Promise to the Fathers

THE first mention of the call of Abraham is in Gen. 12:1-3, as follows:—

"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

Obedient to this call he came into the land of Canaan, to Siehern,—

"And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him." Verse 7.

It will be noticed that from this time onward the promise of the land was largely the burden of every message of blessing that God gave unto "the fathers." The next word to Abram is found in chap. 13:14-17. Lot had separated himself from him, choosing the fertile and well-watered plains of Sodom.

"And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee."

In chap. 15, Abram complained to the Lord that he was childless, and feared that he should die without an heir. There is peculiar force in this plea, amounting even to plaintiveness; for the Lord had said unto him that he would give the land unto his seed; and yet he had no son, and if his heir should be one not of his own family, the promise did not bring assurance of a blessing to his house. Then the Lord assured him that he should have an heir, and a multitudinous posterity. Too often has this promise of a seed been considered separate from the previous promise of the land, but it will be noticed that Abram's plea for a son was in direct reference to the former promise to his seed; for if he died childless how could that promise be fulfilled?

"And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it."

By direction he prepared an offering, and "a horror of great darkness fell upon him," which well represented the darkness and trials which lay between Abram and his seed, and the fulfillment of the promise concerning the inheritance. But the promise itself was renewed:—

"In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."

Chapter 17, where next the promise is renewed, is full of interest.

"And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

Here are several points of importance. To give force to the promise of a numerous posterity, the name of Abram was changed to Abraham.* And after the promise was renewed, as in the verses quoted, circumcision was instituted as a sign or token of the covenant. This was designed as a surety of the promise.

"And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you." Verse 11

In chapter 18 is given the account of Abraham entertaining three angels, who acquainted him with the impending destruction of Sodom, and informed him that a son should be born unto him by Sarah, within the year. The promise is referred to, but not reiterated. There is, however, the strong intimation of the conditional nature of the promises, as the faithfulness of Abraham is spoken of as that which would make the fulfillment of the promise possible. "And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Verses 17-19.

Chapter 19 records the birth of Isaac, and the rejection of Ishmael from being co-heir with him. Though Abraham had waited with long patience for a son, the severest test of his faith was that recorded in chapter 22; it was the offering of Isaac. The Lord said unto him:—

"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Verse 2.

We must bear in mind that the promise, from the very first, was to Abraham and to his seed. And it was distinctly revealed that it should be fulfilled, not only to the son of Sarah, bat to Isaac individually; and Abraham could not fall back upon Ishmael in the event of the loss of Isaac, for Ishmael had been decidedly rejected from being heir. And as if to make the test complete and thorough, he calls him his "only son," the alone heir to these great promises; and still further he reminds him of his affection for him—"whom thou lovest."

It has always been true that men who have large inheritances to bequeath have highly prized the privilege of having children. The idea of having great possessions, and dying childless, with no one to perpetuate their names, and their estate falling into the hands of strangers, has always been deeply trying to the feelings of men. It was this that moved Abraham to present such a pathetic lament to the Lord:—

"Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir." Chap. 15:2, 3. (My servant born in my house shall be my heir.—Douay Bible.)

The man whose lot is one of destitution and suffering, who has nothing to leave to his posterity, and no hope of their lot being more tolerable than his own had been, may be reconciled by those considerations to dying childless. The very greatness of the promise, the vast extent of the possession to which he should be heir, greatly added to the anguish of Abraham's mind. If Isaac is slain, how will the promise be fulfilled? How will his name and house be perpetuated? Who will be his heir? These questions must have come with great weight to his mind, when he received this soul-trying order.

The record in Genesis is so brief that it notices neither the sorrow nor the hope of Abraham. So far as that is concerned we are left to imagine what were his thoughts and feelings. But Paul relieves our anxiety in this respect. In his letter to the Hebrews 11:17-19, he says:—

"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure."

Thus it is evident that Abraham had fully given his son to the Lord. So perfectly was he resigned to the order that Isaac was to him as one already slain, and his being saved to him was as if he had been raised from the dead. His faith grasped the resurrection. He had previously been told (Gen. 15) that affliction and oppression, trials and sorrow, should befall his posterity before they possessed the promised land. And by the offering of his only son, and receiving him as one raised from the dead, he was taught also that death and a resurrection were to take place before his seed received the inheritance. This trial of Abraham's faith, and the apostle's comment upon it, forever puts at rest the oft-repeated conjecture that the faith of the patriarchs, and of all the faithful of old, did not look beyond temporal blessings—did not grasp the realities of the life to come.

When this trial of Abraham was complete, and his faith in God fully proved, the Lord renewed his promise to bless him, to multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the seashore—"and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."

That Abraham's faith took strong hold of this promise of the land, and that his hope rested on it, is shown by his own words, spoken to his servant when he sent him to the home of his kindred to find a suitable wife for his son Isaac. To the servant's questionings, he said:—

"The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence." Gen. 24:7.

We have now passed entirely through the history of Abraham, his death being recorded in the next chapter. But it is necessary to ascertain what was said to Isaac and Jacob, inasmuch as Paul says they were "heirs with him of the same promise." Heb. 11:9.

There was a famine in the land, and it appears that Isaac thought to go to Egypt.

"And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. 26:2-4

Here the promise is not only referred to, but renewed to Isaac in the very same terms. To him and to his seed, also, the land should be given; and to him, and through him, the promises to Abraham should be fulfilled.

Jacob, at the solicitation of his mother, was sent to her kindred to take a wife. On his journey, he saw in a dream a ladder reaching from earth to heaven:

"And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen 28:13-14

Here the same promise of the land is given to Jacob and to his seed. And before his death, as he blessed Joseph and his sons, he spoke of the promise, saying:—

"God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession." Gen 48:3-4

Having now examined the entire record of the promises to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we confidently appeal to the reader that the possession of the land is the burden of the promises made unto these, "the fathers" of the tribes of Israel. And reading these promises carefully we are greatly surprised that this truth has been so generally lost sight of by the Christian world. And, to test the importance of this point, we ask the reader to turn back and read again all the promises to these patriarchs, leaving out all that refers to the gift of the land; and see what there is left. It will then be readily perceived that, in so doing, great injustice has been done to the word of the Lord, and "the covenant of promise" is robbed of an essential element.

But if this course would do violence to the record of the Abrahamic covenant, is it not doing equal violence to the covenant itself, and thereby doing injustice to the faithfulness of God, to reject the promise of the land from the fulfillment of the covenant? We think in this respect there is a fault in the current theology of the age, and a defect in the faith of very many of those who profess to be "the children of Abraham."

But some suppose there are reasons why this part of the covenant should be passed by in this dispensation. This branch of the subject must next be examined.

*Proper names among oriental nations are significant, and frequently formed by combinations. Thus am, father; raham, multitude; (a as broad or Italian a).