BIBLE 'Tâpbif
by Lloyd T. Anderson West Covina, California Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church
T here is no more fascinating sub ject in the study of God’s Word than that of prophecy, especially as it relates to the second coming of the Lord Jesus. In the years of my min istry, not only has the prophetic Word of God been a source of bless ing to me, but I have been immeas urably helped as has every minister, by the writings of great men like Pusey, Talbot, Riley, Harrison, Gabe- lein, Pettingill, Ironside and a host of new men like Dr. Feinberg. There should not be one person who is not intensely interested in the future of God’s earthly people, the Jew. Cer tainly you and I, who love the Lord Jesus Christ, have every reason to love the Jew, because they are the “apple of God’s eye.” Naturally, to find the very initia tion of God’s plan for Israel, we must go to the book of beginnings found in the book of Genesis. Here we find the words, “Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). In these verses we read of God's seven-fold promise to Abraham. The fulfillment of these promises were contingent upon Abraham’s being obedient to the command of the Lord that he should c.ome out from his country and go to a land which God would show unto him. The prophetic fulfillment of this seven-fold promise was focused in the last clause of these verses: “in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed.” The Apostle Paul clearly points this out, “And the scripture, forseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:8, 9). These two portions of Scripture, Old and New Testaments together, teach the prophetic fulfillment, not only in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the so-called wonderful New Tes tament body of Christ, but also in the defeat of the archenemy of God, Satan himself. Both the former and latter fulfillments are prophesied by God in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Satan bruised the heel of Jesus Christ in the cru cifixion, but by His very death on Calvary’s Cross, Christ will ultimate ly accomplish the defeat of the devil as prophesied in the Word, “He shall bru’ise thy head.” Abraham immediately obeyed the Lord. He came into the land of Ca naan that flowed with “milk and honey.” But, because there was a grievous famine at that particular time in the land of Palestine, Abra ham took the members of his family and went down into the land of Egypt. Since God had called Abra ham to the land of Canaan, He was quite able to supply his every need. But, like us today, instead of trust ing the Lord, Abraham depended upon an idolatrous country in order to support both himself and his fam ily. He soon failed miserably! At last, he was driven out of the land 29
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