In Genesis 35:11a God said to Jacob, “I am the All-sufficient God: / Be fruitful and multiply.” This is the first item of God’s promise to Jacob. At Bethel God promised Jacob that he would be fruitful and multiply. Although this promise to Jacob was fulfilled by the Israelites, all the promises made to Israel are types. These promises in type are also for the church. All the saints in the church life need to believe this promise and claim its fulfillment. After a certain amount of time there will be thirtyfold, then sixtyfold, and then a hundredfold increase in the church.
God made another promise to Jacob, saying, “A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, / And kings shall come forth from your loins” (v. 11b). This verse first speaks of “a company of nations,” indicating multiplication, and then “kings,” indicating the kingdom. Following Jacob, there was the nation of his descendants. Then there was the kingdom of his descendants under David and Solomon. In New Testament times there is the kingdom under his descendant, Jesus Christ; in the next age there will be the millennial kingdom; and after that, the eternal kingdom in the new heaven and the new earth. This matter of kings coming forth from Jacob requires all the books in the Old Testament and all the books of the New Testament for its fulfillment. The church as God’s kingdom on earth is also included in this promise. Furthermore, Revelation 11:15 speaks of the fulfillment of God’s promise made to Jacob: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”
Still another aspect of God’s promise to Jacob is in Genesis 35:12: “The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, / I will give to you; / And I will give the land to your seed after you.” In this verse Jacob is given the promise of inheriting the land with the seed. The land referred to in this verse is not simply the land of Palestine. That land is a type of Christ as the good land. Christ as the good land is what God promised to Jacob and his descendants for their possession.
The prophecies with promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are concerned not only with the blessing gained by God’s people in the Old Testament but also with the blessing that can be enjoyed by God’s people in the New Testament. These prophecies with promises are concerned even with the situation in the coming age and in eternity. God promised Abraham that He would make of him a great nation, make his name great, and make him the father of a great nation. The nation of Israel in the Old Testament, the church in the New Testament, the millennial kingdom in the coming age, and the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth in eternity are all included in this great nation that God promised Abraham. God also promised to bless Abraham. This blessing consists of God’s creation and redemption, including all that God wants to give man—God Himself and all that He has in this age and in the age to come. God also promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to all the families, all the nations, of the earth. God promised to give Abraham a seed and that Abraham would gain the promised land. His seed would multiply like the stars in the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. Although this seed would suffer affliction, being afflicted for four hundred years, they would return to the land of Canaan. God blessed Abraham, and eventually he brought forth Christ as the unique seed. In Christ all the nations of the earth are blessed.
God promised Isaac that he would inherit the promise given to his father Abraham. Isaac inherited not only all that his father had but also the promise that God had given to his father concerning the good land and the unique seed. This seed eventually is Christ, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed. God promised that Isaac would gain a son. Jacob, the son of Isaac, not only fulfilled Isaac’s need but also fulfilled God’s eternal purpose. Out of Jacob came forth Christ, who brings in the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem.
The first item that God promised Jacob is that God would be the All-sufficient God and that Jacob would be fruitful and multiply. God also promised Jacob that a nation and a company of nations would come from him and that kings would come out of his loins. Furthermore, Jacob and his seed after him would be given the land, which God gave to Abraham and Isaac. This land is not simply the land of Palestine. In reality it is Christ as the good land. Christ is what God promised Jacob and his descendants for their possession.