Page 25 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

We might miss the significance of God’s
repeated promise to Abraham due to the word
“offspring.” We assume a reference to a
greater and greater number of descendants.
Yet the word is the same as we found in
Genesis 3:15 when God said to Satan, “I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and hers; he will crush
your head and you will strike his heel.” The
connection is purposeful. Among all the other
Fig. 14: Southern Night sky promises given to Abraham is this continued
promise from Adam and Eve. One special
descendent of Abraham would finally defeat Satan and bring about salvation. The grammar and word
usage requires that we look for one special offspring. “These passages employ the word ‘seed,’ a
collective noun in the singular…- never any plural noun, such as ‘sons’, for example.“ “In the Hebrew
26
the word is never used in the plural in the sense of posterity.” This is how the writer Moses
27
understood the words. This is how Abraham the hearer and recipient understood the words. “

Abraham seized the promise of God and acted on it. He “believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as
righteousness” (15:6). It is important to underscore clearly the content of Abraham’s faith and the
spiritual effect of his faith. He did not just believe in a faithful God or a powerful God or a merciful God
who would give him a child named Isaac. He believed in a coming Messiah. His faith was not generic but
specific. Because of his specific faith in a coming Messiah, God declared him righteous.

Several NT writers interpret the life of Abraham in a similar manner. In Romans 4 the promise of God is
highlighted with an emphasis on the dynamics of faith in contrast to works. The faith of Abraham was
“credited” to him as righteousness (4:2), implying a gift. He did nothing to earn righteousness. So too we
who believe simply in Jesus Christ receive “credit” making us righteous (4:23-24). The main point of
28
Romans is this spiritual transaction. The word “promise” is singular not plural, referring to the chief
promise of a Messiah (4:13, 16, 20). The faith of Abraham is a pattern for all who would follow. Believe
in Jesus and receive righteousness as a gift. It is unearned.

In Galatians the content of faith is highlighted more than the faith connection. “The promises were
spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but
‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ” (3:16). The promises to Abraham include more
than just a coming Messiah, of course, but the core and most important part is the Messiah. God’s
words to Abraham, “All nations will be blessed through you,” are called “the gospel” (3:8). We are
invited to ponder with Abraham the experience of hearing these words, “How can all nations be blessed
through me?” With the previous words of God in the Garden of Eden ringing in our ears, only one
answer is possible: “the Messiah will come through me.” Abraham as a model of faith in this coming
Messiah is a secondary point.
29

26 Willis J. Beecher, The Prophets and the Promise (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1905), p. 205.
27 Ibid, p. 205, note 1.
28 Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Erdmann, 1996), p. 286.
29 It is surprising to read many excellent commentators stumble at the word “gospel” in Galatians 3:8.
F.F. Bruce, for example, in his Commentary on Galatians (Grand Rapids: Erdmann, 1982), refers to Paul’s
thinking as a “reinterpretation” or typological application of the Genesis passage (p. 156). In other

24