Genesis 26:2-5 And the LORD appeared to him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell you of:… Charles Dickens, in those younger days which he spent in the town of Rochester, used sometimes, in his country walks, to pass a large house standing in its own grounds, called Cad's Hill Place. It was his boyish dream that some day he would be a rich man, and when he became so that he would buy that house and make it his home. Castles in the air of this kind are not uncommon, and nay readers have doubtless indulged in many of them. But what is uncommon is their fulfilment. In Dickens' case it actually came to pass. He not only grew rich, as many do, but he dwelt in his latter years, and at length died, at Cad's Hill Place. I refer to this well-known incident merely to illustrate the difference between the hope of possessing something and the actual possession of it. In Dickens' case, indeed, the feeling could scarcely be called a hope. It was but a wild dream. Nervy, in the Book of Genesis, we have before us the case of men whose eyes, day by day, beheld a domain which they hoped would one day be their home; who not merely beheld it, but actually dwelt in it — only not as owners, but merely as guests; and whose hopes were built, not on boyish imaginations, but on the promise of an almighty and faithful God. And yet they never came into possession l Of Abraham we are told, in Hebrews 11., that he "sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country"; and of all the patriarchs, that they "died in faith " — still trusting — yet "not having received the promises." In what way, then, were the promises fulfilled? As the progenitors of a people, the patriarchs were to obtain the fulfilment in their descendants, hundreds of years after. As individuals, they obtained it, not on earth, but in heaven. They "desired a better country, that is, an heavenly"; and they got it — something far beyond their most exalted anticipations. (E. Stock.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:WEB: Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about. |
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