Heb. xi. 17 — 19. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered uj) Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of tvhom it ivas said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called : accounting that God loas able to raise him up, even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure.
THE whole life of the patriarchs was an apt illus- tration of the life of faith ; because, when they had abundant opportunities of returning to the country
from whence they had come out, they refused to do so, and preferred hving as strangers and pilgrims in a foreign land, testifying plainly to all around them, that they regarded not this world as their home, but were in pursuit of a better, that is, an heavenly country ^ The Apostle, having shewn us this, re- turns to the case of Abraham, of whose faith he had already spoken in terms of high commendation, but whose principal act of faith remained yet to be no- ticed, as being the most illustrious exercise of that grace which the world had ever seen. This we are now to consider : and it will indeed be found pro- fitable to mark,
I. The wonderful transaction here recorded —
God issued a command to Abraham to offer up his son —
[This was such a command as was sufficient to confound his reason, and to excite in his mind a doubt whether it could proceed from a God of truth and love. The account is given us in the 22d chapter of Genesis, where all the circumstances that attended it are recorded. Abraham had had a son given to him in his old age, when neither he nor his wife, according to the common course of nature, could hope for any progeny. This son was constituted the appointed medium for bringing into the world " the Seed, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed." Yet this son was Abraham to take, and with his own hands to offer him up a burnt-offering to the Lord. Upon the delivery of this command, we might suppose him almost of necessity to say. Can this proceed from God ? Can he not only take away thus the life of an innocent youth, but require me, the father of that youth, to be his executioner? Surely the suggestion comes rather from Satan, who seeing that this youth is to be the progenitor of the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world, would take advantage of my desire to please God, and make me his instrument to defeat the purposes of the Almighty, by destroying the very person to whom the promises are made. But he had no doubt whence the voice proceeded ; and therefore]
This command he instantly set himself to fulfil —
[He " conferred not with flesh and blood :" he listened not to the dictates of carnal reason, nor consulted for a moment the judgment of his wife ; but addressed himself to his arduous
a ver. 13—16. VOL. XIX. D D