March 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
107
we are only now arriving. What a misrepresentation! The facts leave no room or warrant for shch a theory. One mind is at work throughout the Book. Sketching a design at the outset, each subsequent page is a filling in of the design until, on the last page, He signs His Q. E. D. as of a proposition laid down, now proved and demonstrated. S uper -S ign ifican t L ives The need of redemption, the manner and means, the progress and outcome—all these and more are made to move before our eyes in the seven (or eight) symbolic, highly significant lives that comprehend the beautifully simple narrative of this book of biographies. 1. Adam. . This name is synonymous with creation, but equally so with the fall. In his person, both of these events live in the pages of history. As the first Adam, he is the representative man, the federal head of the entire human race. From him we derive our moral and spiritual inheritance. In Adam, as created, we see what we were made to be—in the likeness of God, responsible in every respect to God. In Adam, as fallen, we see what we came to be—unresponsive to God, guilty before God. “In Adam all died.” Adam leaves us all, as his heirs, facing the absolute necessity of regaining life through re stored relationship to God. Redemption is to make this possible, the Last Adam undoing the injury of the first Adam. 2. Abel, with Cain placed alongside, is essential to the telling of the story. Two stands for duality. In the Genesis 1 account, it was light versus darkness. In the biographical parallel, it is Abel opposed by Cain. The lesson lies hidden in the attempts at worship and in the varying methods employed by the two brothers in their ap proach to God. How should sinful man come? Where did Abel get his conception of acceptance through sacri fice? Undoubtedly, the father and mother had taught it to their boys out of their own experience of God’s shed ding innocent blood to provide a covering for their sin and shame. The fact that they commended the method to their children is satisfying evidence that they themselves had found heart-peace by resting in the provision of atone ment by blood. Abel adopted the sacrifice that confessed his own sin ful unworthiness before God. Cain, contrariwise, brought the fruit of his own effort, with no consciousness or con fession of personal need, believing that what he had done God should accept. Because his self-righteousness met with rebuff, his wrath toward his brother was aroused. The first-born man, provoked by an unapproved religious act, became a murderer. And many walk in the way of Cain today, with hatred for the blood-sprinkled way. 3. Noah. The name of Noah is forever linked with the flood, the judgment of waters which God brought up on the rising tide of wickedness. Only Noah and his fam ily are accounted worthy to survive, the means of their escape being a God-provided type of our Ark of safety. Thus Noah became the progenitor of the nations, their origin and distribution being depicted in Genesis 10 and 11 . Not only did the nations come out of the flood, but with them came the propensity for idolatry which found its first expression at the Tower of Babel, only to spread as an organized system of degradation of world-wide proportions. A recapitulation reveals the progressive unfolding of
sin in its threefold effect: self-ward in a sense of per sonal shame; neighbor-ward, in the supreme sin against society—murder; God-ward, in the supreme sin against deity—idolatry. This explains God’s next move. 4. Abraham. This man embodies God’s plan and pur pose to have a separated people, one taught in His ways and trained to His will. So He called Abraham to leave his kindred and country, promising, as he by faith jour neyed to and settled in the land chosen for him, that in him all the nations of earth should be blessed. Father Abraham, separated from the ungodly and the idolatrous, settled in the promised land, brought into sol emn covenant with God, given exceeding great and far- reaching promises, enriched by divine prospering, becom ing the exponent of the true worship of the one true and living God—Abraham embodies in himself an epitomized history of God’s Old Testament people. Not only in his fidelity, but equally in his lapses and failures, his life is a picture and prophecy of their life. 5: Isaac. In Isaac we are led, unmistakably, over on to New Testament ground, to a picturing of Christ and the gospel age. There is a striking symbolism along three lines. (1) His birth is supernatural; he is a child of promise, named by God before his birth, called the only son of his father, unclassed with the children after the flesh. (2) He is obedient unto death, a death both sacrificial and undeserved, planned and required of the son by the father on the very mountain where the Son was to give Himself in obedience “even unto death, yea the death of the cross” (Gen. 22). (3) Then—and im mediately following the death of Sarah, type of Israel’s death, spiritually and naturally, through unbelief at the cross (Gen. 23)—the father sends a messenger to secure a bride for the son (Gen. 24). In this servant thus sent forth we see the Holy Spirit sent of the Father to secure for the Son His bride, the churchy And in the children (Continued on page 115) The Pilgrims’ Hour Rev. Charles E. Fuller, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, has en tered into a contract with the Columbia .Broadcasting System for a half-hour of gospel music and expository preaching the Word of God. The stations included in the chain are: KHJ Los Angeles KOL Seattle KFRC San Francisco KFPY Spokane KOIN Portland KVI Tacoma KMJ Fresno The hour will be from 4:30 to 5 :00 P. M. each Sun day, beginning March 1. This broadcast is a step of faith on the part of Mr. Fuller to place the Bible Institute before its friends, and it is undertaken without any expense to the'Institute, de pending wholly upon the contributions of those interested in spreading the gospel. Even though you do not send a check, if you wish to have this program continued, please send a post card of encouragement. Dr. W. P. White, President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, will be treasurer of The Pilgrims’ Hour program. It is estimated that the number of listeners will run into the hundreds of thousands. If you are interested in having a part in this work, address your correspondence to The Pilgrims’ Hour, P. O. Box 123, Los Angeles, California.
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