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God had put Abraham to the
test. Abraham,
through
FAJTH,
passed the test of obedience, even
to being willing to sacrifice his only
son. Then God made the covenant
with Abraham UNCONDITrONAL.
A covenant is a contract- usua l–
ly, as in this case, between two par–
ties. One binds himself by contract
to pay certain rewards IF the other
performs certain conditions. But
God made his covenant
with Abraham UNCONDf–
TIONAL- after Abraham
had performed his part–
fulfilling the CONDITION
of obedience:
"By myself have
1
sworn, saith the Lord, for
because thou hast done
thi s thing ... that in
blcssing 1 will bless thee,
and in multiplying
1
will
multiply thy seed [de–
scendants] as the stars of
the heaven, and as the
sand which is upon the
sea sho r e ... " ( Gen.
22: 16-17). These prom–
ises passed down through
Isaac and Jacob.
Later the prophet Is–
rael (Jacob) laid his
hands on the two sons of
Joseph, saying: "Let my
name [Israel) be named
on them"- that is, on
their descendants. God
gavc the promise that the
descendants of Manasseh,
Joseph's elder son, would
become a very GREAT
nation, but the descen-
dants of Ephraim his
brother would become a
"company of nations"-
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 and material
promises of RACE.
The spiritual promises of eterna!
salvation are called the scepter, and
the national promises of" RACE the
birthright- that which is inherited
by right of birth.
Respecting the promises of RACE,
God said to Abraham, "And 1 will
make thee exceeding fruitful, and 1
May 1983
will make nations (plural] of thee,
and kings [more than one] shall
come out of thee" (Gen. 17:6).
The messianic promises of GRACE
pertained to the tribe of Judah, who
were nickn amed the J ews. But "the
birthright [promise of RACE] was
JosEPH's." The national, material
promise of the birthright- RJGHT of
birth- was handed down to the two
tribes springing from Joseph's two
There is a reason for the
present abnormal
economic conditions and the
continuing fear
in financia! and government
circles that the West
may well be in the beginning
of a most
severe debt crisis.
sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (I
Chron. 5: 1-2).
The 12 tribes of Israel split up
into TWO nations after the death of
Solomon. The nation ISRAEL
rejected Solomon's son Rehoboam
as king, because he threatened to
make their taxes even steeper than
Solomon had. They established a
new capital city in northern Israel,
Samaria, and chose Jeroboam as
king.
Then the tribe of Judah (the
J ews) seceded from the nation
I srael in arder to keep their king
Rehoboam and their capital city
J erusalem, calling their nation the
kingdom of Judah.
So now the birthright promise
made to Abraham was in one
nation, the kingdom of ISRAEL, and
the spiritual messianic promise was
in another nation, now called the
kingdom of J UDAH. The tribe of
Benjamín remained witb Judah, as
did a few scattered individuals of
the other tribes. Jero–
boam, new king of Is–
RAEL, threw out the tribe
of Levi from tbe priest–
hood in ISRAEL, and the
tribe of Levi also went in
with Judah-tbe JEws.
Those of the nation
ISRAEL were NOT Jews–
never called J ews. The
first place in the Bible
where the name " J ews" is
mentioned is 11 Kings
16:6, where the Jews
were at war against
ISRAEL.
We pick up the most
critica! prophecy as to the
future of the nation Israel
in Leviticus 26.
Now the Prophecies
In the 26th chapter of
Levit icus we fi nd God's
promises and prophecies
to Israel, beginning in
Moses ' day.
God through Moses
specially put emphasis on
avoid ing idolatry and
keeping God's Sabbath.
Then he said that
1F
they would keep his com–
mandments and his na–
tional statutes. they
should 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 spi ritual prom–
ises (the scepter).
Evcn though the promises were
made UNCONDITIONAL to Abraham
for his future descendants, God
now promised ancient Israel ONLY
the material promises of the birth–
right- and even that was CONDI–
TIONAL.
Otherwise that birthright phase
of the promises would be withheld
(Continued on page 28)
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