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Genesis Chapter
Seventeen
Genesis 17
Chapter Contents
God renews the covenant with Abram. (1-6) Circumcision
instituted. (7-14) Sarai's name changed
Isaac promised. (15-22) Abraham and
his family are circumcised. (23-27)
Commentary on Genesis 17:1-6
The covenant was to be accomplished in due time. The
promised Seed was Christ
and Christians in him. And all who are of faith are
blessed with faithful Abram
being partakers of the same covenant blessings. In
token of this covenant his name was changed from Abram
"a high
father
" to Abraham
"the father of a multitude." All that the
Christian world enjoys
it is indebted for to Abraham and his Seed.
Commentary on Genesis 17:7-14
The covenant of grace is from everlasting in the counsels
of it
and to everlasting in the consequences of it. The token of the covenant
was circumcision. It is here said to be the covenant which Abraham and his seed
must keep. Those who will have the Lord to be to them a God
must resolve to be
to him a people. Not only Abraham and Isaac
and his posterity by Isaac
were
to be circumcised
but also Ishmael and the bond-servants. It sealed not only
the covenant of the land of Canaan to Isaac's posterity
but of heaven
through
Christ
to the whole church of God. The outward sign is for the visible church;
the inward seal of the Spirit is peculiar to those whom God knows to be
believers
and he alone can know them. The religious observance of this
institution was required
under a very severe penalty. It is dangerous to make
light of Divine institutions
and to live in the neglect of them. The covenant
in question was one that involved great blessings for the world in all future
ages. Even the blessedness of Abraham himself
and all the rewards conferred
upon him
were for Christ's sake. Abraham was justified
as we have seen
not
by his own righteousness
but by faith in the promised Messiah.
Commentary on Genesis 17:15-22
Here is the promise made to Abraham of a son by Sarai
in
whom the promise made to him should be fulfilled. The assurance of this promise
was the change of Sarai's name into Sarah. Sarai signifies my princess
as if
her honour were confined to one family only; Sarah signifies a princess. The
more favours God confers upon us
the more low we should be in our own eyes.
Abraham showed great joy; he laughed
it was a laughter of delight
not of
distrust. Now it was that Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day; now he saw it
and was glad
John 8:56. Abraham
dreading lest Ishmael should
be abandoned and forsaken of God
put up a petition on his behalf. God gives us
leave in prayer to be particular in making known our requests. Whatever is our
care and fear
should be spread before God in prayer. It is the duty of parents
to pray for their children
and the great thing we should desire is
that they
may be kept in covenant with Him
and may have grace to walk before him in
uprightness. Common blessings are secured to Ishmael. Outward good things are
often given to those children of godly parents who are born after the flesh
for their parents' sake. Covenant blessings are reserved for Isaac
and
appropriated to him.
Commentary on Genesis 17:23-27
Abraham and all his family were circumcised; so receiving
the token of the covenant
and distinguishing themselves from other families
that had no part nor lot in the matter. It was an implicit obedience; he did as
God said unto him
and did not ask why or wherefore. He did it because God bade
him. It was a speedy obedience; in the self-same day. Sincere obedience makes
no delay. Not only the doctrines of revelation
but the seals of God's
covenant
remind us that we are guilty
polluted sinners. They show us our need
of the blood of atonement; they point to the promised Saviour
and teach us to
exercise faith in him. They show us that without regeneration
and
sanctification by his Spirit
and the mortification of our corrupt and carnal
inclinations
we cannot be in covenant with God. But let us remember that the
true circumcision is that of the heart
by the Spirit
Romans 2:28
29. Both under the old and new
dispensation
many have had the outward profession
and the outward seal
who
were never sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Genesis》
Genesis 17
Verse 1
[1] And
when Abram was ninety years old and nine
the LORD appeared to Abram
and said
unto him
I am the Almighty God; walk before me
and be thou perfect.
And when Abram was ninety nine years old — Full thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael. So long the promise of
Isaac was deferred; 1. Perhaps to correct Abram's over-hasty marrying of Hagar.
2. That Abram and Sarai being so far striken in age
God's power in this matter
might be the more magnified.
The Lord appeared unto Abram — In some visible display of God's immediate glorious presence with him.
And said
I am the Almighty God — By this name he chose to make himself known to Abram
rather than by his
name Jehovah
Exodus 6:3. He used it to Jacob
Genesis 35:11. They called him by this name
Genesis 28:5; 43:14; 48:3. It is the name of God that is mostly used
throughout the book of Job
at least 30 times in the discourses of that book
in which Jehovah is used but once. After Moses
Jehovah is more frequently
used
and this very rarely. I am El-Shaddai. It speaks the almighty power of
God
either 1. As an avenger
from wrv he destroyed
or laid waste; so some:
and they think God took this title from the destruction of the old world: Or
2. As a benefactor
v for rva who
and yr it sufficeth. Our old English
translation reads it here
very significantly
I am God All-sufficient. The God
with whom we have to do
is self-sufficient; he hath every thing
and he needs
not any thing. And he is enough to us
if we be in covenant with him; we have
all in him
and we have enough in him; enough to satisfy our most enlarged
desires; enough to supply the defect of every thing else
and to secure us
happiness for our immortal souls. But the covenant is mutual
walk before me
and be thou perfect - That is
upright and sincere. Observe
1. That to walk
before God
is to set God always before us
and to think
and speak
and act
in every thing as those that are always under his eye. It is to have a constant
regard to his word
as our rule
and to his glory
as our end
in all our
actions. It is to be inward with him in all the duties of religious worship
and
to be entire for him in all holy conversation. 2. That upright walking with God
is the condition of our interest in his all-sufficiency. If we neglect him
or
dissemble with him
we forfeit the benefit of our relation to him. 3. A
continual regard to God's all-sufficiency will have a great influence upon our
upright walking with him.
Verse 3
[3] And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him
saying
And Abram fell on his face while God talked
with him — Either
1. As one overcome by the
brightness of the Divine glory: Daniel and John did so likewise. Or. 2. As one
ashamed of himself
and blushing to think of the honours done to one so
unworthy. He looks upon himself with humility
and upon God with reverence
and
in token of both
falls on his face.
Verse 4
[4] As
for me
behold
my covenant is with thee
and thou shalt be a father of many
nations.
The promise is here introduced with
solemnity: As for me
saith the Great God
Behold
behold and admire it
behold
and be assured of it
my covenant is with thee.
And thou shalt be a father of many nations — This implies
1. That his seed after the flesh should be very numerous
both in Isaac and in Ishmael
and in the sons of Keturah. And the event
answered
for there have been
and are
more of the children of men descended
from Abraham
than from any one man at equal distance with him from Noah
the
common root. 2. That all believers
in every age
should be looked upon as his
spiritual seed
as the father of the faithful. In this sense the apostle directs
us to understand this promise
Romans 4:16
17. He is the father of those
in
every nation
that
by faith
enter into covenant with God
and (as the Jewish
writers express it) are gathered under the wings of the divine majesty.
Verse 5
[5]
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram
but thy name shall be Abraham;
for a father of many nations have I made thee.
In token of this
his name was changed from
Abram
a high father
to Abraham
the father of a multitude. This was to
confirm the faith of Abraham
while he was childless; perhaps even his own name
was sometimes an occasion of grief to him; Why should he be called a high
father
who was not a father at all? But now God had promised him a numerous
issue
and had given him a name which signified so much; that name was his joy.
Verse 7
[7] And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after
thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant
to be a God unto thee
and to thy seed after thee.
And I will establish my covenant — Not to be altered or revoked; not with thee only
then it would die with
thee but with thy seed after thee; and it is not only thy seed after the flesh
but thy spiritual seed. It is everlasting in the evangelical meaning of it. The
covenant of grace is everlasting; it is from everlasting in the counsels of it
and to everlasting in the consequences of it; and the external administration
of it is transmitted
with the seal of it
to the seed of believers
and the
internal administration of it by the Spirit to Christ's seed in every age. This
is a covenant of exceeding great and precious promises. Here are two which
indeed are all-sufficient
that God would be their God. All the privileges of
the covenant
all its joys
and all its hopes
are summed up in this. A man
needs desire no more than this to make him happy. What God is himself
that he
will be to his people: wisdom to guide and counsel them
power to protect and
support them
goodness to supply and comfort them; what faithful worshippers
can expect from the God they serve
believers shall find in God as theirs. This
is enough
yet not all.
Verse 8
[8] And
I will give unto thee
and to thy seed after thee
the land wherein thou art a
stranger
all the land of Canaan
for an everlasting possession; and I will be
their God.
And I will give thee Canaan for an
everlasting possession — God had before promised this land to
Abraham and his seed
Genesis 15:18. But here
it is promised for an
everlasting possession
as a type of heaven
that everlasting rest which
remains for the people of God. This is that better country to which Abraham had
an eye
and the grant of which was that which answered the vast extent of that
promise
that God would be to them a God; so that if God had not designed this
he would have been ashamed to be called their God
Hebrews 11:16. As the land of Canaan was secured
to the seed of Abraham
according to the flesh; so heaven is secured to all his
spiritual seed for a possession truly everlasting. The offer of this eternal
life is made in the word
and confirmed by the sacraments
to all that are
under the external administration of the covenant
and the earnest of it is
given to all believers.
Verse 10
[10] This
is my covenant
which ye shall keep
between me and you and thy seed after
thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
The token of the covenant
is circumcision
for the sake of which the covenant is itself called the covenant of
circumcision
Acts 7:8. It is here said to be the covenant which
Abraham and his seed must keep
as a copy or counterpart
it is called a sign
and seal
Romans 4:11
for it was. 1. A confirmation to
Abraham and his seed of those promises which were God's part of the covenant
assuring them that
in due time
Canaan should be theirs: and the continuance
of this ordinance
after Canaan was theirs
intimates
that that promise looked
farther
to another Canaan. 2. An obligation upon Abraham and his seed to that
duty which was their part of the covenant
not only to the duty of accepting
the covenants and putting away the corruption of the flesh
which were
primarily signified by circumcision
but in general to the observation of all
God's commands. They who will have God to be to them a God
must consent to be
to him a people. Now
1. Circumcision was a bloody ordinance
for all things by
the law were purged with blood
Hebrews 9:22. See Exodus 24:8. But the blood of Christ being shed
all bloody ordinances are now abolished. Circumcision therefore gives way to
baptism. 2. It was peculiar to the males
though the women also were included
in the covenant. 3. Christ having not yet offered himself for us
God would
have man to enter into covenant
by the offering of some part of his own body
and no part could be better spared. 4. The ordinance was to be administered to
children when they were eight days old
that they might gather some strength to
be able to undergo the pain of it. 5. The children of the strangers were to be
circumcised
which looked favourable upon the Gentiles
who should
in due time
be brought into the family of Abraham
by faith. Here is
(1.) The promise made
to Abraham of a son by Sarai
that son in whom the promise made to him should
be fulfilled
that he should be the father of many nations
for she also shall
be a mother of nations
and kings of people shall be of her
Genesis 17:16. Note
1. God reveals the purposes
of his good-will to his people by degrees. God had told Abraham long before
that he should have a son
but never 'till now that he should have a son by
Sarai. 2. The blessing of the Lord makes fruitful
and adds no sorrow with it;
no such sorrow as was in Hagar's case. I will bless her
with the blessing of
fruitfulness
and then thou shalt have a son of her. 3. Civil government and
order is a great blessing to the church. It is promised not only that people
but kings of people should be of her; not a headless rout
but a well modelled
well governed society.
Verse 15
[15] And
God said unto Abraham
As for Sarai thy wife
thou shalt not call her name
Sarai
but Sarah shall her name be.
Sarah shall her name be — The same letter is added to her name that was to Abraham's. Sarai
signifies my princess
as if her honour were confined to one family only: Sarah
signifies a princess
viz. of multitudes.
Verse 17
[17] Then
Abraham fell upon his face
and laughed
and said in his heart
Shall a child
be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah
that is ninety
years old
bear?
Then Abraham fell on his face
and laughed — It was a laughter of delight
not of distrust. Now it was that Abraham
rejoiced to see Christ's day
now he saw it and was glad
John 8:56
for as he saw heaven in the promise
of Canaan
so he saw Christ in the promise of Isaac
and said
Shall a child be
born to him that is an hundred years old? - He doth not here speak of it
as at
all doubtful
for we are sure he staggered not at the promise
Romans 4:20
but as wonderful
and that which
could not be effected but by the almighty power of God.
Verse 18
[18] And
Abraham said unto God
O that Ishmael might live before thee!
And Abraham said
O that Ishmael might live
before thee! — This he speaks nor as desiring that
Ishmael might be preferred before the son he should have by Sarah
but as
dreading lest he should be forsaken of God
he puts up this petition on his
behalf. The great thing we should desire of God
for our children
is
that
they may live before him
that is
that they may be kept in covenant with him
and may have grace to walk before him in their uprightness. God's answer to
this prayer
is an answer of peace. Abraham could not say he sought God's face
in vain.
Verse 20
[20] And
as for Ishmael
I have heard thee: Behold
I have blessed him
and will make
him fruitful
and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget
and I will make him a great nation.
As for Ishmael
I have heard thee; I have
blessed him — That is
I have many blessings in store
for him. 1. His posterity shall be numerous; I will multiply him exceedingly;
2. They shall be considerable; twelve princes shall he beget. We may charitably
hope that spiritual blessings also were bestowed upon him
though the visible
church was not brought out of his loins.
Verse 21
[21] But
my covenant will I establish with Isaac
which Sarah shall bear unto thee at
this set time in the next year.
He names that child
Isaac — Laughter
because Abraham rejoiced in spirit when this son was promised
him.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Genesis》
17 Chapter 17
Verse 1-2
The Lord appeared to Abram
and said unto him
I am the Almighty God:
walk before Me
and be thou perfect
Walking before God
In a certain sense we must all walk before God
whether in
solitude or among the haunts of men.
But it is open to us to realize His presence
or to dismiss it from our minds.
It is the first of these courses which God counsels Abraham to adopt. The words
imply that the realization of the Divine presence is the secret of all
perfection. The text answers the question as to how the work of our calling may
be done devoutly. It bids us “do all in God
” by habitual mindfulness of His
presence.
1. The counsel to be mindful of God’s presence might seem to be
quite practicable for those who have to work merely with their hands. But work
which involves thought seems to preclude the realization of the Divine presence
at the moment of its being done. In answer to this we need only observe that
all that is necessary is the consciousness that God’s eye is upon us.
Consciousness of a presence need not interfere with the most active operations
of mind. The mind of a speaker may be intently occupied while he is making an
extempore address
yet all the time he remembers that the eye of the audience
is upon him. Consciousness of their presence forms the very groundwork of his
mind.
II. The conception
of God’s presence will take different shapes in different minds. We may regard
Him as locally present everywhere
the veil of matter screening Him from our
view; or we may regard Him as having a certain intimate connection with our
minds
as upholding momentarily in us the powers of life and thought.
III. In cultivating
the consciousness of the Divine presence
we shall find it useful to catch at
every help which our circumstances afford. If our hearts are right and true
we
may find Christ--or rather may be found of Him--not only in the quiet country
but in the busy city
in the midst of the traffic of secular affairs. (Dean
Goulburn.)
A revelation and a requirement
I. THE
REVELATION: “I am the Almighty God.” God is always sufficient. Enough for every
being and occasion
responsibility and work. All knowledge
wisdom
authority
power.
II. THE
REQUIREMENT: “Walk before Me
” etc.
1. An onward and forward step.
2. The habitual recognition of God. (S. Martin.)
The revelation to Abraham
I. The sun
the
moon
the stars
were the old gods of the East
the Elohim
the high and mighty
ones
who ruled over men
over their good or bad fortunes
over the weather
the cattle
the crops
sending burning drought
pestilence
sunstroke
and
those moonstrokes of which the Psalmist speaks when he says
“The sun shall not
smite thee by day nor the moon by night.” And these the old Easterns worshipped
in some wild
confused way. But to Abraham it was revealed that the sun
the
moon
and the stars were not Elohim
the high and mighty ones: that there was
but one Elohim
one high and mighty One
the Almighty Maker of them all.
II. Merely to
believe that there is one God is a dead faith
which will never be counted for
righteousness
because: it will never make a man righteous
doing righteous and
good deeds as Abraham did. Abraham’s faith was counted to him for righteousness
because it was righteousness
and made him do righteous deeds.
1. His faith in God made him brave. He went forth he knew not
whither
but he had put his strength in God
and he did not fear.
2. Faith made him high-minded
generous
and courteous; as when he
bids Lot go whither he will with his flocks and herds. Abraham was a plain man
dwelling in tents
but still
as the children of Heth said of him
a mighty
prince
not merely in wealth of flocks and herds
but a prince in manners and a
prince in heart.
3. Faith in God made Abraham a truly pious man
it made him the
friend of God. His communion with God is the especial glory of Abraham’s
character. This gave him his name
“the friend of God”; or as his descendants
the Arabs call him to this day
simply “The Friend.”
III. Abraham
believed God because there was in his heart something which there is not in all
men’s hearts--something which answered to God’s call
and make him certain that
the call was from God--even the Holy Spirit of God. Blessed is the man who has
chosen his share of Abraham’s faith: he and his children after him shall have
their share of Abraham’s blessing. (C. Kingsley
M. A.)
Preparation for fresh spiritual privileges
I. DIVINE
VISITATION.
1. To reward long trial and patience.
2. To reveal the Divine purpose more clearly.
II. ENLARGEMENT
AND EXALTATION OF THE IDEA OF DUTY. The more we know of God
the more exalted
and noble our conception of the duty we owe to Him. Our sense of the holiness
of His law increases.
1. We have a clearer idea of the standard of duty. “Walk before Me.”
The moral character of God is proposed for our imitation.
2. We see what is the true evidence of duty. “Be thou perfect.”
Perfect obedience--completeness of spiritual character--respect unto all God’s
commandments these are the evidences that our duty has been rendered
acceptably. The constant aim after perfection is a proof that our piety is real
and sincere.
3. We have the Divine encouragements of duty. “I am the Almighty
God.” As we have infinite goodness to furnish us with an idea and an example
so we have infinite power to support us and to give us the necessary strength.
(T. H.Leale.)
The power of God
We cannot conceive of a God without power; nor can we conceive
rightly of Jehovah only as a God of infinite power; as the Almighty God
as He
is called in our text. By this name He revealed Himself to Abraham
when He
appeared to him to confirm the promise of a very numerous posterity; a thing
that seemed unlikely
if human appearances only had been consulted; but to
encourage his faith in the promise
He says
“I am the Almighty God.” This was
enough; Abraham was satisfied. He believed; he waited; and the promise was fulfilled.
It will also greatly assist our faith
and promote our devotion
if we receive
and retain a solemn conviction
that God is a being possessed of infinite
power. Let us trace the evidences of this truth.
I. In the
original production of all creatures.
II. In the
preservation and government of all creatures; and
III. In the
redemption of sinful man.
1. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God
so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear” (Hebrews 11:3). They were not merely
formed
they were created; they were made out of nothing
the matter of which
they were formed was created; for “in the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth” (Genesis 1:1); and these two words
“the
heaven and the earth
” include all the countless myriads of creatures and
things which fill the universe
and far exceed the view of mortals. God alone
can create.
2. The power of God
as it is displayed in the preservation and
government of His creatures. The whole system is preserved in its beautiful
order by the same Almighty hand which gave it being. He upholds all things by
the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Mark the display of the
same Almighty power in making constant provision for the vast family of the
universe. The continuance
from age to age
of the various orders of animals
beasts
birds
fishes
insects
and all the multitudes of trees
plants
and
flowers
must be ascribed to the same Almighty power. The moral government of
God is still more wonderful. To His power in restraining evil spirits we owe
much of our safety and comfort. We are more sensible of His power in
restraining wicked men. But as the world is
it would be infinitely worse
if
God did not withhold bad men from their purposes; but nil hearts are in His
hand.
3. The power of God as it shines in the redemption of sinful men by
Jesus Christ. Observe this power in the presence of the great Redeemer. When we
consider the first planting of our holy religion in the world
by instruments
so feeble
and notwithstanding obstacles so great
we shall see with what
propriety the gospel is said to be “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). But it concerns us most of
all to trace the effects of Divine power in the application of the gospel to
the heart
without which its publication to the world
and its preservation to
this day
will not avail to our personal salvation. The gospel is designed to
produce a great inward change. The corruption of our nature renders this change
absolutely necessary; and it is a change so considerable
as to be called in
Scripture a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17): this
of
course
can be effected only by the power of God; and
therefore
true converts
are said to be made “willing in the day of His power” (Psalms 110:3). Let us contemplate one
more exertion of Divine power. When Moses saw a bush on fire
and yet that it
was not consumed
he turned aside to behold it with admiration. In that burning
bush he beheld the emblem of Israel afflicted in Egypt
yet not destroyed; and
we may perceive in it an emblem of a true Christian
“kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:5). And what but the power
of God is sufficient for this purpose? What
then
shall we say to these
things? What use shall we make of our meditations on the Almighty power of God?
Let Him be adored; let Him be feared; let Him be trusted. Let Him be adored.
He
and He alone
is the proper object of religious worship. Observe and admire
His power wherever you see it; and where can you look without seeing it? Let
this Almighty God be feared. Fear not man
who can do nothing but as permitted.
Fear not man
said our Saviour
“but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear;
fear Him which after He hath killed the body
can cast both body and soul into
hell: yea
I say unto you
Fear Him” (Luke 12:5). “Blessed are all they that
put their trust in Him.” Yes; “trust in the Lord forever: for in the Lord
Jehovah is everlasting strength” (Isaiah 26:4). What cannot He do who is
almighty? “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Genesis 18:14). (G. Burder.)
The life
walk
and triumph of faith
I. The first
thing we shall speak about
upon this occasion
is SURE RELIANCE. The
foundation of it is laid before us in the text. True confidence leans alone
upon God
who declares Himself to be Almighty God
or God All-sufficient--for
such is an equally correct rendering of the passage. All true faith hangs upon
God
as the vessel upon the nail. Strong faith realizes the all-sufficiency of
God
and that is the secret of its strength
the hidden manna on which it feeds
and becomes vigorous. God is God All-sufficient; simple as that truth is for us
to speak
and for you to hear
it is a deep unfathomable
and did we really
grasp its truth and dwell upon it
it would have a very wonderful effect upon
our whole conduct.
1. This blessed text
“I am God All-sufficient
” may apply to us in
times when we are inclined to shirk any service for God. “Thou art foolish
but
I am wise. Give thyself up to My guidance: trust thyself in My hands
and thou
shalt achieve marvels; and exceeding great wonders shalt thou accomplish by My
power and grace.”
2. This word may also be useful to those who are trembling under
some present temporal trial and affliction.
3. The same may also be applied to each of us when we are under
spiritual depressions. Inward tribulations are frequently more severe than
temporal trials; the man of God knows this full well. “I am God Almighty
”
saith the Lord: “Therefore say thou unto the enemy
‘Rejoice not over me
for
though I fall yet shall I rise again.’”
II. Secondly
our
text goes on to speak of our RIGHT POSITION. The Lord says
“I am Almighty
God
” and then He adds
“Walk before Me.” It is much easier for me to talk
about this than it will be to practise it. The meaning is simple--the actual
obedience grace alone can work in us. “Walk before Me.” Not merely “think
before Me
” and “pray before Me
” but “walk before Me.” I know many find it
easy to cultivate a sense of God’s presence in their own study
or in the room
where they are accustomed to pray
but this is the point--to feel it in
business
and in the details of everyday life. Oh
it is a great word
this--“Walk before Me.” Its brevity is not so notable as its fulness. Surely it
means realize My presence
and then
in general life and ordinary conversation
continue under a sense of it
serious
devout
holy
earnest
trustful
consecrated
Christ-like. But He meant more than that. “Walk before Me.” That
is
“Delight in My company.” True believers find their choicest joy in
communion with God; and did we always walk with God in a sense of communing
with Him
our peace would be like a river
and our righteousness like the waves
of the sea. “Walk before Me.” Does not it mean just this
in a word
“Do not
act as seeing anybody else except Me? Walk before Me.” Now
Abram had walked
before Sarah: he had listened to her
and much mischief had come of his so
doing at different times. The dearest friends we have are often those who will
lead us most astray when we take counsel with flesh and blood. “Do not allow
your course to be shaped by regarding Hagar
or regarding Ishmael
or regarding
Sarah
or anybody else. ‘Walk before Me.’” I am persuaded that a regard for
God
a sense of duty
a straight-forward following out of convictions
is the
only true style of living
for if you begin to notice the whims and wishes of
one
then you will have to do the same with another; and if your course of
conduct is to be shaped to please men
you will become man’s slave and nothing
better; and no child of God ought to come into that condition.
III. But we must
pass on
for there is another point
and that is
as we have considered our
sure reliance and our right position
we notice next OUR GLORIOUS AIM: “Be thou
perfect.” Now
the connection shows us that the only way to be perfect is to
walk before the Lord. If any man desires holiness
he must get it through
communion. The way to be transformed into the likeness of God is to live in the
company of God. First
God must be known as All-sufficient; thus He helps and
enables His servant to walk before Him
and then
as a consequence
that
favoured servant labours to obey the word of command
“Be thou perfect.” “Oh
”
says one
“but how can we be perfect?” I will ask thee another question:
Wouldst thou have God command thee to be less than perfect? If so He would be
the author of an imperfect law. “The law of the Lord is perfect;” how could it
be otherwise? I do not find that He bids us partly keep His law
but wholly
keep it. And so the Lord holds up this as the standard of a Christian
“Be thou
perfect.” And does it not mean
let us be perfect in desiring to have all the
round of graces? Suppose a man should have faith
and should have love
but no
hope: he would not be perfect. He would be like a child that had two arms
but
only one foot; it would not be a perfect child. You must have all the graces
if you are to be a perfect man. And as we have all the graces
so we should
seek to have in our lives exhibited all the virtues
in the fulfilment of all
our duties. It is a very sad thing when you hear of a Christian man that he is
a very excellent deacon
that he is a very admirable local preacher or Sabbath
school teacher
but that he is a very unkind father. That “but” spoils it all.
A saint abroad is no saint if he be a devil at home. Now
I think I hear
somebody saying
“How shall we ever reach such a height?” My dear brother
you
never will do so except you remember the first part of the text--“I am the
Almighty God.” He can help you. If there be any sin that you cannot overcome
yourself
He can overcome it for you. If there be any virtue you have not yet
reached
He can lead you up to it. But I will not detain you longer
except to
notice that last word. It is a very sweet word: “I will make My covenant
between Me and thee.” Oh
it is the man that knows an All-sufficient God
and
that lives in the presence of God
and that endeavours to be perfect in his
life--it is that man that enjoys intercourse and communion with God
such as no
one else knows
for “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” “There
shall be a covenant between Me and thee.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Walking before God
I. A
DECLARATION--“I am THE ALMIGHTY GOD.”
II. A COMMAND.
“Walk before Me.” Think
act
speak
under a sense of God’s
omnipresence.
III. A FURTHER
COMMAND OR PROMISE. “Be thou perfect
” or
“Thou shalt be perfect.”
1. As a command it imports
“Thou shalt be upright and sincere in
thought
speech
action.”
2. As a promise
“Thou shalt be perfect as thy state and nature can
bear
in knowledge
holiness
happiness.” (J. Benson
D. D.)
The Almightiness of God
1. Rebukes our lack of
unwavering faith.
2. Teaches us to leave with God all that concerns us.
3. Teaches us to practise perfect openness with God.
4. Is the remedy against all discouragement.
To walk before God is
1. To live as in His sight
and under His special inspection.
2. To realize
at all times
His presence and His Providence.
3. To feel the dignity of the godly life. We are not to walk behind
Him
as if ashamed
but before Him
as conscious of the dignity of our high
calling.
4. To feel the constant energy of spiritual life. We cannot fail
with the Almighty power behind us.
5. To feel the love of God towards us.
6. To apprehend God’s love by our faith.
Walk before Me
and be thou perfect
I. THE DIVINE
SUMMONS. “Perfect” here means whole-heartedness--entire surrender of being.
Such an attitude can only be maintained by a very careful “walk.”
II. THE REVELATION
ON WHICH THIS SUMMONS WAS BASED--“I am the Almighty God”--El-Shaddai. “All
power is Mine
in heaven and upon earth. Of old I laid the foundations of the
earth
and the heavens are the work of My hands. I sit upon the circle of the
earth; and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers. I bring out the starry hosts by
number
calling them all by names
by the greatness of My might
for that I am
strong in power: not one faileth. Hast thou not known?--Hast thou not heard
that the everlasting God
the Lord
the Creator of the ends of the earth
fainteth not
neither is weary?” All this is as true today as ever. And if any
will dare venture forth on the path of separation
cutting themselves aloof
from all creature aid
and from all self-originated effort; content to walk
alone with God
with no help from any but Him--such will find that all the
resources of the Divine Almightiness will be placed at their disposal
and that
the resources of Omnipotence must be exhausted ere their cause can fail for
want of help.
III. THE COVENANT
WHICH WAS DIVINELY PROPOSED.
1. It referred to the seed.
2. It referred to the land.
3. It referred to the coming child. (F. B. Meyer
B. A.)
Consecration to God--illustrated by Abraham’s circumcision
On the occasion of this gracious manifestation
God was pleased to
do for Abram what I think is to us an admirable and instructive illustration of
the consecration of our redeemed spirit
entirely to His service.
I. First
then
let us notice in the words of God to Abram
THE MODEL OF THE SANCTIFIED OR
CONSECRATED LIFE. Here it is: “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me
and be
thou perfect.”
1. For a man to be thoroughly sanctified to the Master’s service
he
must first realize the almightines and all-sufficiency and glory of God.
2. True holiness is a walking before God. The saint feels that he
must not
dare not
transgress
because he is before the very face of God.
3. The next words are
“and be thou perfect.” Does this mean
absolute perfection? Freely I do admit that the model of sanctification is
perfection.
II. Secondly
THE
NATURE OF THIS CONSECRATION as illustrated in this chapter.
1. Genuine spiritual consecration begins with communion with God.
Note the third verse--“Abraham fell on his face
and God talked with him.” By
looking at Christ Jesus
His image is photographed upon our mind
and we are
changed from glory to glory
as by the presence of the Lord.
2. The next point in the nature of this consecration is that it is
fostered by enlarged views of the covenant grace. “As for Me
behold My
covenant is with thee
and thou shalt be a father of many nations.”
3. Note
in reading these words
how this covenant is revealed to
Abram peculiarly as a work of Divine power. Note the run of the passage
“I
will make My covenant between Me and thee.” “I will make thee fruitful.” “I
will establish My covenant.” “I will give unto thee.” “I will be thy God
” and
so on. Oh! those glorious “wills” and “shalls.” Ye cannot serve the Lord with a
perfect heart until first your faith gets a grip of the Divine “wills” and
“shalls.”
4. Further
Abraham had a view of the covenant in its
everlastingness. I do not remember that the word “everlasting” had been used
before in reference to that covenant
but in this chapter we have it over and
over again. “I will establish My covenant for an everlasting covenant.” Here is
one of those grand truths which many of the babes in grace have not as yet
learned
namely
that the blessings of grace are blessings not given today to
be taken back tomorrow
but eternal blessings.
5. In considering the nature of this consecration
I would observe
next
that they who are consecrated to God are regarded as new men. The new
manhood is indicated by the change of name--he is called no longer Abram
but
Abraham
and his wife no longer Sarai
but Sarah. Ye are new creatures in Christ
Jesus.
6. Note further that the nature of this consecration was set forth
to Abraham by the rite of circumcision. Taking away the filthiness of the
flesh.
III. THE RESULTS OF
SUCH A CONSECRATING.
1. Immediately after God’s appearing to Abraham his consecration was
manifest
first
in his prayer for his family. “O that Ishmael might live
before Thee!” Men of God
if you are indeed the Lord’s
and feel that you are
His
begin now to intercede for all who belong to you.
2. The next result of Abraham’s consecration was
that he was most
hospitable to his fellow men. Look at the next chapter. He sits at the tent
door
and three men come to him. The Christian is the best servant of humanity
in a spiritual sense. I mean that for his Master’s sake he endeavours to do
good to the sons of men.
3. The third result was
Abraham entertained the Lord Himself
for
amongst those three angels who came to his house was the King of kings
the
Infinite One. Every believer who serves his God doth
as it were
give refreshment
to the Divine mind. I mean this
God took an infinite delight in the work of
His dear Son. He said
“This is My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased
” and
He takes a delight also in the holiness of all His people.
4. Once more
Abraham became the great intercessor for others. The
next chapter is full of his pleadings for Sodom. If we do but become
consecrated to God
thoroughly so
as I have attempted feebly to describe
we
shall become mighty with God in our pleadings. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Abraham admonished
This admonition implies a serious reproof. It was like saying
“Have recourse no more to unbelieving expedients: keep thou the path of
uprightness
and leave Me to fulfil My promise in the time and manner that seem
good to Me!” What a lesson is here afforded us
never to use unlawful means
under the pretence of being more useful
or promoting the cause of God. Our
concern is to walk before Him
and be upright
leaving Him to bring to pass His
own designs in His own way. (A. Fuller.)
The repetition of the call
I. He saw the
Lord again
and heard His voice calling him
as it were
anew. God was
manifested to him in glory
and spoke to him in power. “The Lord appeared unto
Abram
and said unto him
I am the Almighty God” (Genesis 17:1).
II. Abram is
called to be perfect. Now
this word “perfect
” or “upright
” when applied to
man
in the Bible
is not absolute
but relative. It relates
for the most
part
not to the whole character of a man
but to some one particular feature
of his character
some individual grace or virtue specified
in respect of
which he is said to be complete or entire
consistent and sincere. In the
instance before us
it is the duty of “walking before God
” in respect of which
Abram is exhorted to be perfect--“Walk before Me
and be thou perfect.” Now
to
walk before God
is to walk and live as in His sight
and under His special
inspection: to realize
at all times
His presence and His providence; to feel
His open and unslumbering eye ever upon us. Thus to walk before God is
impossible
if there be not redeeming love on His part
apprehended by faith on
ours; and to be perfect
guileless
and upright
in so walking before God
is
the great duty of the believer. He alone can discharge that duty.
III. Abram has a
sufficient reason given to him for his compliance with the command--“Walk
before Me and be thou perfect.” It is a reason founded on the nature of God
Himself. God appeals to His omnipotence
as warranting His expectation that His
servant’s walk before Him should be perfect. “I am the Almighty God.” “This is
thine encouragement to act with entire frankness and unreserve in all thy
dealings with Me
and to let all be open and undisguised between us. I have all
power and all sufficiency; and all that concerns thee may be safely left to Me.
There is no need of any underhand or circuitous mode of procedure
nor any
occasion to resort to any doubtful walk of thine own for the accomplishment of
all that thine heart desires. I am the Almighty God: walk before Me. Commit thy
way to Me
and I will bring it to pass. What is it that troubles thee
and
would tempt thee to try some device of thine own for relief? Is it sin? And
hast thou found no Saviour? Then know that I am the Almighty God; and that
as
the Almighty
I have all power to forgive sin. Let thy sin
in all its
blackness
be laid bare before Me; for I am the Almighty God; I have a
provision such as no resources but Mine could furnish--a provision of infinite
wisdom
and power
and love
by which I freely cleanse thee from it all.” In
this way
Abram
when in danger of relapsing into worldly indifference
through
the hardening influence of the deceitfulness of sin
and the yielding of faith
to sense--of the Spirit to the flesh--is called authoritatively and
peremptorily to repent
and do his first works. The process of awakening is
simple and effectual
as every work of God is
and it is exactly suited to his
case. (R. S. Candlish
D. D.)
A constant walk with God
It is not one or two good actions
but a good conversation
which
will speak a man to be a right Christian. A true believer
like the heavenly
orb
is constant and unwearied in his motions and actings. Enoch “walked with
God”; it is not taking a step or two in a way which denominates a man as a
walker
but a continued motion. No man is judged healthy by a flushing colour
in his face
but by a good complexion. God esteems none holy for a particular
carriage
but for a general course. (G. Swinnock.)
Perfection requires time
The acorn does not become an oak in a day; the ripened scholar was
not made such by a single lesson; the well-trained soldier was not a raw
recruit yesterday; it is not one touch of the artist’s pencil that produces a
finished painting; there are always months between seed time and harvest; even
so the path of the just is like the shining light
which shineth more and more
unto the perfect day. (J. Nichol.)
Christian perfection
Christian perfection is a spiritual constellation
made up of
these gracious stars--perfect repentance
perfect faith
perfect humility
perfect meekness
perfect self-denial
perfect resignation
perfect hope
perfect charity for our visible enemies as well as for our earthly relations
and
above all
perfect love for our invisible God through the explicit
knowledge of our Mediator Jesus Christ. And as this last star is always
accompanied by all the others
as Jupiter is by his satellites
we frequently
use
as St. John
the phrase
“perfect love
” instead of the word “perfection”;
understanding by it the pure love of God shed abroad in the hearts of
established believers by the Holy Ghost
which is abundantly given them under
the fulness of the Christian dispensation. (J. Fletcher.)
Risks attending moral perfection
There are things precious
not from the materials of which they
are made
but from the risk and difficulty of bringing them to perfection. The
speculum of the largest telescope foils the optician’s skill in casting. Too
much or too little heat
the interposition of a grain of sand
a slight
alteration in the temperature of the weather
and all goes to pieces: it must
be re-cast. Therefore
when successfully finished
it is a matter for almost
the congratulation of a country. Rarer and more difficult still than the
costliest part of the most delicate of instruments
is the completion of the
Christian character. Only let there come the heat of persecution
or the cold
of human desertion
a little of the world’s dust
and the rare and costly thing
is liable to be cracked
and become a failure. (F. W. Robertson
M. A.)
Culture necessary to the perfection of Christian graces
Have you seen the tulip bed in the garden of the florist? have you
marked the gorgeous colours
the rich variety
the delicate pencilling? All
these gay flowers were once of a dark dingy hue. Year after year did the
gardener watch them
tend them
transplant them from soil to soil
till at
length
one by one
some sooner and some later
they broke into these glorious
hues
this boundless variety of stripe and freckle. Then did he remove them to
his choicest border
and shelter them from sun and shower; and now thou gazest
on them in their beauty. Thus dark and unlovely once were the redeemed of the
Lord: such pains and watching did He bestow upon them; year after year did He
look for the lovely graces of the Spirit in them
till one and another
not all
at once
like the tulips
but by degrees
oftentime slow and painful
shone
forth in the beauty of holiness. And thus as He transplanted them to His
heavenly courts
where
never scorched by the sun
nor smitten by the shower
nor torn by the winds
they shall bloom forever and ever. “Those that he
planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the court of our God” (Psalms 92:13). (H. G. Salter.)
Shortcomings as well as excellencies of character to be recognized
An ordinary painter would have been satisfied with executing a
picture of grapes which deceived even the birds; but the eminent artist who did
so
was dissatisfied with his own performances. Pliny informs us that Zeuxis
once painted a boy holding a dish full of grapes so well
that the birds were
deceived and flew to the grapes to peck at them. Zeuxis
notwithstanding
was
dissatisfied with the picture: “for
” said he
“had I painted the boy as well
as he ought to have been painted
the birds would have been afraid to touch the
fruit.” Thus does the Christian dwell more on his shortcomings than on his
attainments
and the reason is
that “he who has much grace apprehends much
more than others that great height to which his love ought to ascend
and he
sees better than others how little away he has risen towards that height; and
therefore
estimating his actual love by the whole height of his duty
it
appears to him astonishingly little.” I once observed the following motto
attached to a coat-of-arms on a gentleman’s carriage
“Tout bien
ou rien
” and
it struck me as being peculiarly expressive of what ought to be the Christian’s
feeling. (F. F. Trench.)
Overhastened perfection
They say those herbs will keep best
and will longer retain both
their hue and verdure
which are dried in the shade
than those which are
suddenly scorched with fire or sun. Those wits are like to be most durable
which are closely tutored with a leisurely education; time and gentle constancy
ripen better than a sudden violence. Neither is it otherwise in our spiritual
condition; a wilful slackness is not more dangerous than an over-hastening of
our perfection. If I may be every moment drawing nearer to the end of my hope
I shall not wish to precipitate. (Bp. Hall.)
Verses 3-8
My covenant is with thee
and thou shalt be a father of many
nations
The second stage of the covenant
Already Jehovah
the Covenant God
had appeared thrice to Abram.
1. Simply to assure him that he should be blessed
and become a
blessing Genesis 12:7).
2. To give him the promise of a numerous progeny
as the dust of the
earth for multitude (Genesis 13:16).
3. To repeat this assurance
but now likening the number of his seed
to the stars of heaven (Genesis 15:5). This third vision was
confirmed by a solemn sacrifice. In it God stands clearly out as the
contracting party
conveying certain blessings to Abram
and requiring the
performance of no distinct conditions on His part. Now the covenant has moved
forwards another stage
and Abram is to take his own part in it by receiving
the appointed sign--“the sign and seal of the righteousness of the faith which
he had
yet being uncircumcised” (Romans 4:11). This second stage of the
covenant was marked--
I. BY MORE
DEFINITE AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL PROMISES. This law of progressive revelation has an
illustration in the case of Abram. The original promise is renewed
but spread
more out into details. Consider these promised blessings--
1. In their natural greatness. Though they have a higher meaning and
importance
yet there are aspects of them which belong entirely to this present
world.
2. In their spiritual significance. Their ultimate reference is
above and beyond the things of time and sense. The sands on the sea shore
and
the multitude of the stars
speak to us Christians of the number and extent of
the true Church of God.
II. BY A CHANCED
NAME. Abram had reached a new stage in his history
and this is indicated by a
new name. With God
names are not empty designations
but represent the truth
of things. To Abraham it was as a new life to find the promises growing more
clear
the gifts of God’s goodness more palpable and evident.
III. BY SPECIAL
ENGAGEMENT ON THE PART OF GOD. God is the fountain of the blessing
and the
sole proposer of the terms. His covenant is the only foundation of all our
hope. We can look for nothing but what is thus assured to us. To believers in
covenant
God conveys the riches which are in Christ. They are bound to a life
of faith and love
and He engages Himself to impart His fulness
1. This should excite our gratitude.
2. It should stimulate our faith.
3. It should excite our reverence. (T. H. Leale.)
The ratification of the covenant
I. GOD’S
TREATMENT OF ABRAHAM.
1. His revelation of Himself.
2. He changes the names of the patriarch and his wife.
3. An enlarged promise.
4. The promise of a son to Sarah.
5. Yet Ishmael is remembered for good.
II. ABRAHAM’S
CONDUCT.
1. He readily entered into the covenant.
2. He instantly submitted to the prescribed rite.
3. He included in the covenant all whom he could influence.
III. APPLICATION.
God proposes to enter into covenant with us. He has given His Son as a
sacrifice for our sins
and made us the most gracious and abundant promises.
Now
we are required to take up the covenant and accept the conditions of it.
1. Look at the covenant on God’s part.
Supper
in token of our covenant relation to Him.
2. Our duty.
(a) Remember His presence.
(b) Seek His guidance and approval in all we do.
(c) Look to Him for protection and reward.
Safe. (The Congregational Pulpit.)
God’s everlasting covenant
I. THIS COVENANT
IS THE SHEET ANCHOR OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. No fear of defeat or failure.
II. THIS COVENANT
IS A PERPETUAL COVENANT. “Everlasting” is the period of its duration. It is for
all ages
all dispensations
all believers in all the world to the end of time.
III. THIS COVENANT
WAS MADE WITH ABRAM AND HIS SEED AFTER HIM. Parents do not make enough of it
or plead it with sufficient faith and persistency.
IV. THIS COVENANT
IS GOD’S EVERLASTING ARM UNDERNEATH THE SAINT. Away
then
with fear. (J. M.
Sherwood
D. D.)
Faith in God’s naked word
The more entirely thou canst rely on God’s naked word and promise
the stronger is thy faith; for then thou trustest Him on His own credit
without
any bond from another; and this is faith indeed. He that walks without staff or
crutch
is stronger than he that needs these to lean on. (W. Gurnall.)
Distrust of God’s promise
The awkwardness of our hearts to suffer comes much from distrust.
An unbelieving soul treads upon the promise
as a man upon ice; at first going
upon it he is full of fears
lest it should crack. (W. Gurnall.)
God talked with him
I. SATISFACTORY
COMMUNION. The Rev. James Owen
of Shrewsbury
being asked
when on his death
bed
whether he would have some of his friends sent for to keep him company
replied
“My fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ
and
he that is not satisfied with that company doth not deserve it.”
II. DEGREES OF
COMMUNION. Some value the presence of their Saviour so highly that they cannot
bear to be at any remove from Him. Even their work they will bring up
and do
it in the light of His countenance
and
while engaged in it
will be seen
constantly raising their eyes to Him
as if fearful of losing one beam of His
light. Others who
to be sure
would not be content to live out of His
presence
are yet less wholly absorbed by it than these
and may be seen
a
little farther off
engaged here and there in their various callings
their
eyes generally upon their work
but often looking up for the light which they
love. A third class
beyond these
but yet within the light-giving rays
includes a double multitude
many of whom are so much engaged in their worldly
schemes
that they may be seen standing sideways to Christ
looking mostly the
other way
and only now and then turning their faces toward the light. (E.
Payson
D. D.)
Verse 5-6
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram
but Abraham; for
a father of many nations have I made thee
Spiritual parentage
I.
The
change of name here made was founded on a change of character.
II. His fatherhood
of Isaac was in consequence of special Divine interposition; and the fact is
confirmatory and illustrative of the teaching of a spiritual sonship
so often
alluded to in the New Testament.
III. For
faith-character he is made the father of the “faithful
” or the full-of-faith.
Mere natural descent counts for nothing. Conclusions:
1. Faith is an inheritance.
2. Faith is the sign of our descent.
3. Faith may be transmitted. (The Homiletic Review.)
Abraham a father of many nations
“Abram the Hebrew” stands at the head of many a great stream of
history
like the river of Eden which parted into four. Of the leading faiths
of the world
there are three which cherish his name with equal veneration; and
these three are the only monotheistic faiths. To the Jew
the Moslem
and the
Christian alike
the prophet Abraham forms a common ancestor. Trace these three
forms of belief to their fountainhead
and they meet in the tent of that
ancient confessor
exiled in the dawn of the world for his faith in the unity
of God. Divided in so much else
the Englishman and the Turk
the Moor and the
Arab
the Catholic and the Jew
agree in deriving their spiritual
if not also
their natural
descent from that primeval “friend of God.” Most literally has
the promise of his new name been fulfilled. He has become a “father of many
nations.” (J. O. Dykes
D. D.)
Verse 7-8
I will establish My covenant between Me and thee
and thy seed
after thee
The faithful Covenanter
The communion and fellowship of man with God
was first founded on
a covenant of works made with Adam in Paradise.
But this fellowship being placed in man’s own freedom
and having so weak a
foundation
he lost both himself and it
so that now by the first covenant of
works
Adam and all his posterity are under a curse; for we cannot fulfil the
law that requireth personal obedience
perfect obedience
and exact obedience.
He that “continueth not in all is cursed” Galatians 3:10). Now after this fall
man’s hapiness was to recover again his communion and fellowship with God; and
therefore we must have a new covenant before we can have life and comfort. God
must enter into new conditions with us before we can have any communion with
Him. There are four periods of time of renewing this covenant: first
from Adam
to Abraham; and in those first times of the world
those that were under the
covenant were called the “sons and daughters of God
” “the children of the
promise
” and the covenant of grace was called a promise of the blessed seed.
Secondly
from Abraham to Moses; and then it was called a covenant
and they
the children of the covenant. “I will establish My covenant.” A covenant is
more than a promise
and a more solemn thing
because there be ceremonies. The
third period of renewing the covenant of grace was from Moses to Christ; and
then it was more clear
when as to the covenant made with Abraham
who was
sealed with the sacrament of circumcision
the sacrament of the paschal lamb
was added
and all the sacrifices Levitical; and then it was called a
testament. That differeth a little from a covenant; for a testament is
established by blood
it is established by death. So was that; but it was only
with the blood and death of cattle sacrificed as a type. But now
from Christ’s
time to the end of the world
the covenant of grace is most clear of all; and
it is now usually called the New Testament
being established by the death of
Christ Himself; and it differs from a covenant in these respects: First
A
testament indeed is a covenant
and something more. It is a covenant sealed by
death. Secondly
A testament bequeathed good things merely of love. It giveth
gifts freely. A covenant is something to be done. But to come to that which I
specially intend. The words
as I said before
contain the renewing of this
blessed and gracious agreement between God and man to Abraham
the father of
the faithful. “I will establish My covenant between me and thee
and thy seed
after thee
in their generations
for an everlasting covenant
to be thy God
and the God of thy seed after thee.” The words
you see
contain a covenant;
and here are all things--all the articles and circumstances that agree to any
covenant whatsoever. Here are the parties
both that make the covenant and that
are covenanted with. Here is the substance of the covenant
and the qualities
of the covenant
and the condition of the covenant. The party making the
covenant is God
“I will be thy God.” God is the party covenanting. God indeed
is both the party covenanting and the substance of the covenant: “I will be a
God to thee.” They fall both together in one. The parties covenanted with
are
Abraham and his seed--his seed by promise. The substance of the covenant is
“I
will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee.” The qualities of the covenant
are--
1. It is a sure covenant: “I will establish My covenant.”
2. It is an everlasting covenant: “I will establish My covenant for
an everlasting covenant.”
3. It is a peculiar covenant: “I will establish My covenant between
Me and thee and thy seed; that is
only between Me and thee
and thy seed; not
with the refuse of the world
but only with thy seed by promise; only
believers
whether Jews or Gentiles.”
4. It is a most free covenant. It was made to Abraham
whom God
called out of Ur of the Chaldees
out of an idolatrous nation
out of an
idolatrous family; even as it was at the first most freely made to Adam in
Paradise
when he was in a most desperate estate. So here it was freely made to
good Abraham:
5. It is a covenant consisting most of spiritual things. It is a
spiritual covenant. I mean especially promising spiritual favours
although the
other things
as appendices of the main
are likewise meant. And then
lastly
you
have the condition of the covenant; and that
though it is not expressed
yet
it is implied. “I will be thy God
and the God of thy seed.” “Therefore thou
shalt take Me for thy God
carry thyself to Me as thy God
” etc. “I will be thy
God.” This is the covenant in the Messiah; but first
what is it to be a God? I
answer
To be a God
take it in the general
is to give being to the creature
that had no being of itself
and to protect and preserve the creature in its
being: in a word
to be a creator; for providence is the perpetuity and
continuance of creation. This is to be a God. What is
then
to be thy God? “I
will be thy God.” I answer
To be a God in a more peculiar manner
is to be a
God in covenant; that is
not only to be a God to preserve and continue this
being of ours in a civil life
but it is to be a God in a higher relation to
us; to be a God in a reference to an eternal
supernatural estate in heaven; to
be a God here in grace
and hereafter in glory; and thus God is a God in a
gracious covenant
only by Jesus Christ
and to those that believe in Him. “I
will be thy God”: that is
“I will be thy God in Christ
” to give thee a better
being than this world can afford; to free thee from the cursed estate thou art
in by nature; to deliver thee from all ill
spiritually and eternally:
especially to bestow on thee all good
spiritually and eternally; especially as
we have it in the words of the covenant (Genesis 15:1)
“I will be thy shield and
thy exceeding great reward”; a shield to keep off all ill
and a reward for all
good. So in Psalms 84:9
“God will be a sun and a
shield
” etc. a sun for all sweet comfort and good
and a shield in regard of
defence from ill; a sun and a shield till we come to the possession of eternal
happiness. Well
to come to the trials. But let me first add this to the
former: whomsoever God is a God to
it is known specially by spiritual and
eternal favours. A man cannot know certainly that God is his God by outward and
common things that castaways may have; for a castaway may have Ishmael’s
blessing and Esau’s portion
blessings of the left hand
common graces. To know
undoubtedly
therefore
that God is our God
must be by peculiar matters; for
those whose God God is are a peculiar people
a holy nation
severed from
others. First of all
then
know what the Spirit of God saith to thy soul; for
they that are God’s have His Spirit
to reveal to their spirits the secret and
hidden love of God. But if the voice of the Spirit be silent in regard of
testimony
go to the work of the Spirit; but go to the peculiar work of the
Spirit. Let us
then
come to the trial by our carrying ourselves to God. Can
we say with David
“Whom have I in heaven but Thee? “or “What is there in earth
in comparison with Thee?” (Psalms 73:25.) When the conscience
can tell us that we make God our treasure and our portion above all earthly
things
then we make him our God.
2. Examine what affections we have to God: for it is affection that
makes a Christian. Single out some few that We are most offending in.
(a) Whosoever hath God for their God
they have the Spirit of
supplication and prayer
to cry unto God
to run unto Him
especially in
extremity. All God’s children have the spirit of adoption to cry
“Abba
Father!”
(b) Again
We may know that God is our God by this
by our separating
from all others
in ourselves and out of ourselves.
(c) In a word
to name no more trials but this
whosoever God is a God
to
there will be a transforming unto God
a transforming unto Christ
in whom
God is our God. Having now thus unfolded terms
let us see what we may draw
from thence for our use and comfort.
1. First
then
if by these trials we find that God be not
or have
not been
our God
alas! let us never rest till we make it good that God is our
God.
2. But
secondly
when we have found God to be our God
then make
this use of it
a use of resolution. Is God my God? then I will resolve to
please Him
though all creatures be against me.
3. Again
If God be our God
then let this stop all base and
covetous desires after earthly things.
4. Again
If so be we know this for a truth
that God is our God
then let it be a use of exhortation to stir us up to keep
and maintain
and
cherish acquaintance and familiarity with Him; as it is in Job 22:21.
5. Lastly
If by these comfortable signs we find God to be our God
then here is a spring of comfort opened to a Christian. If God be mine
then
all that He hath is mine; He is my Father; He is my Husband; He is my Rock; His
goodness
His wisdom
His providence
His mercy
whatsoever He hath is mine. “I
will establish My covenant between Me and thee
and thy seed after thee
” etc.
I come now to the qualities of this covenant; and before I speak in particular
of them
I beseech you observe one thing (which I will but touch
to make an
entrance to that which follows)
from the manner of setting down the covenant;
it is not here set down as it is in other places of Scripture; “I will be thy
God
and thou shalt be My people”; but here is only the first part
the main of
the covenant of grace recited
“I will be thy God.” Why doth He not say
too
Thou shalt take Me for thy God? Because where the first is
He ever works the
second; our part depends upon His. It is therefore--to come to the first
quality--called a free covenant. It cometh from God merely of grace. Again
secondly
it is a sure
a certain covenant. I will establish My covenant. But
in whom is it established? how cometh it to be sure? It is established in
Christ
the Mediator of the covenant
in the Messiah; for “in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). That is the fundamental
promise. And as it is a sure covenant
so
thirdly
it is an everlasting
covenant. “I will make an everlasting covenant with thee.” God is everlasting
Christ is everlasting
the graces of the Spirit are everlasting. When we are
dead
He will be a God unto us
as it is said
“I am the God of Abraham
of
Isaac
and of Jacob
” their God when they were dead. He is the God of our dust
of our dead bodies. He will raise them up
for they are bodies in covenant with
Him. Again
it is a peculiar covenant. God is in covenant only with those that
answer Him
that take Him for their God
that are a peculiar people. It is not
glorying in the flesh; but there must be somewhat wrought that is peculiar
before we can be assured we are of Abraham’s seed
and in covenant with God.
And we may know that we are God’s peculiar by some peculiar thing that we can
do. What peculiar thing canst thou do? To speak a little of that by the way.
Thou lovest and art kind; but
saith Christ
what peculiar thing canst thou do?
A heathen man may be kind and loving
but canst thou overcome revenge? Canst
thou spare and do good to thine enemies? Canst thou trust in God when all means
fail? What is the power of the Spirit in thee? Doth it triumph in thee over thy
natural corruption? Canst thou do as Abraham did? He left all at God’s command;
canst thou do that if need should be? Canst thou leave children
and wife
and
life
and all at God’s command? Canst thou sacrifice Isaac as he did? Canst
thou more trust in the promise of God than in the dearest thing in the world
yea
than in thy own feeling of grace? (R. Sibbes
D. D.)
The covenant as made with believers
I. THAT THE
COVENANT OF GRACE IS MADE WITH THE SAINTS
AND THEY ARE ALL FEDERATES THEREIN
WILL APPEAR BY THESE ARGUMENTS.
1. From the type of the first Adam
for he is made the type of Him
that was to come. Thus as the first covenant was made with the first Adam and
all his posterity
so the second covenant is made with the second Adam and all
His posterity also.
2. We read of a covenant made with persons and people
and promised
unto them as special mercies
a covenant made with Abraham and Isaac
a
covenant made with David: “The Lord has made with me an everlasting covenant in
all things ordered and sure” (2 Samuel 23:5).
3. It will appear from the promises of the second covenant
though
it is true
that they are all yea and amen in Him
yet are they properly and
formally made unto us
either the first promises of grace or else of reward
unto grace. Promises of grace are
“He will give His Spirit
and will give
repentance
He will heal our backslidings
” etc.
and “We have an unction from
the Holy One
” etc.
4. The covenant of grace is a covenant in the hand of a Mediator
and confirmed by the death of the Testator; it is not only a covenant
but it
is a testament.
5. The sacraments are seals of the covenant of grace.
6. There is a double oath to confirm this covenant
there is an oath
made by God the Father to Christ
and there is an oath also made to us; there
is an oath made unto Christ
and therefore He is said to be made a priest by a
covenant oath (Psalms 110:4)
and the oath to us: “Who
are heirs of promise
that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible
for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:17-18).
II. THE REASONS
WHY IT WAS NECESSARY THAT THE COVENANT OF GRACE SHOULD BE MADE WITH ALL THE
FAITHFUL AND NOT WITH CHRIST ONLY AS THEIR HEAD.
1. To answer those great ends why God will deal with man in a
covenant way.
(2) The Lord’s intention was to honour man also; and it is one of
the greatest and highest dignities that the Lord hath put upon His people
to
bind them unto Himself for a name and a glory; and Deuteronomy 26:18-19) the Lord did
avouch them to be His people
to make them high above all people; and therefore
the staff of beauty mentioned in Zechariah 11:10 is the covenant between
God and His people.
(3) That the Lord might bind men unto Him more firmly in a way of
obedience
and that the obedience might be made the more sweet. Man was bound
unto God by a bond of creation; and from whom he has his being
unto Him did he
owe his service; but the Lord will bind him unto Him with a further cord and
bond of stipulation; the one was natural and necessary
and the other
voluntary.
(4) That the people of God might exercise faith in their prayers
putting these bonds in suit that the Lord hath made over unto them
when they
look upon themselves as sons of Abraham
heirs of promise
and children of the
covenant
etc.
and thereby they come with a great deal the more boldness
before the throne of grace
as David
“Let the thing Thou hast spoken
concerning thy servant and his house be established forever” (1 Chronicles 17:23-24).
2. There is a covenant made with the saints also
that they may see
that they are as strictly bound to obedience in their own persons under the
second covenant
as they were under the first covenant; and that the doctrine
of the gospel though it be a doctrine of liberty
yet is not a doctrine of
licentiousness.
3. That the saints also may stand in awe of the threats of God under
the second covenant. (W. Strong
D. D.)
The covenant renewed
I. WHY SHOULD IT
BE NEEDFUL FOR MEN TO RENEW THEIR COVENANT SO OFTEN?
1. Because of the unbelief of our spirits
and from the infirmity of
our faith: for the confirmation of our faith in the mercy and grace of the
covenant.
2. To manifest the sincerity of our hearts
that though we fail in
the duty of it
yet our hearts still stand to it
we delight in the Law
according to our inward man; though we fall every day
yet says a soul in
covenant with God
I love to think of renewing the engagement that is between
God and me; as a loving and tender wife loves often to renew her engagement to
her husband
and to have it much in her mind.
3. By reason of the falseness of our hearts; there is so much
treachery of spirit
that we are not easily kept within bounds
our purposes
are easily broken
and men draw back from the Lord by reason of the falseness
of their hearts
and the treachery that is in them: How weak is thy heart Ezekiel 16:30).
4. They renew their covenant
that by often repeating and renewing
it
it may be set on upon their spirits the more
and lay the greater
engagement upon them.
5. By reason of the forgetfulness of the heart; there is nothing
that the ungodliness of a man’s heart is more prone to than to forget his
engagement unto God
and therefore was that strict charge laid upon them Deuteronomy 4:23).
6. By reason of the ignorance and blindness of the mind of man
we
have need to be remembered of our covenant
and to renew it often; we are all
narrow-mouthed vessels
and receive all things from God but by drops
and light
comes in upon us but by degrees in several beams
and a man looks often upon it
before he can understand it; and therefore the Lord gives unto us “line upon
line
and precept upon precept” (Isaiah 28:10).
II. HOW IS THIS
WORK TO BE DONE AND WHAT IS IT FOR A MAN TO RENEW HIS COVENANT.
1. He that will renew his covenant with God must be deeply sensible
of the breach of covenant
and of the unfaithfulness of his heart therein.
2. It must be with a resolution of heart to break all our covenants;
men are said to “make a covenant with death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15).
3. A man must know the terms and read over the articles of the
covenant anew; for no wise man will set his hand to an obligation
of which he
is not well acquainted with the condition.
4. It must be with a free and full consent of heart
for the
covenant in the renewing of it must be as voluntary as it was in the making of
it; to make fair promises while men are under the rod
as many do in sickness
they promise to lead new lives
but yet return to their old ways.
5. A man must be willing to bind himself in the highest way unto
obedience thereunto. When the people did make a covenant
they did stand up to
the covenant
and said
Amen
Amen.
6. It must be with an earnest desire to God for grace to keep it
and an acknowledgment of our weakness and inability to perform any one of the
duties of the covenant.
III. WHAT ARE THE
TIMES AND SEASONS THAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD HAVE SPECIALLY OBSERVED IN RENEWING OF
THEIR COVENANT WITH THE LORD?
1. When a man hath eminently fallen into any great sin
or hath
relapsed into former sins that were repented of
and that we have humbled our
souls for
and if being washed
we have again defiled ourselves
and turned
again to folly
then is a season in which the Lord calls you to renew your
covenant.
2. In time of public humiliation
when men would divert and turn
away judgment either from a nation or a person
then is the time for them to
renew their covenant
and this was the ground of the covenant that Hezekiah
made (2 Chronicles 29:8).
3. In a time of public reformation
when the foundations have been
destroyed
and all things out of course
and a great deal of difficulty
appears
and even impossibility in carrying on the work; yet the people of God
looking upon it as a duty
have set upon it with full resolution and purpose of
heart
and have covenanted to go through with the work
notwithstanding all opposition.
4. As a testimony of a man’s thankfulness for any great mercy or
special deliverance
or as an argument of faith that a man is to use unto God
when he doth pray for and expect from God any special mercy.
5. When a man finds his heart bent to backsliding
and he is
unsteady and unstable in any good way.
6. When a man doth receive the sacraments
any of the seals of the
covenant
it is his duty to renew the covenant
as often as we set to the seal
anew
we shall read over the obligation anew.
IV. NOW THE FRUIT
AND BENEFITS THAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD HAVE FOUND BY THE RENEWING OF THEIR
COVENANT ARE MANY.
1. It hath been a testimony to them of the truth of their repentance
Matthew 3:8).
2. It is the foundation of consolation (2 Chronicles 15:14-15); in the time
of Asa the king of Judah they swore with a loud voice
with trumpets and
cornets
and all Judah rejoiced at the oath
for they had sworn with all their
hearts.
3. It is a means to establish and stay the heart
which is in itself
exceeding fickle and uncertain.
4. It is a special means joined with fasting and prayer to prevail
with God for mercy
when a man is willing as well to engage himself to duty
as
he is to expect mercy from the Lord
“They sought the Lord with their whole
desire
and He was found of them
and the Lord gave them rest round about” (2 Chronicles 15:1-19).
5. It cloth not only establish the heart
but make it better; as the
will becomes good at first by willing what is good
so it is then best when it
most strongly wills what is best. Now when doth the will more strongly will
what is best
than when it doth most firmly renew its covenant with God
its
best good? So many grains as there are of a determined will in adhering to God
according to the terms of the covenant
so many grains there are of saving
grace.
6. The frequent renewing of our covenant with God is that which
fortifies the heart against temptations.
7. Such as oft renew their covenant with God have a great advantage
for the strengthening their union with Christ.
8. The principal part of the soul’s communion and walking with God
as a friend consists in this renewing its covenant with God.
9. The frequent renewing of our covenant with God is the most
sovereign means to prevent or recover the soul out of any course of
backsliding. (W. Strong
D. D.)
To thy seed after thee
Why the Lord will take children into their parents’ covenant
and
not take in the parents alone
and leave their children in the condition in
which they were by nature
The grounds of it are these: To show the extent of the grace of
the second covenant; the Lord hath not dealt with men as He did with the
angels
He did make a particular covenant with every particular angel
but He
doth not so with men. He has always delighted to take in man into a covenant
made with parents for them
that men might see that grace prevented them
and
that they were engaged unto God
and His promise was out of grace entailed unto
them as a birthright; and
therefore
as in the first covenant
God takes in
Adam and all his posterity
and the second covenant is made with the second
Adam and all His posterity; so
that there may be a resemblance hereof kept in
the world
He hath taken in the children into their parents’ covenant
that
they may see grace extend beyond their persons
even to their posterity.
I. THAT IT IS A.
SPECIAL PRIVILEGE FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN
THAT THEY ARE TAKEN INTO THEIR
PARENTS’ COVENANT
will appear by these arguments and demonstrations.
1. It will aggravate their sin if they abuse it; therefore it is a
mercy and a privilege in itself: for what is not a mercy and a privilege in
itself
that cannot add to a man’s sin and judgment. Now
as it is in riches
and honours
and all the blessings in this life
they will be unto a man
judgments if they are abused; therefore
they are blessings in themselves
blessings in the thing
though a snare to the man; so this very argument that
is brought to prove that they are no blessings
and give no benefit
doth
clearly prove that the thing itself is a privilege and a blessing.
2. For a child to be disinherited and cast out his father’s covenant
is a very great judgment
and the sorest of all outward afflictions that can
befall a man; as we see it in Cain
“Thou hast cast me out from the face of the
earth
and from Thy face I shall be hid.”
3. It is promised as a special blessing for the visible Church of
God to continue in any man’s posterity; and therefore we are to look upon it so
Genesis 4:25); it was so in Seth
“God
hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew”; and so it was
promised to Shem
“that the church of God should be in his posterity
continued
” and that in due time “the Lord should enlarge Japhet to dwell also
in the tents of Shem.”
4. It is the greatest wrath that God doth pour out upon men in this
life
to cast them out of external church privileges.
II. BUT WHAT ARE
THOSE PRIVILEGES AND THOSE PARTICULAR BENEFITS THAT COME UPON A PERSON AND HIS
POSTERITY THEREBY?
1. Many of them shall be saved
elected
and converted to God; for
the Lord doth take the number of His elect out of the loins of His own
the
Church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven is hid in the visible
Church here as wheat in a heap of chaff.
2. It is the only ground of hope that parents have for the salvation
of their children dying in their infancy.
3. There is no ordinary way of salvation
but it is amongst them
that are taken into covenant
salvation is of the Jews: there was in an
ordinary way salvation to be had nowhere else
and therefore
by being taken
into the outward privileges of the Church
a man is brought into the ordinary
way of salvation.
4. It is a special honour to be the vineyard of the Lord
the garden
of the Lord hedged in from the rest of the world.
5. By this you have special privileges: Jerusalem is the valley of
Vision
and Jeshuron the seeing people; it is Ariel
the altar of the Lord
chiefly to them are committed the oracles of God
which they are to keep and to
transmit unto posterity; it is a depositum laid up and concredited to them: “In
Judah is God known
His name is great in Israel; He hath not dealt so with
other nations”; they are a people near unto Him
and the Lord hath promised
that He will give them His special presence: “I will dwell in the midst of
them”; Christ walks in the middle of the golden candlesticks
though He be in
glory.
6. By coming under the outward privileges of this covenant
they
have very glorious operations
mighty works upon them that other men have never
experience of; and all this
even in them that perish; and they have this as a
fruit of their external interest; for (Hosea 6:5) there is hewing and slaying
there is sowing and planting
when the rest of the common fields lie untilled
and there are great gifts bestowed
such as the Lord cloth not bestow on any
other sort of people in the world; for the great gifts that come from Christ as
ascended are upon the visible Church of God; yea the thorns and briars in the
Church have the rain and influences
great and many common works of the Spirit
raising and elevating and improving nature
the least of which works and
motions is more worth than the world
it is so in the things
though it prove
at last a curse to the man.
7. They by this means come under the care of the Church.
8. They attain many temporal blessings
and are delivered from many
temporal afflictions thereby; Ishmael had many outward blessings by Abraham’s
covenant; the external blessings of the covenant are made good to them; God
will not destroy Jerusalem
and the judgment came not upon King Hezekiah
“for
David My servant’s sake
” and
“I will not rend it from Rehoboam
because I
will not put out the light of Israel.”
III. WHY WILL THE
LORD HAVE THE COVENANT RUN BY WAY OF ENTAIL
IN REFERENCE TO THE OUTWARD
PRIVILEGES OF IT
AND NOT IN REFERENCE TO THE INWARD GRACES OF IT? The covenant
that was made with Adam was to convey the one as well as the other
and the
image that he had received he was to convey to his posterity
and the promise
of life spiritual
and life eternal
was made unto his posterity in case of his
obedience
as well as unto himself; and therefore
as all died in him
so all
should have lived in him. So that by the first covenant Adam might have
conveyed not only outward privileges
but inward graces also; and whereas now
by reason of the fall
all mankind do convey death to their children
but not
life.
1. The Lord will not have the graces of the covenant entailed from
parents unto posterity.
2. Because under the second covenant it is the election of God that
takes place
and puts all the difference between men and men
between whom in
themselves there is no difference.
3. Because since the fall the Lord has appointed another way to
convey life unto His people
and that is not by generation from the first Adam
but by regeneration from a second Adam; and therefore
the Lord will surely
honour His own way
and He will not; convey the grace of the covenant from
parents unto their posterity
but from Him only who is the second Adam. (W.
Strong
D. D.)
Verses 9-14
Every man child among you shall be circumcised
The covenant seal
I.
ITS
SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE.
1. It taught the natural depravity of man.
2. It taught the necessity of purification.
3. It taught regeneration.
4. It taught that God’s people are to be distinguished from the
children of this world.
5. It taught dedication to God.
6. It pointed to Christ
who does not come by natural generation. He
was the promised seed. His human nature was pure from its source. Thus
circumcision preaches the whole doctrine of salvation
its necessity
and the
means by which it is brought about. It proclaims the soul’s need--of the
mortification of the flesh
of repentance
of a Saviour from sin.
II. ITS SUBJECTS.
The rite of circumcision was enjoined not only upon Abraham and his seed
but
also upon all his servants or slaves
and upon all born of them in his house.
Everyone connected with him by social or domestic ties must submit to this
outward sign of the covenant. In his capacity as a father and as a master he
had to see that this rite was administered.
1. The principle of human responsibility.
2. That a man is accountable for the souls of those who are
connected with him by social or domestic ties.
3. That the covenants of God are not narrow in their range.
4. That in our duty to others there is an element of hope and
encouragement.
III. ITS
OBLIGATION.
1. Because God commanded it.
2. Because God’s commands were hedged about by sanctions. (T.
H.Leale.)
The sign of the covenant
It is only in proportion as we know the spiritual meaning of
circumcision that we can enter into the joyous appropriation of the friendship
of God. But if we are willing
our Lord and Saviour is both able and willing to
effect in us this blessed spiritual result.
I. SEPARATION.
Abraham and his seed were marked out by this rite as a separated people. And it
is only as such that any of us can be admitted into the friendship of God.
Bloodshedding and death--the cross and the grave--must lie between us and our
own past life; yea
between us and allcomplicity with evil.
II. PURITY (Colossians 2:11). There is hardly a
single grace dearer to God than this: to keep lily-white amid the defiling
atmosphere. Purity can only be attained by the special grace of the Holy
Spirit
and by doing two things: first
by our turning instantly from
paragraphs in papers
or pictures on the walls
and all things else
which
excite impure imaginations; secondly
by our seeking immediate forgiveness
when we are conscious of having yielded
even for a moment
to the deadly and
insidious fascinations of the flesh.
III. OBEDIENCE. “Ye
are My friends
if ye do whatsoever I command you.” We do not obey in order to
become friends; but having become friends
we hasten to obey. Love is more
inexorable than law. And for the love of Him who calls us by so dear a title we
are glad to undertake and accomplish what Sinai with all its thunders would
fail to nerve us to attempt. (F. B. Meyer
B. A.)
The seat of the covenant
I. THE PROMISE OF
THE COVENANT.
1. The renewal of the promise.
2. The fulness of the promise.
3. The wide range of the promise.
II. THE OBLIGATION
OF THE COVENANT. Divine promise is connected with human duty.
III. THE SIGN OF
THE COVENANT. Circumcision reminded those who used it as a religious rite
ordained of God
of three things--
1. Separation from the world. So baptism is the token of a new life
given by God.
2. Consecration to God.
3. Family religion.
Conclusion: See
then
in this narrative not merely a history of what
took place so long ago
but lessons for us now: lessons as to Divine grace; as
to human responsibility; and as to appointed outward ordinances which serve to
join together the thought of what God gives
and of the service we ought to
render. Such ordinances
used in a faithful
humble
earnest spirit
are seals
and channels of covenanted blessing. (W. S. Smith
B. D.)
Circumcision instituted
All benefited
whether slave or master.
I. A PAINFUL
CEREMONY. Full of meaning
and suggesting then what the New Testament teaches
now
“Your bodies are the temple
” etc.
II. ADMINISTERED
TO CHILD WHO COULD KNOW NOTHING EXCEPT PAIN. “What good?” “Unreasonable?”
“Cruel?” “Following our own reason
” no child would have been circumcised. But
God’s command far outstrips man’s reason (Genesis 17:14). And Colossians 2:11-12
shows that baptism
now answers thereto. And is equally for babes. A week old. Parents ought to do
as this tells them. Do you so. And then look for a blessing
if only you will
teach and train them as Christians--day by day--every day. (G. Venables.)
Circumcision--the seal of the covenant
I. AS TO THE TIME
OF THE APPOINTMENT of this ordinance
it is important to observe
that Abraham
is now about to become a father
not according to his own will merely
but
according to the will of God; he is to be
in a remarkable manner
the founder
of a family or house.
II. THE RITE
ITSELF now instituted
the sacramental act
is not an unmeaning form or
ceremony. It is significant of the great leading fact in the covenant of which
it is the seal--the extraordinary and miraculous birth of Him who is
preeminently and emphatically the seed of Abraham
the holy child Jesus.
III. Hence it
appears that it is strictly and properly to THE COVENANT OF GRACE THAT
CIRCUMCISION
AS INSTITUTED ON THIS OCCASION
HAS RESPECT. It is true that
under the Mosaic economy it served a farther purpose. It became a national
badge or mark of distinction--the pledge of the national covenant in terms of
which God governed the nation of Israel. Even then
however
it did not lose
its primary and original significancy. To a spiritually-minded Jew--to one who
was an Israelite indeed--it was still the token of the better covenant
and the
seal of the righteousness that is by faith. And as at first ordained for
Abraham
it had absolutely no other meaning at all. It could have no other.
For
in the first place
there is no limitation or restriction of it to the
Jewish nation in particular. It is enjoined on Abraham
as the father of many
nations; and on all
generally
who are of his house
or may be embraced
by
whatever right
even the right of purchase
within it (Genesis 17:9-13). And
secondly
the
covenant with which it stands associated is not temporal and national
but
spiritual and universal. It is the everlasting covenant
in the one seed of
Abraham
which is Christ.
IV. THE CHILD
EIGHT DAYS OLD
WAS TO BE CIRCUMCISED. And are the children of God’s people now
to be placed on a worse footing than in the days of old? Is there any evidence
of a change in this respect? On the contrary
did not the Lord specially
distinguish little children as the objects of His love
taking them into His
arms
and affectionately blessing them? And do not the apostles proceed all
along on the principle that the visible Church is to embrace not only all the
faithful
but their children also? Thus Acts 8:39) speaks of the promise being to
believers and to their children. Paul also (1 Corinthians 7:14) founds an
argument on the assumption that the children of a believing parent are
not
unclean or common
but holy. And
accordingly
we read in the Book of Acts Acts 16:33
etc.) of entire households
being baptized; the expressions used being such as to render it very unlikely
that the little children were excluded.
V. On very much
the same principle on which this intiatory rite is administered to the children
of God’s people
IT IS DECLARED TO BE OF INDISPENSABLE OBLIGATION
and the
neglect of it is made a ground of exclusion from the visible Church (verse 14).
So is it also with the sacraments
the signs and seals of grace. No liberty of discretionary
choice is left in regard to their observance; it is not merely my precious
privilege
but my bounden duty
to receive them. (R. S. Candlish
D. D.)
Circumcision
It is impossible to arrive at a clear idea of this remarkable
rite
and of its true meaning in the Mosaic system
without pursuing its origin
and history more clearly than is generally done. We distinguish four chief
periods.
1. Circumcision seems to have been first practised by the Ethiopians
and other nations of Southern Africa. The question arises
What was the origin
of this singular custom? It must evidently have a general cause
inherent
either in the human mind or in the human frame
since it was in use among so
different nations
possessing no mutual intercourse. Now
a religious motive
seems to be out of the question; for some of the nations alluded to are not
only strangers to all religious ceremonies
but are destitute of all moral
feelings. Philo distinctly observes
that it prevents the painful and often
incurable disease of carbuncle; it
further
obviates some fearful disorders;
modern travellers testify that it precludes great physical inconvenience among
the Bushmen; and the Christian missionaries who exerted themselves for its
abolition in Abyssinia were
by the dangerous physical consequences
compelled
to desist from their plans. If we hereto add
that among nearly all those
tribes the operation is performed not in infancy
but at the approach of
puberty
it becomes evident that the burning temperature of their southern
climes
in many cases combined with a peculiar bodily structure of those races
gave rise to the custom of circumcision.
2. From the south
it spread northward into Egypt. Many parts of
this country were colonized by emigrants from Ethiopia; and thus many primitive
customs of the south were transplanted into the land of the Pharaohs. The
intercourse with Ethiopia was both constant and animated. Now
the same
complaints to which we have referred as frequent in Ethiopia may
in many
instances
have appeared in Egypt also; and circumcision may
therefore
as a
matter of precaution
have been gradually adopted by all Egyptians. But it
recommended itself to this people from another consideration also
in their
views of the highest importance: that of cleanliness. The examination of the
mummies; the fact that the Colchians
who were Egyptian settlers belonging to
the army of Sesostris
performed the ceremony; and the accounts of Herodotus
and Diodorus Siculus
Philo and Strabo
concur to prove that circumcision was a
general and national institution among the Egyptians. Now
the great authority
and exceeding reputation for superior wisdom which they possessed in the
ancient world induced many nations to adopt from them
among other
institutions
the practice of circumcision also. Thus
it was performed by the
Arabians and Edomites
by the Ammonites and Moabites
by the Phoenicians and
Syrians about Thermodon and the river Parthenius; and in this instance
not
merely blind veneration
but a regard for health and cleanliness
assisted in
spreading the custom.
3. It was natural that the wise men of Egypt should connect some
higher religious or philosophical notions with the rite of circumcision
especially since it had become entirely their own. Now
it is well known that a
great part of the Egyptian religion consisted in the deification of the powers
of nature
and especially of generation; this idea is chiefly represented by
their two principal deities
Osiris and Isis
who presided both over fertility
and fruitfulness. In Egypt a chief part of the festival of Bacchus was the
public procession of the phallus
performed in an obscene manner amidst the
wild songs of women; and the same rites in honour of Bacchus were from Egypt
introduced into Greece. It was
further
generally believed that circumcision
enhances prolificness; and the Egyptians ascribed their increasing population
in a great measure
to the same custom
although it was
besides
considered to
be attributable to the purity of the air and the quality of the water of the
Nile. It seems evident
therefore
that the Egyptian priests connected
circumcision with the very centre of their religion; that they regarded it as a
part of the system by which they endeavoured to penetrate into the secret
working of nature; and that
by dedicating the prepuce to their gods
they
ascribed to them the wonderful powers of generation.
4. Among the nations which derived the custom of circumcision from
the Egyptians were undoubtedly the Hebrews. But did Mosaism blindly adopt a
heathen ceremony? And here we have arrived at the culminating point of this
deduction. In no other institution
perhaps
do we see with greater force and
distinctness that fundamental principle which pervades the whole legislative
part of the Old Testament
and without regard to which it will ever be
impossible to comprehend its full spiritual meaning
and to balance its exact
historical value . . . By connecting the rite of circumcision with the purest
ideas of resignation and piety
Mosaism laid a sure foundation for moral
conduct; licentiousness
stimulated by the fiery temperament of the Oriental
was checked; the passions were restrained; and if sinful ideas or vicious
imaginations arose within him
he was reminded by the covenant sealed on his
flesh that he had promised holiness of life and innocence of the heart. Hence
the word “uncircumcised” was in the Hebrew language generally used in a purely
figurative sense; and phrases like “uncircumcised of heart” or “of ear” prove
that the rite here discussed was indeed conceived as a type of some of those
inward virtues which constitute the chief end of religion. The blood of
circumcision confirmed the personal covenant; hence the boy was
on the day
when that rite was performed
called “a bridegroom of blood” (Exodus 4:25); and the resected foreskin
which was considered unclean
typified both the abnegation of lasciviousness
and
like the offering of the firstlings
the acknowledgment of God’s
sovereignty. Thus a custom of the basest sensuality was converted into a rite
of morality; worship of nature into reverence of God; and hierarchy into
theocracy. Therefore
to sum up our opinion on circumcision
Mosaism was
compelled to retain it on account of the ignominy with which its neglect was
regarded by neighbouring nations
and
in consequence
by the Hebrews
themselves; but it reformed it from a physical expedient or superstitious rite
into a symbol of holiness and of alliance between God and man. (M. M.
Kalisch
Ph. D.)
Notes on circumcision
Originally circumcision was performed with a stone knife
to
prevent inflammation (see note on Exodus 4:25)
but at present it is safely
done with a steel knife
except on boys who die before the eighth day from
their birth
when the ancient custom is followed
as is the case in all
instances among the Abyssinian Christians. Sons of Hebrew mothers and heathen
fathers were admitted
but not compelled
to circumcision. The operation was
generally performed by the father himself
but any Israelite was allowed to act
in his stead; heathens alone were excluded. In cases of emergency women even
were admitted. But as practice is required to prevent danger
pious persons
devoted themselves to that office
which they exercised gratuitously
finding
their reward in the consciousness of having introduced the children into the
holy covenant. The boy generally received his name on the day of circumcision.
And hence we may derive another collateral reason why Abraham’s name was
changed when that ceremony was commanded to him. There is no historical
difficulty in the supposition that circumcision was already introduced in
Abraham’s time
though it can scarcely be doubted that it received its deeper
and internal development only since the diffusion of Mosaism; for it was long
generally neglected
and Joshua first carried it out in its full extent (Joshua 5:2-9); but from that period it
seems
on the whole
to have been faithfully observed; the epithet
“uncircumcised” was deemed the greatest insult and ignominy; and the strictures
of the prophets are not directed against its omission
but against “the
uncircumcised circumcised people” who observe the external ritual
but are
nevertheless “uncircumcised in heart”; and in this sense even circumcised
nations seem sometimes to have been simply called “uncircumcised ones
” a proof
how clearly the internal purity was regarded as the only aim of this rite.
Among the Israelites
therefore
circumcision took
in the course of time
deeper root
while it gradually fell into disuse among the Egyptian people--a
natural consequence of the fact proved above
that the one regarded it as a
matter of religion
the others of expediency. Although it was by no means an
exclusive characteristic of the Israelites
since they shared it with many
other nations
and though it was not even original among them
its sacredness
was
indeed
peculiar almost to them alone; and hence heathen conquerors
as
Antiochus Epiphanes and other enemies
often rigorously interdicted it as one
of the surest means of weakening among them the faith of their ancestors; but
they never succeeded; it was practised in secret till they were again permitted
to perform it without restriction. (M. M.Kalisch
Ph. D.)
Significance of circumcision
In its heathen significance it was certainly saturated with that
worship of the forces of the physical world in which probably polytheism took
its rise
and with polytheism nearly all the religions and mythologies of
antiquity. It bore very directly on the deification of the generative or
reproductive virtue in nature--the foul source of much that was cruel and
nearly all that was obscene in the mysteries of paganism. Transferred to holy
soil
and attached to a covenant of grace
it implied an acknowledgment that
God
who is above nature
and not any natural force whatever
is the true
Author of physical life and its increase; the sovereign Giver of fertility;
above all
the only Quickener of a holy or consecrated life. It taught that
what is born of the flesh can only be flesh. It suggested that it is by the
painful renunciation of fleshly desire and natural self-confidence man must be
surrendered to God’s service as His fit instrument for gracious ends. Finally
it served to point forward to one pure and superhuman birth
through which
alone the fatal chain that links in one the sinful generations of mankind could
be severed
and a new fountain of salvation and blessing opened for the fallen
race. (J. O. Dykes
D. D.)
Circumcision
The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher says: “If there was one thing which
the Jews set above another
as they do still
it was circumcision. It not only
was a patriotic ordinance
but it had come down to them as a race peculiarity
a symbol of which they were proud
and they ran along the line of that
observance clear back to Abraham himself. While I was in the West
I came
across a Rabbi who told me that a man had travelled over six hundred miles with
a child in order to have him circumcised. ‘I admit
’ he said
‘that the people
may not have been moral
and may not have been religious
but they wanted the
child circumcised anyhow.’ That feeling existed in the time of the Apostle Paul
to the last degree. The Jews felt about that as you feel about baptism and the
Lord’s Supper. Paul says: ‘Neither circumcision availeth anything
nor
uncircumcision
but a new creature.’”
The baptism of infants founded on this covenant
Mark how this renewal of the covenant turns upon the consecration
of children. Hitherto we have to do with grown-up people
but now we are
brought face to face with little ones. We have hardly had a child at all as yet
in this long history. One wonders what notice God will take of young life; will
He say
“Suffer the little children to come unto Me
” or will He shut them out
of His view until they become great men? Is a child beneath God’s notice?
Listen to the covenant: “He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among
you.” What an oversight on the part of the Lord not to observe that a child
eight days old could not understand what it was about! What a waste of piety to
baptize an infant of days when it cannot understand what you are doing to it!
It cries
poor thing; therefore
how ridiculous to baptize it! It plucks the
preacher’s gown
or chuckles and coos in the preacher’s arms; therefore
how
absurd to admit it into the covenant! For myself
let me say that when I baptize
a child I baptize life--human life--life redeemed by the Son of God. The infant
is something more than an infant
it is humanity; it is an heir of Christ’s
immortality. If there be anyone who can laugh at an infant and mock its
weakness
they have no right to baptize and consecrate it
and give so mean a
thing to God. God Himself baptizes only the great trees; does He ever baptize a
daisy? He enriches Lebanon and Bashan with rain
but did He ever hang the dew
of the morning upon the shrinking rose? Account for it as you please
God did
appoint circumcision for the child eight days old! Christian baptism is founded
upon this very covenant. Abraham was ninety-and-nine years old when he was
circumcised; Ishmael
his son
was thirteen years old; and then came the infant
men-children. So in heathen countries the man is baptized
and the woman
and
the child of days. We plead Divine precedent. Whatever objections stand against
baptism stand against circumcision
and
therefore
stand against God. The
child does not understand the alphabet
do not teach it; the child does not
understand language
do not teach it; the child does not understand the Lord’s
Prayer
do not teach it. You say the child will understand by and by; exactly
so; that answer is good; and by and by the child will understand that it was
baptized in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost
three persons in one God. Beautiful
too
is Christian baptism when regarded as
the expansion of the idea of circumcision. It well befits a tenderer law;
circumcision was severe; baptism is gentle: circumcision was limited to
men-children; baptism is administered to all: circumcision was established in
one tribe
or family
or line of descent; baptism is the universal rite--“Go
ye
therefore
and teach all nations
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost.” So we go from law to grace; from Moses
to the Lamb; from the mount that might be touched
and that burned with fire
to the quiet and holy Zion. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Verses 15-22
As for Sarai thy wife
thou shalt not call her name Sarai
but
Sarah
The clearer revelation of covenant blessings
In God’s spiritual dealings with mankind the patience of faith is
rewarded by a clearer discovery of His will.
Obedience is the way to knowledge. The darkness in which faith commences turns
to light in the end. The lines along which God’s gracious dealings are to
proceed are now distinctly laid down before Abraham. The clearer revelation
in
this instance
is marked by the same general characteristics as belong to the
advance of Scripture.
I. THERE IS THE
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THINGS CONTRARY TO HUMAN EXPECTATION.
1. Thus God preserves His own glory (Proverbs 25:2). God hides His purpose
from man until the time comes for Him to reveal it more clearly. This
concealment must tend to His glory
for it is rendered necessary by His
infinite superiority to us. We who are but of yesterday cannot scan the designs
of Him who is from everlasting to everlasting. The great deep of God’s
judgments is to us unfathomable.
2. Thus God preserves His independence of man. He has no need of our
suggestions or advice. How can we contribute any light to Him who is the
Fountain of Light?
3. Thus God humbles the pride of man. If we could calculate
beforehand what God shall reveal
or what blessings He shall bestow
we might
be tempted to pride ourselves upon our clear and sure reason. Our humility is
promoted by that arrangement which renders it impossible for us to discover
what God is pleased to conceal.
4. Thus piety is of necessity a life of faith. God so deals with
mankind that if they are to serve and please Him at all they must trust Him. We
are made to know enough of His goodness to commence trusting Him; and He still
keeps much hid from us so that we may continue to trust Him.
II. THERE IS AN
INCREASED STRAIN PUT UPON THE STRENGTH OF OUR FAITH.
1. God’s gracious purpose is to throw our faith completely upon its
own inherent power. It must not be hampered by the operations of the intellect
or by the feelings of the heart.
2. Faith must look to God alone.
III. THERE IS A
REVELATION OF HUMAN WEAKNESS IN US. The faith of Abram
though it rose superior
to trials
was yet mixed with some human weakness.
1. The weakness of a thoughtless amazement. The laugh of Abraham
when he heard the real direction of the promise
unquestionably had in it the
elements of adoration and joy. But there was also in it a kind of unreflecting
amazement--that unhealthy astonishment which paralyses. It was a joy which was
yet half afraid.
2. The weakness of doubt. In Genesis 17:17
Abraham expresses a doubt.
It was a momentary feeling
but at that time it rose irresistibly to the
surface.
3. The weakness of attempting to thrust our own way upon God.
IV. THERE IS AN
OPPORTUNITY GIVEN FOR THE GLORY OF GOD’S GOODNESS TO SHINE FORTH. In every
fresh revelation God is but showing Himself to His servants. He is showing His
goodness mere and more
and that is His glory. The qualities of the Divine
goodness would now be manifested more clearly to the soul of Abraham.
1. This is seen by the supernatural character of the blessings
promised (Genesis 17:15-16; Genesis 17:19).
2. This is seen by the intrinsic excellence of the blessings
promised.
3. This is seen by God’s gracious provision even for those human
desires which betray imperfection. God would remember Ishmael
after all
and
in some way satisfy the yearnings of Abraham’s heart (Genesis 17:20). God does not chide His
servant for those humanly natural longings. With all his imperfections
the
heart of the patriarch was right at bottom
and his purpose to please God
steady and sincere. If we have true faith
whatever desires there are in us
which still betray some human imperfections
God will turn them into better
courses
and show us His way. (T. H. Leale.)
Sarah: Abraham’s wife and Isaac’s mother
I. SARAH’S
HISTORY.
II. SARAH’S
CHARACTER.
1. There was in her a clear and decided spiritual faith.
2. She had a strong
loving
and imperious affection.
3. There were defects in her faith
and may have been defects in her
character.
III. THE TYPICAL
SIGNIFICANCE OF SARAH’S LIFE AND HER PLACE IN THE UNFOLDING OF THE REDEMPTION
OF HUMANITY. The story is written in the Book of Genesis mainly in the
masculine gender and in relation to Abraham. But
in reference to the covenanted
mercy
there are two great blessings to which special significance is attached
and concerning both Sarah’s was a prominent position. The one was the seed
the
other the land. (W. H. Davison.)
Sarah
I. THE MEANING OF
HER NAME
AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE COVENANT.
II. DEFECTS IN HER
CHARACTER.
1. She did not
as the Scriptures teach
avoid all appearance of
evil.
2. She did wrong in giving Hagar to be Abraham’s concubine.
3. She showed a weakness of faith in laughing at the promises of
God.
4. She was cruel in sending Hagar and Ishmael away from her home.
III. THE STRENGTH
OF HER CHARACTER.
1. She was truly devoted to her husband
and preferred him to all
others
even though kings sought to gain her.
2. She is commended for her holy life and fidelity to Abraham
and
as such is an example for wifely imitation (1 Peter 3:6).
3. After all
faith was the ruling principle of her life. Doubt was
only a momentary exception. (The Homiletic Review.)
O that Ishmael might live
before Thee.
Abraham’s prayer far Ishmael
I. ABRAHAM’S
UNBELIEF. Not that his prayer was altogether destitute of faith. He believed in
the reality of the personal God
and in His power and willingness to bless; but
unbelief as to the methods was struggling with his faith.
1. It is the thought of the heart that is here recorded.
2. The natural obstacle to the fulfilment of the promise was greater
now than on the previous occasion.
3. He had to discharge from his mind a belief which he had long
nourished and cherished.
II. ABRAHAM’S
IMPATIENCE.
III. ABRAHAM’S
NATURAL AFFECTION. (J. W. Lance.)
The prayer for Ishmael
I. A SPIRIT
NATURAL TO A TRUE PARENT. Abraham desired the prosperity of Ishmael.
II. A SPIRIT
ESSENTIAL TO THE TRUE SAINT. Dependence on God.
III. A SPIRIT
HONOURED BY HEAVEN (Genesis 17:20; see Genesis 25:10-15). (Homilist.)
Abraham’s prayer for Ishmael
I. WHAT THE
CHRISTIAN PARENT SEEKS FOR HIS OFFSPRING. What is meant by living before God?
It means to enjoy His forgiving grace
that we be not consumed by His wrath;
and to receive His fostering protection and blessing
without which life would
be a calamity
and existence a burden. We would not have our children go forth
through life neglected of God; still less
contending against Him as an enemy.
Many blessings may be included in this general one.
1. There are spiritual blessings; life in and through Jesus Christ.
Forgiveness. Regeneration. Eternal life.
2. Temporal good is sought; not without
but in addition to
spiritual blessings; and not absolutely
but in entire submission to the will
of God.
II. HOW THE
CHRISTIAN SHOULD ACT TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THESE DESIRES ON BEHALF OF HIS
OFFSPRING.
1. Prayer.
2. Instruction.
3. Example.
4. Discipline. Conclusion:
Abraham’s prayer for Ishmael
I. It must strike
the most casual observer
that THERE IS A SPECIALITY IS THE PRAYER which makes
it necessary that the import of the prayer should be unfolded. For it appears
not but that Ishmael was in all the glow and vigour of his youthful health;
there was no symptom of physical decay
there was no indication of approaching
death. Whence
therefore
and why did the patriarch pray
“Oh! that my child
might live?” Was it that his days might be lengthened out? Was it that his
health might continue unimpaired? was it that he might live to a green and a
good old age? No
we find a key to the patriarch’s prayer in the one simple
expression--“Before Thee.” “Oh! that Ishmael might live before Thee.” Before
his father’s eyes
before the eyes of mankind
the child lived; but the father
had reference to another and a higher and a different life--a life in the sight
of God. It follows
then
that adequately to comprehend the import of the
prayer
we must illustrate the death
from which the patriarch desired his
child to be set free. And we are led to remark
that every child of man
as he
comes into the world
is dead in the sight of God
in a two-fold sense; he is
legally dead
he is spiritually dead. He is dead in the sight of God in law
and he is dead in the sight of God in his moral nature. He is “dead in trespasses
and sins.” But how
then
is life given to man? and what was the life
for
which the patriarch prayed on behalf of his child? In order to remove the
eternal death under which we lie
the Son of God took our nature upon Himself
stood as our substitute; so that God might be just in justifying every
penitent
that lays hold on the righteousness of the Redeemer and comes to God
in faith. Everyone
then
that by faith is brought into a participation of the
righteousness and redemption that is in Christ
is
in virtue of that
righteousness and that redemption
passed from death to life.
II. I pass simply
and briefly to press upon you THE IMPORTANCE OF THAT PRAYER.
1. The importance of the patriarch’s prayer appears
in that till
that prayer is accomplished in a child or in a man
that child or that man is a
poor
maimed
imperfect being. What a wretched life is the mere vegetable life
for a man to live!
2. But the importance of the patriarch’s prayer is still more
emphatically and touchingly impressed on our minds
if we remember the fearful
peril in which every man stands
that is not “living before God.” (H.
Stowell
M. A.)
Parental duties and encouragements
I. I shall
inquire WHAT BLESSINGS SHOULD A CHRISTIAN PARENT SEEK FROM GOD ON BEHALF OF HIS
CHILDREN?
1. Is it forbidden to desire the continuance of their natural life?
Certainly not; provided that desire be entirely under the control of submission
to the will of God.
2. Nor is it forbidden to ask those things for our children which
would contribute so much to their temporal comfort; provided
that desire be
also in entire submission to the will of Jehovah.
3. Still
however
these things are but secondary objects of desire
with him who contemplates
in its true light
the character and destiny of that
being which with rapture he calls his child. What can or what ought a Christian
parent to desire for his child
as the grand ultimatum of all his anxiety and
solicitude
short of everlasting bliss? It is in this sense that he uses the
prayer of Abraham
“Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee.”
II. I shall now
mention THOSE MEANS WHICH MUST BE USED BY HIM IN ORDER TO OBTAIN IT. In the
distribution of His favours to the human race
God generally connects His
bounty with our exertions. This remark applies both to temporal and spiritual
benefits.
1. If we would have our children grow up as we desire
we must
maintain discipline in our families. By discipline
I mean the exercise of
parental authority in enforcing obedience to all suitable commands and prohibitions.
This part of religious education should begin early. The supple twig bends to
your will
while the sturdy oak laughs at your authority.
2. Instruction is the next branch of religious education. I shall
consider:
3. If you would give either meaning or force to anything you say
add to instruction a holy and suitable example. I would also insist upon the
necessity of not only setting them good examples at home
but of using the
utmost caution that they be not exposed to the contagion of bad example abroad.
It should therefore be your business to select for them suitable companions. Of
course
this establishes also the importance of choosing a proper person to
superintend the general education of your children.
4. Let it not be supposed that any system of education can be
complete without prayer.
III. Exhibit THE
ENCOURAGEMENT WHICH THE SCRIPTURES AFFORD
THAT SUCH EXERTION WILL BE BLESSED
TO THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THEIR DESIRED END. (J. A. James.)
Passion
impatience
and expediency
I. THE DARLING
WISHES OF MEN ARE NOT ALWAYS GRATIFIED BY GOD.
II. A REASONABLE
EXPLANATION OF THIS REJECTION OF ISHMAEL CAN BE SUGGESTED.
1. God had other purposes in view
from which He would not depart to
gratify the wishes of the best man living.
2. The purpose of God was associated with righteousness
whereas
Ishmael originated in a pitiful
immoral expedient. Many a failure in the
individual life
and church life
and national life
is rooted in the rank
poisonous manure of wrong-doing.
3. The blessing of God was in connection with Isaac
the glad
meditative son of peace. It is in vain that we try to force the hand of
Providence if our heart is set on Ishmael
the offspring of our human passion
and impatience.
III. GOD WILL
IN
AN UNEXPECTED SENSE
ANSWER OUR PETITIONS. Look at the answer that came to
Abraham’s prayer. It had already been predicted that he was to be “a wild man
his hand against every man
” etc. Now still further comes this guarantee. “. .
.I will make him a great nation.” Abraham’s gift of intercession was not an
unqualified good. If his supplication had not been successful
much misery
might have been spared to himself
his family
his nation
and humanity at
large. Can anyone calculate the mischief that has been created by the existence
of Ishmael in the world? (W. J. Acomb
)
Abraham’s dilemma
Abraham believed God
and was overcome with joyful surpass. But a
doubt immediately occurs
which stakes a damp upon his pleasure: “The promise
of another son destroys all my expectations with respect to him who is already
given!” Perhaps he must die
to make room for the other; or if not
he may be
another Cain
who went out from the presence of the Lord. To what drawbacks are
our best enjoyments subject in this world; and in many cases
owing to our
going before the Lord in our hopes and schemes of happiness! When His plan
comes to be put in execution
it interferes with ours; and there can be no
doubt in such a ease which must give place. If Abraham had waited God’s time
for the fulfilment of the promise
it would not have been accompanied with such
an alloy: but having failed in this
after all his longing desires after it
it
becomes in a manner unwelcome to him! What can he do or say in so delicate a
situation? Grace would say
Accept the Divine promise with thankfulness. But
nature struggles; the bowels of the father are troubled for Ishmael. In this
state of mind he presumes to offer up a petition to heaven: “Oh that Ishmael
might live before Thee!” Judging of the import of this petition by the answer
it would seem to mean
either that God would condescend to withdraw His promise
of another son
and let Ishmael be the person; or if that cannot be
that his
life might be spared
and himself and his posterity be amongst the people of
God
sharing the blessing
or being “heir with him” who should be born of
Sarah. To live and to live before God
according to the usual acceptation of
the phrase
could not
I think
mean less than one or other of these things. It
was very lawful for him to desire the temporal and spiritual welfare of his
son
and of his posterity after him
in submission to the will of God: but in a
case wherein natural affection appeared to clash with God’s revealed designs
he must have felt himself in a painful situation: and the recollection that the
whole was owing to his own and Sarah’s unbelief
would add to his regret. (A.
Fuller.)
A mother’s prayers
A young soldier suddenly embraced religion much to the surprise of
his comrades. One day
he was asked what had wrought the sudden change. He took
his mother’s letter from his pocket
in which she enumerated the comforts and
luxuries which she had sent him
and
at the close said
“We are all praying
for you
Charlie
that you may be a Christian.” “That’s the sentence
” said he.
The thought that his mother was praying for him became omnipresent
and led him
to pray for himself
which was soon followed by a happy Christian experience.
Prayers of a mother
Samuel Budgett was about nine years of age
when
one day passing
his mother’s door
he heard her engaged in earnest prayer for her family
and
for himself by name. He thought
“My mother is more earnest that I should be
saved than I am for my own salvation.” In that hour
he became decided to serve
God; and the impression thus made was never effaced. (W. Arthur.)
Why Ishmael could not inherit the covenant blessing
Two reasons in particular seem to have made it unsuitable
or even
incompatible with the Divine purposes
that Ishmael should be the continuator
of the sacred line
and the inheritor of that blessing for mankind which had
been secured to Abraham by covenant.
I. For one thing
Ishmael was slave born. The children of a slave mother shared her condition
even when the father was a free man--indeed
though he were the master himself.
In the absence of any issue by the free and proper wife
it is true that
Ishmael could have inherited his father’s wealth
just as
in the absence of
any issue
Eliezer of Damascus might have done so. Inherently
however
he
possessed no right of inheritance. So soon as a free-born son appeared
Ishmael
sank to his mother’s level. It is easy to see how unfit such an heir would have
been to represent
at the very outset of a family history which was to be
saturated throughout with symbolical meaning
the entire body of God’s
spiritual children
for whom the great blessing was ultimately destined.
II. In the second
place
God’s covenant with Abraham’s seed was one of gracious promise. By it
the Eternal and Omnipotent drew near again to sinful men
laden with spontaneous
blessings
such as they themselves could neither win by force nor merit by
virtue
but must expect to receive through the superhuman operations of God.
The Promiser of such blessings must be also their Donor. The fulfilment of a
Divine promise
whose characteristic is sovereign grace
could not lie within
the sphere of man’s natural ability
or what in Bible language is called
“flesh.” It lay outside that region altogether; in a redemptive
and therefore
miraculous
interposition of God. Now it corresponded ill with an alliance like
this
that the first to inherit and transmit its benefits or hopes to posterity
should be one into whose origin there had entered so little faith
and so much
fleshly policy and fleshly desire. (J. O. Dykes
DD.)
The love of the worldly life
Ishmael was born after the flesh; and he was first in order
as
being “born of blood
and of the will of the flesh
and of the will of man.” He
was
nevertheless
a gift of God
and
perhaps
a gift of faith; but he was not
the one to whom the promise was made. Ishmael
therefore
stands for the
promise of this earth
of the world
and of this present life. I do not mean
that he represents our sin
nor those evil passions which haunt and afflict us
nor the low
gross life of carnal men: for Abraham
his father
was a man of
faith and a servant of righteousness before Ishmael was born; but he stands for
the fair good promise of this earth
before a better thing is born in the soul.
While the world lasts
it is the gift of God; for He created it
and “the earth
is the Lord’s
and the fulness thereof.” Our desire for it
our love of it
our
pleasure in it
are natural
and would not be subject to reproof
had we never
known of another state and a higher life. And there is a time
in the history
of God’s servants
when they might fairly be likened to Abraham
content in
Ishmael
and devoted to that child which Hagar bare to him. What Ishmael was to
his father
such was once
to many a man and woman now consciously and
resolutely alive in Christ
the first and native wish and passion of the
undisciplined will
the first love of the mere worldly life. The child of the
heart was there
beloved
and to all appearance
secure
yea
moreover
sufficient to every desire and wish. The thirteen years had established that
dominion; and
in the still possession of that dear object of a natural desire
the conscience had grown torpid
and the earlier hours of life had slipped
away. Consider if it be not so. The history of many a life
perhaps the history
of every life led apart from God
is this: that some prevailing tendency
some
dominant motive
exists there
having the influence and gentle lordship of a
child of the heart
the offspring of the desire and will. Of offspring thus
engendered
naught can come but anxiety and pain. Ishmael’s pedigree was fated
and banned from the very first; it is so with everything that springs out of
the human heart without the prominent grace of God. Whenever a man permits some
one desire to get the better of him
or
at least
to exert a wide and general
influence over his actions; and when he finds
as the result
that he is
growing nervous and uneasy
that a feverish solicitude pervades his thoughts
that he frets himself continually
that the dignity of a well-balanced character
is slipping from him; or else
when it is come to this
that he feels as if
with one deep draught of that soul desire
every day
he could be content to
live on here
interminably; or when
for the want of such gratification
the
day is tedious
and the hours are long
and hunger and thirst grow and burn
within; when signs like these appear
he must be blind indeed who cannot read
the story of his life; who knows not that he is fast in the world’s net; that
another Lord besides his own has dominion over him; that the fierce and untamed
Ishmael is in his tent; that his life is bound up in a temporal promise
and
that he has ceased to care for the promise of the world to come. So is it with
you
who are not consciously and lovingly in Christ: and so was it once with
you
who
now changed and altered from the pattern of your former selves
can
yet look back upon days when you were wandering
and either thought wrongly
or
thought not at all
of God. And here the allegory meets us once again
and
shows the marvellous dealings of the Holy Ghost with the souls of those whom He
brings forth and fixes in the Lord. As Ishmael represents the promise of the
earth
so Isaac stands for the promise of heaven. The new promise comes
not in
the natural course of things
not in the common order of this monotonous world
but in another way
known to God. Marked religious changes are sometimes the
result of strange and bitter disappointment; but it is not always so. They
often come
simply
of some word of the Lord
which carries a promise
and yet
breaks in upon a repose in which we would fain have continued without even His
most holy intrusion. The object proposed is above this world
and beyond it;
faith discerns
resignation accepts
the “old man” dies hard. Slowly and with
reluctance hath many an one cast forth the bondwoman and her son
to give place
to the intruder who “cometh in the name of the Lord.” It should not be thus
with reasonable men when they lay hold of the promises of God. Those promises
are unearthly
distant
and somewhat shadowy; they are calculated
not to add a
piquancy and zest to the banquet which we have already spread for ourselves
but to sweep all from the board and lay the table anew. They demand
on man’s
part
submission and resignation; they tell him that it is time to leave off
playing with petty conceits
and that the hour has come to go to the rigorous
school of Christ
where men may not seek their own
nor mind earthly things
but bend themselves bravely to duty
and let pleasure go for a time. Who can
hear these things without trembling? Who can rebuke the rising wish that it
might be otherwise? Who can wonder that men should try to keep as much of the
old life as they can
when they attempt the higher life of grace? Such emotions
appertain to that weakness of ours in which God’s grace must be made perfect;
and the victory is to be sought
by accepting what may look like a dubious
favour and setting faith in its rightful lordship over sight. Then
if the
trial seem too hard to bear
reflect once more upon the allegory; there is
comfort in it
if you read it intelligently. Ishmael lived. The natural gifts
and blessings of God are not destroyed by His supernatural graces: they are
remanded to their own place
allowed to work out their determined ends
to
yield increase after their proper law. Nothing can be lost forever
which God’s
grace can hallow; the Son of Man cometh to save
not to destroy; and that
in
us
which God saw and pronounced to be good
when He created us
may be refined
in fire
purified
and may be a part of our eternal treasure. (M. Dix
D. D.)
Verse 21
My covenant will I establish with Isaac
Isaac
a type of Christ
1.
He
is born in a miraculous manner. He was the child given by promises
and came
not in the ordinary course of nature. So Christ was long promised and
miraculously born.
2. He was the son of the house
while all others were his servants.
So the position of Christ in the heavenly household was made by His birth. No
circumstances could alter His relationship to that household. He was there by a
natural necessity. Others may come and go
but the Son abides.
3. He was the progenitor of a free race. Isaac was the son of the free
woman
and the ancestor of a great and free people. Christ makes men free when
they are born into the kingdom of God by His spirit
and thus belong to that
holy nation whose children walk in perfect liberty.
4. He was the channel of blessing to all nations. Christ was the
life and power which gave effect to that blessing. He was that blessing itself.
Isaac
a type of the regenerate man
1. He was born by a distinct
act of the will of God. So the regenerate man becomes God’s child
not by the
course of nature
but by a special grace. He is eminently born of God.
2. He was free born. So each child of God is made free from all
bondage. He needs not the commands of law to compel him to obedience
for he
obeys from love of his Father. Thus Isaac was the type of the evangelical
dispensation
as Ishmael was that of the legal.
In the self-same day was Abraham circumcised
and Ishmael his son
Obedience to the Divine voice
I.
PROMPT.
1. To delay is to despise God’s authority.
2. It is safest to act upon moral impulses immediately.
II. UNQUESTIONING.
God’s will is both law and reason.
III. COMPLETE. A
particular and intense regard to God’s known will is the essence of piety. (T.
H. Leale.)
Abraham’s obedience to God’s command
There are three things in particular in the obedience of Abraham
worthy of notice.
1. It was prompt. “In the self-same day that God had spoken unto
him
” the command was put in execution. This was “making haste
and delaying
not to keep His commandments.” To treat the Divine precept as matters of small
importance
or to put off what is manifestly our duty to another time
is to
trifle with supreme authority. So did not Abraham.
2. It was punctilious. The correspondence between the command of God
and the obedience of His servant is minutely exact. The words of the former
are
“Thou shalt keep My covenant and thy seed after thee
. . .and he that is
born in thy house
or bought with money of any stranger
which is not of thy
seed.” With this agrees the account of the latter; “In the self-same day was
Abraham circumcised
and Ishmael his son; and all the men of his house
born in
the house
and bought with money of the stranger
were circumcised with him.” A
rigid regard to the revealed will of God enters deeply into true religion; that
spirit which dispenses with it
though it may pass under the specious name of
liberality
is antichristian.
3. Lastly: It was yielded in old age
when many would have pleaded
off from engaging in anything new
or different from what they had before
received; and when
as some think
it would be a further trial to his faith as
to the fulfilment of the promise. “Ninety-and-nine years old was Abraham when
he was circumcised.” It is one of the temptations of old age to be tenacious of
what we have believed and practised from our youth; to shut our eyes and ears
against everything that may prove it to have been erroneous or defective
and
to find excuses for being exempted from hard and dangerous duties. But Abraham
to the last was ready to receive farther instruction
and to do as he was
commanded
leaving consequences with God. This shows that the admonition to
“walk before Him
and be perfect
” had not been given him in vain. (A.
Fuller.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》