ABRAHAM A MISSIONARY by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 24, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 30.

ABRAHAM A MISSIONARY.

By W. N. G.

ABRAHAM was called of God to be a missionary to the world, and, like Abel, “he being dead yet speaketh.” He lived in the midst of a people and was of a family who, in the face of the light of God’s truth, were fast departing from the true worship, descending into the mire of idolatry. Even Terah and Nahor, Abraham’s father and brother, “served other gods.” Joshua 24: 2.

But God would not suffer the true faith to become extinct. That would be equivalent to giving up the idea of saving the sinful race. It would have been practically saying that probation was ended. Men are saved by grace, through faith; they are sanctified through the truth, which is the Word of God. To this end it was necessary that there be always a remnant at least who would maintain the true faith, that would have an understanding of God’s will, manifest obedience to His law, and thus witness for God. So with all these qualifications God endowed Abraham; for God bore this witness: “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” Gen. 18: 19.

What the Lord meant by these words is shown in His charge to Isaac, where He says, “Abraham ‘obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” As all apostasy is a result of departing from the commandments of God, so all true reformation must manifest a turning to the Word. So the Lord chose one whom He knew would be an example of faith, as well as a preacher of the Word.

According to Stephen, Acts 7: 2–4, God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, and afterward he went to Charran (or Haran). From Genesis 11 we learn that the particular place of his residence and that of his father’s family was the city of Ur. The remains of this city, now called Mugheir, are six miles west of the Euphrates near its junction with the Tigris, 120 miles above its entrance into the Persian Gulf, and about the same distance southeast of Babylon. Some explorers maintain that the gulf extended to this point at that time. Ur was one of the most ancient towns of older Chaldea. Haran was 500 miles north of Ur. Haran was a large commercial place, and Professor Sayce says, “A native ‘of Ur would have found himself more at home in ‘Haran than in any other city in the world.”

Whether Terah “took” Abraham to Haran as Gen. 11: 31 seems to imply, is of no particular moment; it was the Lord’s doing; for Abraham “went out, not knowing whither he went.” Heb. 11: 8. That is, he did not know his eventual destination. He was thenceforward a sojourner, going wherever the providence of God led him. Moreover, Terah was now 200 years old, and the purpose of the Lord

in separating Abraham from his country and kindred would not be materially hindered by his aged father’s remaining with him a few years longer. Terah’s life was prolonged but five years after the removal from Ur, and then Abraham was led on to Canaan. The fact that he was not sooner directed to move on is evidence that his stop there until his father died was in the providence of God.

However, there is other evidence of God’s providence in the sojourn at Haran. Abraham did practical missionary work there, and souls were rescued from idolatry. So this roundabout route to Canaan, the destination which God had marked out for His missionary, and the tarry of five years at Haran, were not in vain. When Abraham departed thence, he “took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran.” Gen. 12: 5. All that joined themselves to Abraham were reckoned as belonging to his household, and they worshiped the true God.

There was one thing of which Abraham seems to have been sure,—he was not to return to his native country. The Lord had determined to establish a new missionary center, from which the light of truth should radiate to the world, and He had chosen Abraham to be His pioneer in the great enterprise. The life-work of His chosen vessel was the establishing and maintaining of the true faith in the land of Canaan, then a dark heathen land, but geographically destined to be the great center of travel and communication between the East and West and the North and South. The magnitude of the work laid out for Abraham, and the dangers and temptations before him, are little appreciated in these days of great facilities.

Yet Abraham’s strength and courage and success were due to the fact that he was in a position where he had no alternative but trust in the guidance of the One whom he served. He was not sent out by a large body of sympathizers with the cause which he had espoused, and with the visible assurance that he would have material backing in case of emergency. It was not understood that if he was threatened with any serious hindrance or unfortunate circumstance, the cause would pay his way back to Ur. No, Abraham was a missionary; he knew that he had a call from God before he went. He did not go because some of his brethren urged him to go; he did not go with the prospect that in a little while some one else would come to take his place.

God had said, “Get thee out of thy country, and ‘from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto ‘a land that I will show thee.’” “So Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him.” Here was the secret of Abraham’s call, the secret of his dependence upon God in his great and arduous mission. As far as men were concerned, he was self-supported; but in faith, and consequently in visible reality, he was God-supported.

Now we do not place any discount on the setting apart of missionaries by councils; God does indicate His will to men in charge of His work. But councils are not infallible, and their judgment alone is not sufficient. And the individual who has no other evidence of his call than the judgment of a council, would better stay at home. A council was told by the Spirit to set apart Barnabas and Paul to a certain missionary work, but it was to a work to which the Spirit had called Barnabas and Paul personally. The word was, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul ‘for the work whereunto I have called them.” In the days of the apostles, as also in our day, there was safety only in the double call—the conscious, personal call of the individual by the Lord, and the indication by the Spirit to the brethren to recognize the call. If the council and the individual are both in close touch with the Spirit, there will be no conflict of judgment regarding the call. But if, as in Abraham’s time, there is none of like faith who can see the importance of missionary work, the Lord must needs make the call personally only.

Nor is there any discount on the support of missionaries by the brethren. God has shown that they who stay at home should sacrifice as well as those who go; that if one gives his time and his energy and his talent to the work, another should at least give liberally of his means. All these things are God-given, and in His providence He would support His missionary workers through the instrumentality of their brethren. But in Abraham’s case there were no brethren in sympathy with his work excepting those who went with him.

So Abraham went on his way, trusting implicitly in the guidance of the Spirit of God, not only as to destination but as to support. Wherever he made a halt, he erected his altar, and the people were given an object-lesson in the worship of the true God. It was not all sunshine with Abraham; if it had been, there would have been no refreshing showers. Had there been no reverses, no trials of faith, there would have been no victories. Not long after his arrival in Canaan, he was confronted by a famine. Ah! was not now the time for Abraham to go back to Haran or to Ur?—Not so in the mind of the missionary who had been promised the land to which he had been led. Instead of going back, this apparent reverse only pushed him further on. Egypt also needed the Gospel message which God had entrusted to Abraham, so the circumstance of a famine in Canaan was the opportunity for a missionary tour in the South.

In the case of Abraham God has demonstrated that His missionaries should be liberally supported. He was dealing with Abraham direct, and gave him a good business talent. Because he was honest, and consecrated all to the Lord, he was prospered. The Lord was looking after Abraham’s support, and whatever the Lord does, He does right royally. So when Abraham came back from Egypt, he was “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” Besides the influence which Abraham wielded wherever he went, he gathered an immediate following of about a thousand souls that were dependent upon his material prosperity for support. His generosity and hospitality, as well as his self-denial and faith in God, stand out as an example for all who would be counted as “Abraham’s seed, and heirs ‘according to the promise’ made to him, that he should be ‘heir of the world.’” W. N. G.