5 Abraham to Malachi

THE FEARFUL JUDGMENT of the Flood led humanity not to the arms of a forgiving Saviour but to the defiant gesture of the Tower of Babel. As a result the Lord gave up the race to its own devices and sought Himself out a man who should value His friendship and fulfil His will. Such a one He found in Abraham, the father both of the Lord's earthly people and of His Heavenly Family. Here was one whom alone He could call His friend out of all the teeming multitudes of men.

       Abraham was willing to leave home, and finally kindred, if only he could follow His Friend; and came to such a pitch of loyalty that he could taste the same heartache that the Father knew. It seems as if in the fearful scene on Mt. Moriah God Himself was moved to admiration of the magnificent courage and obedience of father and son when faced with sacrifice and conflict. Not easily did Isaac steel himself to face his fate, nor Abraham take up the horrid knife. The Heavenly Watchers saw in miniature a replica of their own conduct in that pre-Creation hour. How wonderfully close were God and man drawn in the common facing of a like ordeal! Friends need more than a liking for each other: there must be a common ground of experience between them before heart can beat with heart. So in later

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years Paul was to ask for a sharing of His Lord's sufferings that his comprehension of His Soul might be the fuller! Here, however, was the seed that later was to bear such rich fruit in a long line of men who 'knew' the Lord.

       Even in the Old Testament to 'know' the Lord meant to have one's life filled with the deepest emotions and the strangest experiences. Let Elijah, Jonah, Caleb or Jeremiah tell of what it meant to them to have known the Lord! Let Christ speak of His joy in finding those who could bear to share that holy burden and that great sorrow which brought the Spirit of God to groanings that cannot be uttered. No sooner did the Son of God find a friend than He would send him forth to be a faithful messenger who should bring rest to His godly soul. His eyes ranged continually over the world looking for such men: Paul in his sorrowful statement that he had no one like-minded to send to the Philippians is but echoing the words of the Lord in Isaiah 6: 'Whom shall I send? Who will go?' How difficult for God to send forth His loved servants to sorrow, rejection, suffering and death, to put into their mouths words that they could only speak at peril of their lives. It was not only the sacrifice of dumb animals day by day that reminded the Son of God of His own coming death: it was the sufferings of His human friends that kept ever fresh in His mind the fact that His own time to enter the arena was soon to come. Indeed, from time to time an instalment of His adventures to come was sent down to be put amongst the Scriptures that later were to be His guide and stay. The warnings to Jeremiah and Ezekiel of the sort of people to whom they were to minister struck to the heart of Him who later was to face the same people and suffer a worse fate. He was one of the watchers of Daniel Chapter 4. How profound His interest in the heroic exploits of His friends. Amongst all the Heavenly spectators of the human drama none was so absorbed as the Son of God Himself, who was soon to tread

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the same stage and display a greater faith. As Job, Joseph, Rahab and Esther played their breathless parts in the Divine Drama, their every thought lay open to the entranced eyes of Him who loved them. If Heaven was plunged into gloom as David betrayed in one stroke his faithful soldier and his loving God, yet also it knew the ecstasy of appreciation as Micaiah strode back to his prison fare, the only 'man' amongst them all; or Daniel opened his deadly window 'as he did aforetime'. With what joy has the Lord turned and said to the angels those words which one day He will address in person to some of the actors in the human spectacle 'Bravo, Bravo! Well done'.

       So close had been His interest in human affairs that at times He had participated personally in them. He had experienced the horror of Sodom, shared a meal with Abraham and Sarah, walked in the Fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. At other times, though not visible Himself, He had acted visibly: had written upon Belshazzar's wall, and upon Moses' tables; had withstood Balaam's ass, muzzled Daniel's lions, and prepared Jonah's whale; had poured down fire from Heaven, and sent a chariot for Elijah. The Old Testament is a record of His Doings: His sorrows, joys, anxieties, long-sufferings, deliverances are all depicted there, that they who read may know their God and understand His ways. The record closes with a clear promise that the spectator at a distance was about to become an actor on the stage. This tremendous announcement was followed by silence from Heaven, a silence which lasted four hundred years, as if all creation awaited this stupendous act in breathless anticipation; and God Himself was amazed at this supreme condescension.

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