Abraham's descendants

“ It cannot refer to the bodily descendants of Abraham, as such, any more than the promise of a son to Abraham was fulfilled in the birth of Ishmael, or than the Arabs stand related to the promise of the innumerable multitude of his descendants,—a promise which is repeated, in the same extent, to Isaac and Jacob, although they were not the ancestors of the Arabs. Degenerate sons are not a blessing; they are no objects of promise, no sons in the full sense. Every one is a son of Abraham, only in so far as he is a son of God. ”

“ It is with equal difficulty that one can depart, with any reverence left, from the mass of legend and childishness with which one is crushed in such places. One escapes with the thought of the real Abraham, his glorious service to humanity, his lifelong devotion to the making of souls, to the spread of the knowledge of God. One recalls the Abraham who, in the Jewish tradition, is the type of unselfishness, of watchfulness on behalf of his descendants, the marks of whose genuine relationship to the Patriarch are a generous eye and a humble spirit. ”

“ Abram, Sayce tells us, is the Babylonian Abu-ramer or "exalted father," a name much more likely to be given to a mythical ancestor than to an actual man. This is rendered more probable by the fact that, as we have already seen, the genealogy of Abraham traced upwards consists mainly of eponyms: 239 while those which radiate from him downwards are of the same character. Thus two of his sons by Keturah are Jokshan and Midian; and Sheba, Dedan, and Assurim are among his descendants. ”

“ The phrase " the seed " is therefore used in an individual and federal acceptation. Hence, whatever is promised to Abraham and Christ is also promised to their federal constituents-to the sons of Abraham, and brethren of Christ, by adoption into the family of God.
But the formula of national, or political, adoption has not yet been promulgated to the world. No people has ever been politically in God but Israel. The natural descendants of Abraham in the line of Isaac and Jacob became the people of God in a national sense by the adoption provided in the Mosaic law. ”

“ III. The particular promise here renewed, is that of a numerous offspring, v. 17, Multiplying, I will multiply thee. Note, Those that are willing to part with any thing for God, shall have it made up to them with unspeakable advantage. Abraham has but one son, and is willing to part with that one, in obedience to God; "Well," said God, "thou shalt be recompensed with thousands and millions." What a figure does the seed of Abraham make in history! How numerous, how illustrious were his known descendants, who, to this day, triumph in this, that they have Abraham to their father! ”

“ Abraham alone was, in course of time, known to the Oriental nations; but no ancient people admitted that Abraham was the root of the Jewish nation.
Such are the secrets of Providence, that the father and mother of the human race have ever been totally unknown to their descendants; so that the names of Adam and Eve are to be found in no ancient author, either of Greece, of Rome, of Persia, or of Syria, nor even among the Arabs, until near the time of Mahomet. ”

“ When Abraham saw that the power appointed over the land did not supply it with might and holy strength as it merited, then "Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there" (Gen. 12:10) . How did Abraham know (that the land still needed correction) ? From the verse, "To your seed I will give this land." Abraham then knew that the only way to amend the land was through the holy grades of his descendants. Abraham then understood the secret of Wisdom - the land will not be properly mended in holiness, except as we have said. He therefore went down to Egypt, from there to correct that which was lacking. ”

“ PART III. Chapter I.—THE JEWS TO THE TIME OF THE EMPEROR ADRIAN. The history of those chosen by the Lord to be His peculiar people, has now been traced for more than two thousand years, from the Call of Abraham, b.c. 1921. For the two centuries immediately following that event, we have the history of Abraham's descendants, Isaac, Jacob or Israel, and the twelve sons of Israel, or Patriarchs, as they are called, from being the fathers of all the tribes of Israel. Israel and his sons and grand-children, to the number of sixty-six persons, went down, b.c. ”

“ But because we as a people follow the example of Abraham, in taking more wives than one, we are universally decried and despised. The Christian world profess to believe in Abraham, and he, through obedience to the command of God in this respect, was called the "Father of the faithful," and the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem will each be named after one of the twelve patriarchs, his descendants, and the sons of a polygamist, and fathers of all Israel. ”

“ All the booty of Sodom Abraham returned to the king thereof, and he took an oath, "I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abraham rich, save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion." [14]
On account of this unselfishness, the remembrance of which was to be continued through all generations, God gave the descendants of Abraham maxims to be written on their phylacteries and shoe-latchets ”

“ Jesus was a descendant of this Abraham. God blesses all the people groups through Abraham, because God saves from sin everyone who believes in Jesus. When these people believe in Jesus, God considers them to be descendants of Abraham. ”

“ We have given the descendants of Abraham the Scripture and the wisdom; We have given them a great kingship.Am yahsudoona alnnasa AAala ma atahumu Allahu min fadlihi faqad atayna ala ibraheema alkitaba waalhikmata waataynahum mulkan AAatheeman 004:055Some of them believed in it, and some of them turned from it. In Hell will be enough flames.Faminhum man amana bihi waminhum man sadda AAanhu wakafa bijahannama saAAeeran 004:056Those who have rejected Our signs, We will admit them to a Fire. Every time their skins are cooked, We replace them with other skin that they may taste the retribution. ”

“ Now the promise of this to Abraham and his seed is a promise to no one else. No stranger can lay claim to it. He must be Abraham's seed, or he has no right to Abraham's property. On this principle, no one who is not a lineal, or fleshly, descendant of Abraham can inherit the world with him when God fulfils the promise. This is the view taken of the matter by the Jews, who found their hope of participation in the world when it becomes Abraham's and his seed's, upon the acknowledged fact that they are Abraham's flesh and blood. ”

“ Abraham offers to God the life of his only son. If Paul was right, and if the children of Abraham mean the men that do such things as these in such a spirit as this, and if “the seed of Abraham” is the man that incarnates this spirit, then, I thought, there was perhaps no egotism when the prophet of [113] Israel represented God as saying to the descendant of Abraham, “Thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” For it may mean “I have not chosen the rich, I have not chosen the great and strong. ”

“ Chapter XXV.—The Jews boast in vain that they are sons of Abraham.
“Those who justify themselves, and say they are sons of Abraham, shall be desirous even in a small degree to receive the inheritance along with you; [62] as the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of Isaiah, cries, speaking thus while he personates them: ‘Return from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and glory. Where is Thy zeal and strength? Where is the multitude of Thy mercy? for Thou hast sustained us, O Lord. For Thou art our Father, because Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel has not recognised us. ”

“ God said to the chief-captain Michael, Go to my friend Abraham yet once again, and speak to him thus, Thus saith the Lord thy God, he that brought thee into the land of promise, that blessed thee above the sand of the sea and above the stars of heaven, that opened the womb of barrenness of Sarah, and granted thee Isaac as the fruit of the womb in old age, Verily I say unto thee that blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed, and I will give thee all that thou shalt ask from me, for I am the Lord thy God, and besides me there is no other. ”

“ Here the apostle proves that Abraham was justified not by works, but by faith. Those that of all men contended most vigorously for a share in righteousness by the privileges they enjoyed, and the works they performed, were the Jews, and therefore he appeals to the case of Abraham their father, and puts his own name to the relation, being a Hebrew of the Hebrews: Abraham our father. Now surely his prerogative must needs be as great as theirs who claim it as his seed according to the flesh. Now what has he found? All the world is seeking ”

“ Abram was now eighty-five years old, and he had no child. How, then, could the promise made of God at Haran, and repeated at Sichem and Bethel, be fulfifled, seeing that he was childless? He was even now an old man, and had concluded to make Eliezer of Damascus his heir; how then could the great, the exceeding great, reward be realized by him? Prompted by these considerations, but in no wise distrusting God, Abram said, "Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Behold, to me thou hast given no seed ”

“ For the history of the Hebrews the life of Abraham is of the same value as other stories of traditional ancestors. The narratives, viewed dispassionately, represent him as an idealized sheikh (with one important exception, Gen. xiv., see below) , about whose person a number of stories have gathered. As the father of Isaac and Ishmael, he is ultimately the common ancestor of the Israelites and their nomadic fierce neighbours, men roving unrestrainedly like the wild ass, troubled by and troubling every one (xvi. 12) . ”

“ He sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, to the east country. 7 These are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived: one hundred seventy-five years. 8 Abraham gave up the spirit, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9 Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre, 10 the field which Abraham purchased of the children of Heth. Abraham was buried there with Sarah, his wife. ”

“ Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that (portion of the seed) only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all," both Jews and Gentiles, "before God, whose promises he believed"; as it is written, "a father of many nations have I constituted thee." (Rom. 4:13,14,16,17) The Judaizers claimed a right to the inheritance because they bore the seal of the covenant, marked in their flesh by circumcision ”

“ Then Abraham wept, saying, Woe is me, what shall I do? for I am a man broad of body, and how shall I be able to enter by the narrow gate, by which a boy of fifteen years cannot enter? Michael answered and said to Abraham, Fear not, father, nor grieve, for thou shalt enter by it unhindered, and all those who are like thee. And as Abraham stood and marveled, behold an angel of the Lord driving sixty thousand souls of sinners to destruction. And Abraham said to Michael, Do all these go into destruction? ”

“ He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year."
22 When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 23 Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money; every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ”

“ And Abraham, full of years and noble deeds, made answer to his Lord and asked: "What comfort canst Thou give me, Lord of spirits, who am thus desolate? No need have I to heap up treasure for any child of mine, but after me my kinsmen shall enjoy my wealth. Thou grantest me no son, and therefore sorrow presseth on my heart. I can devise no counsel. My steward goeth to and fro rejoicing in his children, and firmly thinketh in his heart that after me his sons shall be my heirs. He seeth that no child is born to me." ”

“ But still more illustriously was it published in Noah. "Every thing in the earth shall die," says the Lord to him, "but with thee will I establish my covenant;" thus disclosing the secret, that the earth was to be established according to the purpose of God, as in resurrection, stability, and beauty.
So, after these earlier fathers, Abraham was to have both a family and an inheritance on the same principle. He and his generations after him were taught resurrection in the mystery of the barren woman keeping house. The covenant blessing was linked with the risen family. ”