The Promises to Abraham and His Descendants
Introduction
World events make it necessary to share the truth about prophecy. Perhaps the Second Coming of Christ & the Great Tribulation are at hand now. With that in mind, I am presenting posts so that readers may not be surprised when events occur. I am not sure that current affairs mean the very end. But these appear to be the very last days. It would be wrong to hide my light under a bushel and not share the truth with others. However, if anyone has any correction for me to make, please advise me. I am teachable.
We begin with promises that God made to Abraham:
Abraham had no descendants, but God promised to make him into a great nation. God made two distinct kinds of nations out of Abraham.
The First Promise that God Made to Abraham Was to Make Him Into A Great Nation
In Genesis 12:2 God says to Abram, "I will make you into a great nation..." God fulfilled that promise by adopting the seed of Abraham through the Mosaic Covenant at the Exodus. Israel did become a great nation. God fulfilled His promise (1 Kings 4:20-28).
But God made another nation out of Abraham. 1 Peter 2:9 says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. This great nation consists of kings. It is royal. All born-again people are kings (Romans 5:17; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
God did what He threatened to do in Deuteronomy 9:14, which says, "Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.” God said this to Moses, but Moses is a type of Christ. In Christ, God made a new nation. It is that holy nation that is in 1 Peter 2:9. God made a new nation out of His only begotten Son. Therefore, Isaiah 9:6 calls the Lord Jesus the “everlasting father”. He is the father of the new race and nation.
When God looked at Abram, He saw two natures in Abram. He saw a human being. But He also saw a man of faith. So, Abram's son could be either a man of faith or a man without faith. Abram had two sons. Isaac was a man of faith. Ishmael was only a descendant of Adam (Romans 9:7-8).[1] God saved one and did not save the other.
There are two ways to explore the Old Testament. You can either look for Jew and Gentile, or you can find people who have faith, and people who do not have faith. Hebrews Chapter 11 helps you find the prominent Old Testament Jews who have faith.
Abraham has two kinds of descendants, people of Adam (Ishmael)[2] and people of faith (Isaac). Since Abraham is born again, Isaac, who is also born again is Abraham’s true son.
You may have children. If you do, you may have both unsaved children and saved children. Your saved children are (spiritually born again) children and your unsaved children are earthly children.[3]
It was the same with Abraham. You do not have to call Isaac a spiritual child if you do not want to. You could simply call him a saved child. "Saved" and "Spiritual" mean the same thing. When God saves him, he becomes a child of God. And God is Spirit (John 4:24).
The nation of Israel is like a nut. A nut has life inside it with DNA that determines what kind of tree it will make. The outer shell of the nut has no life. The life of the nut is in the inside. The nut is a seed.
Israel as a nation had an unbelieving outer shell. God did not save most Israelites. But there was a remnant Israel inside Israel that had spiritual life. Remnant Jews had faith. They were the true Israel, or true Abraham. The remnant people were most like Abraham. For this please read Romans 2:28-29; 9:6-9; and Galatians 4:21-31.
Jesus is the seed of Abraham. God took out of the Lord Jesus His new nation.[4] He called this new nation the Church.
The Church is the Holy Nation spoken of in 1 Peter 2:9. The Church is the “Israel of God” in Galatians 6:16.
Galatians 3:29 says, "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise." If you belong to Christ, you have faith, and you are Abraham's spiritual seed. God sees you as part of the Church, but He also sees you as part of the holy nation.
So, when God made the promise to Abraham, He was really talking about 2 nations. One was a picture of the other one. The physical nation pictures the true nation. The main nation of the promise was Abraham’s saved descendants, people of faith.
Writing to the Romans in Romans 2:28-29, Paul says, "A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God." An inward Jew is a spiritual Jew, a saved Jew. An outward Jew is unsaved. He is like a nut that is dead inside. He is not a man of faith. Both are sons of Abraham but in diverse ways.
Saved Gentiles and Jews make up the holy nation of 1 Peter 2:9.
Application of this to your life: You must avoid false doctrine. If dispensational doctrines confuse you when the Tribulation comes, the false doctrine that you believe will trouble your soul. When the Tribulation comes upon you, you will wonder why you must suffer so much. You will think God let you down by allowing you to have your head severed. You will wonder why the Jews of Israel are persecuting you instead of being the persecuted people. You will not believe that there are two kinds of Jews both in the Old Testament and the New Testament times. You will think that God’s word is not dependable. You will be in danger of falling away due to the false doctrine you learned. You will wonder why there was no rapture before the tribulation that you are in. So, abandon the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture now before it is too late.
Here Is The Second Promise God Made to Abram.
1. Genesis 12:2 promises that God would not only make Abram into a great nation, but also that He would bless Abram. God says, "...and I will bless you..."
2. God did bless Abram in that he became extraordinarily rich in flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. But temporal blessings, though they are blessings of God, are not ultimate blessings. Suppose God makes you rich. What good is that if He does not make you spiritually rich.[5] Many of Abram’s descendants became rich. But Abram’s true sons were people of faith. Faith is a spiritual blessing.[6]
3. God blessed Abraham's natural descendants in the same way but with natural blessings.[7]
4. God blessed Israel with the land of Canaan. Using that land, Israel became wealthy. God blessed King David with power to overcome Israel's enemies.
5. God blessed King Solomon with wisdom so that He became the greatest and richest king in the world. God blessed Israel to be the most prosperous and advanced civilization anywhere. They prospered, until under King Solomon, Israel was the richest country in the area, and in the entire world.
6. God fulfilled Genesis 12:2. But promises for physical things are only for this world, which does not last forever.
7. God also blessed Abraham by justifying him. God made a promise to Abram, which was: "And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be." (Genesis 15:5)
8. Though Abram could not sire children,[8] and Sarai could not conceive them, Abram believed God for the impossible.[9]
9. Genesis 15:6 says, "Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
10. Abram did nothing to get it, but God justified him at once. God began treating Abram as a righteous man. This was a great blessing, and it was a spiritual blessing. It was not of this world. It was not temporary like riches. It was a miracle. Included in this promise was the virgin birth of Christ and the new birth of all true Christians.
11. Justification was a blessing of God, but it was not a physical blessing. It would not perish with the world. It would be eternal.
12. Abraham had a blessing from God that He would give to others of his descendants as well.
13. God would consider other people to whom He gave this blessing of justification, to be sons of Abraham. Galatians 3:6-7 says, "So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
14. Galatians 3:7 says, "Understand, then, that those who have faith are sons of Abraham." We are Abraham's sons because he had faith, and we have faith. We are like Abraham. We are his spiritual sons as we believe God and God credits us with His righteousness. Not only do we both have faith, but we have saving faith, faith with life in it (Romans 4:13-17).
15. So, the blessing with which God blessed Abraham comes upon us who believe in Christ also. Galatians 3:8-9 says, "The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and foretold the Gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”9So those who have faith [even Gentiles] are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith." Even if Christians are not Jews, they have saving faith in common with Abraham.
16. There is more: Galatians 3:14 says, "He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." This is the blessing of Genesis 12:2. God promised to bless Abraham and his seed in Christ Jesus. That means salvation for Abraham and his seed, even the Gentiles. So, the saved Jews in the Old Testament have the same Spirit indwelling as the saved Jews and Gentiles of the New Testament.
17. Here we learn another facet of God's blessing upon Abraham. God blessed Abraham with the Holy Spirit. This means that Abraham was born again by faith. The Spirit indwelt Abraham, just as He indwells us as his spiritual progeny.
18. The Old Testament does not say that explicitly. But Paul knew it, and he wrote it in Galatians 3:14. That is why Abraham could believe such a physically impossible promise that Abraham would have descendants that numbered like the sand and stars. Those descendants are both Jews and Gentiles who are in Christ according to Paul.
19. Some Dispensationalists do not stress this. So, they think that when God makes promises to Israel, He will only fulfill them physically. They call it "literally." But God was promising to bless all Abraham’s descendants who have faith with salvation. (Note: Many dispensationalists are better Christians than I am. I do not mean to say otherwise. And one’s view of the future should not be a determining factor for fellowship among Christians.) But in this matter, they are incorrect and are leading many people astray.
20. The rule of thumb for interpretation of promises in a prophecy is:
a. If the promise is an eternal promise, it is not a promise that is of this world.
b. If the promise is for anything that is not of this world, like the blessings in the Beatitudes, which promise for humility, meekness, desire for righteousness, to be merciful, have a pure heart, making peace, et cetera, is part of God's promise to bless Abraham.
21. "Blessed are the pure in heart" means that those who are pure in heart have received God's blessing of a pure heart by faith. They are born again by faith. God blessed them with a pure heart through faith in Christ.
21. The blessing of the law comes only after a person keeps the whole law. God only blessed one person like this: Jesus Christ kept the entire law and earned God’s blessing for Himself and for those who connect themselves to Him by faith.
22. We share in the blessing of Abraham through Abraham's Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. We share in His virtues by faith. Being born again gives us a heart like that of the Lord Jesus and like that of Abraham.
a. To a Jew, Jesus’ Beatitudes were especially troubling. Though there were Beatitudes in the Old Testament (like Psalm 32:1-2,) the beliefs of the Pharisees were that natural Israel was the main object of blessing. One had to earn all other blessings through obedience to the Law.
b. David knew better. David was aware that God blessed the Jew of faith in a unique way and far more than the regular Jews. He said that God did not want animal sacrifices from him (Psalm 40:6-8; Hebrews 10:1-10).[10]
c. God would not impute sin to the Jew who believed God, and therefore was contrite about his confession (Psalm 32:1-2). Psalm 32:1-2 says, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.2Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit. (These are spiritual blessings, not natural ones.)
d. David was poor in spirit when he wrote after Nathan’s visit (Psalm 32; Psalm 51).
e. Our Lord Jesus must have shocked the Pharisees by saying that poor in spirit people were the ones God blessed (Matthew 5:3). The Pharisees believed that God’s blessings were on the natural Jews by the first birth. Our Lord taught the new birth, which was a spiritual birth (John 3:3-5).
f. Justification was a much greater blessing than being born a Jew, even in the Old Testament.
g. The Lord swept aside the idea that being born a Jew automatically incurred blessing, saying that everyone must be born again. Being born a Jew did not garner spiritual blessings, only temporal ones. Justification was for all people with saving faith.
h. The blessing and cursing formula of Genesis 12:3 is as follows: I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
1) A person who blesses a natural Jew is not necessarily one whom God blessed per this formula.
2) Persons of faith, whether Jew or Gentile, are the ultimate objects of God’s blessing.
3) Notice that it says, “all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” “Through Abraham comes Messiah. He is the ultimate Person in this verse. He is the One who blesses all families of the earth who have saving faith.
4) It is dangerous to curse a born-again person because God will curse you if you do.
5) But if you want God to bless you, bless a Christian, whether he is a Jew or a Gentile.
6) Philippians 3:3 says, “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—”
7) So, giving a cup of water to an imprisoned unsaved person brings blessing to you. But doing the same to a saved person because God saved him brings you God’s spiritual blessing.[11] See also Matthew 12:46-50.
God’s Third Promise to Abram in Genesis 12:2 Was That He Would Make Abram’s Name Great
1. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity look back at Abraham as a great man. So, God fulfilled this promise to make Abram’s name great.
2. But Jesus said, "what is prized among men is detestable before God" (Luke 16:15). The greatness of a man in human opinion is different from the greatness of a man in God's estimation. Abraham would be nothing were it not for his faith in the true God and what God did for him through his faith.
3. Today it is popular among dispensational Christians to attribute greatness to all the seed of Abraham, the nation of Israel.
4. So, we ask the question, "Is Israel great because God made Abraham of great reputation? What does Scripture say about the Israel that now is in the Holy Land? The answers to that are as follows:
5. There is no such thing as human beings who are above other human beings in the eyes of God.
6. Romans 3:22-23 says, "This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." NIV
7. All people, both Jews and Gentiles, have sinned. And God justifies all, both Jew and Gentile alike, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel in Palestine today is a sinful nation, like all others. They are not partially saved people. But there are Jews in Israel today who are born-again. For them we praise God. No nationality is above any other nationality in God’s eyes
8. The chief persecutors of the Christian Church and of the Lord Jesus Christ are the unsaved Jews. Read the Gospels and Acts for this.
9. Outer Israel is not Israel. True Israel is the Israel within outer Israel.
10. Romans 2:28-29 says, "A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God."
11. God is not impressed by what is going on in the Holy Land If they reject His Son. And they do reject our Lord; they are not God’s people.
12. People today are making an idol out of Israel. They suppose that there is magic in natural Israel. They think that they must bless Israel for God to bless them. But the true Israel is the Lord Jesus Christ and His people, whether Jew or Gentile. If you want God to bless you, believe in Jesus for salvation.
13. Paul says that all descendants of Israel are not [true] Israel (Romans 9:6). And the Lord Jesus told unbelieving Jews that they were of their father the devil (John 8:44). Revelation 2:9 and Revelation 3:9 say, “… who say they are Jews and are not …”
14. So, we must ask ourselves, Am I looking at Israel with God’s viewpoint, or am I seeing Israel as men observe Israel?
15. It is true that God has not cast Israel away. He is still saving Jews who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 11:1-3). But until God saves them, He has not half saved them. After AD 70, which was the destruction of Israel, many Jews returned to Jerusalem to build the Temple. In 135 AD they staged the Bar Kochba Revolt against Rome. They returned to the land with the goal of re-establishing the temple and the State of Israel. But Rome soon squelched that. For this see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt
16. And God may save Israel en masse in the latter days of this world. But if He does, He will save them in Christ, and they will be part of the Church, which is the holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). Today the Lord is building His Church, not Israel. The point is that Israel returning to the land in 1948 is not new. The same result may occur this time, but we hope not.
17. It is embarrassing to the Church to have brothers and sisters who advertise that God will re-establish animal sacrifices in a new Temple. In Hebrews 8:13, the Apostle says, “By speaking of a new covenant, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete, and aging will soon disappear.” The covenant that originated the sacrificial system is gone, never to return. God nailed it to the cross of Christ (Colossians 2:14). It went out in AD 70. God said it would soon disappear, which it did in AD 70.
18. So, will we believe the things that are highly esteemed among men and that are abomination to the Lord? Or will we believe the things that God highly acclaims along with the great Abraham? Remember, Abraham is only great as God sees him, as we view him in faith. It is the same with Israel.
Idolizing Israel
People today are making an idol out of Israel. This sin is like that of those who idolize Mary, the mother of Jesus. The idea is that, if a person is a relative of the Lord, blessings must have rubbed off on him.
So, consider Matthew 12:46-50 which says, "While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him. 47Someone told Him, “Look, Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
48But Jesus replied, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” 49Pointing to His disciples, He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother.” So, let us view this:
Jesus is teaching in a packed house. Others are outside waiting.
Mary and Jesus' half siblings arrive and send a message to the Lord.
Our Lord refuses to stop His teaching for them. He says that His mother and brothers and sisters are listening to Him inside the house right then. He puts Mary on the same level as common people. He knows that God does not want Him to treat His earthly family above believers.
People commit the potential sin when they think that God’s blessing on unsaved Israel is anything more than a temporary blessing.
There is a sin called Mariolatry, and there is a sin called the worship of Israel. Dispensationalists and all others: You must turn from this sin.
Lesson: We must not think of, or treat natural Israel as better than, or more blessed than, anyone else.
Galatians 3:28-29 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”
Romans 3:22-23 says, “…There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;” NIV
Conclusion
Belief in magic is the essence of idolatry.
Israel is no longer a uniquely blessed nation. There is no magic in Israel that places that nation above all other nations of the world.
The promises of God to Abraham in Genesis 12:2 are promises to Christ and the Church. They have temporal aspects which belong to Israel. But God fulfilled them to the Nation of Israel. The remaining promise to Israel is to believe on their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christians must not think of Israel as the nation upon whom the special blessing of God rests any longer. Israel stands as a nation with a great past. But no Christian must bless them above any others. And, Biblically speaking, no nation must favor Israel above any other nation. The promises of God to Israel are no longer above His promises to any other nation.
Please see more in later posts on God’s land promises to Israel.
NOTES:
[1] Romans 9:7-8 says, “Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” 8So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.”
[2] Galatians 4:25 says, “Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.”
[3] 1 Corinthians 4:14-15 says, “I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. 15Even if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.”
[4] As God took Eve out of Adam, so God took the Church out of Chris.
[5] Revelation 3:17 says, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. “
[6] Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,”
[7] Romans 9:4-5 says, “the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ”
[8] Romans 4:19 says, “Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.”
[9] Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves;” Notice that Abraham’s faith did not come from Abraham. Ephesians 2:8 says that this faith is not from yourselves. It is impossible for people who are dead to God to have living faith.
[10] Though it is true that many blessings of God accrued to Jews in the Old Testament who did not have faith, they were temporary blessings. They were blessings of this world. They were not eternal and spiritual blessings.
[11] Matthew 25:37-40 says, “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ 40And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’” These Jews are not merely natural brothers of Christ. They are His spiritual brothers.
