LEARNING DAILY

 

Genesis 13: 14-15, And the Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever (the emphasis is mine).

 

I was once asked what caused the trouble between the Arabs and the Jews.  My answer was a brief discussion of differences between Ishmael (the son of Abraham and Agar) and Isaac the son of Abraham and Sarah, the son of promise).  You will find this in Genesis 15-24.  As I have read and studied, the conflict may have begun when God gave all the land Abraham could see to him as an everlasting promise, a promise that will not be broken today.  By giving Abraham’s descendants all the land which he could see forever, God made the Jewish people the key to everything we see not only today but the past and future as well.

 

In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham.  The promises of this covenant included a promise of land with set boundaries, a promise of descendants that could not be counted, and a promise of blessing to all nations.  God promised to do this; it is His responsibility to fulfill this covenant.  It has not been fulfilled at this time.  I have been writing about the conditions that Jesus said would indicate the time was close for this to be fulfilled.  I have written about what would happen during the seven-year tribulation coming after the rapture of the Church.  It seems that all this is very near as the events we see happening right now. 

 

I referred to something in another page of the blog called Replacement Theology.  There are those who are teaching that the Church has replaced the Jewish people as His people.  Does the covenant God made with Abraham suggest that He has replaced the Jewish people with the Church?  No!  He has made unconditional promises that are yet to be fulfilled.  With that in mind Replacement Theology is a lie!  One only needs to think of the Jewish survival over the past two thousand years; God is not done with them yet. 

 

God has made a New Covenant with all who have given their lives to Jesus Christ and continue to walk on the narrow way that leads to eternal life in the kingdom of God.  This covenant has led to the true Church.  If the covenant with Abraham can be broken by God (and it can’t!) what is to stop Him from breaking the covenant of salvation through Jesus Christ?  Do you see the problem this creates?  The New Testament clearly teaches a difference between Israel (the Jewish people) and the Church (Believers in Jesus Christ).  We have written that the true Church will be raptured or meet Christ in the clouds then God will deal with his people, the Jews.  God will prepare Israel as His people to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and establish His kingdom on earth.  We are living in a period known as the Church Age.  But God has not forgotten His chosen people; one day they will be restored to fulfill the unconditional promises God Made with Abraham.  Does this all make sense?

 

You might be wondering about the Church during this time.  Remember, the Church will return with Christ and reign with Him for one thousand years (Revelation 19-20).  Oh, what a day that will be!

 

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.