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The covenantal promises of God
📖 Acts 07:01-53
10 – 18Aug2023 – *The covenantal promises of God* - _Acts 07:01-53_ - THE MESSAGE OF STEPHEN - Bible reading: _Galatians 03:16-18_
“Lord Jesus, help us see that we are part of the inheritance of Abraham, which You gave him by promise through Christ. This is precious. We dare not drift away from Your promises by foolishly choosing material benefits as the basis of our choices in life. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
*Act 7:5-6 And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and _to his descendants after him. (6) But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years._*
The Lord God did promise the land to the descendants of Abraham but the Lord also spoke of what would happen to his descendants.
_Genesis 15:13-14 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that *your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. (14) And also the nation whom they serve I will judge*; afterward they shall come out with great possessions._
The Lord is affirming that He is the God of generations. Abraham was not to live only for himself and for his well-being. He must always see his life in perspective of the greater plan and purposes of God.
What the Lord revealed to Abraham was only a small section of all of His plans and purposes through him. We, today, are able to see a larger picture of what the Lord has accomplished through the life of Abraham. The story is not over. There is more to take place through the generations of Abraham.
We too have become the descendants of Abraham through Christ. _Galatians 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29) And *if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise*._ Therefore, we have no business to live for ourselves but we are responsible to continue on with the promises of God to Abraham, of which we are now a part.
What severe judgement awaits us, if after we have understood all these things, we continue to live for our own well-being? We did not consult God. We did not seek to know His purposes for us as we made life’s choices.
We are also bold enough to question God when things do not go our way.
The Lord God not only brought out the Israelites from Egypt, as He had promised Abraham, but the Lord also gave them the law. _Genesis 15:15-16 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. (16) *But in the fourth generation they shall return here*, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."_
The promises of God were to Abraham and to his seed. Abraham was faithful to walk with the Lord, in His ways, with the limited understanding that he had of what God was doing over generations.
My endeavour here is to make us see that we are in a far better place than Abraham in understanding the ways of God. *Are we not more accountable before God than Abraham?* Yet, we are nonchalantly choosing our own ways and not seeking to be aligned in making our choices of life in accordance with the purposes of God.
We can see where Stephen was going with his line of reasoning. He was making his audience understand that Christ was the seed of Abraham according to the promise.
*_Galatians 3:16-18 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "AND TO YOUR SEED," who is Christ. (17) And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. (18) For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise._*
Stephen wanted his audience to understand that the law cannot annul the covenant promise that God made with Abraham. If the inheritance of God to his people, the children of Abraham, was through the law then the promise of God to Abraham was of no effect. The inheritance of God to His people is of His covenant promise to Abraham.
```As children of Abraham let us remain in the safety of God’s promises for us and not seek to set our lives based on material well-being. If we do so we are rejecting the promises of God to us through Abraham.```
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