reverently and religiously, in a way subservient to covenant purposes, dedicated to the working out of the Divine order. The ordinance was not extended to women, nor was there any equivalent observance for them. This was owing to their dependent position. Woman was formed out of man, and the husband is the head of the wife; so it was in and with the husband that she was consecrated; not as female, but as wife, she became partaker of the covenant. The exact condition of unmarried women in this respect is nowhere defined; but we may suppose that in their case the dedication of the father conveyed the covenant privileges to the daughters. The reason of the eighth day being taken as the day of circumcision is wholly symbolical. Of course, the child before it was a week old might not be able to bear the operation, but the selection of the first day of the second week has a well-understood signification. The number seven in Holy Scripture is of vast importance. It may be regarded in two relations as 6 + 1, or as 4 + 3, and on these two relations its significance depends. In the former case its symbolism is presented in the account of the work of Creation. In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested. So the works of creation, to find their rest and sanctification, must be united to One, that is, God. The works of the world must return to God ere they can be at rest and hallowed. In the other relation, as four is the type of the world (with its four corners and four winds), and three of the Holy Trinity, so four united to three represents the world united to God, the creation reconciled with its Creator. Thus seven is the covenant number, expressive of harmony, unity, perfection, and rest. The use of the number eight is intimately connected with that of seven, making what is called in music an octave, the recurrence of the first, the recommencement of a new cycle. As being one beyond the seven days of the earthly week, it denotes a new life; hence it symbolizes the idea of re-creation, renewal, regeneration, resurrection; and, in the case of the Jewish infant, the eighth day was regarded as his second birthday, the beginning to him of a new life and a new development. We Christians see in it a type of the resurrection of Jesus Christ who rose from the dead on the eighth day, and has given to us the circumcision of the Spirit by which we mortify the old man, crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts, and putting on the new man which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth (Eph. iv. 22 ff.). As After the fresh sanction of the covenant, the startling announcement was made that Sarai should herself bear a son, the old woman should become a mother. And in token of her admission to the blessing promised to her husband, her name was changed to Sarah, the final letter being altered for the H which denoted the title Jehovah. She who had hitherto been known as "the contentious " I was henceforward to be called "Princess," mother of nations, one from whom kings should spring. In glad surprise as he heard the wonderful intelligence, Abraham fell upon his face and laughed. He did not doubt the word, but it startled him out of his usual staid and sober-minded demeanour. The thought crossed his mind : "Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" But he repressed this natural questioning; he checked the opposition of natural reason. the apostle says (Rom. iv. 19 ff): Without being weakened in faith, he regarded not his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb; but looking at the promise of God he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform." Faith overcame doubt, but the promise was still amazing and beyond all experience. Nor, perhaps, was it altogether welcome at the first moment. For thirteen years he had been accustomed to regard Ishmael as his heir; his hopes had centred on this son; he had looked forward to leaving him to take his place as head of the clan and inheritor of the promises, when he himself should have gone to his fathers in peace. Called upon suddenly to transfer these hopes to another and a future son, he could not avoid giving vent to his parental feelings in the natural cry : “O that Ishmael might live before Thee." Some have explained this interjection as signifying the awe and reverence of Abraham, as though he meant, I do not presume to make any prayer in behalf of this newly-promised child, but grant that Ishmael may meet with Thy favour, and live a good life as in Thy presence. But it seems most probable that, thinking Ishmael I "Sarah is the Assyrian sarrat, "queen." "Fresh Light from the Monuments," p. 46. would be superseded by İsaac, or even that it was God's intention to put him away or slay him as not pleasing in His sight, he herein prays for his preservation and future prosperity. God's answer to his request makes this plain. Ishmael, God assures him, shall become a great nation, father of twelve princes; but he was not to be the heir of the great promise. We can see some reason for this.2 Ishmael was the son of a slave, and although, failing any issue from the proper wife, he might inherit his father's possessions, yet, on the appearance of a legitimate heir, he sank at once to his mother's level. We see how precarious was the position of the son of a slave in the case of Ishmael himself a few years later, when he and his mother were expelled from Abraham's household, and left to shift for themselves in any way they could. So our blessed Lord says (John viii. 35), referring to this matter: "The bondservant abideth not in the house for ever; the son abideth ever." Such an one, whose tenure was thus uncertain and dependent on accident or caprice, was not fit to represent the spiritual children of God, the heirs of the great promise awaiting complete fulfilment in the gospel. The symbol in his case would have been faulty and imperfect, not like God's uniform work. Again, the covenant was not of nature, but of grace; the recipient was raised above all men by pre-eminent faith. The heir, who was to inherit the blessing and transmit it to posterity, was not to be the child of worldly policy or fleshly desire, nor one whose birth was the effect of defective faith and natural impatience. Human contrivance was not to be a factor in this Divine project. No; the heir was to be the reward of faith, the child of miracle. Isaac alone could answer the requirements of the case, and Ishmael's qualifications were as nothing in comparison with those of the son of the freewoman. The sorely tried patience of the patriarch was requited, not by the issue of an Egyptian concubine, but by the supernatural advent of a child of his own proper wife. I Gen. xxv. 12. * Dr. Dykes, "Abraham," p. 170 £ CHAPTER X SODOM. Three heavenly visitors-Renewed promise of a son to Sarah-Abraham intercedes for Sodom-Ramet-el-Khalil-Destruction of the Cities of the Plain-Testimonies of ancient writers-Physical agents of the catastrophe-Site of the five cities-Treatment of the angels in Sodom-Lot saved-Lot's wife-Catastrophe widely reported -Subsequent history of Lot-Moabites and Ammonites-Lot called righteous." IT was shortly after the institution of the covenant of circumcision that Abraham had an opportunity of showing another side of his character, his hospitality to strangers, his boldness in intercessory prayer. As one day he sat sheltered in his tent door from the heat of the midday sun, he beheld three men approaching over the plain. To see weary strangers and to see guests was with Abraham a natural impulse. Not knowing whom he was receiving, he eagerly offered them hospitality, and thus "entertained angels unawares (Heb. xiii. 2). With true Eastern ceremony, and perhaps observing some unusual dignity in their bearing, he bowed himself to the ground before them. First addressing one who appeared to be the principal personage of the three, he bids him turn aside and rest; and then, with that care for comfort which travellers shod with sandals find so grateful, he provides for them all water for their feet and refreshing food after their journey. Not at once did he recognize the Divine character of his visitants, or he would scarcely have presumed to offer them meat and drink. It was from the liberality of his heart that he received them so hospitably; and he was rewarded. Some have compared this episode to the sweet history of the childless pair, Philemon and Baucis, in Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (viii. 626 ff.), or to the story of the aged Hyricus in the same poet's "Fasti" (v. 495 ff.), in the days when, according to Homer ("Odyss.” xvii. 485 ff.), the gods assuming human forms used to roam the earth in order to try the dispositions of men. 66 To the believing mind there can be no doubt that these three angels did really appear objectively to Abraham on this occasion, and that one of them was of higher dignity than the others. The account begins: "And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre" (Gen. xviii. 1), and then goes on to narrate how he suddenly saw three men "before him as he sat in his tent-door in the noontide heat, thus implying that the appearance of the Lord was the visit of these three personages. When two of them departed to the Cities of the Plain, and one is left, Abraham is said to have stood yet before the Lord, and the one who answers him is repeatedly called Jehovah. The strict monotheism of Moses would never have allowed the majestic “I," if the speaker were a mere created being, a messenger and nothing more. He who speaks in the first person, as Himself making promises, covenants, and bringing mighty things to pass, must either be God, or have in him some special Presence of God. God is by nature invisible. To be seen by mortal eyes, He must act through some created being; and therefore St. Augustine holds that these appearances are rather self-manifestations of God through a created being, than those of one of the Persons of the Godhead. But they show remarkably how God was preparing man for a nearer contact with Himself, and pointing to the emptying Himself of His glory in the Incarnation, and teaching the duty of recognizing His Divinity under a created form. So we shall not err in seeing herein a Theophany, a manifestation of the Logos, a revelation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who appeared, as He did after His resurrection, with two attendant angels. Or we may put it thus: Man could not bear the sight of God in His absolute nature, for ". no man shall see Him and live; " in mercy therefore to his weakness, when He would make Himself known to His creature, He uses the intervention of some angelic being, investing him for the time with the Divine authority and plenary excellence. Thus Abraham, at I * J. H. Blunt, " 'Dictionary of Theology," Art. Theophany. Liddon, Bampton Lecture," ii. 78, ff. ed. 1867. |