1. As Abraham and Isaac were travelling up the hill, the son bearing the wood and the father with the sad burden of the fire and the knife, the boy said: “Where is the lamb?” and Abraham, thrusting down his emotion and steadying his voice, said: “God will provide himself the lamb, my son.” When the wonderful issue of the trial was plain before him, and as he looked back upon it, the one thought that rose in his mind was of how, beyond his meaning, his words had been true. So he named that place by a name that spoke nothing of his trial, but everything of God's provision-“The Lord will see,” or “The Lord will provide.”
The Targum of Onkelos, explaining the land of Moriah as “the land of worship,” i.e. no doubt as the land in which men appear before God in worship, paraphrases this 14th verse as follows: “And Abraham sacrificed and prayed in that place; and he said before Jehovah, In this place shall generations worship, because it shall be said in that day, In this mountain did Abraham worship before Jehovah.” In the Jerusalem Targum the reference to the Temple is more clear: “Because in generations to come it shall be said, In the mount of the house of the sanctuary of Jehovah did Abraham offer up Isaac his son, and in this mountain which is the house of the sanctuary was the glory of Jehovah made manifest.”1 [Note: J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons, 337.]
2. Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide”-it is the keynote of Abraham's life. It is just what the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews declares to be the motive-power of all reverent, trustful life. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The whole truth lies there, and it may be expressed in a sentence thus: The crown of our life is the achievement of God's purpose in us. We may take this to pieces for closer study in detail thus: God has a purpose affecting every life. He makes that purpose known to us. He grants all that we need to secure its realization.
(1) God has a purpose in every life.-We accept this word for reasons which are overwhelmingly sufficient. We believe in Jesus Christ. We hold as our own the precious revelation which He gives. Through Him we have come to believe in God. In Him we see the Father. This is God's great purpose-to make the very best of us, or rather to enable us to make the best of ourselves. We believe this, as we believe in God. This holds the exposition of many an event which otherwise would baffle us with its mystery. He has made us and sent us into this world, not that we may gain ease and affluence, not that we may be successful according to faulty ideas, not even that we may be happy in the common sense of the word; but that we may become good in noble, fearless, unselfish, reverent ways, strong in Christ Jesus, like-minded with God.
This life is a stage through which man is passing towards God's ideal of him, and it will not be possible to argue from his condition to the character of his Creator, until that ideal is realized. To say that God cannot be righteous because the earthly life which He has given to man falls short of what men would desire is as illogical as to judge the capabilities of an artist upon the evidence of the rough outline of some half-finished sketch. Thus Browning has to reconcile his intuitive knowledge of God with the existence, not of man as he is, but of man as he will eventually become. Accepting the witness of his inner experience as conclusive, he has to construct in idea such a heaven as an all-strong, all-wise, all-loving Cause could make. This can only be a state of absolute perfection, when “all we have willed or hoped or dreamt of good, shall exist, not its semblance, but itself.” When God's end for humanity is achieved, there will no longer be any disparity between man's ideal of himself and his actual state. The ragged edges of this life will be rounded off, evil will no longer be necessary for the evolution of good, but a “further good conceivable beyond the utmost earth can realize” will be made manifest in all things;
“What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more;
On earth the broken arcs; in heaven the perfect round.”
“In that high sphere to which yearnings tend” every wrong shall be righted, and every difficulty explained. The prophetic anticipation of its coming … is the consolation of all who have grieved for change, or faltered before the hard truth, that “e'en though better follow, good must pass,” as “silently the first gift dies away.” For impossible though it be to conceive perfection adequately, and weak as is the symbolism, alike of the aged Apostle with his golden streets and gates of pearl, and of our own more cultured time, we may at least be certain that God's end for us cannot be worse than the best that we can imagine for ourselves.1 [Note: A. C. Pigou, Robert Browning as a Religious Teacher, 62.]
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it, soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?
Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim. Why, even Death stands still,
And waits an hour sometimes for such a will1 [Note: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Poems of Life, 57.]
(2) God makes known His purpose.-He has His angels still, though they do not bear the same bright tokens as shone around His messengers of old. “Day unto day uttereth speech.” Every event, every opportunity, every call for endeavour, every claim for sacrifice has a voice; every chance of doing good, every chink through which you may flash into some dark life a cheery light, every wayside by which you may find some one to bless. The Spirit of Jesus Christ moves to kindred doings the heart in which He dwells. He gave Himself “to bring us to God.” “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Open your eyes to see, and your ears to hear, and you will soon know what He would have you to do.
Oftentimes, while passing through the perils and defeats of my first years in the mission field on Tanna, I wondered why God permitted such things. But on looking back now, I already clearly perceive that the Lord was thereby preparing me for doing, and providing me materials wherewith to accomplish, the best work of all my life-the kindling of the heart of Australian Presbyterianism with a living affection for these Islanders of their own Southern Seas-the binding of all their children into a happy league of shareholders, first in one mission ship, and finally in a larger and more commodious steam-auxiliary, and, last of all, in being the instrument under God of sending out missionary after missionary to the New Hebrides, to claim another island and still another for Jesus. That work, and all that may spring from it in time and Eternity, never could have been accomplished by me, but for first the sufferings and then the story of my Tanna enterprise.2 [Note: John G. Paton: An Autobiography, i. 359.]
(3) God grants all the enablement we need.-If I am living along the line of God's purpose the Lord will provide. “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering.” That is His own good word. Let us understand, however, that it is no shelter for the idle; but a stimulus for the true and brave. He who sees and knows is the Lord of hosts, infinite in resources, adequate to every need.
I believe what made me so wretched was the sudden vivid thought of how very little pleasure I could ever give Ruskin, even by the most conscientious work; that one stanza of Tennyson's was better to him, would teach more that he wanted to teach, than all my life's work. I had thought that, by earnestness and humility, and sacrifice of other works and thoughts I might really help him considerably. I have no doubt that an immense deal of thought of self is mixed with this notion; but it has its root deeper than that; and now I come to think over all Ruskin said, I see no reason to alter my conviction that I can do this work. The fact is, if one sits down to make a plan, it is often foolish and impracticable; but the plans life reveals to us, which are unfolded to us, and which we are hardly conscious of,-these, I think, are usually God's plans, and He helps us to carry them out.1 [Note: Octavia Hill, in Life by C. E. Maurice (1913), 159.]
Going to my Bible, to see what light I could find there, I opened at Isa_41:14, as follows: “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” And opening at the forty-third chapter I read as follows: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.” As I thus read, my heart was strengthened. My doubts fled away. Relying on God, what occasion had I to fear? I resolved to go, although I might appear a fool in the eyes of others; regardless of the censures of those who know not what it is to be a servant of God, and to receive and obey His orders.2 [Note: Madame Guyon, in Life by T. C. Upham, 145.]
Where is thy God, my soul?
Is He within thy heart;
Or ruler of a distant realm
In which thou hast no part?
Where is thy God, my soul?
Only in stars and sun;
Or have the holy words of truth
His light in every one?
Where is thy God, my soul?
Confined to Scripture's page;
Or does His spirit check and guide
The spirit of each age?
O Ruler of the sky,
Rule Thou within my heart;
O great Adorner of the world,
Thy light of life impart.
Giver of holy words,
Bestow Thy holy power;
And aid me, whether work or thought
Engage the varying hour.
In Thee have I my help,
As all my fathers had;
I'll trust Thee when I'm sorrowful,
And serve Thee when I'm glad.1 [Note: T. T. Lynch, The Rivulet, 60.]
3. We do not know much about Abraham's home-coming, but we are very sure that the sacrifice of thanksgiving was abundant in his life thereafter, and that his old faith became magnified into an everlasting delight in God, and that wilful sin was impossible to him from that time forward. So does grace work. That revelation of the Father was essentially the same as comes to men to-day when they find themselves in the circle of the defeated and the fearful and the self-wearied and the child-hearted. The hem of His garment may serve at other times, but in those great moments they need the truth which lies in the bosom of the mystery of Jesus-this Divine act of sin-bearing which takes away all guilt and bestows all the privileges if men will but have them. Then the penitent can say with John Bunyan, “I saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame of heart that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” And the same message which brings him peace brings him power, for he can also say with Luther, “When I have this within, I descend from heaven, as the rain which fructifies the earth; that is, I go forth into another kingdom and do good works whenever an occasion offers. Whosoever really knows Christ to be his righteousness, from the heart and with joy doeth well in his vocation, for he knows that this is the will of God and that this obedience is pleasing to Him.”
There is all the difference in the world between the beauty of that obedience which, like a little child running to do something for its mother, seems to find a positive pleasure in the sense of obeying, and of that obedience which comes unwillingly and slowly to the point, and seems as if it meant to do no more than it absolutely must. I am not saying that the quick obedience always is better than the slow. I do not say that quickness is everything. The reluctant service which shows a resolute will, not to be turned aside from a right purpose by any degree of its own reluctance, is perhaps in many cases the better service. The man who, in spite of great inward difficulty, yet compels himself to do right, may very possibly be rendering a surer and nobler service than the man of a more facile nature, who lightly does each duty as it comes and seems to have very little effort in doing so. But though the reluctant service may, for all that men can see, be the more real service, it is not the more beautiful. It is not the service which makes other men's service easier. It is not the service which sheds a kind of charm round true obedience, and unconsciously teaches “the beauty of holiness.” Slowness, reluctance, hesitation, these must certainly spoil the service, and hurt its usefulness very much indeed. If you are real, if you make God's law your guide, if you wish to do right, and not only wish but try to do it, then add to this a resolute endeavour to be ready, to obey your conscience quickly, to leave no unfulfilled duty hanging over you like a burden, to postpone nothing to another time that you ought to do at this time.1 [Note: Archbishop Temple.]
