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prosperous days of Israel's history under Solomon we are definitely told that Israel dwelt
safely, "every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba,
all the days of Solomon" (I Kings 4: 25). Dan and Beer-sheba were the extreme north
and south of Palestine only and while Solomon's suzerainty extended much further
eastwards, he only reached westwards `to the border of Egypt' (II Chron. 9: 26) and not
across Egypt to the Nile.
From this it should be clear that Israel in the past has only enjoyed a portion of the
land originally promised to Abraham in Gen. 15: 17, 18. God is always true to His
promises and therefore Israel must yet enjoy the much larger inheritance and we believe
will do so when the earthly kingdom is established at Christ's second Advent. Surely
Isa. 19: 23-25 will then be fulfilled:
"In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall
come into Egypt, the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the
Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a
blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be
Egypt My people and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance."
The Twofold seed of Abraham.
Gal. 3: 16 on the surface seems to contradict what we have already seen concerning
the numerous posterity God originally promised to Abraham unconditionally:
"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."
This is a favourite reference of spiritualizers who deny that the people of Israel as a
nation have any future in God's plans. All the promise to Abraham has been realized in
Christ, they say! but they are only looking at half of the divine picture. Paul is recalling
such a verse as Gen. 21: 12 "In Isaac shall thy seed be called". Here the Hebrew zera,
which is a collective noun, is used in the singular sense with a singular verb and looks
forward personally to Christ. But in Gen. 17: 7 the same word is used in the plural
sense "thy seed in their generations" and must refer to Abraham's posterity. Thus we
see that God's promise to Abraham relating to his seed is twofold: (1) A natural
posterity, (2) All resting on the foundation of THE SEED, Christ, "the Son of David, the
Son of Abraham" (Matt. 1: 1). One is not complete without the other. We should note
that the Apostle Paul in Gal. 3:, not only stresses the singularity of the seed, but also its
plurality: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye (all the Galatian believers) Abraham's
seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3: 29).