Here then is a brilliant conception enfolded as a germ in this passage -lamentably absent from the current religious teaching of the day-but spread out in gorgeous colours in the writings of the prophets. God intends to show what He can do in the national sphere; He intends to demonstrate in one particular Abrahamic nation wherein national greatness and strength truly lie; and He intends by this means to make that nation the envy and the emulation, and not only so, but the benefactress also of all the nations of the earth.

GENESIS XXI. 8-13.

"(8) So the child grows and is weaned; and Abraham makes a great banquet on the day of the weaning of Isaac. (9) Then Sarah beholds the son of Hagar the Egyptian woman, whom she bare to Abraham, laughing. (10) So she says to Abraham: Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman must not inherit with my son, with Isaac.

"(11) Then is the word grievous exceedingly in the eyes of Abraham, on account of his son.

"(12) So God says unto Abraham: It may not be grievous in thine eyes concerning the boy or concerning the bond woman; in all that Sarah says unto thee, hearken to her voice; for in Isaac shall there be called to thee a seed. (13) Notwithstanding even the son of the bondwoman will I make into a nation, because thy seed is he."

At length from Sarah herself is Isaac born to Abraham. He is not born until faith and patience have been well exercised-not born until all the weariness, and mistakes, and compromises of unbelief have been dispelled or superseded. Thus Isaac is emphatically the child of faith, born after the manner of the Spirit ; not indeed in a wholly supernatural way, nor yet so that the fault and corruption of human nature should have no place in him; but by natural generation Divinely energised and made fruitful beyond the ordinary course of things.

This fact is of peculiar interest in this first covenant child of Abraham, because it illustrates the principle that Abraham's seed may stand in a two-fold relation to their father, and be his both by nature and by grace, both in the flesh and in the spirit. So that, although nations may be appointed to Abraham, given to him, affiliated upon him by the bond of faith alone without the intervention of the flesh; yet it is possible that one particular nation should come to inherit both Abraham's flesh and Abraham's faith. Of such a nation Isaac is, by the very facts of the case, a most striking type.

The casting out of Ishmael next deserves a moment's attention. Ishmael was the offspring of compromise and of partial unbelief; and, therefore, since such a child could not serve the supreme purposes of God's grace, it really was not wholly fitting that he should inherit along with the child of uncompromising trust, on whom Divine wisdom had fixed its choice. The child of faith alone is qualified to inherit the Abrahamic Covenant, the preciousness of which unspeakably outweighs that of all Abraham's flocks and herds, and silver and servants. Hence, while it is quite possible that something of human infirmity may have mingled with Sarah's indignation when she beheld Ishmael laughing at Isaac, at the same time we need not be surprised when we find Sarah's

The

demand Divinely sustained. Moreover, on Sarah's part, there may have been a peculiar religious reverence, working out in her a genuine repentance over her former faltering of faith and rather presumptuous management, in the matter of giving Hagar to her husband. exceeding greatness of God's grace to herself at length, we can well believe to have made the very sight of Hagar and Ishmael obnoxious in her eyes.

Ishmael was cast out; but not from everything. He was not cast out from his mother's constant love. He was not cast out from his noble father's high-principled and affectionate solicitude. Still more: he was not cast out from an ever-watchful and bountiful Providence, in whose lap he was not so much cast as tenderly laid. Most of all: he was not cast out from the circumference of that covenant, the central place in which he was not permitted to occupy with his foster-brother Isaac; for, after the casting out had taken full effect, still nothing had happened to exclude the "families" of Ishmael from among "all the families of the earth" towards whom streams of ultimate blessing were to flow. God heard Abraham's prayer on Ishmael's behalf; promised to make of him a great nation; and gave as reason that he, too, was Abraham's seed.

One thing more before this suggestive incident is dismissed. We have already seen exemplified, in the choice of Isaac and rejection of Ishmael, the principle of election to special privilege. Is there not, half concealed beneath the peculiar expression of verse 12, an intimation that this principle is yet to receive fuller development: "In Isaac shall there be called to thee a seed ?" This is not quite the same thing as saying, "The seed of Isaac shall be thy seed." Is there, then, to be some more casting out? So it would seem; and the history shows that so it came to pass. Not all Isaac's seed were found worthy to become inheritors of the holy covenant. One of his two sons was "profane." But we must not anticipate.

GENESIS Xxii. 15-18.

"(15) Then cries out the messenger of Yehweh unto Abraham a second time out of the heavens, (16) and says:

By Myself have I sworn, is the oracle of Yehweh: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thy only one; (17) that I will richly bless thee and abundantly multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the lip of the sea; so shall thy seed take possession of the gate of his [or its] foes; (18) and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves in thy geed: because thou hast hearkened unto My voice."

For brevity's sake, only so much of this deeply moving chapter is cited as immediately concerns our subject. Nevertheless we need not deny ourselves the pleasure of leading up to the paragraph quoted by glancing at the narrative which precedes.

No

1. It is GOD HIMSELF this time who puts Abraham to the proof. prophet is sent to him with the awful command to offer up his beloved Isaac as a burnt-offering. No "providence" forms the chastening rod; far less is Abraham left to infer, by any process of reasoning, that he ought to sacrifice his son. There appears to be something particularly appropriate in this. God has a right to take the life He Himself has

given; no one else has. Hence it is well that Abraham should receive the trying demand direct from Him who alone had the right to make it: for one can scarcely help feeling that the credentials of almost any conceivable messenger must break down under the weight of such an errand as the carrying of this command. For what father's heart would not be ready to say: "Unless God Himself bid me, I cannot believe this to be His Will? Then, too, the reflection comes in, that it has not been the way of God with Abraham to send messengers to him. Abraham is His friend, to whom He has many times revealed Himself; with whom He has freely conversed. Abraham knows God's way; recognises His voice; perceives himself to be communing with One who knows his life's story and reads his heart. And, therefore, as on the one hand it would have been distant and chilling and trying to our patriarch had his Divine Friend now withheld His accustomed self-manifestation; so on the other, his instant recognition of God, and his consequent perfect certainty that it is His own loving, guiding, covenant God who asks this thing at his hands, cannot but go far to smooth the path of obedience. We are glad, therefore, that it was God Himself who put Abraham to this fiery ordeal.

2. The next thing that strikes us is the time at which this severe testing takes place. Isaac is now about twenty-five years of age. Abraham is now one hundred and twenty-five years old. It is forty-five years since the God of glory appeared to him in Haran, and fifty since He first revealed Himself in Ur of the Chaldees. All this while-for half a century-Abraham has been intimate with God has witnessed His appearances, heard His voice, built altars for His worship, has sought Him in trouble and found Him to his joy, has been receiving a continual increase of wealth, and been in the position of an honoured and influential Syrian chief. Still more: Isaac himself has been the delight of his father's eyes for the last twenty-five years-Isaac, a living witness to Divine power, truth, goodness. If such a man as Abraham, at this time of day, is to be really tested, no ordinary trial will do. And thus to the Divine right to demand Isaac we have to add the proportionateness of so great a trial to so great a man.

3. Yet we must not exaggerate the greatness of the trial; and in particular we must not forget how much there was in the circumstances of the case to kindle a lively and sustaining expectation of deliverance from the fiery ordeal. Abraham's position at this crisis is peculiar-in fact, it is absolutely unique. He is called upon to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac; and yet he knows that he cannot really lose him. For is not Isaac the covenant child? Have not the promises of an innumerable seed been made to centre in Isaac so clearly as to put it beyond question that this very young man must live and become a father? Just think, for a moment, how the discipline of years has fastened this as a nail in a sure place in Abraham's mind. Time was when, as years advanced and no son was given, our patriarch could suppose that some abatement might have to be made from the apparent meaning of the Divine promise of a posterity. An adopted son might be constituted his heir; or it might be, as Sarah suggested, that a son might be given him for God's purposes by means of Hagar, her Egyptian handmaid. Time was when these diverging thoughts seemed not unreasonable. But God Himself has set them all aside, and at last actually given him Isaac from Sarah

herself, with repeated assurances that this is the heir, this the progenitor of the promised great and mighty nation. It is not possible to imagine any further doubt on this point existing in Abraham's mind. All has been settled for a quarter of a century. During the whole of this time fond hope has had nothing to do but entwine itself about this pillar of certainty. And now can Isaac die and remain dead? Impossible ! Whatever happens this cannot be. And therefore we say that, at least after the amazement of the first moment has subsided and Abraham can collect his thoughts and call to mind the solid basis of promise he has to go upon, nothing can be more sure to him than that Isaac must yet live and fulfil his covenanted destiny. Either the sacrifice will, at the last moment, be countermanded; or, though it be even consummated, the dead Isaac must be brought back again to life. The more readily do we perceive that these Divine possibilities must have buoyed up Abraham's faith when we reflect on the way his Divine Friend had led him all his life long until now. The oft-reared altar of sacrifice has familiarised to him the idea of substitution: "I ought to die-this lamb dies for me." 66 My son, GOD will provide the lamb." But the altar has done more than teach substitution: it has pointed to an acceptable uplifting and surrender of life unto its Divine Giver. The pure life is given back to God. This is the lesson of the burnt-offering, with its spotless victim, and feeding flame, and sweet smell, and cloud of smoke ascending on high. A lesson this which goes beyond mere death; for God's delight in a pure life cannot be to end it. The burnt-offering or ascending-sacrifice therefore reaches forward (however imperfectly) to a sublimed, glorified, heaven-ascended life. Doubtless tradition-Divine instruction handed down from the time when sacrifices were first offered -has strengthened the resurrection-lesson of the ascending-sacrifice. Then, too, how much must that night-scene some years ago, already commented on, have deepened this lesson in Abraham's mind. He himself then came up from the horror and darkness of death to the light and life of fellowship with God-in a figure. All of which renders inherently credible the positive statement of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews that this also was present to Abraham's mind to sustain him in the trial: "He reckoned that even from among the dead God could raise him." We conclude, therefore, that Abraham's faith was not only strong, but lively; it was fully fledged: it could rise grandly on the wings of sanctified imagination. With this conclusion the whole narrative down to the nicest details accords :-the early rising; the intimation to the young men that both father and son would return from their worship; the calm reply to Isaac's touching question, " But where is the lamb ?""My son, God will provide the lamb."

4. The trial we know was permitted to run the whole length of virtual consummation. Abraham was not spared the pain of binding his beloved son upon the altar and raising above him the gleaming knife. And therefore we may conclude that all hope that he would not be allowed to slay Isaac was taken away. By the time the messenger's voice arrested him he had as good as done the deed. Nothing but faith in resurrection remained. The thought-the readiness-the intention to give up Isaac even unto death, were sustained so as to make the inward act of sacrifice complete. There seems from the first to have

Firmly,

been no hesitation; there appears to the last to be no recoil. deliberately, persistently, faith moves on to victory. It is enough. Now God knows-what is there to be known: sees what is there to be seen. By works faith is perfected. By Abraham's perfected faith God Himself is justified for the confidence He has placed in His beloved servant.

5. The strain on Abraham's mind being at last relaxed, he seems at once in some measure to fall back into the more ordinary line of things in which he has been wont to move. The actual sacrifice of his son being dispensed with, the patriarch reverts to the idea of substitution. Accustomed as he has been to altar-worship, the sentiments of reverence and gratitude raise the instant wish not to have reared this memorable altar in vain. Did he not tell Isaac, on the way, that God would provide the lamb ? Now, then, where is the substitute? He lifts up his eyes as if inquiringly; and beholding near at hand a ram caught in a thicket, he at once accepts the suggestion, and the ram is taken and slain instead of his son. The life-blood is poured forth-the pieces are laid, the wood is lighted-the smoke ascends-the sweet smell is perceivedthe Divine Benefactor is adored-the worship is complete.

From a

6. Then Abraham calls the name of the place, Yehweh yireh, "Yehweh will provide." Observe he does not name the place, "Yehweh has provided," which would have been sufficient as a memorial. He does more than that: he both memorialises and he generalises. single crowning fact he draws a broad and standing conclusion, applicable to all possible trials, and all yet-needed reconcilements of seeming contradictions. It is as if he had said: "Let me learn from this day's salvation that, come what may, Yehweh will provide. I am to inherit this land, and yet I am to die before it can be mine: no matter, Yehweh will provide. All the families of the ground are to bless themselves in my seed, yet the families of the ground are passing away and my seed is at present only this young man nevertheless, all shall be fulfilled, Yehweh will provide." And then it passed into a proverb. Godly men caught up the lesson: "In the mountain of Yehweh," said they, "shall provision be made." "If we are only in the mountain of God, only in the way of obedience, no matter though the trial may be severe as was Abraham's, Divine deliverance will come at last." Moreover-though we do not wish to be fanciful-how can we help being reminded (we put it to any candid Hebrew-how could he help being reminded, if he believed with us that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, and was constituted the sacrificial Lamb of God to put away the sin of the world) that here in this mountain centuries afterwards the Great Provision was made. Yea! to crown all, hear what the Messiah Himself says: "Abraham your father exulted that he should see My day; and he saw it, and rejoiced." Did it not strike us at the time-as we marked the early rising, and heard the father's wondrously calm assurance to his son's touching question-that it was as though Abraham was moving majestically on in an elevated mood of exultant expectation? Having seen so much before, should he not see more than ever to-day? "And he saw, and rejoiced." He was not disappointed. He must needs call upon the mountain to attest his joy. Also the righteous in after days heard thereof and were glad.

7. And now at length the holy covenant comes afresh into view.