THE CHRISTIAN ABRAHAMIC INHERITANCE
(week 28/10)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Natural Israelites in the Old Testament are the physical seed of Abraham and have a physical inheritance of the land in Palestine and physical, material and financial blessings in this life time from God through Abraham: blessings that belonged to them simply because they are the seed of Abraham.
These blessings are summarized in the following scriptures:
Genesis 12:1-3 MKJV: and Jehovah said to Abram, Go out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house into a land that I will show you. (2) And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. (3) And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 15:18-21 MKJV: In the same day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, I have given this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, (19) the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, (20) and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the giants, (21) and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Deuteronomy 7:12-15 NIV: (12) If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. (13) He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land‚—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. (14) You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. (15) The LORD will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.
History has proven that God has been faithful to Israel concerning these promises: whenever Israel has been obedient to God, like under Joshua, David, Solomon and other good leaders, we see these promises to a great degree fulfilled in and to them.
In fact, even when Israel in the majority has been disobedient, God still blessed the nation because of the obedience of a faithful few: this has been true throughout the history of Israel and is particularly exemplified during the times of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther and in fact is still true today: we still see God’s blessings and favour on Israel since she became a nation again in 1948.
Israel is still being greatly blessed today, in the face of great opposition and odds financially; in science and technology, in agriculture, in military prowess: we still see a significant measure of the physical blessings of Abraham on the Israelite nation in spite of the fact that the majority of the nation is secular and do not know and serve God like their fathers did.
Now, we the church of Jesus Christ are the spiritual seed of Abraham through the Lord Jesus Christ and like natural Israel have an inheritance in God through Abraham.
Galatians 3:29 NIV: If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
What then is the Christian Abrahamic inheritance and how do we get it?
God’s promise to Abraham was that He would give him a son: Isaac and bless the physical nation that would come through Isaac and that would physically birth the Lord Jesus Christ and so ultimately bless all the nations of the earth through the Lord Jesus.
God fulfilled His Word to Abraham and supernaturally gave him Isaac at the age of 99 (Gen. 17-18, 21); after this God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Isaac which test, Abraham passed and then God gave a promise confirmed with an oath to Abraham’s spiritual seed.
Genesis 22:16-18 MKJV: and said, I have sworn by Myself, says Jehovah; because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only one; (17) that in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And your Seed shall possess the gate of His enemies. (18) And in your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.
Hebrews 6:13-20 MKJV: For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself, (14) saying, “Surely in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply you.” (15) And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. (16) For men truly swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. (17) In this way desiring to declare more fully to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, God interposed by an oath, (18) so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, (19) which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil, (20) where the Forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
It is this promise confirmed with oath that is the Christian Abrahamic inheritance: this Christian Abrahamic inheritance is firstly a spiritual inheritance and then it includes all the physical blessings that were promised and given to natural Israel:
Hebrews 8:6 MKJV: But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which was built upon better promises.
In our article next week, we will see what the details of this inheritance are and how to get it.
