The Patriarchs

10

In their day, Abraham's seed, or the nation of Israel, are again an earthly people; and they exhibit the very opposite of all this. They smite the nations of Canaan; and instead of being called fromkindred and country, they are called to all such things; men, women, children, and even cattle (for not a hoof was to be left behind), journeyed from Egypt to Canaan-from a land of strangers to their own inheritance.

11

The Lord Jesus, in His day, acknowledged this same pledge or symptom of the kingdom. For when the Greeks came up to the feast and asked to see Him, as the Gentile here seeks Abraham, His thoughts are immediately upon His glory. He knows indeed that glory is to be reached only by His death, and so He testifies; but still, His thoughts go out at once to the glory. See John xii. 23.

12

There are mysteries as well as illustrations of faith in these things; but I cannot follow them here. The offer of Isaac on Moriah, we none of us doubt, is a mystery. So, I surely know, is the action of Hagar and Ishmael in chapter xxi. It is the picture of the present outcast but preserved Jew-a homeless fugitive, destined, however, for future purposes of mercy. See Gal. iv. 25. But I follow not these things particularly here.

13

In the mystic history of the earth given to us in Lev. xxiii. the Church is brought in as the "poor" and the "stranger" gleaning in another man's field, in ver. 22. But as she entered that field so she left it. She was the poor one, and the stranger, and the gleaner in another's field, to the end. The field never becomes her property.

Looked at in the light of this beautiful figure, what is Christendom under God's eye?

14

The Lord Jesus, in the days of His flesh, acted as the God who, of old, had called Abraham. For He put in the supreme claims of such an one. "He that loveth father or mother more than Me," says He, "is not worthy of Me." And again, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead." Who but God can step in between us and such relationships, such obligations and services? Duties and affections like these are more than sanctioned by nature; they are enforced by law-law of God Himself. But the call of God is supreme, and Jesus asserted it in the day of His humiliation here.

15

The same mystery, I doubt not, is presented in the marriage of Moses and the Ethiopian, and in that also of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter. Moses' second wife stands, in dignity, below his Zipporah, who shines in peculiar glory at the mount of God in Exodus xviii.; and Pharaoh's daughter, though fully acknowledged by the king at Jerusalem, would not be given a place in the city of David.

16

See the paper on "Enoch," pp. 32-37, where certain dispensational purposes of God, in their differences, are considered.

17

As to the common sin of Abraham and Isaac touching the denial of their wives, calling them their sisters, see "Abraham," p. 122.

18

Jeroboam in his day took his own way to reach the promise of God touching the kingdom of the ten tribes, by the prophet Ahijah-and he delayed his own mercy; just as Jacob does in this chapter. Nay, further. Jeroboam has to be an exile in Egypt till the death of Solomon, because of this; as Jacob has for twenty years to be an exile in Padan, for the same evil. See 1 Kings xi.

19

It is said in the Jewish writings that he was seventy-seven.

20

This parcel of ground, at last, becomes only a burying-place, like Machpelah; but it had not, at first, been purchased as such, as Machpelah was.

21

In Joseph obtaining the rights of the firstborn, there is something besides grace; but I do not notice it here.

22

Neither Pharaoh, nor Pharaoh's house, nor any in Egypt seem ever to have been told of the sin of the brethren.

23

Zaphnath-paaneah, in the old Egyptian tongue, is said to have signified "the saviour of the world"; in the Hebrew, as we understand, it might be rendered "the revealer of secrets."

24

The title now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes; for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob.

25

God is afterwards called "the God of Israel," as before He had been called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because His covenant was with the nation of Israel.

26

All orders of His creatures in all places of His dominions witness Him as the living God; but in the history of redeemed sinners He is witnessed as the living God in victory. This is His glory; and resurrection should be prized by us as the display of it. The sepulchre with the grave-clothes lying in order, and the napkin which had been about the head, are the trophies of such victory. John xx. 6, 7. The history of redeemed sinners celebrates Him thus. To hesitate about resurrection is to betray ignorance of God, and of the power that is His. See Matthew xxii. 29; 1 Cor. xv. 34.

27

The children of light should reckon upon the attempts of the powers of darkness against them. A sudden moment of conflict should not therefore surprise us. For we are set to be the scene or theatre of their defeat by Christ. "It is our illumination" that exposes us. That is its proper natural operation. The more we are in the light, I may say, the more exposed we are. It was Adam's creature-beauty, Job's memorial with God, and the Apostle's attachment to Christ, that laid them open to Satan.

But let me add, that a "messenger of Satan" may be sent forth from the presence of God upon either the flesh or the heart of man. An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and a lying spirit came upon the prophets of Ahab. 1 Sam. xvi.; 1 Kings xxii. The Lord was beginning solemn acts of judgment, and, therefore, these messengers of Satan were sent forth upon the heart of those who were righteously under judgment. But other messengers of Satan reach only the body or circumstances, as in the case of Paul and of our patriarch. And this is discipline merely, and not judgment.

28

The knowledge of truth alone will never ensure happy or profitable ministry. If we draw merely from our stores or possessions of knowledge, we shall find ourselves confounded. The freshness of the Spirit in us, and the exercise of our gift under Him, at the time of ministry, are also needful.

29

The same Hebrew word signifies kinsman, redeemer, and avenger.

30

The Kinsman delivering and the Kinsman avenging deals with an enemy or a wrong-doer, and not, as in the case of repurchasing, with a righteous claimant. There is, however, this difference: in the case of delivering, the Kinsman only rescues his brother or relative out of the hand of the enemy; in the case of avenging, he visits the blood of his brother or relative upon the head of the enemy. Christ will deliver us from the hand of death at the beginning of the Kingdom (1 Corinthians xv. 54), He will avenge us upon the head of death at the close of the Kingdom. 1 Corinthians xv. 26.

31

I do not regard Job so much as a type, but rather as a sample. His calling was the common calling, as a dead and risen man. Every saint, now gathering for heavenly glory, is such. Israel in the latter day will be as such, and the whole system of the millennial age. The Lord Jesus holds all things, and exercises His offices, as the One that was dead and is alive again. But I judge it to be more fitting to speak of Job as a sample of the common calling, than as a type. I could not, however, object to the expression, were it used by others.

Job learnt his lesson through sufferings. The Lord, I may say, did the same. Hebrews ii. iv. v. He was made perfect for His high functions in that way. Christ's compassions could not have been priestly, till He became a man, partaker of the flesh and blood of the children, and suffered as such. And Job's history may be read as the expression or foreshadowing of all this.

So Israel. They will be as a people who, having destroyed themselves, have found their help in God. Hosea presents them in that character. Their language in chapter xiv. is the language of such a people. And Job's history may be regarded as the expression or foreshadowing of this also. He revives, he grows again as the lily, and his branches spread, at the end, as Israel and Israel's branches will, according to their prophet. So that we may speak of Job as a type. But I still feel and judge it to be more fitting, to present him as a sample of us all, in the common faith, as dead and risen with Christ.

32

It has been observed by another, that Satan is always defeated. This thought seems to get the most striking confirmations from Scripture, beyond the cases mentioned above.