The connection of this chapter with the two which precede it is worthy of notice. In Chapter xxii. the son is offered up; in Chap. xxiii. Sarah is laid aside; and in Chapter xxiv. the servant is sent forth to procure a bride for him who had been, as it were, received from the dead in a figure. This connection, in a very striking manner, coincides with the order of events connected with the calling out of the Church. Whether this coincidence is to be regarded as of divine origin will, it may be, raise a question in the minds of some; but it must at least be regarded as not a little remarkable.
When we turn to the New Testament, the grand events which meet our view are, first, the rejection and death of Christ; secondly, the setting aside of Israel after the flesh; and, lastly, the calling out of the Church to occupy the high position of the bride of the Lamb.
Now all this exactly corresponds with the contents of this and the two preceding chapters. The death of Christ needed to be an accomplished fact ere the Church, properly so called, could be called out. "The middle wall of partition" needed to be broken down, ere the "_one new man_" could be developed. It is well to understand this in order that we may know the place which the Church occupies in the ways of God. So long as the Jewish economy subsisted there was the most strict separation maintained between Jew and Gentile, and hence the idea of both being united in one new man was far removed from the mind of a Jew. He was led to view himself in a position of entire superiority to that of a Gentile, and to view the latter as utterly unclean, to whom it was unlawful to come in. (Acts x. 28.)
If Israel had walked with God according to the truth of the relationship into which he had graciously brought them, they would have continued in their peculiar place of separation and superiority; but this they did not do; and, therefore, when they had filled up the measure of their iniquity, by crucifying the Lord of life and glory, and rejecting the testimony of the Holy Ghost, we find St. Paul is raised up to be the minister of a new thing, which was held back in the counsels of God, while the testimony to Israel was going on. "For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery ... which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, _as it is now_ revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets (i. e., New-Testament prophets, [Greek: tois hagiois apostolois autou kai prophetais]) by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." (Eph. iii. 1-6.) This is conclusive. The mystery of the Church, composed of Jew and Gentile, baptized by one Spirit into one body, united to the glorious Head in the heavens, had never been revealed until Paul's day. Of this mystery the apostle goes on to say, "_I_ was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto me, by the effectual working of his power." (Ver. 7.) The apostles and prophets of the New Testament formed, as it were, the first layer of this glorious building. (See Eph. ii. 20.) This being so, it follows as a consequence that the building could not have been begun before. If the building had been going on from the days of Abel downwards, the apostle would then have said, "the foundation of the Old-Testament saints." But he has not said so, and therefore we conclude that, whatever be the position assigned to the Old-Testament saints, they cannot possibly belong to a body which had no existence, save in the purpose of God, until the death and resurrection of Christ, and the consequent descent of the Holy Ghost. Saved they were, blessed be God: saved by the blood of Christ, and destined to enjoy heavenly glory with the Church; but they could not have formed a part of that which did not exist for hundreds of years after their time.
It were easy to enter upon a more elaborate demonstration of this most important truth, were this the place for so doing; but I shall now go on with our chapter, having merely touched upon a question of commanding interest, because of its being suggested by the position of the 24th of Genesis.