"When
Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he led
forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred
and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan."
Genesis 14:14
"His trained men, born in his house." This
raises some interesting questions. It must refer to a big
encampment, for they were not living in an actual house
but in tents. The reference is really to a household, and
it is in this connection that the word is used in the New
Testament with regard to God's house. We have been born
into a household (Hebrews 3:6), and this household is
meant, above all other things, to be a place of spiritual
training and education.
Whatever else Abram's men were trained in, they were
certainly trained for war. We also have to learn that the
House of God is the place of training for spiritual
conflict. The household of God is the relationship and
fellowship of believers: it is not a place, but the
relationship in the Holy Spirit into which we are born
again. It is the sphere of our training, so that we do
not live our lives in the realm of mere theories, but are
subject to the disciplining work of the Holy Spirit.
There are many blessings in the House of God, many
amenities which are for our good, our comfort and our
protection. We thank God for these but must never forget
that this also is the place for our spiritual education.
Spiritual training is not academic. It consists of
learning the lessons of life together in fellowship with
other believers, and because of this we may at times feel
that we would like to run away and escape from such
testing.
"Trained men, born in his house." What is the
meaning of love if it is not a corporate thing? What is
the meaning of patience, if it has not to do with other
people? What is the meaning of so many things in the
Christian life if they are not found in the context of
related life? It is in this community life that we are
tested. It is there that we find our real discipline and
training.
"He led forth his trained men." Notice why he
had to do this. Lot, the compromiser, was in desperate
need. There is so often the difficult person, constantly
getting himself and his friends into trouble, the awkward
man, the selfish man who has put his own interests first
and suited his own pleasure without seeking the will of
God. At this time Lot had been captured, with all his
family and possessions, and carried off by enemies. Abram
might have rubbed his hands and said, 'Good riddance to
bad rubbish! Thank God he has gone!'. But he did not do
so. It was for this 'weak brother', this failing brother,
this difficult brother who hardly seemed to deserve help,
that Abram led forth his trained men, and he did not
return until he could bring back this needy 'brother'. It
is a lesson for us and an indication of what it means to
become a member of the Father's household.
It hardly becomes any of us to judge or condemn Lot, for
in fact we are all very awkward people. We all are the
cause of trouble for the Lord. How wonderful to remember
that "Having loved his own which were in the world,
he loved them to the uttermost" (John 13:1). That is
a household matter; learning to love like that in God's
House. Have you never felt that everything would be
better if only some difficult brother or sister could be
taken far away? This action of Abram's reminds us that
the household in which we are being trained demands
willingness to fight for the weaker fellow believer.
Not that Abram would allow himself to be involved in
Lot's compromise. No, he would fight for his failing
brother, seeking to win and save him, but he would have
nothing to do with Sodom and its king. The king was
grateful to him for seeming to support his cause, but
Abram would have none of it. He refused Sodom's gifts and
their flattery. He kept himself unspotted from the world,
but he devoted his trained household to giving aid to the
man of compromise. He himself was in God's House and had
had to learn lessons of obedience and sanctification.
Somehow we never think of Abraham as a fighting man, and
yet the life of faith is one in which we have to learn to
fight the good fight.
After Abram had left Ur and entered into the land of
promise, he might well have presumed that he had arrived
and that since he was now in his God-appointed place he
could expect an experience of tranquility. We, too, are
apt to expect that once we have obeyed the Lord and
stepped out in faith we ought to enjoy a smooth
experience of serene contentment. Are we not in the place
of God's purpose, of His will and His covenant? We have
to learn, as Abram did, that the opposite of this is
true. To be committed to the totality of God's will as a
member of His household is to find that one difficulty
overcome only means a greater one yet to be faced. The
realm of the greatest spiritual values is the realm of
the most difficult education, the sphere of the fiercest
and most persistent conflict.
It seems that whatever else these three hundred odd men
were being trained for, they were called to enter a war
and pursue a foe. This is one of the great lessons that
we who have been born into the House of God have to
learn, the lesson of spiritual warfare. We need to be
trained in this matter for there are enemies - spiritual
enemies - who will contest the will of God and harrass
God's people. It is not enough just to have experiences,
however deep these may be. It is not enough only to have
history. We have to learn the meaning of our experiences,
to be able to extract the Lord's intentions from our
history. We have to learn in the House of God, which is
the school of holiness.
According to Paul, one of the great purposes of the
Scriptures is that we may know "how men ought to
behave themselves in the house of God, which is the
church of the living God" (1 Timothy 3:15). Abraham
was able to train others because he himself had to learn
severe lessons. While he was in Chaldea it was different,
but now he had moved on with God and what belonged in his
new life was altogether different from what belonged to
Chaldea. In Chaldea he could perhaps do things which he
could not now do in the land. If we are to be trained to
face and conquer the spiritual enemies of God's purposes,
then we need that Bible truths should be wrought into our
own personal experience so that we become embodiments of
those truths. No teaching will ever be true teaching if
it is not worked out in experience. And it is in the
House of God, the related life together of believers,
that such experience is obtained.
The temptation is to try to get away from such spiritual
discipline, to break away from fellowship, to ignore the
implications and great values of being born into God's
house and trained there. Rather than succumb to such
temptations by dividing up and separating, we should
recognise that for our training in heavenly things we
need to maintain the unity of the Spirit. The moment will
arise, as it did in Abram's household, when there is a
great challenge from God's enemies which will call us
forth to make a stand, to prove the power of God to give
us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, and so much
will depend upon our having submitted to the discipline
of being trained by the Holy Spirit and prepared for the
spiritual conflict by the tests which will come to us in
our fellowship life.
The very fact that we are considering God's great
servant, Abraham, stresses the need for obedient and
persevering faith. There must have been many times for
him when it seemed that, far from enjoying the fulfilment
of that hope which was based upon the strength of the
Lord's word, everything was becoming less likely and more
impossible. But he kept on believing. No doubt this was
the kind of training which the rest of the household
shared with him. And in the case we have been
considering, there was a total victory and complete
recovery of what seemed to have been lost. They
"pursued as far as Dan". They did more than
that. They returned in great triumph and demonstrated for
us the New Testament assurance that "faith is the
victory that overcomes the world".
We are "in a great house" (2 Timothy 2:20-21).
Let us so respond to the Spirit's training and
sanctifying work that we may be vessels unto honour,
sanctified, meet for the master's use, prepared unto
every good work.
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Sep-Oct 1963, Vol 41-5.