Abraham’s Promised Seed (Selected Scriptures)

Prayer for Illumination and Opening the Study of Genesis 17

Let's begin with a word of prayer before we open our Bibles. Our Father, we ask now that you would show us your nature, your glory, your goodness, your mercy, your grace, your eternal plan, redemption, that we may know you more and worship you as you are revealed in the Word of God.

We pray that our hearts and minds would be conformed to Scripture and that all that is said and all that is done here may be an encouragement to us as we see you and your work in history. Bless, we pray, this time and our study together, and give us illumination in your Word, open our minds and our hearts to it, that we may understand and obey and love you more, we ask in Christ's name, amen.

Turn now, if you will please, back to Genesis chapter 17. You may have been expecting me to say turn to Hebrews chapter 11. There's a reason we're going back to Genesis chapter 17, and that is that as I was going through Hebrews 11 this week, I realized that we started to pull a little bit of a thread in Genesis last week, and we didn't quite pull all of the thread in Genesis last week, so while I only said about one percent of what could be said about Abraham and his significance, I really said about half of what needed to be said about Abraham and his significance.

So we're going back to pick up where we left off last week, and I sort of hit the breaks and changed gears midstream, the middle of this week, which is a little bit of an odd thing for me to do, but I just realized that we have a lot of unvisited stuff yet in the book of Genesis that we needed to follow all the way through to the end so that we can understand that the promises that God gave to Abraham then went on through Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, and so we just want to follow that, keep pulling that thread until we get at least to the end of the book of Genesis.

And I have more material this week that I need to cover than I did last week. Last week's sermon was longer than normal, which means that we have to hit the 1 .5 button today on the sermon so that we can get through everything that I have prepared here for this morning.

The Abrahamic Covenant Expanded Through Genesis 12, 13, 15, and 17

So back in Genesis chapter 17, we looked last week at the call of Abraham in Genesis 12 and 13 and 15 and 17, that in Genesis 12 there is the skeletal outline of the Abrahamic covenant that is given as God promises to Abraham physical descendants which would outnumber the sand of the seashore and that nations would come from him, and then God promised him a land that he had not yet seen and not yet been to, and then God promised him that through him in some way all the nations of the world of the earth would be blessed.

And that's the basic outline, the skeleton of the Abrahamic covenant. But then as we go into chapter 13 and 15 and then 17, the Lord adds more and more details to that covenant. As Abraham moves into the land and begins to see it for himself, then God gives him more and more revelation.

And we saw that there were details that were added to that like the boundaries of the land from the river Euphrates all the way through to the great river in Egypt. Abraham was told that nations would come to him, that kings would come to him, that the heirs of the promise would be in slavery in another nation, and that they would then spend 400 years there and then come out plundering that nation, and that Abraham himself would never see this, but he would die before he ever actually possessed the land, but then his descendants would possess it and possess it forever, and that everything that Abraham was being told was part of an everlasting covenant.

And all of the promises that God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12, 13, 15, and 17, in those four chapters, every promise that has been fulfilled to this day has been fulfilled literally just as the promise was given.

And if you want to know how future prophecy is going to be fulfilled, you need to look at how past prophecy has been fulfilled, and I think that that is an indication as to what lies ahead. That tells us how it is that God fulfills the prophetic word.

Abraham's Physical Seed and Spiritual Seed in Romans 4

But then we come to an interpretive question. Up to this point, that is Genesis chapter 17, the promises seem a little bit broad to this point, because we might ask, okay, descendants of Abraham, Abraham had more than one son.

He had Isaac, and he had Ishmael, and then later on after Sarah died, he had other sons after that, and we're going to look at some of that before we're done. And so to which of those descendants was this promise given?

Does it…do all of the descendants of Abraham inherit that land? And if it is to all of the descendants of Abraham, then we might look at modern-day Jordan and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and we might say, okay, so it looks to me as if that promise has been fulfilled.

But if in fact it is only a narrow portion, some of Abraham's descendants and not all of them, then we would have to say up till today that that promise has not been fulfilled, because the descendants of Isaac have not inhabited that land and possessed everything that Abraham was promised.

And then we also have to recognize that there is in Scripture a spiritual seed of Abraham. There are the spiritual children. Now, if you are a Jewish, of Jewish descent here this morning, then you are, and you are a believer in Christ, then you are both a physical descendant of Abraham as well as a spiritual descendant of Abraham.

But if you are like me, and there's probably not a Jew anywhere in your history, and you are as Gentile as Gentile can possibly be, but you have faith in Jesus Christ, then you are a spiritual descendant of Abraham.

And this is what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 4 when he says in verse 11, and he, that is Abraham, received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised.

That is to say he is the spiritual ancestor, the spiritual forefather of all who apart from circumcision and trying to keep the law and being part of the physical descendants of Abraham, those who believe, they are the spiritual children of Abraham.

We look to Abraham, and he is the father of all the faithful. In the, in the physical sense, he is the father of all of the Jewish nation, and so every Jew can trace their lineage back to Abraham, he is their physical father.

Of those who are outside of that lineage, me for instance, by faith, by virtue of faith in Jesus Christ, Abraham is my spiritual father. I look to him and say, he was a man who was made righteous in the sight of God, apart from circumcision, apart from being a descendant of, and a descendant of anybody else, he was justified by faith and faith alone, so he is my spiritual father.

So Paul says in Romans chapter 4, for this reason, that is salvation, is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but of those who are of the faith of Abraham.

And you might say, well, all the descendants, wouldn't that be spiritual and physical? Paul in Romans chapter 4 is not talking about the land promise or the covenant promise there, he's talking about salvation.

It's Romans chapter 4, he's talking about salvation. So this promise of being justified by faith is for all those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it's written, a father of many nations have I made you in the presence of him whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

So Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in Christ, and if you are a Jew who believes in Christ, then he is your spiritual father, as well as your physical father. If you are a Jew who does not believe in Christ, he is not your spiritual father, he is your physical father, and you are outside of Christ, and therefore outside of the blessings of salvation, even though you might be a descendant of Abraham, right?

So we are spiritual descendants of Abraham. Do you remember the song, Abraham had many sons, and many sons had father Abraham, I am one of them and so are you? Okay, Josh wanted to sing that for worship today, and I said, no, we're not going to.

Do that.

Because we do the right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot, spin around, fall down, people think we're a charismatic church. We're not going to sing that song. It might be true as far as it goes, but we're not going to sing that song.

So is the land promised then to all of Abraham's seed, his physical as well as his spiritual descendants, or was that land promised to the physical seed of Abraham? What part then do the spiritual seed have in that promise?

That's an issue that we have to address before we get out of Hebrews chapter 11. Genesis chapter 17, let's pick it up where we left off, verse 1, now this is going to be a bit of a reiteration, I'm just getting this for context to kind of remind you of where we took off last week, we're going to...or where we landed last week, we're going to take off from the same landing strip as it were, Genesis 17 verse 1, now when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.

That's not a...that's not a condition of the covenant, that is simply a command. Other people were commanded to be blameless as well. This is not saying if you walk before me and if you are blameless, I will do this.

Remember that God had already sworn to Abraham, put Abraham to sleep, made the covenant with Abraham, he had no part in any conditions to that, it was an unconditional covenant. So verse 2, I will establish my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly.

Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you will be a father of a multitude of nations, no longer shall your name be called Abraham, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.

I have made you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after.

You.

I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God. Now, this is not a promise that is given to anybody but Abraham's physical seed.

Isaac, Not Ishmael, Receives the Covenant Promise

Genesis chapter 17, we're going to find out now, verse 9, we're going to find out now that it is not all of his physical seed that are included in this promise, but only some. Verse 9, God said further to Abraham, now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you.

And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. A servant who is born in your house or who is brought with money from any foreigner who is not of your descendants, a servant who is born in your house or who is brought with money shall surely be circumcised, thus shall my covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people, he has broken my covenant. So the circumcision was given as the sign of the covenant to Abraham, the covenant that was unconditional, the same covenant from Genesis chapter 15.

And circumcision had a wider application than just merely the sign of the covenant because not everybody who was circumcised was included in that promise because later on Abraham circumcised Ishmael and Ishmael is excluded from the land promise.

So while everybody who is included in the promised seed is circumcised, not everybody who is circumcised is included in the promise of the land and the descendants. That promise, that covenant is going to pass down through a specific lineage but Abraham was to observe the terms of that and the sign of that as a reminder of what God had promised to him throughout his generations.

This becomes obvious in the next section, verse 15, then God said to Abraham, as for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai but Sara shall be her name. I will bless her and indeed I will give you a son by her, then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of peoples will come from her.

Now here's the key, Ishmael by this point had already been born because Abraham had taken Hagar, Sara's handmaid and had a child by her in an attempt to fulfill the word which God had given to him and to gain a descendant.

So Abraham by this point already had a descendant and now the Lord is reiterating the promise back to him that one coming from Sara, not Hagar, will be the mother of this promised.

Seed.

Look at Abraham's response, Genesis 17 verse 17, then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, will a child be born to a man 100 years old and will Sara who is 90 years old bear a child?

So 100 years old and 90 years old. Now I need to say something at this point about biblical time frames and ages of the.

Patriarchs.

I should have said this probably back in Genesis regarding Noah when we're talking about people living to be 900 years old. We should not think when we read about the age of the patriarchs that somebody aged to be 90 years old and that they were the same 90 that you and I would be at 90.

Okay, because then if you think, okay, so they lived to be 90 years old and then lived another 900 years after that, that rate of decay really makes for a bad, long, old age. That's not the way that that worked out.

The age, what would you call it, the age curve was about the same, it was just stretched out over a longer period of time. So that in Adam's day a 900-year-old man would be like a 90-year-old man today because we die around 90 or 100, and I know that there's some wiggle room there, but bear with me, and a 900-year-old person would be like a 90-year-old.

I would be like a 500-year-old person in Adam's day. Okay, so the age curve is the same, it's just stretched out over a longer period of time. The aging process was slowed down or was slower, we should say, in the early years.

So when it says that Sarah is 90 years old and Abram is 100 years old, Abraham lived to be 175. So if we take the 175 and you mark it out to about 100 or 90 of what we would die today, that means that when Abraham was 100 years old, it would be like a 60-year-old man today.

When Sarah was 90 years old, it would be like somebody in their 50s today. So possible past the point of time where she would be able to conceive a child, but not past the point of time where she would be able to give birth to a child.

So when it says that Sarah is 90 years old, don't think of your grandmother giving birth to a child and carrying a child like that. It would be different. It would be as if a lady in her mid -50s or late 50s would bear a child.

Physically she would be able to do that. I'm not saying it would be easy, I just said physically she would be able to do that. I looked up there are people in modern today who have children in their 50s and even past the age of 60.

Now Google it, it's scary. Genesis 17 verse 18, Abram said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before you. You already had a son. So it's almost as if Abraham is saying we can make this really easy. I've got Ishmael.

He could be the one to whom you give all these promised blessings, that Ishmael may live before you. But God said no, but Sarah your wife will bear a son and you shall call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants.

After him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you, behold I will bless him and I will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of 12 princes and I will make him a great nation. All of that unfolded exactly as it happened.

Verse 21, but my covenant I will establish with Isaac whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. And when he finished talking with him, God went up from Abram. So now the Lord has narrowed down who it is that's going to receive this.

Let Ishmael live before you. He could be the one. Nope, Sarah's going to bear a son. You'll call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant, this eternal covenant that I have told you about back in chapter 12 and 13 and 15 and 17, that covenant is going to be established with Isaac, not with Ishmael.

So it is the physical descendants that the Lord is being very specific. It's the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac that will receive the promise of this land and the promise of the blessings.

Not all the descendants of Abraham, only Isaac. So that rules out Ishmael and all of the nations, all of the kings, all of the countries that had come from Ishmael, they're ruled out of this. They're not included in this promise.

Jacob Chosen Over Esau and the Promise Confirmed to Isaac

Genesis chapter 22, this happens after, oh, let me point out, Abraham had three wives or women with whom he had children during his life. Sarah bore him Isaac, Hagar bore him Ishmael, Keturah, who he married or took as a wife after Sarah died, he had six sons from her, and we see that in Genesis chapter 25.

So all of this lineage, this promise is traced through one line of Abraham. Out of the eight sons that he had, there's one who was the son of promise, and that's.

Isaac.

Now, after Abraham offers up Isaac and gets ready to sacrifice him on the altar, Genesis chapter 22, turn over to Genesis 22, verse 15, Abraham was faithful and obeyed the word of the Lord. So verse 15 says, then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed, look at the reconfirmation now of this blessing and promise, indeed, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my.

Voice.

As Sarah died in Genesis chapter 23, look at 23, verse 1, now Sarah lived 127 years, these were the years of the life of Sarah. And then Abraham, after Sarah died, sought a wife for Isaac, turn to chapter 24, verse 1, now Abraham was old, advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way.

Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, please place your hand under my thigh and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live, but you will go to my country and to my relatives and take a wife for my son Isaac.

The servant said to him, suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land, remember they're in the land of promise, suppose she's not willing to come back from where you came from, suppose she's not willing to come back to this land, should I take your son back to the land from where you came?

Verse 6, Abraham said to him, beware that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth and who spoke to me and who swore to me saying, to your descendants, I will give this land.

He will send his angel before you and you will take a wife for my son from there, but if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath and only do not take my son back there.

So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abram, his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. See, Abraham would not let his son leave the land.

Why?

Because Abraham was convinced that Isaac was going to inherit that land and that blessing. Then after the death of Abraham, Isaac becomes the central figure. Look at Genesis 25, verse 1. Now Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah.

This is after the death of Sarah. She bore to him Zimron, and Jochshon, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuon. Jochshon became the father of Sheban, and Dedan, and the sons of Dedan were Asherim, and Lethushim, and Lumenim.

The sons of Midian, hey don't laugh, you just be thankful you're not the one up here reading these names. The sons of Midian were, I think I already read that, didn't we? Verse 5. Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts while he was still living and sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the land of the east.

Now why did Abraham give all that he had to Isaac? He gave gifts to his other sons, sent them away from Isaac, and gave everything, the entire state, to Isaac. Even though Isaac was not the first born.

Who was the first born? Ishmael was the first one born. But Isaac was the son of promise. Therefore everything Abraham gave, he gave it to Isaac. Verse 19. Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son.

Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, of the Arminian, of Padon Aram, the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren, and the Lord answered him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

But the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it is so, why then am I this way? So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated from your body, and one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.

She had two nations in her womb. Notice the language of the Abrahamic covenant that comes to bear. There are two nations in your womb. Remember God had said to Abraham, I will bring nations from you. This is the first record that we have.

We have two nations that are being described, Esau and Jacob. And Esau became the father of the Edomites. So this is the language of the Abrahamic covenant that is used here, and one of them would be preeminent.

And this was to establish God's choice by sovereign election. That Esau, the firstborn, was not the one who would inherit the promises. Again, this is not going to go to the firstborn child. This would go to the secondborn.

It would be Jacob.

Jacob was the son of promise. So this was to establish God's sovereign election. It's not the firstborn, Jacob is the chosen one, Genesis 26. This is Isaac then settling in the land. Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham.

So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt. Stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you.

And to you and your descendants, I will give these lands. And I will establish the oath, which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands.

And by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Now notice that all the terms of the Abrahamic covenant are now reiterated to Isaac.

Isaac now receives all of these promises. Verse 23, then he went up from there to Beersheba. The Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not fear, for I am with you.

I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham. So it's obvious now that all these promises have been bestowed upon Isaac. Isaac not Ishmael is the chosen seed. Isaac's blessings are confirmed again.

Then Isaac has the two sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau is the first one born. Jacob is the second one born. And you say, how is it that the second one born would end up taking preeminence and that the older would serve the younger and that the younger would be greater than the older?

How can that possibly happen? Well, it was through Jacob's trickery. And you know how the story unfolds. Esau was a fleshly oriented man who ended up selling his birthright to his brother for a bowl of soup.

So he received, by Jacob's coercion, Jacob ended up receiving that promised birthright. Then through his trickery, he ended up receiving the blessing that belonged to the firstborn as well. You remember how that unfolded?

Right?

Remember that Rebecca and Jacob ended up conspiring together to trick Isaac into bestowing the blessing. Isaac was getting old. His eyesight was failing. And so he dressed up in sheepskin or goatskin or whatever it was and came in.

He smelled like an animal. He felt like an animal. He looked like an animal. And Isaac couldn't tell the difference between any of that. And so he felt him and said, that smells like my son. Beginning in verse 27, so he came close and kissed him.

And when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, see the smell of my son. He thought it was Esau. The smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. So then he gives him the blessing.

Verse 28, now may God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and an abundance of grain and new wine. May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master of your brothers.

And may your mother's sons bow down to you. Notice the language of the Abrahamic covenant. Cursed be those who curse you and blessed be those who bless you. That's the language of the covenant. Jacob's deception ended up accomplishing the purpose of God because God uses sin sinlessly to accomplish his purposes.

And that's what's happening with Jacob. Isaac later on realizes that he had been tricked. And then rather than fighting against the purposes of God, he confirms the purposes of God in Genesis 28 verse 1.

So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said to him, you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and from there take to yourself a wife from the descendants of Laban, your mother's brother.

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company.

Of peoples.

May he also give you the blessings of Abraham to you and to your descendants with you that you may possess the land of your sojournings which God gave to Abraham. So now this would belong to Jacob. Isaac recognizes that and he gives these blessings to Jacob.

Verse 10, then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. Does the name Haran sound familiar? It should because last week we saw that that is the place where God called Abraham back in chapter 12.

So now Jacob is leaving the land of promise to go back and to fetch a wife for himself and God interrupts that plan, doesn't distract him from going out of the land. But in verse 10 or verse 11 of 28, he came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place.

He had a dream and behold a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. And behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it and behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.

Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Behold, I am with you and I will keep you for wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what was promised. So Jacob was on his way out of the land.

Now the question is, if Jacob leaves the land, does he forfeit the promise, right? Abraham was there, he stayed in the land, Isaac was there and he stayed in the land. So now the question is, if Jacob leaves the land, does he give up the promise blessing?