August 26

I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. - Exodus 3:6.

ALL along from the beginning God showed favour to some for the sake of others. The principle of his dispensations has ever been the promotion of personal godliness for relative considerations; teaching men that if they were blessed, they were also to prove blessings to others; and above all it was intended to turn them to the belief of the mediation of the Lord Jesus, for whose sake all the nations and all the families of the earth were to be blessed.

Under the law the Lord was addressed as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because the covenant made with them was for Israel, in whom they were blessed, and for whose sake they received all things. But now the covenant made for the Spiritual Israel was made with a far more glorious character, who was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, ere the earth was. His name is Jesus; it is in him that we are accepted, and “blessed with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places;” and it is for his sake that we receive all things; and therefore, while to the patriarchs and to the Jews he was known and worshipped as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” he is now under the gospel addressed as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There are two things derivable from this address-“ I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” The first is, that unquestionably Moses had some knowledge of a future state. The very promise which God had made to the patriarch implied this. He said to Abraham, “I am thy God;” “I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.” How was this verified with regard to his life? He never had actual possession of the land of Canaan. All the possession he ever had there was a burying place, and that he dearly paid for. “By faith, therefore, he sojourned in the land of Canaan, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;” for “he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and whose maker is God.” Wherefore the Apostle says, “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.”

Therefore our Saviour referred to this when, addressing the Sadducees, he said, “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.” Their Spirits were living in an intermediate state. But even this is not the principal thing: their bodies were to live in the resurrection of the just. And he speaks of it as if it were already accomplished; for purpose and fulfilment with God are the same. He does not say he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but “I am the God of Abraham,” &c; “their Spirits are with me now; their renewed bodies shall be by-and-by, as certainly as they are now in the dust.”

We also observe that God sustains his relationship to those of our connections who are gone before. Delightful considerations! Where is the heart that has not bled?-where is the person who has not said, “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness?” How pathetic was the reflection of Jacob when he was dying. He looked back to the cave which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, in the land of Canaan. “There,” says he, “they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah; and there I buried Leah.” There is one now ready to say, “There I buried my darling child.” “There I buried,” says another, “my precious husband.” “There,” says another, “I buried ‘the desire of mine eyes, removed from me with a stroke.’” Where are these dear Spirits now? With God. Where are their bodies? Sleeping in his bed; not perishing; but by-and-by to be raised up; they are all living unto him.

“God their Redeemer lives,

And often from the skies

Looks down and watches all their dust,

Till he shall bid it rise.”