32 - Heb_11:4-7
CHAPTER X X X I I.
ABEL, ENOCH, NOAH.
ISRAEL was pre-eminently to be an historical people.1 They were always exhorted to remember and to consider their history. It was their solemn duty to cherish the memory of the past. The remembrance of the wonderful dealings of God was to be perpetuated from generation to generation. The Jewish nation lived in the remembrance of its early history. The annual festivals, the constantly-recurring sabbath-days, the very names of God, kept the fundamental facts of their marvellous history before their minds, and impressed them on their hearts. The children were encouraged to ask questions both in reference to memorial services and to memorial stones and institutions.2 "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee."3 The whole book of Deuteronomy is a review of the past. Many psalms contain a synopsis of Jewish history from the days of Abraham to the election of David, whom the Lord took from the sheep-folds, and made king over Israel. Such psalms are either didactic in form, and inscribed Maschil, or lyrical songs of praise, extolling the ever-enduring mercy of the Lord. All the prophets were filled with a vivid and constant consciousness of Israel’s past history. In their addresses to the people, and in their communion with God, the memory of Jehovah’s past dealings with Israel is ever with them.4 Take for instance the sublime prayer of Daniel.5 He refers to the books of Moses and the prophecy of Jeremiah; but how full of life and concrete reality is the Scripture to him! He is himself in the current of divine history. Here all is of God, and supernatural; and yet here all is perfect liberty, and out of the inmost depths of the heart gush forth the confessions and ardent, importunate petitions of the loving patriot. (1The difference in this respect between Israel and the other nations of antiquity is very marked. Bunsen says, "Historical writing was born in Israel." Niebuhr remarks that "the Old Testament is the only exception to the general patriotic untruthfulness of the other nations. It never disguises or passes over the reverses of the people of which it treats. Its truthfulness is the highest in historical literature. . . . The Old Testament is also the most accurate of all historical sources." It should be added that the Old Testament not merely records faithfully all calamities and defeats which Israel had to suffer, but where is there a national record which narrates and censures the national sins with such unsparing severity, which is thoroughly free from national conceit and self-righteousness, which lays the axe at the root of all pride and self-exaltation? I do not know any history except this one which announces on every page, We are a stiff-necked and rebellious people; and it is only owing to divine mercy and long-suffering that we are preserved.2 Exodus 12:26;Genesis 18:19;Joshua 4:6-7; 3 Deuteronomy 32:7.4
It is natural that this historical character of the Jewish mind should manifest itself most fully during a period of transition and crisis. The advent of the Lord was the turning-point in Israel’s history. Hence the gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogical summary of Jewish history from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonish captivity, and from the exile to Mary, the mother of our Lord. Hence the historical character of the songs of Zechariah, of Mary, and of aged Simeon. After the death and resurrection of the Lord, the Jewish nation was still further tested by having the gospel preached unto them. And as the future development of Israel depended upon their acceptance or rejection of the divine message, we notice in the apostolic preaching always a reference to their past history and a solemn declaration that Israel had now arrived at the most important and awful crisis. The apostles recapitulated the past history of Israel, and showed the coming, the death, and resurrection of Jesus to be the culminating events of the dealings of God with the chosen nation. All the addresses of the apostles Peter and Paul, recorded in the book of Acts, are historical and not doctrinal. The living God, who had brought Israel up to this point, was now sending the gospel of His Son Jesus to bless them, in turning away every one of them from his iniquities."*(*It is difficult for us fully to realize the historical and national character of the apostolic preaching to Israel. In the new covenant dispensation our thoughts are directed chiefly to truth in its eternal aspect. We meditate on the love of God, the grace of the Saviour, the indwelling of the Spirit, on the soul’s relation to Christ, and on our union with Him in the coming glory. This is right, and yet there is a danger of substituting an abstract and doctrinal method for the concrete and historical method of Scripture, according to which the remembrance of Jesus, and the expectation of His return and kingdom, form the main elements of Christian teaching and life.) The apostles called upon the nation to believe in Him of whom all their prophets had testified, in whom the covenant was made with Abraham, and who was now in heaven waiting for the restitution of all things. It was the burning question of the day; the turning-point in Israel’s history. Hence we can understand the speech of Stephen. In the face of death, and beholding by faith the glory of God, so that even to his enemies his countenance appeared irradiated by a heavenly beauty, Stephen addresses the rulers of the nation; and in this most solemn moment, and in the plenitude of the spirit, what is his address? He surveys the Jewish history. Calmly, deliberately, and with great fullness, he narrates the story of Abraham’s call, and of Joseph’s sufferings and exaltation, and of the youth of Moses, his flight into Midian, and of Israel’s exodus and wanderings in the wilderness, and of David and Solomon. This is not the place to explain his selection of events and characters and the scope of his address; the only point of importance is the fact that Stephen at such a time dwelt on the past history of Israel; he speaks not of doctrines, but of history, facts, and the past dealings of God with the nation. How strong, how vivid, how ever-present must that past have been to the believers of the apostolic age! In our chapter the past history of Israel is brought before us in a similar manner. The universal character of God’s chosen people, and of the Scripture which records their history, is seen in many ways; and perhaps the most obvious is the fact, that as its prophecy comprehends all nations, so its history begins not with Abraham, but with Noah and with Adam; thus showing from the outset that it is a revelation for mankind, and of the dealings of God with man, and concerning the whole race. It is on account of this connection of Israel with the whole race that Jesus charges Jerusalem with all the righteous bloodshed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias.1 And as the genealogy of our blessed Lord is traced not merely to Abraham, but to Adam, so is the history of Abraham’s seed traced to the pre-Abrahamic believers.2(1Matthew 23:35.2This portion of the book of Genesis must have appeared in a new light to the Jews, as the gospel in its universal character and world-wide application became dear to them. The references of our Lord to this section of the Word are very numerous; to the institution of marriage in Paradise, to Cain and Abel, to Noah, to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, to Lot’s wife. Again the patriarchal history appeared in a new light to the apostle Paul, as the history of our fathers, before the law came as a parenthesis and schoolmaster.) In this remarkable history, extending over so many centuries, there is a wonderful unity. It records God’s dealings with man; and as God is unchangeable, and the human heart the same in every age, this history speaks to all times and nations; it is the most human history, as well as the most divine. This peculiarity of Scripture has been acknowledged by poets and philosophers; it has been felt by all nations and ages. There is no history, there are no characters with which the world has become so familiar, which have so wrought themselves into the very consciousness and heart of mankind. But the Christian regards this characteristic from a higher point. "To the spiritually-minded, time and place are not. The Word of God is therefore, when spiritually apprehended, no history of successive generations having reference to various countries and divers persons. It becomes a living whole - a picture of the dealings of God with man; of the great contest between good and evil; of the victory over evil by men in whom Christ dwells, and who hold communion with God."
Before the flood and the Abrahamic covenant God had a people on earth who lived by faith. Abel the first martyr, Enoch the seventh from Adam, and Noah the preacher of righteousness, are the three witnesses of this period whose lives are recorded. In Abel we behold faith’s accepted sacrifice and worship; in Enoch faith’s walk and triumphant ascension; in Noah faith’s reverent, persevering obedience, and testimony. It is only with reference to this central grace of faith that we have here to consider these three characters. The first believer who is brought before us in this gallery of God’s saints is Abel, the shepherd, beloved of God; but hated without cause for righteousness sake by his brother. He is a type of the Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, whom His brethren hated, because - and not merely, although - there was no guile in Him. Jesus calls him "righteous Abel," and speaks of him as the first martyr, whose blood was shed in witness of God’s truth. There is no figure in sacred Scripture so vividly impressed on our imagination from childhood. On the thresh old of history we behold this silent, believing martyr. There is scarcely any incident here of man’s doing, and yet it is full of instruction, full of testimony glorifying God. He brought a sacrifice, he worshipped, he was accepted, he died, and this by faith.
He was the first of the human family who tasted death. Fallen in Adam, he died; through Cain’s sin he suffered death; but through faith in the sin-offering he overcame death. The first man, who had to descend into the grave, was carried through it on the arms of redeeming-love. The first son of Adam, who had to experience the divine sentence pronounced against sin, was to angels, and, may I say, to the Son of God Himself, a type of the great sacrifice of divine love to be fulfilled in the appointed time. Faith from the first rested in the Lamb of God. Between the revelation of God, the Creator, to Adam, and the first witness and example of faith, Abel, lies a catastrophe, a change, important, mysterious, and awful, which we can never understand, though in the sweet light of revelation, we can now think of it without despair. It is the fall of man, the entrance of sin and death into the world of man. Hence man cannot approach, worship, love and serve God without sacrifice. The Creator, the paternal and bountiful Lord, is also the Governor and Lawgiver; in holiness is His reign, and in justice and truth stands His kingdom. God Himself provided the remedy, and revealed the mediation. The eternal thought of the Three-One, love manifested in mercy through a Substitute, was declared to man before he was banished from Paradise. God gave the promise. God also gave the type of righteousness through the Substitute’s death, when He clothed our fallen and guilty parents. The Lord covered them with the robe of righteousness. Abel, believing the word, approached God through the better sacrifice. In the book of Genesis we are simply told the facts, that "Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering." Here we have the explanation of the fact. What caused Abel to bring his offering? what else but faith? He believed that God is the Creator, the Lord, the source of all life and blessing; and how could he believe it without desiring to be in communion with Him? He believed that God is holy, that man is sinful and guilty; how then could he dare to come before God, or to appear with his sins, and with his imperfect and sin-stained gifts and works? He believed that God is love, gracious, and merciful, and that through sacrifice, through the suffering of a Redeemer yet to come, through the substitution of an innocent and pure life for his own forfeited one, God the just would justify and accept the guilty. Because he believed he brought the appointed sacrifice. Behold, the sacrifice is accepted, and Abel is declared righteous - righteous according to God’s estimate, according to the perfection of that Sacrifice, of which Abel beheld only the symbol.*(*When it is so frequently asserted that the reason why Abel’s sacrifice was accepted was solely because it was offered in faith, it seems to be forgotten that faith consisted in the very fact that Abel offeredthe God-appointed sacrifice, and thereby showed his humility as a sinner, and his trust in divine mercy as a believer. The object of the apostle here is, however, not to teach the doctrine of expiation, but the character of faith.)
Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, is an accepted worshipper. There is no other true and spiritual worship but the worship of a believer in Jesus, and this worship is always accepted. Let us therefore not speak doubtfully, whether God will accept our "poor prayers." We believe that God cannot accept us as we are in ourselves, for He cannot acquit the guilty and accept anything except perfection; but if we believe in Jesus, God accepts us in Him. His blood was shed for the remission of our sins. By His offering He has perfected us forever. Of this, the only worship, Abel though dead yet speaketh. And of this also, that though God loves us dearly in His own Son, yet sufferings and affliction may be our portion. We who accept the sacrifice must be willing to become a sacrifice, and to know the fellowship of His sufferings. The sinner, who through faith in the sacrifice is righteous before God, belongs now to God, and is an heir of eternal life. Sin and death have no more dominion over him. Thus Enoch, the seventh from Adam, walks with God. In this simple familiar expression, we have the description of the new life. It brings before us communion with God, dependence on His guidance, submission to His authority, confidence in His love and favour, continuous, habitual fellowship, and a mind conformed to God’s mind, and delighting itself in the Lord. How can two walk together except they be agreed? God was Enoch’s constant and loving companion, Lord, and strength. Enoch pleased God, and why? Because he trusted Him. He trusted Him as a reality, believing that He is, and as a faithful and loving God, the rewarder of all who diligently seek Him. Enoch walked with God only; for as his own prophecy, preserved to us by the Spirit in the epistle of Jude, shows, ungodliness was the characteristic of his age, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed." Living in an age of ungodliness, of violent and defiant unbelief, Enoch not merely kept himself unspotted from the world, and communed with the Most High, but he was a bold and intrepid confessor, and declared the future things which he apprehended by faith. The contemplative and spiritually-minded believer is also a witness. The life which is hid in God must manifest itself also in conflict with the world. The disciple who rests on the bosom of Jesus is afterwards banished for his testimony. No doubt Enoch had to experience the opposition and hatred of an unbelieving age. As a lily among thorns, so was Enoch among the children of men; God regarded him with delight, because he lived by faith. The constant repetition of the words, "and he died," in the fifth chapter of Genesis, is very striking. Although the duration of human life was still exceedingly long, as if the forfeited blessing of immortality was reluctantly leaving mankind, yet it is evident that, through the disobedience of one, death passed upon all men. But to show that the believer is not under the dominion of death, God took Enoch away and translated him into the eternal, peaceful region. "He was not; for God took Him." His life was short compared with those of his contemporaries, and this must have rendered his translation the more remarkable. Without seeing death he passed to the immortal state. Enoch and Elijah are types of the ascension of our Lord, an illustration of the truth, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Thus shall it be when Christ comes; they who are living by faith at a time of which Christ says, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" they shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, transfigured in their bodies, glorified and beatified in a "moment, in the twinkling of an eye." And we all, who believe, belong no more to death. Christ has destroyed, that is, rendered powerless to us-ward, him who had the power of death, that is, Satan; Christ has taken away the sting of death; dying we do not see or taste death, but we see and taste Jesus, the life of our life, our eternal life.
Abel testifies of faith’s sacrifice and worship, always accepted. Enoch of faith’s walk and triumph, lifted above sin and death into fellow ship with the holy God, the Lord of life. Noah’s faith has again another testimony. He found grace - first time the word is used in Scripture - in the eyes of the Lord. The judgment of the flood was announced to him. Moved with fear - not the fear of terror, but the fear of reverence, of humility, and of trembling astonishment, both at the impending judgment and con descending mercy of God, he obeyed and built the ark. The element of true repentance was in that fear, as it must always be in faith; for Noah was a sinner, and in believing the judgment of God he acknowledged also his own unworthiness and guilt. Only a deep sense of sin could have acknowledged the justice and believed the approach of judgment. His faith, rooted in the contrite heart, and evidenced in his daily work and obedience, was tested by the opposition and mockery of the world, to whom he testified of sin, of judgment, of saving grace; declaring what he possessed himself, righteousness by faith. And by his faith he not merely saved himself, but also his household.
Abel, Enoch, Noah, are a threefold type both of Christ and of the believer. Jesus is the righteous One, Shepherd and Lamb, the Martyr, true and faithful Witness. He is put to death because He was holy, and His brethren were wicked. But Jesus, who died, is like Enoch, who after his walk with God is taken up to heavenly regions. He liveth now to God. Aid Jesus is like Noah, who saves the household, so that the punitive judgment on sinners does not reach them; but they dwell safely in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty.
If we possess Abel’s faith in the Lamb of God, then the history of our life and death can be summed up as Abel’s - a sinner, who worshipped, who was accepted, who entered heaven through faith in the blood of the atonement. If God permits us to continue our life on earth, we walk with God - our light, our strength, our law, our consolation, and our joy. Walking with Him, we please Him, notwithstanding all our sinfulness and errors; our citizenship is in heaven; we belong to the realm of light, and when Christ comes we shall be taken by divine power, and delivered in a moment from earth’s trials and the bondage of mortality. And, like Noah, looking forward to the fulfillment of the prophetic word, and possessing ourselves the righteousness which is by faith, we testify and call to the world: Flee from the wrath to come.