Home › Key to Bible Characters, No. 18 › Key to Bible Characters, No. 18

Key to Bible Characters, No. 18

Enoch walked with God in the exercises of devotion, and he had the testimony that he pleased God, and was translated, that he should not see death (Gen. V. 24; Heb. xi. 5).

Isaac was eminent for his solitary meditation and devotional spirit, and God blessed him, and gave him the desire of his heart (Gen. xxiv. 63, 67).

Jacob lived in the habit of prayer, so that his very dreams were of heaven and God; see the account of the vision of Bethel. But the highest honor on his devotion was reserved for the more extraordinary scene at Peniel, when his name was changed from Jacob to that of Israel, as a memorial that he had power with God" (Gen. xxxii. 28).

God put honor on the devotion of Elijah, when he stayed the clouds that they rained not upon the earth for the space of six months, and when he miraculously fed him during that period. Again, in answer to the prayer of Elijah, God caused rain to fall and abundance to appear on the earth (James v. 17. 18). Hezekiah in his trouble prayed unto the Lord, and the l.ord honored him by granting his request, and saying unto him, "] have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold I will add anto thy days fifteen years" (Isa. xxxviii. 5).

Daniel maintained his habit of devotion, though death was the sentence which he incurred by calling upon his God. The Lord honored him by shutting the mouths of the lions, to which he had been cast to be devoured (Dan. vi. 27).

The disciples in the upper room at Jerusalem, continuing in devotion for ten days, were honored with the gifts and graces of the Iloly Spirit, and endowed with miraculous power (Acts 1. 14; ii 1)

We might answer this question by quoting the greater part of the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In addition to the worthies there named, we may notice-the shepherds, who showed their faith in the message of the angel by immediately leaving their flocks and going to Bethlehem to see the young child. Simeon and Anna, watching in the temple, by faith waited for "the consolation of Israel." The Syrophenician woman, whose faith sustained her importunity amidst discouragements, until the boon she sought for her daughter was granted. The woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment and was healed. Many others of this class may be cited; but the most striking illustration of the power of faith is the dying thief, who addressed Christ as "Lord," though in the depth of his humiliation; whose faith saw him entering "paradise," though dying in the greatest ignominy; and who begged an interest in his remembrance as the richest blessing, though he appeared in the extreme of destitution. He realized a livi Saviour, though that Saviour was in the agonies of death.

Isaac is the most remarkable instance of early consecration to God in his voluntary concurrence with the purpose of his father who bound him on the altar to offer him up as a living sacrifice. IHe was abundantly blessed in his wife Rebekah, in the renewal of the Abrahamic covenant, and in his prosperity in the land of Gerar.