06.5.4. Keturah, and Isaac at Lahai-roi
IV. -- KETURAH, AND ISAAC AT LAHAI-ROI
Genesis 25:1-11 AT this point Abraham takes another wife. Here, as throughout, every fact and word presents the exactest figure of that which is wrought within at this stage of man’s development. But before we come to this, let us recall one peculiarity of that development.
I allude to this, that as our inward life changes its form at every fresh stage, -- from Adam to Abel, then from Seth to Noah, then to Abraham, and from him to Isaac and other sons, -- so the truth embraced at each successive stage differs in form according to the varying form of the elect spirit which embraces it. Sarah is Abraham’s wife; in other words, the spirit of faith lays hold of truth under the Sarah form, that is, the promise; but the spirit of sonship loves another form of the same, as we read, "Isaac took Rebekah, and brought her into Sarah’s tent, and she became his wife, and he loved her" (Genesis 24:67). (Note: See above what has been said on this subject, on Genesis 23:1-20) But there is more than this; for faith not only embraces truth under a form somewhat different from that which the spirit of sonship apprehends; but the spirit of faith itself, as it fulfils its course, lays hold of several different principles. Isaac has but one wife; as in us the spirit of sonship never embraces any but the one true principle of the New Covenant. But Abraham and Jacob each have more. For faith at first takes law, hoping thereby to be fruitful in its own strength; (Note: See above, on Genesis 16:1-16.) while Jacob or service, as we shall see, though wishing only to have the spiritual, finds that it has unintentionally embraced that which is first and natural. (Note: See below, on Genesis 29:1-35) The stage we now have reached is marked by Abraham taking another wife. We read, "Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah; and she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah" (Genesis 25:1-2). Now, after Sarah’s death, that is, after the form in which we have first embraced the New Covenant as a form is dead, for it yet lives in spirit; -- when we see that forms of truth, even the best, are given to serve us for a season, and then as forms to pass away; -- when this is not only believed but known, and a new form of truth, suited to the growing spirit of sonship, is found and loved by it; -- at this point Abraham takes another wife: that spirit of faith, so long without fruit, which in its haste tried law, and "when as good as dead" begot the seed of promise out of the barren free-woman, now takes another form of truth, by which it rapidly produces many sons. The question is, What form of truth? What principle is it that Keturah represents?
Now, though we have not an Apostle’s word to tell us, as in the case of Hagar and Sarah, the spiritual import of this third wife, we have or may have, if we will wait, that same Teacher, even the Spirit, which was in saints of old; for the Light of their light remains undimmed, nearer to us than its most faithful witnesses, soon to shine, (Is not the morn already breaking?) not upon a few, but over the whole earth. Of course, if a soul though elect has reached only to the Noah stage, this scene will not be understood. Even though Abram lives in us, if we are only now leaving Ur of the Chaldees, -- if Terah is with us, -- if the bond-maid is not gone, -- nay more, if Sarah yet is in the flesh, -- Keturah cannot be known, for she only comes when Sarah as an outward form has passed away. But if this is done, then Keturah will come; and indeed has come in thousands who are fruitful by her in spirit, though in their understanding they do not know her name. For Keturah is that practical truth, which, neither law nor promise, neither bond-maid nor free-woman, succeeds to both at this stage of faith’s life, when the truth which Sarah represents has passed from an outward form into a higher state. St. Paul’s epistles are full of Keturah. All those exhortations which are not mere law, and which as clearly are not the promise, though they are meant to follow it, are this third wife, given to be embraced by those in whom Sarah or the New Covenant has already borne fruit. But this sort of truth does not attract the believer, until Sarah passes into a higher sphere. Then we take Keturah to wife. She is, as her name imports, a "savour of a sweet smell." (Note: Heb. qeturah [H6989], incense. Compare this with what St. Paul says of practical truth, Php 4:18, and Hebrews 13:16. Origen, having argued that some mystery must be hid under this union of Abraham with Keturah, -- first, from the fact, that he who was "as good as dead" in his hundredth year, now at a hundred and thirty-seven begets many sons; secondly, from the analogy of the other two wives, both of whom, according to St. Paul, were certain principles; thirdly, because he who marries truth, though it may die out in one form, will always hold it in another; in which sort of marriage the older we are the more fruit we may bear, as Abraham here did, -- then defines what principles Keturah represents. -- Hom. xi. in Gen.) And her fruits are sweet to God and man, though, like Midian, they may soon be corrupted and even oppose the chosen line. How many lovely fruits have there been borne, the offspring of faith, and that not by law, but by the precious truth which Keturah represents, -- fruits of ascetic life, which have proved in the event to be prejudicial, or at least opposed, to the highest inward life. Indeed the word "ascetic" means in itself simply practical. (Note: Grk., asketikos.) Its conventional sense declares the common end of such efforts, answering exactly to the course and destiny of Keturah’s sons. (Note: See Numbers 25:16-17, and Judges 6:1-2, for examples of the way in which Midian, one of Keturah’s sons, may injure and oppress the elect seed.) Such fruits, sweet as they are, one and all are liable to rapid deterioration. They possess indeed some of the good things of faith (Genesis 25:6), but from the first they are distinguished by faith from the spirit of sonship, which is the true heir. Isaac is not Keturah’s son. Sonship is not of law, nor of that practical truth, which, though not law, is somewhat akin to it. Sonship will no more come of these than figs will grow from slips of myrtle, or vines from planting acorns. Yet Keturah’s sons, like oaks and myrtles, are lovely too, and, pleasant in their season, though they cannot inherit all Abraham’s good things.
"Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died" (Genesis 25:8). The spirit of faith, like that truth which it has so long been united to, now passes away as an outward form from forms, to live as a spirit with God who is a Spirit. Isaac now succeeds to Abraham’s place. The form, in which the elect life henceforth shews itself, is not faith so much as understanding, for the spirit of sonship is also a spirit of understanding. He, in whom it lives, not only believes, but to faith has added knowledge and intelligence, even "the mind of Christ." For when Isaac is come, we are no more under the schoolmaster, as servants or children not knowing a father’s will; but as sons, and because we are sons, are led in the spirit of sonship into all knowledge and spiritual understanding, even to the full assurance of understanding in the acknowledgment of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ (Colossians 2:2). Up to this point, though the spirit of sonship has come, it has been comparatively feeble, and faith has been the ruling life. But now faith is no more in the flesh, but is changed from an earthly form into a spirit. Isaac therefore takes Abraham’s place; that is, faith is succeeded in our souls by spiritual understanding, which like Isaac inherits all Abraham’s wealth, and is his heir, possessing all the riches of true faith (Genesis 25:5). I feel how little words can express the spiritual reality represented here. Those only who know the blessed fact within will be able really to see the force of Abraham’s death and Isaac’s succession to all his goods; faith now lost in sight, while in its place the spirit of understanding, which is the spirit of sonship, inherits the things of faith. (Note: Saints of old spoke much of this. They may seem at times to have drawn the line too widely between pistis [G4102] and gnosis [G1108], and pistikos and gnostikos; but there is important truth in the distinction. That we know so little of faith changing to knowledge, shews where we are. See John 8:31-32, where our Lord promises to "those who believed on Him," that "if they would continue in His word, they should know the truth, and the truth should make them free." Compare also St. Paul’s faith in Christ dead and risen again, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, with his longing desire "to know Him, and the power of His resurrection," Php 3:10; and his prayer for those of whose "faith he had heard," that "the Father of glory would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him," &c. Ephesians 1:15; Ephesians 1:17-18. See also 1 Corinthians 2:5-6. Those who wish to consult the Fathers will find some striking thoughts on this subject, Clem. Alex. Strom. l. vi. c. 9, and l. vii. c. 10, and Origen. in Job, t. xix. pp. 263, 264. Ed. Huet.)
Soon Isaac has even more. "It came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac." If we ask, How? we are told only this, that "he dwelt by the well Lahai-roi" (Genesis 25:11): this was his blessing. And this is a blessing yet. To us few blessings would be greater than a spiritual dwelling by this same living well. Lahai-roi means "the life of vision." (Note: So Gesenius and others translate the name. The LXX. render it to phrear tes horaseos, "the well of vision." I may add that, in Genesis 16:13-14, where the name first occurs, the true translation in Genesis 16:13 seems to be, -- "Have I even seen, (i.e. have I my sight preserved,) after my vision?" Therefore the well was called Beer-Lahai-roi, "the well of the life of vision;" because here life was preserved after seeing the angel of the Lord.) It was the place where life and vision were preserved after the angel of the Lord had spoken and revealed himself. It figures that depth of the word, into which we drink, when "the well of the living and seeing," that is the spiritual sense, is really opened to us. (Note: Greg. M. apud Paterium, l. i. supr. Gen. c. 53; Orig. Hom. xi. in Gen.) Nature cares not to drink of such a spring. The waters are too deep for the carnal, who, if they see them, only wonder and pass on. But Isaac loves the well. In his eyes it is not his least blessing, that he may dwell and drink here. Blessed it is, like Abraham, to dwell at Bethel and Hebron, by faith to rest in worship and happy fellowship. Blessed is it to see Salem and her king; in peace to eat the holy bread and wine. Blessed is it to know Beer-sheba, the well of the oath; to drink the refreshing streams which the word of the covenant makes to flow around us. But more blessed far is Beer-Lahai-roi, the well of the life of vision, where we learn to live among and see unseen things. None dwell here but the pure in heart. None else see God, or the hidden things of God. Others will see the world, or themselves, or their own or others’ sins, or even certain doctrines. But the "pure in heart see God" (Matthew 5:8); and there, beholding His glory, are changed step by step into His image, to see as He sees things which eye hath not seen, even the things which the Spirit reveals to them who walk with God. O Lord, give unto me thus to dwell at Lahai-roi; to know yet more and more of this blessed life of vision; not only to visit the well, and depart, but, like Isaac, to abide and learn there, until in Thy presence, still blessed in Thee, this "life of vision" shall be mine for evermore.
------------
Such is this scene within. Like all the rest it has its fulfilments in the outward world, and in the dispensations also.
Outwardly, Abraham here represents men of faith, now matured and richly blessed: Keturah’s sons, those children of faith whose spiritual life has sprung out of the affection of practical truth, rather than out of either law or promise. Such souls, the distinctive mark of whose life is a peculiar reverence for religious practices tending to asceticism, will in the next generation shew marks of deterioration, in a greater zeal for what is outward than for what is truly spiritual; and become, like Midian, snares to Israel (Numbers 25:17-18), though a Moses may find a wife there (Exodus 2:15-16; Exodus 2:21), and a Jethro of this seed be "for eyes" to the elect, when they come into the wilderness (Exodus 18:1; Exodus 18:24; Numbers 10:29-32). But they are not the chosen heirs. Sarah’s sons, the children of promise, are the seed which shall inherit all things. In the dispensations also this scene is fulfilled. When Sarah, that is, the Gospel dispensation, has, even as Hagar or law, run its full course; when the marriage of the Bride is come; then appears not only one seed or son in Abraham’s house, but many seeds. So shall it be when the Son obtains His rights; when faith is changed to sight, and the children of the promise are blessed, and know the life of vision; while others, born after the marriage of the Bride, are witnesses that in Abraham all nations shall be blessed. Then not only shall the favoured "vine and fig-tree" be glad, but "the field shall be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord;" (though the vine still differ from the oak, and the fig and olive from the pine-tree;) "for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth" (Psalms 96:12-13). When that day dawns, may we be with that Son, whom the Father hath appointed Heir of all things, to share His joys, blessed not only by Him, but with Him, drinking of the water of life, "the life of vision," for ever. Amen.