THE SERVANT OF THE LORD — HIS ENLIGHTENMENT AND RESOURCES
[p. 289] THE MAN OF FAITH — HIS TESTINGS
This chapter closes up, in a sense, the history of Abraham. He disappears from the course of God’s ways here. And so, too, we are all diminished and eclipsed. I do not mean to say that there are no allusions to Abraham afterwards. There are such, but they are casual allusions, and hardly a part of the connected history. I hope to make the point to which I have just referred plain. When we have appreciated what the way of God is in the gospel, then we disappear. When I believe in God “who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead”, I disappear, because from that point it is no longer myself, for I have no more place before God after the flesh; what God puts before me is that I am to enjoy all that which is secured in the Lord; it is no longer the question of what I am, for I am gone. The moment I appreciate Christ risen, in the eye of God I am gone; and my portion is to enjoy the fruits of victory which God has gained in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what I understand to be the true beginning for the Christian, for remember that the foundation of Christianity is that the man that was under judgment has gone in judgment, that the righteousness of God might be vindicated. And if the man that was under judgment (and I am that man that was under judgment), has gone in judgment, how can he survive? There is nothing of me left, in that sense. But then the righteousness of God having been vindicated, the glory of God has come in to raise Christ again from the dead; and I, as a Christian, am permitted to enjoy the fruits of victory secured in the Lord Jesus Christ, the details of which you will find expanded in Romans 5.
[p. 290] Now what I have put before you is one of the first principles of Christianity; it is the truth of Romans 3 and 4; it is not where we leave off as Christians, but where we begin, having received the truth of the gospel. But in the history before us it was the point where Abraham left off, not where he began; the anti-type of this chapter is found in Romans 3 and 4. To begin with, you get the burnt offering; Abraham is to offer up his son Isaac, the type of Christ after the flesh, and eventually, in place of his son, a burnt offering. That is the first part, and it was in order that the righteousness of God might be vindicated. Then afterwards you have the statement, “In thy seed” (no longer “in thee”, Abraham is gone) “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed”. The point now is that the good things of God, the good things of His house, are secured in One whom God has raised again from the dead; the fruits of victory for the Christian’s enjoyment are in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not called upon merely to enjoy the thought that I am forgiven, or that I have received the gift of the Holy Ghost; but to appreciate what God has secured for His own glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take, for instance, peace with God, it is through our Lord Jesus Christ; or reconciliation, we have received it through our Lord Jesus Christ; or the reign of grace, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though our personality, or individuality, remains, morally there is nothing of us left under the eye of God. And that is what Abraham came to in this chapter. I think that many of us have been greatly hindered and affected by not beginning right in our Christian course. If we had begun on right lines we should have made much greater progress. If I were an evangelist, I should feel now the greatest responsibility as to how I presented the truth,
[p. 291] because it is so important that people should be started on right lines, so that they may understand what the way of God is. And it is a point of the deepest interest to me that where Abraham left off we begin.
But what I want to bring before you now is not exactly what I have just been speaking of, but the various tests to which Abraham was subjected, the final, and in a sense the most trying one being in this chapter. God tempted Abraham. There had been, after his call, previous tests (I think six in all are recounted to us in the Word) to which Abraham was subjected, and these I purpose to bring before you now. Everybody is tested. Every Christian here is just as important in the eye of God as Abraham was. Abraham stands out a conspicuous figure in scripture, he is the father of the faithful; but do not think for a moment that there is any respect of persons with God, or that Abraham was any more to God than is any Christian in the present day. The most apparently insignificant amongst us is just as important as any other in the eye of God; and if you are going on with God do not think that you are going to escape testing; I cannot tell you how the tests may come, but tested assuredly you will be, or if let alone it would be a bad sign.
It may help if I try to bring before you what is the object of testing, why God tests His people. Abraham, as we shall see presently, was subjected to test after test, and it was to prove whether God was enough for him, whether he could do with God, and without human resources. People want God and human resources. Even in the work of the Lord one constantly sees people turning to human resources and expedients. But saints are subjected to tests in their circumstances, in their health and in other ways (and God knows how to test people);
[p. 292] and the point of the testing is to prove whether He is enough for them. Naturally, people turn to human resources and supports, but by that they prove that God is not their resource.
Now I want to show you on the one hand what a man gains if he answers to God’s test, and on the other hand, what he loses if he does not answer to the test. If God gives a man a little light, that man will certainly be tested. If he answers to the test he will get more light. Now that is as certain as anything I could tell you; I could prove it from scripture, and I know it in my own experience. But if a man does not answer to the test he will not get more light, though God may put him under discipline, and so on. And where people do not answer to the test, when put to the test, they will simply in result bring in trouble and confusion by their own ways. If it is the way of God with a person that he should give up some object which he has cherished, or should surrender something to which he has clung, if that object is still clung to, and not given up, though agreeable and pleasant for the moment, it will, in the long run, be his scourge, and will, beyond all question, bring in trouble and confusion.
Now I think you will see how this comes out in a most remarkable way in the history of Abraham. I will take up the various tests in succession, and will substantiate what I have said. And there is a very interesting point in scripture, viz., that God never in it traverses the same ground twice. Having brought Abraham before us, and His ways in dealing with him, God does not go over that ground again.
Look at chapter 12: 10: “And there was a. famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land”. Also chapter 13: 1 - 4: “And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and [p. 293] all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south ... unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah”.
Now here we have the first test. The famine came in and proved a test to Abram, and he did not answer to the test; that is to say, he turned to human expedients, and went down to Egypt. Egypt was a fruitful country, and it was common, I suppose, for people to go down there when a famine arose in the land of Canaan. Abram did not answer to the test, he went the way of the world, went down to Egypt on account of the famine, and while there he got no light, but on the other hand he brought trouble into his house; he exposed himself to the world power, and if it had not been for the providential protection of God disaster might have come upon him. It has often been said that in Egypt he had no altar; and the time between his leaving Canaan and his coming back to the altar that he had at the first was lost time spiritually. It is humbling that he did not answer to the test, and the result was that he gained no ground spiritually.
The next test is in chapter 13, and it was a simple one (chapter 13: 7, 8, and 14 - 18). “And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we are brethren”. “And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the [p. 294] dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto Jehovah”.
Here the test is Lot, and the strife of the herdsmen. Now what is going to be the course of Abram? Is he about to assert his rights? No; in principle he fulfils an injunction in the New Testament, he makes manifest his yieldingness, and gives Lot complete liberty to take any direction he likes. Then, at the end of the chapter, God gives him a great confirmation of the promise; he is to walk through the land in the breadth and length of it, and God will give it to him; he is allowed to survey, if I may use the expression, the inheritance in the whole extent of it — that is the compensation that he got. As I said, the test was whether God was sufficient, whether Abram was content to make no claim, not to assert himself, God being his portion. And he proved that God was his portion, and enough for him; he answered to the test. Christians often want a little something in the present, they look to be prospered in the present life, that is a natural feeling; but if a man makes that his object I do not think that he will prosper spiritually; he will be much what Abram would have been if he had not answered to this test. Abram pursued nothing, he gave the greatest liberty to Lot, and Lot went to the gate of Sodom and brought trouble on himself. Abram, on the other hand, though led by God through the length and breadth of the land, has no present possession. And the same principle applies to us, we have no present possession, we cannot have it, because the inheritance is not yet redeemed; but we have an inheritance, and God would give to us,
[p. 295] as He did to Abram, to survey the whole extent of it, the breadth and length and depth and height, in the power of the Spirit. He would have us to walk, as it were, through it, and would lead us into the intelligence, by the Spirit, of the greatness of the inheritance which we have in Christ. But this is all dependent on our answering to the test, on our being content to accept God as our portion without seeking a portion here.
Now we pass on to the end of chapter 14: 18 - 24: “And Melchisedec, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich; 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”. (Chapter 15: 1) “After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward”.
The test here, as I understand it, is that of receiving recognition from the world; and it is a test to which many of us have been more or less subjected. But previously to Abram being subjected to that test God had given him encouragement. Melchisedec had come to him, who was the priest of the most high God, and had blessed him. Abraham thus [p. 296] received blessing from God before being subjected to this test; and when the test came he answered to it, and would take nothing from the King of Sodom, from a thread even to a shoelatchet, lest he should say, “I have made Abram rich”; that is, he will receive no reward from man. And in this Abram comes before us as the heavenly man; and for a Christian to receive recognition from the world, as though he had done a service to it, is a reproach to him. People will try to justify it in saying that Christians are sometimes placed in circumstances where they cannot avoid it. That may be the case; but it does not alter the fact that in itself it is a reproach to the Christian, as it would have been a reproach to Abram, if he had done so, to take anything from the King of Sodom. And then an accession of light comes in, for God appears to him and says, “I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward”.
Are you prepared to go through the world without reward or recognition from man? I would not care that men should praise me as a good servant, or should distinguish me on that account. I would go through the world “as hireling fills his day”, not wanting any recognition from man. A Christian does his duty not seeking honour from man, but for the sake of conscience towards God. If people obtain reward from man I think they receive injury to themselves. I say this experimentally, being assured that it is a great thing neither to be courting nor expecting anything from the world, but to be content with having God for your portion, and your exceeding great reward. The fact is this, that all depends upon whether your eyes are fixed on this sphere or on another. If you have before you what is spoken of in the Epistle to the Hebrews as “the world to come”, you will regard everything in reference to that sphere; but if you are looking at [p. 297] the world that is, you will want recognition on the part of man, and that is a snare, because the world which is, is in the sight of God an evil world.
I pass on now to chapter 16: 2: “And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in unto my maid, it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai”.
Here we get a test of a much more subtle kind, because the question of bringing to pass God’s promise came in. It was not like the test of the offer of the King of Sodom, that is, of gaining recognition on the part of the world, but the suggestion had the promise of God in view, being a proposal to Abram to secure that promise in a natural way, by natural means; this was specious, and alas! for Abram he yielded. It reminds one of attempts to carry out the work of God by human expedients, and there is a great deal of this around; in fact, the effort in the present day is to utilise natural powers, eloquence and the like, to further the work of God.
It was very much the same in principle here. The promise was certain, Abram was to have a son, but under the advice of Sarai he sought to bring about the fulfilment of the promise in a natural way. And it terminated in confusion and trouble to his house; he did not answer to the test, and for the moment he got no further light, just as when he went down to Egypt. Whenever Abram did answer to a test he received an accession of light; when he failed to answer to the test he brought in trouble; and it is the same in God’s ways with us.
The next test is in chapter 21: 9: “And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be [p. 298] heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son”.
Now it cannot be denied that as things go on the tests to the saint become more searching. This test of Abraham was of a different order to anything to which he had yet been subjected. The famine, the test in regard to Lot, and the test of the King of Sodom, were neither of them tests of this order; for in this Abraham’s affections were involved. Evidently he was deeply attached to Ishmael, his son, but he had to cast him out; the bondwoman and her son were to be cast out of the house because the son of the bondwoman could not be heir with the son of the free woman. Now to Abraham, whose affections were involved, this was a test of a very trying description. And you will find the same principle of test in the case of the apostle Paul. He clung strongly to Jerusalem and his kindred according to the flesh; but he had to learn the lesson, which Abraham learnt here, that the son of the bondwoman must be cast out, he could not inherit with the son of the free woman. And this comes home, too, to us. We have, as Abraham had, to accept separation from what is after the flesh, because our associations are with the children of promise; there can be no mingling of the two, you cannot mingle converted and unconverted people together, nor keep up associations with the two. As the children of Jerusalem above, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, we are compelled to have done with the children after the flesh. The more light we get that flesh has no place before God, and that, for God, the children must be of promise, the more separation will be brought about between ourselves and the children after the flesh. That is the lesson which Abraham had to learn here, he was not to expect his seed after the flesh to be blessed,
[p. 299] but it was the seed of, promise that would have the blessing of God. The blessing of God would descend, not in the line of natural generation, but in the line of the promise of God.
And I have no doubt but that God will fulfil that in the future in regard to Israel. It is not the seed after the flesh that will be blessed in the time to come; if it were, Ishmael ought to be blessed; but the children of promise will be reckoned as the seed. To put it in other language, to be truly the children of Abraham they will have to be the children of God, and they will not be accounted as children of Abraham unless they are children of God, i.e., in virtue of the work of God in them. They will be born again, and brought into the light of God; and because they are the children of God in that sense they will be accounted as the children of Abraham. And Abraham had to be content with that.
I do not know whether we quite enter, in the same way as many of those worthies did, into the strength of links after the flesh. I have wondered, in reading the New Testament, at the strength of the link which bound the apostle Paul to his kindred after the flesh. This is seen in Romans 9, he was willing to be accursed from Christ on their behalf. But Abraham had to learn the lesson even at this early date, that the child after the flesh was not to be accounted for the seed. Sarah was more right as to this than Abraham. Thus we see that the very principle which God had to work out in the history of Israel, was taught at the outset to Abraham himself. Abraham learnt those lessons which took God hundreds of years to work out in detail in the history of Israel, and the same principles are verified to us in Christianity.
Now we come to the final test (chapter 22: 1 and 2): “And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham;
[p. 300] and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of”.
As I said before the tests with Abraham became more exacting and severe. To cast out Ishmael was a severe test; but here was one much more terrible, to offer up Isaac. No test could have been proposed to Abraham equal to this in severity. But it involved a lesson which he needed to learn if he were to understand the way of God. And we too, need to learn the same thing. The fact is that, at the close of God’s dealings with Abraham, He taught him the great principle of the gospel, that there was no hope for man even in connection with Christ after the flesh. As the apostle says: “If we have known Christ after the flesh we know him no more”. Why? Because the righteousness of God was not so met. If it could have been met apart from Christ’s death, it might have been another matter; but it could not, and hence there could be no hope for man in connection with Christ after the flesh. The truth is that Christ came into this world to die. I quite admit that on the way to death man was tested by His life that He was the last test that God applied to man, and that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. But, none the less, there is no question that Christ came into this world that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for everything; He partook of flesh and blood that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death. In view of Hebrews 2, who can gainsay the fact that Christ became Man in order that He might die for the righteousness of God to be vindicated? Abraham had to learn in principle this lesson, and we, too. With all the relief from pressure that Christ afforded to man [p. 301] when He was here in this world, it was impossible for Him to abide here, nor could the blessing of man be connected with Christ after the flesh; and all blessing in connection with Christ has to be found in the sphere of resurrection. All hope in connection with the flesh has gone, and so, too, in connection with this world. Christ was the light of the world as long as He was in it; but the light of the world has left it, and darkness has come upon it, as the Lord said.
Now in figure Abraham had to learn that lesson, his son had in figure to go for a burnt offering; and so Christ after the flesh had to be offered for a burnt offering. But God was glorified, and the ground completely cleared. Abraham did not actually offer up his son; but he offered up the ram provided, for this lesson could not be fully learnt without the sacrifice being completed. The ram represented his son. The true burnt offering has now been offered, the righteousness of God declared and vindicated; the man that was under judgment has gone in judgment, death has been there, and God has now a clear field, and His glorious power has come in raising Christ again from the dead. And now you have, “In thy seed” — Christ risen from the dead — “shall all the families of the earth be blessed”. It is explained to us in the Epistle to the Galatians; the curse is gone in the judgment of the cross, but the blessing of Abraham has arrived at the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. That is what has come to pass, the righteousness of God magnified, God vindicated, the man that was under death completely gone to the glory of God; but, on the other hand, the glory of God has come in to raise Christ again from the dead according to His own will and purpose, and to establish blessing for man in Him. Therefore, in coming to the close of Abraham’s history, it is exceedingly interesting to see that the test was in order that he might learn the first principles of the gospel, which were presented to him in type and shadow; but where he left off there we begin.
Now it is a great thing for a believer to make a good start, and to see that he is called upon and entitled to enjoy the blessing that prevails in Christ risen. He is not to look for anything in himself in the way of reformation, but enjoy what God has secured for Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ raised again from the dead. Man had no hand in that, it was all a divine work between God and His Son, and God has Himself gained the victory in the Lord Jesus Christ His delivering power has come in, and He gives to us to enjoy the fruit of the victory which He has gained, everything which He has secured for Himself. “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed”. The curse is gone, but the blessing is established. I think I pointed out that the beginning of God’s dealings with Abraham proved that blessing was in the mind of God, and not curse. Curse came in by the law, but as we find in the Epistle to the Galatians, the curse has gone in the cross, and the blessing is established in Christ raised again from the dead. Now, it is a great point for you and me to get there, and you will not advance otherwise. The light of it prevents your having any expectation from yourself. All must be of God’s power that raised Christ. We have to be raised up from the place of death. God has called us to the enjoyment of His good things, and wonderful blessings they are. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to us; all distance is gone, and grace is reigning through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
May God give us a better understanding of His [p. 303] way. I have brought it before you very imperfectly, but I have at all events suggested to you the thought, which is substantiated by what I have said, that wherever Abraham answered to the test to which it pleased God to subject him, he received an increase of light and a confirmation of the word of God. It is a great thing to get the word of God confirmed in your soul; and if you answer to any test to which it pleases God to subject you, it may be in a very little thing involving some little self-abnegation, you will most surely get the word of God amplified and confirmed in your soul. If you do not answer to the test you bring trouble upon your own head. These things are brought before us in a typical case such as that of Abraham, and the object is that we might have a better understanding of God’s way.