h should be blessed.

The ardent desire of Abraham to see the day of Christ implies that he
already _knew_ Christ, which can be the case only on the supposition of
Christ's concealment in Jehovah. This longing desire is not expressly
mentioned in Genesis, but it is most intimately connected with all
living faith, and must necessarily precede such divine communications.
The seed of the divine promises is everywhere sown only in a well
prepared soil. That the promise in 2 Sam. vii. was to David, in like
manner, a gratification of his anxious desire--an answer to prayer--we
are not, it is true, expressly told in the historical record; and yet,
that it was so, is evident from the words of Ps. xxi. 3: "Thou hast
given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of
his lips." There is here, then, express mention made of that which is a
matter of course, and which forms the necessary condition of that which
was reported in Genesis.

We are furnished by the Book of Genesis itself with the right
explanation of what is meant by the day of Christ, about which
interpreters have so frequently erred. It is not the time of His first
appearing, but, in accordance with the New Testament mode of expression
(_e.g._, Phil. i. 10), the time of His glorification. The day of Christ
is the time when the promise, "In thee shall all the families of the
earth be blessed," shall be fulfilled.

[Pg 53]

Peter quotes this promise in Acts iii. 25, 26. Among the
families of the earth he enumerates, first and chiefly, the people of
the Old Testament dispensation; and he does so with perfect propriety,
since there is no warrant whatever for limiting it to the Gentiles.

Paul probably refers to this promise when, in Rom. iv. 13, he speaks of
a promise given to Abraham and his seed that he should be the heir of
the world. A blessing imparted to the whole world is a spiritual
victory obtained over the world. The world is, in a spiritual sense,
conquered by Abraham and his seed. Express references are found in Gal.
iii. 8, 14, 16.

The same promise is repeated to Abraham in Gen. xviii. 18. Instead of
the [Hebrew: mwpHvt hadmh] (the families of the earth), the [Hebrew:
gvii harC] (the nations of the earth) are there mentioned; the
family-connection is lost sight of, and the comprehensiveness only--the
catholic character of the blessing--is prominently brought out. This
promise is a third time repeated to Abraham in chap. xxii. 18, on a