Israel starts with one man, Abraham, who was first called Abram (see Genesis 17):
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
...God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations...for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."
The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
These passages nearly summarize the Old Testament. It is the foundation of the first covenant, a "testament" of God's contract with Abraham (which became the nation of Israel). God promised Abraham that He would do those things listed above. Besides the fact that he was to follow God's direction, the rest of Abraham's agreement is described in Genesis 17:
Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
I'm glad that I was only a few days old and can't remember...
To miss this part God's screenplay (God's covenant with Abraham) would be like talking during the first half of an intense spy movie, one that actual requires thought, and then trying to follow the rest of the of the storyline. One may get the "gist" of the plot, but actually knowing "the why", "the who" (not the band), "the where" on a higher level would be unlikely.
Now is not the time to go to the rest room. Please hold it. Now is not the time to go and get popcorn. Wait until later. Turn off the cell phone and the TV. It is vital that God's covenant with Abraham is clearly understood.
Among God's commitments to Abraham are the following tenets:
- That he would have countless descendants
- That he would become a "great nation"
- That he would acquire a large potion of land
- That God would "bless those who bless [Him] that whoever curses [him], [God would] curse"
- That "through [his] offspring all nations on earth [would] be blessed"
To finish reading the book of Genesis, one discovers that Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac had a son named Jacob. God gave Jacob the name, "Israel". Jacob, or "Israel", had twelve sons who, after some replacements, became the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the same twelve tribes that Moses led out of slavery from Egypt.
Much of the "land promise" is fulfilled when Moses' successor, Joshua, leads the nation of Israel (the twelve tribes) in conquest throughout what is now the Middle East, one of the most famous stories being "the battle of Jericho".
Promise #4 will be covered at a later date.
So what is promise #5, that the entire earth would be blessed through Abraham's family tree? This was the "offspring" referenced in Genesis 3:15, the entity that would "crush" the serpents head (see The Antagonist). This is the Messiah, the One prophesied by the prophets in later passages. This was and is God's Son, Jesus.
Genesis 3 records the story of humankind's original sin (see The Antagonist). It was the disobedience that meant certain and eternal death for the entire human race (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23). But as will soon be explored in God's masterful drama, the Gospels recorded the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, a death that paid the penalty for all who followed, follow, and will follow Him (John 3:16). Now, all those previously sentenced to "death" had a "way out".
Salvation for all from death. What could be a better blessing for "all the nations"?
Read the previous posts in this series:
1) The World Is Crazy: Now What?
2) Cue The Lights
3) The Antagonist
4) Sturm und Drang
Read the next post in this series:
6) An Interlude
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment