Copyright © 2004, 2018 by Paul Eissen. Powered by w3.css
Abrahamic Promises in the Pentateuch and Joshua
19 Apr 2018
In the Bible, covenants are divinely sanctioned legal commitments between God and man. [1] God made a covenant of works with Adam, and after the Fall, God instituted the covenant of grace, first with Adam and Eve, and then with Noah.
But with the call of Abraham, the covenant of grace underwent a remarkable advance, definitive for all time to come. The instrument of that advance is the covenant which God made with Abraham which guaranteed and secured soteric blessing for “all the families of the earth.” So significant are the promises of grace in the Abrahamic covenant, found in Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14-16; 15:18-21; 17:1-16; 22:16:18, that it is not an overstatement to declare these verses, from a covenantal perspective, as the most important verses in the Bible. [2]
This paper will trace the threefold Abrahamic promises of land, people, and blessing as they are partially fulfilled in the Pentateuch and Joshua.
Genesis
The promises God made to Abraham are described in embryonic form in Genesis 12:1-3:
12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.There appear to be three promises in this passage: land (v. 1b), a great nation (v. 2a), and a series of blessings. Some theologians divide the promises in the other ways, for example:
2 And 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.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” [3]
Land
The promise of land at first appears to be a hopeless cause. As soon as Abraham arrives in Caanan, a famine in the land forces his party to journey to Egypt. After their return, Abraham lets Lot choose the well-watered lands of the Jordan valley (13:10) for his flocks and herds. Unfortunately for Abraham, Caanan is not uninhabited (12:6), but God's promises still stand:
13:14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,As the Genesis narratives “take place outside the promised land almost as much as inside it, the possession of the land remains a hope (28:4), and while the descendants of Abraham to whom the land is not promised (cf. 35:12), have ‘their dwelling places in the land of their possession’ (36:43), the heirs of the promise of the land find themselves, at the end of the book, firmly outside the land and settled in Egypt. The promise has been repeatedly affirmed, but except in the slightest degree it remains no more than a promise.” [7]
15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
People
Genesis 12-50 is primarily concerned with the offspring (or seed) of the patriarchs. [8] When Abraham is ninety-nine years old and without an heir, God appears to him and says:
17:1 ... “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,Abraham's descendents would be as uncountable “as the dust of the earth” (13:16), the stars in the heavens (15:5), and “sand that is on the seashore” (22:17). The transformation of the twelve sons of Jacob into the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel (as seen at the beginning of the book of Exodus) constitutes a fulfillment of the promise of offspring at a physical level. [9]
2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,
4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”
Blessing
The promise of blessings are fulfilled through divine-human relationships. [10] God's dealings with the patriarchs are expressed in terms of blessing, presence, protection, and covenant. [11] Abraham and his descendents are also to be the channel for God's blessings to the nations. [12] These blessings are clearly expressed by God in the aftermath of the near-sacrifice of Isaac:
22:15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven
16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Exodus
The book of Exodus is a continuation of the Genesis narrative. Many years have passed since the deaths of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and Israel no longer consists of seventy sojourners, but is now a nation suffering under the yoke of their cruel Egyptian taskmasters. The sheer number of offspring is clearly a partial fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham:
1:7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.“God redeemed Jacob's descendants from Egypt (which redemptive act is the Old Testament type of New Testament redemption in Christ) in order to keep his covenant promise to Abraham: ‘God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob’ (Ex. 2:24; 4:5).” [13]
After the golden calf episode, Moses implores God not to destroy the people who sinned against him:
32:13 “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
In Exodus, blessing predominates. [14] In the second half of the book, “the promise of blessing and God's presence finds a new expression as the Lord commands Israel to build a tabernacle for his glorious presence (Exod. 25-27). When the tabernacle is completed, the Lord comes to be with his people in a way in which he had not been with human beings since the Garden of Eden. ‘Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled over it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle’ (Exod. 40:34-35).” [15]
Leviticus
In the book of Leviticus, as in Exodus, the “promise of God's relationship with the descendents of Abraham is most clearly brought to expression. At the two focal points of these books, the exodus event and the Sinai revelation, it becomes plain what the promises meant by its words, ‘I will bless you,’ ‘I will make my covenant between me and you,’ ‘I will be your God.’” [16] Even before Israel has taken possession of the promised land, God graciously restates his threefold promise first given to Abraham:
26:3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments `and do them,
4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
...
6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. ...
7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
...
11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
Numbers
The name of this book (Arithmoi, from the Septuagint) portrays in some sense the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise of offspring, in that great “numbers” of Israelites are poised to enter the promised land. The census by tribe of the first generation of Israelite males twenty years and older graphically illustrates this point: Reuben, 46,400 men; Simeon, 59,300; and so on (1:20-46).
Other theologians stress the promise of land in this book and in Deuteronomy: “Their orientation and movement is towards the land, the promise of which is - by the end of these books - partially and proleptically fulfilled, but to a large extent unfulfilled.” [17] This movement towards Canaan is evident in the outline of the book:
Deuteronomy
The book of Deuteronomy is “set on the edge of the Promised Land; it was in effect the last will and testament of Moses and prepared the nation to take possession of what was promised.” [20]
1:8 “See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.”
“Already at Sinai, Moses says, the promise of descendents has been fulfilled: ‘The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven’ (1:10; cf. 10:22 and Gen. 15:5ff; 22:17). But in the same breath Moses denies that the promise has been exhausted: it has not yet been completely fulfilled, for he goes on to say: ‘May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you’ (1:11).” [21]
Lastly, the Mosaic covenant provided flesh to the blessings promised to Abraham:
28:1 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”
Joshua
The book of Jushua proves the faithfulness of God in fulfilling his promises to Abraham. With the “commander of the LORD's army” (5:16), the Israelites destroy the city of Jericho, and then conquer their Canannite enemies. Only when the land has been sufficiently subdued is Joshua able to divide Canaan among the tribes, “divided in accordance with the ideal lines, without considering how the ideal was generally not reality. The realization is dependent on a continuation of the Conquest (17:18) and on loyalty to the Lord, the giver of the land” (23:4).” [22]
21:43 Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.
44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands.
45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
Conclusion
“Under Joshua's general leadership the people conquered the land, receiving in a limited fashion the paradise God had promised. But it quickly became obvious that this territory could not be the ultimate paradise. Undefeated Canaanites remained as ‘hornets’.” [23] After the death of King Solomon, the land of Canaan is split into two competing fiefdoms. A century of so later, the ten northen tribes disappear into the mists, and eventually the remaining tribes of Benjamin and Judah are exiled from the land. Did this mean God's promises to Abraham were nullified? No. To be sure, Abraham saw the promised land with his own eyes and felt it with his feet, but “he was looking forward to the city that has no foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb 11:10). Abraham is indeed the father of many nations, but his one seed, his true offspring, is Jesus (Gal. 3:16), in whom “all the promises of God find their Yes” (2 Cor 1:20).
Notes
Copyright © 2004, 2018 by Paul Eissen. Powered by w3.css