there was to it with Abraham. It wasn’t a case of his saying, “I know God; He’s my friend.” Rather, it was God who made the pronouncement, “Abraham is My friend.” Do you see the difference? The national promises of the Lord were to all Israel while the universal promises were to all nations. In Genesis 12:3 we read, “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Among other things, here we find a very definite promise of the Messiah’s coming. Galatians 3:16 in dicates this more fully as we read the words of the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “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.” There is an old epigram that bears repeating. It simply, yet profoundly, declares, “How odd of God, to choose the Jews!” This selection is by His elective grace. Now let’s think for just a moment about Ishmael. As he came out of the land of Egypt, among other things, Abraham brought two very significant items with him. There was, first of all, his wealth, and sec ondly, the Egyptian handmaiden Ha- gar. Trouble and strife characterized the household of Abraham, as de scribed in chapters 13-15 of Genesis. They came largely as a result of these two things. Ishmael, son of Hagar, represents the flesh. Ishmael’s daugh ter, incidentally, according to Scrip ture (Genesis 36:3) married Esau. What a union that was! The flesh joins itself to the flesh. Sin, you see, always seeks the lowest possible level and gravitates in that direction. It is fascinating to see that God made specific promises to Ishmael. For instance, in Genesis 17:20, we find thé pronouncement, “Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him ex ceedingly; . . . I have blessed him, and will make him a great nation.”
In Genesis 16:12 Ishmael is graphic- all portrayed, “He will be a wild man.” Now Job 39:5-8 gives us an interesting description of this proph ecy concerning the descendants of Ishmael, showing that the wild ass makes its home in desert areas, a rough and raw existence. Again in Genesis 25:18, we learn that Ishmael was to dwell eastward, that is, east ward from the land of promise. This is an interesting picture of the Ara bian generations. This is the gen eral territory in which they live even to this day. When our Lord Jesus Christ was brought before Herod, it was really a case again of Isaac in front of Ishmael. The human son of Isaac, our Lord Jesus Christ, was standing before Herod, whose mother was an Idumean, a descendant of Ishmael, and whose father was from Esau. (Esau is known as “Edom” as is shown in Genesis 36:1.) This land of promise made to Abraham and to his seed forever, be fore the June 6th war was about the size of New Jersey (eight or ten thousand square miles). Actually the area they will some day inhabit will be vastly greater, as much as fifty times this size, or eventually about 250,000 square miles, all the way from the Great River of Egypt to the River Euphrates, taking in the whole Arabian peninsula. This is how
Mr. Leland Hamby, editor of the Scroll, yearbook for Talbot Theological Seminary, makes the dedica tion presentation to Dr. Robert Saucy, member of the faculty of TTS. Dr. Saucy isprofessor of Systematic Theology.
Made with FlippingBook Annual report