Reconciling "No Hope" in Ephesians 2:12 with the Promise to "All Families of the Earth" in Genesis 12

Ephesians 2:12 and Genesis 12 describe two different phases in God's dealings with humanity, and they must be read with that distinction in mind.

Genesis 12:1--3 records the call and promise to Abram:

"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

This certainly sounds like hope that reaches beyond Israel to "all families of the earth."

Yet Ephesians 2:12 says of Gentiles:

"That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."

The key phrase is "at that time." Paul is not describing every era of human history. He is describing a particular administration in which God's saving work and promises were mediated through a specific nation and its covenants.

Two elements in Ephesians 2:12 define that period:

1. "Commonwealth of Israel" -- This refers to the organized, political nation of Israel. That commonwealth did not exist in Genesis 12; at that point there is only Abram and God's promise. By the Mosaic era, Israel has become a constituted nation whose life and government are defined by the Torah.
2. "Covenants of promise" -- This phrase is more complex. One could argue that the Abrahamic covenant is a covenant of promise, and Paul elsewhere uses that language. But in the immediate context of Ephesians 2, Paul moves quickly to speak of "the law of commandments contained in ordinances" (Ephesians 2:15). That suggests he primarily has in view the covenantal structure associated with the Mosaic Law---promises of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience, embedded in Israel's covenantal documents.

If we take "at that time" as referring especially to the period when the Mosaic covenant was in force as the governing arrangement of God's earthly people, then Paul's meaning becomes clearer: during that Mosaic economy, Gentiles who were outside Israel's commonwealth and outside Israel's covenantal promises had, in terms of that arrangement, "no hope."

Genesis 12, by contrast, looks at a larger sweep: God's long-range purpose that "in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." That promise sets the trajectory of history and undergirds a universal hope. But the way that hope was administered for a long stretch of time was through one nation and its covenants. In that Mosaic period:

• To be outside Israel's commonwealth, and
• To be strangers to Israel's covenants of promise

was to stand outside the structured channel through which God was then operating in the world.

Thus, Ephesians 2:12 does not deny the existence of the Abrahamic promise; it describes the Gentile situation during the Mosaic administration when that broader promise had not yet been realized in the inclusive way later revealed in Christ. Paul's wording deliberately narrows it: "at that time," the Gentiles had no share in the operative covenants and no place in the commonwealth through which God was then working.

With the death and resurrection of Christ and the revelation of the present mystery economy, that situation changes. The "middle wall of partition" is broken down; Gentiles are no longer dependent on incorporation into Israel's commonwealth and covenants for access to God's blessing. But to understand Ephesians 2:12, we must read it as a description of a particular historical arrangement---"at that time"---not as a denial of the Abrahamic promise that "all families of the earth" will indeed be blessed in Abraham.