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Class-Book of Old Testament History

<h3> CHAPTER <abbr title="1">I.</abbr> THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. <abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 11">xi.</abbr>   B.C. 1921.</h3> THERE will always, perhaps, be a doubt as to the exact period after the Flood when Job lived, but there can be no doubt that neither his constancy nor his faithfulness to the one true God, were the characteristics of the age succeeding the Flood. Within ten generations after that event mankind had again become forgetful of their Maker, and corrupted their way, threatening a fresh outbreak of violence and irreligion. Now, however, it was not the purpose of the Almighty to visit the earth with any universal judgment. In the counsels of Redemption it was His will to select a man, and through him, a nation, to be His witness upon earth, to withdraw this nation from contact with the surrounding world, to place it under a special and peculiar constitution, to entrust to it the guardianship of ancient truths and of future hopes, and out of it to bring, in the fulness of time (<abbr title="Galatians">Gal.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 4">iv.</abbr> 4), the promised Saviour of the human race. At this point, then, Sacred History becomes more full, and its stream hitherto slender widens into a broad river. Mighty empires and great nations seem for a while to be forgotten, but only because we are now to be more especially concerned with the history of that particular nation, in and through which all nations of the earth were to be blessed (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr> 3). The man selected by the Almighty to be the ancestor of a people destined to exert so momentous an influence on the salvation of the world was Abraham, or, as he was first called, Abram, the son of Terah, who lived in the eighth generation from Shem, in Ur of the Chaldees. Besides Abram, Terah had two other sons, Nahor and Haran, but Abram, though mentioned first, was in all probability the youngest of the three. From Ur, which may perhaps be identified with the modern Orfah15, in upper Mesopotamia, where his family had become tainted with the generally prevailing idolatry (<abbr title="Joshua">Josh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 24">xxiv.</abbr> 2, 14), Terah removed, and travelling in a southerly direction arrived at Haran or Charran16, where he stayed. In this journey he was accompanied by his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his grandson Lot, and seems to have intended to go into the land of Canaan (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 11">xi.</abbr> 31), but this was prevented by his death at Haran, when he had reached the age of 205. After this event, a still more distinct intimation of the Divine Will was made to his son Abram, bidding him leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and go to a land which God would shew him. There, said the Almighty, I will make of thee a great nation, and make thy name great, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Severe as were the hardships which this call involved, painful as it must have been to flesh and blood to sever the ties which bound him to his family and his people, Abram did not refuse to follow the Hand which promised him guidance, protection, and a mighty future. At the age of 75, with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all that he possessed, he left Haran, crossed the Euphrates, and commenced his journey southward and westward towards the Land of Promise (Acts <abbr title="chapter 7">vii.</abbr> 4, 5). This country, the future home of the great nation destined to spring from his loins, was in many respects eminently adapted for its special mission in the history of the World. In extent, indeed, it was but a narrow strip of country, but a little larger than the six northern counties of England, being nearly 180 miles in length17, and 75 miles in breadth, and having an area of about 13,600 English square miles. Bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the north by the mountains of Lebanon, on the east by the Syrian desert, on the south by the wilderness of Arabia, it was situated at the meeting-point of the two continents of Asia and Africa, “on the very outpost, on the extremest western edge of the East.” It was a secluded land. A wilderness encompassed it on the east and south, mountains shut it in on the north, and the “Great Sea” which washed its western shore was the terror rather than the thoroughfare of ancient nations. “Unlike the coast of Europe, and especially of Greece, it had no indentations, no winding creeks, no deep havens18,” but one small port—that of Joppa—with which to tempt the mariner from the west. But while thus eminently adapted to be the “silent and retired nursery of the Kingdom of God19,” it was in the very centre of the activity of the ancient world, in the midst of the nations, and the countries that were round about it (<abbr title="Ezekiel">Ezek.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 5">v.</abbr> 5). On the South was the great empire of Egypt, on the North-east the rising kingdom of Assyria. Neither of these great nations could communicate with the other without passing through Palestine, and so learning something of its peculiar institutions and religion; and when the fulness of time was come no country was better suited, from its position at the extremest verge of the Eastern World, to be the starting-point whence the glad tidings of Redemption might be proclaimed to all nations20. Moreover, narrow as were its limits, and secluded as was its position, it yet presented a greater variety of surface, scenery and temperature than is to be found in any other part of the world, and needed not to depend on other countries for anything that either the luxuries or actual wants of its inhabitants required. Four broadly marked longitudinal regions divided its surface. (i) First, there was the low plain of the western sea-coast, broad towards the south, and gradually narrowing towards the north, famous for the Shephelah (the low country) with its waving corn-fields, and the vale of Sharon (level country), the garden of Palestine. From this was an ascent to (ii) a strip of table-land, every part of which was more or less undulating, but increasing in elevation from north to south21, and broken only by the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon. To this succeeded a rapid descent into (iii) a deep fissure or valley, through which the Jordan (the descender), the only river of importance in the country, rushes from its source at the base of Hermon into the Dead Sea, the surface of which is no less than 1316 feet below that of the Mediterranean22. Hence was a second ascent to (iv) a strip of table-land on the east similar to that on the west, and seeming with its range of purple-tinted mountains to overhang Jerusalem itself. Crowned by the forests and upland pastures of Gilead and Bashan, this eastern table-land gradually melted into the desert which rolled between it and the valley of Mesopotamia. Thus within a very small space were crowded the most diverse features of natural scenery, and the most varied products. It was a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land flowing with milk and honey (<abbr title="Deuteronomy">Deut.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 8">viii.</abbr> 7<abbr title="through">–</abbr>9; <abbr title="chapter 11">xi.</abbr> 10<abbr title="through">–</abbr>12). The low plains yielded luxuriant crops of wheat and barley, of rye and maize; on the table-lands with their equable and moderate climate grew the vine, the olive, the fig, the almond, the pomegranate; in the tropical neighbourhood of Jericho flourished the palm-tree and the balsam; while the noble cedar waved on the mountains of Lebanon. Such was the Land, secluded and yet central, narrow and yet wonderfully diversified alike in its natural features and its products, whither the Almighty now bade Abram direct his steps. Striking across the great Syrian desert, the patriarch kept on his southward course, and having crossed the Jordan, passed through the land, till he came to Shechem23, situated between the mountains Ebal and Gerizim. This spot, destined afterwards to be so celebrated, was then only marked by the majestic oak of Moreh, probably a Canaanitish chief, but its many fountains, rills, and water-courses24 made it then, as it ever has been since, a natural pasture-ground for flocks and herds; and here Abram halted, and learnt that he had reached the goal of his long journey. This land, said God, I will give unto thy seed; and at Shechem the patriarch built his first altar to the Lord in the “Land of Promise25” (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 12">xii.</abbr> 6, 7). Thence he afterwards removed southward a distance of about twenty miles, to the strong mountain country east of Bethel, or as it was then called Luz; one of the finest tracts of the land for pasturage, and here he erected his second altar unto the Lord. During his sojourn in this neighbourhood he learnt that, though the heir of mighty promises, he was not to be exempt from his share of trials and disappointments. The first that befell him was a grievous famine, caused probably by a failure of the usual rains; in consequence of which, finding himself unable to support his numerous dependents, he resolved, though without direct Divine suggestion, to go down into Egypt, then, as always, the fertile granary of the neighbouring nations. As he drew near the land of the mighty Pharaohs, he reflected that the beauty of his wife might expose her to danger from the sensual, voluptuous Egyptians, and under the influence of these apprehensions persuaded her to stoop to an unworthy equivocation, and give herself out as his sister. What he anticipated came to pass. The princes of Egypt beheld the woman that she was fair, and recommended her to their monarch, by whom she was taken into his palace, while numerous presents of cattle and sheep were sent to her supposed brother. But the monarch found that the coming of the stranger into his palace involved him in serious troubles, the Lord plagued Pharaoh with great plagues, till, having ascertained the true relation between her and Abram, he sent her back to her husband, with a strong rebuke to the latter for the deception he had practised. How long after this Abram stayed in Egypt we are not told. But at length his wealth in cattle, and gold and silver, having materially increased, he quitted the country, and once more took up his abode on his former camping-ground between Bethel and Ai. Hitherto his nephew Lot had accompanied him in all his wanderings, but now the increasing numbers of their flocks and herds generated a quarrel between their respective herdsmen, and it was plainly necessary that they should separate. With characteristic generosity Abram bade his nephew take the first choice, and select for himself, whether on the left hand or the right, a place for his new abode. From the high mountain-range26 to the east of Bethel, where they were then encamped, Lot lifted up his eyes and looked down upon the wide and well-watered plain south of the Jordan, then a very garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 10) they had so lately left. As yet no terrible convulsion had effaced the site of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain. Fair and fertile the coveted possession stretched onwards unto Zoar, and in spite of the notorious wickedness of the inhabitants Lot chose it for his abode, and the two separated themselves the one from the other. Though Abram was thus left to wait alone for the fulfilment of the Promise, he was not forgotten by the God in whom he trusted. A more full and more definite promise was now vouchsafed to him. Lift up thine eyes, said the Almighty, and look from place to place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; 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, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 13">xiii.</abbr> 14<abbr title="through">–</abbr>17). Thus encouraged, the Friend of God (<abbr title="James">Jas.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 2">ii.</abbr> 23) removed his tent, and travelling southward took up his abode under the spreading terebinth27 of Mamre, an Amorite prince (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 14">xiv.</abbr> 13, 24), near Hebron, or as it was then called Kirjath-Arba, the City of Arba the father of Anak and the progenitor of the giant Anakim (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 23">xxiii.</abbr> 2; <abbr title="chapter 25">xxxv.</abbr> 27; <abbr title="Joshua">Josh.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 14">xiv.</abbr> 15). While dwelling peacefully in this neighbourhood, which like all other places he hallowed with an altar to Jehovah, he received one day unexpected tidings of his nephew Lot. The chiefs of the five cities in the tropical valley of the Jordan, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Belah, had for twelve years been subject to Chedorlaomer, a powerful king of Elam or Mesopotamia. But they had lately united together to throw off his yoke. Thereupon the King of Elam, aided by three other confederate chiefs, proceeded to make war against the southern kings. Sweeping down on a sudden foray, he smote the countries on the eastern uplands of the Jordan and the southern region of Mount Seir. Returning thence he ravaged all the country of the Amalekites, and with his allied chiefs met the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah in pitched battle in the Vale of Siddim, probably at the north-west corner of the Dead Sea. The five southern kings were utterly routed, and with much spoil and many captives the Assyrian invader commenced his return northwards. It was the news of this sudden invasion which now reached the ears of Abram. Without losing a moment he instantly armed his 318 trained servants, and, aided by the confederate chief Mamre and his brothers Eshcol and Aner, arose and pursued the Assyrians by night. The latter had in the meantime reached the neighbourhood of the Sidonian Laish, far up in the northern mountains. Thither, however, Abram pursued them, and falling upon them suddenly, while all unconscious of coming danger, he smote them and chased them to Hobah, on the left of Damascus. Thence, with the recovered captives, amongst whom was Lot, he returned, and at the King’s Dale, not far from Hebron, was met by the King of Sodom, accompanied by a mysterious personage, who now meets us for the first and only time, named Melchisedec, a king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. The sudden appearance of one thus uniting the kingly and priestly functions, of whose origin and family we know nothing, has led to much speculation. Putting aside more improbable conjectures, we may perhaps conclude that he was an eminent Canaanitish prince in the line of Ham, who had maintained the pure worship of the One true God, and who, according to a custom not uncommon in patriarchal times, was at once king and priest28. A sufficient proof of his high dignity is afforded by the fact that to him the patriarch Abram reverently gave tithes of all that he had taken in his late successful expedition, and received his solemn blessing (<abbr title="Hebrews">Heb.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 7">vii.</abbr> 2, 6). Before they parted the King of Sodom pressed Abram to take a portion of the spoil as his reward. This, however, the latter with his usual generosity firmly declined; he would take nothing, from a thread even to a shoelatchet (<abbr title="Genesis">Gen.</abbr> <abbr title="chapter 14">xiv.</abbr> 23), save only a portion for his allies, the chiefs Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, and then returned to the shade of the oak or terebinth near Hebron. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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