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Bible History of the Old Testament |
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No. 12 God's Promise of a Seed to Abram
High times of success and prosperity are only too often followed by seasons of depression. Abram had conquered the kings of Assyria, but his very victory might expose him to their vengeance, or draw down the jealousy of those around him. After all, he was but a stranger in a strange land and had no heir, but only a promise from God for one. It was in these circumstances that Jehovah came unto him in a vision saying, "I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward". God told him that He would be his defense from the foes around him, and He would also be the source and spring at which his faith would be fully satisfied with joy. It would probably have been only natural that Abram would have opened up and shared all his sorrows with God, especially about not being able to have a son. But Jehovah assured him that it was to be otherwise than it seemed. He assured him that his seed would be numberless just as the stars in the sky. The thing that was so great about this was that Abram believed what Jehovah said right then, and God counted it unto him as righteousness. For thousands of years, this belief has stood out as the great example of faith to God's church. God wants us to just believe what He tells us and accept it as truth that it will happen, even though we can't see it right then. From this faith in God sprang all the obedience of Abram. Just like the rod of Aaron, his life budded and blossomed and bore fruit "within the secret place of the Most High". To confirm his faith, Jehovah now gave to Abram a sign and a seal. He entered into a covenant with him. The Lord directed Abram to bring a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, each three years old, also a turtle-dove and a young pigeon. These sacrifices were all representatives of the animals used years later in the Tabernacle and the Temple as sacrifices. They were to be divided and the pieces laid one against the other, as this was the usual custom of making a covenant. The covenant parties would always pass between them to show that now there was no longer to be a division, but that what had been divided was to be considered as one between them. The only thing different about this covenant, though, was that Abram could see no other covenanting party appearing to pass between the divided sacrifices. All day long, he sat watching for someone else. He had to drive the birds away from the carcasses of the dead animals. Finally a deep sleep and a horror of great darkness fell upon Abram. Everything that had happened, though, was a forerunner of other things in the future, and typified times and seasons for things. The age of each sacrificed animal, the long, lonely day, the birds of prey swooping around, and the horror that had come with the night, all betokened what Jehovah now foretold: how for three generations the seed of Abram should be afflicted in Egypt; but in the fourth, when God had decided that it was fully time for the Canaanites to pay for the idolatry that they had done for years and years, the Israelites were to return, and enter on the promised possession of the land. Then it was that the covenant was made; not as usual by both parties passing between the divided sacrifice, but by Jehovah alone doing so. The covenant was that of grace, in which God as the one party undertook all the obligations, while the other received all the benefits. For the first time did Abram see passing between those pieces the smoking furnace and the burning lamp. The Divine brightness was wrapped in a cloud, just as Moses saw it in the bush, and the children of Israel on their wilderness march, and as it afterwards dwelt in the sanctuary above the mercy seat and between the cherubim. This was the first vision given to Abram and the first stage of the covenant into which God entered with him, and also the first appearance of the glory of the Lord. At the same time, what may be called the personal promise to Abram was also enlarged, and the boundaries of the land were clearly defined as stretching from the Nile in the west to the Euphrates in the east. This was an extent to which the Holy Land has not even to this day attained, or did not ever attain even in the Jews' most flourishing time in the land. As precious as the promise of God to Abram had been, it had still left one point undetermined - who the mother of the promised seed was to be. Instead of waiting for the direction of God in this respect also, Sarai seems to have been impatient and anticipated what she thought the Lord wanted. By taking matters into her own hands, she was to suffer much sorrow and disappointment down the road. Ten years had elapsed since Abram had entered Canaan and God had given him the promise of an heir. It seems Sarai must have thought that since she couldn't have children, that God must want Abram to get the promised seed another way. It was the custom of those days and countries that if the wife could not bear a child, then the husband could have one by one of her maids, and it would be considered legally his, so that his name could continue on down through the generations. Sarai started to form a plan for Abram and her own Egyptian maid, Hagar. We will not go into all the details of the whole plan she formulated, but from the time Hagar became pregnant, things went terribly downhill. Sarai's plan went devastatingly wrong from the very beginning, and got worse from there. Hagar had planned to leave and go back to Egypt, but God came to her and told her to go back to where Abram was and her son Ishmael would also be the father of many people. Hagar returned to Abram's house and gave birth to Ishmael. What followed was probably a huge trial of his faith, because a full 13 years elapsed without any revelation from God concerning the promised seed. During this time Ishmael had grown up and Abram may have even secretly thought that maybe he had heard God wrong and Ishmael was to be the heir after all, even though deep down he had to know it wasn't true. Abram was now 99 years old, and he and Sarai were years past the time when they could have had a child in the natural. It seems that God waited until every human hope and prospect was swept away so that everyone would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was the one that caused this thing to come to pass. It was in these circumstances that Jehovah at last once more appeared in visible form to Abram to establish and fulfill the covenant that he had made with him many years before. It was at this point that God initiated the rite of circumcision among Abram and his descendants as a sign and a seal to show that they were consecrated and chosen by God. At this same time he changed his name from Abram (father of elevation, or noble chief) to Abraham ( father of a multitude), and Sarai (the princely) to Sarah (the princess). This denoted that through these two the promise was to be fulfilled, and that from them the chosen race was to spring. These tidings came upon Abraham with such joyous surprise that he fell upon his face and laughed as he considered the whole circumstances of everything that was happening. This was not done in disbelief, but in gladness and wonder. To bring that feeling to remembrance forever, the seed was to be named Isaac, which means "laughter". The heir of the all God's promises was indeed to be Sarah, but God had also promised to watch over Ishmael and he multiplied his race exceedingly also and they both were made into great nations. Ever since those days, circumcision has been seen as a sign that bore testimony to the covenant with Abraham, as each Jewish child was circumcised on the eight day after being born. Better still and by far, though, it pointed forward to the fulfillment of the covenant promise in Christ Jesus, in whom there is now no other circumcision needed than that of the heart. For more information from this book, go to the archives page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are other articles of interest there, also. This text is taken from the book Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim. Permission has been granted to use this book.
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