Chapter 5: Glory Promised in the Abrahamic Covenant

Scripture Passages

Genesis 15:1-21
Jeremiah 34:8-11, 17-22
Hebrews 6:13-20

Abrahamic Promise as an Expansion of Seed Promise

The two genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 trace the line of the Seed from Seth down to Noah and from Noah to Abraham. It is important that we not think of these as two separate genealogies, because they constitute a single genealogy of the covenant line, from Seth to Abraham. Why does Moses trace the Seed promise from Seth to Abraham? Because these genealogies are the introduction to the rest of the book, Genesis 12–50. This section of Genesis deals with Abraham and his descendants. Abraham was the greatest patriarch of the Old Testament, because he was the father of Israel. The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, from Seth to Abraham, are the link that connects the Seed promise in Genesis 3:15 with Abraham in Genesis 12.

Kline points out that by the strategic use of these genealogies, Moses is telling us that God’s special relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is merely the unfolding of the original promise that God made to Adam and Eve way back in Genesis 3:15. To put it another way, the promises God gives to Abraham are the expansion of the Seed promise. That’s why the Seed promise is also called “the mother promise,” because it is the mother of all the rest of the promises concerning the coming of the kingdom of God. The promises God gave to Abraham spell out in greater detail the promise God gave to Adam and Eve after the Fall.

The first aspect of the mother promise that gets expanded in the patriarchal promise is promise of the seed. This is evident from the frequency of occurrence of the word “seed” or “offspring” in Genesis 12-50. This key word “seed” is first used in a theological sense in Genesis 3:15. In chapters 4-11 it occurs four more times. But beginning with chapter 12 and continuing to the end of the book of Genesis, it occurs 37 times. Of course, you know the reason: the word “seed” predominates in the patriarchal history because of the repeated promise that God will multiply Abraham’s seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand on the seashore, and that God will give the whole land of Canaan to Abraham’s seed for an everlasting possession.

Again, this is the point of the genealogy. By tracing the genealogical line from Seth to Abraham, we are being told that Abraham and his numerous descendants are going to be the (first-level) fulfillment of the promise concerning the seed of the woman in the collective sense.

But God also promised an individual Seed who would crush the serpent’s head. Abraham and Sarah were too old to have a child, but God in his grace sovereignly raised up Isaac in their old age to be the seed in the singular sense. Isaac is thus a type of Christ. Just as Abraham offered up his only begotten son Isaac on the altar, so God the Father would offer his only begotten Son upon the cross. Just as Isaac obediently submitted when Abraham bound him on the altar, so Jesus as God’s obedient vassal-king obediently submitted to humiliation and death. Here in the offering of Isaac is a foreshadow of the mystery of the kingdom, that the Seed would conquer Satan through suffering. Both the collective and individual aspects of the Seed promise are expanded further in the Abrahamic promise.

The second aspect of the mother promise that gets expanded in the patriarchal promise is the promise concerning God’s holy realm. Remember, before Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden, the garden was a holy realm, a sanctuary where God dwelled with his holy people. Even after they were expelled, the cherubim and the flaming sword were placed to guard the entrance to the garden because it was still God’s holy realm. The mother promise raised the hope that a coming Seed would make it possible for God’s people to return to the garden and eat of the tree of life.

With that in mind, we come to the story of Abraham in Genesis 12–25, and we are told that God is promising to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s seed as an everlasting possession. Don’t miss the point Moses is making! Remember, we have traced the genealogy, so we know that Abraham is the one through whom the seed is going to come. God then says to Abraham, “To your seed I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7). Taking the seed here in a collective sense, God is promising that Abraham’s numerous descendants would one day become a great nation, and they will inherit the land of Canaan. This literally happened 400 years later when Israel came up out of Egypt and then entered the land of Canaan under Joshua. The land of Canaan stands for this whole idea of God’s kingdom, the return to the garden of Eden and the tree of life. Throughout the Old Testament the land is described in terms that remind you of the garden of Eden. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. In fact, there is one passage in Genesis where the land is compared with the garden of Eden: “And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar” (Gen 13:10).

Two-Level Fulfillment

We have seen that the promise of the Seed to come is expanded in the patriarchal history, with its twofold emphasis on the seed and the land. But why is this important? Because we tend to read the Seed promise (Gen 3:15) as little more than a fascinating Messianic oracle—to be sure the first one in the Bible, but still only one among many, like Gen 49:10; Num 24:17; etc. But it’s function is far more important. It’s not just an isolated tidbit pointing us to Christ, or even one bread crumb on a trail leading us to Christ. It is in a very real sense the key to unlocking the entire Old Testament. The Old Testament is all about Israel. It’s about how God created this special people to be a holy nation. How he redeemed them with a mighty hand and brought them up out of the land of Egypt into the promised land. How he gave them the Law at Mount Sinai with its blessings and curses. How Israel failed to keep that Law and as a result was sent into Babylonian captivity.

But what is this whole business with Israel? Simply this: The Old Testament is the story of how God is fulfilling the promise given to Abraham, which is the expanded form of the promise as originally given immediately after Adam’s failure in God’s pronouncement of judgment upon the serpent (Gen 3:15). Israel is God’s holy people in God’s holy realm. And leading Israel throughout her history are a number of vassal-kings, whether it be Moses or Joshua or King David. The vassal-kings that God placed over Israel are the Seed in the individual sense, and are thus types of Christ. When Israel enters the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, the seed of the woman is crushing the serpent’s head and winning for us the right to return to the garden of Eden to eat of the tree of life. God is bestowing his holy kingdom upon his holy people through his obedient king. Ultimately, of course, it turns out that Israel and her leaders fail to be God’s obedient vassals. Israel breaks the covenant and disobeys God’s Law. It is only Christ who truly obeys God and bestows God’s holy realm upon us by his perfect obedience.

The book of Genesis is the prologue to the Bible. It begins with creation (Gen 1–2), informs us of Adam’s failure (Gen 3:1-14), and then gives us God’s promise in Gen 3:15. That promise is renewed and expanded with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We may bundle the seed promise and the Abrahamic promise together as one “promise.” The rest of the Bible then tells the story of how God fulfilled the Genesis promise in two stages. The first stage is a first-level or preliminary fulfillment in Israel in the land, and the second stage is the second-level or definitive fulfillment in Christ. The entire Bible in a nutshell is put together like this:

Creation and Fall (Gen 1–3)
Promise (Gen 3–50)
Fulfillment (Exod—Rev)
1. Exodus—Malachi: the first level fulfillment (Israel)
2. Matthew—Revelation: the second level fulfillment (Jesus Christ)

The key idea is that 3a and 3b are both fulfillments of the singular promise given immediately after the Fall and therefore must be seen in creational perspective as God’s plan to achieve the eschatological kingdom of glory originally held out to Adam in the covenant of creation.

However, rather than explicitly referencing the ancient seed promise of Gen 3:15, each fulfillment (3a and 3b) begins with a reference back to the Abrahamic covenant, specifically to the idea of God’s “remembering” that covenant, which is the language of covenant fulfillment. But since the Abrahamic promises are set in the wider context of Genesis 1–11, and are implicitly given as God’s solution to the problem of man’s fall and the need to return to the garden, both the first- and the second-level fulfillments must be seen as God’s redemptive method of accomplishing, in spite of man’s failure and sin, the seemingly forfeited eschatology of creation.

3a. First-level fulfillment (Exod 2:23-24). At the outset of the first level fulfillment, we are told that God heard the groaning of the people of Israel and “remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” (This theme continues in Exod 3:6, 15-17; 6:2-8.) Also, the most important annual feast of Israel, the Passover, was a sacramental sign that God had acted to fulfill the Abrahamic promise (Exod 13:3-5).

3b. Second-level fulfillment (Matt 1:1; Luke 1:54-55, 72-73). At the outset of the second level fulfillment, God is presented as acting “to remember His holy covenant, and the oath which He swore to Abraham our father” (Luke 1:72-73). And just as God’s first remembrance of his covenant with Abraham was signified and sealed by the Passover, so the second time of God’s remembrance was sacramentally sealed by the Last Supper, which was in fact a Passover meal.

God’s Self-Maledictory Oath (Genesis 15)

Let’s now take a closer look at God’s promise to Abraham. Initially, God made commitments to Abraham concerning the seed and the land in the form of simple promises, as recorded in Genesis 12. But in Genesis 15 God confirms these commitments by means of a formal covenant ratification ceremony. This ceremony is later referred to in Scripture as the oath God swore to Abraham. Sometimes it is called “the covenant” and sometimes it is called “the oath,” showing these are interchangeable terms. It is this covenant or oath, recorded in Genesis 15, that we will now examine more closely.

In vv. 1-5 we see a dialogue between God and Abraham concerning the seed aspect of the promise. Abraham is still childless, and he is not sure that God is going to give him a seed from his own body. Abraham suggests that perhaps his servant, Eliezer of Damascus, is the one who will be his heir. God says to Abraham that Eliezer will not be his heir. Rather, “one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir” (v 4; NASB).

Immediately after this discussion of the seed, God reiterates the second component of the promise, namely, the land: “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess” (v 7). Although Abraham and Sarah are childless, God is going to give Abraham a son from his own body who will be the heir, and he is going to give the land to him for his possession.

In verse 8, Abraham requests confirmation of this promise from God: “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He has already believed God in verse 6, on the basis of God’s mere word. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. But having believed, he still desires some token to assure him. What does God do in response to Abraham’s desire for confirmation? First, he tells Abraham to go and bring him some sacrificial animals: a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abraham did as he was commanded. He brought them, cut the animals (but not the two birds) in half, and laid each half over against the other.

Then we read in verse 12, that the sun goes down, Abraham falls into a deep sleep, and “dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.” In his sleep, God speaks to him and promises that, though his descendants will be afflicted in Egypt, God will bring judgment on Egypt and they will come back to the land and possess it (vv 13-16). Then in verse 17 we are told: “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.”

What is the meaning of this enigmatic ritual? The key to the ritual is the act of passing between the carcasses of the slain animals. This ritual was commonly employed in the ancient world as a way of invoking a conditional curse upon oneself. It was an acted-out oath. By walking between the carcasses of the animals, the party taking the oath was thereby proclaiming, “May I be cut in two like these animals, if I should violate my word, if I should fail to perform what I have promised” (see Jeremiah 34:8-11, 17-20).

The smoking oven and the flaming torch are what we call a theophany, that is, God himself appearing in a visible form. This reminds us of the Glory-Cloud that later led Israel in the wilderness. The Glory-Cloud is God’s own presence in physical form. Recall as well that during the day, the Glory-Cloud was a pillar of cloud, and at night a pillar of fire. This twofold form of the Glory-Cloud is represented in Genesis 15:17, since it mentions two things: a smoking oven (cloud) and a fiery torch (fire). In other words, God himself is passing between the pieces in a theophany, in the form of the Glory-Cloud. What is amazing is that God is taking upon himself a dreadful curse!

Now this curse was conditional. Although not expressly stated in so many words, the acted-out drama of the oath contained an “if” clause. God will become accursed, he will be torn in two like the animals, his body will be given as food for the birds of the sky, and the great and terrifying darkness of the day of judgment. All these awesome curses will fall upon him, only “if” God fails to keep his promise to Abraham and his seed. God is the one who keeps covenant with his people. By his very nature as the immutable God, he can never break his oath.

Numbers 23:19: “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”

Hebrews 6:13: “When God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,” that is, he swore an oath.

Critique of Dispensational Premillennialism

The immutability of God’s promise and oath leads us back to the idea of two-level fulfillment. It causes us to ask: Has God kept his word? Yes! But the way in which God is faithful to his promise is not by repeating the first level fulfillment in the 1000-year reign after Christ returns, but by giving us the glorious second level fulfillment in Christ himself.

First-level fulfillment (type) → Second-level fulfillment (antitype)

Dispensationalists think God was basically promising Israel a big chunk of real estate. Since Israel lost that real estate in AD 70, God must restore Israel to the land again in the future in order to be faithful to his promises. They think that when the modern nation of Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948, that God’s purposes for Israel were getting back on track in preparation for the 1000-year reign of Christ from a literal throne in Jerusalem.

But this literal view ignores the plain teaching of the NT that the first level fulfillment was only a type and shadow of the reality to come. When God said to Abraham, “To your seed I will give this land,” he was talking about a Seed and a Land that far transcended the earthly nation of Israel in the land of Canaan.

First, the land ultimately has reference to the inheritance of heaven itself. The NT makes clear that “the inheritance” is something greater than the land of Canaan; it is nothing less than heaven itself (Acts 20:32; Gal 3:18; Eph 1:11, 14, 18; Col 1:12; 1 Peter 1:4). The author of Hebrews refers to it as “the eternal inheritance” that Christ has bequeathed to his people on the basis of his death (Heb 9:15-17).

Second, the seed ultimately has reference to Christ himself. “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ” (Gal 3:16). The Seed of Abraham is Christ. By union with Christ, we inherit the promises that God made to Abraham. We inherit the inheritance of heaven that Christ has merited for his people. “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise … So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal 3:29; 4:7).

Contrary to dispensationalism, the promises that God made to Abraham are fulfilled completely in Christ. There is nothing left over that needs to be fulfilled in the literal land of Palestine.

“And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus” (Acts 13:32-33).

“The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not ‘Yes’ and ‘No,’ but in him it has always been ‘Yes.’ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Cor 1:19-20 NIV).

God took a conditional curse upon himself. Only if he breaks his word would he become accursed. But that is not the whole story. For you see, in the mystery of the gospel, it turns out that the way in which God keeps his oath to Abraham is precisely by suffering its curse! By taking this oath in Genesis 15, God was pledging himself to undertake the curses that we covenant breakers ought to suffer ourselves. By walking between the carcasses long before the incarnation of Christ, God was foreshadowing a far more dreadful walk of agony and suffering that he himself would undergo in the future in the person of his own Son. God’s immutable pledge to send his only Son to the cross is what stands at the very foundation of redemptive history guaranteeing the fulfillment of all God’s promises.

Kline References

Kingdom Prologue, 292-301 (the Abrahamic covenant)

Kingdom Prologue, 332-355 (two-level fulfillment)

Discussion Questions

God’s promise to Abraham is an expansion of what prior promise? How so?
What did the ritual of passing between the animal carcasses signify?
What is two-level fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise?