A Journey Through the Bible, Part Nine

Old Testament

Genesis 17 and 18

Genesis 17:8—“Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."  Much of the misunderstanding regarding the nature of the land covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendents centers around that word “everlasting.” The belief among many is that Jehovah intended for the Jews to have Canaan “forever,” which means the land belongs to them today. But the Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is ‘owlam, and while it can mean eternal duration, it also has a more basic meaning of “an undetermined duration of time without reference to other points of time, with a focus of no anticipated end, but nevertheless may have limits.” (Dictionary of Semantic Languages: Hebrew (Old Testament)). A good example of this is Exodus 21:6, where the Law says that, if a slave is particularly happy with his master and does not want to leave him in the seventh year, “then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.” (Moses’ law required slaves to be set free after six years of service (Ex. 21:2). Verse 6 is an exception to this law.) Obviously, the slave cannot serve “forever,” but only until he dies—an indefinite time in the future. The promises God made to the Jews must always be understood within the context of the whole theme of the Old Testament, which was established in Genesis 3:15—“Christ is coming.” That’s what the old law and covenant aimed at, and since the Messiah has come, everyone, Jew and Gentile, is expected to be obedient to Him, and no one can be saved outside of Him (Acts 4:12). A key point: if God intended for the last 2,000 years to keep fleshly, national Israel in some plan of His, and if He still has them in His plans (as some even in Christendom teach), then He would be to blame for all the Jews since that time who have been eternally damned because they did not submit to Jesus of Nazareth in faith and obedience. People are saved through Jesus only (Acts 4:12). And God had/has a plan to keep Jews for 2,000 years outside of Christ? What kind of God does that make Jehovah? Now, God can use wicked people to accomplish some purpose of His (e.g., Pharaoh and the exodus).  But what possible objective could God have for the Jewish people today?  And more than that, what objective does the Bible say God has for the current Jewish people that would keep them continually outside the embrace of eternal salvation?  None, is the answer. God wants all men to be saved (I Timothy 2:4), and it is beyond belief that He would have a plan that would deliberately keep an entire people lost for 2,000 years for a purpose that He has nowhere explained to us.  There is just nothing further in God's scheme of redemption.  Christ is the end.  He is the promised Redeemer of Genesis 3:15.  What else can the Jews do?  No, all of Jehovah's intentions and promises for the Jewish people ended when Jesus died on the cross. They were given a great privilege—to be custodians of the Old Testament law and Scriptures and to be the people through whom the Savior of the world would descend. They simply weren’t humble enough to accept God’s role for them in His scheme for mankind’s salvation. But, of course, they, too, may have eternal salvation upon obedience to Christ.

Genesis 18:14—“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Abraham was now 99 and his wife Sarah was well passed child bearing age (though obviously still a very attractive woman as we shall see later). God comes to Abraham in this chapter and renews His promise of 24 years earlier that the patriarch would have a son. Sarah overheard the Lord’s comment and she laughed in incredulity. The Lord heard her, rebuked her, and said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Folks, Jehovah is going to accomplish His purposes and nothing is going to stop Him. “He does whatever He pleases,” (Psalm 115:3). “With God all things are possible,” (Matt. 19:26). Now, there are some obvious limitations to that; it is not possible for God to lie (Titus 1:2), or commit any sin at all, but the point of these Scriptures on the abilities of God is what I noted—He can, and will, achieve His objectives and nothing can prevent Him from doing so. And, of course, Abraham and Sarah had a son the following year.

New Testament

Matthew 11

Matthew 11:4-5—“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them.” John the Baptist was in prison but he sent some disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah, or should we look for someone else?” Jesus did not answer directly but replied, in effect, “What does the evidence say?” You see, folks, anybody can claim to be God, or the Messiah, or some messenger from the Almighty. A lot of people had and still do. If Jesus had simply answered the question, “Yes, I am,” and then went His way, why should we believe Him? No, we believe Him, not because He said He was, but because He did things that only the Messiah could do. And that’s what He is telling John’s disciples. God has never asked us to believe anything without evidence—His existence, the deity of Christ, the inspiration of the Bible—there is an abundance of proof for all of those truths. Faith is not believing apart from evidence; true faith is based on evidence, and indeed, when we go beyond the evidence, we move into the realm of theory or opinion. Jesus plainly indicates that the evidence provides ample substantiation of His identity. And because we have these “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:2), we are without excuse if we reject them. Read Romans 1:18-21 as further indication of this.