Ur of the Chaldees, by which he was set apart for God to be the trustee of the promise, and the father of the Old Testament church. This we had an account of, (Gen. 12. 1, &c.) and it is referred to, Neh. 9. 7, 8. His native country was an idolatrous country, it was Mesopotamia, (v. 2.) the land of the Chaldeans; (v. 4.) thence God brought him at two removes, not too far at once, dealing tenderly with him; he first brought him out of the land of the Chaldeans to Charran, or Haran, a place midway between that and Canaan, (Gen. 11. 31.) and from thence, five years after, when his father was dead, he removed him into the land of Canaan, wherein ye now dwell. It should seem, the first time that God spake to Abraham, he appeared in some visible display of the divine presence, as the God of glory, (v. 3.) to settle a correspondence with him: and then afterward he kept up that correspondence, and spake to him from time to time as there was occasion, without repeating his visible appearances as the God of glory.
From this call of Abraham we may observe, First, That in all our ways we must acknowledge God, and attend the conduct of his providence, as of the pillar of cloud and fire. It is not said, Abraham removed, but, God removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell, and he did but follow his Leader. Secondly, Those whom God takes into covenant with himself, he distinguishes from the children of this world; they are effectually called out of the state, out of the land, of their nativity; they must sit loose to the world, and live above it, and every thing in it, even that in it which is most dear to them, and must trust God to make it up to them in another and better country, that is the heavenly, which he will shew them. God's chosen must follow him with an implicit faith and obedience.
But let us see what this is to Stephen's case.
1. They had charged him as a blasphemer of God, and an apostate from the church; therefore he shews that he is a son of Abraham, and values himself upon his being able to say, Our father Abraham, and that he is a faithful worshipper of the God of Abraham, whom therefore he here calls the God of glory. He also shews that he owns divine revelation, and that particularly by which the Jewish church was founded and incorporated.
2. They were proud of their being circumcised; and therefore he shews that Abraham was taken under God's conduct, and into communion with him, before he was circumcised, for that was not till v. 8. With this argument Paul proves that Abraham was justified by faith, because he was justified when he was in uncircumcision: and so here,
3. They had a mighty jealousy for this holy place: which may be meant of the whole land of Canaan; for it was called the holy land, Immanuel's land; and the destruction of the holy house, inferred that of the holy land. "Now," says Stephen, "you need not be so proud of it; for," (1.) "You came originally out of Ur of the Chaldees, where your fathers served other gods, (Josh. 24. 2.) and you were not the first planters of this country. Look therefore unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and the hole of the pit out of which ye were digged;" (that is, as it follows there;) "look unto Abraham your father, for I called him alone; (Isa. 51. 1, 2.) think of the meanness of your beginnings, and how you are entirely indebted to divine grace, and then you will see boasting to be for ever excluded. It was God that raised up the righteous man from the east, and called him to his foot, Isa. 41. 2. But if his seed degenerate, let them know, God can destroy this holy place, and raise up to himself another people, for he is not a Debtor to them." (2.) God appeared in his glory to Abraham a great way off in Mesopotamia, before he came near Canaan, nay, before he dwelt in Charran; so that you must not think God's visits are to this land: no; he that brought the seed of the church from a country so far east, can, if he pleases, carry the fruit of it to another country as far west." (3.) "God made no haste to bring him into this land, but let him linger some years by the way: which shews that God has not his heart so much upon this land as you have, neither is his honour, nor the happiness of his people, bound up in it. It is therefore neither blasphemy nor treason to say, It shall be destroyed."
[2.] The unsettled state of Abraham and his seed for many ages after he was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. God did indeed promise that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, v. 5. But, First, As yet he had no child, nor any by Sarah for many years after. Secondly, He himself was but a stranger and a sojourner in that land, and God gave him no inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on; but there he was as in a strange country, where he was always upon the remove, and could call nothing his own. Thirdly, His posterity did not come to the possession of it of a long time; After four hundred years they shall come and serve me in this place, and not till then, v. 7. Nay, Fourthly, They must undergo a great deal of hardship and difficulty before they shall be put into the possession of that land; they shall be brought into bondage, and ill treated in a strange land: and this, not as the punishment of any particular sin, as their wandering in the wilderness was, for we never find any such account given of their bondage in Egypt; but so God had appointed, and it must be. And at the end of four hundred years, reckoning from the birth of Isaac, that nation to whom they shall be in bondage, will I judge, said God. Now this teaches us, 1. That known unto God are all his works beforehand. When Abraham had neither inheritance nor heir, yet he was told he should have both, the one a land of promise, and the other a child of promise; and therefore both had, and received, by faith. 2. That God's promises, though they are slow, are sure, in the operation of them; they will be fulfilled in the season of them, though perhaps not so soon as we expect. 3. That though the people of God may be in distress and trouble for a time, yet God will at length both rescue them, and reckon with those that do oppress them: for, verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.
But let us see how this serves Stephen's purpose.
(1.) The Jewish nation, which they were so jealous for the honour of, was very inconsiderable in its beginnings; as their common father Abraham was fetched out of obscurity in Ur of the Chaldees, so their tribes, and the heads of them, were fetched out of servitude in Egypt, when they were the fewest of all people, Deut. 7. 7. And what need is there of so much ado, as if their ruin, when they bring it upon themselves by sin, must be the ruin of the world, and of all God's interest in it? No; he that brought them out of Egypt, can bring them into it again, as he threatened, (Deut 28. 68.) and yet be no loser, while he can out of stones raise up children unto Abraham.
(2.) The slow steps by which the promise made to Abraham advanced toward the performance, and the many seeming contradictions here taken notice of, plainly shew that it had a spiritual meaning, and that the land principally intended to be conveyed and secured by it, was, the better country, that is, the heavenly: as the apostle shews from this very argument, that the patriarchs sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; thence inferring, that they looked for a city that had foundations, Heb. 11. 9, 10. It was therefore no blasphemy to say, Jesus shall destroy this place, when
Vol. vi—I
