The Patriarchs Part 11

This strongly intimates the tendencies of his early life. And thus was character formed in him. He was the easy, gentle, unresisting Isaac, pious, as we speak, and, as I have said of him, blameless and amicable.

But with all this, and while this I doubt not is surely so, I ask, Was it merely nature or character that bore him unresistingly along the road to Mount Moriah? See chap. xxii. Was it merely filial piety which then disposed him to be bound as a lamb for the slaughter, without opening his mouth? Can we a.s.sume this? Was this the force of character merely? I say not so. This was too much for human gentleness and submission, even such as might have been found in an Isaac, or in a Jephthah's daughter.

I must rather say, the hand of the Lord was over him on that occasion, just as, long afterwards, it was over the owner of the a.s.s that was needed to bear the King on to the city, and then over the mult.i.tude that accompanied and hailed Him on the road; or, as it was over the man bearing the pitcher of water, who prepared the guest-chamber for the last pa.s.sover. On these occasions, the hand of the Lord was strong to force the material to comply, and take the impression of the moment. As also in the earlier days of Samuel, when the kine carried the ark of G.o.d right on the way homeward, though nature resisted it, their young being left behind them. For the divine power was upon the kine then. And Isaac, in like manner, was under divine power, under the hand of G.o.d, on this occasion; willingly, I fully grant, but made willing as in a day of power; for he was to be the type or foreshadowing of a greater than he.

The seal was in a strong hand, and the impression must be taken, clear, deep, and legible. "Lo, I come to do thy will, O G.o.d," is the writing on the seal. "As a lamb before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."

That was a great moment in the life of Isaac, an occasion of great meaning. So in his acceptance of Rebecca. See chap. xxiv. In his taking a wife, not of all whom he chose, but of his father's providing, we may trace the same strong hand over him. There might easily have been more of human submissiveness and filial piety in this, than in the case of the sacrifice on Mount Moriah, we may surely allow; but still this was a _sealing_ time as well as the other. This marriage was a type or mystery, as well as that sacrifice. The wife brought home to the son and heir of the father, by the servant who was in the full confidence and secret of the father, this was a mystery; and the material must comply again, and take the impression from the hand that was using it. The potter was making vessels for the use of the household, and the clay must yield. The prophet's children, ages afterwards, had names given them, as the Lord pleased, and the prophet had to say of them, Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders. Isa. viii. And so, Isaac and Rebecca, in the day and circ.u.mstances of their marriage, were a type, "for a sign and a wonder."

This was their chief dignity; _they tell the mysteries of G.o.d_. They are parables as well as mysteries. They were events set in time or in the progress of the earth's history, as the sun and moon and stars are set in the heavens, _for signs_. Each of them has a writing on it under the hand of G.o.d. "I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts;" for on these events He has impressed the image of some of His everlasting counsels.

But though this gentle and submissive nature that was in our Isaac was not equal to such sacrifices and surrenders as these, yet gentle, submissive nature is the quality which gives him his character. At times it acts amiably and attractively; at times it sadly betrays him. But at all times, under all circ.u.mstances, amid the few incidents that are recorded of him, it is the easy, gentle, yielding Isaac that we see. And the presence of one and the same virtue on every occasion is, I need not say, but poor in point of character. It is _combination_ that bespeaks character and divine workmans.h.i.+p. "The kingdom of G.o.d is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." It is firm as well as gracious and joyous. And this is moral glory; as many coloured rays give us the one unsullied result in the light we enjoy and admire. But this does not s.h.i.+ne in Isaac. In none, surely, in its full beauty, save in Him in whom all glories, in their different generations, meet and s.h.i.+ne.

Jeremiah, I might here take liberty to say, appears to me to have been a man of one pa.s.sion, as Isaac was a man of one virtue. I mean, of course, characteristically as to each of them, Isaac and Jeremiah. A G.o.dly pa.s.sion indeed it was, grief over the moral wastes of Zion, which characterized Jeremiah. But being thus his _one_ affection, the pa.s.sion or sentiment, which, after this manner, possessed his soul, it makes him generally very engaging and attractive to the heart; but at times it allies his spirit with that which defiles him. He is angry with the people who were stirring the sorrows of his heart. And he murmurs against G.o.d Himself. I speak, of course, of Jeremiah's character, as we get it exhibited in his ministry. I know, surely, in that ministry, looked at in itself, he was the prophet of G.o.d and delivered the inspirations of the Holy Ghost. But as a man I speak of him; as a man, he was a man of one pa.s.sion; as I have said of Isaac that he was a man of one virtue. But it is those in whom there is _a.s.semblage_ of virtues, that tell us more a.s.suredly of divine workmans.h.i.+p, of trees planted by the rivers of waters, that bring forth fruit _in season_. Psalm i. For it is this seasonableness that is the real beauty. Everything is beautiful in its season, and only then. Gentleness loses its beauty, when zeal and indignation are called for. The first Psalm is too high a description for a man of one virtue; it implies character, and decision, and individuality; it shows a soul drawing its virtue from G.o.d. "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." This is of divine husbandry; but such we do not see in our Isaac. In his measure, and certainly in contrast with Isaac, this combination or a.s.semblage of virtues, of which I have already spoken, appears in Abraham; and this difference in the two may be seen in their acting under similar circ.u.mstances. Abraham in chap. xxi. and Isaac in this chapter xxvi.7

7 As to the common sin of Abraham and Isaac touching the denial of their wives, calling them their sisters, see "Abraham," p. 122.

Isaac had been very badly treated by the Philistines. One well after another of his own digging was violently taken away from him, as the wells which his father had dug had been filled up. He had yielded to this wrong with a gentle, gracious spirit, in a spirit that well became one of G.o.d's strangers and pilgrims here, who look for citizens.h.i.+p in another world. He went from place to place, as the Philistines again and again strove with him and urged him. This was according to the mind which marks him, as we said, in every incident of his life. Suffering, he threatens not--doing well and suffering for it, he takes it patiently; and this we know is acceptable with G.o.d. 1 Peter ii. 20. And so G.o.d here attests this; for He owns His servant in this thing, and comes to him by night as He had comforted Abraham. But when, in season, the Philistines are brought to a better mind, and Abimelech the king, with his friend Ahuzzath, and Phichol his chief captain, seek Isaac and alliance with him, I ask, Does not his character, in its way, betray him?

Of course it was right in Isaac to receive them, and plight them his friends.h.i.+p, and to exchange the good offices and pledges and securities of neighbourliness which they sought. For we ought to forgive, if it be seventy times seven a day. But with that there is to be faithfulness in its season--faithfulness as well as forgiveness. "If thy brother trespa.s.s against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him." But Isaac was not quite up to this st.u.r.dier virtue. He complains to Abimelech, but it is in such soft and easy terms, that it seems to carry no authority to the conscience with it. Not so his entering into covenant with him. He strikes hands readily, and, I may say, heartily.

He makes a feast for the king of Gerar, and sends him away as his ally, without his being brought to any acknowledgment of the wrong which his people had done to the man whose friends.h.i.+p he was now seeking and getting. Nor is there on the lips of Isaac any gainsaying of Abimelech's a.s.sertion, that he had done nothing but good to Isaac all the time he had been in his country. As far as this intercourse went, and as far as we can discover the mind of the king of Gerar, he was not convicted by Isaac, but returned home with his friends at peace with himself as well as with Isaac. Isaac had not made good to Abimelech's conscience the complaint he had made to his ear--there was want of character and force in it--it partook of Isaac's own nature.

This was but poor virtue in Isaac. It is but poor virtue in ourselves, when it appears--and some of us have to treat it as such, and confess it as such, at times. It is agreeable in a certain form of amiable human nature; but it is not service to G.o.d. We are humbled by reason of that in our own ways. It is poor, and our Isaac here gives us, in measure at least, a sample of this.

It was, however, otherwise with Abraham. The king of Gerar had sought Abraham in his day, and sought him for a like reason, and with a like desire. Abraham meets him in as n.o.ble a spirit of forgiveness as Isaac would have done, with an equal readiness of heart and hand to accept him, and to pledge him. But with all this, he rebukes him and makes him feel the rebukes. "Abraham _reproved_ Abimelech," as we read, but as we do not read in the case of Isaac. Abraham will not send him away satisfied with himself, as Isaac did, with an unanswered boast in his mouth of his and his people's virtues. He will a.s.sure him, as fully as Isaac could have done, of his full forgiveness and reconciliation; but he will not hide it from him, that his conscience may have a question with him, though his neighbour may accept him and pardon him; that there are matters (as between him and the Lord) which Abraham's feast and Abraham's friends.h.i.+p could never settle.

This was _real_, real before G.o.d, where _reality_, beloved, ever puts us. May we know that secret better, and be upright before Him! This was beautiful--and by this Abraham was _blessing_ Abimelech, and not _merely gratifying_ him. But this was not so with Isaac; and we may leave him on this occasion, in chap. xxvi., with something of this inquiry in our hearts, Was it mere nature, or the renewed mind in the saint, that acted thus?--a question which still occurs.

Isaac was an elect one, as surely as Abraham; a stranger with G.o.d in the earth; one who _used_ his altar as well as _carried_ it. He was meditating in the field when he got his Rebecca, and he had prayed for the mercy, when Esau and Jacob were given to him. We speak of _character_ in him only, when we thus contrast him with another. We speak of the living, practical ways of a saint; and we see in him what was below a witness for G.o.d abroad, though amiable and devout at home.

This is found in Isaac; and kindred things are still found, again I may say, as many of us know to our humbling. As one once said to me, "There is much that goes with others for being _spiritual_, because it is done for the eye and taste of our fellow-Christians, and not, as in G.o.d's presence, with a single heart to Him."

This indeed is true; and this searches our hearts to their profit. Such notices of our common ways may convict, but they need by no means dishearten us. Quite otherwise; they may be welcomed as for blessing.

The light that penetrates to scatter our darkness, leaves itself behind to gladden us, and has t.i.tle to a.s.sert the place as _all its own_--so that we ought to be able, in spirit, to sing of _present light_ and _past_ _darkness_, to know what we _were_, and what we _are_, and still to sing--

"All that I was, my sin, my guilt, My death was all my own-- All that I am I owe to Thee, My gracious G.o.d, alone.

"The evil of my former state Was mine and only mine-- The good in which I now rejoice Is Thine and only Thine.

"The darkness of my former state, The bondage, all was mine-- The light of life in which I walk, The liberty is Thine."

This is standing, not attainment; this is what faith ent.i.tles us to celebrate. Faith takes up this language, and the soul surely hears it and understands it. But _faith_ is the spring, in the inworking power of the Holy Ghost. As in Heb. xi., from beginning to end, it is _faith_ that is celebrated. Enoch, and Moses, and David, and the prophets, and the martyrs of other days, may be presented there in their fruits and victories, but it is _faith_, and not the people of G.o.d, that the Spirit by the apostle is celebrating in that fine chapter.

But I must return to Isaac.

At the close of chapter xxvi. we read: "And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hitt.i.te, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hitt.i.te: which were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah."

This has much for us in the way of admonition; but to use it aright, I must look to things connected with it, or like it, in the earlier history of Abraham, and then in the future histories of Jacob and his son Judah.

The command to the nation of Israel at the very beginning was to keep the way of the Lord very particularly as to _marriage_. They were by no means either to give their daughters to the sons of the Canaanites, or take the Canaanites' daughters for their sons. Deut. vii. 3. If they did so, it would be on the pain of being no longer owned of the Lord. Josh.

xxiii. According to this, the apostate days of Solomon are marked by disobedience to this very thing (1 Kings xi.); and afterwards, no real recovery to G.o.d could be admitted, without a return to the observance of this principle in their marriages. Ezra x.; Neh. x.

Obedience, therefore, in this thing was a peculiar test of the state of the nation. And it is thus that I look at it in this earliest book of Genesis. For though divine law was not then published, divine principles were then understood. It may be regarded as the witness of the state of _family_ religion then, as it was of the state of _national_ religion afterwards.

Abraham, in this matter, eminently keeps "the way of the Lord;" and so Eliezer, one of his "household;" and so our Isaac, one of his "children." For Abraham sends a special emba.s.sy into a distant land, in order to get a wife "in the Lord" for his son--Eliezer goes on that emba.s.sy with a ready mind--and Isaac in patience waits for the fruit of it, not seeking any alliance with the nearer people; and, though sad and solitary, keeps himself for the Lord's appointed helpmeet. Like Adam, he waited for a helpmeet from the Lord's own hand, though it cost him patience and sore solitude. This his meditation in the field at eventide shows. He endured. He might have got a daughter of Canaan; but he endured. He will rather suffer the sickening of his heart from the deferring of his hope, than not marry "in the Lord," or take him a wife of any that he may choose. And all this was very beautiful in this first generation of this elect family. The father, the servant, and the child, each in his way, witnesses how Abraham had ordered his house according to G.o.d, teaching his children and his household the way of the Lord. See chap. xviii. 19.

But we notice a course of sad decline and departure from all this.

Isaac, in his turn and generation, becomes the head of the family. But he is grievously careless in this matter, compared with his father; as this scripture, the close of chapter xxvi., shows us. He does not watch over his children's ways, to antic.i.p.ate mischief, as Abraham had done.

Esau his son marries a daughter of the Hitt.i.tes. Isaac and Rebecca are grieved at this, it is true; for they had _righteous_ souls which knew how to be "vexed" with this; but then, it was their _carelessness_ which had brought this vexation upon them.

This we cannot say was beautiful. But still there was a happy symptom in it. There was a righteous soul to be vexed, a mind sensitive of defilement. And this was well. Jacob, however, declines still further.

He neither antic.i.p.ates the mischief, like Abraham, nor does he, like Isaac, grieve over it when it occurs. But with an unconcerned heart, as far as the history tells us, he allows his children to form what alliances they please, and to take them wives of all whom they choose.

This is sad. There is no _joy_ for the heart here, as in the _obedience_ of Abraham; there is no _relief_ for the heart here, as in the _sorrow_ of Isaac and Rebecca.

But Judah afterwards goes beyond even all this in a very fearful way. He represents the fourth generation of this elect family. But he not only does not antic.i.p.ate mischief, like Abraham, in the ordering of his family, nor grieve over mischief when brought into it, like Isaac, nor is he simply indifferent about it, whether it be brought in or not, like Jacob, but he actually brings it in himself! For he does nothing less than take a daughter of the Canaanites to be the wife of his son Er!

This exceeded. This was sinning with a high hand. And thus, in all this, in this history of the four generations of Genesis-patriarchs, we notice declension, gradual but solemn declension, till it reach complete apostasy from the way of the Lord.

But if this be serious and sad, as it really is, is it not profitable and seasonable? Can we not readily own, that it is "written for our learning"? How does it warn us of a tendency to decline from G.o.d's principles! What took place in the same elect family, generation after generation, may take place in the same elect person, year after year.

The principles of G.o.d may be deserted by easy gradations. They may first be _relaxed_, then _forgotten_, then _despised_. They may pa.s.s from a _firm_ hand into an _easy_ one, from thence to an _indifferent_ one, and find themselves at last flung away by a _rebellious_ one. Many have at first stood for G.o.d's principles in the face of difficulties and fascinations, like Abraham--then, merely grieved over the loss of them, like Isaac--then, been careless about their loss or maintenance, like Jacob--and at last, with a high hand, broken them, like Judah.

This is suggested by the scene at the close of chap. xxvi. As we pursue the story of Isaac after this, we shall find that his soft and pliant nature allies him not only with weaknesses, but with defilement, with some of the low indulgences of mere animal nature. I mean in the closing action of his life, his blessing of Esau and Jacob.

This is a solemn scene indeed, full of warning and admonition.

Though Isaac had been grieved, as we have seen, by the marriage of Esau with a daughter of the Hitt.i.tes, yet we learn immediately afterwards, that it is this very same Esau that draws and holds the strongest affections of his father's heart, to which that father would, if he could, have sacrificed everything. And this was very sad. It reminds me of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat had G.o.dly _sensibilities_, but he was wanting in G.o.dly _energies_. Through vanity he sadly sinned; first joining in affinity with Ahab, king of Israel, and then with Ahab going to the battle. But still, he had sensibilities that were spiritual and of divine workmans.h.i.+p. For in the midst of the prophets of Baal, he was not at ease. He had a witness within, that this would not do; and he asked, "Is there not here a prophet of the Lord beside, that we might inquire of him?" But still, and in spite of all this, he went to Ramoth-Gilead to battle, and that, too, in alliance with that very Ahab, who had thus so painfully wounded the best affections of his soul, and who, under his own eye, and as they sat on the throne together, in the spirit of deep revolt from the G.o.d of Israel, had consulted the prophets of Baal.

This was strange, as well as terrible; but this was that king Jehoshaphat. And just after the same manner, our Isaac on this occasion had his _sensibilities_, but not his corresponding _energies_. With a G.o.dly mind he grieved over Esau's marriage with a daughter of Heth; and yet that very Esau, who thus wounded the witness within him, was the one to attract and hold and order the fondest sympathies of his heart, so as to hinder him from freeing himself to act for G.o.d.

It was not through vanity, as it was in Jehoshaphat, that Isaac thus sadly and strangely failed--it was rather, from the common pravity of his character, such as we have seen it to be, a general relaxed moral tone of soul. But whether it be through this or that, he is ensnared, I may say, by an earlier Ahab, though his soul had the sense of that Ahab's apostasy. He would help Esau to the blessing all he could, as Jehoshaphat would help the king of Israel all he could to the victory at Ramoth-Gilead.

What sights are these! what lessons and warnings!

But we must inspect this family scene, this family circle in chap.

xxvii. a little more closely. There are others beside Isaac to be looked at.

Abraham's servant in chap. xxiv. had brought two different things with him out of the house of his master, when he visited the house of Bethuel. He brought a _report_ of all that the Lord had done for Abraham, and _gifts_.

These different things become tests of that household in Mesopotamia.

The report dealt with future and distant things, and had G.o.d necessarily connected with it--the gifts might have been independent of Him, and were a present gain. Rebecca was moved by the report. She takes the jewels, it is true; but the tidings which the servant brought are chief with her. The report of what awaited her among a distant people whom the Lord had blessed had power to detach her. It was not Isaac merely, or Abraham's wealth merely. Her father had wealth, and she need not go far to promise herself a home and its enjoyments. But _the Lord_ had blessed Abraham, and had now prospered the journey of his servant. It was not a question with Rebecca whether she would take Isaac and a share in Abraham's wealth, or remain poor and lonely. The question was this--Would she take the portion the Lord was now bringing her, or that which her kindred and circ.u.mstances in the world had provided her?

And so it is with us, beloved. It is not a question between heaven and nothing, but between heaven and the world, between our taking the happiness which the Lord in His promises, or which human present circ.u.mstances, have for us. Are we desirous of divine joy and of heavenly riches? Can we say to the Lord Jesus, Thou shalt "choose our inheritance for us?" Is the distant land, of which we have received a report, our object? This was Rebecca; she could answer these questions.

We should wrong her if we judged that with her it was Abraham's wealth and Isaac's hand or nothing. It was not so. As we said before, and surely the story warrants it, she had large expectations of every kind, if she remained at home. She need not take a long, untried journey with a stranger and to a strange people. But all became nothing to her, when in faith she received the report. She comes forth at the call of G.o.d.

Rebecca was a genuine daughter of Abraham. Abraham had crossed the desert at the call of the G.o.d of glory, and Rebecca now crosses the same desert at the report of what the G.o.d of glory had done for Abraham. They had the like "spirit of faith." The stronger expression of it we may find in Abraham, but it was the like "spirit of faith." Abraham had gone forth in the faith of an unattested call; Rebecca now goes forth on an accredited report. There was no Eshcol brought out of Canaan to Ur to embolden Abraham to take the journey; but "this is the fruit of it" was said to Rebecca in the servants and camels and gold and jewels--a branch with a cl.u.s.ter rich and abundant indeed. The report is now sealed to Rebecca, as it had not been to Abraham. Abraham tried an untried path; Rebecca did but walk in the footsteps of the flock. But they were on the same road, and reached the same place.

This is simple and beautiful in Rebecca, and the way of faith to this hour. But, beloved, there is more, and that, too, of another kind.

Rebecca's _character_ had been already formed--as, I may say, it is with all of us, before we are quickened of G.o.d. The moment of His power arrives--we are made alive with divine life then--the separating call is also answered; but it finds us of a certain character, a certain shape and complexion of mind. It finds us, it may be, Cretans (t.i.tus i.), or brothers and sisters of Laban, or something that wears the strong stamp of a peculiar pravity of nature. And then character and mind, derived from nature or from family or from education and the like, we take with us after we have been born of the Spirit, and carry it in us across the desert from Padan-aram to the house of Abraham.