PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 230,719 words · 327 reading sections
The Crowning Test And Triumph Of Faith
Produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. THE VISION OF CREATION (Genesis i. 26--ii. 3) HOW SIN CAME IN (Genesis iii. 1-15) EDEN LOST AND RESTORED (Genesis iii. 24; Revelation xxii. 14) THE GROWTH A…
330 wordsSECTION 2The Vision Of Creation
GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING (Genesis xlvii. 1-12) TWO RETROSPECTS OF ONE LIFE (Genesis xlvii. 9; Genesis xlviii. 15, 16) 'THE HANDS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF JACOB' (Genesis xlix. 23, 24) THE SHEPHERD, THE STONE OF ISRAEL (Genesis xlix. 24) A CALM EVENING, PROMISING A BRIGHT MORNING (Genesis l. 14-26) JOSEPH'S FAITH (Genes…
703 wordsSECTION 3The Vision Of Creation
2. The record is as emphatic and as unique in its teaching as to the mode of creation: 'God said ... and it was so.' That lifts us above all the poor childish myths of the nations, some of them disgusting, many of them absurd, all of them unworthy. There was no other agency than the putting forth of the divine will. Th…
843 wordsSECTION 4How Sin Came In
'Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in t…
953 wordsSECTION 5How Sin Came In
2. Then comes the yielding to the tempter. As long as the prohibition was undoubted, and the fatal results certain, the fascinations of the forbidden thing were not felt. But as soon as these were tampered with, Eve saw 'that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes.' So it is still. Weaken the…
730 wordsSECTION 6Eden Lost And Restored
'So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.' --GENESIS iii. 24. 'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into…
921 wordsSECTION 7The Growth And Power Of Sin
2. _Heaven restores the lost Eden_. 'God is not ashamed to be called their God, _for_ He hath prepared them a _city_.' The highest conception we can form of heaven is the reversal of all the evil of earth, and the completion of its incomplete good: the sinless purity--the blessed presence of God--the fulfilment of al…
758 wordsSECTION 8The Growth And Power Of Sin
2. Sin here appears as having power to bar men's way to God. Much ingenuity has been spent on the question why Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's rejected. But the narrative itself shows in the words of Jehovah, 'If thou doest well, is there not acceptance?' that the reason lay in Cain's evil deeds. So, in 1 John …
751 wordsSECTION 9The Growth And Power Of Sin
5. The deadly fruit of hate is taught us in the brief account of the actual murder. Notice the impressive plainness and fewness of the words. 'Cain rose up against his brother, and slew him.' A kind of horror-struck awe of the crime is audible. Observe the emphasis with which 'his brother' is repeated in the verse and …
688 wordsSECTION 10The Growth And Power Of Sin
'Jesus' blood through earth and skies, Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries.' Then follows the sentence which falls into two parts--the curse of bitter, unrequited toil, and the doom of homeless wandering. The blood which has been poured out on the battlefield fertilises the soil; but Abel's blasted the earth. It was …
754 wordsSECTION 11What Crouches At The Door
'If thou doest not well, sin croucheth at the door: and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.'--GENESIS iv. 7 (R. V.). These early narratives clothe great moral and spiritual truths in picturesque forms, through which it is difficult for us to pierce. In the world's childhood God spoke to men …
722 wordsSECTION 12What Crouches At The Door
1. First think, then, of that wild beast which we tether to our doors by our wrong-doing. We talk about 'responsibility' and 'guilt,' and 'consequences that never can be effaced,' and the like. And all these abstract and quasi-philosophical terms are implied in the grim, tremendous metaphor of my text 'If thou doest n…
663 wordsSECTION 13What Crouches At The Door
And then let me remind you, too, how the metaphor of our text is confirmed by other obvious facts, on which I need but briefly dwell. Putting aside all the remoter bearings of that thought of responsibility, I suppose we all admit that we have consciences; I suppose that we all know that we have memories; I suppose we …
726 wordsSECTION 14What Crouches At The Door
'The foolish woman sitteth in the high places of the city, and saith, Whoso is simple let him turn in hither.' And foolish men go after her, and--'know not that her guests are in the depth of hell.' Ah! my brother! beware of that siren voice that draws you away from all the sweet and simple and pure food which Wisdom s…
814 wordsSECTION 15What Crouches At The Door
So my text, though it keeps itself within the limits of the law and only proclaims duty, must have hidden, in its very hardness, a sweet kernel of promise. For what God commands God enables us to do. Therefore these words, 'Rule thou over it,' do really point onwards through all the ages to that one fact in which ever…
284 wordsSECTION 16With, Before, After
'Enoch walked with God,'--GENESIS v. 22. 'Walk before Me.'--GENESIS xvii. 1. 'Ye shall walk after the Lord your God.'--DEUTERONOMY xiii. 4. You will have anticipated, I suppose, my purpose in doing what I very seldom do--cutting little snippets out of different verses and putting them together. You see that these th…
672 wordsSECTION 17With, Before, After
'I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were,' said the Psalmist of old. If he had left out these two little words, 'with Thee,' he would have been uttering a tragic complaint; but when they come in, all that is painful, all that is solitary, all that is transient, bitterly transient, in the long…
716 wordsSECTION 18With, Before, After
'Walk before Me' and you will be perfect. For the Hebrew words on which I am now commenting may be read, in accordance with the usage of the language, as being not only a commandment but a promise, or, rather, not as two commandments, but a commandment with an appended promise, and so as equivalent to 'If you will walk…
558 wordsSECTION 19The Course And Crown Of A Devout Life
'And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.' GENESIS v. 24. This notice of Enoch occurs in the course of a catalogue of the descendants of Adam, from the Creation to the Deluge. It is evidently a very ancient document, and is constructed on a remarkable plan. The formula for each man is the same. S…
729 wordsSECTION 20The Course And Crown Of A Devout Life
Cultivate the faculty and habit of vigorous faith, if you would walk with God. For the world will put its bandages over your eyes, and try to tempt you to believe that these poor, shabby illusions are the precious things; and we have to shake ourselves free from its harlot kisses and its glozing lies, by very vigorous …
787 wordsSECTION 21The Course And Crown Of A Devout Life
And then there is another lesson that he teaches us, viz. that such a life is consistent with the completest discharge of all common duties. The outline, as far as appearance was concerned, of this man's life was the same as the outline of those of his ancestors and successors. They are all described in the same terms.…
694 wordsSECTION 22The Course And Crown Of A Devout Life
Then, again, this man in his unique experience was, and is, a witness of the fact that death is an excrescence, and results from sin. I suppose that he trod the road which the divine intention had destined to be trodden by all the children of men, if they had not sinned; and that his experience, unique as it is, is a s…
671 wordsSECTION 23The Course And Crown Of A Devout Life
The dim past of these early chapters carries us over many centuries. We know next to nothing about the men, where they lived, how they lived, what thoughts they had, what tongue they spoke. Some people would say that they never lived at all. I believe, and most of you, I suppose, believe that they did. But how little p…
313 wordsSECTION 24The Saint Among Sinners
'These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all fle…
740 wordsSECTION 25The Saint Among Sinners
Learn, too, that the true place for the saint is 'in his generations.' If the mass is corrupt, so much the more need to rub the salt well in. Disgust and cowardice, and the love of congenial society, keep Christian people from mixing with the world, which they must do if they are to do Christ's work in it. There is a g…
771 wordsSECTION 26The Saint Among Sinners
3. What does the stern sentence on the rotten world teach us? A very profound truth, not only of the certain divine retribution, but of the indissoluble connection of sin with destruction. The same word is thrice employed in verses 11 and 12 to express 'corruption' and in verse 13 to express 'destruction.' A similar us…
687 wordsSECTION 27'Clear Shining After Rain'
5. We may think, finally, of the vindication of his faith. For a hundred and twenty years the wits laughed, and the 'common-sense' people wondered, and the patient saint went on hammering and pitching at his ark. But one morning it began to rain; and by degrees, somehow, Noah did not seem quite such a fool. The jests w…
768 wordsSECTION 28'Clear Shining After Rain'
The universal tradition of a deluge is most naturally accounted for by admitting that there was a 'universal deluge.' But 'universal' does not apply to the extent as embracing the whole earth, but as affecting the small area then inhabited--an area which was probably not greater than the valleys of the Euphrates and Ti…
752 wordsSECTION 29'Clear Shining After Rain'
But the patient expectance of Noah comes out strongly in the story, as well as the gradualness of God's working. Not till 'forty days'--a round number--after the land appeared, did He do anything. He waited quietly till the path was plain. Eager impatience does not become those who trust in God. It is not said that the…
574 wordsSECTION 30The Sign For Man And The Remembrancer For God
'And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the ea…
704 wordsSECTION 31The Sign For Man And The Remembrancer For God
But note the great thought, that God limits His freedom of action by this definite promise. Noah was not left to grope in dread among the terrible possibilities opened by the flood. God marked out the line on which He would move, and marked off a course which He would not pursue. It is like a king giving his subjects a…
678 wordsSECTION 32The Sign For Man And The Remembrancer For God
2. The sign of the covenant is described at great length in verses 12-17. Note that verses 12, 13 state the general idea of a token or sign, that verses 14-16 deepen this by stating that the token to man is a reminder to God, and that verse 17 sums up the whole with emphatic repetition of the main points. The narrative…
636 wordsSECTION 33An Example Of Faith
'Now 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 shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curs…
265 wordsSECTION 34I
We stand here at the well-head of a great river--a narrow channel, across which a child can step, but which is to open out a broad bosom that will reflect the sky and refresh continents. The call of Abram is the most important event in the Old Testament, but it is also an eminent example of individual faith. For both r…
652 wordsSECTION 35I
Observe that faith, which is the reliance on a person, and therefore trust in his word, passes into both forms of confidence in that word as promise, and obedience to that word as command. We cannot cut faith in halves, and exercise the one aspect without the other. Some people's faith says that it delights in God's pr…
842 wordsSECTION 36I
Observe, too, that Abram's life was permeated with worship. Wherever he pitches his tent, he builds an altar. So he fed his faith, and kept up his communion with God. The only condition on which the pilgrim life is possible, and the temptations of the world cease to draw our hearts, is that all life shall be filled wit…
334 wordsSECTION 37Ii
A great act of renunciation at the divine call lies at the foundation of Israel's history, as it does at the foundation of every life that blesses the world or is worth living. The divine Word to Abram first gives the command in all its authoritativeness and plain setting forth of how much had to be surrendered, and th…
730 wordsSECTION 38Ii
Once in the land, Abram was still a stranger and pilgrim. He first planted himself in its heart by Sichem, but outside the city, under the terebinth tree of Moreh. The reason for his position is given in the significant statement that 'the Canaanite was then in the land.' So he had to live in the midst of an alien civi…
516 wordsSECTION 39I
'They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.'--GENESIS xii. 5. The reference of these words is to Abram's act of faith in leaving Haran and setting out on his pilgrimage. It is a strange narrative of a journey, which omits the journey altogether, with its weary marches, priva…
661 wordsSECTION 40I
What that aim should be is not doubtful. The only worthy end befitting creatures with hearts, minds, consciences, and wills like ours is God Himself. Abram's 'Canaan' is usually regarded as an emblem of heaven, and that is correct, but the land of our inheritance is not wholly beyond the river, for God is the portion o…
325 wordsSECTION 41Ii
If life has a clear, definite aim, and especially if its aim is the highest, there will be detachment from, and abandonment of, many lower ones. Nothing worth doing is done, and nothing worth being is realised in ourselves, except on condition of resolutely ignoring much that attracts. 'They went forth'; Haran must be …
703 wordsSECTION 42The Man Of Faith
'And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.'--GENESIS xii. 6, 7. Great epoch and ma…
364 wordsSECTION 43The Importance Of A Choice
'And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.' GENESIS xii. 3. These are the two first acts of Abram in the land of Canaan. 1. _All life s…
875 wordsSECTION 44The Importance Of A Choice
But another lesson is also taught. After the interruption of the Egyptian journey, Abram had to begin all his Canaan life over again. Very emphatically the narrative puts it, that he went to 'the place where his tent had been at the beginning,' to the altar which he had made at the first. Yes! that is the only place fo…
756 wordsSECTION 45The Importance Of A Choice
May we not venture to apply his words to churches and sects? They too, if they have faith strong and dominant, will not easily fall out with one another about intrusions on each other's territory, especially in the presence, as at this day, of the common foe. When the Canaanite and the Perizzite are in the land, and Un…
837 wordsSECTION 46The Importance Of A Choice
Lot teaches us that material good may tempt and conquer, even after it has once been overcome. His early life had been heroic; in his young enthusiasm, he had thrown in his portion with Abram in his great venture. He had not been thinking of his flocks when he left Haran. Probably, as I have just said, he was a good de…
547 wordsSECTION 47Abram The Hebrew
'And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew.' GENESIS xiv. 13. This is a singular designation of Abram as 'The Hebrew.' Probably we have in its use here a trace of the customary epithet which he bore among the inhabitants of Canaan, and perhaps the presence of the name in this narrative may indic…
655 wordsSECTION 48Abram The Hebrew
There will be a change in a man's deepest self, so that he will be a 'new creature,' with new tastes, new motives stirring to action, new desires pressing for satisfaction, new loves sweetly filling his heart, new insight into the meanings and true good of life and time guiding his conduct, new aversions withdrawing hi…
758 wordsSECTION 49Abram The Hebrew
That is the impression which Christian people ought to make in the world. They should be recognised, by even unobservant eyes who know nothing of the inner secret of their lives, as plainly belonging to another order. If we seek to keep fresh in our own minds the consciousness that we do so, it will make itself manifes…
711 wordsSECTION 50Abram The Hebrew
I need not narrate over again the familiar story of how, for once in his peaceful life, the 'friend of God' girds on his sword and develops military instincts in his prompt and well-planned pursuit, which show that if he did not try to conquer some part of the land which he knew to be his by the will of God, it was not…
565 wordsSECTION 51God'S Covenant With Abram
'And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness. And He said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldee…
654 wordsSECTION 52God'S Covenant With Abram
2. Mark the triumphant faith which wings to meet the divine promise. The first effect of that great assurance is to deepen Abram's consciousness of the strange contradiction to it apparently given by his childlessness. It is not distrust that answers the promise with a question, but it is eagerness to accept the assura…
731 wordsSECTION 53God'S Covenant With Abram
3. Mark the full-orbed gospel truth as to the righteousness of faith which is embedded in this record of early revelation, 'He counted it to him for righteousness.' A geologist would be astonished if he came on remains in some of the primary strata which indicated the existence, in these remote epochs, of species suppo…
843 wordsSECTION 54God'S Covenant With Abram
The particulars as to the rite by which the covenant was established are profoundly illuminative. The significant division of the animals into two shows that they were regarded as representing the contracting parties, and the passing between them symbolised the taking up of the obligations of the covenant. This strange…
900 wordsSECTION 55I
'Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.' GENESIS XV. 1. Abram was now apparently about eighty-five years old. He had been fourteen years in Palestine, and had, for the only time in his life, quite recently been driven to have recourse to arms against a formidable league of northern kings, …
638 wordsSECTION 56Ii
Many years have passed since Abram was called to go forth from his father's house, assured that God would make of him a great nation. They had been years of growing power. He has been dwelling at Mamre, as a prince among the people of the land, a power. There sweeps down on Southern Palestine the earliest of those inva…
659 wordsSECTION 57Faith And Righteousness
What, then, is Life as men ordinarily make it?--what a blunder! 3. To possess God is enough for heaven. Such a relationship is the great proof of immortality. Christ and Sadducees. The true glory of heaven is in fuller possession of God: no doubt other things, but these subsidiary. The Reward is God. The idea of …
541 wordsSECTION 58Waiting Faith Rewarded And Strengthened By New Revelations
'And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, beho…
764 wordsSECTION 59Waiting Faith Rewarded And Strengthened By New Revelations
What follows in regard to our duty from that revelation? 'Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.' Enoch walked _with_ God; that is, his whole active life was passed in communion with Him. The idea conveyed by 'walking _before_ God' is not precisely the same. It is rather that of an active life, spent in continual conscio…
755 wordsSECTION 60Waiting Faith Rewarded And Strengthened By New Revelations
The substance of the covenant is mainly identical with previous revelations. The land is to belong to Abram's seed. That seed is to be very numerous. But there is new emphasis placed on God's relation to Abram's descendants. God promises to be 'a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,' and, again, 'I will be their …
304 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.