We will look all the way back to the patriarch Abraham - that is something like 4,000 years ago. It is a long journey back in time, so let us take a rest stop. We will stop in the days of Isaiah. There in Isaiah 51, God issues what might appear at first to be a very strange command. I am going to read from the New American Standard Bible. God says:
What is it about Abraham that would make God instruct us to look back to him - back to a person whose times and whose culture were so very different from those of our own? What could we possibly learn by looking back to Abraham? I think the answer there lies in the absolute fact, as it says there in Isaiah 51, that Abraham is our father. That is a fact; and we will see it is not just a metaphor.
We will not turn to Romans 4:16, but it provides a New Testament witness to that fact. There Paul says that Abraham is the father of us all. In Galatians 3:29 (And do not turn there yet; we are going to be coming back and spending some time in Galatians, but we will not take the time to turn there right now.), Paul mentions that we who are Christ's are Abraham's seed. This father-son relationship between Abraham and God's people is not just metaphorical.
In fact, so real is this relationship that Paul continues in verse 29 declaring that God's people inherit after their father Abraham; we are heirs according to the promise. That is exactly what sons do from their fathers - they inherit. This is a very real father-son relationship.
But, what promise are we speaking of here? Promise by whom? Promise to whom? In Romans 9 (And I will ask you to turn there if you want), Paul provides a very straightforward answer to those questions about the promise. Here Paul epitomizes - perhaps we should use the word summarizes - the promise into a few words.
