Acts 7:5

Stephen also contrasted Abraham’s lack of inheritance in the land with God’s promise to give the land to Abraham’s descendants as an inheritance (Genesis 12:7; cf. Hebrews 11:8). God promised this when the patriarch had no children. Thus the emphasis is on God’s promise of future possession of the land through descendants to come. Of course, Abraham did possess the cave of Machpelah in Canaan (Genesis 23:3-20), but perhaps Stephen meant that God gave no continuing or full possession to Abraham.

The Jews of Stephen’s day needed to realize that God had not exhausted His promises to Abraham in giving them what they presently had and valued so highly. There was greater inheritance to come, but it would come to future generations of their descendants, not to them. Specifically it would come to those who continued to follow Abraham’s good example of faith by believing in Jesus. God sought to teach these Jews that there were spiritual descendants of Abraham who were not his physical descendants (Galatians 3:6-9; Galatians 3:29).