April 24, 2023
Reading: Genesis 17
Focus: Genesis 17:7-9 – “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 now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you and I will be their God.” Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.”
Father God, thank You for this day. I am grateful for all of its blessings. Open eyes and hearts today, starting with me. Help me to see what You want me to see and say what You want me to say. Without You I am nothing. Baruch HaShem Adonai! (Translation) Blessed be the Name of the Lord! In Jesus Name. Amen.
WOW! Did you read the Focus verses? God didn’t just promise Abraham a son, He promised him a nation, He promised ownership of land, a forever home, a place to put down roots and grow. God also promised to be their God down through the generations. God’s only demand was that Abraham, and his descendants, keep their part of the covenant. And this wasn’t just for a little while. It was a forever covenant. Do you realize what that means? The Jewish people are God’s people and all of the land that is hotly contested in the Middle East actually belongs to them. By God’s decree. That includes Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock sits and much of the nation of Jordan. It was deeded to them by the Creator of the universe. A fact that outweighs man’s greed and religious differences. But sadly, not everyone follows or recognizes God’s decrees and commands; and they are still trying to wipe the Jewish people off the earth.
But, you have to admit, that is some covenant. Everlasting. From that day to beyond the end of time. It was not one-sided. God expected Abram and his descendants to be committed to keeping their end of the covenant. God also changed Abram and Sarai’s names. These are telling changes. Abram means ‘exalted father’. Abram goes from an ‘exalted father’ to Abraham, ‘father of a multitude.” Sarai means ‘my princess,’ as if her honor was only within her own family, but Sarah signifies a ‘princess,’ which means she is now a princess of many, and not just her immediate family.
God tells Abraham that, to confirm his part of the covenant, he and all the males with him were to be circumcised. Baby boys would be circumcised on the eighth day of life. This was Abraham, his male slaves and servants, and all of his male descendant’s confirmation of the covenant. If you were not circumcised you were not part of the covenant; you were ‘cut off’ from God’s people. While it is not a religious custom for us today, for the Israelites, circumcision was and still is a religious rite and is intended to mark covenant solidarity for all of Abraham’s descendants. This included Ishmael and his sons too, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. The Israelites were instructed in Mosaic law to spiritually circumcise their hearts as well; to recognize that they were also under obligation to demonstrate commitment and obedience to the Lord’s will. Suffice it to say, Abraham, Ishmael and all the males aligned with him were circumcised that day.
When God changed their names, He also reaffirmed that Sarah would indeed bear a child of Abraham’s. Abraham fell on his face and laughed. I mean, why not? Sarah was 90 years old! I don’t believe it was out of disbelief. Have you ever been promised something that you wanted very badly? Didn’t you laugh with joy that it was finally to be yours? So, Abraham laughed with joyous acceptance. He accepted that God would do what He said He would. Even with the promise of a son by Sarah, Abraham didn’t want to leave his other son, Ishmael, without a blessing, so he asked God to bless Ishmael too. God told Abraham that Ishmael would father twelve rulers and his descendants would also be a great nation. However, it was the descendants of Abraham, through Isaac, the son of Sarah, with whom the covenant was made. This covenant that has been kept down through the ages pointed to Jesus. He is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is from the tribe of Judah, one of Jacob’s sons. God told Abraham already that “. . . all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3). And that’s what Jesus came to do. Our belief in Him and His death and resurrection blesses us with eternal life.
Throughout time God has kept this covenant with His people. He was with them in Egypt. He led them out of Egypt and into Canaan. The Hebrews followed God but often they would start marrying into the local tribes and began following what their wives or husbands did and worshipped other gods. They did not clear out all of the seven Canaanite nations that inhabited Canaan as God had directed them to do when they first arrived in Canaan, leaving themselves open to idolatry. This back and forth between God and idols drew God’s punishment down on them. And every time they turned back to God in repentance. But it always seemed to be temporary.
Eventually, they were conquered and dispersed across the known world of the Bible in ancient times. After the death of Solomon, Israel was divided between two sons of Solomon. One ruled in the north, where 10 of the tribes lived and the other in the south with two tribes and the Levites. You’ve heard “United we stand. Divided we fall.” Well, that’s what happened. And the division between the two kingdoms was so vast that neither kingdom would help the other.
Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and they deported the people. That is how the ten ‘lost’ tribes of Israel ‘disappeared’. Judah was conquered by the Babylonians and the people were deported to Babylon. These people were scattered all over the Mediterranean. There are so many maps that show where the deportees ended up that I have no idea which one is entirely accurate or if any of them have any accuracy at all. Since that time many nations have ruled the kingdom of Judea, but the Jewish people held on as best they could. The Jewish people have been kicked out of more countries that you can count. Which is why you can find Jewish communities all over the world.
Abraham’s descendants can be found in virtually every nation in the world. The Arab nations are for the most part, descendants of Ishmael and most follow Islam. It is believed that the 10 “lost” tribes traveled north, south and east when they were captured by Assyria. There have been DNA studies that have found people with the genes that mark them as Jewish descendants in Ireland, Scotland, Africa, Germany, Norway, and even in the Far East. They are all over the world. There are so many theories as to where those tribes ended up that it would take way more resources than I have to firmly state where they are. But thankfully, God knows where each and every one is.
In more modern times, nations and religions have done their best to exterminate the Jews. Don’t let anyone tell you that the Holocaust never happened. I know for a fact that it did. I am related to some of the survivors of that atrocity by my aunt’s marriage. I’ve seen the tattooed number from one of the extermination camps on my uncle’s arm. Israel fought to become a nation and was finally recognized in 1948 by the United Nations. They had fought for and won some of the land given to their ancestors. They are still fighting for every inch of the land they can get, the land which God gave their ancestors. While they do not possess all of it yet, what they do have, and what they still will obtain, belongs to them by an everlasting covenant made by the one God Almighty, who created all things and has the right to give that land to whom He chooses.
Down through the centuries, Jesus’ lineage was preserved. The genealogies in the New Testament are complete without any generational gap. He is a direct descendant of Abraham through Isaac. Jesus fulfilled more than three hundred prophecies which are found in the Old Testament. There are eight very clear prophecies about Jesus in scripture. The odds of fulfilling all eight would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power. (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000). Literally impossible for man but not impossible for God. Jesus is pictured throughout the Old Testament in the stories of His ancestors and their families. Some are obvious. Some, not so much but it is there.
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Israel and the Jewish people. I had an uncle by marriage who was Jewish. I believe that we can see how our faith began if we look at Judaism. The Ten Commandments are the basis of most of our laws today. The Old Testament is part of the Christian Bible. We worship the same God, albeit in different ways. Judaism was the faith of the disciples and many of the converts in Jerusalem on Pentecost. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was spread across the known world of the time by Jews. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus is the focus of the prophecy given to Abraham in Genesis 12.
I recently listened to a Jewish man, Jonathan Cahn, tell how he discovered Jesus. He was curious about Him. He looked for prophecies in the Jewish Bible. He found the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem in Micah 5:2. He found in Zechariah 9:9, that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a donkey. In Isaiah 42, the Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles. Then, finally in Isaiah 53, that the Messiah would die for our sins. He had thought all of this was from the Catholic Bible not the Hebrew scriptures. He turned to the New Testament and found Jesus taught from the Hebrew scriptures. He realized, and now believes, that Jesus is the Messiah who fulfilled the prophecies in the Hebrew Bible.
We, as Christians, often forget that Jesus was a Jew. That our spiritual heritage is Judaism. It is so easy to say, “No, we don’t believe anything like Jewish people do.” All you have to do is look at both the Old and New Testament to see that is far from the truth. Our respect and reverence for the same God is the same. We study the same scriptures. The biggest difference is that we know the Messiah has come. They are still looking for Him. Our Christian faith is built on the spiritual Messiah. The death of a Jewish man who, at the same time was God Almighty, on a cross outside of Jerusalem and who rose again on the third day. They are still looking for a military or political Messiah. One day their spiritual eyes will be fully opened, and they will see Jesus as Messiah. By the blood of Jesus, we Gentiles (non-Jewish people) have been grafted into God’s covenant with Abraham and we are now part of the covenant. Abraham was promised that all peoples would be blessed through him. Jesus is that blessing. So, when we look at the basis of our faith, Jesus, we also need to look at the covenants God made with His people from the beginning of time because now we are His people too.
Are you a part of the spiritual covenant?
Father God, thank You for the promise of Jesus so long ago. Thank you for pointing out the need for commitment and obedience to You. Help us not to forget our spiritual heritage. Help us to commit ourselves to You, and to be obedient to Your Word. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Food for Thought
- Why do you think that Abraham laughed when God said again that Sarah would have a child?
- Why did God name Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac? Do you know the meaning of his name?
- Have you ever thought about the origins of your faith other that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? What do you think?
- Are we inheritors of the obligation to circumcise our hearts and to demonstrate the spiritual qualities of commitment and obedience to the Lord’s will? Why or why not?
- How committed are you to obedience to God’s word?
