Inheriting the Promise
Vi. — 13. For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could sware by none greater, he sware by himself,
14. Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15. And thus, having patiently endured,1 he obtained, the promise.
THE Epistle is dealing with one of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life. All experience amply confirms what was seen in the first Christian churches, that many who began well stood still and then turned back. The Christian life is a race: to begin profits nothing unless we run to the end and reach the goal. Faith may accept; only longsuffering inherits the promise. Day by day, without intermission, rather with ever-growing zeal and diligence, our allegiance to Jesus our Leader must be maintained, or backsliding must inevitably ensue. And the Church of Christ is a very hospital of backsliding Christians, who meant honestly, in the joy of their first love, to live wholly for God, and who yet gradually sank down into a life of formality and feebleness. There is nothing the Church needs more than the preaching of daily diligence and perseverance as the indispensable condition of growth and strength. Let us learn from the Epistle how these virtues can be fostered in ourselves and others. It had spoken of those who through faith and longsuffering inherit the promises. It will now show us,
1 Suffered long.
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from the example of Abraham, what this means. It first points us, as ever, to what God promises, and then to the disposition in man which this claims and works.
For when God made promise to Abraham, since He could swear by none greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. The deeper our insight into the certainty and the fulness of the blessing of God, the more will our hearts be roused to believe and to persevere. The word of God is our assurance of what we are to expect. How much greater must our confidence be when that word is an oath? Of this the following verses are to speak. Here the fulness of God’s blessing is set before us in the promise given to Abraham: as his seed we are his heirs, and what God promised him is for us too. We need be content with nothing less; nothing less will stimulate us to a life like his in faith and patience.
Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. In Hebrew the repetition of a verb is meant to give force to what is said, to express the certainty and the greatness of what is asserted. In the mouth of God the repetition, Blessing I will bless, multiplying I will multiply, was meant to waken in Abraham’s heart the confidence that the blessing was indeed to be something very wonderful and worthy of God, blessing in divine power and fulness. What that blessing was to be, the second half of the sentence shows, Multiplying I will multiply thee. Scripture teaches us that the highest blessing which God can bestow, that which makes us truly Godlike, is the power of multiplying ourselves, of becoming, as God is, the source and the blessing of other lives. So the two words are connected in passages like Gen. i. 22, 28; ix. I. Of the living creatures it is said: God blessed them, saying, Be
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fruitful and multiply. And of man: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply. So of Noah too: And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said, Be fruitful and multiply. It is the glory of God that He is the dispenser of life — that in His creatures He multiplies His own life and blessedness. And it is one of His highest blessings when He communicates this power of increase to those whom He chooses for His service. The power of His blessing to Adam is seen in the race that sprang from him, as of His blessing to Abraham in his seed, even in Jesus Christ Himself. And to each child of Abraham, to each true believer, the promise still comes in divine power: Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. Every believer who will but claim, and give himself up to the blessing of God, will find that the blessing is a power of the divine life which will make him fruitful in blessing to others, and make it true of him too, multiplying I will multiply thee. Even we, like Christ, can become priests, bringing the blessing of God to those who know Him not.
It is when this fulness of blessing in its divine energy, when this blessing I will bless thee begins to be understood, and the soul sees that there is something beyond the mere being saved from wrath, that there is a becoming the recipient, and the channel, and the dispenser, of life and blessing to others, that it becomes willing to sacrifice everything, and in longsuffering to endure until it obtain the promise.
Christian! wouldest thou be an imitator of Abraham, and let the God who spake to him speak to thee? Remember it is not so easy to receive and claim this promise. Abraham received it in the way of faith and obedience and self-sacrifice, in the entire surrender to God’s will and leading. It was when he had sacrificed Isaac, yea more, when in doing so he had sacrificed
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himself, that this promise was given him with an oath. God will speak to thee as truly as to Abraham. Learn with him to go out of thy country and thy home; give thyself to God’s leading; be prepared to sacrifice all. God will meet thee too with His double blessing. And thy heart will become strong to hear His voice, “Blessing / will bless, multiplying / will multiply.” And it will be true of thee as of Abraham: And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. We shall not only be the heirs, but the actual inheritors of the promise.
1. It Is after the most terrible warning this promise comes. Until the slothful Christian ts roused the most precious promise finds no entrance. When he is roused, it is the preaching of the promise in its fulness will glue him courage and strength.
2. Does your heart condemn you, and do you fear that there is but tittle hope of your becoming a bright, growing, holy child of God, blessed and made a blessing? Come and learn from Abraham the secret, God spake to him! Listen to God. Let God speah to you, follow where He leads, obey what He commands. He will bring you to the place of blessing, the place of the revelation of Himself.
3. And put at once into practice the lesson of to-day. Be not discouraged if you feel feeble and cold, and if there appears to be no progress. Listen to God’s, Blessing I will bless you. Feed on what God says. And trust Him to work in you all you need.
4. Are you a worker in God’s service? Wait upon God to speah this word to you too, Multiplying 1 will multiply you. He can make even you a blessing to many. But such a premise needs an oath to find entrance to the heart. Accept and Hue on the oath of God.
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