The Promises Made to The Fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), Yet To Be Fulfilled In the Setting Up Of the Kingdom Of God Upon Earth, continued

1st.--That Abraham's posterity should become a great and mighty nation.--This has not been fulfilled in the sense of the promise. It is true that Abraham's descendants, according to the flesh, have multiplied and filled a large place in history; but this is not the only event contemplated in the promise, as is evident from Rom. 9v 6-8. The natural Jews from the day that they murmured against Moses and Aaron, in the wilderness, till now, when they reject the prophet like unto Moses, have ever been a stiff-necked, disobedient generation, walking after the ways of the heathen, and persecuting and slaying the servants of God sent to bring them to the right way. This is not the "great nation multiplied above the stars of heaven," that was promised to Abraham; it were no blessing to surround a man With such. a. race of flesh-born rebels. Paul says, "They are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, BUT THE CHILDREN OF THE PROMISE ARE COUNTED FOR THE SEED" (Rom. 9v 6-8).

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob pleased God by their faith and obedience: those of their descendants who were not of this disposition, were not of Israel, although they inherited their flesh and blood, and, therefore, were not "counted for the seed." They were not reckoned as constituents of the great nation promised to Abraham. The great majority of the Jews have been of this class, and are, therefore, rejected. Whence, then, comes the promised race of children? The principal part of them will be furnished by the Jewish nation after the flesh; for in all their history, there has been a remnant, that were truly Abrahamic, not only in blood, but in faith and obedience: these are "the children of the promise," and will be raised at the coming of Christ. The other part will come from the Gentiles, who, after ages of darkness, were visited in the apostolic era, with an invitation to become adopted into the stock of Abraham. This fact is made known in the following words :--

"God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name" (Acts 15v 14).

"By revelation He made known unto me (Paul) the mystery... which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men . . . that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3v 3, 5, 6).

"And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also; and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also WALK IN THE STEPS OF THAT FAITH OF OUR FATHER ABRAHAM, WHICH HE HAD BEING YET UNCIRCUMCISED" (Rom. 4v 11, 12).

Hence those who embrace the faith of Abraham, and become circumcised by putting on Christ in baptism, thus partaking imputatively of the literal circumcision of which Christ was subject under the law, become the children of Abraham, and heirs of the promises made to him. This is Paul's testimony:--" For as many of you as have been BAPTISED INTO CHRIST have put on Christ... And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE" (Gal. 3v 27, 29). Of those in that position, Paul says:--" Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise" (Gal. 4v 28).

This is the class contemplated in the promise made to Abraham; but the point of time at which they are contemplated is not the present time, when they are a weak and scattered family, and the great bulk of them in the dust. It is the time referred to in John 11v 52, when Christ will "gather together IN ONE the children of God that are scattered abroad"; and in II Thess. 2v 1, "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him." Speaking of this time, Jesus says :--

"Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with ABRAHAM, and ISAAC, and JACOB, in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 8v 11).

When this takes place, Abraham will behold the fulfilment of the promise that he should become a great and mighty nation, above the stars of heaven in multitude; his children of the royal order, raised from the dead of all ages, will be "a great multitude which no man can number" (Rev. 7v 9); and his descendants according to the flesh, disciplined and renovated as a nation, by trial in the wilderness a second time, will be the mightiest people on the globe, all righteous, and inheriting the land (Isa. 9v 21), and having "praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame" (Zeph. 3v 19). This will be when the Kingdom of God is established in the manner set forth in the last lecture.

2nd.--That Abraham and his seed should receive possession of the land indicated in the promise, viz., "THE LAND from the river of Egypt Unto the great river Euphrates," styled in the promise to Abraham, "the land wherein thou art a stranger" (Gen. 17v 8). That this part of the promise is unfulfilled, requires but a feeble effort to. see. First, Moses records that Abraham had to buy a field of the original possessors of the country, wherein to bury his dead, and said to them, "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you" (Gen. 23v 4). Secondly, Paul says, "He sojourned in the land of promise, AS IN A STRANGE COUNTRY" (Heb. 11v 9). Thirdly, Stephen says, "God gave him none inheritance in it, NO, NOT SO MUCH AS TO SET HIS FOOT ON: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession" (Acts 7v 5). If Abraham was a stranger and a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a strange country, and received none inheritance in it, not so much as a foot-breadth, surely, so far as he is concerned, the promise is unfulfilled. If so; it remains to be fulfilled at a future time. "Not so," says the orthodox objector: "the promise has been fulfilled in Abraham's descendants; the Jews possessed the country for many centuries, and this was the fulfillment of the promise." The answer to this is found in Gal. 3v 16-18 :--

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; BUT GOD GAVE IT TO ABRAHAM BY PROMISE."

"The promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the PROMISE MADE OF NONE EFFECT" (Rom. 4v 13, 14).

Now, let the reader observe that the Jews occupied the land under the law of Moses, which stipulated in the most stringent terms that their occupation should depend upon their conformity to its requirements (Deut. 28v 15-68). Their inheritance of the country was altogether "of the law "; it provided that if they kept the law, they should dwell in the land in prosperity; and that if they broke it, they should be dispersed among the nations in suffering. History records how continually they failed in the matter, and how repeatedly they were subject to foreign yoke and captivity in consequence, and how at last, when hopeless rebellion had established itself in the whole house of Israel, culminating in the rejection of "the prophet like unto Moses," the Romans came and "took away their place and nation," scattering them in the wide dispersion of the present day.

It is impossible in the face of these facts to maintain that the Jewish occupation of Palestine was a fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham: for Paul says, in the words quoted, that the promise was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. God gave it to Abraham by promise, free and unconditional. Therefore, says Paul, if they which are of the law be heirs, the promise is made of none effect (Rom. 4v 14). It follows that the promise that Abraham and Christ should possess the land of Palestine is wholly unfulfilled, but will have its fulfilment when Abraham rises from the dead to enter the kingdom of God, then and there to be established. A consideration of what Paul says in Heb. 11v will shew this :--

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place WHICH HE SHOULD AFTER RECEIVE FOR AN INHERITANCE, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in THE LAND OF PROMISE, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. FOR HE LOOKED FOR A CITY WHICH HATH FOUNDATIONS, WHOSE BUILDER AND MAKER IS GOD These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly" (verses 8-16).

Let the reader carefully peruse and re-peruse this quotation from Hebrews, and having done so, let him realise its purport. Abraham, says Paul, was called to go into a country which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance. What country was this? Let the reader consult Gen 12v 4, 5, and he will have an answer: "So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him... and into the Land of Canaan they came." To make the matter certain beyond dispute, we will quote the words of Stephen :--

"Get thee (Abraham) out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into THIS LAND, WHEREIN YE NOW DWELL" (Acts 7v 3, 4).

The land which Abraham was "after to receive for an inheritance," was the land inhabited by the Jews in the days of the apostles, modern Syria. He lived in it as a stranger, with Isaac and Jacob, to whom the promise of possession was afterwards renewed. This sojourn was the result of faith. But for this, on finding, as years rolled on that he was not put in possession of the land, but left to wander without inheritance, he would have returned in disgust to his native country, and spent his days among his kindred. Paul says he and his sons "had opportunity to have returned"; but they did not avail themselves of the opportunity, but steadfastly remained in the country to which they had been commanded to emigrate. Paul says the reason of this was, that they were "persuaded of the promises and embraced them." Notwithstanding that appearances were against them, they believed that God would in time fulfil His words, and give them the promised possession, and believing this, they were able to crucify the natural desire to go back to a country where they would have had both inheritance and friends, but in going back to which, they would have forfeited the promises. They saw that the thing promised was more worthy than "the country from whence they came out" They looked for a city (polity) which had foundations, and desired a heavenly country. The country from which they came out was without foundation; based upon flesh, which is of earth, earthy, it was ephemeral and passing away: as John says: "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God, abideth for ever" (I John 2v 17).

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw in the promises the guarantee of a heavenly order of things in which, God being the founder, there would be the stability of "foundations" that could never be removed; therefore, they consented to live as strangers in a foreign land, waiting in faith for the things promised. They saw that the promises were "afar off"; they, therefore, in faith, accepted exile, confessing themselves for the time strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Paul says, "They died without receiving the promises." What is it, then, but that they must rise to receive them? When? At the time described in Rev. 11v 18, as "the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets --[Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were prophets-- Psalm 105v 15]--the time, the reader will perceive by the context, when "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ" (verse 15). It is the epoch mentioned by Paul in the following words: "Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom" (II Tim. 4v 1). When Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob come forth from their graves to judgment and reward, they will "receive the land for an inheritance," according to the promise. On doing this, they will inherit the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God is to be established there. Hence, says Jesus to the Pharisees :--

"Ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God" (Luke 13v 28, 29).