This past week’s reading (Genesis 12:1 thru 17:27) is all about the Abrahamic Covenant. God makes a covenant with Abraham and blesses him, promising that, in him, all the nations of the world will be blessed. Part of this covenant is the Land of Promise (i.e., the Land of Canaan), which is to be given to Abraham’s literal descendants (through Isaac and Jacob) as an inheritance forever (Genesis 17:8). Another part of this covenant with God is the sign of the covenant, which is circumcision of the flesh (Genesis 17:10-11).
But what about those people who are/were not circumcised? Do they not have any part in this special blessing from God?
Paul was a Nazarene Jew, apostle to the gentiles. And, as such, his epistles were trying to explain the religion of the Jews (a term that comes from “Judah”, or the Southern Kingdom), and the God of Israel to the gentile world of “god-fearers.” These were the non-Jews who had attached themselves to the Nazarene Jewish community. In the book of Galatians, Paul says it most succinctly: that ” … even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Galatians 3:6-8)
So this means that not only the literal physical descendants of Abraham (through Isaac and Jacob) are the “seed” of Abraham. The faithful among the gentiles could also be descendants of Abraham, in the spiritual sense, if they are of faith (or faithfulness).
Paul also wrote of this situation to the gentiles in Rome:
Comes this blessedness on the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of the circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith/faithfulness, which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith/faithfulness of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
(Romans 4:9-12).
So, the only question remaining is, to what is the verse referring when Paul speaks of “walking in the steps of that faith/faithfulness of our father Abraham”? Why is this “walk” such a critical issue to understand? Because it is none other than the “criteria” by which we can know who is a true descendant of Abraham, in the “spiritual sense,” for both Jews and non-Jews.
Immediately after Abraham circumcises himself and his entire household, God appears to Abraham in the plains of Mamre. God decides to tell Abraham what He plans to do with the wicked cities that are about to be destroyed.
And the Lord said, “… Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Seeing that Abraham will surely be a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice: that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.”
(Genesis 18:17-19)
Abraham’s faithfulness, then, was to keep the way of the Lord, by living a life characterized by conduct described as righteousness and justice. Also, that Abraham would teach others the “Way.” This idea is what Paul was explaining to the gentile god-fearers of the 1st century. It is also believed to be the reason why the Nazarenes called themselves “the Way.” Today, it’s being much more accepted within the Jewish world that gentiles can be accepted as spiritual descendants of our father Abraham, if they also keep the way of the Lord (remembering that the antidote for sin, for everyone, is “repentance”). Keeping the Way of the Lord is what is meant by a “spiritual Israel.” This means non-Jews coming alongside Israel of the flesh and to join in with them, rather than to replace them. This is commonly called “Olive Tree Theology,” wherein Gentile god-fearers (Hebrew: Yirei Shamayim) are those choosing to be grafted into the House of Israel (per Romans 9 thru 11).
There are many non-Jews studying the Hebrew Bible these days to discover what it means to be the “spiritual” heirs of Abraham. If following in the earliest teachings of the Nazarenes, they are called “biblical Christians,” meaning that their doctrines and beliefs are Hebraic-Judaic and can be traced all the way back to the biblical period (of 1st century Judaism). Other “spiritual” heirs of Abraham are not Christians, but they’re observant of the “Seven Laws of Noah,” and they believe in the God of the Bible, so they’re also considered as the Righteous among the Nations (Hebrew: Hasidim Haolam) who’re blessed for their blessing of Israel.
