Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Genesis

[Kata Plasma]

The Abrahamic covenant has to do with nationhood, not eternal salvation.

Genesis 22.17-18:

I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies. And through your seed all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

Context: Many Christians understand the promises that God makes to Abraham, particularly the one found in Genesis 22:17-18, as a foreshadowing of the universal spread of the Christian gospel of eternal salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus. According to this reasoning, the nations are blessed through Abraham's "seed" (i.e. Christ and his followers) in the sense that through them the offer of forgiveness for sins will extend over the whole of the earth. Abraham is thus given a taste of the gospel message that is to come.

Thesis: The aforementioned understanding of the promises to Abraham has little to nothing to do with the covenantal texts in the Genesis narrative. Rather, Abraham is promised fatherhood over a great and powerful nation, one through which God will bless and curse nations. Through Abraham's nation as a nation, not as a theological message or religious group, the nations will find blessing.

God makes promises to Abraham on a number of other occasions.

Genesis 12:2-3:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Genesis 18:18

Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him

God makes identical or similar promises to Abraham's sons, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. The blessing passed from Jacob to Judah is instructive:

Genesis 49:10, cf. 27:27-29

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the nations.

The point I'd like to stress is that these promises and expectations await an earthly nation, one with real political clout, military strength, and prosperous land. This "great and powerful" nation will "possess the gates of its enemies" and receive the "obedience of the nations."

The idea that Abraham's offspring will bless the nations by means of a religious message about afterlife-salvation is absent. We are instead told that God will bless (materially) nations that bless Abraham's people and curse (materially) nations that curse Abraham's people. This blessing for some nations will come on account of their voluntary socio-political subordination to Abraham.

[jimwalton]

There are several problems with your thesis, as I think it through.

1. God's words to Abraham were indeed speaking of the land and nationhood, but obviously of more than that. Gn. 12.3 and 22.18 shows a global scope not limited by the promise of land.

2. God's blessing doesn't pertain just to nationhood, but also to descendants and blessing to the nations of the world, a thought that is developed through the rest of Genesis (beyond Abraham), as well as in the Pentateuch at large, as well as in the rest of the Bible.

3. God's covenant with Israel pertains to His presence with them and His relationship to them as their God. The goal of the covenant is not the land (that's a means), but rather for Him to be in relationship to the people He has created. The mechanism that drives this program of revelation is the covenant, which is the land, the blessing, and the Law. We can't be so narrow minded as to take one aspect (the nation) and make it into the whole.

So your question is: How do we know the blessings God promises to Abraham extend further than the nation and the people of Israel and into Christ and His followers and salvation through the cross? It's by taking into account the whole story.

1. Gn. 12.3. The blessing is global in scope, far beyond the reach of a national identity or the boundaries of land. Blessing of the world shows up again in Ex. 19.5-6 in Israel's priestly role, and it has nothing to do with nationhood. Isaiah 9.1-2 expands the thought spiritually to people living in darkness, as does Isa. 60.3. The verb form in Gn. 12.3 (niphal) shows the thought to be that blessing will come through the channel of Abraham and his family, and this blessing is not conditioned on obedience (as was the covenant of nationhood) and does not come as a result of domination (military power possessing the gates of its enemies).

2. In Genesis 17, one of the aspects of the covenant is righteousness (a spiritual quality, not a geographical one). The nature of the covenant is in character, relationship, and dedication. He will be the father of "many nations" (Gn. 17.4, 16), not just Israel as a nation. The blessing extends beyond national borders. Romans 4.16-17 shows the spiritual extension of this promise.

3. The universal aspect of the blessing is reiterated in Gn. 22.18, the text you have chosen. The covenant God offers is unconditional, not dependent on human response, belonging to the nation, or even technically belonging to Abraham's offspring. Through the Bible this understanding is expanded (Mt. 3.9; 8.11; Acts 3.25; Rom. 4.16 et al.)

> Genesis 49.10

Yes, leadership (the monarchy) came to Judah through David. The latter part of the verse mentions a much broader view, one of a coming king whose kingdom stretches far beyond Israel's nationhood. This thought is developed in the Davidic covenant of 2 Sam. 7.12-16, where the reach of the prophecy is global, messianic, and salvific, not just national.

• David's house is not just his physical descendants, but an ideality.
• The throne mentioned refers to the dignity and power of an ideal king, not a material throne.
• The kingdom refers to a political entity, but reach further than that to a sphere of rule.
• It is an eternal kingdom, not an earthly one. Ps. 89.3-4, 28-37.

None of what I have written, however, is to deny that the land belongs to Israel and that the prophecies about Israel in the land are invalid. I believe that Israel being given the land in 1947 is the fulfillment of prophecy, and that God truly gave the land to them as an inheritance. At the same time, I believe that the prophecies have a second layer—a spiritual fulfillment in Jesus and His work of salvation.