“Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children; and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened unto the voice of Sarai.” Genesis 16:1, 2.
This was the great mistake of Abraham’s life; but he learned a lesson from his mistake, and it was recorded to teach that lesson to all. We will presume that the reader is acquainted with the sequel, — how that the Lord told Abraham that Ishmael, the son of Hagar was not the heir that He had promised, but that Sarah his wife should bear him a son, and how after Isaac was born Hagar and Ishmael were sent away. So we may proceed at once to some of the important lessons that are suggested by this transaction.
In the first place, we should learn the folly of man’s trying to fulfill the promises of God. God had promised to Abraham an innumerable seed. When the promise was made, it was beyond all human possibility that Abraham should have a son by his wife, but he accepted the word of the Lord, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness. This in itself was evidence that the seed was not to be an ordinary seed, but that it was to be a seed of faith.
But his wife had not the faith that he had. And yet she thought that she had faith, and even Abraham doubtless thought that in carrying out her advice he was working in harmony with the word of the Lord. The trouble is that he hearkened to the voice of his wife, instead of to the Lord. They reasoned that God had promised them a large family, but that since it was impossible for her to have children it was very evident that He intended that they should use some other means of bringing it about. Thus it is that human reason deals with the promises of God.
Yet how shortsighted the whole thing was. God had made the promise; therefore He alone could fulfill it. If a man makes a promise, the thing promised may be performed by another, but in that case the one who made the promise fails to carry out his word. So even though that which the Lord had promised could have been gained by the device which was adopted, the result would have been to shut the Lord out from fulfilling His word. They were therefore working against God. But His promises cannot be performed by man. In Christ alone can they be performed. It is easy enough for us all to see this in the case before us; yet how often, in our own experience, instead of waiting for the Lord to do what He has promised, we become tired of waiting, and try to do it for Him, and thus make failures.
Spiritual and Literal
Years afterward the promise was fulfilled in God’s own way, but it was not until both Abraham and his wife fully believed the Lord. “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” Hebrews 11:11. Isaac was the fruit of faith. “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.” Galatians 4:22, 23.
Many people seem to forget this fact. They forget that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman, and the other by a freewoman; one born after the flesh, and the other born after the Spirit. Hence the confusion with respect to the “literal” and the “spiritual” seed of Abraham. People talk as though the word “spiritual” were opposed to “literal.” But this is not the case. “Spiritual” is opposed only to “fleshly,” or carnal.
Isaac was born after the Spirit, yet he was as real and literal a child as Ishmael was. So the true seed of Abraham are only those who are spiritual, but that does not make them any the less real. God is Spirit, yet He is a real God. Christ had a spiritual body after His resurrection, yet He was a real, literal being, and could be handled the same as other bodies. So the bodies of the saints after the resurrection will be spiritual, yet they will be real. Spiritual things are not imaginary things. Indeed, that which is spiritual is more real than that which is fleshly, because only that which is spiritual will endure forever.
From this case, therefore, we learn most conclusively that the seed which God promised to Abraham, which should be as the sand of the sea and the stars of heaven for number, and which should inherit the land, is only a spiritual seed. That is, it is a seed which comes through the agency of the Spirit of God. The birth of Isaac, like that of the Lord Jesus, was miraculous. It was supernatural. Both were brought about through the agency of the Spirit. In both we have an illustration of the power by which we are to become sons of God, and thus heirs of the promise.
The seed of Abraham after the flesh are Ishmaelites. He was a wild man, or, as the Revised Version has it, “A wild ass among men.” Genesis 16:12. Moreover, he was the son of a bondwoman, and therefore not a freeborn son. Now the Lord had already signified, in the case of Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, that the seed of Abraham were to be free. Therefore if Abraham had only thought of the words of the Lord, instead of hearkening to the voice of his wife, he might have been saved much trouble.
It is worth while dwelling at length upon this phase of the subject, for if it is rightly understood it will save much confusion as to the true seed of Abraham, and the true Israel. Let the points be stated once more.
Ishmael was born after the flesh, and could not be the seed. Therefore those who are only of the flesh cannot be the children of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise. Isaac was born after the Spirit, and was the true seed. “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Therefore all the children of Abraham are they who are born of the Spirit. “We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Galatians 4:28.
Isaac was freeborn; and none but those who are free are the children of Abraham. “So, then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” Galatians 4:31. What this freedom is, the Lord showed in His talk to the Jews, recorded in the eighth of John. “If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered unto Him, We are Abraham’s seed, and have never yet been in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And the bondservant abideth not in the house forever; but the son abideth forever. If therefore the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Verses 31-36, R.V. And later He said to them that if they were really the children of Abraham, they would do the works of Abraham. Verse 39. Here again we see that which we learned from the promise in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, that the promised seed was to be a righteous seed, since it was promised only through Christ, and was sure to Abraham only through his faith.
The sum of the whole matter is that in the promise to Abraham there is the Gospel, and only the Gospel; and any attempt to make the promises apply to any other than those who are Christ’s through the Spirit, is an attempt to nullify the promises of the Gospel of God. “If ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Romans 8:9. So if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit by which Isaac was born, he is not a child of Abraham, and has no claim to any part of the promise.
By E. J. Waggoner, — The Present Truth, June 11, 1896
Blog Edited by John Foll.
The Everlasting Covenant Table of Contents
By E. J. Waggoner articles, from The Present Truth magazine from May 7, 1896 to May 27, 1897
01 The Gospel Message - The Everlasting Gospel
02 The First Dominion
03 The Call of Abraham - The Promise to Abraham
04 Building an Altar
05 Making a Covenant
06 The Flesh Against the Spirit
07 The Covenant Sealed (Part 1)
08 The Covenant Sealed (Part 2)
09 The Test of Faith
09 The Test of Faith Editor's Notes
10 The Promise and the Oath
11 The Promise of Victory
12 The Promise to Israel – A General View
13 Israel - A Prince of God
14 Israel in Egypt
15 The Time of the Promise
16 “The Reproach of Christ”
17 Giving the Commission
18 Preaching the Gospel in Egypt
19 How Pharaoh’s Heart Was Hardened
20 Saved by the Life
21 The Final Deliverance
22 The Song of Deliverance
23 Bread From Heaven
24 Life From God
25 Life From the Word
26 Water From the Rock—Living Water
27 Object Teaching
28 The Entering of the Law (Part 1)
29 The Entering of the Law (Part 2)
30 Sinai and Calvary
31 Mount Sinai and Mount Zion
32 The Covenants of Promise
33 The Veil and the Shadow
34 Two Laws
35 Entering the Promised Land
36 Vainglory and Defeat
37 Israel a Missionary People
38 The Promised Rest (Part 1)
39 The Promised Rest (Part 2)
40 “Another Day” (Part 1)
41 “Another Day” (Part 2)
42 Again in Captivity (Part 1)
43 Again in Captivity (Part 2)
44 Again in Captivity (Part 3)
45 The Time of the Promise at Hand
46 The Lost Tribes of Israel
47 The Gathering of Israel
From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.
It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.
May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!
Listen to these articles at: www.WhiteRaimentEvangelism.org/recommended.
#Faith #Abraham #Sarah #Miracle #Son #Seed #Christ #Heir #Promise #God #Holy #Spirit #Spiritual #Flesh #Abide #Free #Slave #Sin #Righteous #Gospel