PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis
Dods, Marcus · 135,092 words · 179 reading sections
_Birth Of Ishmael._
But it was not as an isolated person, nor for his own private interests alone that Abram was thus dealt with by God. It was as a medium of universal blessing that he was taken into covenant with God. The kindness of God which he experienced was merely an intimation of the kindness all men would experience. The laying a…
840 wordsSECTION 62_Birth Of Ishmael._
But Sarah could not wait. She seems to have fixed ten years as the period during which she would wait; but at the expiry of this term she considered herself justified in helping forward God's tardy providence by steps of her own. One cannot severely blame her. When our hearts are set upon some definite blessing, things…
798 wordsSECTION 63_Birth Of Ishmael._
In such an emergency as now arose in Abram's household, character shows itself clearly. Sarah's vexation at the success of her own scheme, her recrimination and appeal for strange justice, her unjustifiable treatment of Hagar, Abram's Bedouin disregard of the jealousies of the women's tent, his Gallio-like repudiation …
697 wordsSECTION 64_Birth Of Ishmael._
In the promise of a son which was here given to Hagar and the prediction concerning his destiny, while there was enough to teach both her and Abram that he was not to be the heir of the promise, there was also much to gratify a mother's pride and be to Hagar a source of continual satisfaction. The son was to bear a nam…
650 wordsSECTION 65_Birth Of Ishmael._
Happy they who when God has thus met them and sent them back on their own footsteps, a long and weary return, have still been so filled with a sense of God's love in caring for them through all their errors, that they obey and return. All round about His people does God encamp, all round about His flock does the faithf…
740 wordsSECTION 66_The Covenant Sealed._
GENESIS xvii. According to the dates here given fourteen years had passed since Abram had received any intimation of God's will regarding him. Since the covenant had been made some twenty years before, no direct communication had been received; and no message of any kind since Ishmael's birth. It need not, therefore, …
734 wordsSECTION 67_The Covenant Sealed._
This being Abram's state of mind, he is aroused from it by the words: "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be thou perfect." I am the Almighty God, able to fulfil your highest hopes and accomplish for you the brightest ideal that ever My words set before you. There is no need of paring down the promise till it sq…
757 wordsSECTION 68_The Covenant Sealed._
But a second point is, that Jesus was the heir of Abram not merely because He was his descendant, a Jew with all the advantages of the Jew, but because, like Abram, He was full of faith. God was the atmosphere of His life. But He claimed God not because He was Jewish, but because He was human. Through the Jews God had …
707 wordsSECTION 69_The Covenant Sealed._
The mark chosen was significant. It was indeed not distinctive in its outward form; so little so that at this day no fewer than one hundred and fifty millions of the race make use of the same rite for one purpose or other. All the descendants of Ishmael of course continue it, but also all who have their religion, that …
688 wordsSECTION 70_The Covenant Sealed._
Believing as Abraham was, he could not forbear smiling when God said that Sarah would be the mother of the promised seed. This incredulity of Abraham was so significant that it was commemorated in the name of Isaac, the laugher. This heir was typical of all God's best gifts, at first reckoned impossible, at last fillin…
824 wordsSECTION 71_The Covenant Sealed._
To look at the crowds of persons professing religion, one would suppose nothing was commoner than faith. There is nothing rarer. Devoutness is common; righteousness of life is common; a contempt for every kind of fraud and underhand practice is common; a highminded disregard for this world's gains and glories is common…
255 wordsSECTION 72_Abraham'S Intercession For Sodom._
GENESIS xviii. The scene with which this chapter opens is one familiar to the observer of nomad life in the East. During the scorching heat and glaring light of noon, while the birds seek the densest foliage and the wild animals lie panting in the thicket and everything is still and silent as midnight, Abraham sits in…
1,088 wordsSECTION 73_Abraham'S Intercession For Sodom._
But while we are no doubt justified in gathering such lessons from this scene, it can scarcely have been for the sake of inculcating hospitality that these angels visited Abraham. And if we ask, Why did God on this occasion use this exceptional form of manifesting Himself; why, instead of approaching Abraham in a visio…
797 wordsSECTION 74_Abraham'S Intercession For Sodom._
The second reason is expressed in the nineteenth verse; God had chosen Abraham that he might command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment that the Lord might fulfil His promise to Abraham. That is to say, as it was only by obedience and righteousness that Abra…
803 wordsSECTION 75_Abraham'S Intercession For Sodom._
The element in Abraham's intercession that jars on the reader is the trading temper that strives always to get the best possible terms. Abraham seems to think God can be beaten down and induced to make smaller and smaller demands. No doubt this style of prayer was suggested to Abraham by the statement on God's part tha…
946 wordsSECTION 76_Abraham'S Intercession For Sodom._
In conclusion, we shall find when we read the following chapter, and especially the prayer of Lot that he might not be driven to the wild mountain district, but might occupy the little town of Zoar which was saved for his sake--we shall find, that much light is reflected on this prayer of Abraham. Without trenching on …
657 wordsSECTION 77_Destruction Of The Cities Of The Plain._
GENESIS xix. While Abraham was pleading with the Lord the angels were pursuing their way to Sodom. And in doing so they apparently observed the laws of those human forms which they had assumed. They did not spread swift wings and alight early in the afternoon at the gates of the city; but taking the usual route, they …
821 wordsSECTION 78_Destruction Of The Cities Of The Plain._
That he had the courage which lies at the root of strength of character became apparent as the last dark night of Sodom wore on. To go out among a profligate, lawless mob, wild with passion and infuriated by opposition--to go out and shut the door behind him--was an act of true courage. His confidence in the influence …
707 wordsSECTION 79_Destruction Of The Cities Of The Plain._
And if it still be felt that Lot was punished with extreme severity, and that if every man who chose a good grazing ground or a position in life which was likely to advance his fortune were thereby doomed to end his days in a cave and under the darkest moral brand, society would be quite disintegrated, it must be remem…
785 wordsSECTION 80_Destruction Of The Cities Of The Plain._
But we have to account not only for the fact of the destruction but for its prediction both to Abraham and to Lot. Surely it is only reasonable to allow that such prediction was supernatural; and the prediction being so, it is also reasonable to accept the account of the event given by the predicters of it, and underst…
656 wordsSECTION 81_Destruction Of The Cities Of The Plain._
Lot's wife by her death proclaims that if we crave to make the best of both worlds, we shall probably lose both. Her disposition is not rare and exceptional as the pillar of salt which was its monument. She is not the only woman whose heart is so fixedly set upon her household possessions that she cannot listen to the …
561 wordsSECTION 82_Sacrifice Of Isaac._
GENESIS xxii. The sacrifice of Isaac was the supreme act of Abraham's life. The faith which had been schooled by so singular an experience and by so many minor trials was here perfected and exhibited as perfect. The strength which he had been slowly gathering during a long and trying life was here required and used. T…
678 wordsSECTION 83_Sacrifice Of Isaac._
But although not wrong in Abraham's judgment, this sacrifice was wrong in the eye of God; how then can we justify God's command that He should make it? We justify it precisely on that ground which lies patent on the face of the narrative--God meant Abraham to make the sacrifice in spirit, not in the outward act; He mea…
680 wordsSECTION 84_Sacrifice Of Isaac._
Manifestly no harder task could have been set to Abraham, than that which was imposed on him by the command, "Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest," this son of thine in whom all the promises are yea and amen to thee, this son for whose sake thou gavest up home and kindred, and banished thy firstbo…
860 wordsSECTION 85_Sacrifice Of Isaac._
Not much longer could the terrible truth be hidden from Isaac. With what feelings must he have seen the agonised face of his father as he turned to bind him and as he learned that he must prepare not to sacrifice but to be sacrificed. Here then was the end of those great hopes on which his youth had been fed. What coul…
678 wordsSECTION 86_Sacrifice Of Isaac._
Have you thus given yourselves to God? I do not ask if your sacrifice has been perfect, nor whether you do not ever seek great things still for yourselves; but do you know what it is thus to yield yourself to God, to put God first, yourself second or nowhere? Are you even occasionally quite willing to sink your own int…
1,018 wordsSECTION 87_Sacrifice Of Isaac._
Finally, these words, "The Lord will provide," which Abraham uttered in that exalted frame of mind which is near to the prophetic ecstasy, have been the burden sung by every sincere and thoughtful worshipper as he ascended the hill of God to seek forgiveness of his sin, the burden which the Lord's worshipping congregat…
297 wordsSECTION 88_Ishmael And Isaac._
GEN. xxi., xxii. "Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. * * * Which things are an allegory."--GALATIANS iv. 22. "Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son."--GENESIS xxii. 10. In the birth of Isaac, Abraham at length sees the long-delayed fulfilment of th…
658 wordsSECTION 89_Ishmael And Isaac._
It is one of those painful cases in which one poor creature, clothed with a little brief authority, stretches it to the utmost in vindictive maltreatment of another. Sarah happened to be mistress, and, instead of using her position to make those under her happy, she used it for her own convenience, for the gratificatio…
673 wordsSECTION 90_Ishmael And Isaac._
If, then, Abraham was to become the founder, not of one new warlike power in addition to the already too numerous warlike powers of the East, but of a religion which should finally develop into the most elevating and purifying influence among men, it is obvious that Ishmael was not at all a desirable heir. Whatever pai…
658 wordsSECTION 91_Ishmael And Isaac._
It is this voice of God to Hagar that so speedily, and apparently once for all, lifts her out of despair to cheerful hope. It would appear as if her despair had been needless; at least from the words addressed to her, "What aileth thee, Hagar?" it would appear as if she might herself have found the water that was close…
831 wordsSECTION 92_Ishmael And Isaac._
Now, of course, righteousness of life and character, or perfect manhood, is the end at which all that we call salvation aims, and that which can give us the purest, ripest character is salvation for us; that which can make us, for all purposes, most serviceable and strong. And when we are confronted with persons who mi…
733 wordsSECTION 93_Ishmael And Isaac._
The distinction between the servile spirit and the spirit of sonship being thus radical, it could be by no mere formality, or exhibition of his legal title, that Isaac became the heir of God's heritage. His sacrifice on Moriah was the requisite condition of his succession to Abraham's place; it was the only suitable ce…
668 wordsSECTION 94_Purchase Of Machpelah._
GENESIS xxiii. It may be supposed to be a needless observation that our life is greatly influenced by the fact that it speedily and certainly ends in death. But it might be interesting, and it would certainly be surprising, to trace out the various ways in which this fact influences life. Plainly every human affair wo…
763 wordsSECTION 95_Purchase Of Machpelah._
"When sorrow all our heart would ask, We need not shun our daily task, And hide ourselves for calm; The herbs we seek to heal our woe, Familiar by our pathway grow, Our common air is balm." We must resume our duties, not as if nothing had happened, not proudly forgetting death and putting grief aside as if this l…
661 wordsSECTION 96_Purchase Of Machpelah._
It is evident that this narrative of the purchase of Machpelah and the burial of Sarah was preserved, not so much on account of the personal interest which Abraham had in these matters, as on account of the manifest significance they had in connection with the history of his faith. He had recently heard from his own ki…
725 wordsSECTION 97_Purchase Of Machpelah._
Again, Abraham's idea in purchasing this sepulchre is brought out by the circumstance that he would not accept the offer of the children of Heth to use one of their sepulchres. This was not pride of blood or any feeling of that sort, but the right feeling that what God had promised as His own peculiar gift must not see…
659 wordsSECTION 98_Purchase Of Machpelah._
Such is the interpretation put upon Abraham's attitude of mind by the writer, who of all others saw most deeply into the moving principles of the Old Testament dispensation and the connection between old things and new--I mean the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He says that persons who act as Abraham did declare…
1,104 wordsSECTION 99_Isaac'S Marriage._
But He is disappointed in us if we do not aspire to more than this. In this sense also He is ashamed to be called our God. He is ashamed to be known as the God of men who never aspire to higher blessings than earthly comfort and present prosperity. He is ashamed to be known as connected with those who think so lightly …
720 wordsSECTION 100_Isaac'S Marriage._
And his faith was rewarded. The tidings from his brother's family arrived in the nick of time. Light, he found, was sown for the upright. It happened with him as it has doubtless often happened with ourselves, that though we have been looking forward to a certain time with much anxiety, unable even to form a plan of ac…
846 wordsSECTION 101_Isaac'S Marriage._
So in other cases where you find you must leave yourself very much in God's hand, what He sends you will be found more precisely adapted to your character than if you chose it for yourself. You find your whole nature has been considered,--your aims, your hopes, your wants, your position, whatever in you waits for somet…
792 wordsSECTION 102_Isaac'S Marriage._
There are turning points in life at once so momentous in their consequence, and affording so little material for choice, that one is much tempted to ask for more than providential leading. Not only among savages and heathen have omens been sought. Among Christians there has been manifest a constant disposition to appea…
733 wordsSECTION 103_Isaac'S Marriage._
No one will suppose that Rebekah's readiness to leave her home was due to mere light-mindedness. Her motives were no doubt mixed. The worldly position offered to her was good, and there was an attractive spice of romance about the whole affair which would have its charm. She may also be credited with some apprehension …
659 wordsSECTION 104_Isaac'S Marriage._
Twilight, "nature's vesper-bell," or the light shaded at evening by the hills of Palestine, seems, then, to have called Isaac to a familiar occupation. This long-continued mourning for his mother, and his lonely meditation in the fields, are both in harmony with what we know of his character, and of his experience on M…
530 wordsSECTION 105_Esau And Jacob._
GENESIS xxv. "He goeth as an ox goeth to the slaughter, till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life."--PROV. vii. 22, 23. The character and career of Isaac would seem to tell us that it is possible to have too great a father. Isaac was dwarfed and we…
675 wordsSECTION 106_Esau And Jacob._
This second barrenness in the prospective mother of the promised seed was as needful to all concerned as the first was; for the people of God, no more than any others, can learn in one lesson. They must again be brought to a real dependence on God as the Giver of the heir. The prayer with which Isaac "entreated" the Lo…
676 wordsSECTION 107_Esau And Jacob._
The children whose birth and destinies were thus predicted, at once gave evidence of a difference even greater than that which will often strike one as existing between two brothers, though rarely between twins. The first was born, all over like a hairy garment, presenting the appearance of being rolled up in a fur clo…
698 wordsSECTION 108_Esau And Jacob._
But the quality which chiefly distinguished Jacob from his hunting and marauding brother was his desire for the friendship of God and sensibility to spiritual influences. It may have been Jacob's consciousness of his own meanness that led him to crave connection with some Being or with some prospect that might ennoble …
729 wordsSECTION 109_Esau And Jacob._
Which brother presents the more repulsive spectacle of the two in this selling of the birthright it is hard to say. Who does not feel contempt for the great, strong man, declaring he will die if he is required to wait five minutes till his own supper is prepared; forgetting, in the craving of his appetite, every consid…
731 wordsSECTION 110_Esau And Jacob._
There is in Esau's conduct and after-experience so much to stir serious thought, that one always feels reluctant to pass from it, and as if much more ought to be made of it. It reflects so many features of our own conduct, and so clearly shows us what we are from day to day liable to, that we would wish to take it with…
302 wordsSECTION 111_Jacob'S Fraud._
GENESIS xxvii. "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever."--PSALM xxxiii. 11. There are some families whose miserable existence is almost entirely made up of malicious plottings and counter-plottings, little mischievous designs, and spiteful triumphs of one member or party in the family over the other. It is not ple…
678 wordsSECTION 112_Jacob'S Fraud._
Isaac laid a net for his own feet. By his unrighteous and timorous haste he secured the defeat of his own long-cherished scheme. It was his hasting to bless Esau which drove Rebekah to checkmate him by winning the blessing for her favourite. The shock which Isaac felt when Esau came in and the fraud was discovered is e…
828 wordsSECTION 113_Jacob'S Fraud._
An old man bedridden like Isaac becomes the subject of a number of little deceptions which may seem, and which may be, very unimportant in themselves, but which are seen to wear down the reverence due to the father of a family, and which imperceptibly sap the guileless sincerity and truthfulness of those who practise t…
807 wordsSECTION 114_Jacob'S Fraud._
Thus severely was the sin of Rebekah and Jacob punished. It coloured their whole after-life with a deep sombre hue. It was marked thus, because it was a sin by all means to be avoided. It was virtually the sin of blaming God for forgetting His promise, or of accusing Him of being unable to perform it: so that they, Reb…
650 wordsSECTION 115_Jacob'S Fraud._
"We barter life for pottage; sell true bliss For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown; Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss, Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown." The words of the New Testament, in which it is said that Esau "found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tea…
725 wordsSECTION 116_Jacob'S Flight And Dream._
GENESIS xxvii. 41-xxviii. "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee. Nevertheless I am continually with Thee."--PSALM lxxiii. 22. It is so commonly observed as to be scarcely worth again remarking, that persons who employ a great deal of craft in the management of their affairs are invariably ent…
1,107 wordsSECTION 117_Jacob'S Flight And Dream._
As Jacob journeyed northwards, he came, on the second or third evening of his flight, to the hills of Bethel. As the sun was sinking he found himself toiling up the rough path which Abraham may have described to him as looking like a great staircase of rock and crag reaching from earth to sky. Slabs of rock, piled one …
727 wordsSECTION 118_Jacob'S Flight And Dream._
No wonder that a vision which so graphically showed the open communication between earth and heaven should have deeply impressed itself on Jacob's descendants. What more effectual consolation could any poor outcast, who felt he had spoiled his life, require than the memory of this staircase reaching from the pillow of …
842 wordsSECTION 119_Jacob'S Flight And Dream._
Do you think the idea of the Incarnation too aerial and speculative to carry with you for help in rough, practical matters? The Incarnation is not a mere idea, but a fact as substantial and solidly rooted in life as anything you have to do with. Even the shadow of it Jacob saw carried in it so much of what was real tha…
771 wordsSECTION 120_Jacob'S Flight And Dream._
To the monument Jacob attached a vow, so that when he returned to that spot the stone might remind him of the dependence on God he now felt, of the precarious situation he was in when this vision appeared, and of all the help God had afterwards given him. He seems to have taken up the meaning of that endless chain of a…
968 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.