The Chosen People | Page 4

Abram, the good and faithful man,
whom God chose out to be the father of the people in whom He was
going to set His Light. In the year 1921, He tried Abram's faith by
calling on him to leave his home, and go into a land which he knew not,
but which should belong to his children after him--Abram, who had no
child at all.
Yet he obeyed and believed, and was led into the beautiful hilly land
then held by the sons of Canaan, where he was a stranger, wandering
with his flocks and herds and servants from one green pasture to
another, without a loot of land to call his own. For showing his faith by
thus doing as he was commanded, Abram was rewarded by the promise
that in his Seed should all the families of the earth be blessed; his name
was changed to Abraham, which means a father of a great multitude;
and as a sign that he had entered into a covenant with God, he was

commanded to circumcise his children.
One son, Ishmael, had by this time been born to him of the bondmaid
Hagar; but the child of promise, Isaac, the son of his wife Sarah, was
not given till he was a hundred years old. Ishmael was cast out for
mocking at his half-brother, the heir of the promises; but in answer to
his father's prayers, he too became the father of a great nation, namely
the Arabs, who still live in the desert, with their tents, their flocks,
herds, and fine horses, much as Ishmael himself must have lived. They
are still circumcised, and honour Abraham as their father; and with
them are joined the Midianites and other tribes descended from
Abraham's last wife, Keturah.
Isaac alone was to inherit the promise, and it was renewed to him and
to his father, when their faith had been proved by their submission to
God's command, that Isaac should be offered as a burnt-offering upon
Mount Moriah, a sign of the Great Sacrifice long afterwards, when God
did indeed provide Himself a Lamb.
When Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah for a, burial-place, it
was in the full certainty that though he was now a stranger in the land,
it would be his children's home; and it was there that he and the other
patriarchs were buried after their long and faithful pilgrimage.
Isaac's wife, Rebekah, was fetched from Abraham's former home, in
Mesopotamia, that he might not be corrupted by marrying a Canaanite.
Between his two sons, Esau and Jacob, there was again a choice; for
God had prophesied that the elder should serve the younger, and Esau
did not value the birthright which would have made him heir to no
lands that would enrich himself, and to a far-off honour that he did not
understand. So despising the promises of God, he made his right over
to his brother for a little food, when he was hungry, and though he
repented with tears when it was too late, he could not win back what he
had once thrown away.
His revengeful anger when he found how he had been supplanted,
made Jacob flee to his mother's family in Mesopotamia, and there dwell
for many years, ere returning to Canaan with his large household, there

to live in the manner that had been ordained for the first heirs of the
promise. Esau went away to Mount Seir, to the south of the Promised
Land, and his descendants were called the Edomites, from his name,
meaning the Red; and so, too, the sea which washed their shores, took
the name of the Sea of Edom, or the Red Sea. They were also named
Kenites from his son Kenaz. Their country, afterwards called Idumea,
was full of rocks and precipices, and in these the Edomites hollowed
out caves for themselves, making them most beautiful, with pillars
supporting the roof within, and finely-carved entrances, cut with
borders, flowers, and scrolls, so lasting that the cities of Bosra and
Petra are still a wonder to travellers, though they have been empty and
deserted for centuries past. The Edomites did not at once lose the
knowledge of the true God; indeed, as many believe, of them was born
the prophet Job, whom Satan was permitted to try with every trouble he
could conjure up, so that his friends believed that such sufferings could
only be brought on him for some great sin; whereas he still maintained
that the ways of God were hidden, and gave utterance to one of the
clearest ancient prophecies of the Redeemer and the Resurrection. At
length God answered him from the whirlwind, and proclaimed His
greatness through His unsearchable works; and Job, for his patience in
the time of adversity, was restored