What were the promises made to Abraham?
Controversy over the idea of 'blessing Israel' turns around the promises made to Abraham. But what were those promises?
Controversy over the idea of 'blessing Israel' turns around the promises made to Abraham. But what were those promises?
The Promises to Abraham
This is a supplement to our analysis of the idea that Christians are obliged to “bless Israel.”
This controversy, recently sparked again by Ted Cruz’s interview with Tucker Carlson, turns around the promises made by God to Abraham and “Abrahamic covenant,” both of which were renewed, passed down, and further specified throughout the Old Testament.
Here are those promises, which are distinct from those involved with the Mosaic Covenant, taken from the book of Genesis:
And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father's house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed.
I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and IN THEE shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. (12.1-3)
And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. (12.7)
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him: Lift up thy eyes, and look from the place wherein thou now art, to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west.
All the land which thou seest, I will give to thee, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: if any man be able to number the dust of the earth, he shall be able to number thy seed also. (13.14-16)
And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.
Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. (15.5-6)
And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years. (15.13)
That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river to Egypt even to the great river Euphrates. (15.18)
I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude. (16.10)
And after he began to be ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared to him: and said unto him: I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee: and I will multiply thee exceedingly.
Abram fell flat on his face.
And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abraham: because I have made thee a father of many nations.
And I will make thee increase exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.
And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy sojournment, all the land of Chanaan, for a perpetual possession, and I will be their God.
Again God said to Abraham: And thou therefore shalt keep my covenant, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
This is my covenant which you shall observe between me and you, and thy seed after thee: All the male kind of you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may be for a sign of the covenant between me and you.
An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations: he that is born in the house, as well as the bought servant, shall be circumcised, and whosoever is not of your stock: And my covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant.
The male whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be destroyed out of his people: because he hath broken my covenant.
God said also to Abraham: Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call Sarai, but Sara.
And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shall become nations, and kings of people shall spring from him.
Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara that is ninety years old bring forth?
And he said to God: O that Ismael may live before thee.
And God said to Abraham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him.
And as for Ismael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sara shall bring forth to thee at this time in the next year. (17.1-21)
And when Sara had seen the son of Agar, the Egyptian, playing with Isaac, her son, she said to Abraham:
Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.
Abraham took this grievously for his son.
And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bondwoman: in all that Sara hath said to thee, hearken to her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
But I will make the son also of the bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy seed. (21.9-13)
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying:
By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake:
I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore; thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies.
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. (22.15-18)
As discussed in the full analysis, God made similar promises to Isaac and Jacob, as well as to Juda and David.
These promises were fundamentally messianic. They, and the covenant with Abraham, were made not just for the sake of Abraham and the patriarchs, nor just for the people of Israel: they were made for and to the Messias, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Seed of Abraham.
As St Paul taught:
To Abraham were the promises made and to his seed. He saith not: And to his seeds as of many. But as of one: And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Gal. 3.16)
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