Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

for all the coming ages by its subsidence beneath the waters of the Dead Sea.-In view of this appalling scene, how terribly significant become the words of Jude "Set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire"! How easily and yet how fearfully can the Almighty execute the judgments written against guilty sinners who scorn his words of warning and dare his vengeance!

"The Angel of the Lord.”

Cases occur in Old Testament history in which the Lord appears in visible form and is called interchangeably "the Lord" and "the Angel of the Lord." See the personal history of Hagar (Gen. 16: 7, 13); of Abraham (Gen. 18: 2, 16, 33 and 22: 11, 15-18); of Jacob (Gen. 31: 11-13, 16); of Moses (Exod. 3: 2, 4, 6, 7, etc., and 23: 20-23); of Gideon (Judg. 6: 11, 12, 14, 20-23) and of Manoah (Judg. 13: 18, 22). The term "angel" means in general a messenger; but is manifestly applied and therefore is applicable to the visible manifestations of God himself, supposably of the second person of the Godhead, i. e. God as made manifest to mortals. The cases above referred to are entirely decisive as to the usage of the phrase, "The Angel of the Lord" in some cases (not relatively many) to denote the very Presence of the Lord himself coming down to reveal himself to his people. In Gen. 18: first three men appear before Abraham; he entertains them. Two of them go on toward Sodom; one remains talking with Abraham. It is said "Abraham stood yet before the Lord"; then drew near and offered that remarkable prayer of intercession for Sodom; after which "the Lord went his way and Abraham returned to his place."In Gen. 22, when Abraham had stretched forth his hand to slay his son, "the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven." Shortly after (vs. 15-18) "the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, etc. ... Because thou hast obeyed my voice." This can be no other than the very God. The passages above referred to from the history of Moses are striking. In Exod. 23: 20-23 we read: "Behold I send an angel before thee to keep thee

[ocr errors]

in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him" (i. e. not to offend him) "and obey his voice; provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him" name, as usual in the sense of the very qualities of character of which the name is a significant indication.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PATRIARCHS.

Isaac.

THE story of Isaac is brief; his life uneventful, perhaps we might say monotonous. The record shows that the Lord appeared to him on two distinct occasions; at Gerar (Gen. 26: 2-5), renewing the covenant previously made with Abraham, with a very full restatement of all its salient points; also at Beersheba (26: 23–25) where we are told "he builded an altar and called on the name of the Lord," in the steps of his godly father.We see a point of his character in the fact stated incidentally, that Esau's marriage into Hittite families "was a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah." Esau lacked sympathy with the spirit of the pious patriarchs and utterly failed to appreciate the inheritance of blessings which had lain so near the heart of his grandfather Abraham and of his father Isaac-facts which the historian touches briefly"Thus Esau despised his birthright." The writer to the Hebrews puts the case forcibly: "Who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright" (12: 16).have no means of knowing how persistently and wisely Rebekah had labored to win and hold him by her maternal opportunities and power. In later years she seems to have withdrawn her heart from him to give it (with apparently extreme partiality) to Jacob. Of her duplicity in the matter of the paternal blessing, it can scarcely be necessary to say that the fact of its being recorded by no means proves that the Lord justified it.. Indeed the absence of any explicit condemnation can not be taken as equivalent to a justification. Jacob's exile from his father's house and home for twenty long years-so manifestly the result of this duplicity-must have been to her mind painfully suggestive. It seems plainly to have been one of God's ways in providence to rebuke and chasten her

-We

for this wrong, and perhaps we may add, to save Jacob's soul by removing him from a maternal influence which was so defective-not to say faulty and pernicious.

As to Isaac, one point only is named of him by the writer to the Hebrews in his catalogue of illustrious examples of faith: "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come" (11: 20). These benedictions (recorded Gen. 27: 28, 29, 33, 37, 39, 40) must be regarded as far more than a venerable father's good wishes-indeed as nothing less than prophetic benedictions-words uttered under the divine impulses of the Holy Ghost. Their broad outlook embraced the great outlines of the future history of the two nations that were before him in the person of his two sons.

Jacob.

In Jacob's history there is no lack of stirring incident and critical exigency; in his character, no lack of positive elements and vigorous force. Bethel where he seems to have found God first; Mahanaim where the double hosts of God met him and the murderous rage of Esau threatened every precious life in all his household, and he found help only as he wrestled with the angel of the covenant till he prevailed; the scenes of his sojourning in Canaan where Joseph first comes to view, envied and hated of his brethren, and his father mourned for him many days as dead; and finally Goshen where the aged patriarch found his lost Joseph yet alive and lord of all Egypt; stood before Pharaoh; saw his sons and sons' sons-a growing host; gave them his blessing and was gathered to his fathers:-surely these salient points of his history indicate no lack of adventure, and in the religious point of view, abundant scenes of moral trial-exigencies that tasked his virtue and endurance, his faith and patience, and in the end brought forth his chastened soul purified by the discipline of suffering and strong in the faith of Abraham's God.

To understand well the scenes of Bethel, we must think of a young man, emerging from boyhood-his fond mother's chief beloved-not to say, her pet boynever yet thrown upon his own resources; an heir to wealth; a child of ease-perhaps of maternal in

dulgence; but now suddenly brought into peril of life from his twin brother's indignant rage and violence. It would be so horrible to the mother to see her Jacob slain by his own brother's hand and to "lose them both in one day"! (Gen. 27: 45). Safety seemed to be only in flight, so she must needs send him secretly to the distant land of her birth-the old maternal family home. Therefore, with many a pang of heart, and (let us hope) with many a prayer, she commended him to the God of the covenant and sent him away.

One day of thoughtful travel had passed slowly over Jacob, his mind traversing by many rapid transitions from the home he had left behind to the new scenes that met his eye; from the brother before whose fury he was fleeing, to the unknown experiences of life among friends he had never seen. At last the sun had gone down; the eye had nothing more to see; weariness called for rest and sleep. With a stone for his pillow, with his tunic wrapt about him, and the broad heavens above for his canopy, he slept and dreamed-dreamed of a ladder with its foot on the earth beside him and its top in the heavens; and wonderful to see! the angels of God descending and ascending upon it! A new sense of communication between earth and heaven came upon him, assuming a strange reality when he saw the Lord standing above it and heard him say, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac." Before this Jacob had heard of that wonderful covenant of God so often ratified with his venerable grandfather and his father. The transfer of blessing from Isaac to himself as the lineal heir of both birthright and blessing was a thing of quite recent experience. How fully he had comprehended its glorious significance before does not appear; but now that he is cast out alone upon the wide, unknown world-now that he so much needs the Great God for his friend-it comes over him with solemn, precious interest. The words spoken were full of comfort. They reminded him of the great family promise to Abraham, renewed to his father Isaac: "A God to thee and to thy seed after thee," and he felt that the promise put its finger upon his own aching, solitary heart. He had a fresh assurance that his life would not come to nought and be a failure, for the Lord said: "The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »