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Jacob and his mother’s plot to deceive Isaac succeeds. (Gen 27:11-29; But Esau my brother is a hairy man, ‘Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah and I have smooth skin! My father may touch me! Then he’ll think I’m mocking him and I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.’ So his mother told him, “Any curse against you will fall on me, my son! Just obey me! Go and get them for me!” So Jacob went and got the goats and brought them to his mother. She prepared some tasty food, just the way his father loved it. Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s best clothes, which she had with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck. Then she handed the tasty food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob. He went to his father and said, “My father!” Isaac replied, “Here I am. Which are you, my son?” Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done as you told me. Now sit up and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me.” But Isaac asked his son, “How in the world did you find it so quickly, my son?” “Because the Lord your God brought it to me,” Jacob replied. Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you, my son, and know for certain if you really are my son Esau.” So Jacob went over to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s.” He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob.

   Then he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” “I am,” Jacob replied. Isaac said, “Bring some of the wild game for me to eat, my son. Then I will bless you.” So Jacob brought it to him, and he ate it. He also brought him wine, and Isaac drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here and kiss me, my son.” So Jacob went over and kissed him. When Isaac caught the scent of his clothing, he blessed him, saying, “Yes, my son smells like the scent of an open field which the Lord has blessed.

    May God give you the dew of the sky and the richness of the earth and plenty of grain and new wine. May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. You will be lord over your brothers, and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.)

    Note the wording in this blessing almost duplicates what God told Isaac and Rebekah before the twins were born. Though a fleshly trickery, on the part of Jacob and Rebekah God’s purpose was being carried out. (Jacob and heirs’ future destiny may be primarily in the millennia, though quiet obvious today. (Israel is God’s chosen by promise and Jacob was known before the foundation of the world, as was Joseph, Moses, each of Jesus’ apostles and each called out Believer in Jesus. (Study Ezekiel 37-38) See God’s future plan for scattered Israel in this age and in the millennia. May we have believing in faith in our Planner’s creation and sustaining powers.)

   Delivered from Egypt people never acquired nor were gifted with believing in faith as spiritual Israel has in in this age. Only their children, Caleb and Joshua were allowed into the promised lands. (Numbers 14:11-16; The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise Me, and how long will they not believe in Me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence, and I will disinherit them; I will make you into a nation that is greater and mightier than they!” Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear, ‘for you brought up this people by your power from among them’ they’ll tell it to the inhabitants of this land. ‘They have heard that You, Lord, are among this people’, that ‘You Lord, are seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.’

   If you kill this entire people at once, then the nations that have heard of Your fame will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that He swore to them, He killed them in the wilderness.’

   (Numbers 14:17-34; So now, let the power of My Lord be great, just as You have said, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to Your great loyal love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.

   Then the Lord said, “I have forgiven them as you asked. But truly, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord. For all the people have seen My glory and My signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not obeyed Me, they will by no means see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised Me see it. (Only My servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed Me fully – I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants will possess it.) (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites were living in the valleys.) Tomorrow, turn and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

   The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: “How long must I bear with this evil congregation that murmurs against Me?” I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in My hearing. Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me. You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you. (The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.)

   But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness. According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days – one day for a year – you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart Me.

   (Num 14:35-45; I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!” The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing an evil report about the land, those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to investigate the land, lived. When Moses told these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly.

    And early in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, for we have sinned.” But Moses said, “Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. For, the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.

     But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.)

    Remember Moses prayed to the Lord, “show me Your Ways that I may know You.” We must have revealed knowledge of God’s Ways; know His characteristics in order to worship Him in spirit and truth. It’s idolatry to practice customs and traditions established to honor imaginary gods.

(The Hebrews writer remembered Moses and gives us his example.

   (Heb 11:24-26; Moses grew up among such, but when God revealed Himself, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to enjoy sin’s fleeting pleasure. He regarded abuse suffered for Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed on the reward.)

    God called and gave Moses a miraculous nature change. It’s the change we all must be gifted with, in order to be called God’s people. Why? Without a miraculous nature change we’re spiritually weak, (pulls of the flesh and demonic deceptions are stronger than fleshly good intentions.) Additionally, if we could choose for ourselves, how and when to be saved and practice God’s Way spiritually, it would amount to being saved by personal works.)

   As with Abraham, our calling has nothing to do with our good works, believers in are chosen to demonstrate faith in the One who reveals Himself and makes covenant promises through Jesus. (Study Romans 9:1-24; Pray for a discerning spirit like Paul’s, who was gifted to teach the connection between Genesis and God’s covenant believing people.) Then Paul quotes from Hosea and Isaiah.

   (Rom 9:25-29; As He also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’” (Hosea 2:23 & 1:10) And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”  And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, for the Lord will execute His sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” Just as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” “Not all those who are descended of Israel, are truly Israel, nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted, that is the children of promise are counted as descendants.) Today’s spiritual Israelites are believers in Jesus, a people called to be Christ like. Remember; Israel means “God fights”, it’s a promise and call for faith.  

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   There are many Christendom and other doctrinal views because people think to discover spiritual truth from within their fleshly rational. From within peoples fleshly rational they approach things from differing premises. So there’re many doctrinal views. Spiritual comprehension begins with God’s calling, revealing Himself and His Son ‘Jesus.’ It isn’t a fleshly minded rational belief, but God’s supernatural calling. Gifted faith in God’s Word, its original language and intent. Gifted ‘knowing faith’ in Jesus’ shedding His blood for the remission of the world’s sin nature. Knowing ‘by gifted faith’, that God called Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, setting His example of covenant promises. Including encounters with the likes of gentile Abimelech, ‘who feared a god of his imagination. (See Genesis 25: & 26) Paul explained Abraham and David’s believing IN faith. 

    Rom 4:1-8; What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter? For if Abraham was declared righteous by the works of the law (flesh) he has something to boast about – but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Quote from Gen 15:6) Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation. But to the one who does not work, but believes in the One who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness. So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin.” (Quote from Psalms 32:1-2) (Abraham and David were known before the foundation of the world, called and predestined.)

   Speaking of believers IN Jesus, in this age since Jesus’ ascension, Paul writes.

   (Gal 6:1-10; Brothers and sisters, if a (Christian) person is discovered in some sin, you who are spiritual restore such in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too, carry one another’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Let each one examine his own work, then, he can take pride in himself and not compare himself with someone else. For each one will carry his own load. Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with the one who teaches it. Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.)

    Persons sowing to his own flesh: People trusting in their intellect is how religions get started and how self serving governments evolve.  Many well intended people are frustrated with the status-quo of their governments. People loving money and power, rule and cause frustration. Followers of Jesus particularly are ashamed of such representatives whose practices are abominable to God. (Nations once blessed, are cursed as leaders move toward the likes of Sodom and Gomorra.) Patriotic people are prone to ask, ‘is this my country?’ Be patient God has an unalterable plan.

    Lord God Jesus ‘our Creator’ chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and made Moses His Deliverer some 400 years after covenanting with Abraham. He made Moses His Deliver and prophet, as previously with Abraham.

Remember Jesus looked on from a pillar of cloud.

   (Exodus 33:7-17; Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp. And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent. (THIS WAS JESUS, no one has seen or heard God the Father.)          

    Moses said to the Lord, “See, You have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ but You have not let me know whom you will send with me. But You said, ‘I know you by name and also You have found favor in My sight.’ Now if I have found favor in Your sight, show me Your way, that I may know You, that I may continue to find favor in Your sight. And see that this nation is Your people.)

    This should be every Believer’s prayer to God, (Show me Your Way, that I may know You. This was Abraham’s prayer too.)

    (Exodus 33:14- And the Lord said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And Moses said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here. For how will it be known then that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we will be distinguished, I and Your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?” The Lord said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have requested, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.)

             King David’s words will also resonate throughout the world at God’s chosen time.

    (Psalms 117:1-2; Praise the Lord, all you nations! Applaud Him, all you foreigners! For His loyal love towers over us, and the Lord’s faithfulness endures. Praise the Lord!)

Isaiah prophesied after Jesus delivered Israel through Moses, about another “millennial deliverance.”

    (Isaiah 11:10-16; At that time a root from Jesse (Jesus) will stand like a signal flag for the nations. Nations will look to Him for guidance, and His residence will be majestic. At that time the Sovereign Master (Jesus) will again lift His hand to reclaim the remnant of His people from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the seacoasts. He will lift a signal flag for the nations; He will gather Israel’s dispersed people and assemble Judah’s scattered people from the four corners of the earth. Ephraim’s jealousy will end, and Judah’s hostility will be eliminated.”

    “Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah, and Judah will no longer be hostile toward Ephraim. They will swoop down on the Philistine hills (Lands Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived in as foreigners.) to the west; together they will loot the people of the east.” They will take over Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be their subjects. The Lord will divide the gulf of the Egyptian Sea; He will wave His hand over the Euphrates River and send a strong wind, He will turn it into seven dried-up streams, and enable them to walk across in their sandals. There will be a highway leading out of Assyria for the remnant of His people, just as there was for Israel, when they went up from the land of Egypt.)

      God’s promises to Abraham include his spiritual heirs, “Israelites and gentiles” is Revealed to Paul as follows.

   (Rom 15:7-13; Receive one another, then, just as Christ also received you, to God’s glory. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and thus the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy. As it is written, “Because of this I will confess You among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to Your name.” And again it says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.” And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.” And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse (David – Jesus) will come and the One who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him will the Gentiles hope. (Quote from Isaiah 11:10) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe IN Him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.) Believers IN will be singing David’s song.

   (Psalms 18:46-50; The Lord is alive! My protector is praiseworthy! The God who delivers me is exalted as king! The One true God completely vindicates me; He makes nations submit to me. He delivers me from my enemies; You snatch me away from those who attack me; You rescue me from violent men. So I will give You thanks before the nations, O Lord! I will sing praises to You! He gives His chosen king magnificent victories; He is faithful to His chosen ruler, to David and His descendants forever.)

    REMEMBER: After Isaac dug the well he named Rehoboth and the local citizens didn’t argue over who it belonged to, Isaac said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.” Remember the king had ask Isaac to leave his country because God had made him so prosperous. (Nations will again come to God’s chosen people asking for a pact of peace.)

   (Gen 26:23-34; From there Isaac went up to Beer Sheba. The Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.” Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well. Now Abimelech had come to Isaac from Gerar along with Ahuzzah his friend and Phicol the commander of his army. Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me? You hate me and sent me away from you.” They replied, “We could plainly see that the Lord is with you. So we decided there should be a pact between us – between us and you. Allow us to make a treaty with you so that you will not do us any harm, just as we have not harmed you, but have always treated you well before sending you away in peace. Now you are blessed by the Lord.” So Isaac held a feast for them and they celebrated. Early in the morning the men made a treaty with each other. Isaac sent them off; they separated on good terms. That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. “We’ve found water,” they reported. So Isaac named it Shibah; that is why the name of the city has been Beer Sheba to this day.

    When Esau (Isaac’s older son) was forty years old, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, as well as Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. They caused Isaac and Rebekah great anxiety.) (Remember Esau’s characteristics, “his way was to turn to the gentiles and his attitude caused anxiety.)

More covenant promises through Isaac.

    (Gen 27:1-10; When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he was almost blind, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” Esau replied. Isaac said, “Since I am so old, I could die at any time. Therefore, take your weapons – your quiver and your bow – and go out into the open fields and hunt down some wild game for me. Then prepare for me some tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me. Then I will eat it so that I may bless you before I die.” Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau.

   When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father tell your brother Esau, ‘Bring me some wild game and prepare for me some tasty food. Then I will eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ Now then, my son, do exactly what I tell you! Go to the flock and get me two of the best young goats. I’ll prepare them in a tasty way for your father, just the way he loves them. Then you will take it to your father. Thus he will eat it and bless you before he dies.)

       (Jacob the sub planter and weaker of the two, had already caused Esau to pledge away his first born birthright and now he is willing to steal the blessing Isaac intended for Esau.) ALL IN GOD’S PLAN.

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      After praying to God His Father that His apostles be kept in the world but not of the world as He wasn’t of the world, Jesus concluded. (See John 17:1-5) Jesus is now glorified and serving as our Mediator before the Father, His spirit is gifted to all whom His father gives Him. They’re God’s called Elect. Previously we shared the difference in, “believing that and “believing IN.” (Believers in, know there’s one God, one truth, one Godly love, gifted from God our Father.) (Believers that, assume there’s a God who’s represented by all religions.) Satan has the world believing, what’s true for one may not be true to another and so, he’s dividing nations, religions, people groups by ethnicity and families.

   God knew the temperament He was giving Esau and Jacob before their birth. (Esau: ‘a field dweller, skilled hunter unpredictable and rash.’) (Jacob: ‘a tent dweller even-tempered and pliable for God’s purposes, would be ancestor of King David and Jesus.) When pro-creating Jacob, ‘whose name God changed to Israel, He knew he’d father 12 sons, who’d become 12 tribes and that twelve gates in New Jerusalem would be named for them. LIKEWISE when Jesus called 12 apostles He knew New Jerusalem’s 12 foundations would be named for them. (All followers of Jesus would be led to know they’re built on these two foundations.)

   (Ephesians 2:11-22; So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the Cornerstone. In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.)

   The divided clause at Genesis 25:27; emphasizes the striking contrast between Esau and Jacob. Living in tents signifies being more civilized than living in the field. Even-tempered normally has the idea of blameless.) Many characteristics in people are purposely created; things people are prone to love and despise are inherited and not easily altered. So, wise parenting is important.

   Ordinarily people of Israelite pedigree have inherited a nature that is more prone to be, even tempered. Remember the prophecy regarding Isaac’s descendants. “I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.” (Israelites are both physical and spiritual. Review Galatians 3:29.) All this will come to pass because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

   When Moses wrote Genesis; much was revealed and he had access to Noah’s writings. God’s statutes, laws and commandments were known to Abraham. It’s not likely Abraham knew things regarding God’s temple services He later gave to Moses. Way of God, relating to love was revealed to Abraham. he respected that God was holy, righteous, planned the future and kept promises. Abraham believed God, which was accounted to him as righteousness. If we believe IN God as did Abraham we too are considered righteous.

  Isaac was married about 20 years when God told Rebekah in advance that the older brother would serve the younger. What was meant is; ‘the descendants of the older would served the descendants of the younger.” Descendant of the younger ‘Jacob’ are spiritual Israelites looking to Jesus for leadership.”

   God repeated promises to Isaac He’d given Abraham, he’d also live among people whose customs evolved according to manmade tradition; strong taking from the weak and kings having ultimate authority. Based on what they witnessed, each was uncomfortable regarding their wives’ safety because of their beauty.

  (Gen 26:7-22; When the men of that place asked Isaac about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me to get Rebekah because she is very beautiful.” After Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out a window and observed Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, She is my sister?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.” Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? One of the men might easily have had sexual relations with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!” So, Abimelech commanded all the people, “Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.

   (God gave Abraham and Isaac divine protection through Abimelech, He awarded protection not customary to the rest of the citizenry of Philistine. Likewise some Christians are awarded divine protection and some will be persecuted and killed for the cause of Jesus.)

  When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, because the Lord blessed him. The man became wealthy. His influence continued to grow until he became very prominent. He had so many sheep and cattle and such a great household of servants that the Philistines became jealous of him. So the Philistines took dirt and filled up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham. Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us and go elsewhere, for you have become much more powerful than we are.” So Isaac left there and settled in the Gerar Valley. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had filled them up after Abraham died. Isaac gave these wells the same names his father had given them.)

   (Witnessing the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is gifted, a tremendous blessing for followers of Jesus. Circumstance like drought often shaped their movements and God’s purposes. After some trials Jacob too was blessed similar to Isaac with a drought causing only 70 of them to go to Egypt for survival; a prophetic fulfillment of God’s Word to Abraham about his descendants being in bondage until the promised deliverance.)

   When Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well with fresh flowing water there, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water belongs to us!” So Isaac named the well ‘Esek’ because they argued with him about it. His servants dug another well, but they quarreled over it too, so Isaac named it ‘Sitnah.’ Then he moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac named it ‘Rehoboth’, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.)

   We’re witnessing the even-temperament of Isaac, a characteristic of Jesus’ apostles and one Christians maintain. Christians in this, (since Jesus’ ascension age) are likened to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We’re temporary residences among foreigners, in the world but not of the world, our citizenship is in heaven.

   NOW, God’s New Covenant is with called out followers of Jesus, a people made for His spiritual kingdom. Remember Jesus said; “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus first sent His disciples to the lost ten tribes of Israel, making the foundation of His kingdom Israelites. (See Matt 10:5-7: Fulfilling prophecy, so it wasn’t long until, non-Israelites were called to be in His spiritual kingdom. Converted gentiles then became spiritual Israelites. Jesus’ apostle Paul wrote to the ‘converted gentiles.

    (Eph 2:11-22; Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “un-circumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body by human hands – that you were at that time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For Jesus is our peace, the one who made both groups (Israelites and non-Israelites) into ONE and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, when He nullified in His flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man (people) out of two, thus making peace, and to reconcile them both in ONE body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. And Jesus came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, so that through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you (gentiles) are no longer foreigners and non-citizens, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the Cornerstone. In Jesus the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.)

   Followers of Jesus are the temples of God. Some descendants of Ham, Japheth, Shem, Ishmael, Esau and Jacob, are called to be, (at One with Jesus, and are of God’s household - God’s kingdom.)

      Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s families understood as do Christians, “we’re foreigners in the world, but not of the world.” Their physical lives are our spiritual examples. Unbelievers are like those Jesus spoke to, about their not believing He was the Christ. (See John 8:211-24)

   Our inherited nature is selfish, we need Jesus’ message then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

   (John 15:18-21; If the world hates you, be aware that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed My word, they will obey yours too. But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, (“My nature in you. “you being My ambassadors.”) because they do not know the One who sent Me.)

   Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were ambassadors for the Lord. As blessed foreigners in the lands they traveled, the people were jealous of them.

      (Gen 26:22-25; “Then Isaac moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac named it Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.” From there Isaac went up to Beer Sheba. The Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.” Then Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well.”)

      Isaac understood that his blessing were because of promises to Abraham. Isaac like we Christians can’t boast of any good works “that made our calling sure.” (We are called and saved because of Jesus’ gifted faith, not a personal conjured up faith. Saved by grace, not of ourselves, less we boast.) Remember God is the Potter and we’re but clay.

      (Eph 2:4-10; But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! and He “God the Father” raised us up with Him (Jesus) and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through “gifted” faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.) As ambassadors of Jesus, things to do include living spiritually apart from the world at large, as did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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  Seemingly Abraham and Sarah didn’t stay in contact with immediate families until Abraham sent his servant to find Isaac a wife. Tarah; Abraham’s dad had two other sons, ‘Nahor and Hiran.’ (Only Isaac and Jacob’s wives came from Tarah’s family.

  Jesus’ apostle Paul, writing to God’s church at Rome quoted from a song by the Korahites that’s appropriate for today’s Christians. (Psalms 44:22; For Your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.) (This song was rehearsed when Israelites enjoyed protection, after being sold to bondage. They attempted to turn back and pleaded to be rescued.) The music to this song probably reflected somberness and hope. When Paul was writing the Rome church he knew that Jesus was the answer to that long ago plea. Now Jesus is resurrected, ascended to the right hand of God the Father and is their and our Intercessor.

   Abraham’s descendants future is a preplanned covenant promise, so Paul could write; ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” Quotation from Psalms 44:22. (We have complete victory through Jesus who loves us.) See Romans 8:35-37, Study Psalms 44: & Paul’s letters. Saving a chosen people for His purpose was always in God’s plan. His use of the preverbal-‘Potters Wheel’ is a fashioning of the called person’s nature to be one likened to Jesus’ and revealed through Jeremiah.

  (Jeremiah 18:1-17; The Lord said to Jeremiah: “Go down at once to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working at his wheel. Now and then there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit.

  Then the Lord said to me, “I, the Lord, say: ‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In My hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’ There are times when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. But if that nation does what displeases Me and does not obey Me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it. So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: (The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what You say! We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’ Therefore, the Lord says, “Ask the people of other nations whether they have heard of anything like this.

  (Israel should have been like a virgin. But she has done something utterly revolting! Does the snow ever completely vanish from the rocky slopes of Lebanon? Do the cool waters from those distant mountains ever cease to flow? Yet My people have forgotten Me and offered sacrifices to worthless idols! This makes them stumble along in the way they live and leave the old reliable path of their fathers. They have left them to walk in bypaths, in roads that are not smooth and level. So their land will become an object of horror. People will forever hiss out their scorn over it. All who pass that way will be filled with horror and will shake their heads in derision. I will scatter them before their enemies like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind. I will turn My back on them and not look favorably on them when disaster strikes them.” O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In My hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’)

   God can deal with individuals as with nations. Divided denominations and individuals calling themselves Christian fit Jeremiah’s prophecy. (Always study the whole.) Jesus reveals the same through Isaiah.

  (Isaiah 29:13-17; The sovereign master says, “These people say they are loyal to Me; they say wonderful things about Me, but they are not really loyal to Me. Their worship consists of nothing but man-made ritual. Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people – an absolutely extraordinary deed. Wise men will have nothing to say, the sages will have no explanations.” Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead, who do their work in secret and boast, “Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?” Your thinking is perverse! Should the Potter be regarded as clay? Should the thing made say about its Maker, “He didn’t make me”? Or should the pottery say about the Potter, “He doesn’t understand”?)

Abraham & Isaac are Christian examples.

   Individually we need to examine our priorities. Do we attempt to worship God with man made rituals? Abraham separated himself from the traditions of those in whose lands he lived and even his family. He literally forbade Isaac to leave the inherited territories God promised. Likely Abraham learned from Lot’s mistake of getting familiar with the people of Sodom. We read the account of Ishmael’s twelve sons previously and reviewed the meaning of ‘Isaac’ as being the son of promise, in relations to Jesus’ promises to those the Father gives Him.” (See and study1John 5)

  (Gen 25:19-23; This is the account of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac. When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. But the children struggled inside her, and she said, “If it is going to be like this, I’m not so sure I want to be pregnant!” So she asked the Lord, and the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated from within you. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”) (The older and stronger to serve the younger? See 1Cor 1:27-31) It is characteristic of our God to work through the weak and confound the wise.

  (Gen 25:24-34; When the time came for Rebekah to give birth, there were twins in her womb. The first came out reddish all over, like a hairy garment, so they named him Esau. When his brother came out with his hand clutching Esau’s heel, they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

  When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter, a man of the open fields, but Jacob was an even-tempered man, living in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for fresh game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Now Jacob cooked some stew, and when Esau came in from the open fields, he was famished. So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called Edom and Esau’s descendants would eventually be called - Edom. Edom was the place where they lived, so-named because of the reddish nature of the hills. The writer can use the word –‘red’ to describe the stew that Esau gasped for to convey the nature of Esau and his descendants.

  These were a lusty, passionate, and profane people who lived for the moment. Again, the wordplay is meant to capture the ‘omen.’)

  But Jacob replied, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ Look, said Esau, “I’m about to die! What use is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear an oath to me now.” So Esau swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. So Esau despised his birthright.”)

  As told to their mother, this result was preplanned before their birth and even from the foundation of the world. Now Isaac will have dealings with the same king that Abraham dealt with.

  Covenant promises. (Gen 26:1-6; There was a famine in the land subsequent to the earlier famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar. The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; settle down in the land that I will point out to you. Stay in this land. Then I will be with you and will bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will fulfill the solemn promise I made to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants. (Israelites - Jews physical and spiritual. (See Galatians 3:29) All this will come to pass because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” So Isaac settled in Gerar.”)

  By, promise to Abraham, believing Christians are heirs of promise through Isaac and Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel. Isaac’s descendants include King David and the promised Messiah- ‘Jesus.’ Paul taught us that all these things were written for our learning and that Jesus would set the standard of love. (Review Romans 15:1-13 from last study.)

  The Lord God promising blessings to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is Jesus. See Col 1:15-20 and Heb 1: confirming the following.

  (John 1:1-5; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.)

   Few Christendom folk believe IN Jesus. Many are led to believe Jesus lived and worship by use of His name, but don’t belief in practicing His Way, or have faith  all His perpetual promises. All physical and spiritual Israelites will be led to believe during Jesus’ millennial reign. The awesomeness of Godly promises are beyond mankind’s fleshly comprehension. His plans are unalterable. Remember too, Satan and his followers present themselves as angels of light! 

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  The majority, are living superstitiously, denominational and personal gods of the imagination are mentally manufactured: yet they pray for the things only the true God of Abraham can give, which is, the spirit of a sound mind, serenity, peace and faith. Repentance ‘a turning’ is gifted when God reveals His View of our sin nature. Only then we can acknowledge our fleshly inherited from Adam nature is hostile to God’s Way and conducive to tradition, popularity and the get way.       

  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were spiritually led to go out from the general populations, and we have Lot’s example for good reason. Separating from the world is also Jesus’ New Covenant principle taught through His apostle Paul.

  (2Cor 6:14-18; Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness: or what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you, and I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord.) (We should as did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob understand, the fallacy and danger of choosing mates from the pagans.) 

  (Gen 22:20-24; After these things Abraham was told, “Milcah also has borne children to your brother “Nahor” – Uz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram), Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” (Now Bethuel became the father of Rebekah.) These were the eight sons Milcah bore to Abraham’s brother Nahor. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore him children – Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.)

  (Gen 23:1-9; Sarah lived 127 years. Then she died in Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Then Abraham got up from mourning his dead wife and said to the sons of Heth, “I am a temporary settler among you. Grant me ownership of a burial site among you so that I may bury my dead.” The sons of Heth answered Abraham, “Listen, sir, you are a mighty prince among us! You may bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb to prevent you from burying your dead.” Abraham got up and bowed down to the local people, the sons of Heth. Then he said to them, “If you agree that I may bury my dead, then hear me out. Ask Ephron the son of Zohar if he will sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me publicly for the full price, so that I may own it as a burial site.)

  Years forward, Abraham’s grandson Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel, ask that his bones be carried to this burial place and Joseph saw to it. Abraham and descendants believed in the resurrections of the dead.

  (Gen 23:10-20; Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. Ephron the Hethite replied to Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth – before all who entered the gate of his city – “No, my lord! Hear me out. I sell you both the field and the cave that is in it. In the presence of my people I sell it to you. Bury your dead.” Abraham bowed before the local people and said to Ephron in their hearing, “Hear me, if you will. I pay to you the price of the field. Take it from me so that I may bury my dead there.” Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, “Hear me, my lord. The land is worth pieces of silver, but what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.” So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and weighed out for him the price that Ephron had quoted in the hearing of the sons of Heth – pieces of silver, according to the standard measurement at the time. So Abraham secured Ephron’s field in Machpelah, next to Mamre, including the field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field and all around its border, as his property in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who entered the gate of Ephron’s city. After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah next to Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So Abraham secured the field and the cave that was in it as a burial site from the sons of Heth.) (God would later give these lands to the Israelites and in the Millennium He will re-establish Israel there.)

  (Gen 24:1-9; Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in everything. Abraham said to his servant, the senior one in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh so that I may make you solemnly promise by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living. You must go instead to the country of my relatives to find a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant asked him, “What if the woman is not willing to come back with me to this land? Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” “Be careful never to take my son back there!” Abraham told him. “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, promised me with a solemn oath, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send His angel before you so that you may find a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to come back with you, you will be free from this oath of mine. But you must not take my son back there!” So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and gave his solemn promise he would carry out his wishes.  (Abraham believed his brothers knew the ways of God.)

  (Gen 24:10-14; Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed with all kinds of gifts from his master at his disposal. He journeyed to the region of Aram Naharaim and the city of Nahor. (Abraham’s brother) He made the camels kneel down by the well outside the city. It was evening, the time when the women would go out to draw water. He prayed, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, guide me today. Be faithful to my master Abraham. Here I am, standing by the spring, and the daughters of the people who live in the town are coming out to draw water. I will say to a young woman, ‘Please lower your jar so I may drink.’ May the one You have chosen for your servant Isaac reply, ‘Drink, and I’ll give your camels water too.’ In this way I will know that you have been faithful to my master.) (Abraham’s servants were circumcised and taught the ways of Abraham’s God. They had witnessed God’s goodness toward Abraham.)

  (Review Gen 24:15-31; See Rebekah’s response to Abraham’s servant. “      Nothing is impossible with God, He preplans events and conditions for His chosen. Review Gal 3:29, to see Paul’s revelations regarding Jesus and Abraham’s heirs.

  God the Father calls, gives desire and grants His gift of turning to Himself. Our being saved has nothing to do with works, only our believing IN Jesus as did Abraham. God opens the Holy Scriptures to our understanding and for His purpose. Remember and review Paul’s conversion? (See Acts 9)

  People whose minds are locked in denominationalism must have their minds supernaturally opened. Why? We inherited a self serving nature and when one of Satan’s many lies are believed, biblical scripture must be twisted to support it. (God’s teaching principle is; ‘seek revelations while going through one book or letter entirely, use supporting text of the prophets, apostles and Jesus.) It may not be natural to realize that God know every wrinkle in our inherited character, until He reveals Himself. He leads us to confess lawlessness in His view, our shortcomings and ask for repentance: Then God puts His chosen in His church. Believers IN become temples of God’s spirit.

  (1Cor 18:19-20; Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.)When we believe IN Jesus as He’s manifested to be in the Holy Scriptures, we’re His church. To avoid persecutions we may have to go underground. Jude wrote about that and why: we’re in times like that now.

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   To be born from above, ‘born again’ is to be gifted with a new nature, unlike the one inherited from Adam and like Jesus’. Not something to boast about, ‘knowing it wasn’t earned but gifted by promised grace as was Isaac’s birth. So it was with Israel’s deliverance and each Christians gifted desire and effort. Allow Jesus’ apostle Paul’s explanation. (Phil 2:12-13; So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, for the One bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort — for the sake of His good pleasure — is God.) (Our being made in God’s image & likeness is for His purpose.)

   God the Father and God the Son said; “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” Gen 1:26)

   Because we’re created in God’s likeness we are able to develop, create, plan, choose and procreate in His likeness. We aren’t controlled by created instinct as are all other land and water breathers. We’re created to grow and form His loving attributes, so as to be content and joyful of spirit. Since Adam and Eve; every human birth is a procreation through birth in water. Women know new birth is near when their water breaks. (This is being born of water and flesh.)

   God is spirit and re-creates a chosen people in His spiritual likeness by His ‘gifted spiritual rebirth so people’s desires are one with God.’

   Jesus explained this miracle to Nicodemus. (John 3:5-8; I tell you the solemn truth unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’ The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.)

   Rebirth can’t be obtained through some doing methodology, its only by a predestined covenant promise as was Isaac’s birth. Now Abraham’s heir’s represents two covenants. In our last study, we considered Paul’s teaching for  called Believers in Jesus. (Review Galatians 4:21-31)

   Called to believe in Jesus people are as Isaac; ‘by predestined promise.’ Meaning, if we believe IN Jesus we’re chosen by grace and through promise. Believers in and followers of Jesus: through His faith are gifted with eternal life. These who stay the course will be in the first spiritual resurrection.

   Remember Sarah was jealous when Ishmael teased Isaac and wanted Hagar and Ishmael sent away. God told Abraham to do as Sarah wanted because both his sons would become a great people.

  (Genesis 21:14-21; Early in the morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child and sent her away. So she went wandering aimlessly through the wilderness of Beer Sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved the child under one of the shrubs. Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot away; for she thought, “I refuse to watch the child die.” So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably. But God heard the boy’s voice.

   The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy’s voice right where he is crying. Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God enabled Hagar to see a well of water. She went over and filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer. He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt.)

   Hopefully we each see God’s working out His purpose on earth. He has made Ishmael’s descendants into a great people. (Abraham sent Isaac and Isaac sent Jacob to find wives among “Terah’s” family. The genealogy through which is David and Jesus’.

   (Gen 21:22-34; “At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. Now swear to me right here in God’s name that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. Show me and the land where you are staying, the same loyalty that I have shown you.” Abraham said, “I swear to do this, but Abraham lodged a complaint against Abimelech concerning a well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.” I do not know who has done this thing, Abimelech replied. Moreover, you did not tell me. I did not hear about it until today.

   Abraham took some sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a treaty. Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs apart from the flock by themselves. Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” He replied, “You must take these seven ewe lambs from my hand as legal proof that I dug this well.” That is why Abraham named that place Beer Sheba, because the two of them swore an oath there. So they made a treaty at Beer Sheba.

   Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer Sheba. There he worshiped the Lord, the eternal God. So Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for quite some time.)

   Abimelech and the Philistines worshiped gods of tradition, manufactured, imagined gods that evolve with time. Only Abraham’s eternal God’s Ways are absolute, unchanging and unalterable. He’s the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end. He and God His Father have planned His return, Satan’s being bound, then loosed for a little season, after which there’s judgment of evil. Then New Jerusalem, whose twelve gates are named for the twelve tribes of Israel and twelve foundations for the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

   Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Caleb and Joshua are examples of predestined people’s faith in the Eternal God. Their and each believer’s faith and love of God‘s Way is by promise as was Isaac’s birth. Genuine belief in God’s words make a people righteous in His View.

   Israel’s promised deliverance and God’s covenant was conditional, “if you obey, & if you walk in My statutes.” Israel’s history is documented for our learning and example. (Paul explained at Romans 15:1-6, review it.) Fleshly organized religions don’t grasp that Jesus is, Creator, Sustainer, Abraham’s Lord God and the Rock that delivered Israel, nor Jesus sustaining all.

   (Hebrews 1:1-4; After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, in these last days He has spoken to us in a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He created the world. The Son is the radiance of His glory and the representation of His essence and He sustains all things by His powerful word and so when He had accomplished cleansing for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Thus He became so far better than the angels as He has inherited a name superior to theirs.) (One can’t believe this and think mankind can control the weather!)

   Our New Covenant as was the old, is by promise to those who are obedient through faith in Jesus’ deeds. It isn’t conditional but by promise. Jesus explains through His apostle Paul.

   Ephesians 2:4-10; But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! and He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For, we are His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.)

   It isn’t about, “if you do, if you obey or if you do penitence.” Genuine followers of Jesus, obey through gifted loving faith in the One who gave His life for the remission of sin.’ Through that gifted faith, ‘believers are born from above’, ‘fathered by God’, given a desire to love as Jesus loves and be AT ONE with the Father and the Son. Jesus explained.

   (John 6:37-40; Everyone whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never send away. For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of the One who sent Me. Now this is the will of the One who sent Me – that I should not lose one person of every one He has given Me, but raise them all up at the Last Day. For this is the will of My Father – for everyone who looks on the Son and believes IN Him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day.)

   Jesus was keeping the seventh of seven annual Sabbaths; (Last Great Day - the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles) when He stood up and spoke. (John 7:37-39; On the Last Day of the feast, the Greatest Day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and let the one who believes IN Me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’ (Now He said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed IN Him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

   We should have grasped from above that God our Father calls, gives the desire, chooses, opens minds and fathers whom He will. When one of Satan’s many lies is believed and people think it’s supported by biblical scripture, other text have to be twisted to support the lie.

  God’s revelation is a must for spiritual comprehension. When the fleshly minded locked on particular verses of scripture for doctrinal accuracy they aren’t spiritually rational.

   (1Cor 2:12-16; Now we (apostles) have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.) (Also see 1Cor 18:19-20; Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.)

   God does desire that we assemble for the purpose of worship. (For where two or three are assembled in My name, I am there among them. Matt 18:20) Assembling together in Jesus’ nature is church.

   As in the apostles’ day; (believers IN are often forced underground because of persecution. Worshiping secretly for protection may be the right thing in many communities.) Abraham and Sarah descendants kept to themselves; away from immediate family for the most part. Abraham’s dad, “Tarah” had two other sons, “Nahor and Hiran” it was to them that he and Isaac sent their son’s to find wives.

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 Set aside people like Abraham and followers of Jesus are in but not of this world, so when the need is to keep holy times holy and be around folks practicing anything but; the need is spiritual, soundness of mind, a calm demeanor and being in instant prayer. Realize the worlds comfort zones are many, and being in them is their worship.

   God’s callings, interventions and revealing of Himself is apparent in the book of Genesis as in the New Testament covenant with His chosen. Some like King Abimelech and his subjects have respect for God as they envision Him. After God revealed to the king that Sarah was Abraham’s wife; Early in the morning he summoned all his servants and told them about all these things, then they were all terrified. Gen 20:8)

   God revealed and called Abraham; setting him above all others for His purposes, making Isaac the son by promise, choosing grandson Jacob, whose name He changed to Israel. (Meaning - God fights)  (Gen 21:8-10; The child (Isaac) grew and was weaned. Abraham prepared a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah noticed the son of Hagar the Egyptian – the son whom Hagar had borne to Abraham – mocking. So she said to Abraham, “Banish that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave woman will not be an heir along with my son Isaac!”) Again, God allows us to see the shortcomings of His called out people. Jealously is never a good thing. However God can and often does allow a fleshly wrong in working things out for His purpose.

  Jacob’s son Joseph’s life is a good example. What his brothers intended for harm worked out for all Israel’s good. (Physical and spiritual Israelites - Christians.) Now let’s skip to Gen 50 & consider Joseph’s understanding.

   (Gen 50:19-21; But Joseph answered them. (his brothers) Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. So now, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little children. Then he consoled them and spoke kindly to them.)

   (Gen 21:11-13; Sarah’s demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset about the boy or your slave wife. Do all that Sarah is telling you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted. But I will also make the son of the slave wife into a great nation, for he is your descendant too.) (We will see the allegory of these two descendants. One representing bondage and the other freedom by promise. This truth was revealed to Jesus’ apostles and Paul taught it to Believers IN.)

   (Galatians 4:21-31; Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise. These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the (spiritual) Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother. For it is written: (Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1) “Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains, because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.” But you, (believers IN) brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac. But just as at that time the one born by natural descent persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now. But what does the scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the son” of the free woman. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.)

   Jesus and His apostles quoted Moses and the prophets often. The book of Genesis helps us understand mercy, grace and predestination. Paul and each apostle understood that, The Lord God Jesus was Abraham’s Lord. Now lets look at Jesus’ prophecy through Isaiah regarding Abraham’s physical and spiritual heirs in the age to come.

   (Isaiah 54:1-15; Shout for joy, O barren one (Sarah) who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! “For the children of the desolate one (Hagar) are more numerous than the children of the married woman” says the Lord. Make your tent larger, stretch your tent curtains farther out! Spare no effort, lengthen your ropes, and pound your stakes deep. (prove all things, hold fast to good) For you (Israelites-Believers IN–Christians) will spread out to the right and to the left; your children will conquer nations and will resettle desolate cities. Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame! Don’t be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated! You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth; you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. For your husband (Jesus) is the One who made you – the Lord who commands armies is His name. He is your Protector, the Holy One of Israel. He is called “God of the entire earth.” “Indeed, the Lord will call you back like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God. “For a short time I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily, but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,” says your Protector, the Lord. “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood would never again cover the earth. In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you. Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, My devotion will not be removed from you, nor will My covenant of (promise) friendship be displaced,” says the Lord, the One who has compassion on you. “O afflicted one, driven away, and un-consoled! Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony and I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli. I will make your pinnacles out of gems, your gates out of beryl, and your outer wall out of beautiful stones. All your children will be followers of the Lord, and your children will enjoy great prosperity. You will be reestablished when I vindicate you. You will not experience oppression; indeed, you will not be afraid. You will not be terrified, for nothing frightening will come near you. If anyone dares to challenge you, it will not be My doing! Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated. Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. I create the destroyer so he might devastate. No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed; you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. This is what the Lord will do for his servants – I will vindicate them,” says the Lord.)

    Remember the word (Israel - means God fights.) These are promises to Abraham’s heirs, both physical and spiritual! for millennial reign and New Jerusalem.

   Protestants, Muslims, Catholicism, Hindus etc. do not know our Creator. Each subscribe to a god of their imagination, one permitting them to make changes to that prescribed way. Subscribing to demonic practices, differing and divisionary for the purpose of separating people for advantage and make merchandise of people. (Each group deceived, as Jesus said they would be.) A doctrinal similarity is their immortality beliefs, originating from Satan‘s first lie. (Restudy Genesis 3)

  (Jesus said; “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it. But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to (eternal) life, and there are few who find it.” Matt 7:13-14). Meaning; eternal life isn’t automatic.

   Religions read Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Jesus’ apostles, but practice traditions of men, like Balaam, Moloch and those who days of the week are named for. Teaching people live forever someplace, and make various interpretations of their immortality doctrine, as seems reasonable to the fleshly mind. Their particular philosophical writings supports their immortality beliefs. (Protestantism hang to Jesus’ parable about the result of a rich and poor man’s dying, “to support their, “heaven - hell” immortality theory.) Ignore, prophets, Jesus and His apostles’ teaching about the resurrections and God’s planned last day judgment. (John 10:26-28; But you refuse to believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand.) Eternal life is gifted! Not born with! It’s revealed teaching to God‘s chosen. (Review Matt 13:10-15; about why Jesus spoke in parables.) (Review Rev 20:13-15; about Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.)     

   A destroying fire is prophesied, at the end of the millennia and perhaps before New Jerusalem comes down. Jesus may have been alluding to this in His, rich man parable. (Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations “again” at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the Saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever.” Rev 20:7-10)

   People like the rich man in Jesus’ parable, refusing to believe will die a second death. (Review Rev 21:5-8)

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  Today at sunset Greek/Eastern Orthodox Catholics and followers will began celebrating their Christmas. Neither of the two Christendom groups teach the real Jesus, but He’s revealed as being the essence of God the Father. Allow Jesus’ apostle Paul revealed words. (Colossians 1:9-14; For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects — bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Preeminence of Christ

(Col 1:15-20; He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for all things in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him “Jesus” should all fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.)

   Isaiah, other prophets and Jesus’ apostle Paul wrote about Jesus’ deity, attributes and characteristics. Accordingly, people need to be careful about Satan’s deceptions through various religions, cults and organizations.

  (Col 2:8-15; Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy; vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For, in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you “Believers IN” are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also you are circumcised “made clean” with the circumcision made without hands, (a spiritual cleansing) in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision (cleansing) of Christ: Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the FAITH of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the un-circumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.) (REMEMBER JESUS SAID THE WHOLE world would be deceived, and Christendom parallels with the rest! Through vain deceit and the traditions of men who want the world hostile toward the God family.)

  The New Covenant is about a supernatural and spiritual circumcision of the heart; ‘a new birth from above’ replacing the old sin nature and the un-circumcised fleshly nature. (To God’s church at Rome and all Believers, Paul said it best. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.) Romans 8:8-9

    In Genesis we read about gentiles and even the tribe of Judah subscribing to the demonic notion of sacrificing their children to the manufactured god Moloch. (These justified such atrocious worship from the demonic belief that all people are born to live forever someplace, and led by demonic forces to think sacrificed children would serve Moloch in a better place.) A few months back, the news media reported a mother killed her two children in order to send them to heaven. This sort of demonic thinking is still a major belief among all major religions. Such as when children die, they all go to heaven. (Re-study Genesis 3:1-7; and prayerfully consider God’s truth, opposed to this demonic lie.) Taking this immortality belief to extremes, some justify blowing themselves up to kill others in the name of their god.

   Fleshly thinking parents of all major religions ignorantly sacrifice their children through false education, to gods of their imagination.

   Now back to Genesis where God allows us to see Lot’s human, shortcomings and that result. It wasn’t faith in God that caused Lot to offer his daughters, he was humanly hypocritical and weak. Likewise his allowing himself to become overly intoxicated shows his weak fleshly humanity. His Daughters likewise yielded to demonic thinking, God later judged their offspring; the Moabites and Ben-Ammi.

  Jesus’ apostles understood the result of demonic life styles and rebellious people. Speaking of them, Peter wrote in part.

   (2Peter 2:5-10; If God did not spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world and if God turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when He condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, and if God rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, (for while Lot lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) – if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment, especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority.)

  Though a weak individual, Lot knew and respected his Creator. Peter may have had access to Lot’s writing, to know that he had anguish over the lifestyles of the people of Sodom. Likewise, God allows us to see some weakness in faithful Abraham. We are about to witness Abraham’s making the same mistake; now twice palming Sarah off as his sister.

   (Gen 20:1-7; Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident in Gerar, Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her. But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, would you really slaughter an innocent nation? Did Abraham not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience and with innocent hands!” Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. That is why I have kept you from sinning against Me and why I did not allow you to touch her. But now give back the man’s wife. Indeed he is a prophet and he will pray for you; thus you will live. But if you don’t give her back, know that you will surely die along with all who belong to you.)

   God allowed Lot and Abraham’s mistakes to be known for our learning. Abimelech’s story is for our learning. Remember, Abraham was God’s prophet and friend.

   (Gen 20:8-18; Early in the morning Abimelech summoned all his servants. When he told them about all these things, they were terrified. Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done!” Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What prompted you to do this thing?” Abraham replied, “Because I thought, ‘surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’ What’s more, she is indeed my sister, my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s daughter. She became my wife. When God made me wander from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.” So Abimelech gave sheep, cattle, and male and female servants to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him. Then Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you; live wherever you please.” To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your ‘brother.’ This is compensation for you so that you will stand vindicated before all who are with you.” Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children. For, the Lord had caused infertility to strike every woman in the household of Abimelech because he took Sarah, Abraham’s wife.)

  Is anything impossible with the Lord.? Abimelech knew more about God than Abraham expected. Consider, “Abraham and all Believers IN are not taught by human wisdom, but by revelation.” Allow Jesus’ apostle Paul’s explanation.

  (1Cor 2:10-16; God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we “Believers IN” have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may KNOW the things that are freely given to us by God. And we speak about these things, NOT with words TAUGHT by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. The unbeliever DOES NOT receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we “Believers IN” have the mind of Christ.)

   Educators deliberately, some ignorantly, suppress truth about Creation. Unbelievers have a natural enmity against God. (Review Romans 8:7) They have a built in desire to ways around yielding to & teaching ‘commandments’ of our Creator. When people desire disobedience God allows blindness. When people interpret according to what seems correct to their human intellect, God allows blindness.

   God’s covenants with Abraham are, New Covenant principles, including physical land borders that his heirs are yet to inherit completely. Abraham’s descendants are of many nations and his spiritual heirs are by promise. Promises by grace are through Jesus’ faith: meaning, they’re chosen from the foundation of the world.

  (Gen 21:1-7; The Lord visited Sarah just as He had said He would and did for Sarah what He had promised. So Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him. Abraham named his son – whom Sarah bore to him – Isaac. When his son ‘Isaac’ was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do. (Now, Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.) Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, ‘glad.’ Everyone who hears about this will laugh (be glad) with me.” She went on to say, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”)

  Isaac was miraculously born by promise! Followers of Jesus are saved by promise. Isaac’s birth was exactly as God preplanned. This age of human rule will end exactly as God has preplanned.

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   God chose Abraham, gave perpetual covenants to him and his descendants, which includes genuine followers of Jesus. (See Gal 3:29)These have the same long term covenant promises given Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – Israel. So permanent they include another deliverance of Israel to the promised lands, for starters (See Isa 22, 35, 51, 53, 65, Jeremiah 31, and Amos 9:11-15) AND the twelve foundations of New Jerusalem are already named for the twelve tribes. Our Creator has all the details for our and this world’s saving planned, His plans can’t be frustrated and Israel’s persecutors will be punished.

   (Isaiah 14:24-27; The LORD who commands armies makes this solemn vow: “Be sure of this: Just as I have intended, so it will be; just as I have planned, it will happen. I will break Assyria in My land, I will trample them underfoot on My hills. Their yoke will be removed from My people, the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth; My hand is ready to strike all the nations.” Indeed, the LORD who commands armies has a plan, and who can possibly frustrate it?

MORE COVENANT PROMISES

   (Gen 18:1- The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest time of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing across from him. When he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. (Angelic beings appearing in physical form aren’t uncommon. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus’ 12 apostles experiences Angels.) Abraham said, “My Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant. Let a little water be brought so that you may all wash your feet and rest under the tree. And let me get a bit of food so that you may refresh yourselves since you have passed by your servant’s home. After that you may be on your way.”

   “All right” they replied, “you may do as you say.” So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Take three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread.” Then Abraham ran to the herd and chose a fine, tender calf, and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it. Abraham then took some curds and milk, along with the calf that had been prepared and placed the food before them. They ate while he was standing near them under a tree.

   Then they asked him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He replied, “There, in the tent.” One of them said, “I will surely return to you when the season comes round again, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” (Now, Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; Sarah had long since passed menopause.)

   So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, especially when my husband is old too?” (One of the three angelic beings may have been Jesus. Nevertheless, God the Father and God the Son are represented.)

    As was Isaac’s birth, the New Covenant is by promise, mercy and grace, established with God’s faithful servants, friends like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and spiritual descendents. This world is yet going to be blessed beyond human imagination, through Jesus and Abraham’s physical and spiritual descendents. (Review Galatians 3:23-29 and know that followers of Jesus are heirs with Abraham.)

  (Isaiah 14:24-The LORD who commands armies makes this solemn vow: “Be sure of this: Just as I have intended, so it will be; just as I have planned, it will happen. I will break Assyria in my land, I will trample them underfoot on my hills. Their yoke will be removed from my people, the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth; my hand is ready to strike all the nations.” Indeed, the LORD who commands armies has a plan, and who can possibly frustrate it? His hand is ready to strike, and who can possibly stop it?

MORE COVENANT PROMISES

   (GEN 1:15- Then Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. But the LORD said, “No! You did laugh.” When the men got up to leave, they looked out over Sodom. (Now Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.) Then the LORD said, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? After all, Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using his name. I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just. Then the LORD will give to Abraham what he promised him.”

   So the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant that I must go down and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. If not, I want to know.”

Abraham Intercedes for Sodom

  He kept asking if Sodom could be spared if certain ones were godly. (Gen18:22-19:22; Finally Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

    The LORD went on His way when He had finished speaking to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home.

   The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground. He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” But he urged them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate. Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men — both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom — surrounded the house. They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!” Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him.

  He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly! Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” “Out of our way!” they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! We’ll do more harm to you than to them!” They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door. (Now it seems that only the two angels are in Lot’s house.)

   So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness. The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door. Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? Get them out of this place because we are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place is so great before the LORD that He has sent us to destroy it.”

   Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. At dawn the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!”

    When Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the LORD had compassion on them. They led them away and placed them outside the city. When they had brought them outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”  But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die. Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.” “Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned. Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)

God Destroys Sodom

   (Gen 19:23-26; The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar. Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the LORD. So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt.

    (Gen 19:27- got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD. He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.

Lot and His Daughters

   Gen 19:30-38; Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. Later the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby to have sexual relations with us, according to the way of all the world. Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine so we can have sexual relations with him and preserve our family line through our father.” So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, “Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.”  So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today. (Note these are among the people whose lands were given to Israel some 400 plus years later.)

To: 34,900 subscribers to original Jerusalem Church of God teaching.

  Jesus nor did apostles ever intended His church be an organization, licensed by governments for tax exemptions or otherwise. His church was, is and always be an organism of God, called individual believers gifted with ‘The Holy Spirit of truth’, ‘born from above’ with the desire to be at One with Jesus and one another. Only through His spirit is it possible to make people of various ethnicities of His choosing One. 

  From what we know of Abraham’s life; God’s revealed and leading him from Ur; he never serve gods of his imagination nor made idols. Likewise we know Jesus came through Shem’s descendents and that Noah was complementary of Shem’s worship. (See Gen 9:26) We don’t know that Terah, ‘Abraham’s father’ made or looked to idols.’

   However, by time we get to descendent ‘Laban - the Syrian, Jacob’s father in law’, we see his daughter ‘Rachel stealing his idol and he chasing to get it back.’ The point: ‘making physical and mental idols for the purpose of worship runs deep in human history.’ Our inherited nature with demonic help pulls toward worshiping imaginations of the mind. God constantly warned the Israelites, through Moses and other prophets, not to fall victim to such idolatry.

  (2Kings 17:12-13; For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, ‘you shall not do this thing.’ Yet the LORD testified against Israel and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, (turn you from YOUR evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.)

   As Jesus prophesied: Modern day Christendom practice the same sins; turn to a pagan calendar and ways of Baal and Moloch. Ways of the people whose sins caused God to give their lands to the Israel. Why can’t people understand that God hides His face from them when they hold to the traditions of Baal? How can Christendom expect our Creator to hear their prayers when they practice paganism, and go from God’s Way? From God’s view, what should we think of ourselves? Jesus tells us through Isaiah.

  (Isaiah 64:8; But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, You our Potter; and we all are the work of Your hand.) We should examine this world’s customs, traditions, origins, and consider God’s previous judgments on Israel? It shouldn’t be difficult in their fleshly minds to think of themselves as clay and God the Potter; but if not yielded to God in this manner we are not of His sheep. When Abraham looked back on his life of faith, he had no problem realizing that he was the clay.

 (Gen 17:1-8; When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the sovereign God. Walk before Me and be blameless. Then I will confirm My covenant between Me and you, and I will give you a multitude of descendants.” Abram bowed down with his face to the ground, and God said to him, “As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer will your name be Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham because I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you extremely fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. I will confirm My covenant as a perpetual ‘as an eternal covenant’ between Me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. (Remember and review Galatians 3:29) I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent possession. I will be their God.)

   God’s covenant extends to spiritual Israel (Jews) who are called to be Christ like. All His covenant promises have spiritual intents and permanent. (His new with believers in Jesus is different from His covenant through Moses, for Israel in that the old covenant’s law was their guardian and conditional.) God’s New Covenant through Jesus is by promise, grace and faith, “as was His covenant with Abraham.” Through God’s calling and the imputation of His spirit; He makes its recipients pliable and at one with Himself.

  God’s covenant with the Israel was, “if you obey, if you keep, then I will confirm.” It’s the spiritual gifted love for God’s Way that leads believers in Jesus, (Christians) to genuine repentance. It’s gifted repentance toward God for having lived according to the flesh. (The old covenant looked forward to when circumcision would be of the heart - mind.) (See Romans 2:28) The ten commandments spiritual intent is for our good.

  (Deut 10:13-16; Keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving you today for your own good? The heavens – indeed the highest heavens – belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. However, only to your ancestors did He show His loving favor, and He chose you, their descendants, from all peoples – as is apparent today. Therefore, cleanse (circumcise) the foreskin of your heart and stop being so stubborn!) (Hebrew; “circumcise the foreskin of.” Reference is to the Abraham covenant prompts Moses to recall the sign of that covenant, namely, physical circumcision. (Gen 17:9-14) (As that act signified total covenant obedience, so spiritual circumcision ‘cleansing of the heart’ signifies a more internally: ‘a commitment to be pliable and obedient to the will of God.) (See also. Deut 30:6; Jer 4:4; 9:26)

  (Deut 10:17-22; For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, who justly treats the orphan and widow, and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing. So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. Revere the Lord your God, serve Him, be loyal to Him and take oaths only in His name. He is the One you should praise; He is your God, the One who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen. When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.) (Can we see that God’s law hinges on Godly love?) Love beyond fleshly human choice and instinct.

  (Gen 17:9-14; Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: Every male among you must be circumcised. You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskins. This will be a reminder of the covenant between Me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants. They must indeed be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of My covenant will be visible in your flesh as a permanent reminder. Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off from his people – he has failed to carry out My requirement.)

  Physical circumcision should be done with the understanding “that it foreshadows the deeper spiritual meaning; circumcision of the heart - mind.” Concerning Abraham’s latter day descendents, Moses was led to prophesy about future millennial Israelites.

  (Deut 30:5-7 Then God will bring you to the land your ancestors possessed and you also will possess it; He will do better for you and multiply you more than He did your ancestors. The Lord your God will also cleanse (circumcise) your heart and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love Him with all your mind and being; so that you may live. (So you may inherit eternal life.) Then the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hate you and persecute you. You will return and obey the Lord, keeping all His commandments I am giving you today.)

  It’s a foregone conclusion: Moses understood the persecution, latter day spiritual Israelites, ‘Christians’ would face. (It’s by promise, God will cleanse, so we may love Him.) We cannot love God as He loves us, except we be gifted with a new nature!

  (Gen 17:15-16; Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; Sarah will be her name. I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. Kings of countries will come from her!) By promise, all God’s promises through faith are as through Isaac and his descendents.

  (Gen 17:17-18; Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed as he said to himself, “Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live before you!) Rightfully, Abraham loved Ishmael. Bestow these blessings on Ishmael was Abraham’s prayer.

  (Gen 17:19-22; God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm My covenant with him as a perpetual covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful and give him a multitude of descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes; I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year. When he finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.”)

  Isaac represents, being saved by grace and the gift of promise. Isaac had done no good or bad work, but God’s planned saving grace through him.

  (Gen 17:23-27; Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male in his household (whether born in his house or bought with money) and circumcised them on that very same day, just as God had told him to do. Now Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised; his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the very same day. All the men of his household, whether born in his household or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.)

  It’s safe to assume; Abraham also shared his faith. Now Abraham and Sarah are about to entertain three special guest.