Acts 7:4-8 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelled in Charran: and from there, when his father was dead… Of this we have three illustrations in the verses before us, which are all the more impressive because of their unlikelihood. We have God's fidelity — I. To His PROMISES (ver. 5). Abraham, without a foot of land, and, being childless and nomadic, not likely to trouble himself about any, was promised that his seed should possess the entire country. We know that this came to pass, and through what a wonderful series of unlikely events it came to pass. This, therefore, is a good sample of all God's promises — e.g., 1. Of temporal good. Who that has trusted God's word in this particular ever knew it to fail? There is no promise of affluence, but there are abundant promises of sufficiency. Some of the richest pages in Christian biography are records of the extraordinary way in which God works the deliverance of His people in poverty, affliction, danger, etc. 2. Of salvation "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Who ever knew that to fail? It has been proved over and over again in the most hopeless cases. The infidel, men and women to whom abnormal vice has become a second nature, criminals on the verge of execution, have found it true, and in a manner in which the most sanguine could never have expected. 3. Of grace. The Christian is sometimes placed in circumstances of extraordinary trial. Extreme adversity and extreme prosperity, circumstances which have been gradually accumulating until they reach a climax, and circumstances which seem to gather like a thunderous cloud in a moment, expose the Christian to extreme peril. Satan seems to occupy an unshakeable vantage ground, and the good man seems to be helplessly entangled in his toils. Not so. Strangely is there opened "a way of escape," which would all along have been seen to be open but for temporary blindness of faith. 4. Of glory — the best illustration perhaps of the promise before us. Then there will be given to us what we most seem to want here, but which we have least ground to expect. The poor will have riches, the weary rest, the afflicted blessedness, and, most wonderful of all, the humble Christian worker the glad "well done" and the crown of life. II. To His PROPHECIES (ver. 6). That this prophecy would be fulfilled was most improbable, a general characteristic of most of the Divine predictions. Men make shrewd guesses based upon wide experience and a careful induction of facts, and men marvel when what, to the clear sighted, seemed almost inevitable takes place. Much more should they marvel when God's Word — based upon what to the most sagacious human reason would pronounce to be no ground at all — comes true; only the wonder should be mixed with adoration. Here, e.g., is the prediction that a childless old man without a foot of territory should have a seed large enough to occupy the land; that a race that did not exist should pass through vicissitudes which are Sufficiently specified for a given number of years. Of alike character are the prophecies concerning Christ and His Church. This being the case with regard to fulfilled prophecies, surely there is good room for faith in those which have not yet come to pass. Having regard to the past who can cease to have hope for the Church or for the world. The Church has not yet come fully into its inheritance — but it is better off than Abraham, who had not a foot of his. III. To His THREATENINGS (ver. 7). The power here threatened was now, and at the time of the fulfilment of the threatening, the mightiest in the world. Yet Egypt was judged. The great world powers afterwards threatened — Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, were in their turn colossal in their strength, yet where are they to-day? And why? Let modern potentates heed the lesson — because they opposed the cause of God; a course as likely to succeed as the effort to keep back the sea with a broom. Conclusion: 1. A sacramental guarantee was given for all this. God entered into solemn covenant with Abraham that promise, prediction, threatening — for all hung together — should be fulfilled, and sealed the covenant by the ordinance of circumcision. And what is a Christian's baptism but a seal of a covenant of promise involving everything else for this life and the life to come; and what is the Lord's supper but a memorial to all generations of the present support and ultimate triumph of the Church of Christ? 2. Lessons:(1) God takes time for the evolution of His purposes. Four hundred years was not too long for the working out of His purposes concerning Israel; four thousand years are not too long for Him to whom one thousand years is as one day. (2) Man must therefore wait. Patience is the grace supremely needed in this relation. Let us not, like faithless Israel, forget or despair. (J. W. Burn.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. |
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