Godmindfamily, Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Promised Land

In the Abrahamic Covenant God unconditionally promised to give Abraham’s ‘offspring’ the territory from the ‘river of Egypt’ to the Euphrates (Genesis 15:18) including the lands of the Canaanites, the Jebusites, the Kenites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites and the Girgashites (Genesis 15:19), that became known as the Promised Land. This is a vast territory that includes parts of what is currently Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. God also promised that Abraham’s offspring would ‘bless all the nations of the earth’ (Genesis 22:18). The river of Egypt is generally understood to be the Brook of Egypt, not the Nile. The original Hebrew word zera, translated here as seed or offspring, is singular and can be understood to denote a group of descendants or one descendant.[i]

Abraham’s ‘offspring’ is often taken to mean his descendants, the Jewish people, although Abraham’s descendants technically include many Arabs (via his son Ishmael) and other Gentiles. In Galatians 3:16, Paul pointed out that Christ was that offspring or descendant who would inherit the Promised Land, and wrote: ‘if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring [or, seed] and heirs according to promise’ (Galatians 3:29). Gentiles in Christ thereby inherit the Promised Land. This was corroborated by Jesus when he said: ‘your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day’ (John 8:56); Abraham may have ‘seen’ Jesus’ day when God promised the patriarch land to his offspring. Therefore, if you have Christ’s blood in you, you are God’s child, and Abraham’s descendant. That helps to explain why Gentiles are prophesied to live in the millennial kingdom alongside Jews (Ezekiel 47:21–23).

Moreover, John the Baptist said to some Pharisees and Sadducees seeking baptism: ‘Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’, for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.’ (Matthew 3:9–10). This means that Jewish people cannot be complacent about inheriting the Promised Land via genealogy, because entry into God’s kingdom depends (partly) on deeds, and God was able to raise up new children of Abraham (Gentile Christians) by unconventional means. Indeed, Jesus is the stone the builders rejected (Psalm 118:22; Luke 20:17) from whom God raised children of Abraham.

[i]Nally, J. Seed and offspring – single or plural? Link: https://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/50209#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20Hebrew%20word%20zera,a%20later%20%22seed%22%20fulfillment!

Read the next chapter here: https://www.robertensor.com/post/godmindfamily-chapter-12