Abraham The Father of Many Nations


Almighty God Said: "As for me, behold my covenant is with thee and thou shall be a father of many nations.

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.

 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

Genesis 17:4-7, And 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. 

Let it be noted that this Covenant was an Everlasting Contract.

Hebrews 6:13-20, Concerning this Covenant it is said that because God had sworn to it by an oath and because it was impossible for God to lie, the Covenant is immutable.

The Covenant was unalterable, unchangeable, and everlasting, which means IT MUST EXIST TODAY.

Read the entire Covenant in Genesis 17, and you will find it not only concerned the ownership of all the land from the river Euphrates to the river Nile, but, overshadowing all else, it was a Covenant "To be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, in their generations for ever."

Can we comprehend what that means?

It has not been revoked. Now note that the Covenant was made not only with Abraham for his life time but also with his seed for ever, through Isaac (Genesis 17:8-24 and Romans 9:7-9) and through Isaac's son, Jacob.

So we find the Everlasting Covenant made by Almighty God with Abraham (Genesis 17:4-8) established in Isaac, (Genesis. 26: 1-5) ratified and confirmed to Jacob (Genesis 35:10-12).

Special attention must be called to the fact that the Covenant was absolutely unconditional, unalterable and unchangeable.

It did not depend on what the descendants of Abraham did or did not do.

The Covenant stands forever on the oath of God.

Abraham was also promised a tremendous number of descendants.

Three symbols are used in Genesis to describe the number:

1. Genesis 13:16, The dust of the earth: "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

Genesis 28:14, And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shall spread abroad to the west, and to the East, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

2. Genesis 15:5, The stars of heaven: "And he brought him forth abroad, and said. Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him. So shall thy seed be.

3. Genesis 22:17, The sand of the sea: "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore: and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

Genesis 32:12, And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which can not be numbered for multitude.

 

Genesis 35:10, God later changed the name of Jacob to Israel, so his descendants who were the inheritors of the Covenant were hereafter known as Israel.

Genesis 35:22, Jacob had twelve sons, each the head of his own family.

These families developed into the 12 tribe nation of Israel Jacob, here after called Israel, loved Joseph more than all his other children.

Genesis 37:7 and before Israel died, Joseph brought his two sons to his father to be blessed. Israel crossed his hands and laying his hands on their heads, blessed the sons of Joseph-Ephraim and Manasseh.

He then said, "And let my name be named on them." Thus his adoption of the two sons of Joseph created another tribe, making thirteen tribes in all.

Although Joseph was displeased that his father's right hand was laid upon the head of Ephraim, the younger brother, Israel refused to uncross his hands, so Ephraim was set before Manasseh.

Genesis 48:16-20, Thus Manasseh became the thirteenth tribe and received the promise of becoming a great nation. Verse 48, Ephraim was given the promise of becoming a company of nations.

Much of the history of the now thirteen tribes of Israel must, of necessity, be passed over here:

The dramatic account of their sojourn in the land of Egypt for over four hundred years, their great deliverance by the hand of God from the land, and the still greater deliverance at the Red Sea when God led his people across on dry land in safety, causing the waters to stand back while His people crossed over and the destruction of the pursuing Egyptians can be found in Exodus 14:21-30.

Chapters 15 through 18 record their forty years in the wilderness.

Finally, at Mount Sinai God gave His people a code of Laws, Statutes, Judgments, Commandments and Ordinances (the latter ceased with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ) by which His Kingdom on earth would be administered.

(Exodus, chapters 19 to 40, and the books of Leviticus. Numbers and Deuteronomy).

These laws covered every phase of both national and individual life: social, financial, economic, ecclesiastical, agricultural dietetic, and personal.

The keeping of these laws on the promise and the assurance of God will result in perfect happiness and contentment with freedom from sickness.

Concerning these laws, the Psalmist wrote: The law of the Lord is perfect" (Psalm 19: 7).

The people at Mt. Sinai entered into a solemn covenant with their God and King, for they said. "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Exodus 24: 7-8).

That is what is known as the first or National Covenant and must not be confused with the Abrahamic Covenant which was made some four hundred years previously and which was unconditional.

The Covenant made at Mt. Sinai was made conditional upon the keeping of the Laws, Statutes, Judgments and Commandments of God.

So we find God laying before His people the conditions of this National Covenant.

IF they kept His laws, blessed would they be in all their under takings; blessed in the city and in the field, in the fruit of the ground, their cattle and flocks, assured of certain victory over their enemies, and there would be no sickness or poverty among the people.

BUT, if they did not keep those laws, then the opposite would be the result. All their under takings would be cursed; there would be crop failures, disease in cattle and in their own bodies, poverty and sickness would over take them, their enemies would gain the victory over them in battle.

All this may be read in Deuteronomy 28, and in Leviticus 26.

Here, God warned Israel that if they persisted in continually breaking His Laws, not only would curses come upon them.

He would punish them for seven times, (a time being 360 years, seven times would be 2520 years) and would banish them from the land of Palestine and scatter them among the heathens (like lost sheep) (Leviticus 26:28-46).

For a good many years all went well, the people obeyed the laws of the kingdom and received them promised rewards.

Then they began to tire and wanted to be like other peoples around them. First of all they desired an earthly king and God said that although in doing so, they had rejected Him,

He would give them permission to have an earthly king (I Samuel 8: 7-22). Saul was then appointed as Israel's first king.

Later he was removed because of sin, and God Himself appointed David (of the tribe Judah) to be King over all Israel.

God then established the Throne of David FOREVER. (2 Samuel 7:11-17 and Psalm 89:3-4) making an Everlasting Covenant with David that his throne and his house would endure forever and that there would always be one of David's seed of lineage to reign upon that throne over the House of Israel for ever (Jeremiah 33:17-26).

The throne would endure as long as the sun and the moon endured in the heavens (Psalm 89:29-37).

So here we have:

1) The Everlasting Covenant made with Israel forever, through their fore fathers. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who is now called Israel.

2) The Kingdom of Israel established for ever.

3) The Throne and the House of David established as the Monarchical system over the House of Israel forever.

So the House of Israel, the Throne of David, and the Everlasting Covenant must be in existence TODAY.

Note: The throne of David was also the Throne of the Lord, the King of Israel. "For the Lord God shall give unto Him the Throne of His Father David, and He shall reign over the House of Jacob forever" (Luke 1:32-33). Remember, He has not as yet occupied that Throne.

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

 

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25