89. Relate the separation of Abram and Lot.

90. Where did Lot settle-and why?

91. Relate the circumstances attending the invasion of the Vale of Siddim by Chedorlaomer and his confederates.

92. Who was Melchizedek, and what do we read concerning him?

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.

93. How did the degeneracy and corruption of the postdiluvians differ from that of the antediluvians?

94. How was the call of Abram a further step in the progress of Redemption? 95. What was included or contained in that call?

96. Describe its bearing on the great promise of the Redeemer.

97. Explain the probable design of Abram in calling Sarai his sister when they were in Egypt.

98. State precisely the moral aspect of that transaction.

99. Narrate the early history of Egypt.

100. To what period of that history may we refer Abram's visit?

101. What great end appears to have been answered by the departure of Lot from Abram ?

102. How is Melchizedek regarded in the Epistle to the Hebrews?

CHAPTER VII.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT.-LATER HISTORY OF ABRAHAM.

(Gen. xv.-xxv. 10.)

Ir pleased God to found His dealings with Abram and his posterity upon a solemn and definite covenant. The beginning, or first part, of this covenant was made upon occasion of a manifestation of the patriarch's faith with peculiar force under discouraging circumstances. While Abram was still childless, the Lord gave him a special promise that his posterity should be countless as the stars of heaven; and then Abram 'believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness' (Gen. xv. 6; comp. Rom. iv. ; Gal. iii. 6; James ii. 23); whereupon God renewed his other promise concerning the possession of the land of Canaan by Abram's descendants. The patriarch having asked for a token of the fulfilment of the Divine word, God ordered him to prepare certain animals and birds as the materials of a sacrifice; and each of the animals having been divided into two parts, the pieces were laid in two separate rows, indicating (as some say) the contracting parties, who were about to become, as it were, one.* While the pieces lay in this order, some birds of prey came down upon them, which

* [It seems rather to indicate that those who broke the covenant should be cnt asunder in like manner.]

Abram drove away. The patriarch then fell into a kind of deep sleep, with a sensation of horrific darkness, during which God revealed to him that his posterity would suffer a state of bondage during four hundred years, to be followed by complete deliverance, and possession of the promised land. After this, 'it came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces-supposed to have been the Shechinah, or fiery symbol of the Divine presence, afterwards well known (Exod. iii. 2, xiii. 21), the appearance of which, on this occasion, was a ratification, or pledge, of the covenant on the part of God. For the present, no counter stipulation or pledge, on the part of Abram, was required; that was reserved for a future occasion.

It had not yet been said that the promised posterity should descend from Sarai; and this pious woman, considering herself now too old to have children, concluded that it must be the will of God that Abram should become a father by some other. Accordingly, she persuaded the patriarch to take, as a secondary wife, according to a custom then prevalent, her own Egyptian bond-maid Hagar (Heb. stranger), whose posterity might be at once Abram's, and also, at least in one sense, her ownher own, that is, according to the custom of the age, by right of property, or legal ownership, as being the children of her slave. The event, however, proved that, in this matter, the policy of Sarai did not coincide with the will and purpose of the Most High.

Hagar, in prospect of being really the ancestress of the promised posterity, behaved towards her mistress with a degree of insolence which called forth harsh treatment in return. Under these circumstances, Hagar was induced to seek safety in flight; but she was recalled to her post of duty by 'the angel of the Lord,' who 'found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness,' and gave her a remarkable promise concerning her future son, to be called Ishmael (Heb. God hears): 'he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren' (Gen. xvi. 12)—a prediction remarkably fulfilled in the history of the Ishmaelites, as a nomadic Arabian tribe. Hagar returned to her mistress, and gave birth to Ishmael, when Abram was 86 years old (B. C. 1910).

Thirteen years passed away; Abram was now 99 years of age, and the prospect of his having any children by Sarai appeared utterly hopeless, when God made to the patriarch a

further revelation of His will, to the effect that the promised posterity should indeed descend from her (B.c. 1897) In the first place, however, God called Abram to a covenant stipulation on his part, with its ratification by an appointed sign-a stipulation and sign which are perhaps correctly regarded as the counterpart of those which had already been given by God, for His part, on occasion of the sacrifice above mentioned. Abram, for his part, was now charged with the duty of sincere worship and godly obedience (I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect'); and the sign appointed as his ratification of the covenant was the rite of circumcision, to be performed, on the eighth day after birth, upon all male children of himself and his descendants, together with their bond-servants. The name of Abram (Heb. high father) was now changed to Abraham (Heb. father of a multitude); and that of Sarai (of uncertain meaning; perhaps, contending) to Sarah (Heb. princess). To Ishmael God promised a numerous posterity, with many temporal blessings; but it was expressly declared that the great covenant promise was reserved for the future son of Sarah, to be called Isaac (Heb. laughter; because Abraham laughed when he received the promise). Hereupon Abraham performed the rite of circumcision upon himself, together with Ishmael, and all the males of his household.

Soon after this, there stood before the tent of Abraham, at the terebinth-grove of Mamre, three men, to whom, in accordance with their appearance as travellers, the patriarch furnished hospitable entertainment. These guests, however, were no less than heavenly visitants, embodying a manifestation of the Divine presence.* The Lord now repeated the promise, Sarah, thy wife, shall have a son,' in the hearing of Sarah herself, who was standing in the tent-door. But Sarah was at first incredulous; and, under the influence of unbelief, she, more or less contemptuously, laughed at the announcement. And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.' (Gen. xviii. 13-15.) Thus was Abraham's wife convicted at once of unbelief and of falsehood; and doubtless, by means of this severe

a son.

*The story of Philemon and Baucis, preserved by Ovid, has some points of similarity to this narrative, upon which it may have been founded. But it is naturally devoid of the religious element, and is even disfigured by false conceptions of the Divine nature; so that, from the higher point of view, it does not bear comparison with the history now before us.

reproof and discipline, her heart was humbled, and she was led to the possession of that degree of personal faith which was needful in order to the fulfilment of the Divine promise on her behalf.

Such, however, was not the only object of the visit of the three angels, or (as they are called in the sacred text) three men, one of whom appears to have been no other than the manifested Angel of the Covenant-the eternal Son of God, hereafter to become incarnate as the promised Messiah. This wonderful Being the Lord-proceeded to declare to Abraham the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, with the other cities of the plain (the Vale of Siddim), on account of their great and aggravated wickedness (B. c. 1897). This declaration was met by an affecting appeal, or intercessory prayer, from Abraham on behalf of the doomed cities, which resulted in a Divine promise that if even ten righteous persons should be found in the (principal) city (Sodom), the Lord would spare the place for their sakes. But ten were not found there. Two angels (probably the other two, who had quitted Abraham while he was conversing with the third) warned Lot to flee out of the city, and even assisted in rescuing him, together with his wife and two daughters, from the overthrow, at the same time yielding to his request that he might find safety in a little city called Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his [Lot's] wife looked back from behind him [contrary to the express prohibition of the angels], and she became a pillar of salt' [i. e. perhaps, she was fixed to the spot as a corpse, covered over and encased by the nitrosulphureous substance which was so copiously falling]. (Gen. xix. 24-26.)*

Abraham now quitted Hebron-perhaps on account of its neighbourhood to the desolate cities of the plain, or for some reasons connected with the state of his flocks and herds-and took up his residence in the territory of the Philistine king of Gerar, Abimelech. Here, as formerly in Egypt, Abraham described his wife as his sister; and, notwithstanding this dishonest artifice, he was in great danger of losing her. But God would not suffer the sin or error of man to interfere with the

* Mention is made of the Dead Sea, and of the bituminous nature of its waters, by Strabo (xvi. 2), Diod. Sic. (ii. 48), Tacitus (Hist. v. 6), Justin (xxxvi. 3). Tacitus also speaks of traditions concerning the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah,

accomplishment of His designs: He mercifully kept back Abimelech from sinning against Him, and caused the heathen king to administer a merited rebuke to the patriarch and his wife. A good understanding, however, continued to subsist between Abimelech and Abraham; and eventually a treaty was made between them, at a place hence called Beersheba (Heb. well of the oath); after which Abraham continued to reside in the country of the Philistines.

Not long after Abraham had left Hebron-when the patriarch was 100 years old, and his wife 90-twenty-five years after the date of the first promise-Sarah gave birth to Isaac (B. C. 1896). Ishmael was now charged with the same offensive conduct as that which had been formerly reproved in Hagar; and Sarah insisted upon the summary dismissal of both. Cast out,' she said, 'this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.' At first, Abraham was ill disposed to comply with this request; but God himself commanded his assent, assigning as a reason, 'in Isaac shall thy seed be called.' Abraham therefore could hesitate no longer, and he sent away Hagar with Ishmael, who was now about fifteen or sixteen years old. On this occasion, Hagar was in great distress in the wilderness of Beersheba, fearing that Ishmael would die of thirst; when an angel of the Lord pointed out to her a well of water, and repeated the promise that Ishmael should become a great nation. Ishmael eventually established himself, as the head of a nomad tribe, in the wilderness of Paran, near Mount Sinai.

After these things, at some time not stated in Scripture, but certainly when Isaac had passed the age of early childhood (probably about B. c. 1871),* God was pleased to make a severe trial of Abraham's faith, by demanding of him no less than the sacrifice of Isaac, his son, to be slain by his own hand, and offered as a burnt-offering, on one of the mountains in the land of Moriah.† Abraham endured the trial; and in the obedience of faith, he proceeded to the fulfilment of the command, with

[This date rests upon the authority of Josephus, who says that Isaac was 25 years old.]

Heb. 'Land of Appearance, or Vision.' According to Jewish tradition, this was the hill (Mount Moriah, 2 Chron. iii. 1) at Jerusalem on which the temple was afterwards built. Dean Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, chap. v.) is disposed rather to accept the Samaritan tradition in favour of Mount Gerizim. With reference to the argument adduced for the Jewish tradition from the identity of the names, he observes that Mount Moriah, at Jerusalem, was so called because here the Lord appeared unto David (2 Chron. iii. 1); but that the mountain to which Abraham went with Isaac was probably so called as being visible at a distance. Some arguments on the other side will be found, p. 233, note. [The Samaritan tradition is supported in Smith's Dict. i. 679, 680; ii. 422, 423.]