According to the common law of Christian experience, God’s methods with Abraham were progressive; his manifestations of himself moved on by successive stages; much this year but more the next; so much indeed at the first that it must have seemed to the good man very great, but more and greater were yet to come. The successive epochs at which God appeared to Abraham to talk with him of the great covenant are very distinctly marked in the history—of such sort as many a Christian might record in his own personal life-history.
1. In the outset of Abraham’s history is that eventful call which brought him out from “Ur of the Chaldees,” the narrative of which stands Gen. 12: 1–3. In the promise made to him then the leading points were—“I will make thy name great”; “I will make of thee a great nation”; “thou shalt be a blessing and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed”; I will stand by thee to bless all who bless thee and to curse whosoever may curse thee.——This must have raised in Abram’s mind large expectations and assured him that Jehovah was indeed his own God.
2. Immediately after Abram’s arrival in Canaan (Gen. 12: 7) the Lord appeared to him specially to identify that as the land which he had promised (Gen. 12: 1) to show him and to give to his posterity. There, as in each new home, Abram built an altar and in devout worship called on the name of the Lord who had thus appeared to him.
3. Next, after his magnanimous bearing toward Lot (13: 7–9, 14–18) in which he seemed ready to waive all claim to any territory Lot might choose to occupy. The Lord bade him lift up his eyes toward every point of the compass, all round about and reiterated his grant of the whole—“All the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever.” Also, that his seed should be as the dust of the earth. His generous magnanimity toward Lot in nowise damaged his standing with God or his rights in the goodly land of promise.
4. A yet richer scene of divine manifestation followed Abram’s rescue of Lot from the plundering horde of the great Eastern kings (Gen. 15). The first words were significant and precious: “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward.” Abram knew enough of human nature and of the resentful, lawless spirit of those warlike kings to see that he was exposed to their vengeance and that they might return any day with more military force than his household could muster. It was therefore at once timely and kind in the Lord to meet him at this point with this comforting assurance: “Fear not; I am thy shield”; I stand between thee and those vengeful foes: my strong arm shall be a wall of fire round about thee. Moreover Abram had nobly refused to appropriate to his personaluse even a thread or a shoe-latchet of the booty brought back from his routed enemies—whereupon the Lord said, “I will be thine exceeding great reward.”——Truly when a man’s ways please the Lord, he not only keeps his enemies at peace with him but makes all things go well.——On this re-appearance the Lord promised him a son more distinctly than ever before, and posterity as the stars in number. Here it is said definitely—“Abraham believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness.” His faith pleased God, and because of it, God accepted him and he stood as one who is “all right before God.”——Remarkably the Lord at this time identified himself to Abraham as the same God who had appeared to him in his fatherland and called him forth into Canaan and said, This is the very land I then promised to give thee; to which Abraham replied (v. 8), “Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it”? At once the Lord proceeded to ratify his covenant in the usual Oriental manner. A heifer, a she-goat and a ram—one from each species commonly used in sacrifice—are brought forward; each is cut into two parts; the parts are laid asunder; a turtle-dove and a young pigeon, also used for sacrifice in certain contingencies, were added but not cut in two. Then when night came on, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and the Lord gave him in vision certain prophetic views of his posterity; and ratified the covenant by passing (in the symbol of fire and smoke) between the severed parts of the sacrificial animals. Of this method of ratifying covenants we have historical traces in Jer. 34: 18–20. We have also early and decisive indications of the same mode in the fact that at least in the Hebrew, Greek and Latin tongues the word for ratifying a covenant means primarily to cut. The phrase is, to cut a covenant. The prominent thing in the transaction was the cutting of the animal in twain that the contracting parties might pass solemnly between the parts of it. It seems to be assumed that the contracting parties virtually imprecated upon themselves a like doom if they proved faithless to their covenant.
5. At the next eventful appearance Abraham had been waiting in faith for the son of promise a quarter of a century and was perhaps tempted to think the fulfillmentfast becoming impossible. Pertinently therefore the first words of the Lord were—“I am the Almighty God! Walk before me and be thou perfect”; fear nothing; my covenant stands fast. I will multiply thee exceedingly! Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him, reiterating his promise of posterity, giving unwonted prominence to the family feature of his covenant—“a God to thee and to thy seed after thee”—and instituting the rite of circumcision.
6. The sixth and last recorded appearance followed the triumph of Abraham’s faith in the sacrifice of his only son. In this the Lord re-affirmed the great elements of his promise—posterity as the stars of heaven; triumphant over their enemies; a blessing to all the nations of the earth.——Thus at successive and somewhat remote intervals and mostly on special occasions the Lord manifested himself to his servant to confirm his faith, to enlarge the range of promise and to signify his pleasure in the obedient trustful life of his friend.
Such is the religious history of Abraham as related to his covenant God. Corresponding to this is the history of his posterity, the Hebrew nation. To them as to their patriarchal father God manifested himself through long ages, at successive points, e. g. in their Egypt life; in his uplifted arm over Pharaoh to bring them forth in the memorable Exodus; at the Red Sea; at Sinai; all through their wilderness life; at the Jordan crossing; in the conquest of Canaan, and onward, onward, till the coming at length of that greater Seed of Abraham in whom most signally were all the nations of the earth to be blessed. But to the details of this latter history we must give more definite attention in their place and order.
One other special feature in the great covenant with Abraham should be noticed.