Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible Part in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is Part #22 of Genesis, chapter 17 and we are going to read Genesis 17:20-22:
And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
In our last Part, we were discussing the Lord’s answer to Abraham’s request that Ishmael might live before Him. We saw that this was finally fulfilled (after thousands of years) during the second Part of the Great Tribulation when God saved the great multitude outside of the churches and congregations. Included among that number were many “sons of Ishmael,” typified by Nebaioth and Kedar, as stated in Isaiah 60. We know that God saved this great multitude, thereby fulfilling His promise to Abraham, as He said here: “And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.” The number “12” has to do with fullness and the great nation ties in with the promise to Abraham of having a seed, because the “sons of Ishmael” are among the elect and it is the elect people that are truly of the seed of Abraham, spiritually.
Let us go on to Genesis 17:21:
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac…
Again, the covenant is the Word of God and all it declares. The Word of God has many promises concerning God’s salvation program and the wonderful blessings of eternal life, including the promise of a new dwelling place in the new heaven and new earth. This is all wrapped up in the covenant as declared in the Bible. So, God’s covenant was established with Isaac, who is a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, the covenant is established in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then it goes on to say in Genesis 17:21:
… which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Sarah was an old woman at this point. She was 89 and she would be 90 in the next year. Abraham was 99 and he would be 100 in the next year. In the next year, that is exactly what God did. We are reading of something that took place in 2068 B.C. and the next year would have been 2067 B.C. That is when Abraham would be 100 and that would be when Isaac would be born, so the Bible locks in those dates and we know, historically, that this promise was fulfilled in the next year. Isaac is a type of Christ and Sarah giving birth to him or “bringing him forth” has spiritual meaning. Sarah can be a picture of the mother of believers, so we can see Isaac’s birth as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being born into the world in 7 B.C. Since all the elect are counted for the seed in Him, as we became saved and were born again the “body of Christ” would be formed or completed at the time of the end of the world. In the first instance, this would refer to Christ’s entry into the world at a set time, just like it said: “Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.” The term “set time” can also be translated as “appointed time” and it has to do with a specific time. In other words, God is “date setting.” God gave a date, historically, that would take place in only one year. Whether it is one day or one year, it is still setting a date, but He is pointing ahead, spiritually, to the birth of Christ which would be over two thousand years in the future. This is not uncommon for God to do in the Bible. We read of God setting dates and, here, He is doing it again: “Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.”
The Hebrew word translated as “next” is only translated this way here and in one other verse. The Hebrew word translated as “next” is Strong’s #312 and it is normally translated as “other” or “another.” It would more accurately be translated as, “Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in another year.” Of course, the translators were correct that it would be the next year that Sarah would give birth. However, spiritually, when God says, “in another year” Isaac would be born, it could be any year in the future and, remember, that Isaac is a type of Christ. That is actually what is in view, as we can see in Isaiah 49:1-2:
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; JEHOVAH hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;
This is a Messianic reference to Christ and it is said that He was called from the womb, from the bowels of His mother. The verse we are reading in Genesis has that implication. Shortly, Sarah would conceive and in the next year she would give birth.
Then it says in Isaiah 49:8:
Thus saith JEHOVAH, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
Here, we see that the Messiah will be given and God refers to an “acceptable time,” the day of salvation. The day of salvation is the acceptable time. Also, it says JEHOVAH would give Him for “a covenant of the people.” Remember we read about the covenant in Genesis 17:21 and how in Isaac the covenant would be established; when Isaac was born, it was as though God was reminding everyone of the covenant He had made, because in Isaac (in Christ) was the covenant made.
I want to look at the day of salvation or “the acceptable year of the Lord,” as we read in a couple of places, because it relates to the covenant God has given in the Bible and it ties in with Isaac, a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Isaiah 61:1-2:
The Spirit of the Lord JEHOVAH is upon me; because JEHOVAH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of JEHOVAH, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
The Messiah would proclaim “the acceptable year of the Lord.” Remember when Christ was in the synagogue and rose up to read, in Luke 4:17-21:
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Christ referred to what we just read in Isaiah 61 and then He closed the book and said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” The acceptable year of the Lord was fulfilled and it identifies with the “day of salvation,” which began during Christ’s ministry. The acceptable year of JEHOVAH began, in a real sense, began when He was born in “the set time in another year,” as we read in Genesis 17. This was the appointed time for salvation and for the evangelization of the earth. The Old Testament period was not that time. God did not send forth the Israelites to evangelize the world, except in the rare case when He sent forth Jonah to the people of Nineveh. It stands out because it was highly unusual. We do not read of Ezekiel being sent to another nation, and so forth. Overwhelmingly, the Israelites of old were not sent forth with the Gospel – they were not called upon to be missionaries like God did when He sent forth the New Testament churches to carry the Gospel to the nations of the world. They established churches and sent missionaries into the mission field of the world. You will not find that type of outworking of the Word of God for Old Testament Israel. Yes – they were the caretakers of the Word of God, but they expected people to come to Jerusalem or Israel if they wanted to serve JEHOVAH God of the Bible. Typically, they did not go forth with the Word of God.
It was not until the time of Jesus and His ministry that the Gospel began to go forth. Actually, after He went to the cross and rose again, the Lord waited until Pentecost to pour out His Spirit, in Acts, chapter 2 and people began to go forth with the Word of God. God even arranged for the persecution of the church, which served to spread the Gospel far and wide as people fled from the persecution. That was God’s plan and it began “the acceptable year of the Lord” or the “day of salvation,” in which the Gospel went forth. It covers the time period of Christ’s death through the entire church age when the firstfruits were brought in. God used the churches to save many; we do not know the exact number, but He saved far more people during the 1,955 years of the church age than He did during the Old Testament period. Then, finally, the “day of salvation” was again in effect during the second Part of the Great Tribulation, a time in which God saved the great multitude of people from every tribe, nation and tongue. Then it ended because it was completed. God finished His salvation program and He ended the “day of salvation” and it was no longer “the acceptable time.” The “acceptable time” was tied to the “year,” which was the “acceptable year of the Lord” and when the “year” ended, salvation ended.
God refers to that “year” in Leviticus 23 and we can see the reason the Bible speaks of “the acceptable year.” It says in Leviticus 23:10-11:
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before JEHOVAH, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Here, the word “accepted” is the same word found in the book of Isaiah regarding the “acceptable” year or “acceptable” time. In Leviticus 23 God is referring to the first of the firstfruits, the sheaf that would be the wave offering and it was the first offering of the harvest year. They would take the sheaf and wave it “to be accepted for you.” You can check this out in the Interlinear Bible, but it literally says, “And he shall wave the sheaf before JEHOVAH for your acceptance.” The sheaf is a picture of Christ and it has to do with His offering or His atoning work which thereby makes the rest of the harvest “acceptable.” It formed the basis for the rest of the harvest, including the firstfruits and the final fruits that would come in during the final Feast of Ingathering. Then God completed His harvest program in one “year.” It is all pictured as completed in one “year.”
There were the firstfruits and in 1Corinthians 15 we will see it refers, in the first instance, to Jesus. It says in 1Corinthians 15:23:
But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
Remember when we looked at Joel, chapter 2 we saw that there were three “rains” or three periods of harvest:
The “early righteous rain” was the rain that fell in the Old Testament that produced the harvest of Christ Himself, as Jesus entered the world and went to the cross. It was the wave offering or the sheaf, the “first” of the firstfruits. The sheaf is brought before JEHOVAH for our “acceptance.” So, in 33 A.D. the Lord Jesus Christ on the Passover demonstrated that He was the “first offering,” which occurred at the foundation of the world, but this is when God began His salvation program after Christ’s demonstration of His wave offering. Then what happened 50 days later on the day of Pentecost, in Acts, chapter 2? The “firstfruits” began to come in because Jesus’ initial offering was “acceptable” on our behalf, so the firstfruits could proceed and we saw the firstfruits beginning to come in during “the acceptable year.”
It is all one harvest “year,” spiritually, but it was stretched over a long period of time. It started with Christ and His offering and the harvest continued until the day before Pentecost in 1988. (If He had waited until the day of Pentecost, it would have been as if the firstfruits was continuing.) But it was time for the period of the “firstfruits” to end, so there were the 2,300 evening mornings in which virtually no one became saved. Then on September 7, 1994 the Lord stretched forth His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people and saved the great multitude that were brought in during the little season of Ingathering. You see, it was still within the harvest “year,” but on May 21, 2011 the little season of Ingathering concluded and the Latter Rain ceased to fall. The third and final feast had been kept as far as the bringing in of the fruit was concerned. In relationship to Ingathering, there is the Feast of Tabernacles, which is a different matter in that it continues on even after the fruit has been brought in. But there was completion of the harvest “year” and, therefore, the “day of salvation” or “the acceptable year of JEHOVAH” ended on May 21, 2011.
It is not a very overt reference in Genesis, but God says that in Isaac He will establish His covenant and he would be born of Sarah at the appointed time in “another year.” So, Christ was born in “the acceptable year of JEHOVAH,” the day of salvation, and then that year ended on May 21, 2011.
Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible Part, we will continue to look at Genesis 17:22. We will continue to Part this, verse by verse, to see what God has in store for us and where He will direct us concerning these truths.