Israel

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God’s People Want to Know

Israel Genesis 12:1-3 Dr. Stephen Rummage, Senior Pastor Bell Shoals Baptist Church July 30, 2017 Genesis 12:1 (ESV) Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. Genesis 12:2 (ESV) And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:3 (ESV) I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

1. We can see the significance of Israel in … Bible History Genesis 13:16 (ESV) I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Genesis 15:5 (ESV) And He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Genesis 15:13 (ESV) Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. Genesis 15:18 (ESV) On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, Genesis 15:19 (ESV) the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, Genesis 15:20 (ESV) the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, Genesis 15:21 (ESV) the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Deuteronomy 28:1 (ESV) And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. Deuteronomy 28:2 (ESV) And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 28:15 (ESV) But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Deuteronomy 28:63 (ESV) And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Deuteronomy 28:64 (ESV) “And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Jeremiah 29:10 (ESV) For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you My promise and bring you back to this place. Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

God’s promises to Israel … God promised to make a great nation of Abraham’s descendants. God promised to give Israel the land of Canaan, a very specific place. God promised to bless those who bless Israel and to curse those who curse Israel. God promised to bless all the earth through Israel, culminating in the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. God proved faithful to keep His promises, even when Israel was unfaithful.

2. We can see the significance of Israel in … More Recent Centuries

Matthew 24:1 (ESV) Jesus left the temple and was going away, when His disciples came to point out to Him the buildings of the temple. Matthew 24:2 (ESV) But He answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” Romans 11:1 (ESV) I ask, then, has God rejected His people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. Romans 11:2a (ESV) God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Genesis 17:7 (ESV) And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. Genesis 17:8 (ESV) And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

3. We can see the significance of Israel in … Future Prophecy Matthew 23:37 (ESV) “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Matthew 23:38 (ESV) See, your house is left to you desolate. Matthew 23:39 (ESV) For I tell you, you will not see Me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ” Luke 21:24 (ESV) They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Romans 11:25 (ESV) Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Romans 11:26 (ESV) And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”

Jeremiah 30:7 (ESV) Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 23:3 (ESV) Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. Jeremiah 23:4 (ESV) I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:5 (ESV) Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. Jeremiah 23:6 (ESV) In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ Ezekiel 39:28 (ESV) Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. Zechariah 12:10 (ESV) And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

The future for Israel … Israel will endure a final and great time of trouble, to be delivered by the Messiah, Jesus. Israel as a whole will turn to Jesus as their Messiah. God will gather all of Israel together in the Promised Land, and Jesus will reign over them. The new Jerusalem will be an eternal place for the redeemed of all the ages. Revelation 21:10 (ESV) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, Revelation 21:11 (ESV) having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

Revelation 21:12 (ESV) It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— Revelation 21:13 (ESV) on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. Revelation 21:14 (ESV) And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

4. We can see the significance of Israel in … All Eternity Romans 9:4 (ESV) They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. Romans 9:5 (ESV) To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Deuteronomy 7:6 (ESV) For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deuteronomy 7:7 (ESV) It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, Deuteronomy 7:8 (ESV) but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:9 (ESV) Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations, Deuteronomy 7:10 (ESV) and repays to their face those who hate Him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates Him. He will repay him to his face.

Moving forward in blessing Israel … “Make Israel jealous” by loving the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with all your heart through Jesus the Messiah.

Romans 11:11 (ESV) So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Look for opportunities to share the message of Jesus with Jewish people. Romans 9:3 (ESV) For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for the welfare of Israel. Psalm 122:6-7 (ESV) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!” Show Jewish people that their best friends on earth are those who follow Jesus.