It is blasphemy for a man to say “when he is tempted, I am tempted of god; for god cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (James i., 13). Yet it is blasphemy to deny that “after these things god did tempt Abraham (Gen. xxii., 1). If anybody is infidel enough to ask how a god that tempts no one could have tempted Abraham, the best answer is: “He that believeth not shall be damned.” Perhaps Abraham was no one, and in that case both statements would be true.
Everyone knows the beautiful story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. How this noble father led his child to the slaughter; how Isaac meekly submitted; how the farce went on till the lad was bound and laid on the altar, and how god then stopped the murder, and blessed the intending murderer for his willingness to commit the crime. If anyone now tries to emulate Abraham’s faith, he is treated as a dangerous lunatic; but it is blasphemy to deny that that which would be murder now was virtue then.
It is blasphemy to deny that Isaac was born when his father and mother were too old for his birth to be natural (Gen. xvii., 17); in fact, Abraham was “as good as dead” and Sarah “was past age” (Heb. xi., 11, 12), and we are told that when “he was about an hundred years old” “his own body” was “now dead” (Rom. iv., 19). Although it is blasphemy to assert that he was _not_ too old at 100 to become the father of one son, it is also blasphemy to assert that he _was_ too old more than 37 years later to become the father of six sons (Gen. xxv., 2). We are bound to believe that Abraham was naturally capable of becoming a father when he was 86 years of age, and when he was over 137 years of age, but that it was only by a miracle that he was capable of becoming a father when he was 100 years of age. Truly there are in the Bible “some things hard to be understood” (2 Pet. iii., 16).
It is blasphemy to deny that before Esau and Jacob were born god chose one as his favorite, and declared: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Rom. ix., 13). If anyone should carpingly allege that it was wrong to hate poor unborn Esau before he had committed “any good or evil” (Rom. ix., 11), the right answer is that “god’s ways are not as our ways,” and that which would be wickedness in man is righteousness in god. God loved Jacob. Jacob would not give his starving brother food until he had bargained for his birthright in return (Gen. xxv., 29—34); but god loved Jacob. Jacob cheated his blind father, pretending to be his brother, and deceived the old man’s sense of touch, the sense of vision having failed (Gen. xxvii., 11, 12, 15, 16, 22, 23); but god loved Jacob. Jacob was a hypocrite, and when he took a kid dressed to imitate venison to his father, pretended that he had found it quickly “because the Lord thy god brought it to me” (v. 20); but god loved Jacob. Jacob was a liar, declaring that he was his brother Esau (v. 19, 24); but god loved Jacob. Jacob was a coward, and ran away from his defrauded brother; but god loved Jacob. Jacob hated his wife (Gen. xxix., 31); yet god loved Jacob. Jacob swindled his hospitable uncle Laban out of his flocks and herds (Gen. xxx., 31-43); yet god loved Jacob. Jacob ran away from his uncle with his ill-gotten gains, like a thief in the night (Gen. xxxi, 20); yet god loved Jacob. Jacob was once more a coward, afraid of the brother he had wronged, and sent on some of his people to get killed that he might escape (Gen. xxxii., 7, 8); yet god loved Jacob. It is instructive to know the kind of men that god loves, and to know that god loves a bargaining, cheating, hypocritical, lying, swindling coward. As to poor Esau, on whom fell the awful hate of god before he was born, he seems to have been a brave, loving, generous-hearted man. The kindly words of the man god hated, as he refused his cringing brother’s present: “I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself” (Gen. xxxiii., 9), contrast forcibly with the mean, despicable conduct of the man god loved. It is blasphemy to deny that god abetted pious Jacob’s frauds, for we learn that “god hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me” (Gen. xxxi., 9), and that in suggesting the method of fraud god reminded him of the share due to himself by the vow he had made (Gen. xxxi, 13), the said vow being that “of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth to thee” (Gen. xxviii., 22).