LEARNING DAILY

 

Genesis 17:7-8, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.  Also I give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession and I will be their God.”  God

 

A covenant is a formal and binding agreement; in this case God made a covenant with Abraham that He will not break.  This covenant was to give Abraham and his descendants the land He called the Promised Land.  The land included in this area today include land from the Nile River to the Euphrates River which includes the nations of Eastern Egypt, the Saini Peninsula, Jordan, part of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, part of Iraq. Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.  The biblical account is given in Genesis 15:18. Only a quick glance at a map would show this has not happened yet. 

 

When the wandering group of Hebrews crossed over the Jordan river they were to get rid of all the people who inhabited this area and they were to possess it.  They chose to not do so and their disobedience caused God to eventually remove them from the land.  But, because of His covenant with Abraham, God began to bring the people back to Israel.  He will still honor His covenant to give the descendants of Abraham this land.   

 

Why is this important?  Glad you asked!  If God does not honor His covenant, will all other promises made by the prophets and to John the Revelator be kept?  Again, the answer is God keeps His covenant.  That means He is not through with the Jewish people, His people yet!  Again, you are probably wondering why this is important.  I recently ran across a term called replacement theology.  It is the thought being promoted by some that the Church has replaced Israel as His chosen people; the belief is that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plans, prophesies, and blessing.  It is a dangerous belief system that has caused divisions and is simply false.

 

Let me remind you that The Revelation is about God dealing a last time with His chosen people, the Jewish people.  Who is brought up to the Lord in the rapture?  The answer is the Church, all those who have given their life and who have been faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ.  That includes Jewish people who have done that.  But, for the most part the Jewish people have kept their faith based on the Old Testament teachings.  The Tribulation is about God dealing with the Jewish people who need to be saved.  Remember the 144,000 set apart to be missionaries during the Tribulation?  They came from the twelve tribes of Israel.  Jewish people sent to Jewish people to speak of the gospel.  God has not forgotten them nor replaced them with the Church.

 

God’s promise for the Jewish people to occupy this land is yet to be fulfilled.  The Jewish people need to be saved just like everyone else who will be part of the new heaven and earth.  God did everything to the Jewish people He said He would do to them through the prophets.  That is important because if that is true, He will do everything He promised in the future.  They will inhabit the land as He promised.  Their return to Israel in 1948 was the beginning of this occupation and will continue until the Lord Jesus returns to Jerusalem to establish His 1,000 year reign.  The Tribulation that we have just studied is about drawing His people, the Jewish people, to Him.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.