Review of History of Old Testament

Transcript

GRM 504
9/29/1996
Review of History of Old Testament
Genesis to Nehemiah
Gil Rugh


We're in the Old Testament and part of the difficulty with the Old Testament is just our lack of familiarity with the content. So to get a hold of its meaning is more difficult because we're not very familiar with the content and where things fit together and how they fit together.

A little bit of additional information, the bible was divided into chapters in 1250 A.D. So as you're familiar, when the bible was written it wasn't written in chapters and verses. It was broken down in chapters to facilitate finding your way to specific passages. We have a hard enough time finding our way to certain books and then if we couldn't say that was chapter 12 verse 2 it would be difficult to follow along, so in 1250 A.D. this bible was broken down into chapters. Then 300 years later in 1551 A.D. it was broken down into verses.

You and I have our bible broken down in a more manageable way for us sometimes that inhibits our understanding of it because the chapters and verses sometimes cause us to see it in pieces rather than as it was given as a unit, but it does facilitate our handling of it.

66 books in the bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. They were written, these 66 books, by 40 authors over a period of 1600 years. And yet there is unity and harmony throughout the scripture from beginning to end. That's because there is one underlying author. "Holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

Just to refresh your mind on some matters we have looked at on other occasions, three areas we talk about when we talk about the scripture, three matters of importance, the first is revelation. Revelation deals with the fact that God has chosen to reveal Himself to make Himself known.

There's two areas of revelation, there is general revelation, that is the revelation God has given of Himself in nature creation. "The heavens declare the glory of God." First six verses of Psalm 19 talk about the revelation God has given of Himself in creation. And this revelation is gone throughout the world wherever a person is exposed to the knowledge of God. Romans chapter one talks about the revelation of God in creation. So in verses 18-20 of Romans 1 we are told that every single person is without excuse before God because every single person no matter where they've been born no matter where they live has been exposed to the knowledge of God and has rejected that knowledge and so demonstrated their sinful character. That's general revelation.

There is not enough revelation in general revelation to save a person, but there is enough to condemn a person. Enough to show that we are sinners and reject the revelation that God gives even though there is not adequate revelation just in nature for a person to be saved. Well, people say, could a person who is born and lives in a part of the world where they have never received a bible never heard the gospel be saved? People say sometimes, well, God could do that. No, God can't do that. There are things that God cannot do. He has chosen to restrict Himself. He has restricted His salvation to the work of His Son and the proclamation of the truth concerning His Son.

So salvation for it to occur must occur within the plan that God has sovereignly determined for the accomplishing of His salvation. And that means you have to be exposed to special revelation. Special revelation is the revelation God has given in the scriptures. The bible is the special revelation. It's specific revelation. God has made Himself known with a clarity and directness that is not found anyplace else.

Over 2600 times in the bible it is declared that God is speaking; this is a message from God. So revelation is foundational. If God had chosen not to reveal Himself we would never know anything about Him, but He has revealed Himself. And when we come to know Him in salvation through believing the gospel, the special revelation of His word, then the revelation He has given in creation unfolds and we see what we didn't see with clarity before, what we would not accept before. And we say how could we have been so blind? How can people do anything but bow before the God who could have created such majesty and glory and so on.

Revelation is the first area, inspiration is the second area. Inspiration has to do with the recording of the revelation God has given of Himself. And so the inspiration has to do with the recording of this book. How do we know? 40 authors writing over 1600 years, I mean that allows for a lot of mistakes. They were all human like we are human. The record concerning them reveals something of their humanity, something of their flaws.

The man David who wrote so many of the beautiful Psalms, yet a man guilty of serious sin. We say, how do we know he didn't write some of those when he was out of step with God? Well, "Holy men wrote and spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." we saw in 2 Peter 1:21. 2 Timothy 3:15-16 says all scripture is God breathed, inspired, but literally breathed out by God, and so is profitable.

God had chosen to reveal Himself and He has chosen to use human beings in the recording of this revelation. He selected these authors to use them, their personality which is seen in the different writers, but always directing and controlling in their writing so that what they wrote was exactly word for word what God wanted said. It's a remarkable supernatural process. We call it the verbal inspiration of scripture, the very words as originally given by God. The word inspired by Him.

People say, well, we have different translations. That's not the issue. Translations are not the issue. The issue is the original manuscripts as God gave them. You say, well, we don't have them, no, but we have sufficient manuscripts of age to determine with great accuracy the text of scripture.

I was reading one particular New Testament scholar who died an unbeliever, his observation was only people who are not familiar with textual study are raising the issue of whether it is an accurate text. So that just is not an issue for anyone who really studies the matter. There might be areas where we are not sure what the text would have been, but no areas of doctrine and so on are effected by that. We have an accurate record. We know basically what the Old Testament text was and the New Testament text as well. Inspiration guaranteed the accuracy of the record.

Illumination is the third area, that's the work of the Spirit in the heart of the child of God that enables him to understand the revelation of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 says the natural man, the man apart from the Spirit of God cannot know the things of God for they are spiritually discerned, but spiritual people, those who have the Spirit of God understand all things. It's the indwelling Spirit who gives understanding. It's the work of the Spirit in salvation that opens blinded eyes and enables a person to believe for the firs time and to experience salvation. So illumination is the work of the Spirit in giving understanding regarding the truth of God.


Just as an aside, that's the danger in trying to structure services for unbelievers. Then I have to do things that don't particularly concentrate and center on the word of God, because the unbeliever can't track. He cannot understand the things of God. So I am left to try to move away from the things of God to telling stories and doing things like that to hold his interest to make it seem relevant, because quite frankly apart from the work of God's grace the scriptures are irrelevant to the unbeliever. He can't understand it. Might as well be standing up talking in a foreign language.

How are they saved? They come and are exposed to the glorious gospel of Christ and God in His grace through the ministry of the Spirit penetrates their hearts opens their eyes to see and causes them to believe. That's a supernatural work. I can't do it. You can't do it. Our role is to present the message in it's clarity. It's the Spirit's work to change a heart.

I have to be very careful, the church has fallen into the danger of trying to take upon itself the work of the Holy Spirit today. In structuring services that will be interesting and attractive and drawing, and there is a certain way in which we try to do that. We have to be very careful that in none of that is the sacrifice of the Word of God. The fact that people don't want to come and study the bible seriously and in depth does not alter what we do.

And those that God is drawing to Himself will not be turned off and driven away by the ministry of His truth. They will be supernaturally drawn and there's no other way to explain it except that the Spirit of God is doing something in their lives that is causing them to have an interest that is not natural to a fallen being. So we do our roll, which is to present in simplicity and clarity to the best of our ability in the power of the Spirit, the truth of God, and He does the work in the heart.

So as we come together to study I can't teach you the word of God in the ultimate sense, only the Holy Spirit can. The gift He has given me I am to take and use to explain to you the scripture and through the Spirit of God working in and through me as a teacher, and other teachers, and your submission to the Spirit and openness to Him as you submit and grapple with the scriptures enables you to understand it and to grow and mature. So revelation, inspiration, and illumination is the background for our study of the scripture wherever we are.

If you've been with us through our study you know that there are 39 books in the Old Testament but there are only 11 books that move the history along. So If you read just 11 of the 39 books you will have covered Old Testament history from beginning to end. The other books are elaborations of what is going on in that progression of history. We have focused on the historical books but we have included some of the other books.

The books that move the history along, and we'll go back and talk about each of these just in summary fashion, but let me just mention them; Genesis, Exodus, Numbers. You see we dropped out Leviticus, because Leviticus doesn't move the history along. Leviticus helps unfold more details of the law that had been given in the book of Exodus. So if you just wanted to see the history in chronological fashion you would read Genesis, Exodus, and then skip to the book of Numbers. Then you would skip from Numbers to the book of Joshua, because Deuteronomy is the second law; it does not move the history along.

So you go Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, then you go 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, and you are at the end of the Old Testament in the history. Now what confuses us somewhat is our bibles are laid out differently. We have the books of the law, first five books of the bible, then we have what are called the historical books, Joshua through Esther, the poetical books, Job, The Song of Solomon, the prophetical books, and there's 16 of them, Isaiah to Malachi. But you understand those prophetic books, for example, that are at the end of the Old Testament they fit within the moving of the history along; in books like Samuel, Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah.

Well, let me talk a little about in summary fashion these books, particularly up to where we are in our study. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. I want to spend a little bit of time here because of its relevance in so many ways. In Genesis you have the creation of everything in the first two chapters. Genesis chapter one gives you a summary overview of creation, and God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh. And I take it there is no other way to really handle this in an accurate literal way except that these are six days of creation. Six twenty-four-hour days. I know this flies in the face of certain scientific views, but there are many believing scientists who see no conflict in that as well and that doesn't determine it for us.

Just take note in Genesis chapter one verse 14, the kind of problems you run into, if the days are; well there are people who say the days are really ages of time and there's all kind of problems with those kind of things. They say this is a poetical kind of development and it really is ignorance that causes you to want to take it literally, and so on. But just in a verse like verse 14 of Genesis one, "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs; and for seasons, and for days and years;'" Now, how would you read that? Are the years literal years, and seasons, seasons, and days, days here or not?

Now you say these days are ages, then what are these years? Ages of ages and then the seasons are...? Everything becomes meaningless. Which means you can make it mean whatever you want. Well, I take it Genesis one gives you a summary of creation and God did it in six days, rested the seventh. Genesis chapter two is not a conflicting account as some more liberal writings would say.

It focuses in on the creation of man, male and female, because that's where His creation focuses; the creation made in His image. So, we take chapter two and that goes back and zeros us in on one aspect of creation, the creation of man, male and female. And it's there that you have the establishing of the marriage relationship between a man and a woman, which Jesus said in the New Testament is God's plan and has been His plan from the creation, that the basic unit be the husband-wife unit superseding all else. A man leaves father and mother cleaves to his wife. That is the basic unbreakable union in the human realm.


Chapter three of Genesis you have the fall; how sin entered the world. Again there are so many ways that people try to undermine the scripture and sometimes they do it as false teachers trying to say they are giving you further clarity. I would take it there could have been no life on this earth before the creating activity of the first chapter of Genesis. You may want to explain dinosaurs and everything as there was a previous world and because of the fall of Satan everything was destroyed and then recreated. The problem is the New Testament like Romans five tells us that by one man sin entered the world and death by sin. Some people have us living on a graveyard before Adam and Eve sinned, but we were told there was no sin and no death in the world until Adam sinned. So chapter three is very crucial to understand what went wrong with creation. Man rebelled against God, sin entered the picture and all that goes with sin.

You move along in chapters six to nine you have the flood. I just want to pick up a couple major events in Genesis; you have creation in chapters one and two, the fall in chapter three the flood, which was brought to our attention in 2 Peter chapter two in our study of that book, an evidence of God bringing judgement on the wicked. And a reminder that there is coming judgement. The coming judgement won't be by a flood it will be by fire, but God will punish the wicked. So, in the days of Noah, and you have illustrated God's faithfulness and righteousness in preserving Noah and his family.

The universal flood, and I take it that the flood is a universal, world-wide flood, that encompassed the world. Incidentally, just an aside, some of you may have seen there was a program on one of the educational kind of channels on cable, on the flood here in the last couple of weeks. I sent for the tape. But very interesting, they were demonstrating there in a laboratory some of the things, they say for example the earth can't be old because coal takes so long to make, but there in a laboratory they showed how you could make coal.

You take a piece of wood and they put it in an oven and heated it. They said the key was they had to add water. They showed when you put the wood in this tube and in an oven, and if I have this wrong forgive me but the gist is right, they added water, they heated it to a certain temperature and right there they took it out of the oven and after a certain amount of time they had it halfway to being coal. Now, they say, if you do this for this extent of time you have coal of such a makeup you cannot distinguish it from the coal that they mine from the earth that supposedly was laid down millions of years ago.

So, some of these things that are used to intimidate those of us who believe the bible and are used to show us as being ignorant and unscientific are really contrived by fallen man to explain away and undermine the scripture. I think much of what took place and the changes that we say took place over millions of years really are a result of a universal flood, and in this video, which I want to put in Sound Words, and some of you may be interested in seeing it sometime, they show also the devastation of the flood.

How the Grand Canyon could have been laid down in a very short period of time, and they take you to places in the video to show you where what happened in a period of time in one flood when the water reaches a certain volume, during a certain period of time, the impact upon supposedly impenetrable surfaces is remarkable. And so much of what we claim would have taken millions of years, what they were showing us could have happened in a very short period of time in the context of a universal flood.


So, very significant, if you're beginning with the presupposition there is no God, He did not do it, everything had to happen as a result of evolution over time then you have to find other explanations than the biblical. So, the flood of Genesis six to nine is very crucial.

The tower of Babel, in chapters 10 and 11, we are seeing the outworking of the result of God's judgement at the tower of Babel every day on the news. As you see different nationalities, different ethnic groups trying to destroy one another. That's a result of God's intervention in judgement in chapters 10 and 11, particularly in chapter 11 where the whole earth used to speak the same language. And you realize what they wanted to do to keep themselves united is have a united religion. But you cannot have a united religion on earth until you have the Messiah present.

So, they're going to build their tower which will be their center of worship that will unite them and keep them from getting spread and diversified. And we note different ethnic groups around the world get united by what, their religion. It's true for Israel it's true for the Arabs, it's true when you go to India and you see the different groups there, it's true around the world. You find religion becomes a unifying factor for different ethnic and national groups as well. God divided them.

I'm going to make some comments, you've heard that I am racist, which sort of amuses me. But I think it may come from my comments in Genesis 11. I want to be clear and state it again, which will only cause more people to think I'm racist, I fear. God did divide the world in languages, and I take it races, in Genesis chapter 11. As a result of the languages being confounded people moved to different places in the world, so in their genetic make-up and from their development out of that we have the development of the different races.

It was God's plan because of man's sin to fragment the world, because what happens as the world, comprised now of fallen men, tries to unite? They always want a unifying factor to be what? False worship. That will happen in the last great union of the world. The greatest union the world has ever seen under the anti-christ and what will be the solidifying factor ultimately? He will set himself up in the temple showing himself to be God.

Now that sense the division of the world racially, nationally, ethnically, however you want to say it, is God's plan. Now, when I say that there ought not to be any division along any of these lines for us as believers. So, be clear on that, but we also ought to have God's perspective. It is not possible, realistically, to unite the world. And overcoming racial barriers, nationality barriers can only happen when hearts are changed by the power of the gospel.

And then because of sin even some believers continue with a prejudice that needs to be dealt with like any other sin in our lives to be sure. But the foundation for this and people killing one another in different places in the world find its roots back in Genesis 11. Did God cause that? No! God divided the world because of sin. And that division is real, it continues down to our very day.


When you come to chapter 12 you have one of the defining chapters in the bible. Genesis chapter 12 is the Abrahamic covenant. That's not the only place you have the Abrahamic covenant but with Genesis chapter 12 we have the beginning of the Nation Israel. Now, we sometimes divide the Old Testament with the nations, Genesis four to 11, and the Nations, Genesis 12 all the way through to Acts chapter two. So, from Genesis 12 to Acts chapter two God's purposes and plan and program on the earth centers in Abraham and his physical descendants: the Nation Israel.

God calls Abram at the end of chapter 11 you really have the beginning of the account, but with chapter 12 you have the instruction of God to leave his country and family and go to the land I will show you and note verse 2. "And I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, make your name great. You shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

What we know as the Abrahamic covenant, further development, over in chapter 13, verse 14, after Abram and Lot go their separate ways, verse 14 God says to Abram, "...Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give it to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.'"

Chapter 15, you know there's a problem at this point; Abram and Sarai have no children. We're talking about descendants like the dust of the earth and he has none. And he's not getting any younger. Chapter 15 opens up with God telling Abraham, don't be afraid and I'll protect you and I'll give you great reward. Abram asks that God would bless as his heir Eliezer of Damascus. A faithful servant who would be his heir because he has not physical descendant; so he would pass whatever he has on to this faithful servant and he wants God to bless him as his step-in heir, if you will. God says no, that won't do.

Verse four, "'This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.' And He took him outside and said, 'Now, look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'" We can have a much greater appreciation of this with the progress we have in astronomy we have today to what Abram could see with the naked eye. "Then he believed in the Lord," note that. This verse becomes the pattern used in Romans chapter four to show how anyone who is ever saved will have to be saved.

They will hear the truth that God has revealed concerning Himself and they will respond in faith. that's the argument of Romans chapter four, Paul takes it back to Abraham. He believed God and God reckoned it to him as righteousness. You're not saved by works, you're not saved by your efforts, you're not saved by trying harder, you're saved by believing what God says.


"And He said to him, 'I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.'" And now you have the formal establishing of the covenant. They take the animals, beginning with verse nine and they cut the animals. And the Hebrew expression for making a covenant literally means to cut a covenant. Because they take the animals and they split them, and they lay them on two sides with a path in the middle. And the picture being is the two parties to the covenant will walk down between these sacrifices committing themselves on the pain of death to the fulfilling of the agreements of this covenant.

But this is a significant covenant, it is a one-sided covenant. Abraham goes to sleep in the plan of God. So, verse 12, "Now, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram;" Then God tells him about the fact that his descendants are going to go down into Egypt spend 400 years in Egypt and while they're in Egypt, preserved in that environment, cut off from all the people around them, He's going to build them into a great nation. And then after 400 years He'll bring them out. Not a family but a Nation.

So, when the sun had set, verse 17, Abram's in a deep sleep, "...there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces." This is the representation of the presence of God in a visible way passing through the divided animals. In other words, God is saying He takes full responsibility and accountability for the fulfilling of this covenant. In other words, this covenant depends totally and completely upon God and His faithfulness. It does not mean there won't be requirements for Abraham and his descendants.

But if this covenant is not fulfilled to the letter as God gave it, it is not a reflection of the failure of Abraham and his descendants. It is the reflection of the failure of God. That's why all the theology that says God is done with Israel ultimately is an attack on the character of God. God passed through the sacrifices.

If Israel does not ultimately end up with the land of Palestine as defined by God, if Abraham does not end up with a vast host of descendants inhabiting the land that you can't number it indicates that God has failed. We sometimes say, well, God gave Israel a chance, the nation was unfaithful; they crucified the Messiah therefore He is done with them. No, you have to come back to Genesis 15, it depends on God. There's punishment for the failure of the covenant people Israel, but there can be no abrogating of the covenant because God's character is at issue or at stake.

Verse 18, "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.'" I seem to take it from the Nile river to the Euphrates river. You can get out your map, all the battles going on and whose land and who should have it and why it should be mine is settled in scripture. That doesn't justify everything Israel is doing today. And Israel has its darkest days ahead of it. We have to be careful that we are pro-Israel because the scripture is pro-Israel, but that does not justify everything Israel is doing. But ultimately the land will belong to Israel make no mistake about it.

I don't say that because I'm anti-Arab. I say that because God says that's the way it's going to be. Well, is that fair? Are you going to argue with God? I'm not. There's your verse. "I have given this land to your descendants from the river Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.'" People will fight over it, people will die over it, when all is said and done Israel will have it because God said so.


Jump over to chapter 17, more on this covenant. We still have a problem, Abraham and Sarah still don't have any kids. Now, chapter 17 opens up, Abraham is 99 years old. Things don't look good. "...God appeared to Abraham and said to him, 'I am God Almighty, walk before Me, and be blameless, and I will establish my covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.' Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him saying, 'As for Me, behold My covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.'"

Here is where his name is changed from Abram to Abraham. "'I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.'" You get over to chapter 25 and you find out that the descendants of Abraham are not only the Jews, but they are the others. But the covenant promise only comes through Isaac and Jacob and the 12 patriarchs. So that's the covenant line, even though, Abraham ends up fathering a number of nations.

Verse seven, "'I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning’s, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.'" And then the sign of the covenant is given, which is circumcision. The identifying covenantal mark for Abraham and his descendants through Isaac.

Then He says, verse 15, Sarai your wife will change her name to Sarah and about next year at this time she's going to give birth to a child and Sarah falls over in a fit of laughter. She's listening. Ha, ha, ha this isn't likely to happen, I mean let's get down to basics; Abraham is beyond sexual pleasure and so am I. And God rebukes her, verse 17, "Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? " And it's Abraham laughing as well.

Abraham says, oh I want Ishmael to walk before You. God says Ishmael will walk; remember Abraham and Sarah worked out something with the hand maid so they got Ishmael. But you know, you just can't help God out. You know I mentioned earlier about helping God out trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit. Abraham and Sarah made a mess because they tried to help God out. God needs us to have a child we need a child, got to have the promises fulfilled, we're going to help Him out. You don't need to help God out. You just need to do what God says to do.

So, verse 19, "'No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.'" So you see here the covenant line is firmly fixed. Now, there is going to be a spiritual dimension to the Abrahamic covenant, but that cannot replace the physical promises. Eliezer could not fulfill the Abrahamic covenant by being a spiritual descendant. Ishmael couldn't even fulfill it by being a half of a physical descendant; Abraham's child but not Sarah's.

These have to be physical descendants who will also be spiritual descendants. You cannot nullify and negate the physical promises to Abraham and his descendants. It is absolutely essential, it's foundational to our theology, foundational to everything else that's happening throughout the Old Testament and into the New.


(That's the end of the first side. For the conclusion of the message please turn the cassette over now.)

What's happening in the future, what's taking place in Israel today, preparation ultimately for the coming seven year's tribulation, why? What God has promised to Abraham and his seed through Isaac will happen and God will bring Israel to its knees. It will take the tribulation to do it. But it will happen. And there is going to be a kingdom on this earth and Palestine will belong to Israel and Israel's Messiah will reign. So, this is absolutely essential.

Verse 21, He says in verse 20, I will bless Ishmael; and Ishmael ends up being the father of 12 princes, but, verse 21, "'My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear next year at this season.'" My plans don't change. Abraham has Ishmael, Abraham will have other children with his second wife Keturah. God's covenant is with the descendant of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac. It can be no other way.

Could God be any clearer here? And yet people say well, you know, it's not the physical seed any longer it's the spiritual seed. Well, the spiritual dimension to this seed has always been there; always been God's intention that this physical seed would also be a spiritual seed. And there will be a spiritual seed that reaps blessing that is not the physical seed. But the physical seed will experience the blessings; it has to be. Otherwise, all this issue over Isaac and not Eliezer and not Ishmael is just blowing in the wind, because God is going to do it with non-physical descendants anyway. It's never been His plan. He said at the beginning it cannot happen that way it will not happen that way. And the God who established this covenant based on His character is obligated to see it through. You think Abraham thought it could be any other way hearing all this?

Well, we're not making very much progress. Chapter 22, that's what happened to my five-year study. Chapter 22, after Abraham demonstrates his willingness to offer Isaac as a physical sacrifice, the angel of the Lord speaks from heaven and says in verse 17, "Indeed I will greatly bless you I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, as the sand which is on the sea shore your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies; in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed My voice.'"

Now, this emphasis on seed and ultimately it focuses down to the Messiah; and that has to be a literal, physical seed. Jesus Christ had to be the literal, physical descendant of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob and so on. No one else could fulfill it. I mean God is serious about this. Let me say something, there are individual promises in the Abrahamic covenant to Abraham. For example, he'll be the father of a great nation, he will personally experience God's blessing, he'll have a great name, he will be a blessing. Those are personal promises to Abraham the man.

There are national promises to his descendants who will make up the nation Israel. They will be a great nation, they will be an innumerable people, they will possess the physical land of Canaan permanently; from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates. Those are promises to the nation Israel. There will be a national salvation because God declares He would be their God and they would be His people.

There are universal promises to all people and we see that here in verse 18 of chapter 22, "'And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed...'" And most of us sitting here today are Gentiles. And we are experiencing this blessing that through the seed, singular, Christ, as developed in the book of Galatians by Paul; we have experienced blessing. But that does not mean the promises to the physical seed are therefore, negated. They were given together not in opposition to one another.

But in this covenant that promises land, seed, and blessing there is included blessing for all nations through the seed of Abraham and we have experienced the blessing of that salvation through Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham. But let us not think that negates the other promises. My mind gets baffled at how people handle the scripture and what that does to the character of God.

I mean, how sure am I of heaven if God walks away from promises this clear to Abraham and his descendants? Maybe God will just decide that all those things He promised to me something came up that changed it. That's not very comforting. One thing I learned with the scripture, God is true to His word. So, I know I'm going to heaven. How do you know He won't decide it's too much trouble, I'm going to do away with that concept? Let it be just some of the spiritual blessings that they enjoyed while they lived on earth and let then die and exist no longer. Nope He can't do that, because we can say, God, you promised. Just like Israel could say God you promised; Abraham could say, God, You promised. And God says yes, I promised. So that's the way it will be.

That's where I intended to spend the bulk of our time, I really didn't get diverted as much as it seemed, because that's foundational to everything else. Now, the rest of scripture is the unfolding of God's plan for Israel; the rest of the Old Testament in particular down through the gospels.

You'll have Israel go down into Egypt at the end of Genesis chapter 46, Jacob takes his family, in the plan of God; God tells him go down into Egypt that's His plan, He will make them a great nation, because you know what happened God took them out of the land of Canaan, He put them down in the land of Goshen in Egypt and the Egyptians didn't have anything to do with the Jews and they were shepherds. So what, He guaranteed the purity of the descendants of Abraham and there they grow and multiply into a nation of millions.

Then we come to the book of Exodus, and the book of Exodus opens up with the exodus. To the plagues on Egypt to prepare them to let God's people go you have the exodus. And beginning with chapter 19 of the book of Exodus you have the giving of the law at Sinai, which will be the governing code for the nation Israel. And it's the Mosaic Law and it is in effect down until Acts chapter two and that period of time. The death and resurrection of Christ brings to an end the Mosaic Law. And you have the establishing of the church in Acts chapter two.

The church replaces Israel only in on sense; in that it is in the place of favor in the program of God today. But it has not usurped the promises that God gave to physical Israel. Because God gave them to physical Israel. Now, the fact that I enter into some blessings does not cause me to think that I have taken what God promised to them. God has expanded those blessings as He promised in that covenant to all nations.

But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, Romans 11, then all Israel will be saved. When God's time of focusing on the Gentiles, what we know is the church age is done, then He will bring to completion His program with Israel in the seven-year tribulation. Culminating with the national salvation of Israel. So, Exodus lays the foundation, the Mosaic covenant.

Numbers, Israel wonders in the wilderness, Joshua takes the people of Israel into the land. Judges shows the defeat of Israel, as they keep returning to their sin and they are constantly defeated and there is spiritual decadence in the land. 1 Samuel is about the reign of Saul, the king that Israel wanted for itself in rejecting God as their King. And the monarchy is established in 1 Samuel chapter nine and the rest of the book of 1 Samuel is about Saul.

2 Samuel is about the reign of David, God's king, God's choice. Again the people didn't want to wait they wanted now, they got Saul. David is God's appointed man. Then you jump to 1 Kings. There is division in the kingdom. First part if 1 Kings is the reign of Solomon, glorious and great, but under Solomon's son Rehoboam the kingdom divides, 931 B.C., chapter 12 of 1 Kings, the divided kingdom. That's important to where we are when we pick up our study in Kings. So the rest of 1 Kings talks about the reign of men like Ahab, the prophetic ministry of Elijah.

2 Kings, captivity. And in chapter seventeen in 2 Kings, which is where we left off our study, you have the end of the Northern kingdom. For when the kingdoms split under Solomon's son Rehoboam, it split into the Northern 10 tribes and two tribes in the South, Judah and Benjamin. The Benjamin being so small Judah becomes the title for that, but there are really 10 in the Northern kingdom.

In 722 B.C. God judged the Northern kingdom and the Assyrians came down, conquered them, carried them out of the land, deported them into other realms of the kingdom and the Northern kingdom ceases to exist. The Southern kingdom goes on until 586, and at the end of 2 Kings we will have the Southern kingdom going into captivity.

You'll have a restoration take place under Ezra, so the book of Ezra is about the rebuilding of the temple, the book of Nehemiah is about the rebuilding of the city. And with the end of Nehemiah we go into the 400 years of silence. And that silence is broken when John the Baptist comes on the scene and what we have as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the gospels pick up. So really chronologically you end with Nehemiah and you begin with the gospels.

Now the order of the layout in our bible is different. You see the marvelous sovereign hand of God at work. And isn't it amazing now 2500 years rounded off, 2400 years after the closing of the Old Testament here we see things that the Old Testament prophesied seeming to come together. Things that Daniel portrayed that you're studying on Sunday mornings, God's hand at work, why? He's not done with Israel.


He's working today in the church, His judgement just as He judged the Northern kingdom, He judged the Southern kingdom, He sent them into captivity, brought them out, now Israel lives under the judgement of God. They have been removed as a nation from the place of God's favor and God's work of salvation and redemption does not today focus on the nation Israel. It focuses in the church, which is primarily Gentile in its make up. That doesn't mean Jews cannot be saved, but Jews are not being saved in large numbers as Gentiles are.

God's plan does not focus on a nation, now remember that. It doesn't focus on the nation of the United States, it never did. The only nation that was ever the focus of God's plan was the nation Israel. Now His plan focuses on the church. We live in the day of the fullness of the salvation of the Gentiles. It's a time of salvation for us.

What a glorious opportunity. That's why we must be aggressively about the proclamation of the gospel. This day will come to an end. Romans 11 says there will come a time when the time of the fullness of the Gentiles will be done. Doesn't mean there will be no Gentiles saved at all in the tribulation but there will be a change.

The church will be bodily removed from the earth. There will be an agreement signed between the leader of western world powers representing a revived Roman Empire and the seven-year tribulation will begin. That will culminate with the return of Jesus Christ to earth and at the close of that seven-year period in anticipation for the coming of Messiah, all Israel, there will be a mass turning among the Jews to Jesus Christ as their Messiah and He will return. Judge the world in righteousness, establish His kingdom here on earth.

You and I as the bride of Christ will rule and reign with Him and the nation Israel will be established in the land that God promised them. They will live in loving obedience to their Messiah. And righteousness, the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. God is sovereign, God rules over all.

You ever wonder why in God's grace we are privileged to know and understand and believe this truth? Why should we be privileged to experience His glorious salvation? There is no explanation but grace. What a privilege. We know this truth. We are privileged, but the ministry of the Spirit in our lives to understand it. Should we not be consumed in our service and ministry for our Lord, knowing what our God is doing and where we are headed?

How blessed we are to be the people who are blessed in the seed of Abraham, part of all nations who will be blessed. But praise God the Nation too has yet to experience the blessing of salvation. Let's pray together.

Thank you Lord that you are sovereign, that you rule over all. Lord we need to have that fixed in our minds even as your people so that we can be fully confident, fully assured that as you have said you will do that it is your purposes being accomplished in the world today. In your grace these are days of Gentile salvation. These are the days of the fullness of the Gentiles and we are testimonies to that glorious fact.


Oh Lord, may we be diligent and urgently about the preaching and teaching and proclaiming of Jesus Christ, knowing that the days of the fullness of the Gentiles may be rapidly drawing to a conclusion. Lord, we look forward to the coming of our Lord to the experiencing of the blessed hope that appearing in glory of the great God who is our Savior, Jesus Christ. The time when we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. That time when we shall stand in His presence and give an account for what we have done with these lives.

Lord may we be diligent in light of those coming events. And Lord we rejoice over your faithfulness, your faithfulness to Israel as they are set aside as they experience your judgement as awful and dark days are ahead for that nation. Yet you are the God of the Abrahamic covenant. So there is hope, there is glory yet ahead. Lord in all of this we are encouraged, we are uplifted, we are strengthened to know that everything that you have promised will come about and we eagerly anticipate that day. In Christ's name, amen.