You will see also these two principles distinctly presented in the word: on one side, the promises made to Abraham without condition; and on the other, Israel receiving them under condition, and so losing all.
But as Abraham received the promises without condition, God cannot forget them, although Israel may have failed in the conditions which they engaged for. And this is very important; for if God had failed in His promises towards Abraham, He could fail also in His promises towards us.
It was at Sinai that Israel received the promises under condition, and failed; but this in no wise weakened the validity and the force of the promises made to Abraham four hundred years before. I am now alluding to the spiritual promise, "All nations shall be blessed in thee," which has found a partial fulfillment by the gospel in this dispensation; but I allude to the promises made to Israel, which rest on the same faithfulness of God.
Let us begin our citations upon this subject out of Gen. 12 The chapter is the call of Abraham, who was then in the midst of his idolatrous family. The terms of the promise are very general; but they contain earthly blessings as well as purely spiritual ones. The two kinds are found in the same verse equally without condition. The spiritual part of the promise is only once repeated (chap. 22.), and that to the seed; not so the temporal ones. In chapter 15., we have the promise founded upon a covenant made with Abraham, also without condition; it is an absolute gift of the country. Here is also found that of a numerous posterity (vs. 5, 18); and even the exact limits of the country given (vs. 18, and following). In chapter 17:7, 8, the promise of the earth is renewed. These are confirmed to Isaac (chap. 36:3, 4), and to Jacob (chap. 35:10-12). Here are " the promises made unto the fathers," and to Israel, " beloved for the fathers' sakes:" they are made to Abraham, whether spiritual or temporal, without any condition.
If you say that the spiritual promises are without condition, by parity of reasoning the temporal ones are. There is as much certainty in the promise made to Abraham, " To thee will I give this land," as in those which have been made in favor of us Gentiles.
There is no need to cite the wrestling of Jacob, It is, in general, thought to be a proof of extraordinary faith in him. This is true; but, at the same time, it is a faith which, exerted after conduct much to be reprehended, was to be accompanied by an evident humiliation. It was God who wrestled with him; but God also sustained his faith. So shall it be with Israel at the end; they shall feel the effect of leaning on the flesh; but God shall take this controversy into His own hands and bless them after all.
Thus God made Himself " the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob"-heirs of the promises, and pilgrims upon earth.
We shall see that in this name, God, as it were, makes his boast on the earth, and that the faithful in Israel ever find in it the motives of their confidence. " Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations " (Ex. 3:1515And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. (Exodus 3:15)).
But in another point of view, Israel placed themselves in relationship with God, in a Way which is opposed to all this; namely, their own righteousness-the principle of the law-by virtue of which, acknowledging that we owe obedience to God, we undertake the doing of it in our own, strength; for the history of the people of Israel is, whether in its largeness or details, but the history of our hearts.
Ex. 19 Here was an immense change taking place in the state of Israel: until then the promise made to them had been unconditional. If you cast your eyes over the chapters from 15. to 19., you will find that God had given them all things gratuitously, and even in spite of their murmurings; as the manna, water to drink, the sabbath, etc.; and that He had sustained them in their combat with Amalek at Rephidim. He recalls all this to their memory: "Ye have seen," says He to them, "how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself; now therefore, if...." " This is the first time, in the relationship between God and Israel, that the little word if is introduced. " Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."
But the moment a condition comes in, our ruin is certain, for we fail the first day; and this was the foolishness of Israel. In vain God gives His law, which is " holy, and just, and good." To a shiner His law is death, because he is a sinner; and from the moment that God gives His law conditionally-namely, that something is to come tows by keeping it-He gives it, not because we can obey it, but to make us more clearly comprehend that we are lost because we have violated it.
The Israelites should have said, It is true, most gracious God, we ought to obey Thee; but we have failed so often, that we dare not receive the promises under such a condition. Instead of this, what was their language? " All the words that the Lord hath said will we do." They bind themselves to fulfill all that Jehovah had spoken; they take the promises under the condition of perfect obedience. What is the consequence of such rashness? The golden calf was made before Moses had come down from the mount. When we sinners engage ourselves to obey God without any failure (although obedience is always a duty), and to forfeit the blessing if we do not, we are sure to fail. Our answer should always be, " We are lost;" for grace supposes our ruin. It is this entire instability of man under any condition, that the apostle wishes to show (Gal. 3:17-2117And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. 18For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. 19Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 20Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. 21Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. (Galatians 3:17‑21)) when he says, " A mediator is not a mediator of one." That is, from the instant there is a mediator, there are two parties. But God is not two; " God is one." And who is the other party? It is man. Hence the accomplishment depends on the stability of man, as well as of God; and all comes to nothing.
There being nothing stable in man, he has of course sunk under the weight of his engagements; and this is what must always happen. But the law cannot annul the promises made to Abraham: the law, which was 430 years after, cannot abolish the promise; and the promise was made to Abraham, not only of a blessing to the nations, but also of the land, and of earthly blessings to Israel. The reasoning of the apostle, as to spiritual promises, applies equally to temporal promises made to the Jews. We see that Israel could not enjoy them under the law. In fact, all was lost as soon as the golden calf was made. Yet the covenant at Sinai was founded on the principle of obedience. Ex. 24:7, 87And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. (Exodus 24:7‑8): " And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood.... " Here is a covenant ratified by blood-and upon this foundation,-" We will do all that the Lord hath said." You know that the people made the golden calf, and that Moses in consequence destroyed the tables of the law.
In Ex. 32; we see how the promises made before the law were the resource of faith. It was this which sustained the people by the intercession of Moses, even in ruin itself: and by means of a mediator, God returned to man after his failure. (Vs. 9, 10) " It is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation." Then Moses besought the Lord: " Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and
saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."
Thus, after the fall of Israel, Moses beseeches God, for His own glory, to remember the promises made to Abraham; and God repents of the evil which he had thought to do.
Turn to Lev. 26 This chapter is the threat of all the chastisements which were to follow the unfaithfulness of Israel. Verse 42: " Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham;.... and I will remember the land."
God returns to His promises made unconditionally long before the law; and this is applicable to the last times, as we shall presently see.
There are two more covenants made with Israel during their wanderings in the wilderness. That under the law having been broken, the intercession of Moses made way for another (Ex. 33:14-1914And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 16For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. 17And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. 18And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. 19And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Exodus 33:14‑19)), of which we have the basis in Ex. 34:2727And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. (Exodus 34:27): " And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words; for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." Observe, with thee; for there is a remarkable change in the language of God. In Egypt, God had always said, " My people, my people." But when the golden calf was made, He uses the word which they had used-" Thy people which thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt;" for Israel had said, " This Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt" (Ex. 32:11And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. (Exodus 32:1)). God takes them up in their own words. What happened? Moses interceded, and, so to speak, he would not permit God to say " Thy people," as of him; but he insisted upon Thy people, as of God's people.
Now then, it is a covenant made with Moses, as mediator. Here comes in the sovereignty of grace, introduced indeed when all was lost (the condition of the law having been violated). If God had not been sovereign, what would have been the consequence of this infraction? The destruction of all the people. That is, though the sovereignty of God is eternal, it is revealed when it becomes the only resource of a people lost by their own ways: and this sovereignty manifests itself through the means of a mediator.
There is still another covenant in Deuteronomy 29:11These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. (Deuteronomy 29:1): " These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb." And the subject of this third covenant with the Israelites is this:-God makes it with them, in order that under it they, being obedient, might be able to continue to enjoy the land. They did not keep it, and so were expelled from the territory. They were installed in it at the epoch of this third covenant, and by the keeping of it they would have been maintained there. (See vs. 9, 12. 19.)
Thus we get the principle on which they entered at all into the land of Canaan. But we have also seen that before the law God had promised them the land for a perpetual possession, by covenants and promises made without condition; and it is owing to these promises, by the mediation of Moses, that Israel was spared, and at last enjoyed the land-enjoyed it, we say, on the terms of the third covenant, made in the plains of Moab.
After the fall of the Israelites in this promised land, there remains still to be applied to them, as to their re-establishment, all the promises made to Abraham. After this people had failed in every possible way towards God, the prophets show us clearly, that God has promised again to restore them and to establish them in their land, under the Lord Jesus Christ as their king, to receive in Him the full accomplishment of every temporal promise.
Let us recollect, dear friends, that all we have been going through is the revelation of the character of Jehovah; and that, though truly these things have happened to Israel, they have happened to them on the part of God; and that they are, as a consequence, the manifestation of the character of God in Israel for us. It is not only of the failure of Israel that we are to think, but of the goodness of God-our God. Israel is the theater upon which God has displayed all His character; but not alone is Israel to be considered: the glory of God and the honor of His perfections are concerned. If God could fail in His gifts towards Israel, He could fail in His gifts towards us.
We shall have yet, on another occasion, to continue our account of this people.
(Continued from page 20.)
( To be continued, D. V.)