God's Purpose for His People
By Edith E. Adams
God's purpose in calling Abraham out from among the nations was that he might make him a missionary to the heathen, and the father of a race of missionaries who should preach the gospel of the kingdom in all the world as a witness to all nations. The promise made to him at the time of his call was that in him and in his seed should “all families of the earth be blessed.” Abraham himself built an altar, and proclaimed the name of the Lord wherever he went in his journeyings; and these altars remained as reminders of his teachings, and witnesses to his God. But Abraham's descendants failed to realize their calling and voluntarily to fulfill their commission. Yet from among them God chose those whom he could use in the accomplishment of his purpose and the fulfillment of his promise. The earliest and one of the most striking instances of this, we find in the history of Joseph. A true child of Abraham, pure in heart and life, an Israelite in whom was no guile, he was sent into Egypt that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God might shine over that dark and idolatrous land. Through a series of events overruled by God for that purpose, he was brought to the notice of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, under circumstances that made manifest the superiority of the God that he worshiped over all the gods of Egypt. Thus the attention of all Egypt was called to the true God, who does whatsoever he pleases in the earth, overruling all events to work out his own will. During the years of famine, “all countries came into Egypt . . . for to buy corn, for the famine was sore in all lands.” And as they came, they would doubtless learn the reason why “there was corn in Egypt,” and thus be led to trust in Israel's God, and carry the knowledge of him back to the lands from which they had come. So through this one child of Abraham in captivity in Egypt, all the nations of earth received light and blessing. Passing by the history of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, through which God made himself known to the nations, we come to the case of another captive—a little maid that the Syrians had taken out of the land of Israel. Only a child, but a child of Abraham nevertheless, the promise applied to her, and she also was made a blessing to the nation to which she was sent. Through her simple presentation of the gospel,—the good news of the power of Israel's God to heal all diseases,—her leprous master was made whole, and testified that “there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel,” and that he would “henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.” Being “captain of the host of the king of Syria, . . . a great man with his master, and honorable,” the king had taken great interest in his case, and the whole nation doubtless learned the result of his journey to the land of Israel. Thus again through a single captive of the seed of Abraham, a whole nation was blessed with light, which some joyfully received. Still more striking is the case of Daniel. When, because of Israel's utter failure to fulfill the object for which the Lord had separated them from the11nations, God suffered them to be scattered among the heathen, there were still among them some faithful children of Abraham, whom the Lord could use in the fulfillment of the promise. When examined by the king of Babylon, Daniel, and his three companions, servants of God like himself, were found in all matters of wisdom and understanding “ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.” Then came the interpretation of the king's dream by Daniel, which called forth from Nebuchadnezzar the following testimony: “Of a truth your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets.” And at last, taught by his own experience of the power and grace of God, Nebuchadnezzar sent unto “all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth,” a record of God's dealings with him, in which he “praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.” Thus grandly was the gospel of the everlasting kingdom preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, by this once-heathen king. Through the faithfulness of one or two of the children of Abraham, all the nations of earth were again blessed according to the promise. What encouragement there is in this promise and the history of its fulfillment for every child of God; for “if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” “The promise is unto you, and to your children,” for “ye are the children . . . of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying . . . And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” What the special blessing of the covenant is we are told in the verse following the one just quoted, which says that God sent his Son to “bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” So wherever there is a true child of Abraham, God will use him, though it may be, as in the cases noted, only through the unconscious influence of the faithful performance of his duty, to turn people from their iniquities, and make himself known to them. “Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.”