The Progression of the promises in the Old Testament
THE REAFFIRMATION OF THE PROMISE IN GENESIS 28
In Genesis 28, God reaffirms to Jacob the promises made to Abraham:
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring 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.” (Genesis 28:13–15)
God confirms the fact that His plan for Abraham will continue through Jacob, and He gives Jacob the same three promises He gave to Abraham. It is incredibly significant that God makes this promise to Jacob right after Jacob has tricked his brother, lied, and stolen his brother’s promise. He is emphasizing the same thing He emphasized to Abraham: Jacob’s righteousness is not what secures the promises. God’s righteousness is what secures the promises.
God promises Jacob that He will not leave him until He does what He has spoken to him. What has God spoken to him? The same three promises that He spoke to Abraham—righteous descendants, permanent inheritance in the land, and blessing to the nations.
When we survey Jacob’s life, we see that none of the promises were fulfilled in his lifetime. Jacob’s family struggled with issues. He ended his life being taken out of the land and down to Egypt rather than inheriting it. He did not see all the people of the earth blessed. Jacob ends up in the same predicament that Abraham faced: he did not see the fulfillment of the promises in his lifetime.
Does this mean God is a liar? We find the answer in the words of Jesus:
“And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:31–32)
When Jesus was asked about the reality of the resurrection, He affirmed He would raise Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from the dead. In fact, God refers to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because death is not their final end. He will be their God forever, because the promise of the gospel is that they will live forever (John 6:40, 50–51). This gospel promise means God still intends to fulfill His promises to Abraham and Jacob. He will raise them from the dead, and they will see the fulfillment of the promise. This is what is implied in Genesis 15:7 when God tells Abraham that He brought him into the land so that he could inherit it. Abraham never inherited the land in his lifetime, but he will. He has to, for God to fulfill the promise. In light of Jesus’ promise and Hebrews 11, we can see the promise of the resurrection in this passage.
Hebrews 11 reiterates the fact that neither Abraham nor Jacob saw the fulfillment of God’s promises.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8–10)
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. (v. 13)
The author of Hebrews continues and explains God’s plan to us:
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (11:39–40)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. (Hebrews 12:1)
It has been suggested that ancient Israel may have experienced the fulfillment of Abraham’s promises in David’s reign, but the author of Hebrews is clear they remain unfulfilled. They are future promises that must be fulfilled literally and that require God to raise Abraham and Jacob from the dead to fulfill them.
The author of Hebrews also tells us a second thing that is very significant: Abraham’s promises will not be fulfilled without “us.” Who is “us”? “Us” refers to the believers in Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. The author is explaining that God has a multigenerational, multiethnic plan to fulfill the promises He made. The New Testament emphasizes that these three promises are deeply intertwined. We are all joined together in the mission of God to fulfill the promises made to Abraham. The Jewish people will not enter into their full inheritance until the Gentiles do; at the same time, the Gentiles cannot come into their fullness without the Jewish people coming into theirs.