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[Genesis 17:2-8
2
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will
multiply thee exceedingly. 3
And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
4 As for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee, and thou
shalt be a father of many nations. 5
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy
name shall be Abraham; ]
[God changes Abram’s name to Abraham by adding the
fifth Hebrew letter to his name which sounds like the breath of God.
It indicates that God was placing his spirit upon Abram.
Also the number five is the number of grace.]
[for a father
of many nations have I made thee. 6
And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make
nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
7 And I will establish my
covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their
generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee. 8 And
I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou
art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession;
and I will be their God.]
[This is one of the most important covenants ever
written. It is more
important than the Declaration of Independence, more important than the
Mayflower Compact, and far more important than the Constitution of the United States of America.
If you understand what God is saying here you will understand the
history of the world. What
God is saying here is an iron fist about what is going to happen in this
world. What God is saying here is a plan to bless all of humanity.
This is indeed a promise that has changed the world.]
Notice,
A.
The
Message Within This Promise
1.
The
Promise (vs 2)
[-
And I will make my covenant
between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. - God made
a covenant with Abraham that is an unbreakable, unchangeable, immutable,
covenant. It is a promise
that will last unconditionally.
Sometimes God makes promises that are conditional promises; that
is if you do this then I’ll do that.
But this is an unconditional promise]
2.
The
Principle (vs 7) [–
And I will establish my
covenant
between me and
thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an
everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, . . .
– This is a covenant promise
based on the principle of grace.
It is not based on merit or works.]
3.
The
People (vs 7, 21) –
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after
thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto
thee,
and to thy seed
after thee. –
The promise will extend to Abraham’s seed or the Hebrew people.
Specifically,]
[Genesis 17:21
21 But my covenant will I
establish
with Isaac,
which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.]
4.
The
Period (vs 7) [-
. . .
an everlasting covenant, . . .
– An irrevocable or unchangeable covenant.]
5.
The
Place (vs 8) [- And I
will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou
art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession;
and I will be their God. – The
land
of Canaan.
The Middle East, Palestine, Israel
was given to Abraham and his people.]
a.
[The Geographic Center
– Three contents meet in this place.
It always has been and always will be the strategic center of the
world.]
[As goes the Jew, so goes the world.]
[Ezekiel 5:5
5 Thus saith the Lord GOD; This
is Jerusalem:
I have set it in
the midst of the nations and countries
that are round about
her. ]
b.
[The Revelation Center
– It is the focus and center of all Bible prophecies and is the
place to which the Word of God was given and entrusted.]
c.
[The Spiritual Center
– It is here that Jesus Christ was born, died, resurrected and will
return again.]
d.
[The
Prophetic
Center – This land of Israel
is the only place where their future history is minutely foretold
centuries in advance.]
e.
[The
Storm Center – All the nations of the world line up around this
little nation of Israel for the greatest political
storm yet to come.]
f.
[The Peace
Center
– One day soon the lion and the
lamb will lie down together in this place.
There will never be peace in our world until there is peace in
this little nation. When
you pray for the peace of
Israel, you pray for the Lord Jesus
Christ to return, and you pray for the peace of the world.]
g.
[The
Glory
Center – When Jesus returns and
reigns in Israel
His glory will be seen throughout the world.]
B.
The
Miracles Within This Promise [- As we think about the Nation
of Israel we must think about four miracles that were wrapped up in this
promise given to Abraham so long ago.]
1.
The
Miracle of Her Generation (vs 5) [–
Neither shall thy name any more
be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many
nations have I made thee. –
Here is a man who is past the time of having children, yet without a
progeny, and yet God says He will make him the father of many nations.
How is that going to come about?]
[Genesis 18:9-14
9 And they said unto him, Where
is Sarah thy wife? And
he said, Behold, in the tent. 10
And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the
time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard
it in the tent door,
which was behind him.
[Sarah was
eavesdropping]
11 Now Abraham and Sarah
were old
and well stricken in
age; and it ceased to
be with Sarah after the manner of women.
12 Therefore Sarah laughed
within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my
lord being old also? 13 And
the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I
of a surety bear a child, which am old?
14
Is any thing too
hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto
thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.]
[When the promise first came that Abraham would
have a son Abram was 75 (Gen 12.7) years old and Sarah was 65 years old.
Twenty-five years later God reiterates the promise again, yet no
child has been born yet.
When Isaac was finally born Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90
years old.]
[Isaac’s birth was a miracle.
Every Jew on the face of the earth is here as a result of a
miracle birth. Israel is a
miracle nation. It seems
that the Jewish people shouldn’t have any problem believing in the
miracle of the virgin birth.
They are here as a result of a miracle.]
2.
The
Miracle of her Preservation (vs 7; Matt 24.34; Jer 31.35-37)
[– And I will establish my
covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their
generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee. – Their seeds are going to be generation after
generation for everlasting generations.
God is clearly saying that the nation of Israel
is absolutely indestructible.]
[God prophesied to Abraham and the prophets
that Israel would be
disobedient, dispersed, discredited, but that Israel would not be destroyed.
The promise that God made to Abraham is an everlasting promise.]
·
[The king of Egypt could not destroy the Jew.]
·
[The red sea could not drown the Jew.]
·
[Jonah’s whale could not digest the Jew.]
·
[The fiery furnace could not consume the
Jew.]
·
[The gallows of Haman could not hang the
Jew.]
·
[The nations of the world could not
assimilate the Jew.]
·
[The Arab nations will not be able to
overcome the Jew.]
[Israel is God’s people by an
everlasting covenant. Other
nations when conquered by their foes have been so thoroughly assimilated
by other nations that you can not find their peoples.
But after eighteen centuries of dispersion the Jews are still
Jews having their traditions, laws, statutes, and their language.
For Jesus said, ]
[Matthew 24:34
34 Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.]
[Generation
meaning this stock, this heritage, this race.]
[Illustration – As The Gulf Stream
– The gulf stream is like a river flowing in the midst of the ocean.
Often one, while on the Atlantic
can see the gulf stream as the aqua waters are separated from the green
hued waters of the stream.
Often this line is crisp and clean like something is separating the
waters. Why don’t the
waters mix? Only God knows
how those waters are kept separated.
This is like the Jewish people.]
[Some
people claim that the Jews cannot continue to exist.
But God says,]
[Jeremiah 31:35-37
35 Thus saith the LORD, which
giveth the sun for a light by day,
and the ordinances of
the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea
when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts
is his name:
36 If those ordinances depart
from before me, saith the LORD,
then the seed of Israel
also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
37 Thus saith the LORD; If
heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched
out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that
they have done, saith the LORD.]
[God is saying that for someone to destroy
Israel
they would have to remove the power that is behind the universe.
One would have to snatch the stars from the hand of God before
they could destroy and stamp out Israel.]
[Every breathing Jew on the face of the earth
today is a testimony of the faithfulness of God to Abraham.
The same God that keeps His promises to Abraham is the God who
keeps His promises to me and you.]
[The Jews of the world are less than four
tenths of one percent (.4%) of the population of the world.
Yet twelve percent (12%) of all of the honors in science, health,
medicine, music, philosophy, and in public life have been garnered by
these people. From 1955 –
1990 from one forth to one third of the noble prizes awarded have been
given to Jewish people.]
[It was a Jew who financed Christopher
Columbus’ voyage to find this new world.
On that voyage was a Jew who was the first man to set foot on
these shores. A Jew
financed George Washington and the Revolutionary War.
A Jew was the one who gave us Bayer aspirin.
The Jews are responsible for many of the things we take for
granted in life.]
3.
Miracle of her Restoration (vs 8; Amos 9.14-15) [–
And I will give unto thee, and to
thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the
land
of Canaan, for an
everlasting possession; and I will be their God. – It was May 14-15,
1948 when Israel
was reestablished as a nation.
Think of it. Over 60
years ago God proved the faithfulness of this promise.]
[Amos
9:14-15
14 And I will bring again the
captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities,
and inhabit them; and
they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also
make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon
their land,
and they shall
no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given
them, saith the LORD thy God. ]
[Consider that in this prophecy God foretold Israel’s
dispersion and their regathering.
We are witnesses to the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel.
The miracle of Israel’s regathering was a miracle.]
[It was
a military miracle – When Israel was restored there were about 650
thousand Jews living in
Israel
in 1948. They were
surrounded by 40 million Arabs, who vowed that they would not restore
that nation there. Six Arab
nations attacked Israel and Israel prevailed.
In one battle 20 thousand Arabs were captured by 400 Israeli.
This little nation drove 150 miles into Egyptian territory before
an armistice was called by the UN.
How do you explain that?
Adrian Rogers
said, “That fight was fixed.”
Just like the six day war of 1968.]
[This does not mean that God loves a Jew more
than a Gentile or an Arab.
God loves every man, woman and child.
But God gave His Word and God will keep His Word.]
[It was
a Sociological miracle – They came to
Israel
from sixty one (61) different nations with different languages and
customs. One sociologist
said it would take three generations for these people to become a
nation; meaning 100 years.
This same sociologist said I was wrong they did it in one generation.]
[It was
an Agricultural miracle –
Israel
is rich in rocks and desert (60%).
It rains only in the winter.
Yet with irrigation and agriculture they are causing the desert
to bloom. Israel is one of only six nations in
the world that raises enough food to feed itself.
Israel
is also becoming the bread basket of Europe.]
[It was
a Linguistic miracle – They speak Hebrew in Israel.
One hundred years ago Hebrew was a dead language.
No one has ever noted where a dead language has been restored
before, but Israel is speaking Hebrew again.
The children are going to school and learning Hebrew and then
coming home and teaching their mother and father to speak in their
native tongue.]
4.
The
Miracle of her Regeneration (vs 8; Zech 12.2-3,9-10;13.1) [-
. . . and I will be
their God. – Make no mistake about it God loves these people and
many of them love God. The
Bible reveals that there is coming a time when these people will turn to
Jesus]
[Zechariah 12:2-3
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem
a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be
in the siege both against Judah
and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I
make Jerusalem
a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it
shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered
together against it. ]
[When the world goes against Israel they will go against God.
As Benjamin Franklin told Thomas Payne, “When you spit into the
wind you spit in your own face.”
All that gather together against Israel
will be cut in pieces. When
you fight against
Israel
you fight against God and you defeat yourself.]
[Zechariah 12:9-10
9 And it shall come to pass in
that day, that I will
seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour upon the
house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of
grace and of supplications:
and they shall
look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for
him, as one mourneth for his
only son, and shall be
in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for
his firstborn. ]
[This is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then Israel will understand who Jesus
Christ is, the Messiah.]
[Zechariah 13:1
1 In that day there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem
for sin and for uncleanness.]
[The Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will wash
their sins away.]
[This covenant reveals God’s plan for the ages
in God’s plan for Israel.
We know what to expect and can see how the faithfulness of God
will prevail. The cleansing
of God, the forgiveness of God, the life of God all pours through the
faithfulness of God to this promise made to father Abraham.]
CrossRoads Baptist, Evening, November 1, 2009
