|
God's promises made to Abraham are now to be considered; for in
these the oracles of our God, that is, of the true God, began to
appear more openly concerning the godly people, whom prophetic
authority foretold. The first of these reads thus: "And the Lord
said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, and go into a land that I will show
thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee
and magnify thy name; and thou shall be blessed: and I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee
shall all tribes of the earth be blessed." Now it is to be observed
that two things are promised to Abraham, the one, that his seed
should possess the land of Canaan, which is intimated when it is
said, "Go into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of
thee a great nation;" but the other far more excellent, not about the
carnal but the spiritual seed, through which he is the father, not of
the one Israelite nation, but of all nations who follow the footprints
of his faith, which was first promised in these words, "And in thee
shall all tribes of the earth be blessed." Eusebius thought this
promise was made in Abraham's seventy-fifth year, as if soon after
it was made Abraham had departed out of Haran because the Scripture
cannot be contradicted in which we read, "Abram was seventy and five
years old when he departed out of Haran." But if this promise was
made in that year, then of course Abraham was staying in Haran with
his father; for he could not depart thence unless he had first dwelt
there. Does this, then, contradict what Stephen says, "The God
of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Charran?" But it is to be understood that the
whole took place in the same year, both the promise of God before
Abraham dwelt in Haran, and his dwelling in Haran, and his
departure thence,, not only because Eusebius in the Chronicles
reckons from the year of this promise, and shows that after 430
years the exodus from Egypt took place, when the law was given, but
because the Apostle Paul also mentions it.
|
|