Thus "by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he had received him in a figure." And when Abraham had become advanced in age he commanded the eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, to go to the land of his nativity and to his kindred, to take a wife unto his son Isaac: and the servant went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor, Abraham's brother. The descendants of their father, Terah, were worshippers of the everlasting Jehovah; whilst the Canaanites, amongst whom Abraham dwelt, had apostatized from Him, and were of the nations who were to be cast out before the posterity of Abraham, according to the promise of the Lord. And the servant being divinely guided, went to the family of Bethuel, Abraham's nephew, and took Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, to be the wife of his master Isaac, who met her on the way, by the well La-hai-roi, as he walked in the field to meditate at eventide.

Shortly before this event Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, which was afterwards called Hebron, in the land of Canaan; and Isaac and Rebecca inhabited Sarah's tent. And Abraham took to wife Keturah, by whom he had six sons, who each became heads of tribes; and "Abraham gave gifts to them," and 66 sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward unto the east country; and from them, and from the children of Ishmael, we trace different nations and kingdoms in Arabia and the adjoining countries. Several of them became the enemies and oppressors of the children of Israel, both before and after their settlement in the promised land.

CHAP. XIX.-After the death of Abraham, Isaac and Rebecca had two sons, Esau and Jacob. "And the Lord appeared unto" Isaac, and said unto him, "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee and to thy seed will I give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father, and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven." This promise had reference to

the future increase and prosperity of the people who should descend from him, and who, in the lines of both his sons, became possessed of the territories eastward of the Jordan, extending far into Arabia, and westward to the Mediterranean, or "Great Sea," and to Egypt-from the Euphrates on the north, to the Red Sea southward. But the words of the Most High God, which follow this promise of external greatness, have clearly a far more important significance; being a renewal of that assurance, which had been vouchsafed to Abraham, of the Redeemer who was to come: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

And Isaac dwelt at Gerar in the land of the Philistines; but the men of Gerar stopped up the wells which Abraham had digged; therefore Isaac removed thence into the valley of Gerar, and digged other wells; but the herdmen of the Philistines strove with Isaac's herdmen for these wells also. Then Isaac removed again, and digged another well; and the king of the Philistines made with him a league, which was confirmed by oath; therefore Isaac called the place Beer

(i. e., the well) Sheba (i. e., of the oath) and he there founded a city called Beersheba.

And Esau, his eldest son, took to wife two Canaanitish women, who were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebecca."

And it came to pass that Jacob, instructed by his mother, obtained by subtlety the blessing of primogeniture; and, for this cause, Esau hated him, and purposed to kill him. "And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father, he went unto Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath (elsewhere called Bashemath), the daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife." Esau's spirit was not subject to the fear of God. The Apostle, in writing to the Hebrews, speaks of him as a "profane person, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." The right of primogeniture was, at that early period, attended by many advantages. The eldest son was heir to the lands of his father, and was considered the patriarch of the family. Isaac was, like Abraham, only a sojourner in a strange country; in which he had " no inheritance; no, not so

much as to set his foot on," save the buryingplace which Abraham had bought of the Hittites: and it is obvious that Esau lightly esteemed his birthright; and was not influenced by that faith which "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;" by which his fathers had believed Jehovah's promise," Unto thy seed will I give this land." And the honour, privilege, and blessing that appertained to the heirship to which Isaac had succeeded, and which Jacob obtained from his brother, was not a merely temporal pre-eminence, it was an inheritance of a spiritual character, comprehended in the gracious covenant-" In thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Esau, however, was evidently an object of Divine care, as may be perceived by the command of the Lord, Deut. ii. 4-6 he became externally great and prosperous, his sons were established in a fruitful country, while Jacob's posterity were slaves in Egypt; and they continued the possessors of it, until after the seed of

Israel were carried captive by hostile nations.