Thanks for your reply, Eternally Grateful.
The above promise you quote was also not solicited by Abraham.
So I'm not arguing your point - but I do have questions I'd like you to answer, and I'd like you to pretend you are my teacher, and your student (me) is asking you difficult questions, so that you don't see it as me "arguing with you in order to prove you are wrong". I can also learn if what you say proves ME wrong.
1. Does the above promise apply to all the seed of Abraham, even those who do not believe, who Paul says are broken off in Romans 11?
This is long, I pray you read it. For every word and scripture is needed to answer this question completely
If you look at this with Gen 17. You see 2 things.
1. It was a one way covenant. God said I give you, Unlike a 2 way covenant, when God says if you do this, I will do that.
2. In both passages. the promise to given to every one of his descendants. not just a select few. And again, there was no requirements for the people to keep to be part of this covenant promise.
3. The covenant was made with Abraham, He was the one to home the covenant was made. this covenant then passes down to his offspring. as it was his..
4. The covenant was reconfirmed with Both Issac And Jacob/Israel
Issac
Gen 26, 3 Dwell in this land, and
I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5
because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Notice also. He explained why.; it was not because they were good. It was because ABRAHAM believed. And because abraham was obedient. it had nothing to do with how Good Issac or Jacob or anyone else was. or wither they believed or not.
Gen 35:
9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name
is Jacob;
your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him:
“I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.
So we see the promise being passed from one child to the next, And we know through Jacob/Israel, it was passed to all 12 of his sons.
Also. If we look at Israel after they entered the land. and after they were given the law. There is one chapter we can look to to show us what will happen when THE NATION obeys. and when THEY nations turns and sins.
Lev 26:
for obedience
3
‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,
4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing;
you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make
youafraid;
I will rid the land of evil[
b] beasts,
and the sword will not go through your land.
7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.
8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight;
your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.
9 ‘For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.
10 You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new.
11 I will set My [
c]tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.
12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
13 I
am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that
you should not be their slaves;
I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.
We see Peace and safety IN THE LAND..
But if they turn and disobey. God gives what I like to call 5 cycles of discipline he will impose on the nation.
1st punishment
14 ‘But
if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,
15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 16
I also will do this to you:
read vs 16 and 17 for what will happen
2. Second
18 ‘And after all this,
if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
read 19 and 20 for what will happen.
3rd.
21 ‘Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.
Read 22 for what will happen
4th
23 ‘And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
read 25 and 26 for what will happen
5th
27 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, 28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
This is the most important punishment in our conversation. For I think this will explain everything so I will post the punishment.
29 You
shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.
30
I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols;
and My soul shall abhor you.
31
I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your [h]sweet aromas.
32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.
33
I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you;
your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
I think you will recognize. this final form of discipline happened three times in scripture.
1. The northern kingdom of Israel. By Assyria,
2. The southern kingdom of Judah, By Babylon
3. The final one in 70 AD by Rome.
Notice 2 things
Between 2 and 3. Judah did not repent. Yet God restored them. which had to heppen for Christ to be born (the 70 weeks of Daniel)
and since 70 AD. they are still in sin.. But must be allowed back into the land for end time events to happen. (Again, a temple must be present)
The final point, is after these destruction's. Is it final?
Lev 26 answers this question also
40 ‘
But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,
41 and
that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;
if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—
42 then
I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;
I will remember the land.
43 The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them;
they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.
44 Yet for all that,
when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them;
for I
am the Lord their God.
45 But
for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:
I am the Lord.’ ”
I will break this up. Not even sure this will make it.