The 4th period of testing is Promise (Genesis 12 – Exodus 12). The length of this period is from the call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1) at age 75 to the exodus of Israel out of Egypt, approximately 430 years later. Since in previous ages, man has always found ways to be directly opposed to God and His direction, and since He has scattered and separated them over the face of the earth forming many people groups; God will now begin to deal directly with only one branch of the human race (Abraham/Israel) in the furtherance of His plan.
In this period God begins to predict the coming of Messiah through the line of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3, 18:18, 22:17-18, 26:3-4, 28:13-15, 49:10). He promises the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed for a possession forever, to be their base of operation as His plan unfolds through the ages (Genesis 12:5-7, 15:13-21). And He also promises to use Israel to destroy the giants who dwelt there (Deuteronomy 7:1-5).
Remember from Lesson 17, the giants that existed before the flood were the result of a satanic plot to destroy the seed of the woman so Messiah could not come. Then, the existence of giants after the flood was also a result of a satanic plan, this time to destroy Israel and cut off the lineage of Abraham from which Messiah would come. God tired of this interference from Satan and fallen angels, so He rounded them up and chained them in the abyss (II Peter 2:4, Jude 6).
There is another dimension to these two episodes we should mention. Fallen angels under the direction of Satan would never have been allowed to interfere in this way without God’s passive approval. But why would He do that? Simply to show Satan was powerless to interrupt His plan of redemption through Christ and reinforce the reality that there was nothing Satan could do to prevent his eventual judgment (Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10).
And from the record of the Old Testament and the comments found in the New Testament we know that God determined to reveal His plan for the ages to man through Abraham and his seed (Romans 3:1-3, 9:4-5, Galatians 3:8, Hebrews 11:8-12). Why did God do this? To have a representative people on the earth through which Messiah would come and through whom revelation of Himself and His plan would come.
How did He do it? By honoring His covenant promises to Abraham and his seed (Deuteronomy 7:6-9).
What was man’s failure? I’m getting ready to describe the failures of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob during this period. However, though they did fail in some ways, they were all men who displayed great trust, courage and determination at different times. In Genesis 12 when still named Abram, he left his home in Haran at God’s direction to go to Canaan. But, when he got there and saw there was a famine in the land, he failed to trust God to take care of him and immediately left and went into Egypt. Then, when he arrived in Egypt, he failed to trust God to protect him and lied to the Egyptians regarding Sarai, his wife. So, in one chapter we see obedience and trust, then disobedience and lack of trust.
Abram, like many of us, has a lot to learn. In Genesis 15:1-6 God reaffirms His promise to Abram that he will have a son; this is the same promise made by implication earlier in 12:3, 7. Then in Genesis 16, Abram follows his wife’s bad advice and has a son by her Egyptian maid, Hagar. And, by the way, back in Genesis 15:13 God tells Abraham his descendants will be slaves in Egypt for 400 years (the result of Abraham’s failures in that land).
Now, while I’m on the subject of Abraham and Sarah (God changes their names in chapter 17), I have to tell the miraculous story of Isaac’s birth. In Genesis 17 when now Abraham is 99 years old and Sarah is 90, God again reaffirms His promise that they will have a son – Abraham laughed in disbelief (verse 17). And then, even again, in Genesis 18:10 God tells them they’re going to have a son. This time Sarah laughs (verse 12).
However, an examination of verse 10 tells us how this is going to happen. Let me first quote the King James Version, as it is more accurate than most other translations (the NIV and Amplified Versions are ridiculous), then we’ll look at some key words. “And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.” First, we see the word “return” translated from the Hebrew shuv, meaning, “to turn back”. Then, the word “time” from eth, which means “normal progression” or “course of time”. And, in the verse you can see that the promise here is that God is going to turn back the normal progression of life or age! They’re laughing because they know they’re too old to have children (Genesis 18:11-15), so God promises He’s going to make them young again.
Now, you might ask, just when did they start getting younger? Hebrews 11:11 tells us that it was when they finally decided God was telling them the truth and they would trust Him. And how do we know they actually got younger? It’s pretty obvious, unless you want to believe that Abimelech, the king of Gerar wanted to take Sarah into his harem (Genesis 20:2-4), even though she was an old woman who laughed at the idea of ever having sexual pleasure again (Genesis 18:12).
By the way, Abimelech was a Canaanite, a race of giants (Deuteronomy 7:1); one of the reasons Abraham feared him so much. From Genesis 18 to Genesis 20, Sarah had become a beautiful, probably middle-aged woman again! In Genesis 21 their son Isaac is born. As for Abraham, after Sarah dies, he takes Keturah as his wife and has another family (Genesis 25:1-6).
Isaac learned from his father. He made the same mistakes in Genesis 26:1-11. He left Canaan and went to Gerar because of a famine (God was testing him) and lied to Abimelech about Rebekah being his wife. Later, when he was old and about to die, he purposed to give his older son, Esau, his blessing, even though he knew full well that God had determined that the younger son, Jacob, should receive the blessing and continue as the family priest (compare Genesis 25:23 with 27:1-4). The article on the website “Avoiding the Dog and Hog Disease – Part 1, Walking with God” has a detailed account of Jacob and Esau and the purpose of the father’s blessing.
But, to be fair, an examination of Genesis 22:1-19 tells us that Isaac had, at times, great integrity and trust in God. When you read this chapter, you’ll see God telling Abraham to take his only son to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord. And Abraham obeys! Now, you can’t believe the children’s Bible storybooks that depict Isaac as a helpless, young boy. According to Josephus (in his Antiquities of the Jews) Isaac was at least 25 years old and well able to refuse and resist his much older father.
And the test was as much for Isaac to submit to God and to his own father, as it was for Abraham to obey God and offer his only son. And he did submit and obey. This is a great story where God tests Abraham and Abraham proves that he is willing to do exactly what his heavenly Father has promised to do – give his only Son. And Isaac proves he is willing to do exactly what the Son has promised to do – give his own life in obedience to his father. James gives us a great doctrinal principle using these two men as examples: faith without appropriate action is worthless (James 2:20-23).
As for Jacob, if you read Genesis 31, you’ll see that even though Jacob knew God’s instruction (that he was to leave Haran and return to Canaan), he did not trust God to provide for him and protect him. Later, he preferred Joseph, his youngest son, and caused the older sons to be jealous (Genesis 37:3). On the other hand you can see from passages like Genesis 28:10-22 and 35:9-13 that God intended to keep his covenant promises to bless Abraham’s seed through Jacob.
Since Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all trusted in Egypt, (compare Genesis 12:10, 26:1 and 42:2), God judged Israel with 430 years of not obtaining His promise of a land. Egypt is a type or illustration of the world. Since they trusted in the world instead of trusting God and His promises, God withheld the fulfillment of the promise. Over 200 years of that time was spent in bondage in Egypt (Exodus 1:1-12:41).
The affirmation of God’s grace is found in the fact that Paul assures us in the New Testament that the Israelites did understand the gospel message given to them through His promises to Abraham (Galatians 3:8 and Hebrews 3:16-4:2, where the context is Israel’s unbelief even when they knew His promises).