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heaven the steeper the mountains.’ ” (Dr. W. H. G. Thomas).
sad day for the aged patriarch. It often happens that when one of two people who have lived together for a life-time, died, the other does not long survive, dying not from, sick ness but from loneliness and sorrow. It is most suggestive to note how Abraham conducts himself in his great bereave ment. Tenth—Abraham is finally separated from everything (Gen. 25 :5 ). He was one of the richest men of his time, but his heart is not set on riches. His separation is not complete. He had nothing left but God. Bach separation cuts deeper than the previous one and costs more to the one Who is passing through them. Together they consti tute the refining furnace out of which the soul will come forth as gold purified ten times. God’s design in separating his children from the world is to separate them unto Him self. He' can make a soul supremely happy when stripped of everything but Himself. Happy are they to whom such separations are not a tearing asunder but only a joyful letting go! m Bor the third time within eight months, we take up the study, of this remarkable man Abraham. But this is none too often, because his ;ii,fe is so fraught with spiritual les sons of the greatest import and practical helpfulness. How the hearts of believers down through DEVOTIONAL the ages have been refreshed,, en- CSOMMENT. çouraged, strengthened, and inspired J o h n A,'Hubbard by '$ 8 example] tflje “secret” of his life is very simple, and not hard to find. We believe it cany be put in four words: “By faith Abraham obeyed.” (Heb. 11:8). Abraham might well have written the words of our modern hymn: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.“ ’ What food and air are to physical life and progress, faith and obedience are to spiritual life and progress— indispensable. Consider two instances in the life of Abraham in which these two elements stand out with crystal clearness. First, his call to go to Canaan (Gen. 12:1*5), so vividly set forth in ,th e verse already referred to, Heb. 11:8: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Picture-Abraham making preparations to leave Haran, and when asked by interested relatives and friends as to where he was going, he replies: “I don’t know.” Can you' not all but see the significant looks which the hearers give one another, and all but hear what (after leaving Abra ham) they say—-“Poor Abraham, losing his mental bal ance; carrying his religion too far,” été., etc. Since Abra ham’s day many a believer who has chosen the path of faith and obedience has been misunderstood and criticized; and all who thus walk may expect to be. The other incident in which Abraham “by faith obeyed” is recorded in Gen. 22,— the offering up of Isaac, the sever est test of all. Space will not permit our going into it. We urge you to carefully study and prayerfully meditate upon this chapter, together with the inspired comment in Heb. 11:17-19, especially if you are in a place where faith seems impossible and obedience disastrous. We need to remember that the life of faith and obedience inevitably involves a life of separation. “Sometimes it involves separation from dearest kindred, sometimes from congenial surroundings, and always from sin and self-will. Separation thus tests the reality of our life, and at the same time strengthens our spiritual fibres. ‘The nearer to
Genesis 12:1-7. V. T. The Lord— Jehovah, “The God of Glory” of Acts 7:2, The Glorious God (Joshua 2 4 :2 ).— Companion Bible. Get thee out.— Go for thy self, i. e., whatever others may do. Death had broken the lir.k of nature’s tie which had hindered Abram’s obedience.— Com- COMMENTS panion Bible.: FROM THE Thus, in Abraham’s case, “The God, COMMENTARIES of glory appeared unto him.” And H. G. Dean for what purpose? -To set before his soul’s vision an attractive object,— “a land that I will show thee.” This was not compulsion but attraction. God’s land was in the judgment of the new nature,— the; judgment of faith, far better than Ur or Oharran: and albeit he had not seen the land yet, inasmuch as it was God’s land,, faith judged it to be worth having, and not only worth having, but also fully worth the sur render of present things. , Faith rests on a far more solid ground than the evidence of our senses, and that is the word of God. Our senses may deceive us, but God’s word never can.— C. H. M. V. 2. I will—Note, this sevenfold promise with the sev enfold blessing in Exodus.,-6:4-8.^^Companion Bible. ' I will bless, thee— thou shalt be a blessing. Abram was not only to receive blessing but to be a blessing; not only to be blessed by God, but to become a blessing, or a medium of blessing to others. The blessing, as the more minute definition of the expression be a blessing in verse 3 clearly shows, was henceforth to keep pace as it were with Abram himself so that the blessing and cursing of men were to de pend entirely upon their attitude towards him and all the families of the Earth were to be blessed in him.—Keil and Delitschl Vs. 1, 2, 3. Four great events sure to come into the life of every one Who will let it be so, and to keep coming day after day, are set down for-me in unmistakable clearness in these few words. God asks me to get out of the country that I had supposed was my country, to abandon the thing that I had thought was surely for me. He asks me to do this in order that I may enter upon a hew territory, or mat ter, or plan, which is His choice for me, and which He will show me,— yet which He cannot show me until I abandon my old position. If I do this, He will send me a blessing which He cannot otherwise send me unless I do this. And the purpose of all this— my letting go of the old, my enter ing into the new, my being blessed in so doing:—is what? Just so that my life may be a blessing to others.—Mes sages for the Morning Watch. Vs. 4-5. So Abram went as Jehovah had spoken unto himr—and into the land of Canaan they came.— Is not that a glorious assurance for me today? God said, Set out for the goal that I show thee. Abram set out for it; and Abram reached it. No man ever failed to reach any goal that God set for him if he simply obeyed God. Yet God sets stupendous goals for us all. They are utterly beyond our reach; but we are going to reach them, for He has said so. —Messages for the Morning Watch. V. 6. The Canaanite was then in the land.— It is evident that from Terah’s and Abraham’s call, Satan knew the line by which “the seed of the woman” (3:15) was coming into the world. In ch. 6 he aimed at the whole human race. Now he aims at Abraham and his land. Here is the second ■explanation of the words “after that” in 6:4. He pre-oo- cupies the territory ready to dispute the advance. The Canaanite “was then” “being already” there (cp. 1 3 .7 ). The progeny of the later attempt to corrupt the race had to be destroyed by the sword of Israel, as those “in the days of Noah” had been by the flood.— Companion Bible. Abraham responded by building an altar and pitching his tent in place after place. By the altar he confessed himself a worshipper and by the tent a stranger and a pil grim. Thus was his life wholly surrendered to his God. The altar and the tent together sum up the believer’s life.—W. H. Griffith Thomas. 18:17, 18, 19. Having been received into the covenant with God through the rite of circumcision Abraham was shortly afterwards honored by being allowed to receive and entertain the Lord and two angels in his tent. This
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