Ver. 20.-Tlie Church militant. I. THE ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH. Like Abram's -1. Numerous. 2. Formidable. 3. Exulting. II. THE TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH. Like Abram's-!. Certain. 2. Complete. 3. Final. III. THE 1'11ANKSGIVINO OJ!' THE CHURCH. Like Abram's-1. Due to Gou most high. 2. Offered through the priest of the most high God. 3. Expressed in self- consecration to the service of God.-W.
Vera. 22, 23.-Abraliam's independent spirit. "And Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to II shoelatchet," &c. When Lot chose the plains of Sodom he knew not wh11t trials awaited him there. The king of Sodom was attacked and defeated. He escaped, but many of his sub- jects were either slaughtered or made captive. Lot was carried away by the invading host. Abraham delivers him. On his return, flushed with victory, he is met by two persons-Melchizedek and the king of Sodom. To the first he gives tithes, as :, thank offering ; from the second he will not receive anything for all the risk ho had run in the conflict. If Abraham had taken all the spoil, it would only have been in accordance with the genernl practice of that age; but a principle, and not a custom, is his guide. I. ABRAHAM WISHED TO AVOID PLACINO HIMSELF UNDER ODLIGATION TO A WORLDI,Y MAN. II. ABRAHAM WISHED TO AVOID THE APPEARANCE OF TOO GREAT INT!ilIACY WITH AN UNRIGHTEOUS MAN. III. ADRAHAM WISHED TO SHOW THAT TlIE SERVANT OF TilE MOST IlIGlI Goo CAN DO GOOD WITHOUT HOPE OF REWARD. IV. ABRAHAM WISHED TO SHOW HOW UNDESIRABLE A PRACTICE IT WAS, TO GAIN DY l'HE MISFORTUNES OF OTHERS. v. ABRAHAM WISHED 1'0 suow THAT GoD, AND A SPllllT OF CONTENTEDNF.ss, WF.Rlli A GOOD MAN'S TRUE RIOHES. :21n THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [on. xv. 1-6,
How much better to net thus than to permit the ungodly to point the finger of scorn and say, with resp~ct tc:> J?rofessedly religfous men, that they are just as g·reedy nnd worldly ns the most 1rrehg1ous.-H.
EXPOSI't'ION. CHAPTER XV. Elohim. Adonai, an older plural form of Adcnim, plumlis e.xcellentire (Gesenius), Yer. 1.-After these things-the events though by some the tormination is regarded just r0cordetl-the word of the Lord-Deb- as a suffix (Ewald, Fiirst), is a term descrip- ar Jehovali; the first occurrence of this tive of the J?ivine sovereignty, from adan remnrknblc phrase, afterwards so common in = dun, or dwi, to rule or judge ; connected the Hebrew Scriptures (Exod. ix. 20; Numb. with which is the Phrenician adon, an 11011, iii. 16; Dent. x:o..iv. 5; 1 Sam. iii. 1 ; Ps. orary epithet of deity, and recognised as xxxiii. 6, et passim). That this was a per- such in Deut. x. 17 (vide Fiirst, • Hebrew sonal designation of the pre-incarnate Logos, Lexicon,' sub voce). What wilt thou give if not susceptible of complete demonstration, me, seeing I go - literally, and I going Yet receives not a little sanction from the = iyw 8, ,i,ro)..voµa, (LXX., Jonathan); e.x ianguage employed throughout this narra- hac vita discedam (Rosenmiiller) ; but this, tive (cf. "l'crs. 5, 7, 9, 13, 14, &c.). .At least though the word " go " is sometimes used in the expression denotes "the Lord manifest- the sense of" die" (Ps. xxxix. 14), does not ing himself by speech to his servant" (!Iur- seem necessary-childless-solitary, deso- J>hy; vide eh. i. 3)-came (literally,was) unto late, hence devoid of offspring, as in Levit. Abram in a vision-a night vision, but no eh. xx. 20, 21 ; Jer. xxii.· 30 - and the Jream (vuie "l'er. 5). Biblically "l'ie,ved, the steward-Ben-.llfeshek; either (1) the son of Yision, as distinguished from the ordinary running (from shakak, to run)'= .filius dis- Jream. defines the presentation to the bodily cursitatis, i e. the steward who attends to senses· or to the mental consciousness of my domestic affairs (Onkelos, Drusius); or, objects usually beyond the sphere of their and with greater probability, (2) the son of natural actintics; hence visions might be possession (from mashak, to hold), i. e. the imparted in dreams (Numb. xii. 6), or in possessor of my house, or heir of my pro- trances (Numb. xxiv. 4, 16, 17). Saying, perty (Gesenius, Fiirst, Delitzsch, Jreil, 1fo- Fear not, Abram. With allusion, doubtle$, lisch)-of my house is this Eliezer of Damas- to the patriarch's mental dejection, which cus. Literally, Dammesek Eliezer. The was probably occasioned by the natural re- paronomasia of this utterance is apparent, action consequent upon his late high-pitched and was obviously designed to impart a excitement (cf. l Kings xi.x. 4), which touch of pathos to the patriarch's grief by might lead him to anticipate either a war of pointing out the coincidence that the Ben- revenge from the Asiatic u10narchs (Jona Meshek of his house was either Dammesek than), or an assault from the heathen Canaan- (Damascus) in the person of Eliezer (De- ites, already jealous of his growing power, litzsch, Keil), or the Damascene Eliezcr (On- or perhaps both. Wordsworth observes that kelos, Syriac, .Aben Ezra, Calvin, Lange, the words here addressed to .Abram are com- Murphy), or Dammesek-Eliezei· as one word monly employed in Scripture to introduce (Kalisch). announcement.a of Christ (Luke i 13, 30 ; Ver. 3.-And Abram said, Behold; to me ii. 10; John xii.15; cf. St. John's vision, thou hast given no seed : and, lo, one born Rev. iv. 1). I am thy shield, and thy exceed- in my house (literally, tli,e son of my ing great reward. Literally,_ thy _reward, house, i. e. Eliezer) is mine heir. The exceeding abunda.ntly, the hiphil rnf. abs. language of the patriarch discovers three i7:;l,")i] being always used adverbially (cf. things : (1) a natural desire to have a N eh. ii 2 ; iii 33). The other rendering, child of his own ; (2) a struggle to hold on "thy reward is exceeding great" (LXX., by the promise in face of almost insuperable Rosenmiiller, Delitzsch, Ewald), fails to give difficulties; and (3) an obvious unwilling- prominence to the thought that the patri- ness to part with the hope that the promise, :,rch's reward was to be the all-sufficieut however seemingly im_possible, would event- Jehovah himself. It is not needful to sup- ually be realised. This unwillingness it was pose "ith Lange an actual vision of a shielu which caused him, as it were, so pathetically ancl treasure. to call the Divine o.ttention to his childless Ver. 2.-A.nd Abram said, Lord God. condition ; in response to which he received Adona.i Jehovah,; the :Ii.nit use of these an assurance that must have thrilled his terms in combination, the second, which anxious heart with joy. usually l1as tl,e vowel-points of the first, Ver. 4.-And, behold, the word .of the king he1·e written with the vocalisation of Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not ctJ. xv. 1-6.J 'J.•ITE l3OOK OF GENI~SIS. 217