XII.-XXXVI.—-This, however, was not allowed. Another judgment comes upon them. They are scattered, and the whole human social order is awfully broken up. But Abram is called out to find his fellowship with God, apart from the world. His family dwelt in Mesopotamia beyond the Euphrates. He came from the stock of Shem, but was a worshipper of idols, as all the nations were. But sovereign grace distinguishes him, and the God of glory calls him forth from kindred, from home, and from country. It is a call, however, that does not interfere with the order of the earth, or government among the nations. He is called to be a _stranger_, and not a rival of "the powers," or a new-modelled governor of any people. He walks with God as the God of glory--a higher character than that of the one by whom "the powers that be are ordained." He is a pilgrim and stranger on earth, and walks as a _heavenly man_. He has promise that _his seed_ and _inheritance in the earth_ shall become linked together by-and-by; but he, with Isaac and Jacob, dwell in tents all their days, and a tent life is that of a stranger here, of one that is not at home and at rest. Here, then, we have a heavenly people again--heavenly in the character of their walk, and heavenly, like Enoch or Lamech, in their intelligence about the earth’s future history, and the promise to their seed of inheritance in it in due season. But we have still deeper and fuller mysteries in the history of him who comes after them. XXXVII.-XLVII.--Through the wickedness of his brethren, as we all know, for it is a favourite story, Joseph is estranged from the scene of the promised and covenanted inheritance, and becomes first a sufferer, and then a husband, a father, and a governor, in the midst of a distant people; till at last his brethren, who once hated him, and the inhabitants of the earth, are fed and ruled by him in grace and wisdom.