One of the greatest things that Christians can do is to prayerfully read and study what God has said and promised to the people of Israel concerning the land of Israel. We plan to post here each week a new scriptural passage which will show what the Lord has said about the people and land of Israel, or a covenant or promise God has made with the Jewish people. Please use these scriptures as the beginning point of study using various tools such as commentaries quoting well-recognized Hebrew scholars, or the Logos Lexicon of Hebrew words. Our prayer is that these scriptures will come alive in your hearts as the Holy Spirit speaks to you about God’s intentions, heart, and promises to the Jewish people and over the land of Israel.
This week’s scripture: Gen. 12: 1-7
1 Now the LORD said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you.
2 And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing.
3 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 will be blessed.”
4 So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
An example of how this scripture could be studied starts with verse one. This is God’s call to Abram to leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house and go to a land “which I will show you”. Abraham left all he knew, not knowing where he was going. This is the beginning of one of the best known of the Jewish Parashah (weekly portion) called “lech lecha”. It is studied by the Jewish people because it shows Abram’s deep commitment and obedience to the Lord. There is much written in Jewish commentary that could be researched including a study of the Hebrew words “lech lecha” which has been translated as “go forth”, “go you”, or “go for yourself.” This command contains a sense of urgency to Abram. In Galatians 3 it says, “those who have faith are sons of Abraham”. As we obey the Lord in our lives today, He often only shows us only one step at a time in His will for us.
In verses 2-3 we find God’s first promise to Abram.
Gen 12:3 says: “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse”. This is just as significant to us today. Finally, in verse 7 we see God’s promise to Abram that he will give to him and his descendants the land of Canaan. In future weeks covering more verses we will see this covenant applied specifically to Abram’s son Isaac, and to Jacob and their descendants.