God promised Abram not only that he would bear a son of himself but that his seed would be as many as the stars in heaven (Gen. 15:5). Stars signify the heavenly children of Abram, the believers in the New Testament. Not only have they been separated from the corrupted world, but they also are heavenly, their citizenship is in the heavens (Phil. 3:20), and they constitute the church in the New Testament.
God promised again to give the land of Canaan to Abram and to his seed (Gen. 15:7, 18-21). In order to fulfill His purpose, God needed not only the seed but also the land. The land is the place where God’s people may have rest and where they can defeat God’s enemies, establish God’s kingdom, and build God’s habitation that God may be expressed and represented on this rebellious earth. Therefore, God confirmed His promise once again that He would give the land of Canaan to Abram and to his seed.
When God promised Abram that he would have a seed, Abram immediately believed, and God counted his faith as righteousness and justified him (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3). However, when God promised to give him the land, Abram was lacking in faith. Because Abram found it difficult to believe in God regarding the promise of the land, God was forced to confirm His promise by making a covenant with him in an extraordinary way. In the process of making the covenant, God appeared as a smoking furnace and a flaming torch, passing through the pieces of the sacrifices. Moreover, a horror of great darkness fell upon Abram, in the midst of which came the prophecy that his seed would suffer affliction for four hundred years as a sign of the fulfillment of this covenant (Gen. 15:12-17). History proves that Abram’s seed did suffer affliction for a period of four hundred years, beginning with Ishmael’s persecution of Isaac (Gen. 21:9; Gal. 4:29) and continuing until Israel’s exodus from Egypt (Exo. 3:7-8; Acts 7:6). While Abram was in Canaan, it was a strange land to him, and it remained a strange land to his descendants until the day they entered into it as the good land. It was then that God’s promise of the land to Abram was fulfilled.
God had made a covenant with Abram the fourth time, yet Abram accepted the proposal of Sarai, his wife, and by the strength of his flesh begot Ishmael through Hagar, causing God to hide Himself from him for thirteen years. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him again to reveal His name as El-Shaddai, the all-sufficient Mighty One (Gen. 17:1), to be the rich source of the supply of grace to keep His covenant for the fulfillment of His purpose, and He also made a covenant with him the fifth time.
In making a covenant with Abram, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham that he might be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:5). “Abram” means “exalted father” and “Abraham” means “father of a great multitude,” that is, a multiplied father. For the fulfillment of His purpose God needs someone who is a father of a great multitude, a multiplied father, not merely an exalted father or an exalted individual, but a multiplied person. Hence, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham to make him the father of many nations that his seed might multiply and become a great nation for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
In changing Abram’s name to Abraham that he might be the father of many nations, God’s intention was to gain a kingdom through him. The nation of Israel in the Old Testament, the church in the New Testament, the coming millennial kingdom, and the new heaven and new earth in eternity, all constitute the kingdom of God which God intended to have through Abraham. Therefore, nations were to be made of him. Furthermore, kings were to come out of him (Gen. 17:6). In the Old Testament there were David, Solomon, and others as kings of Israel; in the New Testament there is the Lord Jesus as the King in the church; in the coming age there will be the overcomers as co-kings of Christ; and in eternity there will be all the redeemed ones, as constituents of the New Jerusalem, reigning as kings unto eternity. They all are descendants of Abraham; hence, kings were to come out of him.
Not only did God make a covenant with Abraham, but He also appeared to Isaac and Jacob, descendants of Abraham, to confirm His covenant (Gen. 17:19; 26:2-4, 24; 28:13-14) as the eternal covenant (Gen. 17:7). Although there was a negative effect on this covenant because of the law that came four hundred thirty years later (Gal. 3:17), it was reconfirmed unto eternity through the enactment of the new covenant by the Lord Jesus’ shedding of His blood on the cross (Gal. 3:17, 22b). In this covenant God promised that He would be the God of Abraham and of his seed. Therefore, God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Gen. 26:24; 28:13; Exo. 3:6, 15), the God of all the families of Israel (Jer. 31:1), the God of all the believers in the New Testament (John 20:17), the God of the saved Israelites at the coming back of Christ (Heb. 8:10), and the God of all the redeemed, who are the constituents of the New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 21:7).