The Two Promises by R. S. Owen

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 2, 1915

The Two Promises

By R. S. Owen

Abraham to Have the Whole World — His Spiritual Children to Be Heirs with Him

By R. S. OWEN

This is the sixth of a series of interesting studies by Elder Owen, on the experiences of Abraham as recorded in Genesis 15. Each study is independent, hence a person need not necessarily have read the preceding articles in order to understand and enjoy this one. Editor.

“WHO are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” Rom. 9: 4.

The fact that there were two promises made to Abraham, is quite apparent when we give the Scriptures a careful consideration. First, there was the promise that he should inherit the land; and the apostle Paul tells us that this promise made Abraham heir of the world. Rom. 4: 13. But this promise has not been carried out; for although God has made him heir, the promise can be fulfilled only by giving him possession. But this promise was to Abraham and to his seed, and we are told that they who are of faith are the children of Abraham. If we are Christ’s, then are we Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Then the promise of the possession of the whole

world is to Abraham and his spiritual seed, or his children by faith.

But in Gen. 15: 13-16, God foretold the bondage and affliction of Abraham’s descendants, or natural seed, in Egypt; and after stating that Abraham would die in peace—that is, would die before this period of bondage should begin—He then tells him that his seed would come out of Egypt, and serve God in the land of Canaan. And verse 18 states that God made a covenant with Abraham that same day, to give to his seed the land of Canaan, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. Then follow the names of the nations in possession of that land, but which were to be dispossessed. Thus we find that the children of Israel did not take possession of the land of Canaan by virtue of any covenant or new arrangement made with them at Mount Sinai, but by virtue of the covenant made with their father Abraham.

In harmony with this idea, we read: “Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; and foundest his heart faithful before Thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed Thy words: for Thou art righteous.” Neh. 9: 7, 8. Here, then, is a covenant in the fulfillment of which Abraham was to have no part, and which was fulfilled in the possession of Canaan by the twelve tribes of Israel; for in the closing years of David, and during the reign of Solomon, the territorial limits reached the river of Egypt on the south, and the great Euphrates on the north.

The fact of the two promises, one fulfilled, and the other still future, is clearly indicated in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where mention is made of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Of them God says that “these all died in faith, not having received the promises [plural], but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Heb. 11: 13. But beginning with verse 31, we have an enumeration of some of those who were accounted faithful among the children of Israel, after God had given them possession of the land; and this recital closes with these words: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise [singular]: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”

The promise here mentioned is the promise of the possession of the whole earth. Its fulfillment is yet future, but it will be fulfilled to Abraham and all his seed when that redeemed company, numberless as the stars, take possession of the glorious renewed earth.

God’s purpose in giving the descendants of Abraham the possession of Canaan, was that they might spread a knowledge of the truth to all the nations of earth. To this end, He gave them territory extending to the river of Egypt on the south, and to the great Euphrates on the north. Thus He placed them in the highway of nations, where it would be impossible for them to avoid the contact, in the moving of nations from east to west and from north to south; just like the twelve stones they had by faith set up in the middle of the bed of the Jordan, and which must be kept in their position amidst the rushing, whirling waters of the river, by the power of God. So by that same power, and by that only, would they be kept in their possession, while the armies of the nations would sweep from south to north and from east to west back and forth across their territory. Just as the stones kept in the Jordan would be a constant witness of the power of God, from generation to generation, so Israel would be a witness to all the conquering nations of earth, in each generation to come.

Another witness to all, would be found in the marvelous way in which God would supply their needs in the land of Canaan. The natural productiveness of that land did not compare with the valley of the Nile in the south, or with the Mesopotamian territory at the north. But under the blessing of God, in the possession of Israel, its waste and desolate places were to blossom as the rose; and its harvests, abundant with His blessing, scant or total failures without it, were to teach the Israelites a continual lesson of reliance on God, while their marvelous prosperity would be a sign to all the nations.

We have a glimpse of what faithfulness would have brought to that nation; for under the reign of Solomon, the fame of the riches and glory of the nation and the wisdom of its king spread far and near, and the queen of Sheba, when she had seen and heard, exclaimed, “The half was not told me.” But alas, through a lack of faithfulness to the trust reposed in them, they lost their possession of Canaan; and in captivity and affliction they finally bore that witness for God which they might have borne in freedom and prosperity.

But the fulfillment of the great promise will be permanent; for of it God has said: I will appoint My people a place, and they shall move no more; neither shall they be afflicted any more; neither shall the enemy exact upon them any more; for with long life will I satisfy them, and show them My salvation. 2 Sam. 7: 10; Ps. 91: 16.