BLOG

The Seed of Abraham

God’s definitions of biblical terms are often different from men’s definitions. Yet God’s definitions are often clarified only in the New Testament. For this reason, anyone who is yet stuck in an Old Covenant mindset may have difficulty breaking free sufficiently to see the mind of God and live accordingly.

This is further complicated by the church’s general ignorance of history. The most significant example of this is when people insist that the Jews are the biblical Israelites, when in fact the Jews often fought wars against the Israelites. They were two distinct nations after the death of Solomon when the kingdom was divided. In my view, the main reason for this confusion is rooted in the belief that Hebrews, Israelites and Jews were to be defined in genealogical terms, rather than in national and legal (spiritual) terms.

The same problem is seen in the definition of the seed of Abraham. As we showed yesterday, Abraham was a Hebrew, not an Israelite and not a Jew. He was best known for emigrating from Ur of the Chaldees to what came to be called the Promised Land. A Hebrew is an immigrant, and God ultimately applied this term to those who, through Christ, are able to immigrate from the Old Covenant to the New, that is, from the prophetic type and shadow to the real promise.

Types and shadows are patterns of things yet to come. Patterns are very useful in setting forth truth in a somewhat obscure manner, so that when the real appears, we are able to recognize it. When we overfocus on the pattern, we usually miss the real, because we tend to think that the pattern is, in fact, the real. But prophetic types are only learning tools that fall short of the real.

The Promise to Abraham

The original promise to Abraham is found in Genesis 12:1-3,

¹ Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you. ² And I will make you a great nation [goy], and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; ³ And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

This began with the command to emigrate from Chaldea to a place not yet revealed. By faith he did so, because he believed the promise of God. God promised to make him “a great nation.” The Hebrew word used is goy, a word that is often translated “gentile,” meaning some nation other than Israel or Judah. But the word is generic for a “nation,” and it is everywhere used when speaking of the “nation” of Israel. Only the context will show us which nation Scripture is talking about.

God’s blessing was to rest upon him, and he was, in turn, to “be a blessing,” for only those who are blessed can truly bless others. The main point is to see that Abraham was not to hoard God’s blessings for himself and for his family but to steward those blessings for other nations. “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” This generic statement was developed later to signify the restoration of all things, putting all things under the feet of Christ.

The clearest interpretation of the Abrahamic blessing is found in Peter’s second sermon, recorded in Acts 3:12-26. It culminates in verses 25 and 26,

²⁵ It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ²⁶ For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.

We see here that Jesus Christ, God’s “Servant,” was the prime Agent of God’s blessing. Apart from Him, there is no real blessing. One must be in union with Christ to be blessed. If not, then their blessing is postponed for another era in the future.

Secondly, we see God’s definition of “bless.” Verse 26 says, “to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” Men usually define “blessing” in monetary terms or perhaps to describe special protection or even authority. But God’s blessing upon all families of the earth is to bring them to a place of repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ.

This promise is being fulfilled incrementally throughout the ages, and it is only at the Creation Jubilee that it will be fulfilled completely at the restoration of all things.

Blessing and Cursing

During the interim, prior to the time when all nations are blessed, some will curse Abraham and his seed, while others will bless them. In a general sense, only a few will bless them, because only a remnant of grace will actually please God by having New Covenant faith. In the time of Elijah, out of more than a million Israelites, there were only 7,000 who were blessed through faith (Romans 11:6). Paul tells us that these few were the recipients of the blessing of God and were “chosen” (Romans 11:7). The rest were “blinded” (KJV), or “hardened” (NASB).

The point is that not all Israelites were God’s chosen people. Being chosen was not about being able to trace one’s ancestry back to Abraham or even to Jacob-Israel. It was always about faith.

Further, to be one of the seed of Abraham is not about having Abraham as one’s forefather. It is about doing the works of Abraham. It is about having the same quality of faith that Abraham had. This is how God sees it. So when God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse,” the blessed ones are those who are of faith, and the cursed ones are those who do not have the faith of Abraham but who actually oppose him.

It is not about opposing those who claim to be either Jews or Israelites per se. Neither is it about being Zionist or anti-Zionist. The real question is this: Who are Abraham’s seed? If we fail to know the answer, we may well end up blessing those who are cursed and cursing those who are blessed.

Who are Abraham’s Seed?

The first thing that we should know is that the Hebrew language uses the term “sons” in two distinct ways. The first, of course, is the literal meaning of a physical son, born by the will of man and the will (desire) of the flesh. Paul calls such people “the old man,” because they trace their ancestry ultimately back to Adam, the first “living soul” (Genesis 2:7 KJV). Paul describes this “soul” as psukikos, from psyche, (“soul”) in 1 Corinthians 2:14, where it is translated “natural man.” It is actually the soulish man, also known as the “old man” or “old self.”

This soulish man was condemned to death through Adam’s sin, and this is why it is born mortal. It inherited mortality through his father, passed down since Adam through a man’s seed. This is also the child of the flesh, which cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50). One must have a new father to be an inheritor, and that is God Himself, who begets spiritual children having a “spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44).

The second meaning of “sons” in Hebrew thought is metaphorical, as seen in the case of James and John, who are called the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). It is self-evident that these disciples were not children of a man called Thunder (Boanerges). Their father was Zebedee, as we see from the same verse.

Again, we read in Luke 7:35, “wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” Wisdom does not beget physical children. Her children are said to be wise.

There are also “sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2; 5:6), “children of Belial” (Deuteronomy 13:13 KJV), “son of perdition” (John 17:12), and children of the devil (John 8:44). Jesus discussed the true definition of “sons” in John 8:37-44,

³⁷ “I know that you are Abraham’s [biological] descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. ³⁸ I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” ³⁹ They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. ⁴⁰ But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. ⁴¹ You are doing the deeds of your father… ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father….”

Jesus did not deny their descent from Abraham on a physical level, but He told them that from the metaphorical definition, their father was the devil, because, in their desire to kill Him, they were “doing the deeds of your father.” The question, then, is who are the sons of Abraham? Jesus made it clear that the Jews’ physical descent from Abraham did not make them actual sons of Abraham from God’s point of view.

Therefore, when Jesus called them children of the devil, He was not incurring the curse of God upon Himself. He was simply telling the truth—which they disagreed with, of course. Again, we read in 1 John 3:8,

⁸ The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one who is born [begotten] of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born [begotten] of God. ¹⁰ By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious; anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

John never connects one’s status as a child of God with his/her genealogy. It always has to do with their faith and actions. Jesus said in John 15:23, 24,

²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

Again, He said in John 15:18,

¹⁸ If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

Such hostility characterizes the world in general, because there is a cosmic war being fought between the children of God and the children of the devil.

The Apostle Paul too knew this manner of Hebrew language patterns, and he utilized it in Galatians 3:7,

⁷ Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

Again, he tells us in Galatians 3:26-29,

²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Paul equates the “sons of God” with “Abraham’s descendants,” showing that one must be begotten by God through the Spirit by faith in order to be counted among Abraham’s descendants. As far as God is concerned, no one else is of the seed of Abraham, regardless of their genealogy. To put it another way, these are among the remnant of grace who are “chosen.”

So when God says, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse,” this applies specifically to those who have New Covenant faith in Jesus Christ. Those who bless these “chosen” ones will be blessed; those who curse them will be cursed. Those who think that this applies to unbelieving Jews are misapplying the verse.

More to the point, they are applying the verse as an unbelieving Jew would apply it.

Taking this a step further, we know from all the biblical patterns that the remnant of grace, that is, the overcomers, have been persecuted and cursed since the beginning of time. Those who curse them have come under the curse of the law—that is, the righteous sentence of the law—on account of their hostility.

We are not to hate anyone, of course. Many in the world assume that we hate them, because they attribute their own motives to us as well. They do not understand what it means to walk in the Spirit. We take seriously the admonition in James 3:10, 11,

¹⁰ From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. ¹¹ Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?

So if there are any curses to pronounce, let God Himself do it. Our main focus is to be a blessing to all nations. Those who do so are indeed the seed of Abraham.