Sons of Promise
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· 9 viewsIdea from "Believing God" by R.T. Kendall.
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of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”
concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
Ps 11:19 may be the most profound verses in the NT.
Truth like this comes through suffering.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.
God wanted to show Abraham His secret, but it could not come without immense suffering.
The secret to which all of us are called is that of making the transition from the flesh to the Spirit.
That time had come when Jesus prepared His disciples for a realm beyond the level of nature and they didn’t like what they were hearing one bit.
It is expedient for you that I go away
But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
Abraham needed a lesson in how to make the transition from the level of nature to the level of the Spirit.
That was the whole purpose in the ordeal of having to sacrifice Isaac.
When God initially said:
Genesis 21:12 (NKJV)
But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.
There was far more that God meant than what Abraham could have known.
Genesis 21:10 (NKJV)
Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.”
And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son.
Abraham needed to be taught:
How the offspring of Isaac would be incorporated into the family of God.
The nature of God’s calling of His people.
Although Isaac was a ‘miracle baby’ he was nonetheless born naturally.
Abraham was to receive a lesson not only in God’s calling, but also in what was meant by “seed”.
What Abraham was to learn...
What the writer of Hebrews brings out...
is precisely what the Jews seemed never to understand about Abraham’s seed.
John 8:33 (AV)
They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
These Jews would have been most anoyed that “seed” should mean somthing other than what they understood.
For they took Gen 21:12 to simply mean the exclusion of Ishamael’s line.
which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—
Paul said even the non-beleiving Jews spiritual origin was tracable to Hagar.
Likewise, according to Paul, beleiving Gentiles revealed their spiritual ancestry as traceable to Sarah.
But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
Imagine Paul calling a Jew and Arab!
(Islam is largely comprised of the sons of Ismael)
Abrahams ordeal was far more than a trial of his faith...
God did want to see if Abraham loved Him like the heathen oved their gods.
But on a spiritual level. The spiritual aspect was to demonstrate that there is a discontinuity between the natural level and the spiritual level.
The only way to teach Abraham this was for him to give up Isaac utterly.
Abraham must kill Isaac and see him no more.
Abraham was willing to go thorugh this if only because he knew that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead.
Abraham bade Isaac farwell and raised the knife.....
Suddenly the angel grabbed Abraham’s arm in the nick of time....
God stepped in and Abraham never forgot it.
Abraham got Isaac back but,
Isaac never looked the same again.
Abraham got Isaac back “in a figure”.
Abraham was now detached from his son at a natural level.
The tie ever afterwards was spiritual. He learned that his “seed” was to be continued not aat the level of nature but by God’s own intervention.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
God did not want Isaac to continue by nature.
God wanted Isaac’s existence to be due entirely to the intervention of the Spirit.
Thus Isaac’s posterity woudl be after the “figure” of Isaac — no the Isaac who lived before God’s intervention at mount Moriah.
The Greek work translated “figure” is parabole - a parable, a likeness pointing behond itself, or a figure.
Abraham’s discovery that his seed would be continued only by God’s intervention....
The seed would continue by regeneration not procreation.
Abraham’s true posterity would be reconned as having spring from the “figure” of Isaac, not the Isaac before the sacrifice.
All of Abraham’s posterity who do not undergo a similar death and intervention by God’s act are reckoned to be SONS OF HASTE who have HAGAR for a mother.
God is determined to keep the responsibility fo the continuation of the seed of Isaac to Himself alone.
He let’s nature perpetuate itelf according to the laws of creation and procreation.
In His “Secret” will in the OT God has claimed total responsibility for the continuation of Isaac’s seed.
Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven,
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—
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.
What matters, then is the “Figure” of Isaac not the “Flesh” of Isaac.
We are son’s of Isaac only if we have been raised up to New Life.
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Isaac owed His survival to God alone, not to his father Abraham.
And so it is with us!
The flesh must die for the Spirit to reign.
Nature must die before grace can rule.
But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
What began in the Spirit often seeks perfection in the flesh!
We must never assume that God’s anointing yesterday ensures His blessing upon an institution today!
So many have become worldly,and indifferent to the need for fresh power from on High.
Christ’s warning to the church at Ephesus:
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Every conversion is a miracle!
God steps down...
God stoops down…t o where we are.
I don’t want to be a son of Haste.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.
They that wait upon the Lord...