Page images
PDF
EPUB

foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from A.C. 1897. his people; he hath broken my covenant.

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and * she shall be a mother of nations; Heb. she kings of people shall be of her.

17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

shall become nations.

19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son k Ch. xviii indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will esta- 10. xxi. 2. blish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; 'twelve princes shall he beget, and 1 Ch. xxv. 16. I will make him a great nation.

21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

-23 ¶ And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

SECTION XIV.

The Birth of Isaac.

GENESIS XXI. ver. 1-9.

1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.

1896.

m Ch. xvii. 19. xviii. 10.

A.C. 1896.

n Acts vii. 8. Gal. iv. 22.

Heb. xi. 11.

2 For Sarah "conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight

[ocr errors]

o Ch. xvii. 12. days old, as God had commanded him.

p Gal. iv. 30.

1892.

5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

6¶ And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.

7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.

8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

SECTION XV.

Casting out of Hagar and Ishmael,

GENESIS XXI. VER. 9-22.

9 ¶ And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, P Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.

12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.

14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

[ocr errors]

17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her,

What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the A.C. 1892. voice of the lad where he is.

18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for

I will make him a great nation.

19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

20 And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

22

SECTION XVI.

Covenant with Abimelech.

GENESIS XXI. VER. 22, TO THE END.

And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest:

*

shalt lie unto

me.

23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou Heb. if thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.

24 And Abraham said, I will swear.

25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken

away.

26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.

27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.

28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves?

30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.

31 Wherefore he called that place + Beer-sheba; because + That is, the there they sware both of them.

32 Thus they made a covenant at Beer-sheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

well of the oath.

33 And Abraham planted a ‡grove in Beer-sheba, and or, tree. called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.

A. C. 1892.

1871.

q Heb. xi. 17.

34 And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.

SECTION XVII.

Temptation of Abraham.”

GENESIS XXII. VER. 1-20.

1 And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Hob. Behold Behold, here I am.

me.

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

3 ¶ And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him,

" It was not by means of prophecy alone that the Almighty directed the attention of mankind to the future Messiah; the types of the Old Testament were rendered subservient to the same wise and useful purpose. A type has been well defined, to be "a prefigurative action or occurrence, in which one event, person, or circumstance is intended to represent another similar to it in certain respects, but future and distant."—"To constitute one thing the type of another, (remarks the learned Bishop Marsh) something more is wanted than mere resemblance. The former must not only resemble the latter, but it must have been designed so to resemble it, in its original institution.”—“And there is no other rule by which we can distinguish a real from a pretended type, than that of Scripture itself." For these reasons I have not insisted on the resemblances, between the Messiah and many of the eminent characters in the Old Testament. Though it is both a pleasant and profitable employment to discover allusions to the Son of God in every page of Scripture, we are by no means justified in asserting that one person or event, is undoubtedly the type of another; unless, as in the instances of Adam, Abel, Noah, the passover, and other chief institutions of the levitical law, we can shew from Scripture, that the resemblance was originally designed, and was not merely a coincidence. The sacrifice of Isaac by his father was so evidently typical of the sacrifice of Christ, that there can be no doubt of the design which was to be answered by this otherwise mysterious event. On the very spot where Christ was afterwards crucified, Abraham is commanded to slay his son. It is needless to recapitulate the coincidences between the sacrifice of Isaac and of Christ: they are to be found in every commentary. That the meaning of all the circumstances of this mystical sacrifice of his son was revealed to Abraham, that he learnt from them that the promised Messiah should in like manner bear the wood of the cross, and die for mankind, and that Abraham, in obeying the divine command, rejoiced to see the day of Christ, and he then saw it and was glad, is well argued by Bishop Warburton. Vide Bp. Van Mildert's Bampton Lectures. page 237Bp. Marsh's Lectures, part 4, page 113 to 115-Warburton's Div. Legat. v. 6, s, 5-M'Ewen on the Types.

and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offer- A.C. 1871. ing, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said,

me.

My father and he said, *Here am I, my son. And he * Heb. Behold said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the + lamb + Or, kid. for a burnt offering?

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

9 And they came to the place which God had told him

of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood

in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the r James ii 21. altar upon the wood.

10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

up

LORD will

14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jeho- That is the vah-jireh as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

S

16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

see, or pro

vide..

P. cv. 9. 21. Luke i. 72.

Ecclus. xliv.

Heb. vi. 13.

17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea § shore; and thy seed shall Hcb. lip. possess the gate of his enemies;

« PreviousContinue »