These words were written by David in Psalm 18:35, celebrating his deliverance from his great enemy, King Saul. They are surely capable of being applied to many others beside himself.
There are two ways in which God can approach man: either in government or in grace. The former line he must take, for God is the moral Governor of the Universe, and sin cannot remain unpunished. The latter is a matter of His good pleasure. The poet Browning seems to have grasped this when he wrote,
“There may be a Heaven.
There must be a Hell.”
Why did he say, “There must be a Hell”? Simply because God must be just. Why did he write, There may be a Heaven”? Because God may call to earth or to Heaven as He pleases. And in order that Heaven may be offered to men, the claims of holy government had to be met, and they were fully met by our Lord in His atoning death upon the cross. Our Lord could take up the words of the Psalmist as His experience on the cross: “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold on Me” (Ps. 116:3). So now, grace reigns “through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21).
But now let this striking passage be exemplified by the case of Abraham. He was brought up amid rank heathendom in Ur of the Chaldees (see Joshua 24:2). Left in that condition he would have sunk in all the superstitions and impurities connected with the worship of gods of man’s own making. Yet he stands out on the sacred page as a great man. What made him great? No less than thirteen and a half chapters are taken up with his history. It is a wonderful story of how the knowledge of God, and His gracious dealings with Abraham made him truly great.
For information as to the beginning we are indebted to the martyr Stephen, when he tells us, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia” (Acts 7:2). Could anything happening to sinful man, be more wonderful than this? A poor dark heathen to have revealed to him the true God—“The God of glory!” In one instant a mighty change took place in Abraham. From that moment everything was seen in a different complexion. His orientation was completely different. How elevated is man when he gets a true sense of God, and is lifted up from the natural degradation that marks a fallen race. We see this very clearly in the case before us.
Take a step forward. Abraham was promised by God a son. Well-stricken in years, and his wife, Sarah, not only barren but long past the age of bearing children, Abraham said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?” (Gen. 17:17). On a previous occasion the Lord told him that his seed should be as the stars innumerable. Abraham did not stagger at this promise, but believed God. So we read, “And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
Here is a wonderful sequel of the God of glory appearing to him. We begin to see a stature of moral greatness in Abraham. What a position to be in—righteous before God, and yet in a world of sinners. This is not human glory that is marked by pomp and show and human power. No, this is moral greatness that goes with humility, for all the blessing that Abraham got was conferred upon him.
Then God put a great test upon Abraham. He told him to offer his son, Isaac, the child of promise, upon an altar on one of the mountains of which He would tell him. Abraham responded to that test. Was there ever a test similar to this one, short of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, of which this incident is but a faint type?
Think of the moral greatness of Abraham at this testing moment. On the third day of his travel to Mount Moriah at God’s command, he said to the young men that were with him, “Abide ye here with the ass: and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you” (Gen. 22:5). Should we ever have associated worship with such an errand? And look at the sublime faith of the man. He did not anticipate leaving with breaking heart the dead body of his well-beloved son, slain by his own hand. He believed not only himself, but also Isaac would return alive. That this is no ill-supported fancy we can see in the Epistle to the Hebrews. We read, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb. 11:17-19).
Is there not moral greatness here? No wonder that whilst the original, most wonderful creation is compressed into ten words, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), the story of God’s dealing with Abraham stretches into so many chapters. What a contrast he is to the man of the world, for he walked before God. In the New Testament we learn that Abraham had the wonderful title, “The Friend of God” (James 2:23). What an honour!
What made Abraham great? Surely the gentleness of God, not the terrifying demand that at a later period made the very lawgiver, Moses, say, “I exceedingly fear and quake” (Heb. 12:21). No, it was the gracious revelation of Himself as a covenant-making God, the God of glory, that started Abraham on the life we have been very cursorily surveying.
We might pass on to Moses, that great servant of God, or to Paul, that great Apostle to the Gentiles, and learn similar lessons.
Moreover we may come to ourselves, and recognize that all that is worth while in us before God is the result of the revelation of Himself in Christ, and the result of faith, and the new birth and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We, believers, are not great in our own eyes, if we have taken our measure in the presence of God, but we certainly are blessed and lifted high above the level of this evil world, and have the light of Heaven shining in our souls and illuminating our path to glory.
Consider for one moment, the giving of the law, speaking of God’s government in this world. Then contrast this with the humble birth of our Lord into this world, with the gracious words of the angel, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). Could anything be more captivating than this?
But at what price did our Lord earn the title of Saviour! See Him on the cross. There “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10). See government and grace blending together, without which salvation could not be righteously ministered. But dwell on the grace side. Can anything be more appealing than this?
And as we learn all that the Person and work of our Lord means, and all that flows therefrom, we find that God’s gentleness makes great all those who respond to such wooings divine.