a sad yet soothing charm to wind up the wanderer’s agitated career. The crisis is now over, and he has a comparatively easy task to fulfil, as he calmly makes preparation for his own removal, and for the accomplishment of the Lord’s will when he is gone. One feature of his faith is illustrated as his life closes in. It is the remarkable combination of the highest heavenly-mindedness with the most thorough practical wisdom in ordering his earthly concerns. On the occasion of burying Sarah, he acts as if he had no part or lot in any inheritance here below, beyond what he could claim as awaiting him and his after death. (Genesis 23). While again in his adoption of the most decided measures to ensure the pure transmission of the covenant promise through Isaac (Genesis 24), he acts as if it were in this present earthly scene that all his duty and all his interest were concentrated. The trial of Abraham’s faith in the command to offer up Isaac brings out his entire willingness to have all his hopes postponed to the future state, and prepares us for the manifestation of his reverential concern respecting the dust of his beloved Sarah, and its due consignment to a tomb that he can call exclusively his own, in the midst of a country in which he is a pilgrim. But on the other hand, his care in taking the needful steps for the settlement of his son in life, as well as his seeking for himself during the remainder of his days the benefits and comforts of domestic fellowship, and his wise and timely adjustment of his earthly affairs, so as to do justice to all his descendants and prevent misunderstandings among them (Genesis 25:5-6),—all this illustrates the entire consistency that there is between the most heavenly-minded preference of the world to come, and the most faithful discharge of duty in the world that now is; and shows how he who has his inheritance in heaven is only the better fitted, on that very account, for giving due heed to all the claims which earthly obligation and earthly relationships have upon his regard. We close the survey with a deeper impression than ever of the majesty with which, in the hands of a spiritual and poetic painter, this great example of faith might be invested. Of the original and natural temperament of Abraham, independently of his call as a believer, but few traces can be discovered in the narrative. He was already an old man when he received the summons to forsake all for the Lord’s sake; and of what he was, and what he did before that era, Scripture says not a word, beyond the bare intimation that he was beginning, at least, to be involved in the growing idolatry of that age. (Joshua 24:2-3). We are persuaded, however, that if the devout students of God’s word and ways would throw themselves into this history of Abraham’s pilgrimage, with more of human sympathy than they sometimes do,—and with less of that captious spirit which a cold infidelity has engendered,—they would see more and more of the patriarch’s warmth and tenderness of heart, as well as his loyalty to that God whose call and covenant he so unreservedly embraced. It is not of any material consequence to speculate on the amount of knowledge which Abraham may have had, with regard either to the righteousness which he appropriated, or to the inheritance which in hope he anticipated. How far he had a clear and definite view of the great principle of substitution, still more how far he had any conception of the actual person and work of a substitute who was, in the fulness of time, to live on the earth, and die, and rise again,—may be matter of very doubtful disputation. And it may be impossible to determine with absolute certainty, whether he specifically identified the inheritance promised to him with the land in which he sojourned, or merely looked in a general way for a portion in the resurrection state, or in the world to come, that might fairly be regarded as an equivalent. The main facts, as to his faith and hope, are these two:—first, that Abraham trusted in a righteousness not his own for his justification in the sight of God,—and secondly, that he sought his rest and reward in a heritage of glory beyond the grave. We may have clearer light on both these points. If so, then so much the greater is our responsibility. And it will be good for us if, by the grace of God, we are enabled to live up to our clearer light, as conscientiously as Abraham lived up to his more imperfect illumination; walking before God in uprightness, as he did,—and as strangers and pilgrims on the earth declaring plainly that “we seek a better country, even a heavenly.”—(Candlish.)
In the section now completed, the sacred writer descends from the general to the special, from the class to the individual. He dissects the soul of a man, and discloses to our view the whole process of the spiritual life from the new born babe to the perfect man. Out of the womb of that restless selfish race, from whom nothing is willingly restrained which they have imagined to do, comes forth Abraham with all the lineaments of their moral image upon him. The Lord calls him to Himself, His mercy, His blessing, and His service. He obeys the call. That is the moment of his new birth. The acceptance of the Divine call is the tangible fact that evinces a new nature. Henceforth he is a disciple, having yet much to learn before he becomes a master in the school of heaven. From this time forward the spiritual predominates in Abraham; very little of the carnal appears. Two sides of his mental character present themselves in alternate passages, which may be called the physical and the metaphysical, or the things of the body and the things of the soul. In the former only, the carnal or old corrupt nature sometimes appears; in the latter the new nature advances from stage to stage of spiritual growth unto perfection. The second stage of its spiritual development now presents itself to our view; on receiving the promise, “Fear not Abraham; I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward,” he believes in the Lord who counts it to him for righteousness. This is the first fruit of the new birth, and it is followed by the birth of Ishmael. On hearing the authoritative announcement “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be perfect,” he performs the first act of that obedience, which is the keystone of repentance, by receiving the sign of the covenant, and proceeds to the high functions of holding communion and making intercession with God. The last great act of the spiritual life of Abraham is the surrender of his only son to the will of God. It is manifest that 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 susceptibilities and activities of a soul born of the Spirit are unfolded to our view. These are lessons for eternity. Every descendant of Abraham, every collateral branch of his family, every contemporary eye or ear-witness might have profited in the things of eternity by all this precious treasury of spiritual knowledge.—(Murphy.)