Israel's Covenantal Dilemma and Making Sense of the Return of Jesus Pt 3

The Promises That Must Be Fulfilled 

The key to understanding history and God's activity in the earth is understanding two important parts of the redemptive story: God's promises and His covenants. God's promises are the specific commitments God has made. The redemptive story is designed to fulfill these promises. Covenants are agreements God has made with His people that include terms, conditions, and promises. Biblical covenants describe how God relates to His people and determine  how His promises are fulfilled and how the redemptive story will conclude.

These promises have the following key characteristics:

• They are made by God and secured by Him. Human sin does not eliminate the promises

• These promises have not yet been fulfilled, but they must be for the age to end. God's honor is at stake in the fulfilment of these promises

• Jesus secured these promises, but He has not yet fulfilled them.

• These promises will be fulfilled at the same time and will be deeply interconnected.

• These promises will be fulfilled in the end times and ultimately by the return of Jesus. Therefore, they are central themes of the end times.

We cannot understand how God brings this age to an end without knowing these promises. 

 These promises declare a specific, positive future for Israel and the nations that God has committed to bring to pass. Human sin causes crisis, turmoil, and delay in the fulfilment of these promises.  It also causes individuals to lose their participation in these promises. However, because these promises are guaranteed by God, they are not jeopardized by human failure, weakness, and sin. God will perform everything He has spoken.

The mission of God through the church in the nations is designed by God to play a critical part in fulfilling His promises. God is not going to bring these promises to pass in isolation. He is going to complete them in partnership with His people, so we want to understand the promises to better partner with God. These promises are ultimately realized by the return of Jesus, but the labor of the church throughout history sets the stage for their fulfillment. 

Setting the Stage for the Promises 

Genesis 1 opens with the well-known phrase, "In the Beginning, "as it lays the foundation for the story of redemption.  After briefly describing creation, Genesis 1 through 11 sets the stage for God's plan for world redemption. It tells us how sin and tragedy were introduced into the human experience and records God's commitment to redeem His creation. 

In the early chapters of Genesis,  we begin to see the full effects of humanity's sin as humanity's situation grows increasingly grim. Families are destroyed, sons are murdered, and wickedness escalates so rapidly that God releases a global flood to stop the growth of human wickedness. Even after the flood, the earth is still left in a crisis because sin continues to afflict the earth. Every leader, even Noah, ultimately is found incapable of redeeming humanity. From the beginning, it is apparent the earth needs a new leader, a new man, to redeem and restore the human race.

God's Covenant with Abraham 

God began His redemption of the nations with a covenant made with Abraham. The Abrahamic covenant is the origin of Paul's conviction that the good news of the gospel is righteousness comes by faith. In Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed God, and God "counted it to him as righteousness. "

In Genesis 12:1-3, God begins to give shape and definition to His redemptive plan by calling out Abraham and giving him very specific promises.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:1‭-‬3 

The Promise of Land

First, God promised Abraham a specific land. In Genesis12:1, He tells Abraham,  

Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee

The whole context of the promise is Abraham being sent to a new land that he will possess.  The land is presented to Abraham as a permanent inheritance,  so Abraham's descendants must dwell perpetually in the land for this promise to be realized.  The inheritance is promised specifically to Abraham, whom we know never owned the land.

Herein lies the tension: If God's promises are true, then how is it that Abraham never saw their fulfillment? If Abraham's death is the end of God's promises to him, the promise of the land is forever unfulfilled because Abraham never inherited the land, neither did he live to see his descendants inherit it. To understand God's redemptive plan, we have to understand that these ancient promises have not yet come to pass.

The book of Hebrews describes this dilemma when it tells the story of the great men and women of faith. Their faith was great because they remained faithful even when they did not receive what God had promised them.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Hebrews 11:13 KJV

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Hebrews 11:39‭-‬40 KJV

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; Hebrews 12:1‭-‬2

The redemptive story deeply connects God's people - even across generations. God's promises to the patriarchs were unfulfilled in their lifetimes, but they will come to pass as we play our part in the redemptive plan. Just as their faithfulness and obedience set the stage for our blessing,  so also our faithfulness and obedience will play a part in their inheritance. Desire to see the patriarchs receive their promises should provoke us to lay aside everything that hinders us and labor with the same commitment they had. 

Abraham's unfulfilled promises also set the stage for the promise of the resurrection. Abraham did not receive his promises in his lifetime, and he cannot inherit his promises as a dead man. The only feasible explanation for this dilemma is that a time will come in the future when God will raise Abraham (and the rest of the patriarchs) from the dead so they can receive what God promised. 

.....to be continued.

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