ABRAHAM
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ABRAHAM
Orient. Bibl. iv, 1G7 sq. ; Withof, De Abrah. Amico Dei, Duisb. 1743; Kurtz, Hist, of Old Gov. § 51-68).
III. Typical Character. — The life and character of Abraham were in many respects typical. 1. He and his family may be regarded as a type of the Church of God in after ages. They, indeed, constituted God"s ancient Church. Not that many scattered patriarch- al and family churches did not remain : such was that of Melchizedek ; but a visible church relation was established between Abraham's family and the Most High, signified by the visible and distinguish- ing sacrament of circumcision, and followed by new and enlarged revelations of truth. Two purposes were to be answered by this — the preservation of the true doctrine of salvation in the world, which is the great and solemn duty of every branch of the Church of God, and the manifestation of that truth to others. Both were done by Abraham. Wherever he sojourn- ed he built his altars to the true God, and publicly cel- ebrated his worship ; and, as we learn from the Apos- tle Paul, he lived in tents in preference to settling in the land of Canaan, though it had been given to him for a possession, in order that he might thus proclaim his faith in the eternal inheritance of which Canaan was a type (Gal. iii, 16-29). 2. The numerous natural posterity promised to Abraham was also a type of the spiritual seed, the true members of the Church of Christ, springing from the Messiah, of whom Isaac was the symbol. Thus the Apostle Paul expressly distin- guishes between the fleshly and the spiritual seed of Abraham (Gal. iv, 22-31). 3. The faithful offering up of Isaac, with its result, was probably the transaction in which Abraham, more clearly than in any other, "saw the day of Christ, and was glad" (John viii, 56). He received Isaac from the dead, says Paul, "in a figure" (Heb. xi, 19). This could be a figure of nothing but the resurrection of our Lord ; and if so, Isaac's being laid upon the altar was a figure of his sacrificial death, scenically and most impressively represented to Abra- ham. 4. The transaction of the expulsion of Hagar was also a type. It was an allegory in action, by which the Apostle Paul teaches us (Gal. iv, 22-31) to under- stand that the son of the bondwoman represented those who are under the law ; and the child of the freewom- an those who by faith in Christ are supernaturally be- gotten into the family of God. The casting out of the bondwoman and her son represents also the expulsion of the unbelieving Jews from the Church of God, which was to be composed of true believers of all nations, all of whom, whether Jews or Gentiles, were to become " fellow heirs."
IV. Covenant Relation. — 1. Abraham is to be re- garded, further, as standing in a. federal or covenant relation, not only to his natural seed, but specially and eminently to all believers. "The Gospel," we are told by Paul (Gal. iii, 8), " was preached to Abra- ham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." " Abraham believed in God, and it was accounted to him fur righteousness;" in other words, he was justi- fied (den. xv, 6). A covenant of gratuitous justifi- cation through faith was made with him and his be- lieving descendants ; and the rite of circumcision, which was not confined to his posterity by Sarah, but appointed in every branch of his family* was the sign or sacrament of this covenant of grace, and so remained till it was displaced by the sacraments ap- pointed by Christ. Wherever that sign was, it de- clared the dor! line and offered the grace of this cove- nant—free justification by faith, and its glorious re- sults— to all the tribes that proceeded from Abraham. This same grace is offered to us by the Gospel, who become "Abraham's seed," his spiritual children, with whom the covenant is established through the same faith, and are thus made "the heirs with him of the same promise."
2. Abraham is also exhibited to us as the represent- ative of true believers ; and in this especially, that the
true nature of faith was exhibited in him. This great principle was marked in Abraham with the following characters : an entire, unhesitating belief in the word of God; an unfaltering trust in all his promises; a steady regard to his almighty power, leading him to overlook all apparent difficulties and impossibilities in everj' case where God had explicitly promised ; and habitual, cheerful, and entire obedience. The Apostle has described faith in Heb. xi, 1, and that faith is seen living and acting in all its energy in Abraham. (Kiemeyer, Charakt.u, 72 sq.)
V. The intended offering up of Isaac is not to be supposed as viewed by Abraham as an act spring- ing out of the Pagan practice of human sacrifice, al- though this may have somewhat lessened the shock which the command would otherwise have occasion- ed his natural sympathies. The immolation of hu- man victims, particularly of that which was most precious, the favorite, the first-born child, appears to have been a common usage among many early na- tions, more especially the tribes by which Abraham was surrounded. It was the distinguishing rite among the worshippers of Moloch ; at a later period of the Jewish history, it was practised by a king of Moab ; and it was undoubtedly derived by the Carthagini- ans from their Phoenician ancestors on the shores of Syria. Where it was an ordinary usage, as in the worship of Moloch, it was in unison with the char- acter of the religion and of its deity. It was the last act of a dark and sanguinary superstition, which rose by regular gradation to this complete triumph oyer human nature. The god who was propitiated by these offerings had been satiated with moro cheap and vulgar victims ; he. had been glutted to the full with human suffering and with human blood. In general, it was the final mark of the subjugation of the national mind to an inhuman and domineering priest- hood. But the Mosaic religion held human sacrifices in abhorrence ; and the God of the Abrahamitic fam- ily, uniCormky beneficent, had imposed no duties which entailed human suffering, had demanded no offerings which were repugnant to the better feelings of our nature. The command to offer Isaac as a " burnt- offering" was, for these reasons, a trial the more se- vere to Abraham's faith. He must, therefore, have been fully assured of the Divine command, and he left the mystery to be explained by God himself. His was a simple act of unhesitating obedience to the com- mand of God ; the last proof of perfect reliance on tho certain accomplishment of the Divine promises. Isaac, so miraculously bestowed, could be as miraculously restored ; Abraham, such is the comment of the Chris- tian Apostle, " believed that God could even raise him up from the dead" (Heb. xi, 17).