One of the greatest studies that Christians can do is to prayerfully read and study what God has said and promised to the people and 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 scriptures:

Gen. 13:14-18 NASB 1995

¹⁴ The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;¹⁵ for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.¹⁶ 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.¹⁷ Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”¹⁸ Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

After God told Abraham in Genesis 12 to leave his country and go to a land that He would show him, Abraham obeyed and came to Israel. Here in Genesis 13 God spoke to Abraham again confirming His promise of giving Abraham the land and saying his descendants would be as the dust of the earth. Abraham again showed his faith by action, walking through the land and settling in Hebron. This passage ends with Abraham building an altar and worshipping the Lord.

Gen. 15:18 NASB95

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:

Here God renews His covenant with Abraham and notice how God’s promise is not vague but is very specific concerning the boundaries given to Abraham and his descendants.

Gen. 17:7-8 NASB95

⁷ 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.⁸ I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

Here God says, “to be God to you” and we can see that a relationship with God is central not secondary. Abraham is 99 years old when God renews His covenant again saying this is an everlasting covenant and includes all the land of Canaan.