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

Now it must be evident that the promise that Christ should possess the gate of his enemies has not been fulfilled. In no sense can an orthodox interpreter make it out that Christ has displaced his enemies from the seat of honour, glory, and power. Ungodly men rule the world. Christ's own country--the land promised to Abraham--is enslaved by the Moslem power, which administers authority and perpetrates its religious abominations in the very city which was called by God's name, and which Jesus is to make the throne of Jehovah in the future age. Instead of Christ possessing the gate of his enemies, the enemy may be said to tread down Christ in the gate. The horns of the Gentiles have lifted themselves up over the land of Judah to scatter it (Zech. 1v 21), and all pertaining to Abraham and his seed is now in waste and desolation. But when the kingdom of God comes, this will be changed. God shall speak to the nations in anger, and have them in derision; Christ shall break them in pieces like a potter's vessel (Psa. 2v 9; Rev. 2v 27); He shall come forth as a man of war--as the Lion of the tribe of Judah--to fight the confederated power of his enemies (Rev. 19v 19; Zech. 14v 3; Ezek. 38v 21-23). He shall punish the kings of the earth upon the earth (Isa. 24v 21). He shall put down the mighty from their seats, and send the rich empty away (Luke 1v 52, 53). He shall then possess the gate of his enemies. All kings shall bow down before him, and all nations shall serve him (Psalm 72v 11). All people, nations, and languages shall serve and obey him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Dan. 7v 14). Then will the proclamation be sounded in loud paeans of joy throughout the whole earth:--

"THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD, AND OF HIS CHRIST; AND HE SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER" (Rev. 11v 15).

4th.--That all nations shall be blessed in Abraham and his seed.--This is the gospel in a sentence; so Paul gives us to understand in Gal. 3v 8. The attentive reader will be able to discern in it the substance of what Jesus and the apostles preached. They preached "the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 8v 12; 28v 29-31). The announcement made to Abraham is neither more nor less than these "things" compressed into a sentence, for it announces in a general form what the others disclose in particulars. It tells of universal blessing in connection with Abraham and Christ; while these make plain the process by which the blessing is carried into effect: first, in relation to individuals, and then in relation to nations. It must be evident that it is not yet realised. The nations are not in a state of blessing. Not only groaning under misrule, they are in a state of poverty, ignorance, and misery, which is the opposite of blessedness. The world lieth in wickedness. Abraham and his seed are unknown, except as objects of derision. Even in "happy England" unbelief and vice are the order of the day. There is an external appearance of godliness: much church and chapel building, Sunday school teaching, sermon hearing, prayer saying, collection making, bazaar holding, etc; but what is there inside but rottenness and dead men's bones. The people who do these things are either selfish, superstitious, or ignorant. There is little fear of God or regard for His word. There is much fear of man and love of the world. People are befooled and degraded: their brains are be-muddled with Paganism in regard to Christianity, and their hearts eaten out by the exigencies of social caste and filthy lucre.

All nations are not yet blessed in Abraham and his seed: but they will be; for we read :--

"Behold a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment... and the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly" (Isa. 32v 1, 3, 4).

"In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off" (Isa. 29v 18-20).

"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance; even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing" (Isa. 35v 4-6).

"From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Mal. 1v 11).

"The battle-bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth" (Zech. 9v 10).

"Many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord" (Zech. 8v 22).

"Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people" (Zech. 2v 11).

"The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2v 14).

"They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth . . . He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in His sight His name shall endure for ever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed" (Psa. 72v 5-7: 12-14, 17).

These testimonies illustrate the blessing guaranteed for "all families of the earth" in the promises made to Abraham: they show what the blessedness consists of in its full development. It is not imaginary blessedness; but the bestowal of just those substantial boons which the whole world is yearning after, but knows not how to compass. These, however, will not be realised till the kingdom of God comes. They cannot be attained before that time; for it requires a righteous and resistless despot to eject all other rulers from place and power, before they become practicable. It requires power, wisdom, righteousness, and humanity to concentre in a universal king, before the nations can be made righteous, prosperous, and happy. In a word, it requires Christ, the seed of Abraham, to take the world's affairs into his own hands, before there can ever be "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." This blessing of Abraham is realised individually, at the present time, in proportion as people lay hold of the promises by faith, and become heirs of future exaltation, through present submission to Christ; but the state of things covenanted to Abraham in the promises, will never be realised until Abraham himself inherits the land, and his seed possesses the gate of his enemies.

In view of the evident conclusion that the promises to Abraham give an unconditional guarantee of "good things to come," it may be asked, why the law of Moses, and the bitter national experience of the Jews, have been allowed to intervene between them and their fulfilment? Paul anticipates and answers this question in Gal. 3v 19: "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." If we wish to know the purpose it served, we find the information five verses down: "The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ" (verse 24). On account of the almost undisturbed reign of ignorance and sin in the times when the promises were delivered, it was necessary to institute a schoolmaster administration of the divine mind, which should inculcate those first lessons concerning God, without which nothing good could be accomplished, since their existence in the human mind is the very basis of that communion between God and man which honours Him and saves them. It was necessary to engrain those first principles on the mind of the chosen nation, by way of paving the way for the development of the state of things promised to the fathers.

This was done by the establishment of the law of Moses in the midst of Israel--a system which, in itself, was a mere allegory of divine truth, as was meet in the training of children (Gal. 4v 1, 2), but which, by its exactions, severities, and scrupulosities, engraved in deep and lasting characters the estimate of the Deity's relation to mankind, which even now prevails in a mild degree wherever Mosaic tradition has reached. The power, supremacy, and holiness of the Deity were made palpable by it, even to those who were disobedient; and, in the course of centuries, that conception of God was formed which existed in the days of Jesus, as the foundation on which to push forward the operations by which the seed of Abraham (faithful believers) should be provided by the promulgation of the word of faith.

Without the law, there is no doubt that the knowledge of God would have perished from the earth, anti mankind would have been wholly enslaved by foolish and unenlightened speculation, and abandoned to the wickedness which prevailed before the flood; the little light of the promises would soon have been extinguished, and the world. would have been sunk in the darkness of incurable barbarism--ripe for as complete a destruction as that which overtook it in the days of Noah. This great catastrophe was prevented by the establishment of a system which, while (superficially considered) it offered an obstruction to the glorious consummation promised to Abraham, was potently influential in developing the moral situation among mankind which was necessary to the bestowment of the promised blessing.

The promises form the groundwork of what is termed "the Christian dispensation." It was necessary that God should create a title to the blessings of His love, for men to lay hold of; because, as sinners, they were without hope, and could not establish a title for themselves. It was necessary He should make the first advance; and He did so, by bestowing an unconditional promise upon Abraham, whom He selected for his faithfulness. These, by the belief of them, gave Abraham a right to the things promised, and vested in him and his seed the sole title. Hence the necessity for becoming Abraham's seed by connection with Christ before a Gentile can have any hope of a future life and inheritance.

Something in addition to the promise was, however, necessary to secure to Abraham the blessings covenanted: this is styled the "confirmation" of the promises. The precise meaning of this will be apparent on a review of the facts of the case as affecting Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was promised to them that they should possess the land of Palestine for ever. For this promise to be carried out, it is necessary that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be raised from the dead, and made to live for ever. Hence it may be taken that the promises carry this feature with them; that, in fact, they bear upon the face of them an undertaking on the part of God, that, at the time appointed for the realisation of the promise, He would bring them from the dust of death, and give them eternal life; how else can they inherit the land for ever?

That this was God's intention toward them was made evident by Christ's argument with the Sadducees on the resurrection. He says: "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. 22v 31, 32). Christ argued that the circumstance of God calling Himself the God of the fathers who had gone to the dust, was proof of His intention to raise them; and the argument overpowered the Sadducees, who were "put to silence." Thus, the inference that the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob involved the promise of resurrection and immortality, is established beyond question by Christ. This being so, we have to realise the fact that under the circumstances existing at the time of the promise, it is impossible the things promised could be bestowed. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were constitutionally under sentence of death. They were "in Adam "--sinners by descent and individual act, and, therefore, precluded from that resurrection to immortality, implied in the promise. Yet the inheritance was guaranteed by "two immutable things"--the promise and the oath--and as "it was impossible for God to lie," its bestowment was a matter of necessity. How was the impossibility of making sinners immortal to be reconciled with the necessity that God's promises should be fulfilled?

We find the answer in the work accomplished by Christ at his first advent. "He confirmed the promises made unto the fathers." How? By making their fulfilment possible. And how did he do this? By "shedding his blood (which he styled "the blood of the new--or Abrahamic--covenant") for the sins of many." He took away sin by the sacrifice of himself, thereby unsealing the gates of death, and bringing life and immortality to light--opening the way for the fulfilment of all that had been promised beforehand to the fathers. Thus the impossibility vanished, and the necessity was placed on the triumphant basis of Christ's accomplished work. This was the great event shadowed in the sacrifices of the law, which were not in themselves of any value, except as a means of connection between God and His nation, typifying a higher and a more enduring connection to be established over the body of the slain "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

It will be seen that the things declared in the prophets and preached in the aggregate by the apostles as "the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ," are but the elaboration of "the promises made of God unto the fathers," in which they have their legal origin and efficacy. It is important to recognise this fact, so that the position of the saints as "children of Abraham" and "the seed of Abraham" may be clearly apprehended, and that we may see the harmony and completeness of God's plan, as commenced in the days of Abraham, typified in the law, and gradually unfolded through the prophets, and consummated in the proclamation of Jesus and the apostles.

In view of all these things, well may we exclaim with Paul (Rom. 11v 33-36):--" O, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever. Amen."