|
And God Swore How the
Lord's Promise In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless
themselves. James Parkinson When God called Abram to leave Haran and his older brother, Nahor, He promised: “Get thee out of thy country … and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).{Quotes are from the Revised Versions, unless otherwise noted.} He promised that [not some, not most, but] all the families of the earth shall be blessed. But after Abraham
demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice his son, his heir, the Lord enhanced
the promise again: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless
themselves” (Genesis 22:18,
ASV margin)1. God promised
this phraseology, and he swore he would do it. Then he repeated it to
Isaac—the type of God’s own son Jesus, who was sacrificed to be the
substitutionary atonement for Adam, who had sinned and brought death upon all
of us, his posterity. Thus, we may confidently proclaim that in Christ [in his
thousand-year kingdom] all the families of the earth will be there, that The
Christ will bless all the families of the earth, and that all the families of
the earth will finally learn to bless one another. All bore Jesus witness “and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luke 4:22), as he proclaimed the coming release for the captives of death, healing for the blind and bruised, and already in the Gospel age an acceptable time—a day of salvation—to develop the faithful church to live and reign with Christ in his thousand-year kingdom for the blessing of all the families of the earth. The sworn promise of God is to have a sanctifying effect on every faithful member of the body of Christ. We are already now required to learn to love even our enemies, so that in Christ’s thousand-year kingdom we will be prepared to bless them. And again, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the faith” (Galatians 6:10). Seven Sons and One Heir As Hagar fled into the wilderness, and later when she and her misbehaving son Ishmael were expelled, so the Law Covenant went into Babylonian captivity as a forewarning; later Israel was dispersed among all nations. As Isaac was Sarah’s son and Abraham’s heir, so consecrated Christians are now children of a Promise Covenant. Abraham gave gifts to Ishmael and to his sons by Keturah when they were sent east; likewise God will bless all the families of the earth through a New Covenant forever (Genesis 21:10-14; 25:5,6; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Galatians 3:17,29; 4:28). Even so, our training is not to curse others, but to learn to be merciful to them and to bless them (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27-31,35,36; Romans 12:14,20; 1 Corinthians 4:12,13). 1. The case of the Hebrew verb in chapter 12 is passive, but in chapter 22 it is reflexive, as in Rotherham, and as noted in the margin of the American Standard Version. Technical note: The quote of the promise in Acts 3:25 is not precisely that of either the Hebrew or the Greek Septuagint of Genesis 12:3, 22:18, 26:4, or 28:14. Acts emphasizes “in thy seed” (by putting it first in word order), rather than “shall be blessed”; otherwise it is the Septuagint text of 12:3 but with “in thy seed” substituted from 22:18, as might also be justified from 28:14.
|