Promises and Provisions in the Covenants

Transcript

GR 2239
5/24/2020
Promises and Provisions in the Covenants
Romans 9:4-5
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Romans chapter 9 in your bibles. Romans and the 9th chapter. We’ve come to a new section in Romans that is really built upon what is preceded. We’ve unfolded the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. God’s provision to deal with our sin and provide God’s righteousness for us. We went through condemnation and justification and then sanctification. And in that, he talked about the nation Israel. Particularly that the Jews were just as much under condemnation as the Gentiles. Paul talked about the Jews particularly in chapter 2. In chapter 7, he talked about the Mosaic Law, and it was no longer operative. Believers are not under the Law. The Law served its purpose with the coming of Christ.

Recognizing that, it leaves the question, where does Israel fit in the plan of God? Has God changed His plan? What about all the promises to Israel and the covenants? Chapters 9, 10, and 11 are about the nation Israel and where they are in the plan of God. As we’ll see, as we work through these 3 chapters, they are exactly where God put them in the Old Testament revelation. And among bible believing Christians, there’s probably more misunderstanding or disagreement over these 3 chapters than any other portion of the book of Romans. And very early in church history, going back to days of origin, who was born around 185, then into the next century, died around 250 or 253, somewhere in there I believe, are views of Israel and interpreting the bible literally. And if you don’t interpret the bible consistently, literally, then you begin to lose your way. And that has key impact for the nation Israel.

We believe that literal interpretation of the bible should be consistently followed through. That’s what we’re looking at in Romans 9, the place of Israel. And Paul started out sharing his great burden and conviction for the nation, and love for that nation. It started out, verse 1, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me witness in the Holy Spirit…” He really calls Christ and the Holy Spirit to testify to the truth of what he’s saying and his own conscience bears witness. Verse 2, “…that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh…” That is strong language! You see how Paul was driven by the gospel and by the realization that there was no hope outside of the gospel for anyone. And his deep concern for the nation Israel. He was appointed by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

But that in no way lessoned his burden and love for the nation Israel. He writes strong things about the Law, about the Jews. But he’s driven by a passionate love for them to come to salvation in Christ. We were looking at the 9 things said about Paul’s kinsmen, as he defines them in verse 3. “…my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh…” And he says 9 things about these kinsmen according to the flesh. We’ve made some slides for you to follow along. Let me just review the first part of these. We didn’t get through them all, then I want to expand particularly on one.

The first point about blessing provided to Paul’s kinsmen, and let’s set this out on its own, they are Israelites. We’re talking about a physical connection here. They are his brethren, “my kinsmen according to the flesh”. So, he’s talking about a physical connection. We’re talking about physical Jews; they are the Israelites. We noted that covenantal promises come down through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then to Jacob’s 12 sons, from whom the 12 tribes of Israel are descended. And Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and that’s where we get the name Israel from. We looked at that. So, the first one is that they are Israelites. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not talking about a spiritual connection here. I’m talking about my physical connection, our brothers in the sense of my physical family. That’s the way we talk about our national identity today. Paul’s talking about that national identity he has with the Jews. They are Israelites. Then he says, “…to whom belongs…” That’s not a separate point, but the rest of this develops out of the foundational point that realizes, I’m talking about the physical Jews. The physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, to these physical people, belong the rest of these 9 blessings, the following 8.

Second, the adoption as sons. We looked at scripture identifying them, where God calls them His first-born Son. For example, as He prepared to deliver them from Egypt. To them belongs the glory. We looked at that and the presence of God among His people. The glory, the shekinah, of God’s presence within the nation. And even the pagan nations, as we read the Old Testament, recognize that Israel’s God dwelt in their midst. And that the ark of the covenant was the physical place where His presence was manifested, only in that nation. Then the 4th blessing, the covenants. We mention those, I want to come back to those a little bit later.

The 5th is the giving of the Law. Now you note, the Law is a covenant, it’s called the covenant of Moses, or the covenant of the Law, the Mosaic Covenant. That is the covenant given by God to Israel on Mount Sinai. Now that separated out from the other covenants that we mentioned. And we will come back and talk about in a little bit. It is a conditional covenant. We didn’t distinguish between the covenants, between the unconditional covenants and the conditional covenants. And the Mosaic Law is a conditional covenant. It was conditioned upon Israel’s obedience. When the covenant was established, Exodus 19. Maybe you should turn back there. Just want to be sure we understand. Because you don’t want to misunderstand the issue, the Mosaic Covenant ended with the coming of Christ. But the other covenants continue; they’re permanent covenants. The Mosaic covenant was a conditional covenant given for a period of time, until the coming of the Messiah.

In Exodus 19, you have Moses on Mount Sinai where the covenant is being given to him. We identify it in this way. Verse 3, “Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel...” You note the dual identification, the sons of Jacob, the house of Jacob, the sons of Israel. Jacob and Israel, you could use the terms interchangeably. And Israel becomes the normal name we think of for the nation Israel. But it began as the name given to Jacob and his descendants. Verse 5, “‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant…’” Then these things will be true of you. And then note verse 8, “All the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do!’” You see, it’s connected to their obedience.

And the Mosaic covenant became something of a governing document for the nation Israel in all areas of their conduct as a nation, their civil conduct, their religious life, moral obligations, punishment meaded out for certain crimes or acts of sin and disobedience, and so on. That was operative for the nation until the coming of the Messiah. We noted the book of Galatians said, it was the overseer to guide Israel until the coming of their Messiah. Now the desirable thing would have been, with the coming of their Messiah, they would have placed their faith in the Messiah, and the kingdom would have been established. But Israel was in a state of rebellion and rejected their Messiah. It’s not a change in the plan of God, but it’s a change of the revelation God gives of His plan regarding the nation Israel for their disobedience. But it doesn’t nullify the previous covenants. And basically, the Abrahamic covenant, which is the foundational one, was given without condition. Not conditioned on the obedience of Abraham. In fact, when God finally and firmly establishes that covenant, Abraham is asleep. God didn’t call for his agreement. We’ll see that, we’ll look at that more in a moment.

The 6th blessing for Israel is the temple service. The temple service was the religion of Israel that provided for the worship of the one, true, and living God. You had to come to Israel. The priesthood was given to Israel. The sacrifices were given to Israel. Come over to Hebrews chapter 9. The book of Hebrews walks through the details of the Old Testament system and the New Testament system and the Aaronic priesthood and the priesthood of Christ which is after the order of Melchizedek and all related to the new priesthood and the worship with Christ as our High Priest. Chapter 9 of Hebrews begins, “Now even the first covenant…” and he’s talking in comparison of the old covenant and the new covenant. The old covenant was the Mosaic Covenant which guided Israel in its worship. Now in the New Covenant there’s new provisions. We’ll talk about the New Covenant more in a moment.

He’s contrasting the Mosaic Covenant, the first covenant here. Don’t get confused. He’s not talking about the Abrahamic Covenant. He’s talking about the Mosaic Covenant because that’s what unfolded the instruction for Israel’s worship system. It established the order of Aaronic priesthood and all the details of the worship with the sacrifices and so on. It had the regulations of divine worship and earthly sanctuary. Come down to verse 6, “Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship…” because remember they didn’t come into the Holy of Holies. Their ministry was outside of that area with the sacrifice and so on. Only the High Priest, once a year, went into the inner sanctuary. So, all those instructions and so on were given. You have the temple service which was crucial, and it made Israel unique because no other nation on earth had been given the instructions for worship. They had the revelation of creation as we saw in Romans chapter 1. But Israel had the details of how God was to be worshiped, how He could be approached, and the required, necessary sacrifices to be offered by the priesthood that He had appointed. It was all part of that temple service and worship.

Then the seventh blessing, and these are just following the line as they are unfolded in the first five verses of Romans chapter 9 as you are aware. “…and the promises…” That’s the last thing mentioned at the end of verse 4. Which is the seventh of the blessings. It belongs to Israel, the promises. You see all these things are unique to the nation Israel and show the unique place and position that Israel had and has in the plan of God. This is important because there was a danger of losing the focus even as many have today, of the unique role of the nation Israel. And Paul will caution Gentiles who become believers, don’t get proud and arrogant. Don’t think that you’re better than Israel. We’ll talk about that in chapter 11.

All the promises of God in the Old Testament focused on Israel. Basically, the Church is not discussed in the Old Testament. It’s not revealed in the Old Testament. In fact, Paul says the truth concerning the Church was not fully revealed until God revealed it to him. In Ephesians chapter 3 he mentions that. It was a mystery, something that had not before been revealed. Now don’t get confused. People say, oh, then God had to change His plan. No! There’s no change in God’s plan, but as far as man had revelation from God on His plan, God had not revealed the judgment He would bring on Israel for their unbelief resulting in Israel being set aside in God’s work of salvation in the world to focus on the church, and primarily on Gentiles. This will be in chapter 11. So, the promises given in the Old Testament belong to Israel, and there are many of them.

The eighth blessing, Israel has the fathers. Verse 5, “…whose are the fathers…” This is going back to the Israelites, Paul’s kinsman. That’s important. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the promises come down that line. That’s crucial. As far as Paul’s concerned, they’re not gone. Israel is no more special anymore, than any other nation. And the Jews are no more special. Well, something had to change. I am a son of God now as a Gentile. A member of the Church. But be careful. I haven’t replaced Israel. I’m not in the physical line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and we’ll see how we have come into the blessing provided. We’ll talk a little bit about that shortly here. It’s important you go back and read in Genesis about the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; then the development of the nation through the twelve sons of Jacob. That all belongs to Israel.

Then the ninth, “…and from whom is the Christ.” That’s the ninth blessing and the capstone that will enable the bringing to fruition and the accomplishing of all that was by covenant promised by God. Then the prophetic promises given. Christ is a Jew. Nothing more repulsive than anti-Semitism among those who profess to be Bible-believers. Christ is a Jew. That’s why Matthew chapter 1 starts out with what? Genealogy, the genealogy of Christ, the anointed Messiah of Israel. Luke chapter 3 unfolds the chronology, and Luke takes it all the way back to Adam, but it comes through the Jewish line. He is a descendent of David, the tribe of Judah. That’s important. And this foundation is crucial so that we as believers in the church don’t lose perspective. It’s true the nation Israel is under judgment, but God has not rejected His people. And he’ll get into this as we move through this section. Israel has been set aside in the plan of God for a time. He’s still dealing with them. They’re still the nation He has chosen, but they’re not the nation in whom and through whom He is working His work of salvation in these days. These are days of Gentile salvation. We’ll get to that in chapter 11.

Verse 6 says something important. Everything’s important but I have it underlined here because he gave us all this to remind us, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed.” In fact, one commentator, and he’s not even dispensational, said that’s the most important statement in chapters 9, 10, and 11 because that’s what it’s all unfolding. “…it is not as though the word of God has failed.” That’s why he wants to remind, here’s what the word of God says. Now you can’t break that off. And it’s serious where there are people who do.

But I want to back up and make sure we understand about the covenants because we’ll mention more about this and the Abrahamic covenant as we get further into these chapters. We want to be sure that we are together on this. We’ve done some of this study on other occasions. We have some charts. The basic covenant is the Abrahamic covenant. That’s the basic foundational covenant and it will have three parts. But before we leave that, I’m going to take you back and we’re going to look in Genesis chapter 12. Most of us are Gentiles. My wife had a grandmother who was a Jew from Russia. So, I prepare myself to share in some of the blessings for that side. Since the two of us have become one, I should share those blessings too. The Abrahamic covenant. This is the foundational covenant. We want to note the provisions. It will have a land, seed, and blessing but we’re going to look at it repeatedly.

The foundational one is in Genesis 12 where God told Abram his name will be changed to Abraham, so if I go back and forth with the name, you understand later it is changed to Abraham. Sometimes out of habit I may call him Abraham before his name is changed, but it is the same person. God said to Abram, “‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and 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 will be blessed.’” So, he’s going to go to a country, a land, and is promised a blessing. And not just blessing for Abraham’s descendants, but all the families of the earth will be blessed. You’ll see the pieces of this come as we go through this to the different times it’s repeated.

Come over to chapter 13 and down to verse 14. “The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward…’” Look in all four directions. Now note this, “‘…for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your (seed) descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth...’” They are innumerable. “‘Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.’” Now you note as we see this covenant repeated, again and again, sometimes different portions of it, we say there are three provisions in it, land, seed, and blessing. But sometimes it’s repeated as one aspect. You see the land here is particularly emphasized as it’s repeated. As this covenant is repeated to Abraham, to look around in all four directions, as far as you can see. It’s yours. Go walk on it. It’s yours. And furthermore, it belongs to your descendants. That’s the seed. And you’re just one man with a wife and you have no children. But this is what I’m going to do. So, the promise is here. It had nothing to do with Abraham agreeing to anything here. He doesn’t say, now if you agree to this, what I tell you to do. God is just telling him what He is going to do. God is obligating Himself.

Look at chapter 15. Abram is concerned. He has no children. Maybe, I want to be careful, I don’t know what Abram is thinking, but he told God, I don’t have any kids. God needed to be informed?! Verse 1 said God reminded him, I’m going to do these things for you in a summary way, and you’re going to have a very great reward. What are you going to do for me God, I don’t have any children? When I’m gone, I’ll be gone. Nothing will get passed on to any of my descendants because I don’t have any descendants. So maybe my chief steward, my chief servant, will inherit my blessing. The Lord said, no it’s going to be your descendant. Verse 4, “‘…This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir…Now look toward the heavens…’” If you can count the stars and are able to count them, “‘…So shall your descendants be.’” He said they’re like the dust of the ground, they’re like the stars of heaven.

Now this is where we get that great statement of Abram’s faith. Verse 6, “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” What a promise! Abraham has great faith here. All he has is the word of God. He doesn’t have any kids. He’s not getting any younger and neither is Sarah. But God says you’re going to have so many physical descendants you won’t be able to count them. Abraham said, I believe that. And that faith is credited to him as righteousness. And then He also tells him in verse 7, “‘…I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.’” Abram owns nothing here. He’s a stranger and sojourner in this land. Then he says how will I know I will possess it? Then in verse 12, God causes a deep sleep to fall upon Abram, and a great darkness of fear falls on Abram. He’s in a deep sleep and God speaks to him in this sleep. “‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.’”

That’s the Egyptian bondage we know. It’s easy for us to read this and go by it and say, yeah, yeah, I can see all that. You know Abraham is getting all these promises from God, but he doesn’t even have a taste of them yet. He didn’t even have one child to start to build from. I will judge the nation whom they will serve and then they’ll come out with great possessions. It’s going to take four hundred years because you’re in the land. Remember Abraham doesn’t own anything here. The Amorites are here in the Amorite land. And the Amorites and the Canaanites, I’m waiting for their wickedness to ripen to the point of My finally dealing with them in judgment. And then you have that great picture, verse 17, “…when the sun had set, that it was very dark…” Abraham is not only in a deep sleep, but now there’s darkness everywhere. So, this all stands out.

There’s a smoking oven and a flaming torch because remember animals have been divided. The basic meaning of making a covenant is to ‘cut a covenant.’ They would cut the animals and split them and then the two parties of the covenant would walk down between those animals sealing the agreement. But Abram’s asleep. But this smoking oven and flaming torch which would be so evident against the darkness of night passes between the animals. And note in verse 18, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates...” You see that’s why we call this an unconditional covenant. It’s different than the Mosaic Covenant where you go down and ask them, will they agree to these provisions? They say, we’ll agree. They are conditioned on our agreement and keeping our end of the agreement.

God obligates Himself here. The Lord made a covenant with Abram. It’s not the Lord and Abram agreed on a covenant. This is a covenant between Abram and God that totally depends on God for the fulfillment of all its provisions. That’s why if we really believe the bible, we can’t play fast and loose with what it says. Included in this, He’s going to repeat the land, “‘To your descendants I have given this land...’” And He marks it out. And some of the people that were inhabiting that land along with the Amorite, were “…the Kenite, and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite…” and on it goes. He’s talking a physical thing. It just drives me crazy. And I read and people say we should understand this was all fulfilled when Christ came. So, there’s no future for Israel regarding the land. That means what God said has failed. Oh no, no, it just has been reinterpreted. Well, if you promised God physical land that was presently inhabited by physical people, a land you could walk over with your physical feet, that you could look at with your physical eye. That’s yours. See I even gave you the general geographical dimension, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. And now you pull the rug out from under them and say, well I didn’t mean physical land. That promise of God has failed. You don’t want to call it failure, but the descendants of Abram are not going to get what God said they would get. I have a whole book on hermeneutics where a man says the land promise was fulfilled in Christ. There is no future land promise and yet he gets great reviews from evangelical commentators and writers. I said I can’t even follow this thinking.

And God’s not done. Chapter 17, the first twenty-one verses, look at verse 5. We’ll just break into this. God has promised, and this is where He changes his name in verse 5, “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham...” He’s going to be the father of a multitude. “…I will make you a father of a multitude of nations.” Not only Israel comes out of him, but other nations as well. And we get into some of that as we move further on. Then Abram will have a second wife and he will become a father and nations come. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.” You see this promise is broad, but the provisions of this covenant as far as the particular blessing like the land, they’re going to be limited. But they are going to many nations. “I will give to you and your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession…”

If they don’t get it for an everlasting possession, then the promises of God have failed. Well, they had it for a while. They were disobedient so they didn’t get it. Note verse 7, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.” So even though we’re in this hiatus, that seems like a pause, it’s not in the plan of God. Because of Israel’s unbelief and rejection of their Messiah, they have been placed under the disciplining judgment of God. Not for their destruction, but to prepare them for the fulfillment of all that God has promised. And that will come out as we move through the chapter in Romans. Then in verse 10, the sign of circumcision is given to Abraham as the sign of the covenant between you and Me. Verse 11 that is to be carried out. Then Abram is concerned about Sarah. In verse 17, “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old?’” Sarah ninety years old? “And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ismael might live before You!’” Because he’d already helped God out with plan B in consultation with Sarah. He’s taken Sarah’s servant, fathered a child with her so they could claim it, so God we helped you out of the bind. We’ve got a child here so…God doesn’t need help. And he asks that Ishmael would live before You. And God says I’ll honor that request. “‘No! but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.’” So, you see God promises that the same covenant He established with Abraham will be established as an everlasting covenant with Isaac, and Isaac hasn’t even been born. He is definitely not a party agreeing to this covenant. He hasn’t even been conceived yet. But God has guaranteed the covenant with Isaac.

So, that’s why we make a distinction between the Mosaic Covenant as a conditional covenant, but this covenant with Abraham is unconditional. If it doesn’t get carried out and all the details as God gave it, God failed to do what He said He would do and took full responsibility for doing. Serious. So, verse 21, “‘But My covenant I will establish with Isaac.’” This becomes crucial. The line has to come from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob to enter into the fullness of what is promised. We need to be careful because in the Middle East now, they say, well, we’re all descendants of Abraham. Some of the tribes there and the peoples, well Ishmael, but no. It needs to come from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. There are a lot of descendants of Abraham. God said He’d make him the father of a multitude of nations, but the covenantal promises will only come down through this line. So only the descendants between Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons of Jacob are in the line of the promises.

Alright. Another promise given, chapter 18, verse 18, God says Abraham is the one “‘…who will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed…’” That blessing, land, seed, blessing. Those provisions keep being emphasized.

One more time. In chapter 22, God tells him to go offer as a physical human sacrifice, Isaac. Now this is a dilemma. He has one son in whom all the promises can be fulfilled. God says to go make him a physical offering to Me. Now some people say, well, he had to know that God wouldn’t want him to sacrifice his son. Well you can’t sacrifice to pagan nations, but if God requires the son, you sacrifice the son. Abraham does it. The New Testament tells us that Abraham thought, well I guess God will raise him back from the dead. We don’t get into trouble if we don’t try to solve God’s problems, if I can put it this way with respect. In other words, what we see as a problem, I can’t see how God will do that, or could do that, or could fulfill that. I don’t have to. All I need to do is what I’m told. God has to take care of fulfilling His promises.

So, in verse 8, when Isaac said, where’s the offering? Abraham doesn’t say, it’s you! He says, “‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’” I’ve got full confidence in God. Abraham is a great man of faith. He’s the example of the man of faith. We saw that in Romans chapter 4. Then He reiterates the promise again in verse 16. Note this, “‘…By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord…’” Verse 17, “…‘indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed...” God takes an oath. He doesn’t have to take an oath. When God speaks, that’s enough. But it is just to confirm how settled this is, what God does. How can people say that this covenant won’t be fulfilled in all its details? God not only promised it by what He said, He went the next step and confirmed it with an oath that He would do this.

That’s the Abrahamic Covenant. So, we ought not to have any doubt that the Abrahamic covenant in all its provisions will be fulfilled as God said. When it is all said and done, the nation Israel will be in the land, will be ruled by the King and so on. It’s repeated to Isaac. You’re here in Genesis, jump over to chapter 26, and come down to verse 24. “The Lord (and here He is appearing to Isaac)…The Lord appeared to him (referring to Isaac from the preceding context) the same night and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of My servant Abraham.’ So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord…” Just read verse 24 to you. You see the confirmation to Isaac there. Back in the first part of chapter 26, verse 3, He says to Isaac, “‘Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give you all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.’” So, you see, He reminds that this is not just a promise, but the promise of God is good. God is good to His word. He’s the God who cannot lie. But I swore I will multiply your descendants, give your descendants all these lands. By your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed. He reiterates the Abrahamic covenant and its basic provisions to Isaac.

Then you come over to chapter 28, Isaac has a son and it is Jacob. In chapter 28 of Genesis, Isaac calls Jacob and blessed him, verse 3, “‘May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.’” Come down to verse 12, and here is Jacob’s dream with the ladder to heaven, and verse 13, where the Lord stands at the top of that ladder and said “…‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.’”

How many times does God have to say something He has confirmed with an oath? How can there be people who claim to be believers in the truth of the Word of God say, well, there’s no future for Israel as a nation and the land doesn’t belong to them? Well, if these promises can’t be trusted how do I know God won’t change His mind about the church? And maybe somewhere in yet an unrevealed plan of God there’s another people that will bump us? It makes no sense to me. It’s the land in which you are now residing, relaxing. “‘…Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth...’” Spread out in all the directions again. “‘…in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’”

So, we see that repetition and it is repeated to Jacob in chapter 35, verses 9 to 12. Verse 10 of chapter 35, “God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.’ Thus He called him Israel. God also said to him, I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from you. The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you. And I will give the land to your descendants after you.’” So, it’s repeated.

We have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Go to the next one. You see there is a development. You see under “blessing,” if you can see it on your screens. The Law is put out under the blessing there, because God makes provision for Israel as a nation, to govern them until the coming of the Messiah, when the ultimate fulfillment will be realized. And now the Messiah came, He was rejected, but in the plan of God, there’s two aspects to His coming. The first to suffer and die to provide salvation and under the New Covenant, and then He’ll come where the nation is Israel. This is where we’re going to get to in chapter 11. God will fulfill the promises of the salvation of the nation Israel.

Now we’re seeing all the nations experiencing salvation blessings which was an initial provision. The Law is there because it’s not part of the permanent, the eternal covenants. The Scripture is clear. The Law was ended with the coming of the Messiah and His rejection, and the provision of that governing the nation. And they won’t enter into the provisions now of all the Abrahamic Covenant unless they become believers like the Jew Paul. And he becomes part of the Church. But the nation as a nation, it will not be until Christ comes again and the Kingdom is established. Then they enter and get the fullness of all.

There is the land covenant which we familiarly call the “Palestinian Covenant.” That’s maybe a misnomer but it’s what’s become that. It governs the land at God’s provision. We talked about that in Deuteronomy in our previous study. The Davidic Covenant in Second Samuel 7, where they will be ruled by a king, the nation will be ruled by a king, often by a descendant of David. That’s why in the lineage of Christ, He’s traced back to David, the tribe of Judah. These other permanent covenants are given now, that will ultimately be all realized in the Kingdom. They need to have the coming of the Messiah. Now again, the Old Testament revealed the Messiah would be rejected, in Isaiah 53, and suffer and die. But Israel, in their rejection, gets set aside. It’s not a cancelling of God’s plan, it’s not a change in God’s plan. But now God’s progressive revelation reveals that with that setting, remember the 70 weeks of Daniel, there is an extensive period between the 69th and 70th week. It doesn’t change anything about what had been revealed. It reveals more. The 70th week of Daniel is yet future. So, the break hadn’t been revealed in the unfolding plan of God.

Serious thing about judgment. Israel didn’t realize how severe the judgment would be. They’d been set aside under the judgment of God for 2000 years. And the worst is yet to come with the 70th week of Daniel. But then the coming of the Messiah will enable, the land will finally be Israel under the rule, ultimately of Christ, but specifically of David as we have seen it. And the new covenant will bring salvation blessings to the nation Israel. We come under the provisions of that covenant today. Within that Abrahamic covenant, these are the 3 basic breakdowns, but there are individual promises to Abraham. I’ve set those out, just how we might see these. These are promises that just pertain to Abraham. He would be the father of a great nation and he is the founding father, Abraham. He would experience God’s blessings and he did. He would have a great name, and we still talk about him. He’s father Abraham for the Jews. We come under blessings, promised to him, even as Gentiles in the Church today. He would be a blessing, and all the nations of the earth be blessed in him. And we are testimonies of that.

We’ll talk about that as we move further into these chapters in Romans. Those are individual promises to Abraham. God doesn’t promise that I’ll be the father of a great nation. Those were specific to Abraham. There are national promises to Israel, that it would be a great nation, be an innumerable people and possess the land permanently. Not popular today, nor was it popular in past days. The land is Israel’s. Now I want to be careful. Israel is under judgement, so I can’t help them get the land today. I am supportive of the nation Israel as God’s chosen nation. But I want to be careful, the land is not theirs today. They are under judgement. Now God has moved them back into the land, but the promises given to the nation, we wouldn’t want to give the idea that now they should enjoy it and we should stand behind them and do all we can. I can’t bring in the Kingdom for Israel. There are dark days ahead. The 70th week of Daniel is ahead.

So, while yes, support the nation as the nation, and they are God’s chosen people, be sympathetic to them. We pray for them. We saw the burden of Paul for them. But want to be careful that we don’t mix things here in a way, that somehow, we’re acting to bring about the Kingdom for Israel. We have to be honest. Israel is under the judgment of God. Sometimes you hear evangelical speakers talking about, the land is Israel’s and the United States ought to defend Israel and do all they can for Israel to possess the land that is rightfully theirs. Wait a minute, we know the plan of God. Remember when Israel was the southern kingdom particularly, here as Jeremiah writes, and was taken out of the land. Jeremiah’s word from God was, don’t fight it, settle down in the foreign land, accept the judgment of God, look for the good of the people that now rule over you. That will be better for you. When Israel fought against that, wouldn’t listen to Jeremiah, it went worse for them. We want to be honest in all that we do. It may sound great that all evangelicals are behind Israel and supportive of Israel. There’s an element of truth in that, but I don’t think Israel can yet be safe in the land.

I’m happy that the United States supports Israel. But we do that with a caveat, Israel is under the judgment of God. I can’t keep them from the judgment that they rightly deserve for their persistent rejection. It’s true. And those trying to destroy Israel are the enemies of God because you’re trying to destroy the people that God has chosen for Himself. So, yes, we stand behind Israel, but we also recognize that Israel is still under the judgment of God and will be until we get to the end of the 70th week of Daniel. And they cry out for the Messiah to come and deliver them. There are national promises to the nation and then there are universal promises to all, Jews and Gentiles alike. That comes under particularly the provision of the new covenant, where the Messiah provided salvation, not only for the nation Israel, but for all. And we’ll get to this as we get into chapter 11, and we come under the provision that in You all the nations of the earth will be blessed, and that was repeated.

We’re blessed because the Jewish Messiah, the descendant of Abraham, is the Savior for Gentiles and Jews. So, the Abrahamic Covenant and all its provisions. Want to have this fixed in our minds because if you interpret the bible literally, then when we come to the New Testament, it’s not where they get off track. And this is the normal way of dealing with these prophetic scriptures among the evangelical world, as well as the coming of Christ, that we go back and reinterpret the Old Testament. And we look at the Old Testament through the coming of Christ, in the sense now, we spiritualize the promises. And these promises are being fulfilled in the Church. And Jews can become beneficiaries of the spiritual promises when they come to believe in Christ and become part of the church.

But there are no unique promises to just the nation Israel that have to be realized. Wait a minute, later revelation cannot change the prior revelation. Come back to Romans 9. We’ll be done here, and we’ll elaborate on these. I want to be so clear, otherwise we’ll be going through this and we’ll have a shaky foundation. Verse 6 says, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed.” When we get over to chapter 11:1, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!” Verse 2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” It ought to be settled, there shouldn’t be any debate on this. Yet, most of the commentaries in my library write from a position that the promises of God for Israel have been altered.

That’s why I mentioned origin when we started. It got off interpreting the bible properly, literally, consistently. And even though it seemed what he had done, was going nowhere, it ends up exploding and gets further developed and picked up and becomes the common view. Then we end up having to battle this. Do we interpret prophecy literally? And I mean that in the normal way, according to the rules of historical, grammatical interpretation. We’ve done the rules, well yes, we can’t change prior promises. God swore with an oath. You can’t change that. Now, God can add to it. He can clarify it. But everything He promised to Abraham, has to be fulfilled just as He gave it to Abraham. Israel can never lose its unique place as a nation in the plan of God. It’s why I think, you’re the only nation I have chosen among all the nations of the earth, Amos 3:2. Well, if you’re the only nation I have chosen, of all the nations of the earth, now I can’t wipe you out and just throw you in with the rest of the nations. And you’re just like all the other nations, you can have salvation too. But you can’t be special. They can never not be special! That’s why, as we move through this, we have to have this foundation, however we interpret. When we move through here, one thing we know, the word of God cannot fail, verse 6. He’s going to explain where there can be misunderstanding. For not all Israel are from Israel. Some pick this up, like we said back in chapter 2, and I’ll leave you with this. Chapter 2:28, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter...” I take this to see that it’s not physical Israel anymore. We need to talk about that. Paul is clarifying this.

We’ve got to be careful that however we interpret these passages, that we don’t end up nullifying what God swore to do by oath. And say, well, with the coming of Christ, we reinterpret that. We don’t rewrite God’s covenants. You can’t do that! That would be the word of God failing. You signed a contract, to use that kind of currency, to buy a house for a certain amount of money and borrow the money at a certain interest. And now, time goes by, the economy gets down, and somebody comes and takes your house. You say, wait a minute, we have a contract. Oh, we cancelled it. Why? Well the economy changed. Well, we had a contract, we had an agreement. We would say, that’s not right. Now, I realize people do it all the time, because people can’t be trusted. But that’s the whole thing, God can be trusted. He promised and He swore with an oath.

Wherever we go in going through these chapters, we can’t have Israel moved out of its unique and special position. If we do, we’re off track some place, we’ll have to backup and relook. Because we’ve looked, certain things have been settled by God. So, now the later revelation we have, cannot unsettle what God settled. He swore with an oath, made a promise that would be good for eternity. Now, it’s the utmost arrogance that I would change that. We’ll have to stop there. We pick up with verse 6 next time. So, if you have a chance, take time to read through chapters 9, 10 and 11. And maybe go back and read some of those passages we just looked at. Get familiar with the content. Then as we work through clarifying our understanding, it will come more quickly.

Let’s pray. Thank You Lord, for the riches of Your word. What a treasure we have! Your very words preserved for us. Your Holy Spirit dwelling in us, as Your children, to instruct us. Lord, we would handle Your word carefully. We would honor You, seeking to be approved by You. Because we handled the word accurately. So, guide us, so that we can receive the blessing of correctly understanding the truth that You’ve given us. Thank You for this day, the privilege been ours to worship You as we study the word together. Pray Your blessing upon each person, in the week before us. Protect us, guard us in all that we do. Lord, in all we do and wherever we are, pray that first and foremost we will be faithful in our testimony for You. We commit ourselves to You, in Christ’s name. Amen.