CHAPTER SEVEN
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE: ABRAHAM TO JOSEPH
THE SEED PLOT OF THE AGES OF THE AGES

       The confusion of tongues marked the end of God's endeavour to deal with mankind as a whole, and for many years it seemed as if He had given up all hope of the earth, and had left men to go their own way and sink into greater and yet greater darkness. It was, however, at this benighted moment that He lit another small candle, which was to grow and grow in intensity, until at last it will burst out into the full blaze of the Millennium, and finally of the Eternal Kingdom of the last two chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

       In the history of Abraham, the Friend of God (Isaiah 41:8) were events which foreshadowed the grand moments in the life of His Divine Friend. In the first place, even if Melchizedek did not realise it, his offering of Bread and Wine to Abraham spoke to the Lord in Heaven of the day when He too would make His offering of Bread and Wine in the Upper Room to His Father to atone for the sins of the world, and to be the Food of the Royal Family.

       Again, the miraculous birth of Isaac from the dead womb of Sarah foreshadowed the equally miraculous birth of Jesus from the virgin womb of Mary: and from that same womb of Sarah there issued, also miraculously, after many years, the two men who were respectively to be the Rulers of the New Heaven and the New Earth, Jesus the Son of David,

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and Israel the Son of Isaac, born by the will of God from the barren womb of Rebekah, Sarah's daughter-in-law, in answer to the prayer of faith.

       Then yet again some years later when Abraham lifted up the cruel knife to slay Isaac his beloved son, whatever meaning the trial had for those two, it spoke to God the Father and His Beloved Son of the fearful day when for the redemption of the world He would actually watch His Beloved Son suffer and die upon the cruel cross amid the jeers of the wicked.

       Finally the history of Joseph's journey via the cruel pit to the government of Egypt in spite of his brethren's contempt, must have comforted our Lord on His journey from Heaven via Nazareth, the contempt of His brethren, the Cross and Hades, to the Government of the Universe on His Father's Throne.

       On the other side of the picture Abraham's unfortunate marriage to Keturah, Isaac's disobedient determination to bless Esau, and Jacob's dreadful deception of his father, all spoke of the great difficulties, disappointments and follies, which would mar the history both of Israel and the Church of God, despite their divine origin. Even the wonderful story of Joseph and his family at the head of the government of Egypt, which ended with the degradation and enslavement of Israel, till again all hope seemed to be lost, and another of God's plans to have come to disaster, was a foreshadowing of the unhappy history of the Christian Church, marred by internal strife and hatred and unbelief.

       Yet out of it all from Enoch to Joseph can be discerned a line of spiritual giants, who in the midst of evil surroundings maintained their faith in a Living God, and saw His works, and were in later years to be part of the Foundation of His Eternal Kingdom.

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