Bible Commentaries
Genesis 19

Verses 1-28

XXIV

ABRAHAM’S CONVERSION (PART TWO) AND SOME SELECTED THOUGHTS

Genesis 15-19:28

SACRIFICES OF THE COVENANT AND BIRDS OF PREY
We have discussed only three divisions of the outline given at the beginning of the last chapter. The next item is "The Sacrifices of the Covenant." Account of that is given in Genesis 15:9-11: "Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtledove and a young pigeon. And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other; but the birds divided he not. And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away." One of the most impressive sermons I ever read was delivered by a Methodist preacher on the text: "Abram drove them away." His line of thought was, that when we come before God with what he has required in our hands, and put it before him, we have to wait his acceptance, and as a test of our faith while he is waiting, the fowls come to destroy the sacrifice. The old commentators used to represent the fowls as nations endeavoring to destroy the people of Abram. Others refer it to the New Testament thought where, when the seed was deposited, the fowls came and picked them up. The spiritual thought is, whoever makes an offering to God, waiting, must see to it that the offering is not spoiled by the enemies of God and man.

THE WAITING AND THE DARKNESS
Abram waited until the sun was nearly down. There he was. He had passed between the pieces. Night came, and a horror of great darkness came upon him. He still waited. God had not signified his presence. Suddenly in a trance he sees a smoking furnace and a shining lamp pass between the sacrifices. The shining lamp is the Shekinah, the indication of divine presence. With the passing through of the visible representation of God there comes a voice of prophecy: "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in the land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I Judge; and afterwards they shall come out with great substance. But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full." That is a remarkable prophecy, that the descendants of Abram should go into bondage among Egyptian people, but would come out in the fourth generation to the land promised to Abram. Two reasons are assigned why Abram or his descendants should not immediately have the land. It would be a long time before his descendants would be sufficiently numerous and disciplined. Then the land was occupied by the Amorites, whose iniquity was not yet full. God does not remove a people until their iniquity is full. The promise, then, was made to Abram afar off. He himself died in a good old age.

I want to notice a serious chronological difficulty. Genesis 15:13, says, "And they shall afflict them four hundred years." Exodus 12:4, "The time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years." Notice that difference of thirty years. Acts 7:6, "And God spake in this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage and treat them ill for four hundred years." That agrees with Genesis 15:13. Galatians 3:17, "A covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after." Paul states that it was back 430 years from the giving of the law to the call of Abram. If that is so, how do you get 400 or 430 years in bondage in Egypt, as it was 220 years from the call of Abram before they went into Egypt? In my discussion on the covenants I took Paul’s New Testament statement as the correct one, adopted by Archbishop Usher and given in your Bibles, leaving only 210 years in Egypt.

THE TRANCE AND THE PROPHECY
Jehovah said to Abram, “Unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the Euphrates." I find Old Testament proof that at one time Abram’s descendants did actuary-possess all the country from the eastern mouth of the Nile to the Euphrates. The sixteenth chapter opens with a human attempt to fulfill the prophecy of God. In the fifteenth chapter Abram said, "O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Jehovah said, "This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels." Sarah, knowing that she was barren, and that she and her husband were old, falls upon an Oriental method by which Abram should have a son. She gives her handmaiden, Hagar the Egyptian, to Abram as a wife in order that Hagar’s child by Abram should be as Sarah’s child. She got herself, Abram and the handmaiden, the descendants of Abram through her own son and through Hagar’s son all into a world of trouble. Once I kept worrying a teacher who had promised that in an hour he would go to a certain orchard for some fruit. I waited and waited and asked him if it wasn’t most time. So he took an old-fashioned hourglass, filled with sand and narrow in the middle so that the sand could run through in just one hour, and said to me, "When that sand drops through we will go." I sat there and looked at that hourglass. Finally I reached over and shook it. That was human effort. It did not make the sand come a bit faster. So Sarah’s shaking the hourglass did not help matters. When the handmaiden found she was to be the mother of Abram’s child, she despised Sarah; Sarah began to quarrel and oppress the handmaiden so that she ran away. We now come to a new expression (Genesis 16:7), "And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness." After this point that expression occurs often, and all the circumstances go to show that it was a pre-manifestation of the Son of God. You will see later that he is here spoken of as God. The angel prophesied to Hagar. "Return to thy mistress and I will greatly bless thy seed, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. Thou shall bear a child and thou shalt call his name Ishmael because God hath heard thy affliction, and he shall be as a wild ass among men; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand shall be against him, and he shall dwell over against all his brethren." When I was eleven years old a man in Sunday school asked where the passage was about the boy who was to become like a wild ass. Every boy went home to find the passage, and I determined to find it before I slept. Beginning at Genesis, I read through until I found it, and what a thrill of joy went through my heart. A gentleman in Arkansas who used to know me when a boy asked me this, "What achievement of your life has filled you with the greatest Joy?" I told him that it was catching my first ’possum. I was about seven years old and had a bob-tailed brindle dog named Lupe. He got to smelling around an old log, and finally pulled out a ’possum. I grabbed him by the tail and went home shouting. Now the object of these general questions is to put you on a line of thinking for yourselves. I asked my elder brother about Ishmael. In an atlas he showed me. Arabia, and described the marvelous exploits of the people, and particularly since they adopted the religion of Mohammed how their hands have been against every man. They live in tents and have camels and horses. Lew Wallace tells about the Arab sheik whose fine horse Ben Hur drove in the chariot race. Sir Walter Scott’s Talisman treats of these Bedouins of the desert. Strange that God’s prophecy should designate the characteristics of the descendants of this man for thousands of years.

Genesis 16:13 says, "Thou art a God that seeth, Wherefore the well is called Beer-Lahai-roi," meaning "living after, you have seen." You remember the saying that no mortal can see God and live. She was persuaded that God had met bex. She obeyed his voice, and went back and became subject to Sarah.

I have selected certain thoughts for the reader’s attention. The first relates to the establishment of the covenant of circumcision. I would go extensively into a discussion of that but for the fact that at the twelfth chapter we discussed all the covenants with Abram.

The second thought is the enlargement in God’s announcement to Abram. He now not only specifies that Abram’s son shall be his heir and not his bondservant, but that he shall be a son of his wife, Sarah. It is characteristic of the Old Testament prophecies to become more particular in each subsequent announcement. Genesis 2 says, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head." As the light increases, this seed of the woman shall be a descendant of Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, more particular all the time. In Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians this subject is particularly discussed. In Hebrews we learn that God made an announcement to Abram that involved a natural impossibility, but Abram staggered not through unbelief. In one of these books there is a reference to the steps of Abram’s faith. When the general convention was in session at Dallas some years ago, I was called upon to preach a sermon at the pastors’ conference, and took for my text, "The Steps of Abraham’s Faith." Commencing with the statement that a faith that cannot walk is a very puny child, I traced the steps of Abraham’s faith. When he was seventy years old, God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. He believed God, and stepped far enough to reach Haran. He halted there till his father died, and took another step to the Holy Land. As each new revelation of God would come his faith stepped higher and culminated in the offering of Isaac, confident that God would raise him from the dead and perpetuate his seed through him.

In this larger announcement God changes the name of Abram to Abraham, and of Sarai to Sarah. Indians do not name their children until some exploit is performed which gives them a name. We sometimes overburden our children with names. A child who may have great facility in telling lies about cherry trees, or anything else, we name George Washington. One without missionary spirit is often named Judson, or a child without pulpit eloquence or faith we name Spurgeon. My father did the same with his children. He named one for Richard Baxter, author of Saints’ Rest. He named me for Solomon’s commander-in-chief who succeeded Joab. We are very illustrious in our names. But Abram’s name was changed by an event in his life which evidenced great faith. In other words, it is better to earn a name than to have a great name thrust upon us. Jacob’s name originally meant supplanter, which he was. In that great struggle where he wrestled with God, his name was changed to Israel, a marvelous name, fairly earned. We ought to be more concerned about the name that we merit than about the name with which fond and over expectant parents burden us.

In the enlargement of this promise that his son would inherit, Abraham gives utterance to an expression from which have often preached, and I give it to you to preach from: "O, that Ishmael might live before you." Ishmael, his son by Hagar, was about thirteen years old. Abraham was very much attached to him, and fondly hoped that in him the family fortunes rested. Now comes God’s announcement that a child yet unborn should set Ishmael aside. How many times in substance has a father prayed that prayer. Dr. Andrew Broadis, the elder, had an illustrious son that he did not think much of. He had another son, his Absalom, and prayed continually that this son might live before God. But that son died a drunkard, while the other became a preacher as great as his father. In the Prentiss family of Maine, the likely son died. There was a crippled boy in the family called the child of his mother’s hand, because he was kept alive for five years t)y his mother’s rubbing. The father said, "Oh, that it had been the crippled boy that died." The crippled boy became S. S. Prentiss. What the other boy would have been we do not know.

The next thought refers to Abraham’s hospitality. Standing under an oak tree he sees three illustrious visitors coming in the garb of men, and entertains them with great hospitality. One of them proved to be the angel of the Lord, a pre-manifestation of the Son of God, and the others, the angels that destroyed Sodom. Upon that passage the writer of Hebrews says, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." I quoted that passage to a woman once who had a big house and never entertained anybody. I told her how much the lives of families were influenced by illustrious persons that stopped just one night. How Spurgeon’s career was shaped by an illustrious man who stayed at his father’s house one night, and next morning put his hand on the boy’s head and prayed that God might make him a great preacher and send him to preach the gospel to lost London. The boy never got from under the power of it, nor did the family. This lady said if she ever entertained any angels it was certainly unawares, for she had never found it out. I have known my father to entertain seventy-five messengers at an association. When we did not have enough beds, we scattered the cotton out and put quilts down in the cotton house. When Waco was a village the First Church entertained free of charge 3,500 visitors. They were there from every state in the Union attending the Southern Baptist Convention. We did not have enough homes, so after filling every hotel and boarding house, we went out two or three miles in the country. When I paid the hotel bill next morning it was just $1,500. It did not hurt us. Nothing ever did Texas more benefit. The railroads took it up and gave every one of them a free trip through Texas and Mexico. It advertised Texas all over the world. I entertained forty men in my house. Dr. Sears entertained forty women. His neighbors said he nearly broke his leg so he might stay at home and talk. Anyhow, it was a blessing on his home and mine.

While Abraham entertained these angels a renouncement is made that a son should be born and to his wife, Sarah. Sarah was inside the tent. But women can hear better than men. What I say downstairs my wife can always hear upstairs. Sarah heard them and laughed aloud at the idea that an old woman like herself should become the mother of a son so illustrious. When her child was born and she saw how foolish it had been to laugh at the word of God, she named the child Isaac, meaning, "laughter" – and what a sweet name!

After the entertainment the destroying angels start off to Sodom on their mission. The angel of the Lord, walking with Abraham, asked the question, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do to Sodom, seeing that I know that he will command his children after him to keep my law?" Look at the thoughts: Abraham by his faith had become the companion of God so that God said, "I will have no secrets from Abraham as to my dealings with the affairs of earth." By similar faith and life we get into confidential relations with God, and he promises that we shall know things that others do not know. Notice next the great act which made Abraham trustworthy: "For I know that he will command his children after him." The great sin of Eli was that he did not restrain his children. The great merit of Abraham was that he did rightly raise his child Isaac. The great virtue of Jews to this day is the reverence they have for parents and the obedience that children render to their parents. The Gentile boy is like that wild ass of the desert we discussed. He learns to call his father "the old man," and thinks it mighty smart "to row his own boat," to "gang his own gait." A Jewish boy would not dream of such a thing. They are a thousand miles ahead of us in this respect. The curse of the present day is the ill regulated youth. Instead of remaining children, which would be better, boys nine and ten years old become manikins. A preacher found one on the streets one day and asked, "My son, do you drink?" The boy, thinking it a disgrace if he did not, said, "No, sir, I hasn’t got to that yet but I chews and cusses." That is the spirit of the boyhood of today. The Presbyterians are ahead of the Baptists in training their children. They teach the Catechism better. We let the devil take possession of our children and fortify himself before we begin to do anything for their salvation, as a rule.

As soon as God announced the destruction of Sodom, Abraham commenced praying. In all the Word of God and in all literature there is nowhere else to be found such a prayer. He starts out, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right, and if he does right will he slay the righteous with the wicked?" He asked if God would spare the city for the sake of fifty righteous men. God said, "Yes." He took a forward step and asked God if he would save the city for the sake of forty righteous men. God said, "Yes." "Hear me once again, Will you not save the city if there be thirty?" God said he would spare the city. "Will you spare the city for twenty’s sake?" God said, "Yes." Abraham made his last step, "Will you save the city if there be ten righteous men?" With that precedent why did not Abraham go to five? That leads to a thought presented by our Saviour in the Sermon on the Mount, viz.: "Ye are the salt of the earth" as well as "the light of the world." The world cannot be destroyed while the righteous are in it. The reason why the fire has not leaped out of the storm cloud and riven the earth with its fiery bolt is the good people of God that are in the world. That only keeps cities, states, and nations from instantaneous annihilation by the irrevocable judgments of God. The wicked do not know that all that keeps them from sudden death and out of hell is the righteous constituting the salt of the earth. When God raises the dead bodies of his saints that sleep in the earth, and snatches up to the clouds the living Christians that are changed, immediately, as by the following of an inexorable law, fire worldwide seizes the earth, and ocean and continent are wrapped in flames. The conserving power is gone.

I want you to barely look at what is too foul for public speech. Read it alone, covered with shame, this last sin of Sodom which gives a name to a sin, "Sodomy." Our courts recognize that sin, which is incorporated in the common law of England and the United States. They sought to perpetuate this sin that night and Lot restrains them. These angels of God whom they mistook for men and upon whom they purposed to commit this sin, smote the lecherous crowd with blindness. And after every one of them was stricken blind, they groped for the door still to commit that sin. If you want a picture of the persistence of an evil passion, when the heart is hard and the neck stiffened, when the soul is incorrigible and obdurate, take the picture of these people, blinded by the Judgment of God and yet groping for the door.

The record states that the angels told Lot if he had anybody in that city to get them out mighty quick, and Lot went to his sons-in-law and urged them to go out. My question is, Were they actually his sons-in-law? He had two daughters at home. Did he have other daughters married to Sodomites? Or were the sons-in-law merely betrothed, fiancés? An old backwoodsman first called my attention to it, and I refer the matter to you. In the morning the angel gathers the family out of the city as fast as he can. He says to Lot, "Make haste. We can do nothing till you are out of the city." You must get the good people out before a city can be destroyed. Notice the lamentable fate of Lot’s wife, an Old Testament woman immortalized by our Lord in the great prophecy in Luke 17:32: "Remember Lot’s wife." She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. The angel said to Lot, "Stay not in the plains." Lot said, "That is too far. Let me stop at Zoan, this little city near by." Some of the funniest things I ever heard in my life were connected with that text, "Is it not a little one?" Like the Methodist preacher’s sermon on "How shall Jacob arise since he is small?"

The destruction that came was a good deal like the report given in Marryat’s novel, Poor Jack. When the father whipped his wife with a pigtail off his head until she fainted, the doctor inquired, "What is the matter with your mother? Is it external or internal?" The boy replied, "Doctor, I think it is both." The destruction that came upon Sodom was both internal and external. Fire came down from heaven, and the earth opened and swallowed it. It had the characteristics of a volcanic eruption, an electric storm and an earthquake. The destruction was instant and total and down there under the water lie the relics of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the sea is called the Dead Sea. No flesh or animal life is in it. Josephus says that when you bite the fruit from the apple tree on its borders a puff of dust fills your mouth. If you jump into it you do not sink. The Dead Sea, lower than the Mediterranean, has no outlet. The Dead Sea that receives into its bosom all the tides of the sacred Jordan from the snows of Lebanon which come through Galilee, waters upon which Christ walked, in which he was baptized; waters that Elijah smote with his mantle; waters in which Naaman was healed of his leprosy; waters the most famous in sacred history; that whole river is like a string on which a necklace of pearls is strung, yet all that water goes into the Dead Sea, which receives it and turns nothing out but dust and ashes. Harris, the author of the book entitled Mammon, compares that sea to the Antinomian heart, always receiving and never giving. It has become the image of eternal destruction. Can you question whether God knows how to preserve the righteous and his ability to punish the wicked and the sinner?

QUESTIONS
1. How was the covenant between God and Abraham ratified and how is the primary meaning of the word "covenant" here exemplified?

2. What two interpretations of "Abram drove them away" and what is the spiritual meaning of it?

3. What trial of Abraham follows this, how then did God signify his presence and what word of prophecy accompanied it?

4, What two reasons assigned for the descendants of Abraham not immediately possessing the land promised to him?

5. What chronological difficulty is pointed out and how do you solve it?

6. How did Sarah try to help the Lord fulfill his prophecy to Abraham and what was the result?

7. How do you explain the appearance of the angel of the Lord to Hagar, what prophecy did he make to her and what was remarkable about this prophecy?

8. What two elements of the enlargement of God’s announcement to Abraham?

9. How did Abraham receive the first and what were the steps of Abraham’s faith?

10. Why did God change the name of Abram and what is the application?

11. In this enlargement to what expression does Abraham give utterance, its meaning and application? Illustrate.

12. What can you say of Abraham’s hospitality, who were the guests and what is the blessing that often comes from such entertainment?

13. What is the origin and meaning of the word "Isaac"?

14. After the destroying angels departed for Sodom, what question did the angel of the Lord raise, into what secret did he let Abraham and what great act of Abraham made him trustworthy?

15. Contrast Jews and Gentiles on parental duty and what denomination of people stands next to the Jews in training children?

16. Describe Abraham’s intercession for Sodom and what was the teaching of our Lord in point?

17. What is the name which indicates the awful sin of the Sodomites?

18. Did Lot have actual sons-in-law? If not, explain the reference to his sons-in-law.

19. What was the fate of Lot’s wife and what was our Lord’s use of this incident?

20. By what means were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed?

21. What New Testament use was made of the judgment on these cities? (2 Peter 2:6-9; Judges 1:7.)

22. Ancient writers locate Sodom and Gomorrah at the southern, extremity of the Dead Sea, modern writers at the northern extremity. What do you say?

23. What does the destruction of these cities symbolize and in view of the permanent effect, what question does this forever settle?

XXV

THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM--(Concluded)

Genesis 19:29-25:18

This chapter concludes the life of Abraham. It covers over five chapters of Genesis. The important events are varied:

1. Lot’s history after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the incestuous origin of the Ammonites and Moabites.

2. Abraham’s dealing with Abimelech, the Philistine king.

3. The birth and weaning of Isaac.

4. The casting out of the handmaiden, Hagar, and Ishmael.

5. The great trial of Abraham’s faith.

6. The death and burial of Sarah.

7. The marriage of Isaac.

8. Abraham’s marriage with Keturah – their children.

9. Abraham’s disposition of his property.

10. Death and burial.

11. Character.

All these events wonderfully illustrate Oriental life of that age.

Our lesson commences with Genesis 19:29: "And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the Plains, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt." An examination question will be, To whom was Lot indebted for his rescue from the destruction of Sodom? Genesis 19:30 gives the origin of two famous – should say infamous – nations: Moabites and Ammonites. They resulted from the incest with his daughters on the part of Lot. No nations have developed so harmoniously with their origin. They were immoral, untrustworthy, every way a blot upon civilization, the bitterest enemies of the Israelites, except the Amalekites and Philistines.

The twentieth chapter returns to Abraham. He located in the territory of the Philistine king. The Philistines, descendants of a son of Ham, originally located in Egypt. But they get their name from their migratory habits. Leaving the place that God assigned to them, they took possession of the southwestern coast of the land which derives its name from them, in our time called Palestine. They had not yet developed the confederacy of the five cities, like the Swiss cantons, which they established later. Abimelech is not a name, but a title, like Pharaoh. The Philistine king has more honor than any subsequent king. We have discussed the responsibility of Abraham, making Sarah say that she was his sister. She is eighty years old, but a most beautiful young woman. God has restored youth to her and Abraham. Abimelech takes Sarah, but is prevented from harming her through a dream God sent, warning him that she was the wife of one of his prophets, and that he would die if he did not return her. Abimelech justly rebukes them both. In Genesis 19:9 he says to Abraham, "What hast thou done unto us? and in what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and my kingdom a great sin?" Abraham makes a very lame excuse. Isaac repeats the very same thing with another Abimelech. To Sarah, Abimelech says, "Behold, I have given a thousand pieces of silver; behold it is for thee a covering of the eyes to all that are with thee; and in respect of all thou art righted." The wrong that had been done by her captivity was thus amply compensated. The text of the King James Version says she was reproved. I think it was a gentle rebuke. Note the healing of Abimelech in Genesis 19:17 at the prayer of Abraham, just as we see the friends of Job forgiven at the intercession of Job, and Israel forgiven at the intercession of Samuel and Moses. What mighty power has the intercessory prayer of good men with God!

According to promise Isaac was born. Then Sarah becomes both inspired and poetical. Her Magnification sounds like that of the virgin Mary. She said, "God hath made me to laugh; every one that heareth will laugh with me." The child was named Isaac, which means laughter. Some children are born to make parental hearts sing with joy. Many children cause the parental heart to ache.

We come to another incident: "The child grew, and was weaned." And Abraham made a great religious festival in honor of the weaning of Isaac. Sarah saw the son of Hagar making sport and said to Abraham, "Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of this handmaid shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." It was a little hard on Ishmael. He had been the only child, much loved by his father. He was taking a pretty wide swing in affairs at the birth of Isaac, which, according to an old saying, "broke his nose," and put him out of commission. So, although it was a religious ceremony, Ishmael mocked, sinning against God, the father, mother, and child. Sarah seems rather hard, but she was exceedingly wise. It was very difficult to bring up two seta of children in a house where there is already a spirit of jealousy. Ishmael would not have been a safe guide for his little brother. It hurt Abraham very much. That night God appeared to him in a vision and confirmed what Sarah had said. Paul quotes the words of Sarah in Galatians 4, "Cast out the handmaid and her son." In that famous letter he says that Hagar and Sarah are allegorical, representing two covenants: one according to the flesh, Hagar, typifying Israel; the other according to the spirit, in which Sarah represents the Jerusalem which is above. All true spiritual children of Abraham are children of promise, born of the spirit. This interpretation throws a great light on the incidents recorded here.

The story becomes still more pathetic when early next morning Abraham puts a goatskin full of water and some bread upon Hagar’s shoulder, and starts her and the boy off. She struck out, trying to find the way to Egypt. But she got tangled up in the desert. In a hot dry, sandy country it does not take long to drink all the water a woman can carry. The water gave out. Ishmael was famishing with thirst. The mother could not bear to see him die. So she put him under a little bush to shelter him as much as possible, and drawing off to a distance, wept and sobbed in anguish of spirit. And the angel of God spoke to her, "What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is." The boy, too, was praying. Once in preaching a sermon to children I took that text. The other night my little boy asked me to repeat a scripture before we had family prayer. I told him of the boy born to be a wild man, against whom was every man’s hand, and whose hand was against every man. How that he and his mother had to leave home when he was a little fellow. That hot walk in the desert, the insatiable thirst, and the mother going off to pray. How it occurred to the little boy to pray, and how when he prayed God heard the voice of the lad himself. Instantly my little boy spoke up and began to tell of two or three times when he had prayed and God had heard him. I encouraged him in that thought. I told him whenever he got into trouble, no matter how small, to pray; just as a child to tell God, and while nobody on earth might hear him, his Heavenly Father would hear even a whisper. I tell you this that you may impress upon young people the fact that God heard the voice of the lad himself. At the Arkansas convention in Texarkana, I preached a sermon for Dr. Barton’s church. A mother came to me before preaching and said that she had two boys in whom she was very much interested, and wanted me to pray for them that day. I said, "Suppose you tell those boys to pray while I preach." She told them, and at the close of the sermon they were happily converted. Dr. Barton baptized them that night, both at one time, holding each other’s hands. It made a very impressive sight. Having heard about this, when I returned later to Texarkana, another mother came and stated a similar case. I told her to ask the lad to pray himself. That boy was converted and joined the church at the close of the service. In lecturing to the Y. M. C. A. in the afternoon, before I commenced my talk, I raised the point that God could hear anybody in that audience of five hundred men. There were some very bad cases, men who had stained their homes, grieved their wives, darkened the prospect of their children. I told them that God would hear them even on the brink of hell, if they would turn to him and pray, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." One man stepped right up and gave me his hand. At night all the churches worshiped at one church. I preached to within ten minutes of train time, and left without knowing the result. But with two preachers to call out from the audience the people who would take God at his word, and judging from the seeming impression, there ought to have been a great many conversions there that night. I would be glad if every preacher would take that text, "I have heard the voice of the lad where he is," and preach a sermon. Get it on the minds of the children that God will hear them. "God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad." That is the second part of the text. First, I have heard the voice of the lad himself; second, God was with the lad.

His mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt, and he became the father of twelve nations. I have told you about the Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael. They hold the ground where Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Leah, Isaac, and Rachel were buried. There is an immense structure built at that place. Until 1869 they would not allow a Gentile to enter, but in that year the Prince of Wales was permitted to go inside. The remainder of the chapter states a remarkable covenant between Abraham and Abimelech. It became evident that God was with Abraham and nobody could harm him. Abimelech wanted a covenant with that kind of a man. In my preaching I used to advise sinners never to go into business with a backslidden Christian, for God will surely visit him with Judgments, and he may come with fire to burn up the store. Anyway, a backslidden Christian is an unsafe partner. But what a fine partner is a Christian who is not a backslidden one. Abraham said that he ought to rectify a certain offense. "I dug this well in order to water my stock and your servants took it." Abimelech righted the wrong. They took an oath of amity toward each other, so that the place was called Beersheba, i.e., the well of the oath. That marks the southern boundary of Palestine as we regard it.

I am going to give you the salient points of the twenty-second chapter, which presents the most remarkable incident in the life of Abraham. God had said that in Isaac was all Abraham’s hope for the future. God determined to try the faith of Abraham. It has been forty years since his conversion, and he has been stepping up higher and higher until you would think he must have reached the heights and graduated. But the crowning touch to his faith is to come now. God said, "Take now thy sou, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering." It was a staggering request, and yet Abraham staggered not in unbelief. He thought, "What will become of God’s promise?" In Hebrews it is explained how he argued it out and trusted. If God said, "Put Isaac to death," he would do it, but God had said that through Isaac was to come the Messiah. So it would be necessary for God to raise Isaac from the dead. They set out early. If they had waked Sarah and told her what they were going to do, there probably would have been a row. So they took their servant, a mule, and some wood, and started to distant Mount Moriah, where Jerusalem is. As they drew near the place, Isaac, who had been doing some thinking, says, "Father, here is the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" It had not been mentioned what his part was. Abraham answered, "My son, the Lord will pro-, vide a sacrifice." They reached the place near where Christ was later crucified. Abraham built the altar and placed the wood upon it. He commenced binding Isaac. The son, never saying a word, submitted. He stretched him over that altar, and drew his knife over the boy, and already in Abraham’s mind Isaac was dead. But just as the knife was about to descend, God said, "Abraham, Abraham, stay thy hand. Isaac shall not die." He looked around and there in a bush was a ram caught by its horns. He took that and offered it.

There are two marvelous lessons to be derived from this incident. The most significant is that God made Abraham feel the anguish that God felt in giving up his only begotten Son to die for man. Abraham is the only man that ever entered into the sorrow of the Divine Mind in giving up Jesus to die. When he is bound on the cross and prays, "Save me from the sword," the Father cries out, "Wake, O sword, and smite the Shepherd." When he cries, "Save me from the enemy that goeth about like a roaring lion," and when he prays, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," it was not possible if anybody was to be saved. The other thought is that as the Father consented to give up his Son, so the Son obediently submitted. Thus Isaac becomes the type of Christ. And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh, "it shall be provided." When I was a young preacher I preached a sermon on all the double names of Jehovah found in the Old Testament, such as Jehovah-Elohim, Jehovah-Tsidkena, Jehovah-jireh, etc.

Now we come to a passage that made a great impression on the mind of the author of the letter to the Hebrews. "And the angel of the Lord called unto Abram in a second time out of heaven, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." That matter is discussed in Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. When I was a young preacher I used to delight in preaching from this passage, and I like it yet, Hebrews 6:16, "For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." In order to assure every child of God that his hope is well grounded and that he cannot be disappointed, two things in which it is impossible for God to lie are joined and twisted together to make a cable which is fastened to the anchor of hope: one, the promise of God, the other the oath of God. In commenting upon that Paul said that, though it was a covenant with a man, because it was confirmed by the oath of God, it could not be disannulled.

In Genesis 22:20 we find, "And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also borne children unto thy brother Nahor; Uz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, and Chesed, and Hazo and Pildash, and Jidlaph and Bethuel. And Bethuel begat Rebekah." That incident is put in to prepare for a subsequent chapter, showing where Isaac got his wife. My wife’s brother, when he was a little fellow, came to his mother and wanted to know who were the boys that milked a bear. She said she did not know. He said it was in the Bible, so he read, "Those eight did Milcah bear." Then his mother told him of the old Hardshell preacher’s sermon on that text, to this effect: They got out of milk at a certain house. The only available source was a she bear, and so the sturdy boys roped her and brought in the milk.

The twenty-third chapter, which gives an account of the death of Sarah, and the purchase of a burial place by Abraham, is a very interesting historical account because it gives all the details of a noted business transaction, showing how Orientals dealt in their trades. Notice particularly the Genesis 23:11, what Ephron says, "Nay, my lord, hear me: the field I give thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the children of my people gave I it thee: bury thy dead." If an Englishman or an American had said that, it would have meant an outright gift, but for an Oriental or a Mexican, he expects the full price. If you enter a house in Mexico they will tell you everything is yours, cows, lambs, etc., but don’t you take for granted that it is so; it is just soft speech. Notice in closing this transaction that the currency was not coin, but weighed silver. Silver and gold were not put in pieces of money, but in any form; as, rings, bracelets, or bars, counted by weight; not numbered.

The twenty-fourth chapter tells how marriages were contracted in the East, and is an exceedingly interesting bit of history on that subject. Abraham brings out a revelation that God had previously made that we have no account of elsewhere, viz.: that God had told him not to marry his son to any of the idolaters of the land, but to his own people who were worshipers of God. So Abraham took Eliezer and swore him. The form of the oath is given, showing how these solemn oaths were taken between man and man. This head servant, taking ten camels, struck out from the southern part of Palestine, going to the Euphrates, a long trip, though common for caravans. He is much concerned about his mission and says to Abraham, "You tell me not to take Isaac there because God told you never to take your son back to that country." There is another revelation, not previously recorded. "Now, suppose when I get there the girl won’t come to me?" Abraham said, "That will exempt you from your responsibility, but God will prosper you in this, his arrangement, and will govern you in everything." We have a description of this old man falling on a plan by which a sign would be given. He sat down near a well and waited for the women to come and draw water. In this country men draw the water – we don’t expect women to draw enough water for a herd of cattle. His plan was that he would steadily look at the women who came and fixing his mind on one, he would ask her to give him a drink, and if she inclined the bucket to him and said, "Let me water your camels," she would be the one. Later we find Jacob falling upon the same method. In our time young men manage to find their wives without signs or omens. So when Rebekah, granddaughter of Nahor, brother of Abraham, came out, a beautiful virgin, and he asked her for a drink, and she let her pitcher down and held it in her hand, and then offered to water the camels, Eliezer knew she was the right one. He took a ring of gold, a half-shekel in weight, two bracelets for her hands, ten shekels in weight, and said, "Whose daughter art thou? Is there in thy father’s house a place for us to pass the night?" She told him who she was, and that there was a place and abundant provisions for him and his camels.

So when she got to the house she reported the case and her brothers came out. Her father was a polygamist, and the eldest of each set of children was the head. So Laban, Rebekah’s brother, came out and invited old Eliezer in. Food is set before him, but he says, "I will not eat until I have told my message." Laban told him to tell it. And he said, "I am Abraham’s servant. And Jehovah hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great; and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men servants and maid servants, and camels and asses. And Sarah, my master’s wife, bare a son to my master when she was old; and unto him hath he given all that he hath." That was a very fine introduction. Whenever you open negotiations with a young lady’s father for marriage in the case of a young man whose father is very wealthy and this son his only heir, you have paved the way for a fair hearing. He strengthened the case by stating that under the inspiration of God he was forbidden to take a wife from among the idolaters, but was commanded to come to this place for a wife, the idea of appointment by God, a match made in heaven. Some matches are made of sulfur, not in heaven. He gave his third reason. "Not only is my master’s son rich, and I am here under the arrangement of God, but after I got to this place, I let God give me a sign to determine the woman." Having stated his case he says, "If you will deal truly and kindly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left."

In the King James Version, Eliezer’s speech has a translation that used to be very famous as a text. He says, "I have come to seek a bride for my lord." A Methodist preacher in Edward Eggleston’s Circuit Rider, preaching from that text before an immense congregation, says, "My theme is suggested by the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis," and gave a little of the history. "Now," he says, "I am here to seek a bride for my Lord, to espouse a soul to God. And like old Eliezer, I am under an oath of God. Like him I am not willing to eat until I have stated my case. And like him I have come by divine appointment. And like him I have tokens of his spirit that somewhere in this congregation is the bride of God. And like him I commence wooing for my Lord by stating whose son he is. He is the Son of God. He is very rich. He is the heir of all things in the world." Edward Eggleston, in telling that story, relates that Patsy, a beautiful girl, who had despised religion and circuit riders, was wonderfully impressed by the sermon. It was the custom in the early days of Methodism to demand that women should eschew jewels, basing it on a New Testament expression about bad worldly ornaments. So while the preacher was exhorting and pleading for a bride for his master, Patsy commenced taking off her earrings, loosening her bracelets, and putting them all on the table. Then she said, "I seek to be ornamented by the One to whom you propose to espouse me, even the Lord Jesus Christ. I lay aside the trappings of external wealth and splendour, and look for that quality of spirit that best ornaments a woman." Paul says, showing that the Methodist preacher was not going out of the record, "I have espoused you to Christ."

The custom was for the betrothal to take place at the house of the bride’s father, and Eliezer comes in the name of his master and the betrothal is undertaken. The marriage is consummated whenever the bride is taken to the bridegroom’s house, and he meets and takes her in. The virgins of Matthew 25 are all espoused, but the bridegroom has not yet come to take them to his house. When Eliezer had stated his case the father and brother say, "This thing proceeds from Jehovah, and it is a question we cannot answer. Behold Rebekah is before you. Take her and go, and let her be the wife of thy master’s son." As soon as the betrothal is completed, Eliezer according to custom, takes the lady to his camel and hands out the presents sent by the bridegroom. "And the servants brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah, and he gave also to her brother and her mother precious things." We perpetuate that somewhat in our marriage festivals when friends bring bridal presents. According to an Eastern custom a bridegroom makes presents to the bride’s mother and family. As these samples of the richness of Abraham were displayed, they felt still better satisfied about the judiciousness of the marriage.

Next morning Eliezer wants to start right home, but they said, "Let the damsel stay awhile. You stay a couple of weeks or months." But Orientals always expect the answer, "No, I am in a hurry. I must go." So they proposed to leave it to the girl. I have often wondered if they were going to leave anything to her. They called Rebekah and she said, "I will go." That leads me to remark what a singular thing it is that a girl raised in a loving family, sheltered by parental care from even a cold breath of air, the pride and light of the house, all at once, on one night’s notice, pulls up stakes and leaves the old home, saying to a man pretty much what Ruth said to Naomi, "Where thou goest I will go. Where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy God shall be my God, and thy people shall be my people, and God do so to me, if I ever cease from following after thee." And yet, it is God’s providence. So Rebekah and her maids, and the servant of Abraham and his men struck out from Haran on the Euphrates, on that long pilgrimage, south to Damascus; to the headwaters of the Jordan; then down either side of the river until you come to Hebron, where the bridegroom was. Just before Rebekah gets to Hebron, it happened that Isaac was out, taking a walk for meditation. In such a period of a young man’s life, he is given to meditation. When you see a young fellow that has always wanted to be surrounded by a crowd of boys, getting up early in the morning and taking a long walk by himself, there is something up. So Isaac was out on this meditating expedition, and Rebekah saw him. She instantly slipped down from the camel and put the veil over her face. The bridegroom could never see the face of the bride until he took her into his house. That part I do not think I would like. In the East the women are secluded until after their marriage.

The next chapter gives us an account of Abraham we hardly expect. Sarah has been dead sometime, and he took another wife, Keturah. Then there is a statement of their children and the countries they inhabit. They become mostly Arabs. We find this in Genesis 25:5: "And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, Hagar and Keturah, that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts; and he sent them away from his son Isaac, while he yet lived, eastward unto the east country." Though he made provisions for all, his general estate went to the child of promise.

Abraham lived 175 years and died in a good old age, full of days. Brother Smith used that expression in conducting the funeral of President Brooks’ father. Going from the funeral I asked my wife, who is a good listener to a sermon of any kind, what Brother Smith said. She said, "He had the usual things to say on such occasions, but brought out the biblical interpretation I am not sure about. He interpreted ’full of days’ to mean ’satisfied with his days.’ " I said, "He certainly is right. Old age and full of days are distinguished thus. A man might live to be an old man and not be full of days. Every retrospect of his life might bring him sorrow." I am afraid few people, when they come to die, can say with Paul, "The time of my exodus is at hand, and I am ready to be poured out full of days. I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up a crown which God the righteous judge shall give to me."

The next noticeable expression is, "He was gathered to his people." That does not mean that his body was deposited in the family burying ground. As yet no member of his family was in the cave of Machpelah except his wife. In the Old Testament the expression refers to the soul and is one of those expressions that teach the belief in the immortality of the soul and the existence of the soul separate from the body. Next, Isaac and Ishmael bury him. The last time we saw Ishmael was at the weaning of Isaac, when he was mocking. Both are married. Ishmael has a large family. The fathers of these nationalities that are to be distinct until the second coming of Christ, come together at the father’s grave. It is very touching that these two boys whom the antagonism of life had parted, whom the very trend of destiny had led separate, when the father died, came back without antagonism to bury him.

The chapter then gives a brief account of the generations of Ishmael, which constitutes one of the sections of the book of Genesis. Note the fact that according to the promise made to Ishmael, he becomes the father of twelve tribes. He died at the age of 137. Genesis 25:18 says, "Before the face of his brethren he abode." That expression means that he dwelt in the sight of his brethren, yet separated from them, living his own independent life.

Abraham is now dead. Here is a question I put to every class in Genesis. Analyze the character of Abraham and state the constituent elements of his greatness. I give you some hints.

(1) His mighty faith, the father of the faithful, whose faith took steps and staggered not through unbelief, no matter how often or hard it was tried. That is the supreme element of his greatness.

(2) His habit of religion. He took no "religious furloughs" when he travelled, as some men do. Wherever he stopped he erected an altar to God. Some years ago at Texarkana, some young men got on the train, and among them a Baptist preacher, and all were drinking. Finally one of them turned to him and said, "I won’t drink with you any more unless you will promise to quit preaching." He was away from home and thought nobody knew him.

(3) His capacity for friendship. He was one of very few men counted the friend of God. Christ says concerning some of his people, "I call you not servants. I call you friends, and ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." Abraham was also a friend of his fellow men. No man or woman, no matter what the external conditions, who is not capable of great, strong, undying friendship, can be very great.

(4) His love of peace. He said to Lot concerning the strife between the herdsmen, "Let there be no strife between us. Though I am the older and came here first, you can take the land you want and I will take what is left." Lot selected the fertile plain of the Jordan and pitched his tent. Wherever Abraham went there were warlike, quarrelsome tribes, men who lived with swords on and daggers in hand, yet he had no quarrels.

(5) But as we have seen, when necessary to make war, he struck fast, hard, and effectively. He evinced great courage.

(6) His independence of character. He would not accept a gift from Ephron the Hittite a burying place for his dead. He would not accept as much as a shoestring from the spoils of the Sodomites, which he had recovered in battle from the Babylonians, lest the king of Sodom should say, "I have made Abram rich."

(7) His justice. In an old reader there is a legend that a stranger, lost and in trouble, came to his tent. Abraham cared for his stock, washed his feet, gave him food and a place to sleep. But when the man started to lie down, Abraham seized him and said, "You cannot sleep under my tent. You propose to lie down without thanking God for these blessings!" He put him out and the man went to sleep outside of the tent. In the night came a voice from heaven, "Abraham, where is the guest I sent?" "Lord, he came; I treated him kindly, but when I saw how unthankful to thee he was, I cast him out." "Abraham, I have borne with that man many years. Could you not bear with him one night? I sent him that you might lead him to me." Abraham, weeping, went out, and brought the man back in his arms.

(8) Governing his family. "I know Abraham, that he will command his children after him."

(9) His unswerving obedience.

(10) His affection and provision for his family. He loved his wife very much, and made provision for every member of his family before he died. These are some of the characteristics of the greatness of Abraham. They are homely virtues, but they are rare on that account.

QUESTIONS
1. To whom was Lot indebted for his rescue from the destruction of Sodom? Proof?

2. What was the origin of the Moabites and Ammonites and how does their history harmonize with their origin?

3. In whose country does Abraham locate after the destruction of Sodom, of which son of Noah were they descendants and what the origin of their name?

4. Who was king of this people, what was Abraham’s aim here and what notable example of intercessory prayer?

5. Recite Sarah’s Magnification and give a New Testament parallel.

6. What was the occasion of Ishmael’s sin that drove him and his mother from home, what was the sin itself, the wisdom of Sarah, the divine approval and the New Testament use of this incident?

7. Tell the story of Hagar and Ishmael as outcasts, what text cited in this story, and what the application?

8. Whom did Ishmael marry, how many nations of his descendants and who are his descendants today?

9. What was the covenant between Abimelech and Abraham and what advice to businessmen is based thereon?

10. What great trial of Abraham’s faith and how did he stand the test?

11. What two marvelous lessons from this incident?

12. What blessing from heaven on Abraham because of his obedience in this test and what New Testament impress of this passage?

13. In the great trial of his faith when Isaac was offered, how was Abraham a type of the Father?

14. Why the incident of Genesis 22:20-24, given here, and what the text and Hardshell sermon cited?

15. What of particular interest in the twenty-third chapter, what Oriental custom here exemplified and what was the medium of exchange?

16. What two new revelations in Genesis 24, and tell the story of how Isaac got his wife.

17. What famous text is in this passage and what noted sermon cited on it?

18. What was the custom of Oriental marriages and what New Testament scripture does it illustrate?

19. What part of the Oriental marriage do we perpetuate in our marriages and with what modifications?

20. What part did Rebekah have in this affair and what eastern custom does she comply with upon her first sight of Isaac?

21. Who was Abraham’s second wife and who were his descendants by this wife?

22. How old was Abraham when he died and what is the meaning of "full of days"?

23. What is the meaning, both negatively and positively, of the expression: "He was gathered to his people," what touching thing occurred at his funeral and what was the meaning of "Before the face of his brethren he abode"?

24. Analyze the character of Abraham and state the constituent elements of his greatness.