God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 18 And Abraham said unto | and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. a 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; a ch. 18. 10.& 21. 2. Gal. 4. 28. From this it would appear that a doubt occurred to Abraham which struck a damp upon his pleasure. The promise of another son he fears will be the de notwithstanding men in their perverseness do so much to obstruct its course, it is still made to triumph over their unworthiness, and spend itself upon them, even in spite, as it were,of them-struction of all the hopes centred in the selves. 1 one already given. If he be not re- trated, and the prospect of his blessings 17. Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed. Not out of incredulity or ridicule, for he was strong in faith, but outing him may be in great measure frusof the admiration and joy with which he was transported. Laughter may arise from very different states of mind. It is easy to perceive that in Abraham's case it was prompted by a very different feeling from that which moved the risibilities of Sarah on the occasion mentioned Gen. 18. 12, 13. Chal. He rejoiced.' Targ. Jerus. 'He marvelled.' His emotions, entirely free from the levity of spirit which usually we connect with laughter, were doubtless a mixture of wonder and delight. He was overcome with an extacy of surprise that vented itself in this unusual, though not unnatural manner, for we see similar emotions expressing themselves in a similar way in the language of the Psalm-3 is bearing; spoken of as an ist, Ps. 126. 1, 2, When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.' So also Job, 8. 21, Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.' In allusion to this circumstance the child, when born, was named Isaac, laughter, v. 19. See Note on Gen. 21. 8. 19. Sarah thy wife shall bear. Heb. -T event now taking place, from its absolute certainty, though a year was to intervene before its actual occurence. ¶ Thou shalt call his name Isaac. Heb. p yitzhek, he shall laugh. Gr. Ioaax, whence the English Isaac.1 will establish my covenant with him, &c. That is, my spiritual covenant, the covenant containing the promise of the Messiah, and all its related privi18. O that Ishmael might live before leges and blessings. Yet from the fact thee. Not merely Ishmael in person, that Ishmael was commanded to be but Ishmael in his posterity. The pur- circumcised and that the rite was perport of the petition is to be judged of petuated in his family, the inference from the answer which was given to it. I would seem fairly drawn, that the cov 23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, ev 20 And as for Ishmael, I have| 22 And he left off talking with heard thee: behold, I have bless- him, and God went up from ed him, and will make him fruit- Abraham. ful, and will multiply him exceedingly: twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I es-ery male among the men of Abratablish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. b ch. 16. 10. c ch. 25. 12, 16. d ch. 21. 18. e ch. 21. 2. ham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin, in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. enant, in some of its aspects, did prop- tion, and for its remarkable fulfilment, consult the history, Gen. 25. 12-16. 21. At this set time next year. At this very time in the following year. Comp. Gen. 21, 2. 22. And God went up from Abraham. Arab. 'The angel of God went up.' Chal. The glory of the Lord went up.' That is, the visible majesty of Jehovah, the Shekinah, the symbol of the divine presence. See Gen. 35. 13. Ezek. 1. 29.-8. 4. The whole narrative suggests the idea of a personal interview, and all doubt as to the identity of the personage described is precluded by the express declaration, v. 1, 'I am the Almighty God.' 23. And Abraham took Ishınael— and circumcised, &c. That is, ordered it to be done; saw that it was done. As no express directions were given as to the operator, such agents might be employed as the head of the household saw fit. In Ex. 4. 25, we see a mother performing it, but in modern times it 20. I have blessed him and will make him fruitful. That is, have blessed him by making him fruitful; which though spoken in the past, is to be un-is usually performed by some experienderstood in the future; and that for the same reason that the future is so often used for the past, viz. to indicate the absolute certainty of the event foretold. - Twelve princes shall he beget. as Jacob, the son of Isaac, was the fa ther of twelve patriarchs or phularchs, i. e. heads of tribes, so Ishmael is here made the subject of a parallel predic ced person; and it is not only considered a great honour to be a circumciser (mohel), but the occasion is made one of great rejoicing and festivity.-The conduct of Abraham on this occasion furnishes a bright example to all succeeding ages of the manner in which divine ordinances should be complied with, We may remark concerning it, f ch. 18. 19. a ch. 13. 18. & 14. 13. name of liberality, is anti-christian. (4.) It was yielded in old age, when the infirmity of nature is prone to plead off from engaging in any thing new, old was Abraham when he was circumcised.' It is one of the temptations of old age to be tenacious of what we have believed and practised from our youth; to shut our eyes and ears against every thing that may prove it to have been erroneous or defective, and to find excuses from being exempted from hard and dangerous duties. But Abraham to the last was ready to receive farther instruction, and to do as he was commanded, leaving consequences with God. This shows that the admonition to 'walk before him, and be perfect,' had not been given in vain. (1.) That it was prompt. Though God had said nothing to him respecting the time of his performing the ceremony, yet we learn that in the self same day that God had spoken to him, the com- or different from that to which it has mand was put in execution. This was been accustomed. Yet it seems to be 'making haste, and delaying not to for the purpose of putting honor upon keep his commandments.' Such is Abraham's obedience, that it is so exevermore the impulse of a truly devo-pressly said, 'Ninety and nine years ted and affectionate heart. To linger in the practical observance of the divine precepts, to put off till to-morrow what can as well be done to-day, is the evidence of a cold, languid, listless state of heart, and little short of trifling with supreme authority. Such conduct receives no countenance from the example of Abraham. (2.) It was implicit. We do not find him inquiring into the reasons of the divine injunction, nor asking why such a painful rite had been deferred for so long a time and was now appointed to be observed when he had one foot in the grave. It was sufficient for him that thus God would have it to be. God's will was at once a law and a reason to him, and he yielded an unquestioning obedience. (3.) It was punctilious. We have only to read the verse to see how exact was the correspondence be tween the command of God and the obedience of his servant. A rigid regard to the revealed will of Heaven, even in its minutest particulars, enters deeply into the essence of true religion, and the spirit which dispenses with it, though it may pass under the specious 21. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. From this circumstance the Arabians and other descendants of Ishmael, and indeed all the foliowers of Mohammed, defer circumcision till the age of thirteen, and when it occurs it is made a festival occasion of great rejoicing. CHAPTER XVIII. 1. And the Lord appeared unto him. Heb. 3 was seen of him. This clause states in a general manner 2 And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him: and when he с b Heb. 13. 2. c ch. 19. 1. 1 Pet. 49. saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, his cattle were probably at pasture many miles distant. Among the Bedouin tribes it is the duty of the chief or sheikh to entertain strangers, and as the custom requires them to stop at the first tent they reach, the sheikh's tent is usually pitched so as to be the first in that direction from which stran. gers most commonly arrive. This custom would account for Abraham's being the first to perceive the strangers as he sat in the shade of his tent-door to enjoy any air that might be stirring, the incident which is more fully detailed in its particulars in the ensuing verses. As we gather from the sequel, the object of this renewed manifestation of the divine presence was again to repeat the promise of a son, and to make known to Abraham the purposed destruction of Sodom. It was probably vouchsafed a short time after the events recorded in the preceding chapter.- -¶ In the plains of Mamre. Or, Heb. 3 in the oaks, or the oak-grove of Mamre. See Note on Gen 13. 18.- -¶ He sat in the tent-while the heat of the day rendered the door in the heat of the day. The in- interior of the tent too close and sultry tense heat of those eastern climes still to be conveniently occupied. In the compels the labourer and the traveller heat of the day the external shade of to seek shelter and rest during the mid- the tent is much more cool and pleasant dle of the day. 'Often has my mind than the interior.' Pict. Bible. reverted to the scene of the good old patriarch sitting in the door of his tent in the heat of the day. When the sun is at the meridian, the wind often becomes softer, and the heat more oppressive; and then may be seen the people seated in the doors of their huts, to inhale the breezes, and to let them blow on their almost naked bodies.' Roberts. The scene here described presents a beautiful picture of patriarchal manners, and one strikingly accordant with the customs of other nations of remote antiquity, as transmitted to us by their historians and poets, particularly Homer, who thus describes the hospitable Axylus ; 2. And he lifted up his eyes and looked. To lift up the eyes does not mean to look upward, but to look directly at an object, and that earnestly. A man coming from the jungle might say, 'As I came this morning, I lifted up my eyes, and behold, I saw three elephants.' 'Have you seen any thing to-day in your travels?'-'I have not lifted up my eyes.' 'I do not see the thing you sent me for, sir.'-'Just lift up your eyes, and you will soon find it." Rob erts. And lo, three men stood by him. Such they were in outward appearance, but the Apostle Heb. 13. 1, calls them 'angels,' whom Abraham entertained unawares, i. e. not knowing them to be such. To him they appeared to be three strangers on a journey, and as such he treated them. But it is generally conceded that two of these were created angels. As to the third, Fast by the road his ever-open door Obliged the wealthy and relieved the poor. Iliad, B. 6. 'The annotators on this chapter seem to have had in view the single tent of Abraham, with flocks and herds feed-it can scarcely be doubted that he was ing around. But there must have been many tents for his numerous dependants and servants; while the bulk of the same divine personage who, under the name of 'Angel,' or 'Angel of Jehovah,' so frequently appeared to the 3 And said, My lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: patriarchs in human form. Certain it is that this personage appears in the subsequent part of the narrative, v. 13-22, and yet there is not the least intimation of any other appearance than that of the three men whom Abraham entertained. The inference therefore is fair that the Son of God, anticipating thus his future manifestation in the flesh, constituted one of the company. The persons that now appeared at the tentdoor of Abraham were certainly unknown to him. He was ignorant of their quality, their country, and their destination; yet his behaviour to them was as respectful as if they had been attended by a pompous retinue, or had sent a messenger to him beforehand announcing their names, and their intention of paying him a visit. With how much propriety the Apostle inculcates the duty of hospitality from this incident will be obvious at once, and we may remark in addition, that those who hold themselves in readiness to show kindness to the stranger and the traveller, may chance sometimes to be favoured with the presence of guests who will have it in their power and in their hearts to bless them as long as they live. He ran to meet them. His generosity on this occasion is not more conspicuous than the amiable manner in which it was expressed. The instant he sees them, he rises up, as by a kind of instinctive courtesy, to bid them welcome to his tent, and that in the most respectful manner. This and other passages in the Bible may be illustrated by the gradations of Persian etiquette. When a Persian is visited by a very superior person he crosses the open court of his house, and receives him at the street-door; if decidedly su 4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree d ch. 19. 2 & 43. 24. perior, but not greatly so, he rises hastily and advances to receive his visiter at the entrance of the room; if the visiter be an equal, he simply rises from his seat on his entrance; and if an inferior, he only makes the motion of rising.- -T Bowed himself toward the ground. Heb. . The original word is elsewhere rendered 'worshipped,' as is also the corresponding Gr. term προσκυνέω proskuneo both in the Old and New Testament. Its primary meaning is to do homage, or pay obeisance to one, but whether this homage be civil or religious cannot be determined from the word itself; this must be ascertained from the context. Thus where one Evangelist, Mat. 8. 2, says, 'Behold there came a leper and worshipped him,' another, Mark 1. 40, speaking of the same incident, says, And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him.' This determines the sense of worship' in the former passage to be merely assuming a reverential posture. So also, Luke 14. 10, 'Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee;' i. e. have reverence. In the present case, Abraham's bowing was doubtless intended rather as a token of civil respect than as an act of religious adoration; for he seems not at first to have been aware of the true character of his guests, particularly the principal of them. 3. And said, My lord. Addressing himself to that one of the three who had the most dignified and commanding air, or who perhaps advanced somewhat in front of the rest.— -¶ If now I have found favour in thy sight. That is, if you are disposed to do me a favour, pass not away, &c. |