Abraham's Double Blessing
(No. 2523)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 27, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 8, 1885.
"I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing." Genesis 12:2.
THIS was to be the double result of Abraham's coming out from his own
country and his father's house. Those Orientals clung with great
tenacity to their native homes. We, in these latter ages, are not so
restful–we think nothing of crossing the Atlantic and many think
little of going to the other side of the globe–but those Easterns
trembled, even, to cross the Euphrates or the Tigris! They spoke of the
land beyond those rivers as "across the flood," and a journey of two or
three hundred miles seemed to them to be an event only second to death,
itself. Yet when the Lord said to Abraham, "Get you out of your
country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a
land that I will show you," he, "departed, as the Lord had spoken unto
him." His obedience was an act of heroic faith!
Now, Brothers and Sisters, in consequence of this obedience, Abraham
obtained the double blessing of which our text speaks. He is called the
Father of the Faithful, that is, the father of all such as believe in
God, so that, if we truly believe in God, we shall do what Abraham as a
Believer did. Children are like their father. Believers are like the
father of all Believers, so that there will be a going out for them as
there was for him. We may not be called to actually leave our homes and
our native land, but we shall have a great deal more troublesome task
than that, for we are to be separated from the people among whom we
dwell–to dwell among them, yet not to be of them–in the world, but
not of the world! This is not an easy thing. It is far easier to become
a monk, or a nun, and shut yourself up alone, than it is to live in the
midst of ungodly people and yet to be, yourself, godly–to trade with
the usual followers of commerce and not to fall into their business
customs–to mix with the usual host of thinkers, yet not to think as
they think, but to endeavor to think the thoughts of God and to obey
the will of the Most High.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was the most perfect Man among men. In no
respect, in dress or in anything else, did He separate Himself from the
rest of mankind by anything merely external. He ate and drank just as
they did. He sat at their tables, slept in their houses and talked with
them by the way–yet was He always "holy, harmless, undefiled and
separate from sinners." All Believers are called thus to live in the
world a separated life, in obedience to the Divine command, "Come out
from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the
unclean thing." There is no necessity for us to wear either the
broad-brimmed hat or the collarless coat, or anything whatever by which
we shall be marked off from the rest of men. We are to be separated in
realityrather than merely in appearance, to be separated by a higher
tone of morals, to be separated by a truer life–a life with God, a
life in God–to be separated by faith in the unseen, to be separated by
an enthusiasm to which the rest of mankind will not pretend, which,
indeed, they will even despise! This is the high, hard, holy, heavenly
task to which Believers in Christ are called. Oh, for Grace to
accomplish it!
In proportion as we accomplish it, the words of my text will come true
to us–"I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing." As far as
Abraham did not live the life of separation, so far he missed the
blessing. You remember that he went down into Egypt and you know what
trouble he got into there–and he brought more trouble away with him.
As I said, this morning, (see exposition at end of sermon), very likely
Hagar was one of the slaves given to him by Pharaoh when he dismissed
him and Sarah–and you know what trouble Hagar brought into the family.
(Sermon #1869, Volume 31– Hagar at the Fountain). If Abraham had lived
the separated life and had not fallen into the customs of those round
about him, he would not have had that sin and sorrow concerning Hagar.
Nor would he have had that righteous rebuke from Abimelech, the king of
Gerar, when again he had acted deceitfully with regard to his wife.
Whenever you see Abraham living alone before the Lord, you see a man of
God, blessed of God, even as the Lord said, "I called him alone, and
blessed him." But when he goes and links himself with others, he loses
the fullness of the blessing and gets into serious trouble. And you,
Christian men and women, will find that as long as you keep close to
your Lord and Master, you will enjoy His blessing. You may have cares
and trials, but they shall be blessed cares and blessed trials! But if
you go into the world and act as men of the world act–if you sow your
wild oats, you will have to reap them! Depend upon it, the child of God
will feel the weight of his Father's rod if he begins to play with the
boys of the street. If he is not careful of his company, keeping with
his Father's children–and careful of his life and conversation, doing
and saying what his Father would have him do and say–he will find the
rod fall heavily upon his shoulders, even as the Lord said of old to
the children of Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of
the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."
The blessings of which I am about to speak belong to those who live the
separated life, to those who keep in the narrow way. Just in proportion
as the Grace of God helps us into that separated life and keeps us
there, we shall be blessed and shall be made a blessing.
I. First, let us consider THE FIRST BLESSING promised to Abraham in our
text–"I will bless you." Notice that the personal blessing comes
first. You cannot be a blessing to others unless God has first blessed
you. We do not encourage selfishness in anything, but we do say that
you must fill your own pitcher before another man can drink out of it.
You must have bread in your own hands before you can break it for the
multitudes. It is no use for you to attempt to sow out of an empty
basket, for that would be sowing nothing but wind. First of all, then,
you must get the blessing yourself, for until it can be said to you, "I
will bless you," it cannot be said, "You shall be a blessing."
What was the blessing which God gave Abraham? It was the blessing which
He will give to all who live as Abraham lived and believe as Abraham
believed! And, first, Abraham had the rest of faith. He had no home
except his tent– always an uncomfortable style of dwelling–and no
plot of land to call his own. He was a mere gypsy, moving about from
place to place. "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a
strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise." Yet, surely, there never was a man more
restful than this same Abraham! Wherever you meet him, he stands out
before you as a calm, quiet, noble figure. Jacob is always cunning,
bargaining, plotting and scheming. But Abraham has nothing of that sort
of character–he is a plain, simple man–believing in God and going
about his business with that leisure which comes of perfect
trustfulness. If God says to him, "Leave your country," he leaves it.
Go and ask him, "Where are you going, Abraham?" He does not know. God
has told him to go out and he is going. The Canaanite is still in the
land of promise–is he not afraid to go there? May not the inhabitants
cut him off, directly, if he comes near them?
Abraham is not afraid! God has told him to go to the land of Canaan and
he feels that he has a right to be there. God causes a superstitious
dread to fall upon those Canaanites–a voice seems to whisper in their
heart, "Touch not My anointed"–and so Abraham dwells securely among
them. An invading host comes from a distance and carries away his poor
nephew, Lot, who has gone to live down Sodom way, that he may be more
comfortable in a city. Abraham does not deliberate about his course of
action–it is his business to set Lot free–so, with the few young men
who are around him, the old man pursues the five kings, drives them
before him like stubble driven before the wind, and brings back his
nephew Lot and all the spoil! He never sets his hand to anything but he
succeeds in it, and he never seems to worry himself about anything!
God's will is the one rule that he is always content to obey and he
feels perfectly satisfied wherever he may be. Kings fall down before
him, for he is a more truly royal personage than those who are draped
in purple, and who wear crowns! They say that he is one of nature's
true princes and so he is. God had made him a prince by one touch of
faith, for it was faith that did it all–he believed in God and that
believing made him truly great!
Do not say, dear Friends, that this faith was only possible to Abraham.
Brothers, Sisters, it is possible to us, also, if we will have it. May
God help us to believe the promise and not to be staggered at it
through unbelief! If we will but trust God through thick and thin,
through dark and light–if we will but believe God more than we believe
our eyes or our ears–if we will but believe steadily, even though our
own body seems as dead, that God will keep His promise to the very
letter. And if we will, through that faith, always do the right, and
never be daunted or turned aside, then shall our peace be like a river
and our righteousness as the waves of the sea–and there shall be a
kingly majesty about our character, simple and unadorned as it may be,
and open as it may seem to be to the jests and sarcasms of an
unbelieving age!
Whatever men may say, they will really respect and reverence the man
who believes in God and lives as a man of faith should live. If you
want perfect rest in this life–and it is worth more than thousands of
precious jewels–if you would wear in your buttonhole the herb called
heartsease–if you would go through the world content, quiet, happy and
free from care and fear, "trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall you
dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed." Has not God said, "I
will bless you"? He will bless you by means of your own faith, making
you a peaceful, happy person while all the world besides seems to be up
in arms, worried and anxious!
Beside the rest of faith, Abraham had the victory of faith ' 'This is
the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." Abraham was not
a fighting man, but when he was called to fight, he fought in real
earnest, and his adversaries fell or fled before him. The victory of
Abraham's faith, when he vanquished Chedorlaomer and the kings that
were with him, was not only a victory on the battlefield, but a victory
afterwards! Those kings had taken the spoils of the kings of the cities
of the plain and had carried away all the booty, but Abraham recovered
it all, so that he might have claimed it as his own–and even the king
of Sodom said to him, "Give me the persons, and take the goods to
yourself." It was a fine pile, no doubt, and ordinary men do not look
at such treasures without some kind of longing for them, but Abraham
answered, "I have lifted up my hands unto the Lord, the Most High God,
the possessor of Heaven and earth, that I will not take from you a
thread even to a shoelace, and that I will not take anything that is
yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'" "No," says the
Patriarch, "what I receive shall come from God, and not from the king
of Sodom."
It was a real victory of faith for him to be able to act like that. It
is a great thing for a Christian to conquer sin, but I reckon that it
is a greater thing for him not to yield to that which looks dubious, or
that which is selfish although it may be just. It is a victory for
faith when the man says, "No, no! I might do this, or that, or the
other, but I am a child of God and, therefore, I shall not do it. I
trust in God and I will not do it, lest at any time in my future life
someone should say, 'That was not acting as a Christian should act.'
No, I will not take from a thread even to a shoelace that belongs to
the king of Sodom, lest thereby my God should be displeased or
dishonored." What a glorious victory Abraham had that day in the king's
dale!
A Christian, if he lives to God by faith, will often have just such a
victory as that. If he has not as much of this world's goods as others
have, he will not fret and pine after them. He will say, "I am happy
enough without them." And if God should be pleased to give him riches,
he will live above them and he will never let them get into his heart.
"No," he will say, "I am not enriched by these things. My treasure is
of a higher and nobler kind." There are many men who could not be
trusted to be rich, for if they were to attain to wealth, they would
become proud and make an idol of their gold. But the true heir of
Heaven has received this blessing from God–that he knows, with Paul,
both how to be abased and how to abound, how to be full and to be
hungry. He has learned, in whatever state he is, to be content. And the
man who has learned that lesson is a blessed man!
Another blessing which Abraham had, and which all Believers may have,
is this–he had power with God. Oh, that every one of us possessed such
power and constantly used it! God was about to destroy the cities of
the plain on account of their horrible lusts and He said to Himself,
"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" Was not he a blessed
man concerning whom God asked that question? God goes to Abraham and
tells him what He is about to do. And Abraham, at once, with the power
that he had with God, begins to plead with Him in that famous dialogue
between the man of God and the God of the man! You know how he
pleaded–"Will You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Perhaps
there are fifty righteous within the city: will You also destroy and
not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are there?" The next
plea was, "Will you destroy all the city for lack of forty-five?" Then
he brought the number down to forty, to thirty, to 20 and, at last, to
10 righteous. Was it not a glorious thing for this man, this sheik,
this Bedouin of the desert, to plead and wrestle thus with the eternal
God?
Talk not to me about the grandeur of kings upon their thrones–Abraham
speaking thus with God is greater than all of them put together! Tell
me not of brave warriors returning from the fight amid the acclamations
of the throng! This lonely man, grasping the arm of Jehovah and urging
his suit for mercy for the people of these doomed cities, is a greater
man than all mortals besides! They used to say of Luther, as he walked
along the street, "There goes the man who can have of God anything he
likes to ask." And there are some I know to whom God has given this
same privilege! And if we will but walk alone with God and will fully
trust Him, He will give us carte blanche–He has given it to us in
those wondrous words of Christ, "If you abide in Me, and My Words abide
in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you."
"Delight yourself also in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires
of your heart." It is as if the silver keys of Paradise swung at the
belts of the saints! Have they not had the keys of the rain? Did not
Elijah turn the key and shut up the clouds for three years and six
months–and then turn it the other way and bring a blessed deluge on
the land? Oh, if we have but faith, we shall have this high privilege
of coming to the Mercy Seat, just when we will, and asking of our God
according to our need–and His promise shall be fulfilled to each one
of us, "I will bless you."
I must add, yet further, that Abraham had from God the great
blessedness of being sustained under trial Have you ever noticed a
certain little record concerning Abraham? It is after he had offered up
his son, Isaac. That was the sharpest trial that could have befallen
mortal man–to be commanded to go and offer up his own son, his only
son, his beloved son–the son who had been miraculously given to him!
But he, with stalwart faith, felt sure that God would keep His promise
and that He would raise Isaac from the dead, if necessary, so it was
not for him to reason about the matter, but to do what seemed to be the
terrible will of God. Some little while after that great trial, it is
written, "Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the Lord had
blessed Abraham in all things." That is the short history of his long
life– God told him that He would bless him–and He did. "The Lord had
blessed Abraham in all things." What? When He commanded him to slay his
son? Yes. He "had blessed him in all things." What? When He took away
his wife Sarah? Yes, for, "the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things."
Perhaps, if his life had been without troubles, that sentence would not
have been true! Just look at this matter a moment, dear Friends. When
you and I, with all our cares, trials, poverty, suffering and pain
shall get to our journey's end, if we have faith like Abraham's, it
will be written of each one of us, "The Lord had blessed him in all
things–blessed him in his troubles, blessed him in those cruel tests
of faith as they seemed to be–blessed him by sustaining him under them
all." I think that if I were an old sailor, I would not like to have
had a life on a sea of glass. If I were at home, say at 70 years of
age, and my grandchildren had gathered around me to hear the story of
my life, I would not like to have to sum it all up by saying, "Boys, I
do not know anything about storms. I never was in one in my life. You
see, I never went to sea without a favorable wind. Whenever I got on
board ship, all storms ceased and I had nothing to do but just to watch
until I reached the port." I expect the boys would ask, "But,
Grandfather, were there never any big waves?" "No, never." "Were you
never cast away on a rock?" "No, never–it was all smooth with me from
beginning to end."
There would be nothing to tell about a life like that and a man would
not make much of a sailor that way. Or suppose it is one of our
soldiers who, when he has retired from the army says, "I never smelt
gunpowder." I pray God that our soldiers may never have to fight, but
still, a man will never make anything of a soldier if that is the fact
with him. And you and I will not make stalwart Christians without
trials and troubles! And when we get to Heaven, we shall not have so
much for which to glorify God if we have had our bread and butter
spread for us from the first day to the last, and have never had any
lack of food, never any hard labor, never any stern affliction, never
any bitter pain, never any deep distress! But how blessed are they who
have done business in great waters, who have seen the white teeth of
the storm furies and sailed through the very throat of death and come
out safely! How blessed are they who have had much reason for fear, but
who have had no fear, God having lifted them above it by the
supernatural energy of His Grace! So, Brothers and Sisters, you may
often have blessing come to you, not in the shape of a rolled path all
the way to Heaven, but in the shape of a faith that endures to the end,
so that you shall stand firm in every temptation and, at the last,
shall enter into your rest and say at the end of all, "God has blessed
me in all things, blessed be His holy name!"
Another special favor that Abraham had was God's Presence. I think that
the greatest blessing God ever gives to a man is His own Presence. If I
had my choice of all the blessings of this life, I certainly should not
ask for wealth, for that can bring no ease. And I certainly should not
ask for popularity, for there is no rest to the man upon whose words
men constantly wait–and it is a hard task one has to perform in such a
case as that. But I should choose, as my highest honor, to have God
always with me. Who would choose between the burning fiery furnace of
Nebuchadnezzar and a bed of down if God was equally with us in both
cases? It matters not! We might be just as happy in the one case as in
the other. If God is with us–if His Divine love surrounds us–we carry
our own atmosphere wherever we go, we take our own abode with us
wherever we journey! And with Moses we can say, "Lord, You have been
our dwelling place in all generations." That heart is full of Heaven
that is full of God. That man is blessed to all the intents of bliss
who dwells in
God and in whom God dwells! And that is the privilege of all who truly
believe in Jesus, all who come out from the world and live a life of
faith as Abraham did.
Bow your head, Believer, and let the Lord God pronounce on you this
benediction, "Surely, blessing I will bless you." Sorrowing, suffering,
weary, burdened, yet receive this blessing as from God's own mouth, "I
will bless you." Poor, despised, slandered, yet is the blessing not one
whit curtailed! So, take it home with you and go on your way rejoicing!
II. Now let us turn to the second part of the text and consider THE
SECOND BLESSING promised to Abraham. "You shall be a blessing." When
God has blessed any man, He makes that man to be a blessing to others.
The Lord fills him that he may overflow with blessing for those around
him. The Holy Spirit puts into the man the life of God that that life
may flow out of him to others.
How, then, do we bless other men? I answer–genuine Christians bless
other men by their example. I will give you one instance–sometimes an
instance is better than an explanation. I suppose that there is hardly
a person here who has not heard of that famous preacher of the Gospel,
Mr. John Angell James. I remember, 33 years ago, taking a journey from
Cambridge to Birmingham, that I might be able to say that I had heard
Mr. John Angell James preach. And I did hear him preach, greatly to my
comfort and joy. You know that he wrote that book, The Anxious
Enquirer, which has been the means of bringing so many to Christ, but
did you ever hear how John Angell James came to be a Christian and a
preacher? He was engaged as a clerk in an office, as many of you may
be, and he slept upon his master's premises. He had been accustomed,
when he retired for the night, to get into bed without any prayer or
any reading of the Scriptures, but there came into the same office a
new clerk, a young man. James went upstairs, undressed himself as
quickly as he could, and got into bed, when, to his surprise, the new
clerk moved the candle, went to his box, took out his Bible, drew his
chair up, sat down as if he was quite at home, and read a chapter!
Then, with equal deliberation, he knelt down at his bedside and prayed.
He never said a word to John Angell James about not praying, But he did
what was a great deal better–he, himself,prayed. Within a few months
from that time, Mr. James was a converted man! Within two or three
years, he was a minister of the Gospel, and I cannot help tracing the
usefulness of the preacher to the decision of that young unknown clerk
who dared to do the right thing come what might! "I will bless you,"
said God to that young clerk, "and I will make you a blessing." I
wonder whether, afterwards, he used to say to himself, "I thank God
that I knelt down and prayed that night, because, by that simple act of
mine, that man of God was brought to the feet of Jesus and tens of
thousands were converted by his instrumentality"?
"I will make you a blessing." Oh, that our example might be such that,
wherever we go, we may be a blessing! Some of you, perhaps, have lived
in very poor neighborhoods–you have got into poverty and have to dwell
in a back slum. As soon as you are converted, you want to move away and
I do not blame you–who would like to remain there? At the same time,
it seems a pity that the moment there is a lamp lit, we should take it
out of the dark corner. That slum is where your example is needed, my
Brother! Where do you put the salt? Why, of course, where there is
something that, without it, will rot! So there must be children of God
who will say, "We mean to live here and drive the devil out. We do not
intend to leave this corner, but we mean to stay here and fight the foe
till God shall give us the victory."
Further, dear Friends, those whom God uses are made a blessing by their
prayers. Does anybody know the full extent of the blessings which come
upon us in answer to the prayers of others? Unhappy is the man who has
not somebody praying for him! But rich is that one who is daily the
object of the prayers of saints. O dear Friends, if God has saved you,
never stint your prayers for others! I ask a share in them–I count
myself rich in having the prayers of so many–how often am I gladdened
and comforted when I know that there are thousands of Christian people
who have pledged themselves never to pray either morning or evening
without remembering me in their prayers! I thank them from the bottom
of my heart–they can do me no greater kindness! Pray for all ministers
of Christ, pray for all Christians and pray day and night for this
great wicked city of ours, steeped up to its throat in sin! God have
mercy upon it! Get to your chamber, child of God, and bow your knees
and cry mightily unto the Most High, for these evil days sorely need
it. If ever we needed intercessors, it is now! If John Knox's prayers
saved Scotland–and they did–we need a man like he to save England and
to bless our country at this present moment. You can be made a blessing
by your intense and vehement prayers! Therefore, all of you who are
Believers "pray without ceasing."
Moreover, if God has blessed us, we ought to try to be made a blessing
by our ordinary life. Sydney Smith, the witty clergyman, often said
some very good things and one I remember was, "Always make it a rule to
make somebody happy every day, even if it is only by giving a child a
farthing, or helping a poor woman to carry a parcel that is too heavy
for her." There really is so much misery m the world that it is a pity
for us to cause a child to cry, or even to cause a dog to go howling
down the street! I think that we ought to make everyone happy wherever
we are, for our Master went about doing good to all sorts and
conditions of men. But certainly in our own family we who love the Lord
should have the brightest eyes and the most cheering countenances. I
know some professed Christians who are so dreadfully good, so painfully
pious, that I cannot live near them. "You shall not, you shall not,"
seems written across their very foreheads! All that we must notdo, they
perfectly understand, but wherein there is anything of joy and delight
and pleasure in this holy faith of ours, which came from our blessed
joyous Savior–for such He was, though He was the Man of Sorrows– all
that they seem to forget!
Let it not be so among us, dear Friends, but let us try with all our
might to be a blessing to everybody and, most of all, to be a blessing
to those for whom nobody cares. Let us go out of our way to remember
the forgotten, to help the helpless, to succor those who are in the
deepest need. You know how it is in this world, everybody will give
something to the person who does not need it–but why not give to the
poor, the needy and the helpless? That is where our gifts should go
most freely. These cannot make us a return, but we shall have a reward
at the last if we do them good. Oh, for the faith which is truly a
blessing because we endeavor to make other people happy wherever we may
be!
"I will make you a blessing." When this promise came to Abraham, surely
the very essence of it was that Abraham was to be made a blessing to
the world by virtue of his connection with Jesus Christ Our Lord was
descended from Abraham–"He took not on Him the nature of angels; but
He took on Him the seed of Abraham." Our Savior was a Jew. He took upon
Himself the nature of that race and therein Abraham became a blessing
to the whole world! And now, spiritually, we who believe are the
children of Abraham. We come not into the Covenant as they do who are
merely descended from Abraham after the flesh, but we come in with
Isaac, the child of the promise, born not after the flesh, but after
the power of the Spirit! And so we become heirs of salvation by virtue
of that faith which was in Abraham and which dwells also in us by the
gift of the Holy Spirit!
Beloved, if you and I are to be made a blessing to others, it must be
by our bringing the Lord Jesus Christ to those whom we meet from day to
day. Do not talk to a friend without speaking of your Savior. Do not be
long in a house without introducing that dear name–there is so much of
savor, of sweetness, of comfort, of healing, of life in that precious
name of Jesus, that you cannot too often speak of it, or too frequently
introduce it into all sorts of companies! I heard, some time ago, of a
man handcuffed and being taken away by the police for a term of
imprisonment–a horrible wretch with a face that was scarcely human, a
man who seemed as if he was cut out for a murderer–and as he stood in
the station and few cared even to look at him, a little girl went near
and, looking up to him, said, "Poor man, I pity you." He was wretch
enough to utter some lewd and profane expression and the child,
astonished, ran back to her father. But she could not stay long. There
seemed to be a charm to her about that wicked man, so she ran into the
room, again, and said, "Poor man, Jesus Christ pities you–He does!"
The police said to the governor of the jail, when handing over their
prisoner, "That man will give you a world of trouble. He is the most
horrible brute we ever came across, it took a great many of us to
capture him."
The next morning he was found quiet and subdued–and during all the
term of his imprisonment there was not a better prisoner! And he went
out of the jail a changed man. He told the chaplain that it was the
little girl who had done it when she said that she pitied him and that
Jesus Christ pitied him. If we would more often bring in that blessed
name of Jesus, then would our text be fulfilled, "I will bless you, and
you shall be a blessing." Oh, that we would all first come to Him and
find the blessing that is treasured up in Him–and then go forth and be
a blessing to our own family and to all around us! O Lord, grant that
it may be so, for Your dear Son's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS 12:1-7; 14:17-24; 22:15-18.
We will read two or three passages in the Book of Genesis concerning
God blessing His servant Abraham. Turn first to the 12th chapter.
Chapter 12, verse 1. Now thee lord had said unto Abram, Get you out of
your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto
a land that I will show you. It was God's intention to keep His Truth
and His pure worship alive in the world by committing it to the charge
of one man and the nation that should spring from him. In the Infinite
Sovereignty of His Grace, He chose Abraham–passing by all the rest of
mankind–and elected him to be the depository of the heavenly Light of
God, that through him it might be preserved in the world until the days
when it should be more widely scattered. It seemed essential to this
end that Abraham should come right out from his fellow countrymen and
be separate unto Jehovah, so the Lord said to him, "Get you out of your
country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a
land that I will show you."
2, 3. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and
make your name great; and you shall be a blessing: and I will bless
them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall
all families of the earth be blessed. There, you see, was the
missionary character of the seed of Abraham, if they had but recognized
it! God did not bless them for themselves, alone, but for all
nations–"In you shall allfamilies of the earthbe blessed."
4. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went
with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out
of Haran. He had already attained a fine old age, but he had another
century of life before him, which he could not, then, foresee, or
expect. If, at his age, he had said, "Lord, I am too old to travel, too
old to leave my country and to begin to live a wandering life," we
could not have wondered. But he did not talk in that fashion. He was
commanded to go and we read, "So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken
unto him."
5, 6. And Abram took Saraihis wife, and Lot his brother's son, andall
their substance that they hadgathered, and the souls that they had
gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and
into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land
unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite
was then in the land. Fierce and powerful nations possessed the
country! It did not seem a very likely place to be the heritage of a
peace-loving man like Abraham. God does not always fulfill His promises
to His people at once, otherwise, where would be the room for faith?
This life of ours is to be a life of faith and it will be well rewarded
in the end. Abraham had not a foot of land to call his own, except that
cave of Machpelah which he bought from the sons of Heth for a burying
place for his beloved Sarah.
7. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto your seed will I
give this land and there built he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared
unto him. Thus, you see, Abraham began his separated life with a
blessing from the Lord his God. Further on in his history he received a
still larger blessing when he returned from his victory over the kings.
Genesis 14:17-19. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his
return from the slaughter of Chedor-laomer, and of the kings that were
with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's valley.
AndMelchizedek, King of Salem, brought forth bread and wine: and He was
the Priest of the most high God. And He blessed him. In the name of
God, Melchizedek blessed Abraham. This mysterious Personage, the
highest type of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed Abraham, "and without
all contradiction the less is blessed of the better." "He blessed him."
19, 20. And said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of
Heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which has delivered
your enemies into your hands. And he gave Him tithes of all. Abraham
recognized the Priest of God as his spiritual superior "and he gave Him
tithes of all."
21. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons, and
take the goods to yourself. It was according to the rule of war that if
persons who had made an invasion were afterwards, themselves, captured,
then if the new captor gave up the persons, he was fully entitled to
take the goods to himself.
22, 23. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand
unto the LORD, the Most High God, the possessor of Heaven and earth,
that I will not take from you a thread even to a shoelace, and that I
will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made
Abram rich. The Patriarch is greater than the king. He has a right to
all his spoil, but he will not touch it, lest the glory of his God
should thereby be stained. Abraham will have nothing but what his God
shall give him! He will not take anything from the king of Sodom. I
like to see this glorious independence in the Believer. "I have a right
to this," he says, "but I will not take it. What are mere earthly
rights to me? My chief business is to honor the God of whom I am, and
whom I serve. And if the taking of this spoil would dishonor Him, I
will not take even so much as a thread or a shoelace."
24. Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of
the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take
their portion. ' 'Though I am willing to give up my share of the spoil,
that is no reason why these men should do the same." Christian men
ought not to expect worldlings to do what they cheerfully and willingly
do, themselves and, indeed, it is not much use to expect it, for they
are not likely to do it!
Now let us read in the 22nd Chapter of this same Book of Genesis.
Abraham had endured the supreme test of his faith and had, in full
intent, offered up his son Isaac at the command of God, his hand being
withheld from the actual sacrifice only by an angelic voice.
Genesis 22:15-17. And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of
Heaven the second time, and said, By Myself have I sworn, says the
Lord, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your
son, your only son: that in blessing I will bless you. "Whenever I am
engaged in blessing, I will bless you. I will not pronounce a
benediction in the which you shall not share–'In blessing I will bless
you.'"
17, 18. Andin multiplying I will multiply your seedas the stars of the
Heaven, andas the sand which is upon the sea shore and your seed shall
possess the gate of his enemies; andin your seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed My voice. See the
result of one man's grand act of obedience and note how God can make
that man to be the channel of blessing to all coming ages! Oh, that you
and I might possess the Abrahamic faith which thus practically obeys
the Lord and brings a blessing to all the nations of the earth!