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brimstone, which is the second death"." "Make haste then, and delay not, to keep God's commandments"," and to "lay hold on eternal life." Rest not in any purposes, professions, or attainments. Turn not back even in thought: but "forgetting what is behind, press forward toward that which is before." It will be time enough to "rest from your labours," when you are got safe to heaven.]

3. Those who are daily running in the way prescribed

[Faint not, dearly Beloved, "neither be weary in well doing." For your encouragement you are told to regard Lot's deliverance as a proof, that " God knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, as well as to reserve the ungodly for punishment"." Whatever difficulties therefore you have to encounter, fear not. And do not unbelievingly wish that your way were shorter than God has appointed it. This was Lot's weakness and folly. God did indeed graciously condescend to his request; and spared Zoar for his sake: but his unbelief was punished, not only in the fears which harassed him in Zoar, but in the awful dereliction that he afterwards experienced. From this time we hear nothing of him except his drunkenness and incest: and, if St. Peter had not given us reason to believe that he became truly penitent, we should have had ground to apprehend that he was, after all, an outcast from heaven. Plead not then for any other refuge, or for the indulgence of any sin. Say not of any thing that God has proscribed, "Is it not a little one?" A little one it may be in comparison of others; but, whether little or great, it must be renounced: we must abandon for ever our connexion with it, and let our regards terminate in God alone.

way.

But let not those who are hastening towards heaven, be contented to go alone: let them seek to take all they can along with them. Let them exert their influence to the uttermost over all their friends and connexions, in order that they may be instrumental to their salvation also. Let them especially manifest their conjugal and parental affection in this Yet if, after all, they be derided as visionaries by some, and be forsaken in their progress by others, let them not for one moment intermit their diligence in the preservation of their own souls. If their labours prove effectual only to one or two, it will be a rich consolation to them in the day of judgment, that, though many who were once dear to them have reaped the fruits of their supineness, there are others for whom they have "not laboured in vain, nor run in vain."]

n Rev. xxi. 8.

o Ps. cxix. 60.

P 2 Pet. ii. 6-9.

XXXII.

ABRAHAM REPROVED FOR DENYING HIS WIFE.

Gen. xx. 9. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

WE admire the fidelity of Scripture history. There is not a saint, however eminent, but his faults are reported as faithfully as his virtues. And we are constrained to acknowledge, that the best of men, when they come into temptation, are weak and fallible as others, if they be not succoured from above. We are habituated to behold Abraham as a burning and shining light: but now we are called to view him under an eclipse. We see the father of the faithful drawing upon himself a just rebuke, and that too, not for some slight defect in his obedience, but for a great and heinous transgression. It will afford us a salutary lesson to consider,

I. The offence which Abraham committed

He was guilty of dissimulation in calling Sarah his sister, when she was in reality his wife. It is true, she was also his sister, in the same sense that Lot was his brother; she was his niece, the daughter of Haran, who was his brother by the father's side. But was there nothing wrong in this concealment ? We do not hesitate to declare, that it was a very grievous sin. Consider,

1. The principle from which it sprang

[He had been called out from his country to sojourn in a strange land: and, depending upon God for direction and support," he went forth, not knowing whither he went." For the space of twenty-five years he had experienced the faithfulness and loving-kindness of his God. And he had recently received the most express promises that he should have a son by Sarah, who should be the progenitor of the Messiah. Yet behold, when he comes to Gerar, a city of the Philistines, he is afraid that the people will kill him, in order to gain possession of his wife, who, though ninety years of age, still retained a considerable measure of her former beauty: and, in order to secure

himself, he has recourse to this expedient of denying his wife. But was not God still able to protect him? or could the Philistines touch an hair of his head without God's permission? In what had God failed him, that now at this time he should begin to doubt his faithfulness or power? It was the limiting of these perfections that in after ages brought down upon the whole nation of Israel the heaviest judgments: and it could not but greatly aggravate the offence of Abraham in the present instance.]

2. Its natural and necessary tendency

[We shudder while we contemplate the tendency of this shameful expedient. It was calculated to ensnare the people among whom he sojourned; while it exposed the virtue of Sarah to the extremest hazard. Had she been acknowledged for Abraham's wife, every one would have known the unlawfulness of entertaining a desire after her, and would have abstained from shewing her any undue attention, or from cherishing in his bosom an inclination towards her. But when she passed for an unmarried woman, every one was at liberty to insinuate himself into her affections, and to seek to the uttermost an honourable connexion with her. The event indeed shews what might reasonably have been expected from such a plot. What other catastrophe could well be looked for? Terrible as it might have proved, both to her and to Abimelech, it was no other than the natural consequence of the deceit which was practised.

But what was its aspect and tendency with respect to the Messiah? We tremble to relate. Surely the whole human race combined could not have devised or executed any thing more injurious to his honour. It was but just before, perhaps a week or two, that God had promised to Abraham, that within the year he should have a son by Sarah. Suppose then that matters had proceeded according to Abimelech's intention, and that God had not miraculously interposed to prevent the execution of his purpose, it would have remained a doubt at this moment whether the promises were ever fulfilled to Abraham, and whether the Messiah did indeed descend from his loins. Consequently, the covenant made with Abraham, and all the promises made to him and his seed, would be left in an awful uncertainty. If it would have been criminal in Abraham and Sarah to concert such a plan under any circumstances whatever, how much more criminal was it to do so under the peculiar circumstances in which they then were!] 3. Its having been before practised by him, and reproved

a Ps. lxxviii. 20-22, 40-42.

[Had the Philistines come suddenly upon Abraham, and threatened to put him to death for his wife's sake, we should the less have wondered that they were prevailed upon to conceal their relation to each other. But he had committed this same offence many years before; and had thereby ensnared Pharaoh king of Egypt; nor was he then delivered without a divine interposition, and a just rebuke from the injured monarch'. Surely he ought to have profited by past experience: he should have been sensible of the evil of such a proceeding; and, having been once rescued, as it were by a miracle, he should never have subjected himself again to such danger, reproach, and infamy. The repetition of so heinous a crime, after such a warning and such a deliverance, increased its malignity an hundred-fold.]

If we consider the offence of Abraham in this complicated view, we shall not wonder at,

II. The rebuke given him on account of it—

Abimelech, admonished by God in a dream to restore Abraham his wife, sent for him, and reproved him for the imposition he had practised. In this rebuke we observe,

1. Much that was disgraceful to Abraham

[It was no little disgrace that Abraham, a saint, a prophet of the most high God, should be reproved at all by a heathen: but, when we reflect how much occasion he had given for the reproof, it was disgraceful indeed.

The uncharitableness which he had manifested was very dishonourable to his character. He had indeed just heard of the horrible impiety of Sodom; and he concluded perhaps, that if a whole city so virulently assaulted Lot for the purpose of gratifying their diabolical inclinations with the men that were his guests, much more would some individual be found in Gerar to destroy him, for the purpose of gaining access to a female that was so renowned for her beauty. Glad should we be to offer this excuse for him: but he had before acted in the same manner without any such considerations to influence his conduct; and therefore we cannot lay any material stress on this recent occurrence. But supposing he had been actuated by such reflections, what right had he to judge so harshly of a people whom he did not know? Abimelech justly asked him, "What sawest thou that thou hast done this thing?" He had no other grounds than mere surmise: "I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place." But why should he think so?

b Gen. xii. 12-20.

Could not that God who had brought him out from an idolatrous country, and preserved Lot and Melchizedec in the midst of the most abandoned people, have some "hidden ones" in Gerar also? Or, supposing that there were none who truly feared God, must they therefore be so impious as to murder him in order to possess his wife? It is a fact, that many who are not truly religious, have as high a sense of honour, and as great an abhorrence of atrocious crimes, as any converted man can feel and therefore the reproach which he so unjustifiably cast on them, returned deservedly upon his own head.

In what a disgraceful manner too was his wife restored to his hands! How must he blush to be told, that he who should have been her protector, had been her tempter; that, in fact, he had put a price upon her virtue; and that, instead of being willing, as he ought to have been, to die in her defence, he had sacrificed her honour to his own groundless fears. It must not be forgotten, that Sarah was actually given up to Abimelech, and that Abraham had forborne to claim her: so that he was answerable, not only for the consequences that did ensue, but for those also which, according to the common course of things, were to be expected.

Further, in what light must he appear to himself and all around him, when he was informed, that he had brought on Abimelech and all his household some very severe judgments, and had actually exposed them all to instantaneous death! What Abimelech had done, "he had done in the integrity of his heart:" and, if he and all his family had died for it, Abraham would have been the sole author of their ruin.

We need add no more to the humiliating picture that has been exhibited. Methinks we see Abraham before our eyes ashamed to lift up his head, and with deepest penitence accepting the punishment of his iniquity.]

2. Much that was honourable to Abimelech

[If we were to judge from this portion of sacred history, we should be ready to think that Abraham had been the heathen, and Abimelech the prophet of the Lord. In the reproof this offended king administered, he was a most eminent pattern of moderation, of equity, and of virtue.

Considering what injury he had sustained, it is truly wonderful that he should express himself with such mildness and composure. The occasion would almost have justified the bitterest reproaches: and it might well be expected that Abimelech would cast reflections on his religion; condemning that as worthless, or him as hypocritical. But not one reproachful word escaped his lips. The only word that has at all that aspect, is the gentle sarcasm in his address to Sarah; "I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver;"

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