WAITING FAITH REWARDED AND
STRENGTHENED BY NEW REVELATIONS
by Alexander Maclaren
'And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the
Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk
before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and
thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and
God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee,
and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations
have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make
nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish My
covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations
for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after
thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land
wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting
possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt
keep My covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee In their
generations.' -- GENESIS xvii. 1-9.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
He was ninety-
nine when God appeared to him, as recorded in this
chapter. There
had been three divine communications in these
twenty-five years--one
at Bethel on entering the land, one after the hiving
off of Lot, and
one after the battle with the Eastern kings. The
last-named vision
had taken place before Ishmael's birth, and
therefore more than
thirteen years prior to the date of the lesson.
We are apt to think of Abraham's life as being
crowded with
supernatural revelations. We forget the
foreshortening necessary in
so brief a sketch of so long a career, which brings
distant points
close together. Revelations were really but thinly
sown in Abram's
life. For something over thirteen years he had been
left to walk by
faith, and, no doubt, had felt the pressure of
things seen, silently
pushing the unseen out of his life.
Especially would this be the case as Ishmael grew
up, and his
father's heart began to cling to him. The promise
was beginning to
grow dimmer, as years passed without the birth of
the promised heir.
As verse 18 of this chapter shows, Abram's thoughts
were turning to
Ishmael as a possible substitute. His wavering
confidence was
steadied and quickened by this new revelation. We,
too, are often
tempted to think that, in the highest matters, 'a
bird in the hand
is worth two in the bush,' and to wish that God
would be content
with our Ishmaels, which satisfy us, and would not
withdraw us from
possessed good, to make us live by hope of good
unseen. We need to
reflect on this vision when we are thus tempted.
1. Note the revelation of God's character, and of
our consequent
duty, which preceded the repetition of the covenant.
'I am the
Almighty God.' The aspect of the divine nature, made
prominent in
each revelation of Himself, stands in close
connection with the
circumstances or mental state of the recipient. So
when God appeared
to Abram after the slaughter of the kings, He
revealed Himself as
'thy Shield' with reference to the danger of renewed
attack from the
formidable powers which He had bearded and beaten.
In the present
case the stress is laid on God's omnipotence, which
points to doubts
whispering in Abram's heart, by reason of God's
delay in fulfilling
His word, and of his own advancing years and failing
strength. Paul
brings out the meaning of the revelation when he
glorifies the faith
which it kindled anew in Abram, 'being fully assured
that, what He
had promised, He was able also to perform' (Rom. iv.
21). Whenever
our 'faith has fallen asleep' and we are ready to
let go our hold of
God's ideal and settle down on the low levels of the
actual, or to
be somewhat ashamed of our aspirations after what
seems so slow of
realisation, or to elevate prudent calculations of
probability above
the daring enthusiasms of Christian hope, the
ancient word, that
breathed itself into Abram's hushed heart, should
speak new vigour
into ours. 'I am the Almighty God--take My power
into all thy
calculations, and reckon certainties with it for the
chief factor.
The one impossibility is that any word of Mine
should fail. The one
imprudence is to doubt My word.'
What follows in regard to our duty from that
revelation? 'Walk
before Me, and be thou perfect.' Enoch walked _with_
God; that
is, his whole active life was passed in communion
with Him. The idea
conveyed by 'walking _before_ God' is not precisely
the same.
It is rather that of an active life, spent in
continual
consciousness of being 'naked and opened before the
eyes of Him to
whom we have to give account.' That thrilling
consciousness will not
paralyse nor terrify, if we feel that we are not
only 'ever in the
great Task-Master's eye,' but that God's omniscience
is all-knowing
love, and is brought closer to our hearts and
clothed in gracious
tenderness in Christ whose 'eyes were as a flame of
fire,' but whose
love is more ardent still, who knows us altogether,
and pities and
loves as perfectly as He knows.
What sort of life will spring from the double
realisation of God's
almightiness, and of our being ever before Him? 'Be
thou perfect.'
Nothing short of immaculate conformity with His will
can satisfy His
gaze. His desire for us should be our aim and desire
for ourselves.
The standard of aspiration and effort cannot be
lowered to meet
weakness. This is nobility of life--to aim at the
unattainable, and
to be ever approximating towards our aim. It is more
blessed to be
smitten with the longing to win the unwon than to
stagnate in
ignoble contentment with partial attainments. Better
to climb, with
faces turned upwards to the inaccessible peak, than
to lie at ease
in the fat valleys! It is the salt of life to have
our aims set
fixedly towards ideal perfection, and to say, 'I
count not myself to
have apprehended: but ... I press toward the mark.'
_Toward_
that mark is better than _to_ any lower. Our moral
perfection
is, as it were, the reflection in humanity of the
divine
almightiness.
The wide landscape may be mirrored in an inch of
glass. Infinity may
be, in some manner, presented in miniature in finite
natures. Our
power cannot represent God's omnipotence, but our
moral perfection
may, especially since that omnipotence is pledged to
make us perfect
if we will walk before Him.
2. Note the sign of the renewed covenant. Compliance
with these
injunctions is clearly laid down as the human
condition of the
divine fulfilment of it. 'Be thou perfect' comes
first; 'My covenant
is with thee' follows. There was contingency
recognised from the
beginning. If Israel broke the covenant, God was not
unfaithful if
He should not adhere to it. But the present point is
that a new
confirmation is given before the terms are repeated.
The main
purpose, then, of this revelation, did not lie in
that repetition,
but in the seal given to Abram by the change of
name.
Another sign was also given, which had a wider
reference. The change
of name was God's seal to His part. Circumcision was
the seal of the
other party, by which Abram, his family, and
afterwards the nation,
took on themselves the obligations of the compact.
The name bestowed is taken to mean 'Father of a
Multitude.' It was
the condensation into a word, of the divine promise.
What a trial of
Abram's faith it was to bid him take a name which
would sound in
men's ears liker irony than promise! He, close on a
hundred years
old, with but one child, who was known not to be the
heir, to be
called the father of many! How often Canaanites and
his own
household would smile as they used it! What a piece
of senile
presumption it would seem to them! How often Abram
himself would be
tempted to think his new name a farce rather than a
sign! But he
took it humbly from God, and he wore it, whether it
brought ridicule
from others or assurance in his own heart. It takes
some courage for
any of us to call ourselves by names which rest on
God's promise and
seem to have little vindication in present facts.
The world is fond
of laughing at 'saints,' but Christians should
familiarise
themselves with the lofty designations which God
gives His children,
and see in them not only a summons to life
corresponding, but a
pledge and prophecy of the final possession of all
which these
imply. God calls 'things that are not, as though
they were'; and it
is wisdom, faith, and humility--not
presumption--which accepts the
names as omens of what shall one day be.
The substance of the covenant is mainly identical
with previous
revelations. The land is to belong to Abram's seed.
That seed is to
be very numerous. But there is new emphasis placed
on God's relation
to Abram's descendants. God promises to be 'a God
unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee,' and, again, 'I will be their
God' (verses 7,
8). That article of the old covenant is repeated in
the new (Jer.
xxxi. 33), with the addition, 'And they shall be My
people,' which
is really involved in it. We do not read later more
spiritual ideas
into the words, when we find in them here, at the
very beginning of
Hebrew monotheism, an insight into the deep truth of
the reciprocal
possession of God by us, and of us by God. What a
glimpse into the
depths of that divine heart is given, when we see
that we are His
possession, precious to Him above all the riches of
earth and the
magnificences of heaven! What a lesson as to the
inmost blessedness
of religion, when we learn that it takes God for its
very own, and
is rich in possessing Him, whatever else may be
owned or lacking!
To possess God is only possible on condition of
yielding ourselves
to Him. When we give ourselves up, in heart, mind,
and will, to be
His, He is ours. When we cease to be our own, we get
God for ours.
The self-centred man is poor; he neither owns
himself nor anything
besides, in any deep sense. When we lose ourselves
in God, we find
ourselves, and being content to have nothing, and
not even to be our
own masters or owners, we possess ourselves more
truly than ever,
and have God for our portion, and in Him 'all things
are ours.'
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