Your ShelfYour Projects

CRITICAL NOTES

17%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, April 21, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 16

Read the full edition

CRITICAL NOTES.

GENESIS 22 : 15–18.—Let us consider this passage under four heads:—
1. The Circumstances. Abraham had just endured that test of faith in the command of God to offer as a sacrifice his beloved and only begotten son Isaac, “of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Heb. 11 : 18. The faith of the patriarch had triumphed under the most difficult circumstances that could have been brought to bear upon him; for he believed that God could, and if necessary would, raise his son from the dead that the promise might not fail. The Lord had sent an angel to stay the obedient hand of his servant, and to provide a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son. The sacrifice thus provided had been offered; and the Lord, well pleased, had again sent his angel to announce the oath which he had made concerning the promise before given to Abraham.
2. The Oath of Jehovah. This is said to be the only instance of God’s swearing by himself in his intercourse with the patriarchs,—a fact which shows the importance of the matter concerning which the oath was made. This oath made the promises, if possible, more secure, placing them beyond the possibility of a failure. “An oath, with God,” says a writer quoted in Lange’s commentary, “is a solemn pledging of himself in all the unchangeableness of his faithfulness and truth to the fulfilment of the promise.” As Paul says, “Because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.” Abraham and his descendants were wont to refer to this oath as the most positive evidence of the certainty of the promise. See Gen. 24 : 7; 26 : 3; 26 : 24, etc.
3. The Promise. This is but the renewal of that already given. The same promise of God’s blessing, the same promise of an innumerable progeny, the same figures to denote the number of his offspring, the same promise that through his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed,—all these points are renewed in the promise to which Jehovah now makes oath; and in addition it is declared that Abraham’s seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. To possess the gate of one’s enemies is to overcome them, and bring them into subjection. Gen. 24 : 60. The term “seed” must here denote the literal seed of Abraham, the children of Israel, or the spiritual seed, the people of God universally (Gal. 3 : 29), or Christ, according to Paul’s interpretation in Gal. 3 : 16. If the former is intended, the promise was fulfilled in the conquest of Canaan by the children of Israel; if either or both of the latter be meant, the fulfilment will be reached when death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed, and Christ with his redeemed people shall stand victorious upon Mount Zion. The last two meanings may not be separated; for if Christ be meant, the promise includes Christ’s people; and if Christ’s people be intended, the promise also embraces Christ, through whom his people receive the promise. Gal. 3 : 29. The promise may have had a temporary application and fulfilment at the time of the conquest of Canaan; but its final, principal, and eternal application and fulfilment will be reached in the glorious triumph of Christ and his saints.
4. The Reason. The reason why God gave to Abraham these glorious promises is stated in verse 18 to be because he had obeyed the voice of God. The same thought appears in Gen. 18 : 19, only then Abraham had not been tested; but God foresaw that Abraham would not only obey the Lord himself, but that he would also bring his family up to obey the Lord. Those who plead the liberty of the gospel as an excuse for disobedience to the commandments of God, would do well to remember that the very blessings of the gospel which they enjoy were pronounced upon Abraham and his seed as a reward for obedience.