FUTURE TENSE
“It Begins and Ends with Israel”
Genesis 12:1-9
I want you to imagine for a moment that someone says to you, “John Grisham’s new book is the best I have ever read.” You have to read it right away. So you take your friend’s advice, you buy the book, get comfortable and begin to read. You turn first to the middle of the book and you find names, locations and events of the story taking place that make no sense at all. You have no idea who the characters are and you wonder what in the world are they doing in Bolxi Mississippi? So, confused you decide to turn to the end of the book to find the answers…. Now you find out they are all in court and the defendant has been found guilty. But you wonder why??? And you see that one of the jurors is mailing money to Panama City. Isn’t that illegal? Why would they do that? Now you’re more confused than ever so you put the book down and you think, you know John Grisham has lost his touch, he can’t even write a book that makes sense! How am I supposed to know who these people are in the story AND the ending of the book doesn’t even make sense to me?? Now you and I know that’s just not the way to read a book. You don’t start in the middle, you don’t suddenly turn to the last page thinking I want to see how this book ends because the ending of this book and the middle of this book don’t make sense UNLESS you start at the beginning.
We say well we would never do that yet this illustrates why so many people have difficulty understanding the subject of Bible prophecy. They start reading the Bible in the wrong place. If you want to make sense out of the Bible the place to start is not in the last book of the Bible ….. (Revelation) or in the middle of the book (Ezekiel, Daniel) ---- you start at the beginning of the book. Genesis. Write this down. The word Genesis means beginnings. And it is the foundation for studying Bible prophecy.
Now whenever we think of the book of Genesis we think of events like the Creation, the fall of man, the flood; the tower of Babel. But all of these events combined compose only 11 chapters (20%) of the book. Genesis has 50 chapters. In those 11 chapters it is almost as though God is saying by the way, let me tell you HOW I made this world and let me also tell you WHY man is in the mess he is in. That is the theme of the first 11 chapters…man is far away from God. In these 11 chapters we see man moving further and further away from God.
In chapter 11 the scripture says that man attempted to build a tower up to the heavens “so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth.” But here’s the problem. God had told man from the beginning that he was to be fruitful and to multiply. Man was to fill up the whole earth, not just one corner of it. And anytime God’s people become selfish—anytime we become so wrapped up in ourselves that we stop caring about others, or stop caring about God’s plans, we’re in trouble. Now God of course knew this and so He said I’ll scatter you anyway. Genesis 11:8-9.
But then beginning in chapter 12 and continuing all the way through the book of Revelation we see God’s reconciliation plan (makes things right) for man. And at the center of His plan is a man named Abraham. Do you get that? In less than two chapters He gives us the account of the creation of the entire universe, 2 chapters, but then the rest of the book focuses on Abraham and his family. Why does God give so much attention to this one man? Write it down. God’s promise to Abraham is the key to understanding the rest of the Bible and the key to understanding Bible prophecy.
Abraham and his family were living in the city of Ur. Ur was a major city. Now you may already know this. But archaeologists have shown us that the people of Ur were proficient in mathematics and the sciences and were intelligent beyond their time but they have also shown us that the people were very involved in idol worship. And Abraham was a party of that group. But God called him out and this is what He said to him…. Genesis 12:1-9. Here is what God gives to Abraham. He gives him a 3 fold promise.
1. God promised a land. God said go to the land which I will show you. Has God ever said anything like that to you? I want you to go somewhere but I’m not telling you just yet. But then he gives a description of the land and says here are the boundaries---this is the land that will belong to Israel. MAP
You probably know that since the beginning of time there has been conflict in the Middle East----constant fighting that has taken place. I researched this in the last few weeks and found that in the last 100 years there have been 86 wars fought in the Middle East killing over 4 million people. It is constant. And the basis for every one of these wars boils down to one thing. LAND. Israel fights for this land because God promised this land to them about 3000 years ago.
2. God promised a seed. V. 2. Genesis 22:7. Have you ever been to the beach. Of course you have. Clearwater beach? God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation that would be as difficult to count as the stars in the sky or the sand in the universe. This prophecy is even more amazing when you consider the fact that Abraham was 75 years of age when God spoke these words. And they had no children at this time.
3. God promised a blessing. V. 3. Now what did God mean when He said the entire world would be blessed through Abraham? Some mention the fact that Christians, Muslims and Jews all claim Abraham as their spiritual father. And it’s true. Abraham is very important to several major religions.
But the blessing God has in mind here is more specific. In fact I believe this was a clear prediction of the coming of Jesus. This is how I know that. Galatians 3:6-9 NLT.
God promised Abraham that a Savior was coming. Abraham then placed His faith in that promise. And when He did, it caused God to credit righteousness to Abraham. Your Bible depending on which version you are reading would have one of these words---credit, reckon, accounted to Him---all means the same thing. It means to put something into someone’s account. If you give me a check for 100 dollars and I deposit into my bank account my banker performs a transaction whereby your 100 dollars becomes my 100 dollars.
Now get this. It matters. Abraham placed his belief in the promise of a Savior. When he did, God then made an exchange, a transaction on his behalf. God deposited His own righteousness into Abraham’s account.
Now let me explain this concept of reckoning. Suppose you want to buy a home. Of course you need to go to the bank to get a loan. Before the bank will give you the loan, the loan officer wants to see your financial statement that shows how much money you have in the bank. Well things don’t look so good for you right now. Your banker learns that you have 7.50 in your account, you have a boatload of debt and you just lost your job. He says I reckon you’re out of luck! I cannot give you a loan.
That’s the bad news. But then he asks if you have a relative that would cosign for you. And you say well my dad is Bill Gates. He says THE Bill Gates? Yep. THE Bill Gates as in the billionaire Bill Gates? He says He will sign for me. In fact he told me that I can use His financial statement instead of mine. I just forgot to mention it. Suddenly, the picture changes. Now your application is no longer based on your resources, it’s based on his. Now this is a truth I want you to understand. God’s law demands that if we are going to secure a home in heaven that we must be absolutely perfect. Our righteousness has to be equal to that of Jesus Christ Himself. But the problem is, you and I are spiritually bankrupt. We just don’t have enough righteousness in our account to qualify. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short. ALL. NOT SOME.
But God says hey you can use mine. You can use my account my righteousness. So we trust Him to do that and He credits or reckons our spiritual bank account with His righteousness. Galatians 3 explains that Abraham was saved the same way any of us are saved: it is by faith.
Now I want to give you at least 3 things we all need to understand about this covenant.
1. God’s promise to Abraham was literal. Notice how Abraham responded. Vv. 4-5. He responded by immediately packing up all he owned and moving. Can you imagine how much he had accumulated in those 75 years? Abraham was looking forward to a heavenly home. The writer of Hebrews records that Abraham was “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
2. God’s promise to Abraham was eternal. His promise was not limited by time. Genesis 13:14-15. Now we have a problem understanding eternity. Henry Van Loon puts it this way; high up in the north in another land, there stands a rock. The rock is 100 miles high and 100 miles wide. Once every 1,000 years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen his beak. When the rock has been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by!” His promise is for forever.
3. God’s promise to Abraham was unconditional. Many people believe this was a literal/actual promise but what they deny is that it is still in effect. Some say that because of Israel’s disobedience and their disbelief, they believe that God revoked His promise to Abraham. But this is how that works. When your children were younger you may have had an allowance system. And if they misbehaved you may have taken part of their allowance away from them that week. Let’s say they stayed out later than they were supposed to. You gave AND you took away. But you know if one of my kids misbehaved there would be consequences for them. But look at this. When my wife and I are gone all that we have will go to our children. The may wonder why we spent it all but that’s beside the point. If they misbehave between now and then it doesn’t change that at all. I’m not going to take their inheritance away because they stayed out too late. Right?
Now what does this promise made to Abraham have to do with Bible prophecy? Listen. God will honor His promises. Count on it. In 1948 Israel became state. So they are now occupying a portion of the land that God promised them. However, they have never occupied all of what God has promised to Israel.
God still has some unfinished business. He WILL keep His promise to Israel. And He will keep His promise to you also.
John 10:28….”I will give them eternal life and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand.
Hebrews 7:25…He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him.
A young boy named Tom carried his new boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string. Tom sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream. He ran along the beach as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, he went home.
A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a pawn shop. When he got closer, he could see -- sure enough -- it was hi! Tom hurried to the store manager: "Sir, that's my boat in your window! I made it!"
"Sorry, son, but someone else brought it in this morning. If you want it, you'll have to buy it back.." Tom ran home and got the money. When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. "Here's the money for my boat."
As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, "Now you're twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you." You belong to me. And that is what Jesus has done for all of us.
Note: I am indebted to Dr. Robert Jeffress for his book, "Perfect Ending." Great resource for this series of messages.
