GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM AND ITS EFFECTS
GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM AND ITS EFFECTS
There are three names under which God has been pleased to make Himself known, first as “Almighty” to Abraham, then to Moses as “Jehovah”, and now, sending forth His Son, He is, of necessity, revealed as “Father”. The basis of Israel’s relationship was “Jehovah”, just as the basis of ours is the name of “Father”.
As the names are successively presented, we never lose the value of those which precede. In “Jehovah” they had all the value of the name “Almighty”, and, in regard to the basis of our relationship, we have the gain of the previous names, Almighty and Jehovah. We see this in scripture from a quotation in 2 Corinthians 6: 17, 18. “I ... will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”. “Lord”, in the New Testament, is generally equivalent to “Jehovah”, so that, in such a passage as this, we see that, although the special name and foundation of our relationship is “Father”, we get the value of each name previously given — “Almighty” and “Jehovah”.
We will just look at these names a little in detail. The significance of the name “Almighty” is, I do not doubt, the power of God to quicken out of death. There is no hope for man except in God, who quickens out of death into life. That is the real force of “Almighty”. Abraham, to whom the name was given, thus becomes, as it were, the starting-point in the line of promise, i.e., he has to do with One “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were”. (Romans 4: 17.)
†Extracts from an Address at Cheltenham, December, 1896.
The name “Jehovah” shews the eternal faithfulness of God. At the time it was revealed to Moses, God had not to deal with a man like Abraham, but with a people who had turned away from Him like a deceitful bow. What had to come out to them was God’s eternal faithfulness to His promises. There was no future for the earth outside the promises of God, and the fulfilment of those promises depended upon the eternal faithfulness of God. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance”.
Now one word as to the name “Father”. What I understand by it is that God gives a revelation of Himself in self-sacrificing love. It is really only by God coming out in that way that the names of “Almighty” and “Jehovah” could have effect, because God had to take up the liabilities of man, and this could only be brought about by the coming of His “only begotten Son” into the world.
In God’s dealings with Abraham, we see the suitability of God’s making Himself known as “The Almighty”, who had the power of resurrection. (Hebrews 11: 17 - 19.) “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac ... accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure”.
The testing or trial of Abraham is a point of great importance and interest. If ever God gives a man light, that man is bound to be tried as to whether the light has been really received. Now God had given Abraham light, and God was going to test him to see how far that was effective. He was called upon to offer up Isaac, and to prove whether the name by which God had revealed Himself was effective or not. Abraham answered to the test, and shewed that he was really in the good of the name.
This really formed the end of God’s ways with Abraham. He had achieved His purpose. God’s end was accomplished in Abraham, in proving the power of “God Almighty”. In John 8: 56, the Lord says,
“Your father Abraham rejoiced” that he should “see my day, and he saw it and was glad”. He will come out in the future as the great witness of the Almighty power of God bringing about the resurrection scene, of which Christ will be the central and glorious Object.
That which followed the revelation of God as “The Almighty” is that God gave Abraham a new name, which involved a secret between himself and God. What God intended to set forth was that Abraham was to be the father of many nations.
There is a very important point in connection with this, viz., that the fulfilment of the promise had to be delayed because of the fact that the seed of Abraham was not to be the seed after the flesh, but the ‘true Seed’, which was to be “according to promise”, and that the children of God were to be the children of Abraham. This is effectuated in christianity. The place of the children of God is that we are counted as Christ’s, and then Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3: 29.)
To me it is very important to see what was in God’s mind in connection with the name He saw fit to put upon Abraham. Abraham will have a place manifestly as the father of all them that believe, and all christians — the children of God — are children of Abraham. This is also quite clear from Romans 9. It is the real import of the name God gave to Abraham. The fatal mistake of the Jews was to arrogate to themselves the place of “children of God”, “children of Abraham”, and the Lord refuses it to them entirely. (John 8: 38.)
That which follows the giving of the new name to Abraham in Genesis 17, is the covenant of circumcision. In this covenant is involved the complete setting aside of the flesh. Man after the flesh could have no part whatever in the purpose of God. If God revealed Himself in this way to Abraham, there must be the complete refusal of the flesh.
The flesh may have place in the wilderness, where it [p. 197] will be tested, but it is allowed no place at all in the purpose of God. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye can not do the things that ye would”. (Galatians 5: 17.) This is descriptive of a christian in the wilderness, but not of a christian in the land. I do not think the lusting of the flesh is the same as circumcision. The covenant of circumcision involves the removal of the flesh altogether, as before the eye of God, in the death of Christ. If, by grace, I take my stand on the ground of God’s purpose, then the flesh is utterly disallowed. “Putting off the body ... of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ”. (Colossians 2: 11.) No doubt all this may be delayed, through our imperfect apprehension of the truth, before our mind is in accord with the death of Christ, but it still remains true, as far as the thought of God is concerned, that we have been crucified with Christ, i.e., that we have fellowship with His death. It all indicates the mind of the christian being, by the Spirit, in accord with the death of Christ, and it must be so when we take our stand on the ground of divine purpose.
Abraham had to be circumcised. It meant, morally, separation to God, a condition of things which undoubtedly was, in principle, realised in him, and is characteristic of the true christian position.
The value to us of the revelation of the name of “Father” is that we come into the relationship of children, but we have also the discipline. The purpose of God’s discipline is that we might be partakers of His holiness, which is the real preparation for priestly service. This is the point of Hebrews 12. As to this, parents naturally are extremely defective. They exercise discipline in heat, but God never does this. It is always for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness, and be prepared for service in the sanctuary.
Another thing in connection with the effect of coming under discipline is to get the heart confirmed in divine [p. 198] love, and to be established in confidence. Confidence can and does only spring from the knowledge of divine love. You have confidence in God just in proportion as you know the love of God. Nothing begets confidence but love.
In close analogy with the giving of a new name to Abraham, we have put upon us the name of Christ. “Ye are all one in Christ Jesus”. (Galatians 3: 28.) That is the name which God has put upon us. We are not regarded by God as so many units. In the light of divine love we are not units, we are all “baptised into one body”. “As many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ”. We are all one in Christ, and His name is put upon us. In Christ Jesus we are all one, although we may be a vast number of units, and we ought to be one in spiritual affection here. “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us”. (John 17: 21.)
Abraham was called “the father of many nations”, and this will come to light, and so the name which God has put upon us will come to light. The fact is that the unity, which, no doubt, has been greatly marred in the church, will certainly come out in the heavenly city. She will witness to the world, on the part of God, that He loved the church as He loved Christ, and instead of the failure, and the church proving herself an unfaithful witness, as here, it will there be displayed that the Father sent the Son, “That the world may know [not only believe] that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me”. (John 17: 23.)
The result of Abraham being called “The father of many nations” was that he had to repudiate all that was after the flesh. He made the feast for his son Isaac, and he had to reject the son who was after the flesh — Ishmael — and to make much of the child of promise.
We are left here in the world that we may make much of Christ, and be here as a perpetuation of His name, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of [p. 199] God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life”. (Philippians 2.) If we carried out that, we should be a kind of continuation of Christ. It is what the saints were at the beginning — they were shining morally as lights in the midst of the darkness, the only people who really had light.
It is a great thing to see that the mind of God in regard to the saints has been realised, and that unity also has been shewn — “They had all things common”. The saints in that day were a continuation of Christ; they really justified the name which God had put upon them. Thus we enter upon the ground of purpose — not merely as being ‘saved sinners’, that is grace — but when you speak according to purpose, you look at the saints as the elect of God. You do not allow anything to obscure the name which God has been pleased to put upon us.