The Third Millennium

A Covenant-Keeping God

In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.—Genesis 22:17,18

Two thousand years had passed since God, in sentencing the serpent for his role in deceiving Eve, made the promise: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15).

Now, early in man’s third millennium, this promise of a seed is reiterated along with important additional details. Not only would this seed bruise the serpent’s head, it would actively bless all the families of the earth. The source of the seed was also narrowed down to one family line: he would come from the descendants of Abraham. The implication was that the seed would be composed of two parts: one heavenly "as the stars of the heaven," another earthly, "as the sand which is upon the sea shore."

Over the short term the descendants of Abraham became the nation of Israel, but the larger fulfillment, that of the "stars of the heaven," is defined by the apostle Paul: "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 if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."—Galatians 3:16,29

The entire story of the first two thousand years of man is found in the first fourteen chapters of Genesis and the book of Job. It takes fifteen entire books of the Bible to relate the narrative of the next thousand years.

God’s dealings with mankind during the first period can be divided into four sections: 1) the lives of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; 2) the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt; 3) the exodus and journey to the promised land; 4) the period of Israel’s judges.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Faith was the test God placed upon the first three patriarchs. Abraham’s faith was tested, first by his willingness to leave his birthplace foran unknown destination and to which the providence of God would direct him (Genesis 12:1-3). His second test of faith was in his patient waiting upon God to provide an heir even after his body, then "dead," and his wife Sarah being beyond the age of child-bearing (Romans 4:19). A third test was that, even though he had been promised the land of Canaan, he refused to claim it before the time that God indicated (Hebrews 11:9). But the ultimate test of his faith was in his willingness to offer his long-awaited and only son as an offering unto God (Hebrews 11:17-19). Each time he passed the test of faith the promise was repeated until it was given in the form found in our theme text.

This covenant promise was repeated to Isaac as an inheritance: "The LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (Genesis 26:2-5).

By faith Isaac passed this blessing to his son Jacob. The biblical historian sums it up concisely: "Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance" (1 Chronicles 16:16,17).

This promise of the land of Canaan for an everlasting dwelling place was explicitly stated in the original covenant given in Genesis 15:7, "And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." However God also told Abraham that even though Canaan was to be his promised home, this would not be fulfilled until 400 years of affliction had passed (Genesis 15:13).

Israel in Egypt

The hand of God was manifest in this move to a foreign land. Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph, was sold by his ten jealous brothers as a slave to a Midianite caravan which, in turn, placed him with the Egyptian general Potipher. Although an exceptional servant, he was accused by Potipher’s frustrated wife of sexual impropriety and was placed in prison. Rising to the position of a trustee, his successful interpretation of the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and valet eventually brought him to the notice of the Egyptian monarch.

Joseph was called upon to interpret the king’s dreams of seven lean cows which consumed seven fat cows. He correctly predicted from this that Egypt would have seven years ofplenty followed by seven years of famine. Impressed with the young Hebrew’s sagacity, Pharaoh made him his vicegerent and administrator of a massive food storage program. In the course of time, Jacob and his family felt the effect of the famine and, after Joseph was reconciled with his brothers, the family moved to Egypt where they were granted prime land in the Nile delta area of Goshen.

After many years, another dynasty arose in Egypt who were not kindly disposed to the Hebrews dwelling among them. Seeing how the descendants of Jacob had been blessed with an exceptionally high population increase (some two million by this time) the new Pharaoh decreed that all the male Hebrew children should be slain at birth. This policy does not appear to have been effective, considering the high population of Israel some eighty years later.

In at least one notable case, this decree of death was not carried out. A couple by the name of Amram and Jochebed gave birth to their third child, Moses. Unable to protect him for long from the watchful eyes of Pharaoh’s soldiers, Jochebed entrusted the infant to the Lord and placed him in a basket in the waters of the river Nile where he was noticed and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. In one of the many strange twists of providence so evident in God’s dealings with his chosen people, the Egyptian princess selected Jochebed as the child’s nurse maid and, presumably, tutor.

Moses was to become perhaps the mightiest leader and deliverer that Israel was to have. After a royal upbringing, his sense of justice compelled him to intervene in the unfair treatment of a Hebrew slave by his Egyptian taskmaster. This resulted in his killing the Egyptian. Shortly thereafter he sought to intervene in a struggle between two Israelites. Unwilling to accept his intervention, the two threatened to tell the Egyptians about his killing of the taskmaster.

Moses’ reaction, which we might take at first reading to be motivated by fear, was to flee to the wilderness southeast of Egypt. The apostle Paul, however, attributes this flight as one of the examples of the outstanding faith of Moses. He writes: "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).

The forty years he spent in the Midianite wilderness evidently prepared him further for the role he was to play. There his education of the sciences in Pharaoh’s court was supplemented by a first-hand knowledge of desert conditions through which he was to lead Israel. During this time he also may have lost his fluency with the Egyptian language for, when called by God to present the Israelite’s cause for freedom, he demurred: "Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue" (Exodus 4:10).

It took considerable persuasion on God’s part and three remarkable signs at the burning bush before Moses accepted his new assignment. Even then he felt the need of an interpreter, a job filled by his brother Aaron.

Pharaoh, having found the slaves a useful pool of free labor for his building enterprises, was naturally reluctant to let them go. As God had used signs to persuade Moses to go to Pharaoh, now he used even more dramatic miracles to persuade the king to let the Israelites go. A series of miraculous plagues, each demonstrating the power of Jehovah over one or another of the various Egyptian gods, was climaxed with a plague of death.

So dramatic was this deliverance that it is celebrated even to this day by the Feast of Passover, instituted over 3000 years ago. This feast not only was to celebrate Israel’s deliverance, but has served the Christian as a powerful typical lesson of the saving power of coming under the blood of "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

The Exodus

Although, as Paul observes of Israel, "by faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned" (Hebrews 11:29), that faith was soon dissipated by their wilderness experiences. A summary of their lack of faith is given by the same apostle in 1 Corinthians 10:7-13, drawing the lesson in verse 6: "Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted."

The climax of this lack of faith was shown when, not long into the exodus, they reached the borders of the promised land at Kadesh Barnea. There, after ten of twelve spies brought back a fearful report that the people accepted, God promised his punishment upon them: "Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise" (Numbers 14:33,34).

The mistake of the ten spies who brought back a negative report was in comparing the Canaanites with the Israelites, while Caleb and Joshua, the other two spies, compared the Canaanites to the God of Israel.

Despite the unfaithfulness of the children of Israel, God remained faithful to his part of his covenant. He met their doubts with miracles and their complaints with chastisements. Moses, in his final address to the nation as recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, summarizes their experiences—the good and the bad. This had its desired effect. The generation of Israelites who crossed the Jordan showed a different spirit than their forebears at Kadesh Barnea. Under the brilliant leadership of Joshua, and with the sterling example of Caleb, they quickly conquered much of the promised land.

The Law and the Tabernacle

God, in carrying out his part of the covenant, gave Israel two gifts during their time in the wilderness: a law to govern their actions and a tabernacle for their worship. The law was composed of four main sections: the moral code, the ceremonial laws, rules of worship, and a dietary code. These laws proved to be beyond their ability to keep. Nevertheless, they were uplifted from the conduct of the nations around them to the degree that they tried to apply these statutes to their individual lives. A beautiful ode to the practical effects of the law in personal life is penned in Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible.

One of the main functions of the law is identified by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:23,24: "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." By keeping the perfect law, which Israel had been unable to do, Jesus demonstrated his own perfection and right to be the heir to all that the law promised.

The ceremonial and worship features of the law (and perhaps the dietary code as well) contained types or illustrations for the Christian dispensation. Paul implies as much: "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect" (Hebrews 10:1). He elaborates on a great number of these typical pictures throughout his exposition to the Hebrews.

Conquest of Canaan

Once they crossed the Jordan river into the promised land of Canaan, the Israelites faced the problem of driving out its inhabitants. This was no easy task and it took some six years to accomplish. Although God had given them the land, they had to work to conquer it, to till it, and keep it clean from the wild beasts that threatened their herds and their crops.

God supplied them with an unlikely ally inthe conquest of the former inhabitants—swarms of hornets. "I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee" (Exodus 23:28). We are not told just what function these bees had, but perhaps they may have stung the enemy soldiers hiding in the field or behind trees, so that their reaction to the bee stings would cause them to expose their position. This would provide an apt lesson for the Christian today. While we are responsible for fighting our own imperfections, the Lord assists by exposing them to us so that, identifying them, we can more successfully defeat them.

Even the ability of the native inhabitants to remain in their unconquered cities was overruled by their covenant-keeping God: "I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land" (Exodus 23:29,30).

Israel’s bravery, however, did not lead them to a full conquest of the land. At times they proved unable to dislodge the inhabitants. "Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute; but did not utterly drive them out" (Joshua 17:12,13).

This lack of full conquering faith proved to remain a thorn in their side for centuries. Not only did some of these native inhabitants form coalitions and rebel against Israel, a far greater danger was for the Israelites to assimilate the worship of the pagan gods of the Canaanites.

Judges

It was just this pagan idolatry that proved to be the stumbling block to the Israelites in their first period of possession, the period ruled by judges. The period of judges differed from that of kings in its political organization. During the period of the judges the twelve tribes of Israel were allied in a loose federation with no central organization. In contrast the kings ruled over many tribes, with Saul and David (for 33 years of his 40-year reign) ruling the entire nation.

A good example of this division among the tribes was during the judgeship of Deborah when Israel fought the armies of Hazor under their general, Sisera. Benjamin, Ephraim, Issachar, Naphtali, and Zebulon joined forces with Deborah while Asher, Dan, and Reuben declined to become involved (Judges 5:14-18).

During the period of the judges, Israel frequently went into idolatry. This repetitive pattern of idolatry, repentance, and deliverance is well described in Judges 2:15-18: "Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so. And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them."

As a result of no centralized government, there was little enforcement of the divine law. The net result was that every man felt free to live life the way he preferred. "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).

When corruption developed amongst the sons of Samuel, Israel’s last judge, the tribes clamored for a king like the other nations around them. This request not only displeased Samuel, but God stated that by so doing they were rejecting Jehovah as their king (1 Samuel 8:7). The contrasting bad reign of Saul who was chosen by God after man’s desire, a man who was head and shoulders taller than his brethren (1 Samuel 9:2), and the good reign of David, a humble shepherd lad, is notable. Unfortunately, as the Davidic dynasty unfolded, there were more who followed in the pattern of Saul than those who followed in the pattern of David.

Thus it was, from the covenant with Abraham until the death of David, God maintained his covenant with a wayward people. Their transgressions did not hinder his grace. He was, indeed, a covenant-keeping God.