Month: November 2020

1. God will Provide

Genesis 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Christians take the promise “God will provide” as a way of saying that the Lord will give you what you need. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We encourage one another with these words. Abraham did not know he was making a general promise for us for all time. In the immediate event he only meant that he was trusting the Lord to do the right thing and provide the sacrifice. He probably didn’t even know the eternal import of these words. The NT says Abraham was trusting the Lord to do something, even to raise Isaac from the dead if He wanted to. 

Abraham did not realize that he was prophesying of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, whom God provided for a sacrifice for all people of all time. God did provide the lamb for the eternal sacrifice for sin. God used Abraham to speak these words, not knowing the exact outlines of the prophecy. God provided a ram to be sacrificed in place of his only son, Isaac. God provided His own son to be the sacrifice in the place of all of us, represented by Isaac. Instead of Isaac, a ram = instead of me, Jesus. In the offering up of Christ the Son on the cross God provided forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation with all its attendant blessings and promises. God’s provisions are abundant, but they are spiritual, and eternal.

We usually apply the “God will provide” promise to the material and physical needs that God in His love and care provides for us for life in this world. So Jesus encourages us to pray for daily bread. Inherent in the command to pray is the promise to hear and provide. God promises He will provide for us, but the text actually says He will provide for Himself a lamb. God gave us Jesus to satisfy His unconquerable love for our life, our eternity, and for us to be with Him. God also did it Himself with no help or aid from anyone else.

1.  All People blessed in Abraham

Genesis 18:18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

God loves all people. God loved the world in this way: He gave His Son. God promises Abraham that he will become a great and mighty nation. Politically, this happened to a small extent under King David, but the essence of the promise is not a political nation. The promise is for a great spiritual kingdom of all believers in Christ.

The amazing part of this promise is that all the nations of the earth will be blessed in Abraham. This promise is for all people who ever lived on earth. Jesus died for all. All people will find blessing in the promise to Abraham and the faith of Abraham. The immediate context is the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord is going to share with Abraham His intended investigation and judgment on Sodom. He will share the plan with Abraham since he is to be a blessing to that nation. His prayer was to save the nation if there were at least 10 believers in it (but there weren’t).

The subsequent years of history work out the promise: the blessing for all the nations turned out to tbe God-become-man, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is the blessing to all the world’s people. Everyone may find hope and salvation and blessing in Christ, the promised seed of Abraham. “Peace on earth, good will to men” has come in the birth of the Savior. Not all the nations have believed and received the blessing, but it is given by grace to all peoples when they receive Christ.

The blessing of Abraham comes to the earth’s people through the “great and mighty nation.” This is the Church of all believers. We are the blessing to the earth people. No one knows the blessing we are to the world; no one can count the blessings Christians give the world. We cannot even imagine what life on earth would be like if all the Christians were removed. But it is true nonetheless; believers are a blessing and give blessings to the nations. We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We positively affect life in a sin-cursed world. So says the Lord.

1. An Everlasting Covenant

Genesis 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

God established His covenant with Isaac, the same covenant promised to Abraham and his seed. And now the covenant is renewed and extended to Isaac and his seed. The seed of Isaac is Jesus the Messiah, and ultimately the seed is all the believers in Christ, the Church. That’s you and me. The Lord established an everlasting covenant with me. The promise is sure.

The covenant is the guarantee of land (kingdom), descendants (church), and blessing to the nations (all people). This covenant with me is guaranteed, universal, absolute and certain, and it is also eternal. It will never come to an end. The life and the kingdom, the church and the blessing go on forever.

The Lord establishes the covenant with us when we are baptized and renews the covenant with us when receive Holy Communion. “This is the blood of the new covenant shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Technically, the covenant is not really new in the sense of replacing the old one; both the old and new covenants are based on the promised Messiah shedding His blood and rising from the dead. The Old and the New Testament are one and the same covenant blessing and promise. All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we hear the Gospel and believe it the covenant is established with us again, anew, afresh, and alive. It never gets old; it never grows stale. It gives eternal life and spiritual health over and over. It is new, exciting and life-giving every time. We renew the covenant on a regular basis, “lest ye forget.” The love of God never stops; the peace of God goes beyond understanding; the joy of the Lord endures forever. Everything not of God comes to and end an passes away. Everything of God and everything from God lasts forever. That’s the covenant promise.

1. Possess Everlasting Land

Genesis 17:8 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.

God promises Abraham land. God promises us (the seed) land. The land becomes the spiritual kingdom of God, which is the eternal land in the heart, and then the inheritance kept for us in heaven and will one day be realized in full glory.

In the present land we are in we are strangers. We don’t belong here, because we belong to the Lord and to His land in heaven. Heaven is God’s home and it is our homeland. We are strangers and exiles and pilgrims on the earth. We will never fit in to this worldly kingdom. We are tempted to “fit in and get along,” but our true Lord won’t really let us become molded to the world’s ways. Our citizenship is above. Therefore, we should not think it strange or odd if we don’t feel like we are at home in the world with its ways of thinking and living.

This present world that sin wants us to be familiar with is passing away. We desire a “better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city [Hebrews 11:16].” This land, this better country, is promised to us as an “everlasting possession.” We possess eternal life now and forever. And God is our God. “A man’s life does not consist in his possessions,” says Jesus, because all present possessions will soon pass away and be gone. We possess a life that does not pass away. The life I possess by faith is everlasting and will endure for eternity. God’s eternal life is taking over the old life full of sin and death and destroying it. By faith in Christ we are taking over the “land of Canaan,” the worldly land of idolatry, unbelief, false gods, immorality and wickedness. Christ, and we with Him, has cancelled the authority of the Prince of the Power of the Air and returned the dominion of Paradise to us believers. Now with Joshua (Jesus) we go in and possess the kingdom God gave us. We are promised eternal life, the kingdom, as an everlasting possession. We have eternal life now within, and later we will have it all around us without as well.

1. A Covenant to be God

Genesis 17:7 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.

This is what we need: a God, a God who will be God to us. We who believe in Jesus have the faith of Abraham, and so we are of his seed. We have this promise. God, the Lord, establishes a covenant with us. God makes a covenant with us unconditionally: He will be our God whether we will be His people or not. We don’t have to wonder, doubt, or just hope. We know. We can be sure. God is our God all the time. He is our God whenever we need Him, and we always need Him. He is our God even when we don’t feel like we need Him. We may have separated ourselves from God, but He won’t separate Himself from us. We may wander off intentionally or unintentionally into a “far country,” but our Father is still waiting at the gate for us to return home where we belong.

God may seem distant at times, but He is not far off. He is always near, just waiting for us to call upon His Name. We may not sense or feel His Presence, but, thank God, it doesn’t depend on our fickle emotions; it depends on His Promise. He is there because He promises to be there as our God, not because feel God. We take it by faith. We believe, and then we see. 

And this covenant is everlasting. The promise will not fail. Jesus never fails. God does not take a vacation or take a day off or just quit being God. He is everlasting and so is His life that lives and rules within. The promise is eternal, and so by faith we are eternal. This body we live in will decay and die; this earth we live on will pass away; everything we see will come to an end. But the eternal live within will never pass away. The Life just keeps going on forever without end. The covenant promise is everlasting. Change and decay in all around I see, but God’s life and God’s promise in us keeps growing stronger and livelier. We have an eternal promise.

1. God will Multiply

Genesis 17:2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee; and will multiply thee exceedingly.

God will multiply Abraham. That’s a promise for us since we are included in Abraham’s seed and Abraham’s promise and Abraham’s faith. God will multiply us exceedingly. The Church of believers in Christ, the Promise of God, will grow and increase greatly. This came about when God entered the world in the flesh, and many disciples believed in Him and gathered around Him to see what He was doing and hear what He was saying. Through the generations the seed continued to multiply and grow exceedingly until the Faith has grown to cover the earth.

We take heart and grow strong through this promise. The seed of faith has multiplied through the ages until Christians are everywhere. It sometimes appears to us that we Christians are outnumbered and losing ground, but we don’t always see the growth of the Kingdom. It “grows secretly” like the seed in the soil, and it will grow until the final harvest of souls. We are a part of a large movement, something bigger than us alone. When we see godlessness and evil increasing around us in the world we need to look to the promise of God. The influence of believers in the world makes a difference to the people around us.

The seed of faith grows. This is true globally as the Church covers the earth. But it is also true in each individual believer. We can take this promise personally: the faith within grows and multiplies in greater ways than we even know. Faith begins inside our spirit as a seed, but it always grows until it bears fruit and produces new seeds. Jesus promises that the seed of faith grows until it becomes a large bush, or tree, or vine. The seed needs good soil. This is an honest and good heart that receives the gospel message gladly. The seed needs nutrients and watering: this is the nourishment and life-giving gospel that we hear and receive regularly. The seed needs sunshine and cultivation: this is the work of the Spirit to root out weeds that would choke out the growing seed. We need to believe the promise of multiplying because sometimes we wonder if it is worth the time and effort to go to church and spend time alone with God. The promise says, “It is.” It makes a difference.

1. Land Given to Us

Genesis 15:18 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 to the great river, the river Euphrates.

The Lord made a covenant with Abraham containing a sure promise. This was a one-sided covenant. Only the Lord bound Himself to the covenant promise. On Abraham’s side there was no condition. The Lord unconditionally promised Abraham He would give him this land. Specifically, this land covered all the territory from the Nile River to the Euphrates River. This promise never came true in those geographical terms. The greatest extent of the kingdom of Israel came about under King David, but it never quite reached that far to the east or the west. And Abraham himself never saw the realization of the promise of land, for all he had at the end of his life was a tomb site at Machpelah.

But the promise remains. The seed of Abraham is the people of God with the same faith as Abraham, who believed God and His promise. The seed of Abraham turns out to be Jesus of Nazareth, God in human flesh from the line of Abraham’s descendants. The promise is for all those everywhere who believe in Jesus. They are the seed who receive the promise. 

The promise is really a spiritual promise: it is the Kingdom of God brought to humans on earth by Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. The “Land” is in the hearts of believers. The inheritance is kept for them in heaven, but they have the Holy Spirit within as a guarantee of the promise. The spiritual land will become the physical land of the new heavens and new earth. God will create another universe to replace the old one that is passing away. This is our inheritance. This is our land. “This land was made for you and me.” It is reserved in heaven for us, granted and guaranteed by the unconditional covenant the Lord made with Abraham. Jesus announced this Land: “it is at hand.” Jesus earned the kingdom for us; God granted it; and the Holy Spirit seals it into our hearts. We possess the land as a gift. We have eternal life; the promise is fulfilled.

1. 9. Faith is Righteousness

Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

This is a statement of fact, a truth; it explains something that happened in the physical world as something that happened in the spiritual world. Abraham believed God. That was the historical event. The Lord counted that as righteousness. That was the spiritual truth. The Word makes a connection between the earthly and the heavenly. The NT uses this historical event to make a theological point for all believers: we are all counted righteousness through faith. We are saved by faith, not by works. This is the promise that we take to heart when we are saved, converted, forgiven and made righteous.

We know we are not righteous; we know God demands righteousness; and we know we cannot make ourselves righteous in any sense by any means. What can we do? God tells us what He did, and revealed it to us. He died for us the ungodly, gives us faith to believe it, and counts us as righteous on account of Christ. God has done the impossible and made it real. And that’s a promise you can live with.

Once we realize and admit that we are not righteous, that we must be so to have eternal life, and that we cannot establish our own righteousness then we are ready to receive the promise. We hear it, we read it, we learn it, we take it to heart, and we live in it. It is not presumptuous and audacious to assert: “I am righteous.”We know we can confidently say so because we believe God’s promise. It is not pride, but humility, to make such a boast. We may boast in the Cross. We make our boast in the Lord. We brag about our good God and Savior. This promise is guaranteed.

1. 8. Land for the Seed

Genesis 13:15, 17 For all the land which thou seeest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever…Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and it the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

The Lord promises to give to Abraham all the land that he can see and walk through. The land is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is also given to the seed of Abraham. The seed of Abraham includes all the believers in Jesus Christ, for they all have the same faith in the Promise of God that Abraham has; we are the spiritual seed connected to God through faith in Christ. We have the same spiritual DNA, as it were. This promise is ours. We, through Christ, are the inheritors of the promise of “land.” This inheritance is held for us in heaven. This “heavenly land” we hold and enjoy in our hearts today by faith, unseen, yet more real than physical land.

Everything, heaven and earth, everything physical that we see and feel today will pass away; thus the “land” is not physical, as it will pass away. The Promised Land is forever. It will not pass away. The unseen things of God are eternal. Jesus says, “My words will never pass away.” Our focus is upon the unseen, spiritual promises and blessings in God’s Word. This land is the inward man, which sees the invisible and eternal kingdom that lasts forever. Since everything else will pass away we do not focus our thoughts and hopes on anything material, physical and earthly. Faith sees the unseen.

God gave this land to us. He also gives us the faith to believe it, through the hearing of the Gospel of Christ. Believing is seeing and possessing. Like Joshua, we go into the land (actually the land comes to us) to possess what God gave. We still need to possess the promise that God gave for free. This pictures the relationship of Grace and Faith. By grace God gives the faith to possess the Promise. The promise (the land) is earned for us by Christ on the cross and the tomb and given to us by grace through faith. Hear the Gospel. See the Land. Possess it by faith. Enjoy!

1. Seed numbered as dust

Genesis 13:16 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.

God promises Abraham that He will make his seed as the dust of the earth (and also as the stars of the sky). Of course, over a period of 4000 years there will be many descendants of one man, perhaps too many to count. But that kind of promise can be true for any number of men who lived 4000 years ago. The only physical wonder of this obvious promise is that Abraham and Sarai are old and past childbearing age. This is the miracle of Isaac’s birth. Although it should be remembered that Abraham also fathered other children and nations later on after the age of 100.

The real promise is that the “seed” of Abraham is physically Jesus of Nazareth, who is the God-man that will bring billions into the kingdom of God. Therefore, the promise is to be taken spiritually: every person who has the faith of Abraham is included in his seed. The faith of Abraham is to believe in the Promise of God; the promise of God is that there will be born of his seed a Savior who is God. This human birth of God is the impossible wonder that requires faith. Thank God, the Lord grants this faith through the Word of Gospel. That’s the real miracle: that I believe in Jesus Christ as my God and Savior.

The promise is spiritual, for by faith we are children of Abraham, and this promise says that we, the seed, the believers in Christ, will be an innumerable host. We are a part of something really big, beyond our ability to comprehend. We may feel as insignificant as one grain of sand, one particle of dust, one star in the sky, but added together we make a huge kingdom of God. And the kingdom in which faith places us, the kingdom that lives inside us, the kingdom that is eternal, is so great and huge that all we can do is respond with resounding thanks for His goodness and praise of His Grace. This response defines our life: our life in Christ is one of thanksgiving and praise. We are always thankful and grateful, and we live in that kind of spirit. We are a part of something that exceeds our imagination. We have a big God, for greater than my temporary problems and fears.