DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4641#0012
4 ISRAEL.
extinguish at once the life miraculously given, the stay of his old age, the sole pledge of magnificent
possession and countless posterity, and above all, the prophetic ancestor of that mightiest offspring, the
Son alike of man and heaven, on whose brow was to be laid the perpetual diadem, and whose reign
was to be the rejoicing of all generations.
But, in this trial, of which the force is now beyond all calculation, (for in what human existence
have interests and objects so vast ever been since combined?) the patriarch was not simply submissive,
he was confiding. In defiance of the strongest obstacles, he believed that the promise would be
eventually fulfilled; gave his entire conviction to the divine words, and in solemn reverence and unhesitating
belief, made his journey to the place of sacrifice, " accounting that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead."l It was not until he was on the point of consummating his obedience, that his trial
was complete; and he received his reward in the most illustrious acknowledgment of faith ever given to man.
" By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy
son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his
enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."2
On the same scene, nineteen hundred years after, and on the eve of the fall of Israel, a more
stupendous sacrifice was to be offered; the Supreme Father was to give up his Firstborn to death. The
same great truth, that He could not be held by the bonds of the grave, was to be the essential faith of
that most solemn of all sufferings: and the trial was to be followed by that promise of universal sovereignty
and imperishable happiness, which constitutes the hope, as it will consummate the grandeur, of Christianity.
The discipline continued for centuries. Abraham finished his course, still a pilgrim in the land,
where the divine promise had foreordained the temple and the throne. Isaac, the especial son of
promise, died like him, a pilgrim, yet confiding in the future kingdom. Jacob began his career a fugitive
and ended it an exile, yet with his last breath uttering a memorable prediction of the ample fulfilment
of the divine words. The discipline extended to the nation. The Israelites were not only forced to abandon
Palestine, but they were thrown into the power of a great and despotic kingdom, which gradually changed
protection into tyranny; and, by actual bondage, threatened to raise a perpetual barrier against their return.
Yet faith survived. Neither the famine which drove them into Egypt, nor the violence which
retained them there, could overcome their conviction. Joseph, the first minister, the monarch in all
but name, refused to die an Egyptian, and enjoined that his remains should be borne away with his
people on the day of their future march to Palestine.
Even when they were fettered, generation after generation, to the soil, and a deepening slavery of two
hundred years, must have seemed to set the seal to their exclusion, the principle sacredly survived. The
parents of Moses preserved the infant, in the strength of a supernatural hope. Moses himself, when his fame
and his genius had grown to maturity, "mighty in words and deeds," the statesman and the soldier, with
all the temptations of royal rank and opulence before him, refused to abandon his hope in the promise;
" refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God."3
But, his individual trial was to grow still more severe. In an attempt to arouse the spirit of his
countrymen he failed, and made the bitter discovery, that they had lost all the feelings essential to freedom.
1 Hebrews xi. 19. 8 Genesis xxii. Id—IS. 3 Hebrews xi. 24, 2.5.
extinguish at once the life miraculously given, the stay of his old age, the sole pledge of magnificent
possession and countless posterity, and above all, the prophetic ancestor of that mightiest offspring, the
Son alike of man and heaven, on whose brow was to be laid the perpetual diadem, and whose reign
was to be the rejoicing of all generations.
But, in this trial, of which the force is now beyond all calculation, (for in what human existence
have interests and objects so vast ever been since combined?) the patriarch was not simply submissive,
he was confiding. In defiance of the strongest obstacles, he believed that the promise would be
eventually fulfilled; gave his entire conviction to the divine words, and in solemn reverence and unhesitating
belief, made his journey to the place of sacrifice, " accounting that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead."l It was not until he was on the point of consummating his obedience, that his trial
was complete; and he received his reward in the most illustrious acknowledgment of faith ever given to man.
" By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy
son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his
enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."2
On the same scene, nineteen hundred years after, and on the eve of the fall of Israel, a more
stupendous sacrifice was to be offered; the Supreme Father was to give up his Firstborn to death. The
same great truth, that He could not be held by the bonds of the grave, was to be the essential faith of
that most solemn of all sufferings: and the trial was to be followed by that promise of universal sovereignty
and imperishable happiness, which constitutes the hope, as it will consummate the grandeur, of Christianity.
The discipline continued for centuries. Abraham finished his course, still a pilgrim in the land,
where the divine promise had foreordained the temple and the throne. Isaac, the especial son of
promise, died like him, a pilgrim, yet confiding in the future kingdom. Jacob began his career a fugitive
and ended it an exile, yet with his last breath uttering a memorable prediction of the ample fulfilment
of the divine words. The discipline extended to the nation. The Israelites were not only forced to abandon
Palestine, but they were thrown into the power of a great and despotic kingdom, which gradually changed
protection into tyranny; and, by actual bondage, threatened to raise a perpetual barrier against their return.
Yet faith survived. Neither the famine which drove them into Egypt, nor the violence which
retained them there, could overcome their conviction. Joseph, the first minister, the monarch in all
but name, refused to die an Egyptian, and enjoined that his remains should be borne away with his
people on the day of their future march to Palestine.
Even when they were fettered, generation after generation, to the soil, and a deepening slavery of two
hundred years, must have seemed to set the seal to their exclusion, the principle sacredly survived. The
parents of Moses preserved the infant, in the strength of a supernatural hope. Moses himself, when his fame
and his genius had grown to maturity, "mighty in words and deeds," the statesman and the soldier, with
all the temptations of royal rank and opulence before him, refused to abandon his hope in the promise;
" refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God."3
But, his individual trial was to grow still more severe. In an attempt to arouse the spirit of his
countrymen he failed, and made the bitter discovery, that they had lost all the feelings essential to freedom.
1 Hebrews xi. 19. 8 Genesis xxii. Id—IS. 3 Hebrews xi. 24, 2.5.