As early as the time recorded in Genesis xv.
Abraham learned that God would give him a son, and that his heir should
not be “this Eliezer of Damascus”. When
the Lord bade him look toward heaven and consider the multitude of the stars,
saying “so shall thy seed be”, Abraham believed. Chapter xvi.
however opens with the words:--
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bare him no
children; and she had an handmaid, an
Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.”
This maid was given to Abram by his wife
in accordance with the law of the time (recorded in Code of Khammurabi), and
the birth of Ishmael was the result.
Abram was eighty-six years of age when Ishmael was born. Thirteen more years passed and then came the
word, “I am the Almighty God, walk before Me, and be thou perfect”. God then renews the covenant with Abram,
“thou shalt be a father of many nations”, and changes his name from Abram to
Abraham, “father of a great multitude”.
Then comes circumcision, the sign and the seal of the righteousness of
faith (Romans iv.). God can now reveal
the next step to Abraham:--
“As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not
call her name Sarai, but Sarah (Princess) shall her name be, and I will bless
her, and give thee a son also of her: Yea,
I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face and LAUGHED.”
When Sarai overheard the words of the
angel,
“I will certainly return unto thee
according to the time of life and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son” (xviii.
10),
we
read, “therefore Sarah LAUGHED”. Both
Abraham and Sarah laughed — the one in the joy of faith, the other in the
derision of unbelief. Responding to the
laugh of faith, the Lord continued to Abraham,
“Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son
indeed, and thou shalt call his name LAUGHTER (Isaac).”
In reply to the laugh of unbelief come the
words:--
“Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return unto thee
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Three important dispensational principles
are disclosed to us by this passage:--
The nature of
PROMISE.
The factor of
TIME.
The fact of
RESURRECTION.
The nature of Promise.
One of Abraham’s titles is, “he that had
the promises” (Heb. vii. 6, xi.
17). The land of Canaan in which Abraham
sojourned is also called “the land of promise” (Heb. xi. 9). Isaac and Jacob who dwelt with him there are
said to be “heirs with him of the same promise”. Both the epistle to the Galatians and that to
the Romans lay great emphasis upon the nature of God’s promise. Let us notice what is attached to the
promise:--
“That we might receive the promise through
… FAITH” (Gal. iii. 14).
“The covenant, that was confirmed before
of God in Christ, the LAW, which was four hundred and thirty years after,
cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect, for if the
inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise” (Gal. iii. 17, 18).
Here the nature of the promise is shewn by
its relation to law and faith. Turning
to Romans iv. we shall increase our understanding of the
nature of the promise, and also learn more fully the strength of Abraham’s
faith. The first reference echoes Galatians iii.:--
“For
the promise, that he should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his
seed, through the LAW, but through the righteousness of FAITH, for if they
which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect … therefore it is of FAITH that it might be by GRACE, to the end the
promise might be SURE to all the seed” (Rom. iv. 13, 14).
Notice the teaching; it is by faith, by grace, that it might be
SURE. Abraham and Sarah believed the
promise (faith), but they endeavoured to help God (flesh), and the birth of
Ishmael was the result. God will make
the promise sure without the intrusion of the flesh, for the very intrusion of
the flesh robs the word promise of its meaning.
The factor
of Time.
Attached to every promise of God is an
appointed time either stated or implied.
Not only is this necessitated by the outworking of a plan, but it also
is used to exercise and encourage simple faith.
Ecclesiastes has noted, “There is a time to every purpose under
heaven”. The answer to the tried faith
of Habakkuk was, “the vision is yet for an appointed time … though it tarry,
wait for it”. So the promise to Abraham
was timed. To the flesh the long years
that passed after the normal age of parenthood had been reached were a hard
trial of faith. It was not until Abraham
was “about an hundred years old” that the promise was fulfilled; yet there was no tarrying on the part of
God. “At the time of life”, “at the set
time”, “at the time appointed”, Isaac is born, and Ishmael is seen to be the
symbol of law, bondage, and unbelief.
“It is written that Abraham had two sons,
the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman, but he that was born of the
bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the freewoman was by promise”
(Gal. iv. 22-31).
“They are not all Israel, which are of
Israel; neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but IN ISAAC shall thy seed be called,
that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children
of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Rom. ix.
6-8).
In
Genesis xxi. we read the simple
yet sublime account of the fulfillment of God’s promise:--
“And the Lord visited Sarah as He had
said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in
his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him … and Sarah
said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh
with me.”
Here Sarah’s laugh is the laugh of
faith. She is however forcibly reminded
of her laugh of unbelief, for the context once more uses the word (this time
translated “mock”), “and Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had
borne unto Abraham, laughing (mocking).”
Not only is the promise of God entirely
removed from the sphere of law and flesh, the accident of time and the
impatience of unbelief, but its essential characteristic and crown is that it
triumphs over DEATH.
The fact of Resurrection.
Romans iv.
displays the essential facts of resurrection both as regards Abraham’s
personal faith, the title of God, and the essential element in
justifying faith. Abraham’s personal
faith. Which was easier to believe, that
God in some far-off day would raise His own Son from the dead, or to believe
that there and then, Abraham and Sarah “as good as dead” should be quickened
into life? Abraham’s faith is thus
described:--
“Who against hope (humanly speaking), in
hope believed, that he might become the father of many nations, according to
that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be, and without growing weak in faith,
he considered his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years
old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb, he did not use doubtful
disputation in unbelief (cf. Rom. xiv. 1) against the promise of God,
but was strong in the faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what He had promised, He was able also to perform, and therefore it was
imputed for righteousness” (Rom. iv. 18-22).
This
factor of resurrection
re-appears in connection
with Abraham’s faith
in Heb. xi. 17-19:--
“By faith Abraham, when he was tried,
offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called,
accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a
figure.”
The one title of God that is given in this
passage (Romans iv.) is “God Who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those
things which be not as though they were”. Abraham’s trust was not in a blind impersonal
Providence, not in the Almighty whose name is uttered by the despairing,
and forgotten when the storm is passed, but the God of resurrection. This title of God before all others is the
one which all believers to-day must recognize.
Only as such can He be our Father; only as such can He be the God of hope, of
peace, of all comfort, of patience, of glory.
None of the glorious promises enshrined in the Divine titles can ever be
realized or enjoyed apart from the resurrection. The Old Testament saints were taught this; the land of promise was theirs in
resurrection: “they all died in faith not having received the promise”. The throne of David cannot be occupied apart
from resurrection: “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” are the
words of the decree (see Psalm ii.).
The Church has no status or blessing apart
from resurrection; chapter and verse can
hardly be given, as this thought underlies the whole of the apostle Paul’s
ministry, both before and after Acts
xxviii.
The Essential
Element in Justifying Faith.
“Now it was not written for his sake alone
that it was imputed to him: but for us
also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus
our Lord from the dead; who was
delivered for our offences, and was raised again because of our justification”
(Rom. iv. 23-25).
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. x. 9).
Let us learn this important teaching
concerning the promises of God, for it underlies all His purposes of grace and
glory. The close association between
Isaac and Christ (Gal. iii. 16; Rom.
ix. 7), the references to the offering of the only
begotten Son (Heb. xi. 17; John
iii. 16) reveal that in some mystical
way God Himself moves along these lines as well as His people. He also awaits the hour appointed. He must eliminate all human merit. He too works only in the sphere of
resurrection life.
“For how many soever the promises of God,
in Him is the yea; wherefore also
through Him is the Amen to the glory of God through us” (II Cor. i. 20).
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