God Makes A Promise To Abraham.

The story of Israel begins with God’s promise to Abraham, and since God cannot lie (Titus 1:2), the promises made by Him are significant. 

‍Genesis 12:1-3-Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God’s promise to Abraham included material and spiritual blessings, stating that through Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed, ultimately referring to Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:29).

Throughout Abraham’s life and travels, God reaffirms and expands His promise. God makes an oath with Abraham, and foretells a period of captivity for Abram’s descendants. God vows to rescue Abraham’s descendants four hundred thirty years after this oath to give them a “great possession” which will be “everlasting.”

‍Genesis 13:14-17 And the Lord said to Abram, 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. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

‍Genesis 15:13-14 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

‍Genesis 17:4-8 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you 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 to 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’s Word is absolute! As He reiterates the blessings and expands their significance, God obligates Himself to fulfill every detail. We must then follow the descendants of Abraham in order to observe how, when, and if God completed His promises. 

The Promise Follows Abraham’s Descendants, But Is Delayed.

These promises were made to Abraham’s descendants, so in order to track their fulfillment, we need to follow his lineage:

‍Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, was born by Sarah’s handmaid Hagar. However, God confirmed the covenant would follow the son of Abraham and his wife, Sarah. God miraculously allowed Abraham and Sarah to conceive in their old age, and Sarah gave birth to Isaac (Genesis 17:19-21). Because of Abraham’s faith and his incredible demonstration of obedience, the promise of God would become unconditional. The great inheritance would follow Isaac’s descendants (Genesis 26:3-5). Ishmael would receive his own promise from God (Genesis 21:13,18), but would not be the inheritor of the covenant promise made to Abraham.

Abraham’s son, Isaac, had his own son (Jacob), whose name was changed to Israel (Genesis 32:28, 35:10). Israel would receive these birthright blessings, instead of his older brother Esau. Great agricultural wealth would be included, as well as the expansion of his family in all directions, and the promise to rule over other peoples and nationalities (Genesis 28:13-14).

‍Israel (formerly Jacob) had 12 sons who would eventually become the nation of Israel (also known as the 12 tribes of Israel): Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Their descendants inherited the promises made to Abraham, but Reuben was disqualified and the great birthright blessing to ultimately become a “nation and company of nations,” would follow Joseph and his children (Genesis 35:11-12; Genesis 49:22-26), Ephraim and Manasseh. 

‍1 Chronicles 5:1-2 Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel—he was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright; yet Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came a ruler, although the birthright was Joseph’s

In Genesis 48:12-20, Israel officially passes the birthright blessings to Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, ensuring that they will receive the blessings of national dominance, which would include possession of strategic checkpoints and gates of their enemies, vast agricultural and mineral wealth, and status as world superpowers that would exercise authority over other nations. Notably, Israel blessed the second born (Ephraim) with greater blessings than his older brother, stating that the “younger brother shall be greater.”

As history unfolds, the descendants of Israel face challenges due to sin, leading to consequences and delays in the fulfillment of the promises (Leviticus 26:14-39). God would ultimately fulfill them, not because of the righteousness of the modern day nations, but because He is obligated by His own word to keep His promises – He cannot lie.

Great Nations Emerge.

The children of Israel followed their brother Joseph to Egypt. Years after Joseph’s death, their descendants were eventually held in captivity by the Egyptians. God rescued them four hundred thirty years to the day from the oath He had promised with Abraham (Exodus 12:40-42). He led them to the Middle Eastern territory that God had promised, but they neither became a blessing to all the nations of the world, nor inherited incredible wealth or vast territories. Likewise, there is no historical record of Ephraim and Manasseh ever becoming a great nation and company of nations at any point in time, so this promise had not fully been fulfilled.

Beginning in 721 BC, the Assyrians under King Shalmaneser V and later King Sargon II conquered the Kingdom of Israel and deported many of its inhabitants, never to return again to the land. This event is commonly referred to as the Assyrian Captivity or the Exile of the Ten Lost Tribes. Then, from 604-586 BC, the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the first temple, and carried away a significant portion of the remaining tribes of Israel (Judah and Benjamin) into Babylonian exile which lasted several decades. The migration patterns and dispersion of the Israelites during this period were not limited to a single direction or destination.

‍Amos 9:8-9 “Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says the Lord. “For surely I will command, and will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.

To this point, the Book of Acts mentions the Apostle Paul traveling to several cities in Greece, and refers to a Jewish population in Rome in the 1st century AD (Acts 18:1-2). This confirms there were established Israelite communities in Europe during that time and proves the continued migration of the tribes of Israel after being exiled. 

The Promises Are Fulfilled.

From the fall of Israel and captivity of its people beginning in 721 BC, 2,520 years would pass, bringing us to the year 1800.  It is here we find a single great nation and a company of nations emerge with unparalleled wealth and power. God began to fulfill His promised blessings foretold to Abraham.

When the year 1800 arrived, the tiny island of England possessed only a small portion of the world’s land and wealth. Over the following decades, England would become a vast empire, the largest the world had ever seen. 

The British Empire, at its peak, would comprise more than a quarter of the land area of the globe—more than 13 million square miles of territory and more than 5 times the size of the Roman Empire. And unlike most of the great empires of the past, the British Empire was made up of many widely separated countries and territories, varying in size. British lands were found in every continent and British islands dotted every ocean. The empire extended from the farthest north to farthest south, from farthest east to farthest west. 

The United Kingdom totaled more than 500 million people, and comprised more than a quarter of all the people in the world.

The United States in 1800 was still clinging to the eastern seacoast of North America, nearly 200 years after the first English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. Yet within a single generation, beginning with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States would commence a rapid territorial expansion, including the richest farmland on the earth. 

With its combination of agricultural and mineral wealth, America was destined to lead the world in per capita wealth. United States resources were unmatched in grain, cattle, coal, iron, and petroleum production, and soon would become the greatest single nation in history. Together, the British Empire along with the United States, controlled virtually every strategic passageway on the earth, through most of the 19th and 20th centuries. The historical characteristics of these world powers are identical to the blessings outlined for Ephraim and Manasseh in Genesis 48:12-20.

Why Does This Matter Today?

The Eternal Creator, who swore upon Himself (Luke 1:73), kept His promise and fulfilled His covenant with Abraham. These promises provide evidence of God's existence and the surety of His word, but also serve as a warning for prophecies yet to be fulfilled. 

While we can identify these nations of incredible wealth and prosperity, nations richly blessed, we also now witness the beginning of these promises being taken away. As the pride of their power is broken, the consequences God conveyed to His own people for rejecting Him in Leviticus 26:14-39, come to the surface once again, further confirming their identity as the descendents of Israel.

Leviticus 26:14-17 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. 

With this foundation, the prophecies, blessings, and curses outlined in the Bible become deeply personal. Unless they turn to God with national repentance, the time of Jacob’s (Israel) trouble is certainly coming (Jeremiah 30:7). He has declared the end from the beginning, and what He has spoken, He brings to pass. 

Isaiah 59:1-4 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.

Things are quickly changing for the modern-day descendants of Abraham. Nations who have long enjoyed prosperous times will face a total shift in global power and dominance, and reap the consequences of turning away from God. 

Isaiah 1:2-4 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. 

While these nations once enjoyed the fulfillment of the blessings promised to Abraham (Micah 5:7-8), as a people who no longer recognize their responsibility to God, those blessings soon will be taken away (Micah 5:10-15).

Once again, God has declared the end from the beginning and what He has declared, He will most certainly bring to pass. Nevertheless, if for those who acknowledge their sin and turn to Him, He is quick to forgive and abundant in mercy (Psalm 86:5).

Deuteronomy 30:1-3 “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 

Now is the time! We have a tremendous opportunity set before us and the Creator’s awesome promise of His eternal reward. Any so-called Christian nation may profess to follow Him, but do they really? Each of us must consider our relationship with God, and turn to Him with our whole heart. God keeps His promises to those who faithfully obey Him!