>>16917051Another big fact to realize is that God made the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with Christ in view, as He alone is the receipient of the promises made to the "seed" that is mentioned. Paul makes this explicit, although many people choose to ignore this fact.
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise."
- Galatians 3:16-18
So basically, the prophecy regarding the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) and the seed of Abraham (Gen. 22:17, etc.) was really made with Christ Himself specifically in view. This is the same throughout the whole Old Testament, actually. For instance, see Isaiah 45:4 and compare it with Isaiah 42:1-4, a known reference to Christ.
The "seed" also refers to those who are in Christ, according to Paul in the New Testament. Hence, the great nation that will come from the seed was most directly referring to the spiritual offspring that would come from Christ, rather than the physical offspring of Jacob. Many of the physical things in the Old Testament are really figures or foreshadowings of the true things of God. For example the Old Testament tabernacle was merely a figure of the tabernacle in the heavens. See Hebrews chapter 9,
"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:"
- Hebrews 9:24
Bible-believing Christians therefore are the "born again" sons of God, and are joint-heirs with Christ, like it says in John 1:12, Romans 8:17 and Galatians 4:7, Psalm 22:30-31, etc. This is even more important than physical ancestry.
