The Targeted Beneficiaries

The Targeted Beneficiaries

In Genesis 17:7, God established His covenant with Abraham, and his seed. God said “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and THY SEED after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to THY SEED after thee.” In his epistles to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul by the Holy Ghost threw more light on this and revealed the identity of this Seed of Abraham. Galatians 3: 16: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

There is a great difference between “seeds” and “seed.” So whatever promise God made to Abraham was actually for his seed after him, and Paul brings out a revelation that when God spoke to Abraham, He did not say, “to your seeds” referring to many seeds. In effect God was not talking about Isaac, Jacob and all the sons of Israel. He was not talking about all those ones but rather that the promises which were made to Abraham were actually made to Christ.

Paul also revealed that, “the promises were made to Christ.” He could have said Jesus and that would have meant something else, but what he said has a technical significance. This is very important, when the Bible talks about Jesus, it refers to the man Jesus, but when He is referred to as Christ; the body of Christ is also being referred to. This is not mere semantics; we are the seed of Jesus. The seed and Himself (Jesus) form one whole body, and He is the head of the whole body, which is the Church. You need to follow this, it is no mere human logic. 1 Corinthians 12:27, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”

Also in Ephesians 1:19-23, the Bible says,
“And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.”

In Galatians 3:27, 29 the Bible says: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ…And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Oh Halleluyah! This is beautiful; we who are born-again have automatically become Abraham’s seed and heirs of the promises that were made to Abraham.

The Promise had a Spiritual Aspect
The promise of a land to Abraham was beyond the physical land of Canaan. We need to understand that God was talking to a man who was not born-again, and therefore did not have the capacity or ability to enjoy spiritual things. Abraham was a man of faith, but he was also a man of the flesh. When I say of the flesh, I mean of the human body; he was not born-again. He lived in the sense realm, and God had to appeal to his senses to communicate faith. At the beginning when God told Abraham he was going to have a child, he found it difficult to believe God. His wife Sarah actually laughed when she heard God. So God took him out one night, and said, “Look at the stars and count them; if you can count them then it will be possible to count the children I will give you” (Genesis 15:5).He actually started counting, but after a time it dawned on him that the stars were uncountable, and he turned to God and said, “They are too many, I can’t finish counting them. “And God pronounced, “So shall thy seed be.”

Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. He didn’t believe until that time, and it was only after he believed that God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Do you understand now? God appealed to his senses to communicate faith to him from the Word of God. The promises that were made to Abraham included all spiritual, physical and material blessings. But Abraham could only enjoy the physical and the material but not the spiritual.

Even the people of the Old Covenant could not enjoy the spiritual benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant. They could not have the Holy Spirit of God come and dwell in them; it had to take another generation of Abraham to enjoy this. We who are of the New Covenant are those walking in the spiritual blessing of the Abrahamic Covenant.

The Significance Of God’s Test
God wanted to prove Abraham, and He said to him, “… Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Genesis 22:2).

It is possible for God to test you, though He will never tempt anyone with evil (James 1:13). At this time Abraham had the son of promise by the name Isaac. Abraham obeyed God, and took Isaac up to the mountains of Moriah. When they got there he bound the boy, and put him on the wood, and was ready to slay him when God spoke out of heaven, calling out to Abraham to stop. God said, “… now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (verse 12), and provided a ram for him for the sacrifice.

God saved the boy and the Bible declares that in the mind of Justice, Abraham actually offered his son and got him back in a figure representing the resurrection of Christ.

Hebrews 11: 17-19: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”

Do you know that in the same way Abraham was willing to give his only son, his best to God, God gave His best, His Son Jesus for the world (John 3:16). The mountains of Moriah upon which God told Abraham to offer his son up, are the same mountains upon which the Lord Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world. That is how significant God’s test of Abraham was.

There are some things that God may ask you to give as an act of faith. Some people will proclaim their willingness to do anything for God, that is, until He actually asks them to do it. Some will make pledges and will not fulfill them. And when a preacher talks about money they turn around to say, “I don’t like preachers who talk about money.” Well in case you don’t know, Jesus talked about money. God talked a lot about money in the Bible.

As a result of Abraham’s obedience, God said to him, “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,” (Hebrews 11:16-17).

Isaac was the son of his old age; he was not an adopted son. Unlike a lot of people, Abraham was not trying to give second best, or give a worthless thing. It is only this type of giving that receives a reward. Abraham trusted God. And God said, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:18).