DISCOURSE XVIII.

THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM, AND THE CALL OF ABRAM.

Gen. xi. 10-32. xii. 1-4.

THE sacred historian, having given an account of the re-peopling of the earth, here takes leave of the children of men, and confines himself to the history of the sons of God. We shall find him all along adhering to this principle. When any of the posterity of the righteous turn their backs on God, he presently takes leave of them, and follows the true church and true religion wherever they go.

Ver. 10-26. The principal use of the genealogy of Shem to Terah, the father of Abram, may be to prove the fulfilment of all the promises in the Messiah. To this purpose it is applied in the New Testament.

Ver. 27-29. Terah, after he was seventy years of age, had three sons; Abram, Nahor, and Haran. But the order in which they here stand, does not appear to be that of seniority, any more than that of Shem and Ham and Japheth: for if Abram had been born when Terah was seventy years old, he must have been a hundred and thirty-five at the time of his father's death; whereas he is said to have been but seventy-five, when, after that event, he set out for Canaan. Haran, therefore, appears to have been the eldest of the three sons. He died in Ur of the Chaldees; but left behind him a son and two daughters; Lot, and Milcah and Iscah. The two surviving sons, Abram and Nahor, took them wives: The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, of whose descent we are not here told; but by what he said of her in Chap. xx. 12, it would seem that she was his half-sister, or his father's daughter by

another wife. In those early ages, nearer degrees of consanguinity were admitted than were afterwards allowed by the divine law. Nahor married his brother Haran's eldest daughter Milcah.

Ver. 31. It is said of Terah, that he took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and that they went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. But bere is something supposed which the historian reserves till he comes to the story of Abram, who, next to God, was the first mover in the undertaking, and the principal character in the story. In Chap. xii. 1. we are told that the Lord HAD said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. Taking the whole together, it appears that God revealed himself to Abram, and called him to depart from that idolatrous and wicked country, whether any of his relations would go with him or not; that Abram told it to his father Terah, and to all the family, and invited them to accompany him; that Terah consented, as did also his grandson Lot; that Nahor and his wife Milcah were unwilling to go, and did not go at present; that seeing they refused, the venerable Terah left them; and though not the first mover in the affair, yet, being the head of the family, he is said to have taken Abram and Sarai and Lot, and journeyed towards Canaan; that stopping within the country of Mesopotamia, he called the place where he pitched his tent Haran, in memory of his son who died in Ur of the Chaldees; finally, that during his residence in this place he died, being two hundred and five years old.

But though Nahor and Milcah, as it should seem, refused to accompany the family at the time, yet as we find them, in the course of the history, settled at Haran, and Abraham and Isaac sending to them for wives, to the rejection of the idolaters among whom they lived, we may conclude that they afterwards repented. And thus the whole of Terah's family, though they do not go to Canaan, yet are rescued from Chaldean idolatry; and settling in Haran, maintain for a considerable time the worship of the true God.

Chap. xii. 1-3. But Abram must not stop at Haran. Jebovah, by whom he was called to depart from Ur, has another coun try in reserve for him; and he being the great patriarch of Israel, and of the church of God, we have here a more particular account of his call. It was fit that this should be clearly and fully stated, as it went to lay the foundation of a new order of things in the world. It was therefore like the spring of a great river; or rather like the hole of a quarry whence the first stone was taken of which a city was built. It is this which is referred to, for the encouragement of the church when in a low condition, and likely to become extinct. God called Abram alone, and blessed him, and increased him. Hence the faithful are directed to look to the rock whence they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence they were digged; and to depend upon his promise, who assured them he would comfort the waste places of Zion.

How long Abram continued at Haran, we are not told; abou nine years after his departure from it, we read of his having three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his house : he must therefore have kept house between twenty and thirty years, at least, before that thime, either in Haran, or in both Ur and Haran.

In the call of Abram, we may observe, (1.) The grace of it. There appears no reason to conclude that he was better than his neighbours. He did not choose the Lord, but the Lord him, and brought him out from amongst the idolaters.* (2.) Its peremptory tone: Get thee out. The language very much resembles that of Lot to his sons-in-law, and indicates the great danger of his present situation, and the immediate necessity of escaping, as it were, for his life. Such is the condition of every unconverted sinner, and such the necessity of fleeing from the wrath to come, to the hope set before us in the gospel. (3.) The self-denial required by it. He was called to leave his country, his kindred, and even his father's house, if they refused to go with him and no doubt his mind was made up to do so. Such things are easier to read concerning others, than to practise ourselves; yet he that hateth

* Neh. ix. 7.

....

not father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, in comparison of Christ, cannot be his disciple. We may not be called upon to part with them; but our minds must be made up to do so, if they stand between us and Christ. (4.) The implicit faith which a compliance with it would call for. Abram was to leave all and to go he knew not whither.... unto a land that God would show him. If he had been told it was a land flowing with milk and honey, and that he should be put in possession of it, there had been some food for sense to feed upon but to go out, not knowing whither he went, must have been not a little trying to flesh and blood. Nor was this all that which was promised was not only in general terms, but very distant. God did not tell him he would give him the land, but merely show him it. Nor did he in his life-time obtain the possession of it: he was only a sojourner in it, without so much as a place to set his foot upon. He obtained a spot, it is true, to lay his bones in; but that was all. In this manner were things ordered, on purpose to try his faith; and his obedience to God under such circumstances was among the things which rendered him an example to future generations, even the father of all them that believe.

..Ver. 2. The promise had reference to things which could be but of small account to an eye of sense; but faith would find enough in it to satisfy the most enlarged desires. The objects, though distant, were worth waiting for. He should be the father of a great nation; and what was of greater account, and which was doubtless understood, that nation should be the Lord's. God himself would bless him: and this would be more than the whole world without it. God would also make his name great; not in the records of worldly fame, but in the history of the church : and being himself full of the blessing of the Lord, it should be his to impart blessedness to the world: Iwill bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing. The great names among the heathen would very commonly arise from their being curses and plagues to mankind; but he should have the honour and happiness of being great in goodness, great in communicating light and life to his species.

This promise has been fulfilling ever since. All the true blessedness which the world is now, or shall hereafter be possessed of, is owing to Abram and his posterity. Through them we have a Bible, a Saviour, and a gospel. They are the stock on which the Christian church is grafted. Their very dispersions and punishments have proved the riches of the world. What then shall be their recovery, but life from the dead! It would seem as if the conversion of the Jews, whenever it shall take place, will be a kind of resurrection to mankind. Such was the hope of this calling. And what could the friends of God and man desire more? Yet, as if all this were not enough, it is added—

Ver. 3. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. This is language never used but of an object of special favour. It is declaring that he should not only be blessed himself, but that all others should be blessed or cursed as they respected or injured him. Of this, the histories of Abimelech, Laban, Potiphar, both the Pharaohs, Balak, and Balaam, furnish examples.

Finally Lest what had been said of his being made a blessing should not be sufficiently explicit, it is added, And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This was saying that a blessing was in reseve for all nations, and that it should be bestowed through him and his posterity, as the medium. Paul applies this to Christ, and the believing Gentiles being blessed in him: he calls it, The gospel which was preached before unto Abraham. Peter also makes use of it in his address to those who had killed the Prince of life, to induce them to repent and believe in him. Ye are the children of the prophets, says he, and of the covenants which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Unto you FIRST, God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. As if he had said, 'You' are descended from one whose posterity were to be blessed above all nations, and made a blessing. And the time to favour the nations being now at hand, God sent his Son first to you, to bless you, and to prepare you for blessing them; as though it were yours to be a nation of ministers, or missionaries to the world.