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ises of salvation and eterna! life.
God said: "And 1 will make thee
exceeding fruitful, and I wi ll make
ATIONS [plural] of tbee, and kings
[more than one] shall come out of
thee" (Genesis 17:6). Notice, these
nations and kings shall come
out of
Abraham- physical generation, not
spiritual regeneration.
"And 1will establish my covenant
bctween me and thee ... in
their
generations"
(plural] for an everlast–
ing covenant ..." (verse 7).
Cannot Apply to Jews
This cannot apply
alone
to the Jews.
The Jews have never been more than
one
nation .
God put Abraham to the test. And
Abraham,
through
FAITH, passed the
test of obedience, even to being will–
ing to sacrifice his only son. Then
God made the covenant with Abra–
ham UNCONOITIONAL.
A covenant is a contract- usually,
as in this case, between two parties.
One binds himself by contract to pay
certain rewards JF the other performs
certain conditions. But God made
His covenant with Abraham UNCON–
DITIONAL- after Abraham had per–
formed his part- fu lfilling the CON–
DITION of obedience.
' ' By myself bave I sworn, saith
the Eterna!, for because thou hast
done this thing . .. that in blessing 1
will bless thee, and in multiplying 1
will multiply thy seed [descendants]
as the stars of heaven, and as the
sand which is upon the sea shore"
(Genesis 22: 16-17). These promises
passed down through Isaac and
Jacob.
Latcr the prophet Israel (Jacob)
laid his hands on the two sons of
Joseph, saying: "Let my name (Is–
rael] be named on them"-that is, on
their descendants. God gave the
promise that the descendants of
Manasseh, Joseph's elder
son,
would
become a very GREAT nation, but the
descendants of Ephraim his brother
would become a "company of na–
tions"- that is, a commonwealth of
nations.
The spiritual promise God made to
Abraham of the Messiah, and of
eterna! salvation through Him, is
well known by the most superficial
Bible student. But God made also to
Abraham national a nd material
promises of RACE.
14
The spiritual promises of eterna!
salvation are called the Sceptre, and
the national promises of RACE the
Birthright- that which is inheri ted
by right of birth.
Respecling_ the promises of RACE,
God said to Abraham: "And
1
will
make thee exceeding fruitfu l, and I
will make nations [plural] of thee,
and kings [more than one] shall come
out of thee" (Genesis 17:6).
The Messianic promises of GRACE
perlained to the tribe of Judah, who
were nicknamed the Jews. Bul "the
Birthright [promise of RACE] was
JosEPH's." The nalional , material
promise of the birthright-RIGHT of
birth-was handed down lo the two
tribes springing from Joseph's two
sons, Manasseh and Ephraim ( I
Chronicles 5:1-2).
Once fu lfi lled, in the
British and Americans,
retention of the
Birthright by us became
conditional on our
performance.
''
The twelve tribes of Israel split up
into TWO nations after thc death of
Solomon. The nation ISRAEL rejected
Solomon's son Rehoboam as king,
because he threatcned to make their
taxes even steeper than Solomon had.
They established a new capital city in
northern Israel, Samaria, and cbose
Jeroboam as king.
Then the tribe of.Judah (the Jews)
seceded from the nation Israel in
order to keep their king Rehoboam
and their capital city Jerusalem, call–
ing their nation t he Kingdom of
Judah.
So now the birthright promise
made to Abraham was in one nation,
the Kingdom of Israel, and the spiri–
tual Messianic promise was in anoth–
er nation, now called the Kingdom of
JUDAH. The tribe of Benjamín re–
mained with Judah. Jeroboam, new
king of ISRAEL, threw out the tribe of
Levi from the priesthood in ISRAEL,
and the tribe of Levi also went in
with J udah- the JEWS.
Those of the nation ISRAEL were
NOT Jews- never called Jews. The
first place in the Bible where the
name " J éws" is mentioned is
ll
Kings 16:6, where the Jews were at
war against ISRAEL.
We pick up the most critica!
prophecy as to lhe future of the
nation Israel in Leviticus 26.
Now the Prophec ies
In lhe 26th chapter of Leviticus we
find God's promises and prophecies
to Jsrael beginning in Moses ' day.
God through Moses specially pul
emphasis on avoiding idolatry and
keeping God's Sabbath.
Then He said that IF they would
keep His commandments and His
national statutes they sbould receive
and enjoy the national and material
promises of the Birthright
in their
time.
He gave them NO PROMISE of
inheriting, in the days of ancient
national Israel, the spiritual promises
(the Sceptre).
Even though the promises were
made UNCONOITIONAL
lO
Abraham
for his future descendants, God now
promised ancienl Israel ONLY the
material promises of the Birth–
rigbt-and even lhat was CONDJ–
TIONAL.
Otherwise that Birthright phase of
the promises would be withheld 2520
years and then in that far, far future,
confer the Birthright national and
material promises to the descendants
of Israel through Ephraim and Ma–
nasseh.
God promised them, through
Moses, ON CONDJTION of obedience,
adequate rain, abundant crops the
year round, peace, and such military
power that a hundred of them could
put ten lhousand enemy invaders lo
fiigh t.
But Israel under Moses
010
NOT
OBEY OR KEEP THEIR PART OF THE
ÜLD
COYENANT!
Th ey did so only at intervals
during the days of the Judges. In
the day when God ruled them
through the prophet Samuel, they
rejected God as their Ruler and
King, and demanded a human king
like the Gentile pagan nations of
the world.
(Continued on page 42)
The PLAIN TRUTH