Abraham must
ever stand out in the Scriptures as a giant of faith, and it behoves such
pigmies as ourselves to be careful of our criticism, yet we realize that the
faithful Word presents to us in Abraham a man of like infirmities with
ourselves, and if we learn from the recorded failures of this man of faith, it
need not minister to our pride, nor lessen the testimony of faith which Abraham
gave:--
“By faith Abraham, when he was called … obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he
went.”
“So Abraham departed, as the Lord had
spoken unto him.”
The
question that is in our mind concerns Lot.
The Lord had called Abram and he obeyed.
He had told him to leave country, kindred, and father’s house. Did Abram fully obey this part of the
command? The verse in Genesis xii. says, “So Abram departed, as the Lord had
spoken unto him, and Lot went with him”. Lot was the son of Haran, therefore Abram’s
nephew (Gen. xi. 27, 31; xii. 5; xiv.
12), therefore he was Abram’s kindred, and Abram had been commanded to
get out from his kindred. Lot seems to
be mentioned several times in a somewhat detached way, “and Lot with him”
(xiii. 1). “And Lot also, which went
with Abram” (xiii. 5). A relieved
feeling seems to come when we read, “and the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him,
Lift up now thine eyes”. The ties of the
flesh are strong. When Abram was first
called out by God we read, “and Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of
Haran, his son’s son”. Now this tie,
first introduced by Terah, is again found to be strong, “and Lot went with
him”. Whether we are right in this, we
cannot say, true it is that Lot’s presence brought neither peace nor blessing
to Abram, and his entry into the land of Canaan ultimately lost him his wife,
his home, and finally his character. If
we will but examine ourselves we shall find that most of our fullest acts of
obedience, and sincerest endeavours to walk a separate path, have been somewhat
spoiled by the Terahs and the Lots who will not leave us to wholly
follow the Lord. The silence of
Scripture as to this in the record of faith in Hebrews xi. is a consolation; the Lord is not swift to mark iniquity, if He
were, who should stand?
When
Abram reached Sichem and the plain of Moreh, the Lord appeared unto him. Abram had crossed the Jordan, and penetrated
nearly half way through the country known as Samaria; Gilgal, where the reproach of Israel was
rolled away some years afterward, is near this place. It looks as though Abram had to venture upon
the word of the Lord, walking by faith.
Without further vision or revelation, surrounded by the Canaanites (ever the foes of faith),
he was put to a severe test. The silence
is at length broken by the promise, “unto thy seed will I give this land”. Following this promise comes Abram’s
response, “and there builded he …”. What
did he build? Surely, if the land was
his freehold, and his seed’s for ever, he will at once begin to build a nice
comfortable house, he will be justified in adding all the latest improvements
that the Canaanites may have invented, and so show that his faith was real and
matter of fact, that he really believed that the land belonged to him. So reasons the flesh. Abram never built anything other than altars
throughout his pilgrimage. Cain and
Nimrod built cities, the whole family of mankind attempt to build a city and a
tower, and make a great name; Noah and
Abram built altars. There is in this a
principle, true now as then, and expressed for all time in the words of Him Who
spake with authority and not as the Scribes:--
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The fitting
accompaniment to the altar is the tent. Genesis xii. 8 tells us that Abram pitched his tent, having
Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east, and there he builded an altar unto the
Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
Verse 9 says, “and Abram journeyed”;
the word indicates the pulling up of tent pegs. There was a definite purpose and choice in
all this:--
“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange
country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same
promise” (Why?). “For he looked for a
city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. xi. 9, 10).
The
spiritual pilgrim in effect judges that no city of man’s building has foundations. In spite of the testimony of our senses,
faith knows that “that which is seen is temporal, but that which is not seen is
eternal”.
“These all died in faith, not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of
them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth.”
Do we
“declare plainly” that such is our faith and hope? Our life and hope and inheritance are found
at the right hand of God. Do we, by
setting our mind on things above, and by exhibiting small concern for the
fashion of this world that passeth away, do we “declare plainly” that here we
have no continuing city? Our citizenship
is in heaven, and as such we cannot but be strangers and pilgrims on the earth; the altar and the tent are the two great
characteristics of the pilgrim walk. The
altar recognizes the claims of a holy
God, the tent the necessity of
separation for a holy and pilgrim people.
Hebrews
xi. tells us that the fact that Abraham
was willing to dwell in a tent in the land of promise, was due to the vision of
faith — “he looked for a city that had foundations”. Abraham was not a nomad by temperament, he did
not choose the tent out of preference, he longed for city life, he looked for a
city. Like others, who found here no
continuing city, he sought one to come.
Abraham, however, realized that to have fellowship with God meant that
he must share the rejection of the Lord.
The altar and the city come together in
Heb. xiii. 10-14, “We have an
altar … here we have no continuing city”.
That means practically for us, “the tent”. In other words, like Abraham, we must “go
forth unto Him without the camp,
bearing His reproach”.
It will
come to the mind that no altar was raised to God in Egypt. Moses had to decide between the dignity and
glory of being called “son of Pharaoh’s daughter”, and “the reproach of
Christ”. He exchanged, as a matter of
choice and estimation, the palace for the shepherd’s tent, the crown for the
crook, the greatness of Egypt for the backside of the desert. Abraham was called “the friend of God”, and
Moses was never so great as when he renounced the treasures of Egypt. May the true spirit of altar and tent, of
pilgrimage and strangership be more fully entered into by us all, that the name
of the Lord may be magnified.
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