Genesis 13:16 Commentary and Bible Study

There is a difference here from what has been said before: ‘For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it.’ Previously, Abram has only been told that it would be given to his seed, but now he is told it will also be given to him. He has understood previously that this heir that God will one day give him and all the descendants that will follow, will have the land, but he has not understood that he will see it and possess it. This is repeated in verse 17: ‘I will give it unto thee.’ That is new. ‘Lord,’ Abram might have said, ‘I understood it was for my seed, but for me too?’ In Hebrews 7 we are told what Abram understood by that. We are told in the clearest terms that Abram understood that he would see the land in eternal glory, in heaven, that he would not receive it for himself on earth. His seed would see it on earth, but he would have it in eternity. It does look very much as though Abram understood about the resurrection. We are inclined to think that that degree of clarity on what would happen in the future was not revealed until, say, David's time. But it would seem that Abram understood it in some sense, even here. He understood that his literal descendants would take possession of a land by the promise of God, but that ultimately, in eternity, the true land would be a glorified earth for the heavenly hereafter. He grasped that this earth will one day be destroyed, and then rejuvenated and remade, and all who have died, who are joined to the Lord, will get resurrection bodies, and the land will be reconstituted and beautified, and that he, Abram, would see it. Hebrews chapter 11 tells us quite clearly that he looked forward to seeing this land in a heavenly hereafter. It would appear that when God said to Abram, ‘not just your seed; but you also’, Abram must have said to himself, ‘As far as I am concerned, that means a resurrection, an eternal glorified literal land joined with heaven for ever and for ever.’ We cannot prove that, but it seems strongly likely. But for now he has got to traffic the land, traverse it, and walk up and down and to and fro. It is an act of faith. He has got to spend his life surveying the land and never settle, avoid amalgamating with the Canaanite community.The land was given to Abram’s seed in two different senses. Firstly it was given to his physical descendants, a physical land which Joshua led them into, a land previously occupied by the Canaanites which had to be conquered by physical weapons. That land belonged to them while the national covenant continued, while they were under the law. But when God’s patience with the nation was exhausted, he ended that special relationship. In AD 70 the Romans took Jerusalem and the temple was destroyed and the Old Testament worship came to an end. But, as Paul proves in the letter to the Galatians, Abram had another seed also, a spiritual seed, and that seed includes all who believe, both Jews and Gentiles. Writing to the Gentile Galatians he says, ’If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abram's seed, and heirs according to the promise’ (Galatians 3:29). Gentile believers will never inherit the physical land, but they have something far better: an eternal inheritance in heaven. For this reason, his seed, his spiritual seed, will be as the dust of the earth in number. This does not mean literally as many as the particles of dust, but that there are too many to be counted by any human being.