Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Mar 1936

It may be that it is by design and not a coincidence that the word love is first found in the Scriptures in Genesis 22. in association with the fatherhood and sonship of Abraham and Isaac. It is found in the command God gave to Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt-offering on a mountain in the land of Moriah. He describes Isaac as "thine only son, whom thou lovest."

In the book of Genesis we have two great fatherhoods, besides many others, that of Adam and that of Abraham. Disobedience characterised the head of the race, but obedience characterised the father of all believers. "Through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners" (Romans 5. 19). "They which be of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham" (Galatians 3. 9).

The first son born to Adam became a murderer; he slew his brother Abel, and this state of things increased with the rolling centuries before the feed, till the earth was filled with violence, and at length, after patiently waiting with much longsuffering, God swept men away with the waters of Noah.

After the flood men multiplied again, and, alas, again they disobeyed. They built Babel and shut God out; and though God scattered them by the division of languages, they were unaltered in their attitude to God; their inward thought, wherever they went, was to build and to shut God out. Thus the canker of Babel spread with the scattering of mankind. Well God knew the thoughts of men when He said, "Nothing will be withholden from them which they purpose to do."

The same spirit manifest in Babel comes out in the parable of the Prodigal Son-" Thou never gayest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends." The human heart thinks of "me" and "my friends." Yes, but the father got no invitation, and whether it was the prodigal and his friends in the far country living in immorality, or the elder son and his friends at home living in respectability, the father was ever shut out. How true the picture is to life, whether at the time of Babel, or in our Lord's day, or at the present-the world and its friends ever shut out God. Men congregate together for laudable purposes, or undesirable ends, but God is outside of it all.

In due time came the conversion and call of Abraham. He was called out from all relationships and associations of men wherein God was shut out of His true central place. Abraham obeyed God, and was found outside with his God, a pilgrim and a stranger with altar and tent. God gave him much and promised more. He was a great prince amongst the Canaanite nations, but he had no land in possession and no son to inherit his possessions and premises.

At last Isaac was born and laughter filled the heart and tent of Sarah and reverberated amongst the tents of the nomadic tribes of Canaan-" God bath made me to laugh," said she, "every one that heareth will laugh with me." But if Sarah laughs, this same chapter tells us that Hagar weeps (laughter is first mentioned in association with the birth of Isaac, and the weeping of Hagar is the first weeping mentioned in the Scriptures), for they who sow the wind must reap the whirlwind.

If in Genesis 21. we have the laughter and weeping of two mothers over their sons, and such things are common in motherhood, Genesis 22. sees the son of laughter and of promise laid on an altar on Moriah's height. Was there ever a greater offering offered by Divine command ?-save that which is beyond compare, the offering of the Son of God in the same land of Moriah.

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Did Abraham stagger through unbelief beneath the greatness of the command to offer his son? Nay, verily! He loved Isaac well, but he loved his God better. The gift was great, but the Giver greater in his sight. Was his son the sweet companion of his old age ?-sweeter to him was the friendship of his God. He rose early in the morning, clave the weed, saddled the ass, took two of his young men and Isaac, and went forth to go to the place appointed there to offer Isaac his son.

A burnt-offering is an offering that is entirely devoted to God. It was an offering offered because of the offerer's delight in, and the love he bore to, his God. It was the highest kind of all the offerings.

In Abraham's case he was offering in his devotion to his God, his beloved son. The son was in complete subjection to his father. Well he knew that his father loved him, and in the subjection that filial love begets he bowed to his father's will. "Behold, the fire and the wood," said Isaac, "but where is the lamb? " "God will provide Himself the lamb," was the father's reply. What confidence in God! It breathes the spirit of the words of Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." "God is able to raise up, even from the dead," and in God's power and love Abraham rested and left the future at present obscure to him, to the all-wise God.

There will be trials, testing times must come for all, but let us each remember that in the fiery heat of trial the gems for the Redeemer's diadem are being made, the silver is being purified of its dross, and the gold in the crucible is increasing in purity and value. "Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold trials," says James. The devil at such seasons may say, "Renounce God and die"; or we may say in the language of Israel, "Thou hast taken us away to die in the wilderness"; or again we may think as David did, "There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines"; or yet again, to sink into the oblivion of despair and say with Zion, "Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord bath forgotten me." Nay, it cannot be. Think of Abraham's words again, "God will see for Himself." "God will provide." God is at work while you weep. Though you feel lonely, His hand is near. All these things you may think are against you, as Jacob did, but by their very means you are nearer seeing His face whom you long to see, and then all the contrary winds shall cease.

Abraham's obedience pleased God well-" Because thou hast done this," He said, "and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee ... . In thy seed shall all the nations ... be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice " (Genesis 22. 16-18).

Here we have the reverse of what is seen in the first father and son, in Adam and Cain; here it is obedience and blessing, there it is disobedience and cursing. " Cursed is the ground for thy sake" (Genesis 3. 17). "Cursed art thou from the ground " (Genesis 4. 11). Sorrow and woe followed in the train of disobedience, but the obedience of Abraham and Isaac brought a stream of blessing which descends bright, sparkling, living and glorious from Moriah's height into this scene of human woe. God tested the love and faith and obedience of His servant and friend Abraham, in one of the most supreme tests to which man was ever subjected. Adam was tested and failed, but Abraham stood the test and triumphed-Abraham loved his God, but never ceased to love his son, though he laid him on the altar. Love was strong as death.

If Abraham's children had but followed in their father's steps and given to

God what He commanded and had not fallen a prey to covetousness; if they had but trusted Him when they could not trace His ways, and believed His judgements to be true and righteous altogether; if they had hut believed and obeyed Him and been devoted to His will, then their peace would have been as a river; they would have been an illustrious race with a glorious history-alas, they disbelieved and disobeyed, nationally they went back to the wild stock of Adam, and bore wild grapes instead of bearing the fruits of Moriah's sacrifice and being a blessing in the earth. God was grieved, and they had their sorrows.

Nevertheless the blessing of Jehovah Jireh will descend on obedient men, the love which endured Moriah's test will find a place in hearts devoted to the God of Abraham and bind heart to heart and soul to soul.

"The princes of the peoples are gathered together to be the people of the God of Abraham" (Psalm 47. 9). All this will be because the type has been fulfilled in the Antitype, the Seed and Son of promise-God's Christ, who became obedient unto death, the death of the cross. He believed God was able to raise up even from the dead. He rose the blessed One to bless, and in such an act He left His disciples (Luke 24. 51), and so shall He come in like manner (Acts 1. 11).

J. Miller | Mar 1936
Jottings