Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 12
Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 12
Scripture Reading: Genesis 12 (KJV)
The book of Genesis is, for the most part, a history of seven men: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. There is a specific line of truth brought out in connection with each of those men. For example, in Abel we have the great foundation truth of man's atonement – coming to God; atonement apprehended by faith. In Enoch, we have the proper portion and hope of the heavenly family; while Noah presents us with the destiny of the earthly family. Enoch was taken to heaven before judgment; Noah was carried through judgment into a restored earth. In each, we have a distinct character of truth and, as a consequence, a distinct phase of faith. One can pursue the subject fully in Hebrews 11. We shall proceed with the call of Abraham.
By comparing Genesis 12:1 and 11:31 with Acts 7:2-4, we learn a truth of immense practical value to the soul. "The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee” (Gen. 12:1). This communication to Abraham was of a most definite character, designed by God to act on Abraham's heart and conscience.
‘. . . The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran [or Haran as in the NKJV], and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew [show] thee. Then went he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran [or Haran]: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell’ (Acts 7:2-4, emphasis added).
The result of this communication is given in Genesis 11:31, ‘And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go the land of Canaan: and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there . . . and Terah died in Haran.’
From these passages we learn that ties of nature hindered the full response of Abraham's soul to the call of God. Though called to Canaan, he nevertheless tarried at Haran, till the influence of nature was snapped by death, and then, with unimpeded step he made his way to the place "the God glory" had called him. This is full of meaning. Influences of nature are always hostile to the full and practical power of "the calling of God." Sadly, we are prone to take a lower ground than that which the Divine call sets before us. Only simplicity and integrity of faith enables the soul to rise to the height of God's thoughts – to make our own that which God reveals.
The apostle's prayer (Eph. 1:15-22), demonstrates how fully he entered into the difficulty with which the Church would always contend in seeking to apprehend "the hope of God's calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints;" because, by failing to apprehend the calling, we cannot ‘walk worthy.’ In other words, I must know where I am called to go, before I can go there. Had Abraham's soul been fully under the ‘power of the truth’ that God's calling was to Canaan, and there lay "his inheritance," he could not have remained in Charran. And so it is with us. If we are led by the Holy Spirit into the understanding of the truth that we are called with a heavenly calling; that our home, our portion, our hope, our inheritance, are all above, where Christ ‘sitteth at God's right hand,’ we could never be satisfied to maintain a standing, seek a name, or lay up an inheritance, on the earth. The true way to look at the matter is that the two things are incompatible. The heavenly calling is not an empty dogma, a powerless theory, nor a crude speculation. It is either Divine reality, or it is absolutely nothing. Was Abraham's call to Canaan a speculation? Was it a mere theory that he might talk or argue, while, at the same time, staying in Charran? No; it was Divine truth. He was called to Canaan, and God could not possibly sanction anything less. Thus it was with Abraham, and thus it is with us. If we would enjoy God’s sanction and God’s presence, we must, by faith, be seeking to act on God’s call. In other words, we must seek to reach, in experience, practice, and moral character, the point to which God has called us, and that point is full fellowship with His own Son, Jesus Christ – fellowship with Him in His rejection below, fellowship with Him in His acceptance above.
But, it was death that broke the link by which nature bound Abraham to Charran. The same is true with us. Death breaks the link by which nature ties us to this present world. We must realize this truth – we have died in Christ, our head and representative; our place in nature and the world, is among the things that were. In other words, the cross of Christ is to us what the Red Sea was to Israel, namely, that which separates us forever from the land of death and judgment. Only in this way shall we be able to walk "worthy of the calling wherewith we are called" – our high, our holy, our heavenly calling; our "calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Let us consider the cross of Christ in its two grand, fundamental phases, as the basis of our worship, peace, testimony, relation with God, and our relation with the world. If, as a convicted sinner, I look at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, I behold the everlasting foundation of my peace, I see my "sin" put away, and I see my "sins" borne by Jesus. The cross unfolds God as the sinner's Friend. It reveals Him as the righteous Justifier of the most ungodly sinner. Creation could never do this. Providence could never do this. Therein I may see God's power, His majesty, and wisdom: but, abstractly looked at in themselves, they would be ranged against me, for I am a sinner; and power, majesty, and wisdom, could not put away my sin, nor justify God receiving me.
However, the introduction of the cross changes the aspect of things. There we find God dealing with sin in such a manner as to infinitely glorify Himself. There we see the magnificent display and perfect harmony of all the Divine attributes. We see love that captivates and assures the heart, weaning it from every other object. We see wisdom that baffles devils and astonishes angels. We see power that withstands opposition. We see holiness that repulses sin, giving the most intense expression of God's abhorrence thereof. We see grace that sets the sinner in the very presence of God. Where could we see all these things but in the cross? Look where you please and you cannot find anything else that so blessedly combines those two great points: "glory to God in the highest," and "on earth peace."
The cross is precious as the basis of our peace, our worship, and our eternal relationship with the God – so blessedly and gloriously revealed therein. The cross is precious to God, furnishing Him with a righteous ground on which to fully display all His matchless perfections, and His most gracious dealings with the sinner! So precious is the cross to God that from the very beginning, all He has said and all He has done indicates that it was always uppermost in His heart. And no wonder! His dear and beloved Son was to hang there, between heaven and earth, the object of all the shame and suffering that men and devils could heap upon Him. The cross will be the grand center of attraction; as the fullest expression of His love throughout eternity.
As the basis of our practical discipleship and testimony, the cross demands our most profound consideration. The same cross that connects me with God separates me from the world. As a dead man is done with the world, the believer, having died in Christ, is done with the world. Having risen with Christ, the believer is connected with God in the power of a new life, a new nature. Being inseparably linked with Christ, the true believer participates in His acceptance with God, and in rejection by the world. The two things go together. The former makes him a worshipper and a citizen in heaven, the latter a witness and stranger on earth. That brings him inside the veil; this puts him outside the camp. One is as perfect as the other. If the cross has come between me and sins, it has also come between me and the world. In the former case, it puts me into the place of peace with God; in the latter, it puts me into the place of hostility with the world, i.e., in a moral point of view. In another sense, it makes me the patient, humble witness of that precious, unfathomable, eternal grace set forth in the cross.
The believer should clearly understand, and rightly distinguish between, both the above phases of the cross of Christ. He should not profess to enjoy the one while refusing to enter into the other. If his ear is open to hear Christ's voice within the veil, it will also be open to hear His voice outside the camp. Entering into the atonement which the cross has accomplished, he should also realize it involves rejection. Atonement flows out of God’s part in the cross; rejection out of man’s part. It is our happy privilege, to not only be done with sin, but also with the world. All this is involved in the doctrine of the cross. Therefore, the apostle said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Paul looked on the world as a thing which that should be nailed to the cross; by crucifying Christ, the world had crucified all who belonged to Him. Hence there is a double crucifixion – the believer and the world. When this is fully entered into, it proves the utter impossibility of ever amalgamating the two. Let us deeply, honestly, and prayerfully ponder these things; and may the Holy Spirit give us the ability to enter into the full practical power of both phases of the cross of Christ.
Returning to our theme, we are not told how long Abraham tarried at Haran; yet God graciously waited on His servant until he could fully obey His command. However, God’s command made no accommodation to the circumstances of nature. God loves His servants too much to deprive them of the blessedness of obedience. There was no fresh revelation to Abraham during his sojourn in Haran. This is an important point. We must act on the light already communicated; only then will God give us more. "To him that hath shall more be given." This is God's principle. Still, we must remember that God will never drag us along the path of discipleship. To do so would greatly damage the moral excellency that characterizes all the ways of God. He does not drag us along the path leading to His ineffable blessedness – He draws us. If we do not see that it is advantageous to break through the barriers of nature in order to respond to God's call, then we forsake our own mercies. But, our hearts seldom think on these things. Instead, we begin to calculate the sacrifices, hindrances, and difficulties, instead of eagerly bounding along the path, knowing and loving the One whose call has sounded in our ears.
There are true blessings to the soul in every step of obedience, because obedience is the fruit of faith; and faith puts us into living association and communion with God Himself. Looking at obedience in this light, we can easily see how distinctly it is separated from legality. Legality leads sinful man to serve God by keeping the law; hence, the soul is kept in constant torture. To attempt to regulate man's fallen nature by God's pure and holy law is useless and absurd. Fallen nature cannot breathe in an atmosphere so pure.
But, the blessed God imparts a divine nature to the believer, guiding that nature by His heavenly precepts, setting before it suited hopes and expectations. Thus, in Abraham's case, ‘The God of glory appeared unto him.’ Why? To set before His soul's vision an attractive object – "a land that I will show thee." This was not compulsion, but attraction. In the view of faith, God's land was far better than Ur, or Charran, even though he had not seen the land. Faith always says God's land is worth having, and worth the surrender of present things. Hence, we read, "by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive as an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went" – "he walked by faith, not by sight." Though he had not seen with his eyes, he believed with his heart, and faith became the great moving spring in his soul. Faith rests on the Word of God, a far more solid ground than the evidence of our senses. Our senses may deceive us, but Gods Word can never do so.
Divine nature, together with the precepts that guide, and the hopes that animate it – the whole of Divine doctrine respecting these things, is completely thrown overboard by the system of legalism. The legalist teaches that we must surrender earth in order to get heaven. But how can fallen nature surrender that to which it is allied? How can it be attracted by that in which it sees no charms? Heaven has no charms for nature. In fact, nature has no taste for heaven, its occupations, or its occupants. If it was possible for nature to find itself there, it would be miserable. In other words, nature has no ability to surrender earth, and no desire to get heaven, even though it would be glad to escape hell and its ineffable torment, gloom, and misery. But the desire to escape hell, and the desire to get heaven, spring from two very different sources. The former may exist in the old nature; the latter can only be found in the new. Were there no "lake of fire," and no "worm" in hell, human nature would not shrink from it. The same principle is true regarding nature's pursuits and desires. Legalism teaches that we must give up sin before we can get righteousness. But, can human nature give up sin? No; and furthermore, nature hates righteousness. True, human nature likes a certain amount of religion; but only because religion will preserve it from hell fire. It does not love religion, because religion introduces the soul to God and His ways.
How different from all this miserable system of Legalism, in every phase thereof, is "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God!" This Gospel reveals God Himself coming down in perfect grace, putting away sin by the sacrifice of the cross; putting it away on the ground of eternal righteousness, because Christ suffered for it, having been made sin for us. Not only is God seen putting away sin, but He also imparts a new life – the life of His own risen, exalted, and glorified Son. Every true believer possesses this life, by virtue of being linked with Him Who was nailed to the cross, but is now on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. As we have seen, He graciously guides this nature by the precepts of His Holy Word, applied in power by the Holy Spirit. He also animates it by the presentation of indestructible hopes. In the distance, He reveals "the hope of glory"; "a city which hath foundations"; "a better country, that is an heavenly"; "the many mansions" of the Father's house, on high; "golden harps"; "green palms," and "white robes"; "a kingdom which cannot be moved"; everlasting association with Himself in those regions of bliss and light where sorrow and darkness can never enter – the unspeakable privilege of being led, throughout the countless ages of eternity, "beside the still waters, and through the green pastures" of redeeming love. How different this is from legalism. Instead of calling on us to educate and manage an irremediably corrupt nature by the dogmas of systematic religion in order that we may surrender an earth that our loves to attain a heaven our nature hates, God bestows on us, on the ground of Christ’s accomplished sacrifice, a nature that can enjoy heaven, and by His grace provides a heaven for that nature to enjoy.
Such is God's most excellent way. Thus He dealt with Abraham. Thus He dealt with Saul of Tarsus. Thus He deals with us. The God of glory showed Abraham a better country than Ur or Charran. He showed Saul of Tarsus a glory so bright that it closed his eyes to earth's brightest glories, causing him to count them all "but dung," that He might win that Blessed One who had appeared to him – whose voice spoke to his inmost soul. He saw a heavenly Christ in glory, and throughout the remainder of his life, that heavenly Christ and heavenly glory engrossed his soul.
"And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land." The presence of the Canaanite in God's land proved a trial to Abraham. It would be a demand on his faith and hope, an exercise of heart, a trial of patience. Having left Ur and Charran behind, he come into the country that "the God of glory" had spoken of, and there he finds "the Canaanite." But, he also finds the Lord. "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will give this land." The connection between the two statements is beautiful and touching. "The Canaanite was then in the land," and to keep Abraham's eye from resting on the present possessor of the land, Jehovah appears to him as the One giving the land to him and to his seed forever. Thus Abraham was focused on the Lord, and not on the Canaanite. This is full of instruction for us. The Canaanite in the land is an expression of Satan’s power; but, instead of being occupied with Satan's power that keeps us out of the inheritance, we are called to apprehend Christ's power that brings us in. "We wrestle, not with flesh and blood . . . but with spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies." The very sphere into which we are called is the sphere of our conflict. Should this terrify us? No; Christ is there – a victorious Christ, in Whom we are "more than conquerors." Therefore, instead of indulging "a spirit of fear," we cultivate a spirit of worship. "And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." "And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and Pitched his tent." The altar and the tent give us the two great features of Abraham's character. A worshipper of God, a stranger in the world – most blessed characteristics! Having nothing on earth – having our all in God.
However, faith has its trials, as well as its answers. Having pushed out from the shore of circumstances, the man of faith does not find it all smooth and easy sailing. Again and again, he is called to encounter rough seas and stormy skies; but it is all graciously designed to lead him into a deeper and more mature experience of what God is to the heart that confides in Him. If the sky was always cloudless, and the ocean without a ripple, we would never come to know God; for the heart is prone to mistake the peace of circumstances for the peace of God. When everything is smooth and pleasant – our property safe, our business prosperous, our children and friends carrying themselves agreeably, our residence comfortable, our health excellent, everything just right – we easily mistake the peace of circumstances, for peace that flows from the presence of Christ. The Lord knows that we are prone to rest in circumstances, instead of in Him; therefore, He comes in, in one way or another, and stirs up the nest.
Too frequently we are led to judge the rightness of a path by its exemption from trial, and vice versa. But this is a great mistake. The path of obedience is most often the most trying to flesh and blood. Thus, in Abraham's case, he was not only called to encounter the Canaanite in the place to which God had called him, but there was also "a famine in the land." Should he have therefore concluded that he was not in his right place? No; to do so would have been to judge according to the sight of his eyes, the very thing that faith never does. It was, no doubt, a deep trial to the heart, an inexplicable puzzle to nature; but to faith it was all plain and easy. When Paul was called into Macedonia, he encountered the prison at Philippi. To a heart out of communion, this would have been a death-blow to the entire mission. But Paul never questioned the rightness of his position. He sang praises in the midst of it all, assured that everything was as it should be. And it was, because in that prison was one of God's vessels of mercy, a man who perhaps would not have heard the Gospel, had not the preachers of it been thrown into the very place where he was. In spite of himself, the devil was made the instrument of sending the Gospel to the accepting ears of a sinner.
In reference to the famine, Abraham should have reasoned in the same way. He was where God had set him; and evidently he received no direction to leave it. True, the famine was there; and Egypt was at hand, offering deliverance from pressure; still, the path of God's servant was plain. It is better to starve in Canaan, than live in Egypt’s luxury. It is far better to suffer in God's path, than be at ease in Satan's. It is better to be poor with Christ, than rich without Him. Abraham had sheep, oxen, donkeys, servants, and camels. To the human heart, these are substantial proofs of the rightness of his step in going down to Egypt. But, he had no altar – no communion. Egypt was not the place of God's presence. He lost more than he gained by going there. This is always the case. Nothing can ever make up for the loss of communion with God. Exemption from temporary pressure and the accession of great wealth are but poor equivalents for what one loses by diverging a hair's breadth from the straight path of obedience. How many of us, in order to avoid the trial and exercise connected with God's path, have slipped into the current of this present evil world, thereby bringing leanness and barrenness, heaviness and gloom, into our souls? Perhaps we have used the common phrase, "made money," to increase our store and obtain the world's favor, seeking a name and position among men; only to find they are not a proper equivalent for joy in God, communion of heart, a pure, uncondemning conscience, a thankful, worshipping spirit, vigorous testimony, and effectual service? And yet the above incomparable blessings are often sold for a little ease, a little influence; a little money.
Let us be watchful against the tendency to slip aside from the narrow, but safe, sometimes rough, always pleasant, path of simple, wholehearted obedience. Let us jealously and carefully keep guard over "faith and a pure conscience," for which nothing can compensate. Instead of turning aside into Egypt, should trial come, let us wait on God. In this way, instead of proving an occasion of stumbling, the trial will prove an opportunity for obedience. When tempted to slip into the course of the world, let us remember Him: ‘Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God, and our Father’ (Gal. 1:4). He gave Himself in order to deliver us from this present world – shall we deny Him by plunging again into that from which His cross has forever delivered us? May He keep us in the hollow of His hand, and under the shadow of His wings, until we see Jesus as He is, and be like Him, and with Him forever.
