GOD'S PROMISES TO ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
by Samson Hutagalung

Introduction

The call of Abraham was very significant to the world in which from his descendants  the Lord has been showing mercy to all sinners. Indeed the plan of God is beyond expectation and imagination of humankind. Having fallen into sin, God opened a way of salvation to all people that sinners might obtain acceptance before God and eternal life.

The promises that the Lord had given to Abraham had produced the great result to humankind and to the nation of Israel particularly. In order to reveal and fulfil the promise of the coming saviour mentioned in Gen 3:15, the Lord had chosen Abraham and his descendants as vehicle to accomplish His promises. With regard to these promises the Lord also had to show the significant of His people as He had made a covenant with His servant Abraham that his generation would be the great nation. In order to accomplish this promise the Lord must bestow him a son, for when the Lord made a covenant with him he had not had any child, and  provided him a land. (Genesis 15:1-5)

Based on Genesis 17:7 this covenant is the everlasting covenant between God and Abraham and his descendants. This is to say that the covenant God made to Abraham is eternal till all the promises are fulfilled. Therefore the physical seeds of Abraham though they disobeyed and not worship Him, would continue under this covenant. That the Lord is still interested with the children of Abraham as a nation and He will remember them. In the fullness of time He will bring them back to His own. The writer would discuss the threefold promises of God in Abrahamic covenant as followings: (1) the promise of the heir (seed), (2) the promise of the land and (3) the promise of the people to be the blessing.

The Promise of the Heir

The step of faith that Abraham did to obey and follow what the Lord had said to him was the most significant in the history of the life of Abraham. Abraham did not know about the Lord while he was staying in his father’s house. The call of Abraham was the first experience to hear the voice of the Lord. However, he did believe to what the Lord commanded him. He believed that the Lord who had called him is the true God and the promised keeping God. Therefore by faith he departed from his country  to the land which the Lord would show him (Gen 12:1,4).

In Abraham’s first response, he was childless (Gen 15:3), but the faith that he received from the Lord, became the foundation for him to believe what the Lord told him. The Lord spoke to Abraham for the first time saying,

Get thee out of thy country...unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great: and thau 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 (Gen 12:1-3).

After this the Lord also appeared to him for the second time to conform that the land he stepped on would be given to him particularly unto his seed (Gen 12:7). Truly the Lord kept His word. After Abraham's return from Egypt and his separation with Lot, this promise was renewed by the Lord. The Lord said to Abraham saying,

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 (Gen 13:14-18).

Based on these promises, the Lord would give the land unto him even though in that point of time he did not have any child yet, but God in His good time would fulfil what he had promised. Though in human’s understanding it was hard to believe that Abraham would have a child while he was seventy five years old at the time of his calling (Gen 12:4).

Having received the promises from the Lord thrice (Gen 12:1-3, Gen 12:7; Gen 13:14-17), again the Lord came to Abraham in a vision to conform that the Lord is His ‘shield’ and his ‘exceeding great reward’ (15:1). Up to this poin, the Lord had spoken to Abraham for four times. However when the Lord spoke to him for thrice Abraham did not comment at all but just followed what the Lord told him. In this fourth appearance, Abraham declared his desire as a response to what the Lord had  promised. Abraham said, “Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and lo, one born in my house in mine heir” (Gen 15:3). The Lord replied to him that though the Lord had not given him any son yet, the servant who was born in his house was not his heir but the true heir would come from his own seed (Gen 15:4). In this confusing situation of Abraham, the Lord further assured him to this coming fulfilment heir of him saying, “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” (15:5). Abraham just believed to this promise even though he did not know the exact time of fulfilment of this promise.

Ishmael

After ten years passed by, the promise of the Lord had not yet fulfilled in the life of Abraham. The promised son who would inherit the land was not known yet. This perhaps was the greatest worried to Sarai, his wife that she desired to have a child. Sarai had heard the promises for ten years and yet she did not see any sign of its fulfilment. Therefore Abraham and Sarai became more concerned. Sarai was not patient to wait for the Lord’s blessing. As the custom in those days, Abraham was asked by his wife to take her handmaid, Hagar, as a concubine, that she might bear a child on behalf of Sarai and Abraham listened to his wife (Gen 16:1-3).[1] One year later, “Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram” (Gen 16:15-16).

As years went by, the promises of the Lord never changed. The Lord still remembered His to Abraham, and He would fulfil them in His good time. After the birth of Ishmael to the family, the Lord still did not show any sign of his seed. However the Lord said to Abraham that Ishmael was not the promised son who would inherit the land. The promised son would be his own seed through his wife Sarai (Gen 17:15-21). The Lord also said to Abraham pertaining his son Ishmael saying  “as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation” (Gen 17:20).

In Genesis 21:6-21, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away for Ishmael was not the promised son. Davis rightly commented,

As far as Sarah was concerned, the continuing presence of Hagar and Ishmael in her household threatened her position and authority. Not wanting to become embroiled in the dispute, which was legally Sarah’s to settle, Abraham suggested that she do to Hagar “as it pleaseth thee.” So Sarah made life difficult for Hagar, perhaps by returning her to slave status (which the Code of Hammurab permitted the wife to do) and making unrealistic demands upon her. In any event, Hagar was forced to flee, and she got as far as the wilderness on the way to Shur (16:7), near the Egyptian border (20:1; 25:13).[2]

However because Ishmael was a seed of Abraham, the Lord said that Ishmael the son of the bondwoman would also be a nation (Gen 21:13,18). As Davis commented that “many Arabs claim Ishmael as their father and, therefore, Palestine as their land. The prophetic description of Ishmael as “a wild ass of a man” is rather intriguing.”[3]

Isaac

From the birth of Ishmael, the Lord “was silent for thirteen more years.”[4]This was the time of Abraham’s faith was tested with regard to the promised heir the Lord had promised. But the Lord remembered His promise, and said to Abraham when his wife was ninety years old that she would bear a child. This was very hard to believe that such age could bear a child. The confirmation was given to Abraham through the announcement that his wife’s name should be changed to ‘Sarah’ which means ‘a mother of nations.’ Abraham's response was that Ishmael was the promised seed, but the Lord said, “Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed and thou shalt call his name Isaac” (Gen 17:19). Now Abraham understood that Ishmael was not the promised son that God had promised to him but Isaac.  This is to say that “Abraham’s heir would be his own child, not an adopted servant.”[5]

Starting with the promised birth of Isaac (Gen 17:21), the Lord told Abraham that the Lord would make a covenant to Isaac and his seed as an everlasting covenant (Gen 17:19). This is to say that the promises God had given to Abraham would continue to Isaac and his seed after him, and they would be fulfilled in the fullness of time. The promise that the descendants of Abraham as a great nation would come to pass (Gen 15:5).

The great evidence for this promise to Abraham seen by the birth of Isaac through his wife Sarah, when Abraham was a hundred years old (Gen 21:1-5). Abraham was convinced of all promises that God made with him would be fulfilled. As Davis said, “God’s elective purposes will be fulfilled through the descendants of Isaac.”[6] However above all that the fulfilment of the coming saviour in Gen 3:15 would come from the line of Isaac. This  is crucial that through the promised son of Abraham, Christians could see how God’s plan works to bring salvation to sinners. Nothing that man can do for their salvation except looking to Jesus.

The Promise of the Land

The promised son was one of the promises that the Lord had told to Abraham. After having fulfilled this promise, there are at least two more promises that the Lord should show to the descendants of Abraham namely the promised land and the promised people as the great nation which is also as a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2).

The  Promised Land Was Given to His People

Although the birth of Isaac came later, the promised land was told to Abraham. This promise was given when the Lord made a covenant with Abraham that the land in which he stood would be given to him and his descendants though in that point of time still belonged to many nations. Despite of the present of those nations the Lord gave the land to Abraham unconditionally as the Lord said,

Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites (Gen 15:18-21).

This promise was reaffirmed to Abraham after the birth of Ishmael saying,

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. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their  generations (Gen 17:8-9).

This promise was first seen its fulfilment in the death of Sarah where Abraham bought a piece of land to bury his wife. This was just the starting point for Abraham to see this land as his possession (Gen 23:1-20), for the Lord had given him the border of the land from the great river to the river of Euphrates. What Abraham had at that moment was just for the burial ground for his wife and “this became the future burial ground of Abraham himself (Gen 25:8-10).”[7] As Davis comments,

the very fact that Abraham Buried Sarah in the land of Canaan is proof of his unwavering faith. Knowing that his descendants would have to endure 400 years of bitter bondage in a foreign country (15:13), he looked beyond that to the ultimate fulfilment of God’s promise. ...Abraham is remembered for his far reaching faith which caused him to look for a city ‘whose builder and maker is God.’[8]

Therefore the great fulfilment to this promised land would be seen further in the time of Abraham's descendants through Jacob and his twelve sons (became the twelve tribes) possess the land.

The People Was Restored to the Land

The land that Abraham had bought became the possession of his descendants, even to his grandson Jacob. Jacob with his twelve sons lived in Canaan. The famine that happened in this country had caused them to leave this land and went to Egypt as a command of Joseph his son whom became  prime ministry in Egypt. The prophecy of Abraham's descendants as  being strangers for 430 years was being fulfilled in this land of Egypt (Gen 15:13). During these long years, the descendants of Abraham as known Israel had been  suffering under the bondage of Egyptians. But despite of this hardship, the Lord had blessed them that this nation had grown to two millions people. This was the fulfilment of the promise of the Lord to Abraham that his descendants would be innumerable.

The land of Canaan that had been forsaken for 430 years would be restored to the children of Israel that the Israelites who were under bondage for many years would be brought back to the promised land. Indeed under the leadership of Moses, they left Egypt and marched to the promised land through the way of wilderness. And under the leadership of Joshua they had conquered the land and destroyed those nations who lived in the promised land as the Lord commanded them. The divisions of the land had been done and the land was divided according to their tribes.

After the death of Joshua and the elders of the Israelites, the children of Israel did evil before the Lord and worship other gods, and the Lord sold them to their enemies. Because of the apostasy that happened among the Israelites, the Lord had commanded His prophets to warn them that they might obey and follow their Lord. One has said that,

The land aspect of the Abraham promise had particular importance for the prophets of the declining and post-monarchy era. Because of apostasy, Israel was losing the land and consequently her nationhood, but that was not the last word. Through the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel in particular, God sustained the hope of the faithful with promises of a return to the land.[9]

Many a time in spite of obeying what their  prophets had conveyed, they ignored them even when the prophets told them the consequences of their disobedience that they would be captive by the Assyrian and Babylonian. Their hearts were hardened and disobeyed God. During this time many Israelites were killed and many were exiled for seventy years to Babylon. The promised land was taken by other nations. After their return from exile some of the land was taken by their surrounding nations, and their land was smaller than before. One rightly commented that,

The exiles who returned to the land under Ezra and Nehemiah rested their faith in the God of Abraham. Even while they were still under the domination of others (Neh 9:36-37), they based their hope of restoration on God’s covenant with Abraham, as we see in their prayer of national confession and their determination to obey God’s law.[10]

The Lord had promised to Abraham how large the promised land was. But even in the first entrance of the Israelites to the promised land, the full size of the Promise Land was occupied by Israelites as the Lord had commanded. Will God fulfil the full measurement of the promised land given to Abraham? The answer is that the promised land will be restored to his people as the Lord had said. God is Almighty who has not forgotten His promises. Although in the year AD 70 many people had taught the nation of Israel no longer existed, and yet in 1948, the nation of Israel  has been back to the promised land from the four corners of the world. Almost 2000 years Israel did not have any identity as a nation, but because God remembers His promises, Israel must be back to the Promised Land in order to fulfil God's promises completely. As Macnaughtan comments “The land is to be restored to the people of Israel. The unconditional covenant made with Abraham, not yet fulfilled in all its details, as we have seen, requires this.”[11] He further comments with regard to the fulfilment of the promised land:

We know of no one who would have the temerity to claim that, under Joshua and his immediate successors, the Israelites ‘possessed’ and ‘dwelt in’ the whole land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates! Either we must conclude that the solemn  promise God made to Abraham was never intended to be taken on its face value - and this we can not accept- or that the promise is yet to find its complete fulfilment.[12]

The Promise of the People

The People Is the Blessing to All Nations

Based on the promise of God to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, that his descendants would be a blessing to all the world. This promise was mentioned twice to Abraham (Gen 18:18; 22:18) and confirmed also to his son  Isaac in Genesis 26:4 and to Jacob in Genesis 28:14.[13] All promises that God had said with regard to the nation of Israel will be fulfilled. Although many people think that the Lord is not interested on Israel as a nation any more for they had killed their King, Jesus Christ. This view is well known as the interpretation of the Amillennium. They also say that all the blessings that the Lord had said to Abraham have been replaced by the church. Therefore the Amillennium believes that the Israel that we see today is not the same as before, because they had been cast by the Lord and the Lord is only interested on the church. However one commented on this view that,  

These blessings promised to Israel are nowhere reinterpreted as presently belonging to the church. The fact that the promises remain in force anticipates their future fulfilment. Thus, while there is in the promised to all people through Abraham and his seed, many aspect of the promise remain to the fulfilled, especially those dealing with the “great nation” seed and the “land” but also the final inheritance of spiritual salvation.[14]

The Lord who is  faithful to what He had said will fulfil  the promises given to Abraham.

With regard to the promised people as an universal blessing, it is seen its fulfilment through the Lord Jesus Christ where His lineage came from the line of Abraham. Through Him we know that all the world (those who believe on Him)  is rejoicing for the eternal salvation they have in Christ Jesus. Truly this is the greatest blessing that people ever have in life. The nation of Israel will continue be as a blessing to all the world, even for the second coming of Jesus Christ Israel is the key nation as the Bible describes that His coming will be the same from the place where he went up to heaven namely Jerusalem. This is to say those who  have known Christ will see Him face to face with great joy.

Conclusion

The call of Abraham to leave his own country and his father’s house is clearly seen as a  plan of the Lord for the salvation of sinners. Since the promise had given to Adam in Genesis 3:15, therefore the Lord  had chosen Abraham and his descendants as the chosen people where this promise would be fulfilled and many people would be blessed. As Saucy said,

Only with the call of Abraham does God step into human history to initiate his own kingdom program of salvation. The gracious promises given to Abraham in covenant appear throughout Scripture as the foundation and essential ingredients in germinal form of all subsequent salvation history. In addition to the content, the paradigmatic divine human relationship evident in the covenant with Abraham constitutes the root of all salvation.[15]

In the  promises of the Lord given to Abraham, there are three main promises that the Lord should bring to pass namely, the promise of the heir, the promise of the land and the promise of the people as a universal blessing. Indeed the first was already fulfilled but the second partly because the land of Israel has not been fully fulfilled as what the Lord had said to Abraham. And the third is being fulfilled in the church age today.

Therefore through the promises of God made in the Abrahamic Covenant, it is clear that the promised Saviour would come to save the all sinners who believe and have faith on Him. Indeed through this covenant we may see and taste the joy of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bibliography

Buswell, James Oliver. A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion. Vol 2. Singapore, Christian Life Publishers, reprinted, 1994.

Davis, John J. Paradise To Prison: Studies in Genesis. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1975.

Dillard, Raymond B. and Tremper Longman III. An Introductin to the Old Testament. England: Apollos, 1995

Hamilton. Victor P. The Book of Genesis Chapter 1-17. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990.

Macnaughtan, K. A. The Covenant and the Promises. Australia: The David Press, 1978.

Pink, A. W. The Divine Covenant. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1973.

Robertson, O. Palmer. The Christ of the Covenant. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980.

Saucy, Robert L. The Case For Progressive Dispensationalism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993.

Scroggie, W. Graham. The Unfolding Drama Of Redemption. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1970.

Unger. Merrill F. The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary. Chicago: Moody  Press, 1985.

Wood, Leon J. A Survey of Israel’s History. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publihsing House, 1986.

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