06.5.5. The Trials of Isaac Respecting Seed

V. -- THE TRIALS OF ISAAC RESPECTING SEED Genesis 25:12-23 THE stage now reached is one of high blessing. Abraham no longer lives in earthly form. Faith henceforward is no more in the flesh, but is changed from an outward form into a spirit which sees God; while Isaac takes Abraham’s place: that is, faith is succeeded in our souls by spiritual understanding, which, like Isaac, dwells at Lahai-roi, and is Abraham’s heir, possessing all the riches of true faith. Yet even here the elect must still be tried. He desires fruit, but for long years Rebekah is barren (Genesis 25:21). Infinite love ordains it thus for good. With such rich gifts the soul requires some check to keep it healthy. Thus delays, which try our patience, are needful for us, as the shade and cool of evening, which seems to stay their growth, is needful to the plants as much as warmth and sunshine. Such delays are really rests; for unbroken joy, like constant sunshine, would parch the spirit; while in these rests our God and Father teaches His elect their own insufficiency, and that all their fresh springs are in Him alone. The trial here then is again respecting fruit, and it touches Isaac both directly and indirectly. At the very time he is lamenting his own barrenness, Ishmael, the seed of Hagar, is seen to increase rapidly. Thus there is grief, first, from the elect’s own weakness, and then, from the rapid growth of the carnal seed; to find the fruit of the spirit so late in manifesting itself, and the fruit of the flesh so early, strong, and numerous. The spread of Ishmael’s seed comes first; that carnal spirit, which springs from the union of faith with law within us, begets many forms of life. "These are the generations of Ishmael, whom Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham: these are their names, according to their generations; Nebajoth, and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah, twelve princes according to their nations" (Genesis 25:13-16). Thus spreads the carnal seed. The elect, the spirit of sonship and understanding in us, may be at Lahai-roi. Grace may have bestowed a well of vision. Instead of naked Adam, there may be the spirit which like Isaac has offered itself to God, which is beloved and blessed of Him. Yet all this checks not the growth of the flesh, and that even while the elect spirit in us is mourning its own barrenness. For the fleshly seed breaks forth as it will: it has "children at its desire" (Psalms 17:14); it "is not in trouble like other men, neither is it plagued like other men; therefore pride compasseth it as with a chain, violence covereth it as a garment" (Psalms 73:5-6). The sons of God must often say, "My time is not yet, but your time is always ready" (John 7:6; John 7:8): "we are weak, but ye are strong; we are despised, but ye are honourable" (1 Corinthians 4:10). The flesh has no such delays. It brings forth its fruits of wrath and envy and emulation, even though the spirit dwells at Lahai-roi. And the very grace bestowed upon the inner man seems at times only to excite the flesh to greater activity and open opposition.

Meanwhile the spirit waits from year to year, sighing for, yet not seeing, the seed the Lord has promised it. Isaac is sorely tried. For twenty years Rebekah, the beloved of his heart, is "barren," and produces no fruit (Genesis 25:21). (Note: Compare Genesis 25:20, -- "Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife," with Genesis 25:26, -- "Isaac was threescore years old when she bare Esau and Jacob.") Then, having conceived, she feels two different lives, opposing each other within, even before they shew themselves. Thus barrenness first causes grief. That is removed. Then fruitfulness brings with it fresh disquietude. A cross there must be, to keep us low, and to shew the unfailing resources of God our Saviour.

Rebekah is spiritual truth. (Note: See on Genesis 24:1-67) Such truth should not only be a living and active principle in us, but should produce other forms of life. For this end is it given. Nevertheless, for years after sonship is mature in us, it brings forth no fruit. It rests in peace at Lahai-roi, but the new life of service, which it should produce, is not yet manifested. Nor does Isaac feel this at first. But Hagar’s seed increase. Rebekah still has no child. Then he cries to the Lord for help, and is heard. "The Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah conceived seed." So is it yet. That form of truth, which the spirit of sonship has embraced as a living principle by which to be fruitful, lives within us for awhile before it bears fruit. But the elect still waits on God. Faith may try carnal means, may take a Hagar: the spirit of sonship cannot do so. It may be fruitless, but it will not embrace law. It is in itself a proof of God’s almighty power. To Him therefore it cries for strength, and Rebekah is no more barren; in God’s strength she bears fruit. But this fruitfulness has its pains also. Rebekah no sooner conceives, than she is sorely disquieted. "The children struggled within her, and she said, If it be so, why am I thus?" (Genesis 25:22). And so the truth which the spirit loves, when at length it labours to bring forth another life, is felt to contain two distinct elements. Till it conceives, we do not perceive this. Nevertheless, it is so. We say of that truth which Rebekah figures, that it is spiritual; and so it is. But we are deceived if we think that therefore, as apprehended by us, it is unmixed and wholly free from outward things. Our understanding can only possess forms of truth, and to these certain fallacies connected with the senses invariably connect themselves. Hence, when at this stage the spirit in us by the truth has begotten a new life, the inherent difference of the elements which go to form the truth makes itself felt, even before these differing elements are distinctly developed into separate forms of outward life. At the faith stage this is not known. But now, when the spirit of understanding is come, it is first felt, and then its cause is understood. Happy should we be, could we bear only Jacobs; but formed as we are, if our principles are fruitful, the seed will to the end be diverse, and inward struggling must be the result.

Here then we learn the reason of that inward strife or conflict, which so often re-appears in the progress of the elect spirit. The Lord Himself teaches us why it must be; at the same time promising that the first and natural shall in the end give place to the spiritual: -- "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manners of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger" (Genesis 25:23). Thus even Isaac begets him whom God hateth, (Note: "Esau have I hated." -- Malachi 1:2-3; Romans 9:12-13.) and thus, though sonship is come, do we feel the same old contest which was waged from the beginning, -- "the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things that we would;" and this not from Hagar’s seed alone, but even in the fruit of Isaac, the true and beloved heir. So it must be while we are in this tabernacle. A seed cast into the earth draws into union with its life the nature of the soil wherein it shoots forth. According to its soil the selfsame plant varies its hue and form. In it is both the vegetable life, and the life’s clothing, which is of the earth earthy. So the wind, which breathes from the south, comes mixed with odours, testifying over what it has passed, and what it bears with it. So with the spiritual seed. The womb it grows in is of the earth. Hence with the heavenly in us the earthy grows also. We forget this, and therefore are troubled. But He, who hath loved us, "knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust," and will work His pleasure in us spite of that flesh, the deformity of which His indwelling makes even more apparent. (Note: After alluding to the outward fulfilment of this scene, as one which needed no comment, Origen then gives the inward application. -- Orig. Hom. xii. in Gen. So too Augustin. in Psalms 136:1-26. (E. V. 137,) § 18.)

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Such is the scene within. In the world without, Rebekah is that body which is formed by the truth, that is, the true Church, whose barrenness oft-times afflicts God’s sons, while Ishmael’s seed, the children of law, increase and multiply. But the true Church is fruitful through prayer. Then comes fresh grief, to find in the same one mother a double and conflicting seed, who, like the chaff and the wheat, though from one root and stalk, are destined to a very different end, the one to be gathered safely into the garner, the other to be rejected and burnt up (Matthew 3:12). But the very nature of the Church, even as of truth, whilst upon earth, involves the presence of an outer as well as an inner element; and this, though we may not see it in the Church’s constitution, (though it is there,) will surely come out and shew itself in her double seed. (Note: Augustine often refers to this outward fulfilment. See his comment on the words, "the fruit of the womb is His reward" in Psalm cxxvi. (E. V. 127,) 3. See also Serm. 4, Class. i. De Jac. et Esau; and Tract. xi. § 10, in Johan. iii. 3, 4.) What son of God has ever loved and preached the truth, without discovering ere long that from the self-same seed, within the same household of God, proceed two diverse families; one, akin to that part of the truth which is outward; the other, to that which is more inward and spiritual. Thus, in the one Church two seeds grow and strive, causing no little pain to their perplexed mother. If hereby she is led to the Lord, though perplexed, in His presence she is taught His purpose and learns to trust in Him.