Wednesday, May 13, 2015

God's Faithfulness through Israel and the Jewish People

                   


God made promises to Abram, later renamed Abraham, about his descendants and the land that The Lord would give to Abraham's descendants. The rebirth of Israel as a nation and the prosperity of the modern Jewish people is a testament to God's faithfulness.  The details of the promise to Abraham unfolded gradually throughout his life. Abraham's faithful obedience was rewarded by further details being revealed to him.

The initial promise given at UR -- Genesis 12:2-3
-Abraham would become a great nation and a great name.
-God would bless those that blessed him and curse those that cursed him
-That in Abraham eventually ALL nations will be blessed (The Messiah would come through his line).

After entering the land God was to show him Abraham was then given the following promise at Shechem -- Genesis 12:7
-Abraham would have children (seed) who would inherit the land

After an example of Abraham's unselfish attitude, where Abraham gave his nephew, Lot, first choice over which land he could go and graze his cattle on, these further revelations occur at Bethel- Genesis 13:14-17
-Abraham and his seed would inherit the land of Israel forever
-His seed would be multitudinous

When Abraham showed that he believed in God (Genesis 15:6), further developments in the promise are made at Hebron -- Genesis 15:1-12+17-20:
-God makes a covenant with Abraham by sacrifice.
-The boundaries of the land which God would give to Abraham and his seed are defined.

After Abraham passed a great test of faith given to him by God, where he demonstrated that he was prepared to sacrifice his only beloved son, Isaac, for God, the final installments of the promise are made on Mount Moriah -- Genesis 2215-19:

-That Abraham's seed would possess the gate of his enemies (this phrase means to be victorious over them -- see Psalm 110:1)
-That in this seed all nations would be blessed (The Messiah Yeshua would come through his line).
-The promise was confirmed by an oath from God.

No comments:

Post a Comment