$30. Sarah's Death. Isaac's Marriage. Abraham's Death.

1. Gen. ch. 23 and 24.-Sarah died in Hebron, when she was one hundred and twenty-seven years old. Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite the cave and field of Machpelah before Mamre, as a burying-place for his family. Three years afterwards, he sends his steward Eliezer to Haran, where, according to the tidings which he had received, many descendants of his brother Nahor dwelt, for the purpose of bringing back a bride for Isaac. In answer to the prayer which Abraham's servant offered in faith, Rebekah, the grand-daughter of Nahor, meets him at the well of water where he rested; in her he recognized, according to the sign for which he had prayed, the person whom God had appointed for Isaac. On her arrival, Isaac, who was now forty years old, brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and she became his wife.

OBS. The circumstance that Abraham buys a burying-place which his descendants are to receive by inheritance, is an evidence of his faith in the promise that his seed shall possess that land. He desires that his own ashes and those of his wife should remain undisturbed in the land in which his descendants would dwell and reign, and, that during the period of 400 years wherein they would be strangers in a foreign land, the spot in which these ashes are deposited, should perpetually admonish and remind them of the land of their fathers as the land which they shall possess. The solemnity with which Abraham arranges the terms of the purchase of the property, at a public meeting of the Hittites, indicates the importance which he assigned to the sure and undisputed possession of that family burying-place.

2. Gen. 251-18.-After the death of Sarah, Abraham again took a wife, whose name was Keturah, and who bare him six sons, the ancestors of Arabian and Midianite tribes. Isaac was appointed the sole heir; to the other sons he gave valuable gifts. When he was one hundred and seventy-five years old he died "an old man and full of years." Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, where Sarah had already been laid.

OBS.-The human race has had four ancestral heads, to each of whom the divine blessing is granted: "Be fruitful and multiply."

Of these, Abraham is the third; for he, too, is the head and founder of a new race, or of a new development. The direct reference of that blessing, in the case of the first and second, is to descendants after the flesh; in the case of the fourth (Christ, see Psalm 22: 30110: 3. Isa. 53: 10), to a spiritual seed, but in the case of Abraham, to both; for his spiritual seed was appointed to be manifested through the medium of his seed according to the flesh, agreeably to the promise: "in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."-The children of Abraham, according to the flesh, are countless in number. Nations have arisen and disappeared, but his descendants proceed onward, through all ages, unmixed and unchanged. Their history is not yet closed: the blessing given to his seed, still preserves them unharmed, under every pressure of the nations around them, and amid all the ravages of time. But the peculiar feature which distinguishes Abraham does not, properly, belong to him naturally, as a member of the human family, or as an individual of a particular nation, but is found in his spiritual character. Where this character, which is faith, is continued by propagation in his descendants, or through them as the medium, in all the other nations of the earth, we find the true children of Abraham. (Gal. 3: 7, 29; Rom. 9: 6-8.)-Faith was the polar star, the very soul, of his life. The ancient record, anticipating a development of two thousand years, remarked of him, first of all: "He believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness (Gen. 15: 6); and after these two thousand years had elapsed, Christ said of him: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." (John 8: 56.) Abraham's true position and importance cannot, therefore, be fully appreciated, until we recognize in him the father of them that believe (Rom. 4: 11); and innumerable as the stars of heaven, and glorious as they are, are his spiritual children, the children of his faith.

§ 31. Isaac and his Sons.

1. Gen. 25: 19-34. Rebekah had been the wife of Isaac twenty years, when she brought forth twins, concerning whom the Lord had previously said: "the elder shall serve the younger." Esau, the elder, who was a hunter, is his father's favorite; Jacob, who dwelt in the tent, is preferred by his mother. The former, who is characteristically rude and thoughtless, sells his birthright to the artful and calculating Jacob for a pottage of lentiles; he afterwards (ch. 26: 35) takes to himself two

wives, the daughters of Hittites, which were a grief of mind to his parents.

OBS.-The Lord said (Malachi 1 : 2, 3), “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau," and Paul teaches that Jacob was thus chosen and Esau rejected, not on account of the merit of works, but through the free grace of God, for the choice was made when the children were not yet born, neither had done any good or evil. (Rom. 9:10-13.) The two brothers are the representatives of their respective descendants; now, as those of Esau, like all pagans, are called to salvation in Christ, the above does not refer to any unconditional and eternal reprobation, but to a certain preference of the one, for the purpose of leading to the salvation of both.

2. Gen. ch. 26.-Another famine, like the first in the days of Abraham, now occurred; but the Lord commanded Isaac, who also purposed to depart for Egypt, to remain in the land of promise, and in a distinct and impressive manner, transferred to him the promises which had been given to Abraham. Isaac now dwells in Gerar, and, like Abraham, alleges that his wife is his sister. But he does not possess his father's energy of character, and is relieved by the Lord from the trial which Abraham encountered in the seizure of his wife. Abimelech soon ascertained that Isaac's words were untrue, and charged his subjects, saying to them, that he who touched Isaac or his wife should be put to death. Nevertheless, the Philistines, who envied Isaac on account of the abundant blessing which he enjoyed, stopped his wells of water; he patiently endures it, and withdraws to Beersheba. Here the Lord appeared to him, speaking words of encouragement, and blessing him; and he builded an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord.

3. Gen. ch. 27.-When Isaac was now old, he intended to transfer the patriarchal blessing to the elder son, contrary to the declaration of the Lord. Rebekah frustrates his design; she intends to comply with the divine will, but she employs ungodly means; she presumes to offer to God the aid of her own devices. Jacob obeys his mother in a case in which duty required him to disobey, while Esau purposes to appropriate to himself an object (the blessing) which he had neither a divine nor human right to claim. He lies and deceives not less than Jacob, and he him

self, not Jacob, as he alleges, verse 36, is the supplanter of his brother. Thus they all walk in their own carnal and sinful ways, and, nevertheless, the will of God is done.-Rebekah prepares the savoury meat, which Isaac had directed Esau to bring previous to the act of blessing him, for, among the Oriental nations, a common meal is the foundation of common action. Jacob brings the food to him.-The voice, indeed, is Jacob's voice; but the boldness of the falsehood, the smell of Esau's raiment which Jacob wore, the rough covering which his mother had skilfully placed on his hands and neck, and, above all, the finger of God which is present, mislead the blind father. He blesses that son for whom God had designed the blessing: "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee" (the land and the seed, § 23 : 2). — Then Esau comes in from his hunting; he is enraged, and weeps bitterly. But Isaac, who now becomes aware of the whole truth, answers: "I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed." The only blessing which he can bestow on Esau, assigns to the latter the rude life of a Bedouin, and the sword as the means of support; he must serve his brother, but obtains a view of a period in which he shall break that yoke.

OBS. 1.—Esau, whose surname Edom (that is, red), refers to the eagerness with which he sought the red pottage (Gen. 25: 30), is the father of the predatory Edomites (Gen. ch. 36), the irreconcilable enemies of the people of God, who occupied mount Seir, (see ¿ 41. 3); they all became David's servants (2 Sam. 8: 14), but their national independence was repeatedly recovered.

OBS. 2.-Although Isaac lived 43 years after the above event, he now disappears from the page of history. The sacred record merely remarks of him, that, at the age of one hundred and eighty years, he was gathered unto his people, when he was old and full of days, and that Esau and Jacob buried him in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 35: 29; 49: 31). Rebekah does not appear to have lived till Jacob returned from Mesopotamia. The significance and position of Isaac are, undoubtedly, not prominent, when he is compared with Abraham and Jacob. The invincible energy of action which characterizes the

faith of Abraham does not appear in him; but, on the other hand, his faith is seen in a different aspect, which is equally essential to its completeness-his strength and greatness are beheld in patient endurance and suffering, in quietness and waiting (Isai. 30: 15; Ps. 37:7). This peculiar tendency or direction of his life and conduct, which fully accorded with his natural disposition, originated chiefly in that impressive occurrence in Moriah; and to refine and sanctify it, was the object of all the providential events in his history. While he proceeded in this direction, which both nature and grace indicated, he walked in the ways of God; on the only occasion in his life, on which he designed to forsake them, and, passing over into a foreign region, to act according to his own determination, he discovered that he was wandering from God, and, humbled by the issue, he confines himself afterwards within the limits assigned to him.

§ 32. Jacob's Journey.

1. Gen. ch. 28.—In accordance with the advice of his parents, and bearing with him their benediction, Jacob flees from his brother's fury, to Mesopotamia; his heart is heavy; he is forsaken by man, but not by the Lord. In a dream he sees the ladder of heaven, on which the angels of God ascended and descended, as on a bridge between heaven and earth an image of the divine revelations granted to his family. The Lord appeared above it, ready to descend, and said: "The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth—and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land: for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." When Jacob awaked out of his sleep, he said: "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." He anoints the stone on which his head had rested, and calls the place by the name of Beth-el (the house of God); and he makes the vow: "If God will be with me, and will keep me-so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone-shall be God's house."

2. Gen. ch. 29–31. — In Haran he meets with Rachel, the daughter of Laban, at a well of water; he served her father, who