Genesis 12:01-03 – God’s Promises to Abraham – Part 2 – powerpoint – audio

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Text: Genesis 12:1-3 ESV (Reading by Steven Winland)

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

(slide 2)

Introduction

• What does the Bible predict will happen in the future?
• How will God fulfill His promises to His people?
• Are the promises that God made to Abraham still being fulfilled?
• Does Israel have a special place in the coming of Christ?
• Will the temple be rebuilt and all Israel be saved?

(slide 3)

The most popular religious teaching concerning these questions is given by the premillennial dispensationalists. They teach that Jesus is returning to rule over a physical kingdom on earth for 1,000 years. Israel will be restored as a nation and return to God corporately through a national conversion to Christ. The temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, along with the worship of the Temple.

(slide 4)

Body

I. Israel in the Divine plan:

The Biblical teaching concerning the place of the nation of Israel includes at least four elements:

• Selection;
• Testing;
• Rejection; and
• Replacement.

(slide 5)

A. Selection:

Almost two thousand years before the birth of Christ, Jehovah selected Abraham to be the founder of a new nation. It was declared that through him a seed would come by whom all peoples of the earth would be blessed. God fulfilled the promises of Genesis 12:1-3 ESV.

(slide 6)

1. Abraham’s offspring were delivered from an era of bondage in Egypt. They were given a special law and system of worship designed to separate them from the other nations of the world

Exodus 19:5-6 ESV – Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

(slide 7)

2. God’s selection of Abraham, and thus Israel, was not due to any holy character, or just for their benefit, but as a means whereby He would bring Christ, as the coming Messiah of the Jews, and the Savior of the world.

Galatians 3:24-25 ESV – So the, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

(slide 8)

B. Testing:

For some fifteen hundred years the Lord God attempted to cultivate the nation of Israel to be a people that reflected His character and purpose. This was in preparation for the coming of Christ. But the nation grossly violated the law, frequently went after “strange gods,” and they viciously persecuted God’s prophets.

Jeremiah 32:23 ESV – And they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them.

Jesus enunciates the failure of Israel to meet the conditions of God’s covenant with them in Luke 13:34 ESV – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

(slide 9)

C. Rejection:

The rebellion of the nation consummated with the murder of Jesus Christ. God rejected the Hebrew people, repudiated their status as His nation and determined to scatter them as dust.

(slide 10)

1. Israel’s unique status with God was conditional: Deuteronomy 28:1 ESV – And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

(slide 11)

2. Jesus foretold this Divine judgment in several of his later parables, including The Parable of the Wicked Tenants: Matt 21:33-44 ESV – “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more that the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

(slide 12)

a. This parable came to fulfillment when the Roman armies came against Palestine in A.D. 70, and Judaism was destroyed.

b. According to Jewish historian, Josephus, some 1.1 million Hebrews were slaughtered, and thousands were taken into slavery. All Jewish records were lost in that holocaust. Today, there is not a single Jew who knows his tribal ancestry. The physical nation of Israel is dead. The “Jews” that make up the State of Israel today (less than twenty-five percent of the world Jewish population) cannot legitimately be called a “God’s covenant nation.”

(slide 13)

c. With the coming of Christ, there was also an end to the law of Moses, and thus the separateness of Israel as God’s covenant people.

Ephesians 2:14-16 ESV – For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

(slide 14)

d. The writer of Hebrews points out that the law of Moses was inherently weak in several ways and that God had promised a new covenant based upon better promises.

Hebrews 10:9-10 ESV – then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

1 Peter 1:18-21 ESV – knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

(slide 15)

D. Replacement:

As a consequence of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah, God has replaced physical Israel with a new nation, spiritual Israel. This spiritual Israel has been sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Today, the “Jew” is not one who is so physically, but one who is so inwardly, spiritually.

Romans 2:28-29 ESV – For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

(slide 16)

1. Those who submit to the gospel plan of redemption—whether Jew or Gentile become children of God, and thus are constituted as the true “offspring of Abraham”

Galatians 3:7-9 ESV – Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Galatians 3:26-29 ESV – for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

1 Peter 2:9 ESV – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

(slide 17)

II. Will All Israel be Saved?

Will there be a national conversion of Israel and the reestablishment of a national Jewish State?

A. Although, in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, physical Israel was a special people to God, with the coming of the Gospel, there was no intrinsic value in being a physical descendant of Abraham.

John the Baptizer: Matthew 3:8-10 ESV – Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

1. John’s words are focused on the coming wrath of God (Matthew 3:7 ESV) which was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 A.D. The point to be seen is this: When a tree is cut down, there is hope that it will sprout again, provided its stump or roots remain (Isaiah 11:1 ESV – There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.) But when the axe is laid at the root, where is the hope of restoration? There simply is none!

In the parable of the barren fig tree of Matthew 21 ESV Jesus declared “May no fruit ever come from you again!” (Matthew 21:19 ESV). Later in that same chapter Jesus announced to the Jews “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:43 ESV).

(slide 18)

2. In several of Jesus’ later parables He depicts Israel as those who reject…

1) the royal invitation to the marriage (Matt. 22:1-8 ESV);

2) the reign of the Nobleman over his household (Luke 19:14 ESV);

3) or the invitation to a great supper (Luke 14 ESV).

In each of these parables the punishment for such rejection is swift and final.

Luke 14:24 ESV – For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

This refers, of course, to the Jewish majority that refused the gospel (a remnant accepted the invitation – Romans 11:5 ESV).

(slide 19)

B . Although Israel, as a nation, lost its land and its status as a favored nation in the eyes of God, the spiritual blessing of salvation remained. This was always the primary goal of the promises to Abraham.

Romans 10:12-15 ESV – For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

(slide 20)

1. Paul goes on to say that God has not cast off His people, but rather provided “ a remnant, chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5 ESV). After counseling the Gentiles to not be haughty about their position in the kingdom, he states that Jew can be “grafted” into the tree if they do not continue in unbelief. (Romans 11:23 ESV)

Romans 11:26-27 ESV – And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

The context provides the correct meaning of “all Israel will be saved.” It is in this way (the way of obeying Christ) that all Israel (who are saved) shall be saved. This passage does not affirm a nation-wide conversion of the people of Israel, but the true and only hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(slide 21)

2. Paul anguished over his brethren in the flesh: In the previous chapter in Romans – Romans 9:1-5 ESV – I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit – that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh is Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 10:1 ESV – Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

Paul’s anguish is inexplicable if Israel was to be converted as a nation in some future time. Israel’s blessing was spiritual, not physical. Israel’s hope was in Christ alone, and not is a physical connection with Abraham or the Law of Moses.

(slide 22)

Conclusion

Israel fulfilled it’s purpose in the Divine plan.

• Selection
• Testing
• Rejection
• Replacement

Israel can be saved just as we can be saved only through Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:26-29 ESV – For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Genesis 12:01-03 – God’s Promises to Abraham – Part 1 – powerpoint – audio

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(Part 1 – Part 2)

Text: Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

(slide 2)

Introduction

The words God spoke to Abram here form a spiritual foundation for our understanding of the rest of the scriptures. From God’s special calling and choosing of Abram we are able to see His progressive work that consummated is the coming of Christ, His death on Calvary and His resurrection from the dead. We need to understand how God fulfilled His promises to Abram (later Abraham).

(slide 3)

I. The Elements of the Promise:

When we describe the words of Genesis 12:1-3 ESV, we often speak of them as containing 3 interrelated promises. This is a good way to categorize the many promises that God made to Abraham. (Some suggest that it is best to understand the promise as a twofold promise:

1) A nation and land promise which was physical; and

2) a seed promise, which was spiritual).

The content of God’s promises to Abraham and His children were:

(slide 4)

A . A Great Nation

• Genesis 22:17 ESV – I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, God promised to turn Abram’s children into a great nation (I will surely multiply your offspring)
• All males of his household were given the special covenant of circumcision (Gen.17:1-14 ESV);
• His previously barren wife, Sarah, bore him a son (“of promise”) when he was “one hundred years old” (Gen.21:1-7 ESV).
• Later, that son, Isaac, took a wife from among his father’s people (Gen.24 ESV); and Jacob, the “chosen” son of Isaac, took a wife from his mother’s people (Gen.28:1-4 ESV). Both men were warned to take no wives of the Canaanites, nor of other nations where they dwelt, a warning extended throughout the generations yet to come. This was the “building” of a race of people who were to serve God’s purposes in a special way.
• Later known as the nation of Israel, (Jacob named called Israel by God). Israel became God’s nation through the giving of the law at Sinai, and God sanctified them through His commandments.

1. Prior to entering the land of the “promised land” of Canaan, Moses said, “The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.” (Deuteronomy 1:10 ESV)

2. Later Israel is identified as God’s special people, a great nation of His own making: 2 Sam. 7:23 ESV – And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeem for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods?

(slide 5)

B . The Land of Canaan

After Abram entered the land God led him to, God reiterated His intentions concerning the land: Genesis 13:14-15 ESV The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

God later provided definitive boundaries to the promised land to Abraham: Genesis 15:18-21 ESV – On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

(slide 6)

C. The Offspring

“in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” A repetition of the promise in Genesis 22:18 ESV reads, “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” We are not left to guess the meaning. Paul writes, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16 ESV).

Paul’s grammatical emphasis makes it clear that the blessings for “all nations” did not depend upon Israel as a nation, nor upon Jews as a people, but upon one of Abraham’s descendants, Jesus Christ.

(slide 7)

II. The Fulfillment of the Promises

It is crucial that we understand the manner in which God fulfilled the promises He made to Abram in Genesis 12 ESV. Much false doctrine, especially the false teachings of pre-millennialism, has roots in a misinterpretation of these promises, and a failure to recognize their proper fulfillment.

(slide 8)

A. Pre-millennialism alleges that Jesus will return to this earth before he commences a thousand-year reign on David’s throne in Jerusalem. Pre-millennialism, and its theological sister, dispensationalism, argue that God intends to reestablish a physical Jewish kingdom in Palestine. The doctrine contends that there is yet a purpose to be served by physical Israel (interpreted as the present physical state of Israel that began in 1948). Dispensationalists also allege that in the “seven-year tribulation period,” just prior to Christ’s “millennial reign,” God will restore the Jews to Palestine, and a national conversion of the Hebrew people will occur.

(slide 9)

B. However, a careful consideration of the Bible text will indicate that God fulfilled every physical element of the promises He made to Abraham. Note: The physical aspects of these promises were but means to a far more important and eternal purpose of salvation from sins for all mankind. “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29 ESV).

(slide 10)

1. We have already seen that God fulfilled His promise to make Abraham’s children a great nation. This special covenant relationship was driven by the law given at Sinai, and predicated on their keeping of that law. In speaking about the value of the law to Israel Moses said… – Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? (Deuteronomy 4:6-8 ESV).

(slide 11)

2. God gave all the land He promised – Scriptures clearly refute all of the present “land claims” of the pre-millennialists. Joshua 21:43-45 ESV – Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

(slide 12)

The retention of the land was conditional on their faithfulness. Joshua 23:11-16 ESV – Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you, know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you. “And now I about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you, if you transgress the covenant of the LORD you God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

(slide 13)

3. God returned a remnant to the land: There is not a single New Testament passage that speaks of a restoration of national Israel and the literal return of Hebrews to Palestine at some future time. The prophets did speak about a restoration of Israel to the land after the 70 years of exile in Babylon. Jeremiah 29:10 ESV – For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon. I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

(slide 14)

a. Ezra 1:1 ESV – In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, through the work of Ezra and Nehemiah.

(slide 15)

b. Other predictions, which speak of a “restoration” of Israel, refer to a spiritual restoration (to God, not Palestine – such as Isaiah 49:6-9 ESV; where Isaiah speaks of Jehovah’s Servant (the Messiah) restoring Israel and blessing all nations. Paul references this verse twice (2 Cor. 6 ESV and Acts 13 ESV in Antioch) in connection with the preaching of the gospel to both the Jew and the Gentile.

(slide 16)

Conclusion

God promised Abraham:

• A nation
• A land
• An offspring

God fulfilled these promises in the nation of Israel, the Promised Land and Jesus Christ.