Digging Deeper for such a time as this: *** Part 4 of ? *** ABRAHAM LOT And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the Plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar. So Lot chose him all the Plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east.—Gen. 13:10, 11. THE famine which had driven Abraham into Egypt having passed away, he returned to the southern part of Canaan, whence he had set out, and by easy stages reached his old encampment at Bethel. Here, preserved from danger in a foreign land, and greatly enriched in worldly wealth, he offered his thanksgiving unto the Lord, and thought for a time to have had rest. But it was not so to be. What Christ said to His followers, what is a true word to all God’s servants—“In the world ye shall have tribulation”—was indeed the experience of the patriarch. We know the blessedness of affliction; Abraham was learning the lesson. The occasion was the prosperity which God had bestowed upon him. The large increase in the cattle of Abraham and his nephew necessitated a wider area of pasturage than had formerly been required. This made necessary the choice involving the separation between Abraham and Lot, which we have now to consider. I THE CHOICE 1. When we endeavour to piece together the scattered allusions of the sacred story so as to form a picture of the outward life of Abraham, it is as a wealthy emir or shepherd-chieftain that we have to represent him. His wealth was portable. It consisted mainly in extensive flocks of sheep and goats, which were bred chiefly for their wool, and the milk of which, more than their flesh, furnished the staple article of food. To these were added smaller herds of camels and asses, but not horses, to be employed in riding or as beasts of burden. Oxen were probably of less consequence until the use of the plough became general. But though cattle constituted the leading item in the chief’s property, a metallic medium of exchange was not unknown. For this purpose silver was used in uncoined masses (probably ring-shaped), the value of which, whether impressed upon each or not, could always be ascertained by weighing them. Gold is not spoken of as a currency; but it was twisted into armlets, noserings, and similar objects of female ornament. ¶ Not many years ago much offence was given by one, now a high dignitary in the English Church, who ventured to suggest the original likeness of Abraham, by calling him a Bedouin Sheykh. It is one advantage flowing from the multiplication of Eastern travels that such offence could now no longer be taken. Every English pilgrim to the Holy Land, even the most reverential and the most fastidious, is delighted to trace and to record the likeness of patriarchal manners and costumes in the Arabian chiefs. To refuse to do so would be to decline the use of what we may almost call a singular gift of Providence. The unchanged habits of the East render it in this respect a kind of living Pompeii. The outward appearances which in the case of the Greeks and Romans we know only through art and writing, through marble, fresco, and parchment, in the case of Jewish history we know through the forms of actual men, living and moving before us, wearing almost the same garb, speaking in almost the same language, and certainly with the same general turns of speech and tone and manners. Such as we see them now, starting on a pilgrimage, or a journey, were Abraham and his brother’s son, when they “went forth” to go into the land of Canaan. “All their substance that they had ‘gathered’ ” is heaped high on the backs of their kneeling camels. The “slaves” that they “had bought in Haran” run along by their sides. Round about them are their flocks of sheep and goats, and the asses moving underneath the towering forms of the camels. The chief is there, amidst the stir of movement, or resting at noon within his black tent, marked out from the rest by his cloak of brilliant scarlet, by the fillet of rope which binds the loose handkerchief round his head, by the spear which he holds in his hand to guide the march, and to fix the encampment. The chief’s wife, the princess of the tribe, is there in her own tent, to make the cakes and prepare the usual meal of milk and butter; the slave or the child is ready to bring in the red lentil soup for the weary hunter, or to kill the calf for the unexpected guest. Even the ordinary social state is the same; polygamy, slavery, the exclusiveness of family ties; the period of service for the dowry of a wife: the solemn obligations of hospitality; the temptations, easily followed, into craft or falsehood. 2. In every aspect, except that which most concerns us, the likeness is complete between the Bedouin chief of the present day and the Bedouin chief who came from Chaldæa some four thousand years ago. In every aspect but one; and that one contrast is set off in the highest degree by the resemblance of all besides. The more we see the outward conformity of Abraham and his immediate descendants to the godless, grasping, foul-mouthed Arabs of the modern desert, and even their fellowship in the infirmities of their common state and country, the more we shall recognize the force of the religious faith which has raised them from that low estate to be the heroes and saints of their people, the spiritual fathers of European religion and civilization. The hands are the hands of the Bedouin Esau; but the voice is the voice of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the voice which still makes itself heard across deserts and continents and seas; heard wherever there is a conscience to listen, or an imagination to be pleased, or a sense of reverence left amongst mankind. Let us, in order to see this contrast, return to the story, which now deepens in power and interest, and in the sculpture of a great character. A quarrel arose between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham; and in human affairs the quarrels of servants finally involve the masters. All the world is linked together into a family, though nine-tenths of the world deny this truth. It is no use denying it, and the truth acts sharply in punishment on those who contradict it. Systematic denial of it by nations, by classes, by families, by societies, means fighting, misery, famine, desolation, cruelty, barbarism, revolution, the red flag of blood and fire and social hatred waving in the hurricane of war. The powerful in the quarrel crush the weak, until the weak, becoming powerful, crush their foes in turn. In national and social quarrels this is the way of the thing we call civilization, the ignoble result of the principle that self-interest is the law of progress. “And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 3. As yet the character of Lot has not been exhibited, and we can only calculate from the relation he bears to Abraham what his answer to the proposal will probably be. We know that Abraham has been the making of his nephew, and that the land belongs to Abraham; and we should expect that in common decency Lot would set aside the generous offer of his uncle and demand that he alone should determine the matter. The two men stood on the rocky summit of Bethel and looked down on either side, east and west. East rose the sharp-toothed range of hills above Jericho. Beyond them lay the steep valley of the Jordan, and Lot knew, by report, of the wealthy land of the cities of the plain. Westward and southward were the naked hills of Judah, and the rocky passes where Benjamin afterwards housed like a wolf, and the range where Hebron couched—a difficult and rugged land, dwelt in by rude tribes; a pilgrim’s mountain country. Here the choice was made, and the story takes a more solemn turn, and is weighty with a deeper moral, a moral driven home by the writer, to the grave issues of life, and charged with a religious humanity. Lot, instead of rivalling, traded on his uncle’s magnanimity; and chose him all the plains of Jordan because in his eye it was the richest part of the land. ¶ Dean Stanley, with a few firm touches, has sketched the panorama from Abraham’s tent. “To the east there rises in the foreground the jagged range of the hills above Jericho; in the distance the dark wall of Moab; between them lies the wide valley of the Jordan, its course marked by the tract of forest in which its rushing stream is enveloped; and down to this valley a long and deep ravine, now, as always, the main line of communication by which it is approached from the central hills of Palestine, a ravine rich with vine, olive, and fig, winding its way through ancient reservoirs and sepulchres, remains of a civilization now extinct, but in the times of the patriarchs not yet begun. To the south and the west the view commanded the bleak hills of Judæa, varied by the heights crowned with what were afterwards the cities of Benjamin, and overhanging what in a later day was to be Jerusalem, and in the far distance the southern range on whose slope is Hebron. Northward are the hills which divide Judæa from the rich plains of Samaria.” 4. Let us look for a moment at Lot’s choice. The well-watered plain of Jordan is a great prize for any man, and Lot has made sure of it. His estate is large, and is favoured by the sun and the clouds. Is there, then, any drawback? Read: “But the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” A great estate, but bad neighbours! Material glory, but moral shame! Noble landscapes, but mean men! But Lot did just what men are doing to-day. He made choice of a home without making any inquiry as to the religious state of the neighbourhood. They do not care how poor the Church is, if the farm be good. They will give up the most inspiring ministry in the world for ten feet more garden, or a paddock to feed an ass in. They will tell you that the house is roomy, the garden is large, the air is balmy, the district is genteel; and if you ask them what religious teaching they will have there, they tell you they really do not know, but must inquire! They will take away six children into a moral desert for the sake of a garden to play in; they will leave Paul or Apollos for six feet of greenhouse! Others again fix their tent where they can get the best food for the heart’s life; and they sacrifice a summer-house that they may now and again get a peep of heaven. ¶ There is a solemn choice in life. Life and death, light and darkness, truth and lies are set before us. At every instant the cry comes for us to choose one or the other, and the choice of one involves the putting away of the other. And we must choose. That is one of the certainties of life. There is no such thing as offering one hand to God and another to evil; one hand to the self-sacrifice of Christ, and the other to the covetousness of the world. You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot follow Jesus at home, and your own pleasure in your outward life. Your life, whether you like it or not, becomes of one piece. 5. The moment Abraham chose the simple life, lofty and unreproved, with God, God spoke to him. “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, eastward and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth for multitude. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for unto thee will I give it.” A spiritual reward for a spiritual act; the possession of an exalted thought—the thought of the mighty people which were to flow from him. For the country was not his, save in spiritual possession, in the thought of its belonging to his seed after him. And in that thought Abraham lived the uplifting life of faith, such faith as some of us have in the glory of the race which shall come after us. No actual possession of the earth spoiled or tainted that life, as he wandered to and fro. No; there was not one solitary touch of the world in his heart from now until he died. ¶ In his character of Abraham the writer has uplifted our whole conception of humanity; and to do that so long ago, to hand down that great tradition to the reverence and aspiration of mankind, to give this impulse and passion to men and women and children, was to do a greater and more useful thing than to make a thousand inventions for material progress. Verily, the poets and story-tellers who image forth noble and beautiful human life and character have, while they represent the true rewards of others, their one immortal and marvellous reward. What though thine arm hath conquered in the fight,— What though the vanquished yield unto thy sway Or riches garnered pave thy golden way,— Not therefore hast thou gained the sovran height Of man’s nobility! No halo’s light From these shall round thee shed its sacred ray; If these be all thy joy,—then dark thy day, And darker still thy swift approaching night! But if in thee more truly than in others Hath dwelt love’s charity;—if by thine aid Others have passed above thee, and if thou, Though victor, yieldest victory to thy brothers, Though conquering conquered, and a vassal made,— Then take thy crown, well mayst thou wear it now. II THE RESCUE And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.—Gen. 14:12. And Abram brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.—Gen. 14:16. “Then Abraham removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the ‘oak grove’ of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.” Here we have the third and chief resting-place of the wandering patriarch. This is the nearest approach to a home that the wanderings of Abraham present. Underneath the tree his tent was pitched when he sat in the heat of the Eastern noon. Thither came the mysterious visitants. In their entertainment is presented every characteristic of genuine Arab hospitality, which has given to Abraham the name of “The Father of Guests.” But there is another spot in Hebron which gives a yet more permanent and domestic character to its connexion with Abraham’s life. When Darius pursued the Scythians into their wilderness, they told him that the only place which they could appoint for a meeting was by the tombs of their fathers. The ancestral burial-place is the one fixed element in the unstable life of a nomadic race; and this was what Hebron furnished to the patriarchs. For the cave of Machpelah lay opposite the terebinths of Mamre and both belonged to Hebron itself, which in ancient times extended farther than now, and was indeed no hill-city properly so called, but stretched at least to the Rumeidimount. 1. When Lot made choice of the well-watered plain, it does not seem to have occurred to him that it would be a likely place to excite the envy of kings and men of war. Like his mother and ours, he saw that the sight was pleasant to the eyes, and for that reason he put forth his hand and took all he could get. He soon found, however, that there were other people in the world besides himself, and that he could not keep the prize a secret. He would not leave it for Abraham’s enjoyment, and now we shall see if he can keep it for his own. Kings were plentiful in that neighbourhood; some nine of them seemed to be within easy distance of each other; and those nine kings divided themselves into fighting parties, four against five, and the four conquered the five, driving the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah into the slime-pits and causing the others to flee to the mountains. Then, conquerorlike, they took everything they could lay their hands upon, and amongst the rest they “took Lot and his goods.” ¶ This experience of Lot introduces us to an entirely new scene in the life of Abraham. The peaceful history of ch. 13, which made us acquainted with his pacific disposition, is now followed by the history of a war, the first met with in Holy Scripture. This first is a war of conquest, waged for the subjugation of foreign nations and States; the world-empire, which subsequently made Israel also the aim of its conquering power, is here already in course of development. So far as we have already become acquainted with Abraham, he has shown himself obedient, thankful, unselfish, submitting to Divine guidance, and, when he has offended by acting independently, penitently returning to his former attitude. We here see his faith, in virtue of which he obtains the victory over self, gathering itself up in God and breaking forth in an act of love that overcomes the world. The leader of flocks appears as a leader of war, aiding kings against kings, in a greatness surpassing them all; for the three dignities, the prophetic, priestly and royal, which are separated in the times of the law, are still united in the patriarchs. 2. Much has been written concerning this interesting chapter of the Bible. The earlier critics were of opinion that it was impossible that the power of the Elamites should have extended so far at such an early epoch. But there can now be no doubt that the Elamites and Babylonians were quite powerful enough, at the time of Abraham, to make an expedition of the magnitude described in Gen. 14. Sargon of Agadé held sway over this district, and he reigned, according to Nabonidus’s indications, more than 1500 years earlier. His son, when he came to the throne, added Elam to his dominions as well. That the position should, at a considerably later period, be reversed, is easily conceivable, and it was to all appearance the Elamites who held sway in a part of Babylonia, of which country many of the states undoubtedly acknowledged Elamite overlordship, though with exceeding unwillingness. ¶ Although, in their present literary form, these stories seem to be late, it does not necessarily follow that they do not embody very old traditions. Chedorlaomer is clearly an Elamite name (Kudur-Lagamar). Amraphel may well be the later form of the name of the famous Babylonian king Hammurabi who ultimately delivered his nation from the Elamite yoke. Ellasar is perhaps the Hebrew form of Larsa, one of the important towns of southern Babylonia. Goiim may be a variant for Gutium, an ancient state lying between Babylonia and Media. The fact that the Elamites ruled Babylonia prior to 2200 B.C. and that these Eastern powers at times extended their authority to the Mediterranean is established by the testimony of the Babylonian inscriptions. The evidence, therefore, is reasonably conclusive that the story of the four kings embodies genuine historical data. The record was most probably kept in Babylonia, where the cuneiform system of writing was in use from an early period. The names of the Palestinian cities might have been preserved by Canaanitish tradition—possibly in written records. Likewise the references to Melchizedek, although probably introduced later into the present story, may rest upon a historical basis. The site of Solomon’s temple was probably an ancient Canaanitish sacred place. El Elyon (God Most High) was worshipped by the Phœnicians, and therefore by the Canaanites as well as the Hebrews. Priest-kings appear in earliest Semitic history. The name Melchizedek is strikingly similar to Adonizedek, a later king of Jerusalem, mentioned in Josh. 10. Melchizedek’s words are in the form of an ancient oracle, which probably represents the original nucleus of the tradition. It must be remembered, however, that all of the identifications suggested above are only possibilities, not certainties. Until they are further proved or disproved by the testimony of the monuments, it is exceedingly hazardous to base important conclusions upon them. 3. The final struggle was in the vale of Siddim. In that “Valley of the Fields” was fought the first battle of Palestine. Two of the five kings were slain in the conflict, and the routed army fled up the steep passes of the enclosing hills. The victors carried off their spoil and captives, and retreated up the long valley of the Jordan on their homeward march. Abraham was sitting in his tent door, under the great oak of Mamre, when a fugitive from the vale of Siddim brought the tidings of his nephew’s captivity. This was no time for rending of garments and fruitless lamentations. Arming his own servants—three hundred and eighteen—and sending a hasty summons to Mamre, and his brothers Eshcol and Aner, to join him, he set off in hot pursuit. Passing Bethlehem and Salem, he swept over the mountains, and along the plains of Sychar and Esdraelon, and at the close of the fourth day (Josephus says he attacked them on the fifth night) he was probably climbing the hills of Naphtali. From these bold headlands he could see with perfect distinctness the enemy carousing in careless security around the fountain of Leddan. Having made the necessary dispositions for the attack, he waits for the veil of darkness; then, like an avalanche from the mountains, he bursts upon the sleeping host. The panic is immediate and universal, the confusion inextricable, the rout wild and ruinous. No one knows friend from foe. They trample down and slay each other, are swamped in miry canals, and entangled and torn to pieces in the thorny jungles of Banaisy. Terror lends wings to the fugitives. They climb Castle Hill, rush along the vale of Yafury, and descending to the great plain by Beit Jenn, cease not their frantic flight until they reach Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. Abraham returns victorious to Laish, which is Dan; the captives are released, and the goods collected. None have perished; nothing is lost. In triumph, and with devout thanksgiving, he who through faith waxed valiant in battle marches back by Jerusalem to his tent on the plain of Mamre. ¶ Abraham was striking his iron within five minutes of the tidings from the valley. He met his difficulties, first by quick counsel, then by getting his folk to stand shoulder to shoulder, and then by the swiftest action, taken on the instant and pursued without a pause until the deed was done. This is what delights us in the story. The spirit of human help was in Abraham, and the hand did with flying ardour what the spirit called for. For want of this speed enterprises of great pith and moment fail. For want of this sudden fire of deed, after resolute counsel has been taken, how often have we lost the good we might have done in life; how often have we failed to help men, to deliver the captives of wrong, to rescue the spoil from the cheater, to restore peace to the family or to our society, to establish our cause for the sake of man, to win the crown of saving men! We go on taking counsel till the hour is past; we delay acting till action is of no use; or we take no counsel, and, having no wise plan, break down in action; or we act alone, not having previously made trusty and faithful comrades, not having previously gained them by proving that we want nothing for ourselves. Unsupported then, having no plan, we linger in our tent, and when we do resolve to act, it is too late. The kings of the East have reached their own country; the captives are slaves; the spoil is not rescued. The opportunity is lost. ¶ “When the costly hall of the Young Men’s Christian Association took fire in 1867,” wrote the Rev. Mr. Macrae, “the secretary and other officials, as soon as they found the building was doomed, ran about the merchants in the city for subscriptions. ‘Our hall is burning, sir; the engines are at work, but there is no hope. We shall want a new one. Let us have money enough to begin at once!’ Thousands upon thousands of dollars were subscribed without a moment’s hesitation, and it is said that before the fire was out money enough had been raised to build a new hall in a style of even greater magnificence than the first. This is only a specimen of the lightning Christianity of Chicago.” III THE KING OF SODOM With large booty and the rescued captives Abraham returned in peace to the valley of the Jordan. But so successful an exploit, involving such a vast benefit to the inhabitants of the country, could not be allowed to pass unacknowledged. The reputation and the influence of the stranger chieftain were largely increased by this expedition, and the gratitude of the people was shown in various ways. First of all the king of Sodom came forth to meet him, to congratulate him on his success, and to receive his portion of spoil from his hands. The place of meeting is called “the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.” This is probably the northern part of the valley of the Kidron, where the “tombs of the kings” are now shown, and where the childless Absalom reared a memorial for himself that his name might not be forgotten. Full of gratitude for Abraham’s valiant rescue, the king of Sodom wished eagerly to reward him for his services. “Give me the captives of my people whom thou hast delivered; I want no more; keep thou everything else which thou hast taken from the enemy.” It must have been a very tempting offer. No slight matter for a shepherd to have the chance of appropriating all the spoils of settled townships, so large and opulent; especially when he seemed to have some claim on them. But Abraham would not hear of it for a moment. Indeed, he seems to have already undergone some exercise of soul on the matter, for speaking as of a past transaction, he said, “I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet; and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.” This is the high uplifted spirit which wins the hearts of nations and of comrades; which initiates nobly and continues splendidly great efforts and great causes. It is the spirit which makes a nation great and useful to the whole of humanity; which should be also at the root of our daily life, even of our daily business. Think only how this part of Abraham’s character has travelled over a thousand generations, and laid its power for good and for honour on them all. Every noble Jew felt it breathing in him, every generous Muhammadan feels it to this day. The whole of Christendom has loved, admired, and reverenced it. It has saved endless folk from the greedy spirit in the world. All the work of commerce, all the inventions of science, are as nothing in the progress of mankind, compared to the sowing of this spirit in the field of humanity. ¶ Certain moralists speak as if it were a higher thing to do one’s duty with a cold heart, by virtue of moral choice alone, than to find joy in helping others. A distorted theory of unselfishness may lead to strange conclusions, and result in placing the angels a little lower in the scale than mere man. Whether in moments of analysis (with which he would be afflicted) he might have maintained some such thesis himself or not, it is no true account of my brother’s nature. For he had the temper of love, and could not help it. He took pleasure in doing kind things, and of the blessedness of giving the days brought him great store; while he refused to be discouraged by the inevitable disappointments that clog the heels of generosity. He never read Martial, but that noble line of his— Quas dederis, solas semper habebis opes— seemed written somewhere within him. The better portion didst thou choose, Great Heart, Thy God’s first choice, and pledge of Gentile grace! Faith’s truest type, he with unruffled face Bore the world’s smile, and bade her slaves depart; Whether, a trader, with no trader’s art, He buys in Canaan his last resting-place,— Or freely yields rich Siddim’s ample space,— Or braves the rescue, and the battle’s smart, Yet scorns the heathen gifts of those he saved. O happy in their soul’s high solitude, Who commune thus with God, and not with earth! Amid the scoffings of the wealth-enslaved, A ready prey, as though in absent mood They calmly move, nor reck the unmanner’d mirth. IV MELCHIZEDEK 1. Unwilling as Abraham was to accept any of the plunder in acknowledgment of the service he had rendered, he was careful at the same time to rob neither man nor God. His native allies received their share. Before distribution of it was made, however, one-tenth of the entire property which had been recovered in battle was solemnly dedicated as an act of religious homage to Almighty God, in response to the Divine benediction conveyed through the hands of His priest Melchizedek. 2. It is thus there steps upon the scene one of the most mysterious personages of Holy Writ. Nothing that we have thus far been able to gather respecting the religious condition of Canaan in the age of Abraham has prepared us to find at the head of any of its tribes, not only a worshipper of the true God, but a man of such priestly sanctity that beneath his hand the patriarch himself bows to receive the blessing of God, and through him the patriarch prefers his grateful offerings to Jehovah. Even in the simple prose of Genesis, the incident reads as though it meant more than meets the ear. The brief and unexplained introduction, only this once, of a person so eminent, his symbolical acts and lofty relation to Abraham, with the significance of his name and title, combining as these do the related ideas of righteousness and peace—these things combine to invest him with an air of mystery, and must early have fastened on him a curious and reverential attention. Let us conceive the scene. Yonder is a small but strong town, situated upon the same cliff on which a thousand years later was seated the stronghold of David. Its name is Salem. Its gates are now open, and there pours forth from them a solemn procession of men clad in festal garments, and with festal joy and gladness upon their countenances. At the head of this consecrated band we see the venerable form of an aged man. He is at once the king and priest of Salem, and he bears the honoured name of Melchizedek, i.e. “king of righteousness.” He knows of Abraham, knows also of his valiant conflict with the enemies and destroyers of Canaan, and has come forth to meet him. Like a careful and compassionate mother, bringing refreshment to her weary and returning son, Melchizedek bears in his hands bread and wine to strengthen Abraham’s body and soul. And not only this, but as he meets the patriarch he lifts up his hands upon him in benediction, and says: “Blessed be Abraham of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.” The praise of God from the mouth of this mysterious unknown by no means sounds strange to Abraham. He does not think of declining the blessing of this priest. No, thrilled by a sacred awe, he falls down, lets himself be blessed, and gives Melchizedek the tenth of all that he had at hand. By this gift of the tenth he acknowledges him as one spiritually his superior, and as having therefore the right and power to bless him, the inferior. 3. The author of one of the most Messianic of all Israel’s lyrics was guided to borrow this venerable figure of the grand, dim priest-king of old, before whom even the founder of his people took the second place, in order to foreshadow that coming Seed of Abraham in whom was to meet every office of dignity and of service. A Priest He was to be above all consecrated men of Israel’s race; a King nobler far in blood and ampler in sway than the royal singer who owned Him for his Lord. Under His safe and equitable government should be fulfilled that perfect ideal of a just ruler which David extolled with dying lips—one who “rules in the fear of God,” and whose influence upon his happy subjects is like the cloudless light of dawn, when after rain the sun rises in perfect peace upon the tender grass. Finally, David’s poetical employment of Melchizedek to set forth the surpassing elevation of Messiah is made the basis of a long theological argument by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews; and justly, so far as the purpose which the writer has in view is concerned. For both in history and in poetical prophecy, the position assigned to this remarkable figure is clearly one which cannot be ranked alongside the descendants of Abraham, but must be placed above them. No priestly Israelite, sprung from Abraham through his great-grandson Levi, can claim as lofty or Divine a priesthood as the man before whom Abraham himself was content to bend for the blessing. If “perfection” had been attained “through the Levitical priesthood” (it was fair for the Christian teacher to ask his Jewish brethren), “what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek?” ¶ The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews assumes that the object of the Law was to bring or to prepare for bringing the people to “perfection”: Divine legislation can have no other end. The priesthood, on which the Law rested, embodied its ruling idea. And conversely in the Law as a complete system we can see the aim of the priesthood. The priesthood therefore was designed to assist in bringing about this “perfection.” If then there had been a bringing to perfection through the Levitical priesthood—if in other words there had been a bringing to perfection through the Law—there would have been no need of another priesthood. If on the other hand the whole Law failed to accomplish that to which it pointed, then so far also the priesthood failed. Such a failure, not a failure but the fulfilment of the Divine purpose, was indicated by the promise of another priesthood in a new line. ¶ The argument may seem to be out of date. But I am prepared to say that I have never yet found in the New Testament any allusions to the ancient Jewish Scriptures, any illustrations derived from the ancient Jewish ritual, which, when seriously and patiently studied, have not proved to he logically and philosophically just. The books of Moses and the prophets are never treated by the inspired writers as affording materials out of which an ingenious fancy has licence to construct unsubstantial demonstrations of truths which the authority of Christ and of His apostles sufficiently authenticate; but as containing imperfect and elementary revelations—hints and foreshadowings—in which a mind that has comprehended the general structure and purpose of the ancient system may recognize the outlines and anticipations of the fully developed Christian faith. 4. Melchizedek is the one personage on earth whom Abraham recognizes as his spiritual superior. Abraham accepts his blessing and pays him tithes, apparently as priest of the Most High God; so that, in paying to him, Abraham is giving the tenth of his spoils to God. This is not any mere courtesy of private persons. It was done in presence of various parties of jealously watchful retainers. Men of rank and office and position consider how they should act to one another and who should take precedence. And Abraham did deliberately, and with a perfect perception of what he was doing, whatever he now did. Manifestly therefore God’s revelation of Himself was not as yet confined to the one line running from Abraham to Christ. Here was a man of whom we really do not know whether he was a Canaanite, a son of Ham or a son of Shem; yet Abraham recognizes him as having knowledge of the true God, and even bows to him as his spiritual superior in office if not in experience. This shows us how little jealousy Abraham had of others being favoured by God, how little he thought his connexion with God would be less secure if other men enjoyed a similar connexion, and how heartily he welcomed those who with different rites and different prospects yet worshipped the living God. It shows us also how apt we are to limit God’s ways of working; and how little we understand of the connexions He has with those who are not situated as we ourselves are. Here, while all our attention is concentrated on Abraham as carrying the whole spiritual hope of the world, there emerges from an obscure Canaanite valley a man nearer to God than Abraham is. From how many unthought-of places such men may at any time come out upon us, we really can never tell. ¶ I do not think that my Master will say my charity is too large, or my inclusiveness too great. Alas! alas! when I see Romanists cursing the Church of England, Evangelicals shaking their heads about the Christianity of Tractarians, Tractarians banning Dissenters, Dissenters anathematizing Unitarians, and Unitarians of the old school condemning the more spiritual ones of the new, I am forced to hope that there is more inclusiveness in the love of God than in the bitter orthodoxy of sects and churches. I find only two classes who roused His Divine indignation when on earth: those who excluded bitterly—the Scribes, and those of a religious name—the popular religious party of the day, who judged frailty and error bitterly—the Pharisees. I am certain that I do not dilute truth, at least what I count truth, nor hold lax views about opinions; but I am certain that men are often better than their creed, and that our Lord’s mode of judging of the tree by its fruits is the only true one. O Love Divine!—whose constant beam Shines on the eyes that will not see, And waits to bless us, while we dream Thou leavest us because we turn from Thee! All souls that struggle and aspire, All hearts of prayer by Thee are lit; And, dim or clear, Thy tongues of fire On dusky tribes and twilight centuries sit. Nor bounds, nor clime, nor creed Thou know’st; Wide as our need Thy favours fall; The white wings of the Holy Ghost Stoop, seen or unseen, o’er the heads of all. Hastings, J. (Ed.). (1913). In The Greater Men and Women of the Bible: Adam–Joseph. Edinburg: T&T Clark. -via Logos 5 #diggingdeeperforsuchatimeasthis #christjesus #vineofchristministries #theword #studyscripture #god #biblestudy
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 02:36:09 +0000
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