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Transcript 138A — God's Promises to Abraham Concerning Israel
HC: Before we take our next call, I would like to beg your indulgence, and I would like to expand a little bit further on the truth concerning the promises that were made to Abraham.
There are many who are making certain assertions and claims concerning God's promise to Abraham as it relates to modern Israel today. And because they are not reading the whole Bible, because they are not carefully going through the Scriptures, to see the development of God's program, God's plan of salvation, very easily it is possible to arrive at conclusions that are very much contrary to the Word of God.
Now you'll remember that the promise was given to Abraham that he would be given the land of Canaan, that his seed would inherit the land of Canaan, and that this promise of the inheritance of the physical land of Canaan was completely fulfilled during the days of Solomon. In Nehemiah 9:7 & 8 God speaks there of His promise to Abraham that the land of the Perizzite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, and so on, was to be given to his seed. And God was faithful. They did receive that land.
And we know from the language of I Kings 4 that this gained its fullest fulfillment during the days of Solomon. So insofar as the physical land of Canaan, there is no longer any part of that promise that must be fulfilled. Now this is an astounding idea to many, who have been taught that there still must be some kind of a promise fulfilled. But if we're going to let the Bible speak to us, if we're going to let the Bible be the authority, then we must conclude that there is no further implication insofar as this promise is concerned concerning the physical land of Canaan.
But you'll remember that there was an eternal aspect of this promise to Abraham, namely, that he would be given this land as an everlasting possession. Now the moment you find this phrase "everlasting" or "eternally" or "forever" in the Bible, you can know immediately that it is not talking about something that is related to this sin-cursed earth. Nor is it related to a political kingdom. That cannot be, because all of the political kingdoms, including the nation of Israel, which is a political kingdom, will all cease at Judgment Day, as will this sin-cursed earth.
This sin-cursed earth is going to be destroyed by fire, and it will be recreated New Heavens and a New Earth. And so when God spoke to Abraham about the land being an everlasting possession, God had in view something other than the literal land of Canaan. And we saw that Abraham understood this. He immediately spiritualized that promise, and recognized that God was not talking about the literal land.
We read in Hebrews 11 that he was looking for a Heavenly City. Incidentally, when we use that phrase, spiritualizing a promise of this nature, we're not suggesting that a spiritual fulfillment is less real or is less authentic than some kind of a literal physical fulfillment. The promise to Abraham that his seed would inherit the land in its physical fulfillment had to do with a literal political nation of Israel, that reigned during the days of Solomon. And it was fulfilled.
But the spiritual implication of the land has just as real a fulfillment in that the New Heavens and the New Earth, which will be very real, will be inherited by all the believers. As Jesus put it, "The meek shall inherit the earth." It is begun with our citizenship belonging in Heaven. That is the land that we enter into when we are saved. And it's a real land. Heaven is a real land. No, it's not a land that looks like our sin-cursed earth. But it's a real place. God dwells there. And those who have been saved dwell there. And it's as real as this earth is real. Now that is the land that we inherit when we are the seed of Abraham.
Now let's look tonight, very briefly, at another aspect of this promise to Abraham. And that has to do with the fact that he was promised a multitudinous progeny. Back in Genesis 13 he was told, in verse 16, ''I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your seed also can be counted." Or again, we read in Genesis 15:5, where Abraham was told, "Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them. Then He said to him, So shall your seed be." Now that was a very definite promise to Abraham.
Was that promise fulfilled, in its literal, earth-related aspect? Yes, indeed, it was. It was completely fulfilled. We already read in Deuteronomy 10, when the nation of Israel was going out of Egypt, that God said to them in verse 22, "Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons. And now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven for multitude." And we read in Nehemiah 9:23, where Ezra is praying to God and saying, "Thou didst multiply their seed as the stars of heaven. And Thou didst bring them into the land which Thou hadst told their fathers to enter and possess."
And we read in I Kings 4:20, "Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. They were as many as the sand by the sea." Now this is the language that was given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that their seed would be a multitudinous progeny, would be like the stars of the heaven in number, or as the sand by the sea, and so on.
And so whatever literal, physical, earth-related implication of this promise to Abraham had, it has been fulfilled, even as the promise of the land has been fulfilled. But even as the promise concerning had an eternal dimension, when God said, "I will give this land as an everlasting possession," so the promise concerning a multitudinous progeny had an eternal dimension.
In Genesis 17 we read, in verse 5, where God is telling Abraham at the time that he became the head of the Hebrew nation, at the time that he was circumcised, God said, "No longer shall your name be Abram. But your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kinds shall come forth from you."
Now you immediately sense that that has to have more than a physical dimension, because Abraham was the head of the nation of Israel. But God is saying, "You are going to be the father of a multitude of nations. There are going to be many nations over whom you are going to be the head." Now how was that all fulfilled?
Well, we first of all find repeatedly that in the Old Testament God emphasizes that there will be a time when Israel will be far larger than just the literal nation of Israel. Let me just give a couple of verses to show this, although there are many of these in the Old Testament.
In Isaiah 55 God said, as He's talking about the coming Messiah, in verse 5, "Behold, you shall call nations that you know not. And nations that knew you not shall run to you, because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel. For He has glorified you."
We read in Isaiah 60:3, which is again talking about the Messiah, "And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising." And we read in verse 10 of Isaiah 60, "Foreigners shall build up your walls, and kings shall minister to you." All of this is language that indicates that God has something great and wonderful for all the nations of the world.
And this all began in the promise to Abraham, "I will make you the father of a multitude of nations."
Well, let's look in the New Testament and see how this finally developed. We go to Galatians 3, and here God is speaking about Abraham. He says in verse 6 of Galatians 3, "Thus Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham."
Aha! Do you remember, in Genesis 17, that God had said, "You will be the father of a multitude of nations"? And here He is saying that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham, that is, men who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now notice in the next verse how God specifically emphasizes that this includes the Gentiles, the other nations of the world. "And the scripture . . . [the scripture is the Old Testament, that we have just been reading from] . . . And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith [or the heathen by faith], preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed." In other words, God is insisting that when He was speaking to Abraham, back there in Genesis 17, He was anticipating the day when the true seed of Abraham would be believers from every nation, men of faith.
So we read in verse 9 of Galatians 3: "So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith." And this is further articulated in verses 28 and 29 of Galatians 3. It is through Christ that the spiritual promises made to Abraham are fulfilled. When we believe in Him, we are the true sons of Abraham.
Now let me reinforce this a little bit more with what we read in Romans 4. You'll remember in Roman s 4 that in verse 13 it says of the promise to Abraham and his seed, that "they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith." In Romans 4:13 God is showing us that His intention was that the promise to Abraham concerning the land was far bigger than the physical land of Canaan. It would include the whole earth, which would have to be the New Heaven and the New Earth, because we are only pilgrims here.
Now by the same token, in Romans 4 we find that it talks about Abraham as being the father of the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Those who are blood descendants of Abraham think very heavily of the fact, they put a lot of weight in the fact that Abraham is their father, the head of their nation. Well, let's see what God says about the Gentiles who become believers.
We read in verse 9, the last half, that "We say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?" Now before he was circumcised he was a Gentile. There were no Jews. When did he begin to believe? When he was a Gentile, or after he became circumcised, when officially the Jewish nation was founded?
The Bible says here, in the last half of verse 10, "It was not after but before he was circumcised. He received circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised," that is, while he was still a Gentile. It goes on, "The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised [that is, the father of the Gentiles who would believe, and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them] and likewise the father of the circumcised [that is, of the blood descendants of Abraham who are not merely circumcised but also follow the example of faith], which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised."
In other words, God is teaching that the true seed of Abraham that God had in view in the eternal characteristics of this promise, the eternal aspects of these promises to Abraham, was not the national Israel at all. It was those who would become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them would be blood descendants of Abraham, but only if they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if they didn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then they were not included.
And it also would include those who would be Gentiles and who were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now you see how this parallels exactly the promise concerning the land.
Now I have offered this again tonight because there is so much misconception today concerning God's commitments to the nation of Israel, and what they will do and what they will be, as well as misconceptions concerning the whole nature of God's plan of salvation. God had one plan, and He has been working it out through time – through Abraham (it was already articulated through Noah, when we read that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; he was saved just like we are), and it has been worked out right through time.
And we who believe are finally the recipients of the glorious promises that have been made throughout the Bible. Now if we're only going to pick and choose from the Bible, if we're only going to take certain portions and not the others, then we're not going to see these things. And we're going to come up with doctrines that are contrary to the Bible, and doctrines that are quite erroneous. And it's imperative that we start all over again, that we carefully read the Bible, and we carefully compare scripture with scripture, and we give just as much weight to the New Testament as the Old, and the Old as the New, because otherwise we're not going to find truth.
Now it's very easy, you know, to go along and say, "Now wait a minute. I don't really care about all this. I like what I believe and what I have been taught, and none of these things are really important." Is that really so? Is that really so? I think if I were going to become involved with a gospel, with a religion, I would want to know that everything that I have been taught is as true as possible. I'm one fellow who does not like to be conned. I don't like to be told something that is not true. I like to know that what I have been told is true.
Now I know, because I'm a teacher, that no teacher is infallible. I'm not infallible, your preacher is not infallible, the theologians of the past of your church are not infallible. Many of the things they have told you are true and trustworthy. But not everything. And therefore, in order that you might know that you have truth, check it out in the Bible. Patiently go through the Word, and don't be afraid to ask your pastor or ask your teacher, "Where did you read that in the Bible?" or "What do you do with this verse?" or "What do you do with that verse?" Any of us who teach ought to be ready to face every kind of a question like this. And if we try to dodge these questions, if we're not ready to face each question that comes, then we'd better do our homework, so that we can face these questions.
It is imperative that we constantly look for truth.