God’s Covenant with Isaac-Revised by Necessity?

[newton3005]

In Genesis 26:3-5, God makes a Covenant with Isaac similar to the one He makes with Abraham: He will multiply Isaac’s offspring, and in Isaac’s offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed. In Verse 5, He hints that the Covenant depends on keeping His Charge, His Commandments, Statutes and Laws, as Abraham had done.

Well, it wasn’t long before that fell flat. As the OT can attest, much of the offspring disregarded His Charge, His Commandments, Statutes and Laws. As a result, Isaac’s offspring did not effectively reach “all the nations of the earth” for them to be blessed. So, most of those nations lived on in ignorance of God’s Covenant with Isaac’s offspring and of the blessings they would have received.

Seeing this, God sent Jesus, His only Son up to the task He laid out, to give those offspring a chance to redeem themselves. In addition, God had Jesus extend the offering of His Blessing to others, while allowing Jesus’ followers to modify certain of God’s Commandments, Statutes and Laws. So, in accordance with Hebrews 6:1-3, the followers encouraged leaving “the elementary doctrine of Christ,” that dealt with things like not having to repeat laying “a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” So, things like rituals and remembrances, and the eating of pork, fall by the wayside, leaving only the aspect of what God represents and what He is prepared to do for those who love him and eachother.

Jesus’ followers were also charged with spreading the Word beyond just the Hebrews, to those who were never under the elementary doctrine that Jesus vowed would pass when his fulfillment of the underlying Laws is accomplished, as it says in Matthew 5:17-18. So, Jesus, through his followers, extended the offer of God’s Covenant with Abraham (and Isaac) to everyone else, verified by Luke 1:69-73, and with the only condition that people abide by the two great commandments spoken by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-39.

So, there exists the hope that the nations of the world will be blessed by God, if not through Isaac’s offspring then by inheritance from Abraham according to Galatians 3:29.

 

[KevinT]

Interesting write up. What made you consider this topic?

KT

 

[Clare73]

In Ge 26:3-5, God makes a Covenant with Isaac similar to the one He makes with Abraham:

However, Ge 26:3-5 is not a new nor different covenant, it is a repetition of the land promise (covenant) of Ge 15:9-21 and of the pledge of Seed in Ge 15:5 to Abraham, through which faith in the promise (Seed, Ge 15:5, 3:15, Jesus Christ, Gal 3:16), righteousness was imputed (credited) to Abraham (Ge 15:6), as it is to all those of faith in Jesus Christ (Ro 4:1-7).

 

[newton3005]

Interesting write up. What made you consider this topic?

KT

I'm routinely in search of bridges between the Old and New Testaments that the Bible maintains exists, and how what started as God's Covenant with a select group of people has managed to expand to the rest of the world to their liking.

 

[Clare73]

I'm routinely in search of bridges between the Old and New Testaments that the Bible maintains exists, and
how what started as God's Covenant with a select group of people has managed to expand to the rest of the world to their liking.

It still remains with "a select group of people," the one olive tree of the one people of God, the church, of both OT and NT saints (Heb 11:16-23).

 

[newton3005]

It still remains with "a select group of people," the one olive tree of the one people of God, the church, of both OT and NT saints (Heb 11:16-23).

So how come anti-Semitism is generally directed against only the Jews?

 

[Clare73]

So how come anti-Semitism is generally directed against only the Jews?

Because in the OT, Jews are Semites who in the NT rejected their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. . .for which they have been cut off from God's one people, the one olive tree, the church of both NT and OT saints (Ro 11:17).
The Jews have only one destiny--to be grafted back into God's one olive tree, the church, IF (not "when") they do not persist in unbelief (Ro 11:23).