God's Promise to Israel

God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you." Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. (Genesis 35:9-13 ESV)

God repeated His promise to Abraham to Israel with some elaboration,

1. kings shall come from him;
2. a nation and a company of nations shall descended from him;
3. land will be given to him.

"The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes,
And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
(Genesis 49:10 NASB)

But his father refused. "I know, my son; I know," he replied. "Manasseh will also become a great people, but his younger brother will become even greater. And his descendants will become a multitude of nations." (Genesis 48:19 NLT)

God's Promise to Isaac

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." (Genesis 26:1-5 ESV)

The promise to Abraham now given to Isaac and not Ishmael. Abraham had many sons, but only Isaac will inherit the promise of God.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. (Galatians 4:22-23 ESV)

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Romans 9:6-8 ESV)

God's Promise to Abraham

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly." Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called 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 you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."

And God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

And God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year."

When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. (Genesis 17:1-22 ESV)

Theme development

1. God promised Abraham that kings will be descended from him;
2. God promised to make Abraham a father of a multitude of nations;
3. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan for his descendants.

Short term promise
God promised Abraham a son born by his wife Sarah and God will established His covenant with him. His name would be Isaac.

Abraham's task
Abraham's part in this is to circumcise his family as a mark of the covenant.

The mystery of the Gospel in embryonic form
Why can share the covenant of Abraham? Is it only his blood descendants? No. According to Genesis 17:12, it is "every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner - those who are not your offspring" So those who are born and those who are bought can be part of God's covenant with Abraham. Thus when the Apostle Paul wrote that the Gentiles who are bought by the blood of Christ are heirs together with Israel, he is not inventing his own theology. It is rooted in Genesis 17:12.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:6 ESV)

The First Prophecy Prophesied A Redeemer

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15 HCSB)

The first prophecy was prophesied personally by God to the serpent. He told the serpent that his seed will be fatally injured by the woman's seed. The first prophecy developed on the theme of a redeemer or savior, on His one special characteristic - the seed of the woman. But this was way before God's covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:7-21, Genesis 17:1-14) when the theme of king redeemer, people and land was more fully developed.

Seed of the woman
All men are descended from the seed of men. But God promised that there is a special man that would not be from the seed of man, but from the seed of woman.

If any man has a wife who became pregnant and it is not his seed, she must be an adulteress and had child by another man's seed. In Biblical times, both the adulterer and adulteress would be taken outside the city and be stoned to death.

At one point in history, this happened to a man. His wife was pregnant but it was not his seed. While he pondered over the next step to take, God intervened.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:18-21 ESV)

The Main Theme of the Bible

"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." (Revelation 4:11 ESV)

The Bible's main theme is the act of God in His redemption of a people from a fallen world for His glory.

Within this main theme, there are some sub-themes. There will be

1. a king, a redeemer anointed by God;
2. a nation or people to be redeemed;
3. a place where God will be worshipped.

All these themes are developed throughout the Bible, from Moses to John.

The Bible was written by more than 40 authors over a period of 1600 years. Yet these themes are consistently developed and maintained. Any other books, authors or prophets who claimed to have received messages from the God of Abraham, but do not focus on these themes, are false prophets, even if they perform miracles.

"If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, 'Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3 ESV)

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.' (Deuteronomy 18:20 ESV)