This next covenant, like the Noahic covenant, is an unconditional covenant, with nothing for Abraham to perform or contribute, except that he simply believed GOD – which he did, and that brought about the reckoning of righteousness attributed to Abraham (ROM 4:2-3).
We see Abram’s name first in GENESIS 11:26; we learn there that he was the son of Terah, and the brother of Nahor and Haran. This man from the land of Ur of the Chaldees was obviously a Gentile (there were no Hebrews then; he becomes the first!), and more than that, a Babylonian.
Yet by grace, GOD called Abram out of his father’s house, out of his native land and directed him to a far distant land which he would eventually inherit. Abram at seventy five years of age heard GOD beckoning and responded to Him (GEN 12:1-4).
In those verses GOD promised to make of him a great nation, grant him a great name, and that he would be a blessing (vs. 2). He also promised to bless those who blessed him and curse him that cursed him; GOD reiterates that He would bless all the families of the Earth, through the life of Abram (vs. 3).
The LORD manifested Himself to Abram in Shechem and declared that He would give the land (he was now standing on) to his descendants; GEN 12:7.
There are two primary chapters that teaches us about the Abrahamic Covenant: GENESIS 15 and GENESIS 22.
So without any further delay, let’s dive into GENESIS 15 and see what this reveals to us!
There are those who disparage the nation of Israel, denouncing them as “false Jews”, or even if they’re real Jews, they are labeled as “Christ-killers”. Or if these inflammatory appellations aren’t used, the behavior of Jews is pointed out as ungodly, even pagan, and therefore unworthy to be called “GOD’s chosen people”.
The truth of the matter is that the Messiah of Israel willingly laid down His life of His own accord: He wasn’t murdered as a hapless victim (JOHN 10:17-18) and could have readily and ably defended himself against those who would assault Him (MATT 26:53; JOHN 18:6).
The accusation that ‘fake Jews’ (not true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) populate the land is a direct insult to the LORD GOD, Who promised that He would gather His people back into the land a "second time" (ISA 11:11). Were this accusation true, then GOD bungled His plan!
The idea of “the lost ten tribes” is a ludicrous one that doesn’t seem to want to die, though one can easily prove from Scripture that this assertion is false.
The fact that among the Jewish people there are those who are involved in New Age practices, Talmudic and Kabalistic practices; Buddhism, Atheism and, or Agnosticism, as well as perverse sexual proclivities and to a large degree, an ambivalence towards Jesus of Nazareth at best, and a vehement hatred at worst makes them sinners – not at all faithful to the GOD of the Bible. I often like to ask people who point these things out, “And what were YOU like before you got saved?? Were you saved because you were such a good person, and deserving of salvation??”
It should also be noted that Jew hatred is on the increase and has been since the start of the new millennium.
ROMANS 11 is just one text that shows that GOD fully intends on fulfilling His promises to Israel – not for the sake of Jews who behave themselves, but because of His covenant with Abraham, and His own Holy Name (EZEK 36:17-22).
GENESIS 14:22-23
22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 "that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich' –
The act of “rais[ing] my hand to the LORD” is not a casual gesture. It is an oath as well as an expression of submission to an authority higher than oneself. An act of surrender of one’s one will in favor of another’s. It’s because Abram raised his hand to the LORD that he refused any gifts, rewards, blessings from the king of Sodom, because He looked to YHWH for these things, not mere man. Abram’s boast would be that “the LORD has made me rich”! As we see in the next passage, the LORD declared that He Himself is Abram’s “exceedingly great reward”!
GENESIS 15:1-6
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." 2 But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
These blessings of GOD towards Abraham weren’t just for him, but also for his son, Isaac and grandson, Jacob (aka Israel), and all Hebrew/Jewish people who expressed the same faith in YHWH as Abraham has (the true children of Abraham). In other words, those with “like faith” as Abraham (ROM 4:9-16; GAL 3:7-9,14) will likewise be blessed by GOD their shield and exceedingly great reward – all through the One that Abraham saw and believed in (in vision): the Messiah (JOHN 8:56; GEN 22:14). Such Jews in this dispensation are part of the body of Christ: however, once the church is raptured, GOD’s agenda for Israel will be reactivated, and Jews saved then will be accounted as those “who are Jews inwardly” and part of the coming kingdom of Israel!
Any Jewish father would want a blessed life, not just for himself, but for his children, and yet, as much as a blessing as YHWH would be for this man of faith, he had no children to pass this blessing on to!
Abram’s mourning was short lived however, because the LORD promised that he would have a son himself “from [his] own body who will be your heir”. GOD led the man (presumably out of his tent) and told him to look up to the heavens and just try to count all the stars – and informed Abram that his descendants would be just as numerous! And when Abram believed GOD and His promise, he was considered righteous before GOD (ROM 4:3). This is justification wholly apart from works (ROM 4:2-5; 5:1-2; 8:30).
GENESIS 15:7-9
7 Then He said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it." 8 And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" 9 So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
GOD’s further promises to Abram concerned the land which he stood on. Abram understood about title deeds and claims over land, and so he asked a legitimate question “How will I know this land is mine to inherit it?” And the LORD God understood what this man of faith was asking. Note what GOD did NOT say: “Are you questioning Me when I just told you this is what I’m going to do??!”
No; rather, He told Abram to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. It was then that Abram understood that GOD was about to make a covenant with him, for in those days, this was a known practice, particularly among kings who desired a peace treaty or some other political agreement. We see this same sort of covenantal sacrifice in JEREMIAH:
JEREMIAH 34:18-19Abram obeys GOD and slaughters these animals, cutting them lengthwise and lays each half side by side, leaving a path between them so that he and GOD could walk through the middle of them, reciting the terms and obligations each was responsible for.
'And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it, 19 'the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf-
GENESIS 15:10-16
10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 "And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 "Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 "But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
What we must keep in mind is that this world was already under the rule of Satan, ever since the Fall of man. What GOD was doing here, was establishing a land that would be directly under His own sovereignty: a spiritual island in the middle of the devilish ocean of darkness and rebellion. Satan wanted to bring a halt to this, and here is where the symbology of these fowl come in (fowl being a metaphor for evil, and demonic activity; MATT 13:4; REV 18:2).
Now, we’ve heard all of the blessings that GOD promised Abraham via covenant; what were Abram’s obligations in this agreement? List all of his responsibilities that were required of him in order to fulfill his part of this covenant.
Were you able to find anything? Neither was I – that’s because there are NO obligations, responsibilities, or requirements for him to fulfill. That’s why this is an unconditional covenant. All Abram had to do as a Gentile was believe GOD by faith – which he did! And that’s when GOD commanded Abram to be circumcised, marking him and his descendants as “a special people” (DEUT 7:6).
GENESIS 15:17-21
17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates- 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 "the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
We witness here the very presence of GOD in this torch (and smoking furnace) passing between the pieces of those slain beasts (minus Abram!). We see fire and smoke (or cloud) representing the presence of GOD at the Tabernacle (EXOD 40:34-35; NUM 9:15-16) as well as previously, as the LORD led His people through the wilderness, guiding and sheltering them with the pillars of fire and cloud (EXOD 13:21). GOD didn’t command Abram to walk with Him; in fact, He put the man into a sleep (vs. 12) to ensure that He alone would be “walking the covenant way”. The significance of this is that the Jewish nation couldn’t violate this covenant even if they tried!
What the LORD revealed to Abram was that his descendants would become slaves in a foreign land for 400 years, but that GOD would then judge that nation and deliver His people from them – exactly what transpired prior to and during the days of the Exodus!
The LORD then specified the borders of the nation that would be rightfully claimed by Israel and will be fulfilled during the Millennial Reign of the Messiah when He returns to end the rule of the antichrist, consign both him and the false prophet to the lake of fire, and incarcerate Satan in the abyss for one thousand years.
Israel has never known sovereign rule over the land mass here described: from the Nile, to the Euphrates river! Israel now possesses land (8,630 sq. miles) about the size of New Jersey (8,721 sq. miles). Once the Messiah returns and He expands their borders, they’ll be larger than Texas (268,597 sq. miles) at approximately 300,000 sq. miles!
They’ve only possessed about 10% of all the land that GOD promised to them! Yet because of Abram’s faith in GOD, He will bless him and his children first and foremost with Himself, as well as a prosperous, bountifully fruitful land larger than the Lone Star state! All according to His unconditional promise (and an oath on top of that! HEB 6:17) and grace!
HEBREWS 6:13-20This is why I find amillennialism (and preterism) intolerable: because both systems deny the future glory of Israel, both systems deny any significance to the nation of Israel, and they spiritualize the promises given to Israel and wrongly apply them to the church (the heresy of Replacement Theology).
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself. 14 saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
To do this, one has to spiritualize, dismiss, or ignore the myriad promises of Israel in ample supply in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.
If you haven’t checked out the Millennial Reign of the Messiah study yet, here is the TTUF link where I go painstakingly through the Old Testament and then the New, examining the veracity of GOD’s unconditional promises to Israel.
Now let’s examine this next portion of Scripture where Abram (meaning “father of many”) is known now as Abraham (“father of many nations”).
GENESIS 22:1-2
1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."
When we go to school and learn any particular subject matter, there are subsequent tests that we take to see how well we’ve learned the lessons. The grades are for the benefit of the teacher (who determines how well the student learned), but more so for the student as they have the most to benefit from such knowledge.
When GOD tested Abraham, it was solely for Abraham’s benefit, because GOD already knew the man’s heart – but did Abraham?
Did Peter know his own heart? He devoutly believed he would stand for his LORD and never betray Him. The point is obvious. We really don’t know ourselves as well as we would like to think, certainly not as well as our Creator knows us!
At this point in time Abraham had endured many tests – and failed many of them. But he matured spiritually, he got his spiritual equilibrium, he learned valuable lessons. And when the time was right – when the LORD knew that this Friend of GOD would be able to pass this supreme test, He issued for the command.
It’s interesting to note that the word “love” is first mentioned here – that’s significant: twenty one prior chapters and “love” is not once mentioned, not until now? This is what some theologians refer to as “the law of first mention”. Anywhere in Scripture where a word is first mentioned is usually (not always) relevant.
It obviously is in this case! In the Law of First Mention, when a word first appears it begins a thread throughout the remaining Scripture, a recurring theme that portrays a crucial doctrine, in this case, the doctrine of love.
Just as Abraham had a son, an “only son” (GOD only recognized Isaac, born of the work of GOD through Sarah, not Ishmael, born of a work of the flesh through Hagar) – so the Father has His only begotten Son. And just as GOD asked Abraham to sacrifice his son – but didn’t let him go through with it, GOD did sacrifice His own Son (with His consent)!
GENESIS 22:3-6
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you. 6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.
Note the sort of sacrifice this was to be: a burnt sacrifice; that is to say, Isaac was to be totally consumed into nothing but ashes.
Abraham didn’t balk at this command from GOD, didn’t attempt to negotiate. He didn’t “pray about it”. GOD commanded him, and Abraham promptly obeyed.
Yet on the way up to this mountain that GOD would point out to him (Mt. Moriah – quite possibly the very same location where a certain cross was erected some thousands of years later, and a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth was slain!), I’m sure Isaac remembered his father’s words to the two young men that accompanied them:
“"Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
HEBREWS 11:17-19Since GOD made a promise to raise up a nation through Abraham’s son, GOD would make good on it – which would mean, He would have to raise Isaac from the dead; from the ashes themselves! Note also how many days was it between the issuance of the commandment and the day that the LORD intervened on Isaac’s behalf and forbade Abraham to bring no harm to him? It was three days.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
As far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was as good as dead – sacrificed for the LORD’s sake once the command was given. But he received him back to life when GOD spared his life – on the third day: another way in which Isaac fulfilled a type of Christ in His resurrection!
This was not only a test for Abraham to choose between his devotion to GOD or his devotion to his own son, but also a test to determine if he really, truly, deeply, whole-heartedly believed in the promises that GOD made regarding Isaac!
How many promises would you expect from ashes?? Abraham declared that both he and his son would return to the young men! Now, THAT is faith!!
GENESIS 22:7-8
7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" 8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.
I believe that GOD had given Abraham some spiritual insight as a result of his obedience; that he knew something no one else did – that GOD would provide Himself a sacrifice, that is, the LAMB of GOD Who takes away the sin of the world (JOHN 1:29). The LORD Jesus Himself stated that he saw His day and rejoiced to see it (JOHN 8:56). I believe this to be a spiritual principle for us all: obedience to truth already revealed will bring about more truth revealed!
GENESIS 22:9-12
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." 12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.
Isaac was not a child at this point; he was more likely a mature teenager (late teens) or a young man in his twenties or even thirties. He most likely could have easily overpowered his elderly father, but the fact that Abraham bound his son, shows that Isaac went along willingly – astonishing when you think about it! Was this a test of Abraham’s faith only? I hardly think so!
But again, just as this human father expressed a greater love for his GOD than his own son, in this doctrinal theme of love, this mirrors the expression of love from GOD for all humanity, greater – in the sense that this love was more needful for our sakes – than that love for His only begotten Son!
JOHN 3:16, anyone? And the fact that the LORD Jesus went along willingly with His Father’s plan of salvation, mirrors Isaac’s conduct:
JOHN 10:17-18“Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God…”
17 "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."
Doesn’t this seem to suggest that GOD didn’t know about Abraham’s heart – not until the deed was almost nearly done?
One would suppose so, but the Hebrew word for “know” here means “to see by observation, to take note of something”, to recognize on sight, as it were. The LORD was saying, “It’s obvious that you love Me more than even your own son that I gave to you! I see the evidence before Me”.
It was never GOD’s intention to have Abraham sacrifice his own son – that was a practice of pagan nations that GOD judged them for! A pastor I know theorized that maybe GOD and Satan had a conversation about Abraham – the same way they did about the man, Job (who was probably a contemporary of Abrahams).
The pastor suggested it went something like this:
“I get my followers to sacrifice their own children to me, such is their devotion. Bet you can’t get that out of your man Abraham!” A conjecture that I personally find intriguing as well as plausible!
It was GOD’s intention to provide a ram to sacrifice in Isaac’s place, and in the far greater scope, His intention was to offer up His only begotten Son (GEN 3:15; PS 22; ISA 53; ACTS 2:22-24; HEB 10:10-22; 1 PET 1:19-20; REV 13:8b).
GENESIS 22:13-14
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, Jehovah Jireh [“The-LORD-Will-Provide”]; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided [or “seen” KJV].
Jehovah Jireh is the epithet to describe GOD’s heart in providing for us what we could never, ever possibly afford to provide ourselves with: salvation!
Abraham calling this mountain by this name was prophetic, and GOD had him act out this prophecy in something we would call a “skit” where Abraham played the role of the Father, and Isaac the Son.
JOHN 8:56-58GENESIS 22:15-18
56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." 57 Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" 58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
15 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son - 17 "blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 "In your seed [that seed being Christ Himself; GAL 3:16] all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
Recall to mind what the LORD told Abram back in GENESIS 15:
GENESIS 15:5-6,18
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Note that the LORD declared Abram righteous, based on his believing GOD’s Word to him. All that was required of him was faith, and because Abram believed His Word, he was righteous. And these pronouncements of blessings followed afterwards.
His seed would be as the stars of the heavens, and he would inherit the land as GOD described.
Then in GENESIS 22, that righteousness was displayed outwardly, but GOD didn’t wait until Abraham was ready to sacrifice his own son before declaring him righteous. GOD already declared that of him, and it was accounted to him as such (ROM 4:3). And in the 22nd chapter, GOD spoke of blessing – not just for Abraham, but for his descendants “as the stars of the heavens and the sand on the seashore” *
*This is known as a Hebraism: expressing the same thought in two different ways (we see this linguistic device used a lot in the book of Proverbs, some in the book of Psalms). GOD here compares the grains of sand on the seashore with the stars of the heavens. Yet it wasn’t until the invention of the telescope that we discovered that there are a lot more stars than meets the naked eye.
In fact, one astronomer and mathematician, after he did some extensive calculations, once expressed that “There are just as many stars in the universe as there are grains of sand on the planet!”
His descendants would possess the gates of their enemies (which describes Israel’s rule over the Gentile nations). ALL the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed GOD from the heart (even though he wasn’t allowed to carry through with the sacrifice of Isaac).
In other words, motives, and intentions matter!
So this Abrahamic covenant is unconditional not only for Abraham, but for the nation of Israel. Therefore, in spite of Israel’s conduct, their sinfulness, their affection for worldly philosophies and political affiliations, in spite of their rejection of their Messiah and instead favor other religions – GOD’s promise remains: and He will see about turning His people back from their wayward wanderings in wickedness:
ROMANS 11:25-33Israel was brought back into the land, and life was breathed into them (EZ 37:9-10), while the nation seemed to be on the brink of ruin (EZ 37:11).
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel UNTIL the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." 28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. 33 ¶ Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
Today, Israel’s agriculture is some of the best in the world, as is their ingenuity and industry. They have one of the finest military of any nation and their Air Force is second to none!
But they are spiritually blinded right now, and this blindness will continue UNTIL “the fullness of the Gentiles” has been completed (vs. 25; the bringing in of the Gentiles to salvation through Christ (ACTS 15:14-16, note vs. 14 esp.). Once the church is taken up, then Israel’s eyes will be open (that is to say, the remnant of Israel who will express genuine faith in Messiah; ZECH 13:9), they will be filled with the Spirit (EZ 37:14)– and among these, 144,000 of them (REV 7:1-4; JOEL 2:23-24, 29-32; ACTS 2:16-21) will become last days evangelists with a powerful “latter rain” anointing not seen since the days of the apostles.
Those given to antisemitism and try to use the Bible to validate and justify their claims, and who say that “Zionism” is satanic (Only the Rothschild brand of occult Zionism is satanic; GOD’s Zionism as found in PSALM 2, and PSALM 87 among myriad other passages is holy and ordained!) – if they take all the counsel of GOD together (and not cherry pick verses, taken out of context) will have an impossible task on their hands attempting to prove that GOD has broken His covenant with the Jews.
GENESIS 22:19-24
19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 20 Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, "Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 "Huz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 "Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel." 23 And Bethuel begot Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah.
This last observation I owe to the late Dr. Chuck Missler:
Abraham went back home with the young men; but where is there any mention of Isaac? It’s indeed a foregone conclusion that he went home with his dear ol’ Pops but isn’t it a bit strange that there is no mention of him in this passage. The Holy Spirit inspired Moses to “edit him from the text”.
When do we see Isaac next? In GENESIS 24, when Abraham’s servant brings the young man a wife. Here Isaac is again seen as another type of Christ. The last time we saw Isaac was when he was being offered as a sacrifice. Then we see him greeting his bride. Likewise Christ was crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended into the heavens, and when seen next, He will be greeting His bride – in the air!
This is why we believe the doctrinal position of the Millennial period as being a literal, physical manifestation of “the kingdom of Israel” (ACTS 1:6) just as it was manifested in the days of King David and the subsequent line of the Judaic kings – which was interrupted once the Babylonian captivity began and “the time of the Gentiles” which brought various nations to rule over Israel which is absent her king, until the Messiah returns!
Any negation, any spiritualizing of the Millennial reign denies a great deal of Old Testament Scripture, to say nothing of the overt promise – and oath by GOD Himself that He will fulfill all that He covenanted with Israel.
For more on this see the TTUF article: ISRAELOLOGY: Why Israel is Important to the Biblical Christian: PART ONE and PART TWO.
How is Christ the ultimate fulfillment of this Abrahamic covenant?
Jesus is GOD made flesh (JOHN 1:1-3,14), and He in His "flesh", that is, His humanity is also "the seed of Abraham" (GAL 3:16) just as He is also "the seed of the woman" (GEN 3:15). The LORD Jesus will fulfill all the promises made to Abraham ("the friend of GOD"), namely "a great nation" and the "land flowing with milk and honey" in their ultimate manifestation witnessed by all the saints during the Millennial Reign of Christ!
Don't forget to watch this Eight Part series by Gideon Levytam of the Holy Scriptures and Israel Youtube channel as he expounds on the Abrahamic Covenant!
Next time, we will get into the next Covenant that GOD made with Israel:
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