I. The faith he exercised —
The promise which was now given him, was very extensive —
[It being early in the morning before sun-rise, God " brought him forth abroad, and bade him count, if he could, the stars of heaven ; " and then told him that " his seed should be, like them," innumerable. This doubtless respected, in the first instance, his natural seed : and though he waited fifteen years longer for the birth of that child from whence that nume- rous progeny was to spring, yet it was accomplished, as Moses repeatedly declared, previous so their taking possession of the promised landa. But the promise, taken as it must be in con- nexion with that which had been before given himb, and that which was afterwards given c (for they were all either different parts, or only repetitions of the same promise), had an ulterior, and more important view. It assured to him, that he should have a spiritual seed ; that the Messiah himself should spring from his loins ; and that multitudes, both of Jews and Gen- tiles, should, through faith in the Messiah, become his spiritual children.
That the promise had this extensive meaning, we cannot doubt : for we are told, that the seed promised to Abram, was Christ d; and that in this promise the Gospel was preached unto hime. Now the Gospel includes every thing respecting the work and offices of Christ, and the call of the Gentiles to believe in him : and therefore these were the things to which Abram was taught to look forward when this promise was given him.]
The faith which he exercised, had respect to the
promise in all its parts —
[He believed that he should have a numerous progeny: yea, fifteen years afterwards, when it was more plainly declared that he should have a child by Sarah, notwithstanding he was about an hundred years old, and Sarah ninety, and both the dead- ness of his own body and of Sarah's womb forbade all hope that a child should be born to him in the natural way, " he, against hope, believed in hope : " God had said to him, " so shall thy seed be ;" and " he staggered not at the promise through un- belief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded, that what he had promised he was able also to perform f." At the same time, in this progeny he beheld the promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. Of this we can have no
a
Deut. i. 10. andx. 22. b Gen. xii. 2, 3.
c Gen. xvii. 4 — 7. and xxii. 17,18. d Gal. iii. 16.
e Gal. iii. 8. f Rom. iv. 18—21.