1. THE PATRIARCHS
   
   God gave the patriarchs promises:
   1. national and international growth.
      " I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands."
      
   2. spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ.
      "and through your offspring (seed-K.J.V.
      cf.Gal 3:16,27) all nations on earth will be blessed."
      
      The promises are to be separated in:
      
      
      1. Right of Firstbourne and
      2. The scepter
         
         After Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the promises that have to do with his birthright and the promises associated with the scepter passed to different people.
         
         Understanding these promises is very important. Many prophecies can only be properly understood if one examines the promises well.
         
         
2. THE NATIONAL START
   
   The people of Israel begins its national existence in the land of Canaan. The twelve tribes are one people.
   
   
3. THE DIVISION IN THE TWO NATIONS
   
   After a time of judges and prophets the people want a king. After Saul David and Solomon were kings. Because Solomon's 'heart was averted from the Lord' God punished him by tearing the kingdom from him, his son only got one tribe to govern. This division of the empire was in 931 BC. From that time there were two nations, each with its own king, each with its own government.
   The largest nation was Israel. The smallest: Judah.
   
   
4. THE END OF ISRAEL
   
   After 18 kings, the latter is Hosea, the ten tribes were taken away in exile. The Assyrians took them in 722 BC. into their own country.
   
   
5. THE TEMPORARY END OF JUDAH
   
   Approximately 120 years after Israel is removed in exile, Nebuchadnezzar takes the Jews in exile. At the time of the Babylonian exile, there were three prophets who spoke the words that God gave them to speak. Daniel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Especially the last two have passed prophecies of great interest for our study.
   The last king, of the line Judah-David, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, was Zedekiah. After him there is no king on the throne of David, despite an unbreakable covenant that God concluded with David.
   After 70 years of exile, as Jeremiah had prophesied, the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem.
   
   
6. THE DISPERSION OF THE JEWS
   
   In 70 AD. the Jews were defeated by the Roman 10th legion. The temple was destroyed as Jesus had prophesied, and the people were scattered across the earth.
   
   
7. THE RETURN OF THE JEWS
   
   In 1948 the returned Jews (re) established the nation Israel.
   
   
8. THE RETURN OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL
   
   The people of Israel, the ten tribes, will, as Jesus comes back, return to the land that God gave them. "‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.
   I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms."
   
   
9. THE RELATIONSHIP: ISRAEL-CHURCH
   
   The natural "old" people of Israel has a certain relationship to the church. How is that relationship now? And how will that relationship be?
   
   

"Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (the Jews) (that done in the body by the hands of men)--
12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you (gentiles) who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by wich he put to death their hostility"

Paul says this not only to the Ephesians, he writes the same, albeit in other words, to the Romans in the eleventh chapter:

If some of the branches have been broken off (Israelites), and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches!... (23) And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again... (25-26) I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

The Deliverer will come from Zion
He will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
And this is my covenant with them,
when I take away their sins."

Paul writes this after the Savior appeared. Jesus was already in the world. If Paul quotes this in Romans 11 that way, then that means that this prophecy refers to the coming of the Redeemer. That is when he comes back as King. Then God will remove their sins. The natural people Israel must exist when Jesus returns. So, Israel is fully involved with God's Kingdom on earth.

The believers from the Gentiles, the Christians, are made one with the believers of the people of Israel. Previously we were far away from everything that was given to Israel. We lived without hope of eternal life and without God. But now we are made one, in Christ Jesus, with Israel. The promises and covenants that God had given to Israel are now also for us. When we want to understand those promises and covenants, then we should be studying the history of Israel.

That history begins with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God has given them promises, which are of great importance to the people of Israel and thus also for us. These promises and covenants have often other fulfillments to us, Christians, than for Israel. When we want to understand well what those promises and covenants, given to Israel, mean to us, we have to study them.

Another point which will be raised is: The distinction between Judah and Israel. It is very common in the Bible that God speaks to Israel and separately to Judah. If we do not understand why God does this, then many of the prophecies are difficult to understand.

THE PATRIARCHS

1. " I will make nations of you...."
   This is a promise for his offspring, a natural promise.
   
2. "...and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
   The words: "through you", are completed in Genesis 22:18 with: "your seed". (K.J.V.)
   If we compare this text with Galatians 3:16, we see that this is a spiritual promise.
   "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)
   
   

A SPIRITUAL AND A NATURAL PROMISE

The spiritual promise, as read in Galatians 3:29, is known by almost all Christians. And they have no difficulty to see the spiritual aspect. But the first promise, the natural, is often overlooked.
Maybe you say, just as I did, why is the first promise natural? Can't it also easily be interpreted spiritually? Yes, you would have thought that the great people is the church of Jesus Christ. But a further investigation of the promises, especially those which were given to Isaac and Jacob, and through them were passed to their children, it is clear that this still is a natural promise. Even before Abraham's son is blessed, it is clear that this is a natural promise. When Abraham was 99 years old. God said to him:

"For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands."


Clearly God speaks here on promises of lands-ownership. And that the above called offspring are not the spiritual descendants of Abraham is shown by that this offspring "all (lands) countries" will possess.

2. THE SPIRITUAL PROMISE:

"and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed."

BIRTHRIGHT is any right that is acquired by birth. It has nothing to do with grace. Birthright is usually from father to son.

THE SCEPTER is the symbol of royal dignity, royal power. It is a sign of (supra) rule.

When Jacob passes the promises made to Abraham, then he does not do that to his eldest son. Moreover, these promises were not passed anymore to one son, but the promises are passed separately. Jacob blesses two grandsons each with a separate blessing. Read the remarkable story in: