Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible Part in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is Part #5 of Genesis, chapter 17 and we will read Genesis 17:3-8:

And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

We were looking in our last Part at the Hebrew word “go-ee” that was translated as “nations” in verses 4, 5 and 6. We saw that God declared this promise to Abram at the point of changing his name. The name “Abraham” means “father of a multitude.” That is why God said, “for a father of many nations have I made thee.” We went to some verses where the Hebrew word “go-ee” was translated as “Gentiles,” so this verse could also be understood to read, “For a father of many Gentiles have I made thee.” We know that God’s salvation program was a plan to save both Jew and Gentile and to turn any that were saved in to “spiritual Jews.” We looked at Romans, chapter 2 where God said, “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh,” referring to being circumcised outwardly. Instead, it said, “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart,” and that would be an impossible thing to perform physically or literally. It must be understood spiritually to identify with salvation.

Therefore, it is salvation that makes one a “Jew,” spiritually speaking, and that is why God uses the figure of “new Jerusalem” or heavenly Jerusalem, which is our eternal home in the kingdom of heaven. Through salvation, we are all spiritual Jews that have obtained citizenship in the city Jerusalem or “Jerusalem above.” That is why God speaks of Abraham’s seed in our passage and He said, “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” We know this is not speaking of the physical Jews, but it is speaking of the spiritual Jews and the ones that become identified with the “seed” of Abraham in the salvation that God wrought for them, as it says in Galatians 3:16:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

We always have to look first to Christ – He is the promised seed, singular. It would not make any sense to speak of Abraham being the father of many nations or Gentiles and for it to identify with the single seed or Christ, but God went on to explain in Galatians 3:28:

There is neither Jew nor Greek…

The word “Greek” can be understood as “Gentile.” Again, it says in Galatians 3:28-29:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

The Lord just said here that you can be either Jew or Gentile, but you are one in Christ, “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed,” even if you are not a Jew. That is the big truth that the nation of Israel missed as they read our passage in Genesis or the verses that we read in Isaiah. It was right there before their eyes, but they had no understanding of it. And it was missed even among God’s elect that were of the nation of Israel early in the New Testament era, as it took some convincing to show forth that the Gentiles were to be fellow heirs.

We are going to continue to look at some of these verses because it is good for us to have a solid understanding of this truth because it helps us to see “progressive revelation” in action. In the Old Testament it was not understood, but at a certain point in history the Lord intended for His people to understand it in the proper time and season, so He began to open their eyes. They began to see these scriptures and understand what they had not understood before. This is also what God began to do at the end as He began to make a transition, just as He did in the first century A.D. when He made the transition from the corporate body of national Israel to the new corporate body of the New Testament churches. The time of the end began in 1988, but especially in 1994, God began to open the scriptures to reveal a great many truths that had previously been sealed and hidden until the time of the end. From that point to our present time and in to the future of our present Judgment Day period, the Lord will bring further understanding. From what we are learning in the Bible, Judgment Day may be a 40-year period of time, inclusively. Judgment began at the house of God, as the Bible tells us in 1Peter 4:17, and it continued throughout the 23-year Great Tribulation and in to the prolonged judgment upon the whole world. Throughout this judgment period, God has a plan of “revelation,” as it says in Romans 2:5: “…the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” That is where we find ourselves in our day.

Abraham, the father of a multitude, was given his name because he would be a father of many nations. Last time we also looked at Isaiah 42:6 where it spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ being given for a covenant and a light to the Gentiles. Christ is in view with the covenant in Genesis 17, but He is also in view in Isaiah, chapter 49. We have already looked at Isaiah 11 and Isaiah 42, where God made fairly plain statements about His intent to save Gentiles. Remember, Jesus plainly told His disciples He would die and rise again three days later, but they failed to understand that direct statement because spiritual truth and understanding is hidden from mankind. It requires God and His Spirit to reveal it and God does so in His own timetable. He will not reveal something until He is ready to reveal it. It says in Isaiah 49:5-6:

And now, saith JEHOVAH that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of JEHOVAH, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

This refers to Christ as His servant for a light to the Gentiles. Again, this is another plain statement. He is the Lord’s servant, the Messiah. The Lord Jesus Christ would be given for a light to the Gentiles, “that thou maybes be my salvation.” It is not as though we would have to dig that deeply in these verses to find information about God’s plan to save people other than the Jews. Again, the word “Gentiles” can be translated as “nations” and Christ would be given as a light to the nations. Then it said that He would “be my salvation unto the end of the earth,” and some people attempt to use this statement to indicate that God must save people until the end of the world, but this is not speaking of “time.” It is a geographical reference to the “end of the earth,” as God’s salvation program would go to the nations that are spread all over the earth; they were not just in Israel. This is what happened, historically, as God’s salvation program was sent to Asia, Australia, North America, South America and Africa. It went to “the end of the earth,” geographically speaking. There are other verses similar to this. If you look up the phrase, “end of the earth,” you will see that it points to geography and not time. It is not speaking of it going to the last second of time on the earth, but to the last place on the earth.

Also, let us go to Isaiah 49:19-20:

For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

I need to stop and explain what it means when it says, “The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other…” It refers to that great multitude that God would save after the church age when it is as though the loss of the corporate church is like a loss of children, but afterwards God would give more children and these children would be even greater. We could look at it as those saved during the church age, the firstfruits, but at the end of the church age it is as if they are lost because there would be no more children coming forth from the churches and congregations of the world. And, yet, there was another plan and that was to bring forth many more children that would be counted for the seed from among the nations. That is similar to Cain, a type of the corrupt corporate church, killing Abel, the first “seed” of Adam and one that was truly a child of God. We can understand Abel to be a representative of the firstfruits. Then we read that when Adam was 130 (which is “10 x 13,” the completeness of earth’s history), another seed was appointed and that was Seth, which would identify with the great multitude. It fits this language: “The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.” In other words, it was too “strait” or too constricting because more room was needed for the great multitude. Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 49:21:

Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro?

At the point of the loss of the children of the church age, we were commanded to go into captivity, so we were “desolate” and a “captive.” Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 49:21:

…and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

And the answer to that question is revealed in Revelation, chapter 7 where a similar question was asked of the Lord after seeing the great multitude, in Revelation 7:13:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

We just read in Isaiah 49:21: “Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?”

Then the answer came in Revelation 7:14:

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So, we can see the connection with this second bit of evidence. First, there was the loss of earlier children and then there was the gain of additional children that were many more than the first. Then was the question: “From where did they come?” They are the great multitude brought out of Great Tribulation. Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 49:22-23:

Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers…

By the way, there is so much information in this passage. I am sorry I keep stopping to note things, but there are interesting bits of information. The word “queens” is Strong’s #8282 and the word “Sarah” is Strong’s #8283, so the word “queen” has the same spelling as “Sarah” and it as though Sarah is bringing forth. Remember what I mentioned regarding that 13-year space from Ishmael’s birth when Abram was 86 to when Abram was 99 and the time of the promise being given that Sarah would have a son. That son was being brought forth after a space of 13 years, just like Seth came forth after 130 years. The Bible said that in Isaac was the seed. The Gentiles are counted for the seed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was typified by Isaac. Again, it says in Isaiah 49:23:

And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am JEHOVAH: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

This is another reference to great salvation or large numbers of people being saved and they come forth after the first are lost, which can only identify with the great salvation that occurred at the end of God’s overall salvation plan at its conclusion; God saved the best for last.

Now let us go to Isaiah 60:1-3:

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of JEHOVAH is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Again, we see a reference to light, as it said of Christ in Isaiah 42:6 that He would be given “for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” It also said of Him in Isaiah 49:6: “I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles.” Then it said Isaiah 60:3: “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light.” It seems so clear, but this is a case where we cannot blame the people of Israel for missing it. Of course, on one level it is man’s fault that we lack spiritual sight due to sin, but that is really another matter because in regard to understanding divine revelation, God is in control. He is in complete control of everything His people understand. Just read Luke 24 where Christ is going along with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and He began to open their understanding regarding what happened on the cross and how it was not a defeat but a great victory. It says in Luke 24:45:

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

Unless God opens our understanding, there is no ability for man to understand the deeper spiritual things of God in the Word of God, the Bible. It requires that God grant us insight so man can see in the spiritual realm, comparing spiritual with spiritual. God must give spiritual sight for us to see and know these things. So, again, we cannot blame the Jews, but we can see how God held back this understanding from Israel for many centuries, depending on how far you want to go back. It was over a thousand years if you go back to the beginning of Israel in 1907 B.C. (when Jacob’s name was changed to Israel) to 33 A.D., it would be 1,940 calendar years, but they had no understanding of these things. It was at the end of the period of Israel when God rent the curtain of the temple in twain and ended His relationship with national Israel. Then in the 1st century A.D. after the cross, God decided to open up these verses to people like the Apostle Paul or Peter. Remember that Peter was shown a vision of clean and unclean animals and the Apostle Paul said that God had revealed to him a mystery in Ephesians 3:6, “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs,” along with the Jews. It was at the point of ending His relationship with Israel that God began to open the meaning of these scriptures to His people and that would lead to the formation of the churches for the New Testament era. So, again, we see that God reveals truth “after the fact,” just like when the disciples did not understand what Jesus accomplished by going to the cross until afterwards.

There are some people that think that God must reveal things prior to His doing something. And, in a manner of speaking, He does because these things are in the Bible, but insofar as people understanding what He has done it is often the case that it happens only after the event takes place; then the Lord shows His people what He has (already) done. Then we can see. God ended the church age before we knew He ended the church age and only afterwards did we learn about it. God brought judgment on the world on May 21, 2011 and afterwards we realized it was a spiritual judgment. You see, this is not “out of character” for God, but it is in keeping with how God has worked in history.