Genesis, message 16: The Land for the Fulfillment of God's Purpose

My Great Delight in God's Word

Crystallization-Study of Genesis, Message 16

The Land for the Fulfillment of God's Purpose

Christ is our good Land

Genesis chapter 15 is a big transition of Abraham's story. Before this chapter, God had blessed him outwardly in material things. Abraham had gained wealth and power. All the things God had given to Abraham before this chapter were for him to exist. But starting from this chapter, God was going to bless him inwardly. God was going to give him 2 crucial things: the seed and the land. Abraham needed both the seed and the land for God to fulfill His marvelous purpose in him and through him. Praise the Lord for the seed and the good land. God was going to give the seed into him, and the land in which he would live.
We have learned about the seed in the last lesson. Now let's learn the meaning of the land.
What was the land for? The good land was not only for Abraham live in and live on, but also for him to defeat all his enemies so that God could establish His kingdom on earth and have a habilitation for His expression. The good land was not for his existence. It was definitely for the fulfillment of God's purpose.
God gave Abraham both the seed and the good land so that He would be represented and expressed. Just as God created Adam to express God and to exercise His authority on the earth, God provided the seed and the land for Abraham, so that He would have His people (Abraham's descendents) and His nation (Israel) express and represent Him on earth. This was the start point of God's recovery work, bringing man back to His eternal purpose.
What does this land mean to us? Does it symbolise the heaven? It is commonly told to be so, but it is not likely. The land is not really the shadow of the heaven, but Christ. Both the seed and the good land represent Christ. Christ is both the Seed who dwells within us and the Land in which we dwell. He is our Centre and our everything. He is the Centrality and the Universality of God's move on earth. To participate in God's move, it is crucial for us to have Christ dwell in us, and to live in Him.
Brothers and sisters, both outward and inward blessings are important to us, but they are for different purposes. The outward blessings are for our existence. Without outward blessings, we cannot live or survive. We need a good job, a nice home, some warm clothes, healthy and probably delicious food, and so on. These are for us to exist. As we are God's children, God is going to take care of us and surely supply all our needs. Jesus has promised us that only if we first seek His kingdom and His righteousness, all of these outward blessings will automatically follow. We will not only have just enough to live, but we will also have much more than we need so that we can give the surpluses to others. God will generously add these things to us. Therefore we need not and must not care too much for the outward blessings. Seek Him first, and these things will be provided by our Lord.

³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:32-34 NKJV)

On the contrary, we do need the seed and the good land, which are the inward blessings, not for our existence, but for fulfulling God's purpose. And interestingly, the New Testament reveals that for us, the New Testament believers, this kind of blessings is "Grace." Grace is much more important than outward or material blessings. The apostles rarely mentioned about outward blessings in their letters, but almost always started and ended their writings with the word "grace." And the very last verse in the bible is the prayer that grace (not blessing) of God be with us all!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelations 22:21 NKJV)

Provided that our Christ, the Word that became flesh, is full of grace (John 1:14), grace is nothing short of Christ Himself as the Seed and the good Land for our enjoyment and for the fulfilment of God's purpose. All we need is Christ, our Grace. Only in Christ can we express Him. Only in Christ can we exercise His authority over all the creation, including God's enemies. Only in Christ can we live in and have rest. In Christ alone!
Would you like to participate in God's move on earth, fulfilling His economy for man? The only way to do that is to have Christ as our Seed and our good Land. Apart from Him, we cannot do anything that really counts. But if we have Christ in us and if we live in Him, we will be fruitful and God's purpose will be fulfilled.

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 NKJV)

Christ is our all-inclusive Offering

In Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abram after God revealed that Abram would inherit the good land. An interesting point about this covenant is that particular offerings were requested by God.

⁸ And he said, "Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?"
⁹ So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
¹⁰ Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. (Genesis 15:8-10 NKJV)

There were 5 items that needed to be offered: a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon. Interestingly, only the first 3 were killed, whereas the other two were not.
What do these animals represent? Like the Levitical offerings, these offerings symbolise Christ, our all-inclusive Offering. The first 3 animals represent Christ as our burnt offering, peace offering and sin offering. They signify Christ in His humanity who died for us. We were identified with Him at the Cross when He was condemned on behalf of us. He suffered and died for us, offering His own life to God, so that we can now have true peace and have all our sins forgiven.
Furthermore, the offered birds that were left alive also represent the divine resurrected Christ who has been risen and who lives today. We were not only identified with Christ in his death, but also in His resurrection. And because of His resurrection, we can now live His resurrection life.
Would you like to enjoy Christ as the good Land for fulfilling God's purpose? If so, let's make this covenant with God, by being put to death on the Cross with Christ, so that we can have peace with God, with all our sins pardoned; and also by living the resurrection life of Christ, so that we may claim that, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20 NKJV)

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization-Study of Genesis, week 16.

• Life Study of Genesis, messages 44 and 45.

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)