Gods Sabbath

154

E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

Abraham found himself faced with a fearful situation. De spite his trust in God’s word in some areas, such as in his de parture from Ur, he still trusted his own judgment more than God’s in other areas. Unable as yet to grasp by faith the full truth that what God had promised He was able to perform, Abraham could see no hope of Isaac being born. If the fulfill ment of the promise was not to be achieved through the birth of Ishmael, then, he thought, there was no hope—he would die without the promised heir. All his hopes would end with the doom of the plan of salvation. In Ishmael he could believe. Previously, God had assured Abram specifically that the promised child would be his own flesh and blood, but had never as specifically said that Sarai would be the mother. It had been a tremendous sacrifice for both Sarai and himself to let Hagar bear the child. He had done it with only one motive in mind—to advance the cause of truth and thus successfully banish evil from the universe. Both he and Sarai had believed in God and His work, both of them had sep arated from heathenism, and both were accepted by Jehovah as the true church of that time. With all this and more in his favor, how could Abram have possibly gone wrong? If he had, in fact, adopted some incorrect procedures, would his good motives and righteous character not serve to sanctify the course he had adopted? And surely, be cause all that he had done was for God, the Omnipotent One must accept the product of his works—Ishmael! In thinking along such lines, Abraham was exhibiting the false reasoning so common to humanity. Up till this point of time, he had failed to understand that every antichristian re ligion is a system which seeks to build God’s kingdom in man’s way, and that those who are involved in such efforts are very dedicated, studious, self-sacrificing, and zealous in dividuals. He did not see that to the extent he had applied his own devices in an attempt to advance God’s cause, he had es tablished and fostered false religion. He was unable to real ize that if God were to accept Ishmael, He would be giving recognition to a form of religion which is a ministration of death and through which salvation for the human race can never be achieved.