The significance of Jesus in connection to Israel or the Olive Tree understanding Israel series

The significance of Jesus in connection to Israel or the Olive Tree understanding Israel series

Overview of why I am writing this series on the Significance of Jesus in connection to Israel or the Olive Tree understanding Israel.

• I am now starting a new series about the significance of Jesus in connection to Israel.
• As I have now completed the seven part series I have written on the end times, understanding the times we are in, in reference to the second coming of Christ.
• In this series I am going to post a number of articles I have written and have taught from concerning the Olive Tree of Israel.
• In these articles I will write about the importance of Jesus in relation to the covenants God made with Abraham the land covenant = root of the Olive Tree.
• the story of Joseph and Moses which is the continuation of the story of Israel = where the root goes up into the trunk of the Olive Tree.
• The significance of Jesus in the Tabernacle = the trunk of the Olive Tree.
• I will also include the significance of the Atonement which is also called life is in the blood.
• The significance of Jesus in the Feasts of the Lord that He gave to Israel = the trunk of the Olive Tree.
• The significance of Jesus in the covenant of peace God made with King David =  the trunk of the Olive tree and the branches.
• The significance of Jesus as our prophet, High Priest and King He is the Messiah which means anointed One = the trunk, the branches and the crown of the Olive Tree.
• I will include with this topic the significance of the Temple in connection to Jesus.
• Some of these articles will be familiar to you as I have already used them in my posts on the end times.  However in this series they will be back in the context from which they came from.
• Also a lot of the scriptures will be familiar to you as well as I have used them in the series on the end times.
• It will be good to become familiar with these scriptures as well for you will need to know them as the days grow darker and head towards the time of the Great Tribulation.
• Please take what I am writing in this series to the Lord in prayer ask Him to speak to you through His word and the articles I am posting on Israel and Jesus His connection to Israel that these things are all about Him.  As a lot of what I write will be from a different / new angle to what most people hear in their churches or have been taught.  
• It is the Lord's work not mine I cannot lay claim to it.  I am just the person who has written the articles using the word of God as my guide.  The Holy Spirit has breathed upon the scriptures giving me the insights that I am now sharing with you as the readers of the following posts.
• I pray that you will be blessed through them.

I will begin with the root of the Olive Tree which is about the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the final part will be on where to from here concerning Israel today.

The posts will be in four parts.

Part One The Patriarchs beginning with Abraham.

Part Two The life of Abraham and Isaac.

Part Three Jacob the supplanter who became Israel.

Part Four. Where to from here?

Part One

THE OLIVE TREE – TEACHING ON ISRAEL

THE ROOT OF THE OLIVE TREE

THE PATRIARCHS ABRAHAM THE FATHER OF THE FAITH

The reason why we should minister to the Jews (house of Israel) is found in the following scriptures. Romans 1:16, Romans 11:15-31, Romans 15:8-12.25-27

Romans 11:15-18, 25-32
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Key point to remember in anything to do with Israel and the church it must have God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ at the centre.  
⦁ Everything to do with the nation of Israel, the Israeli people, the church and the coming kingdom of God aka as the second coming of Christ should be viewed in the light of Jesus’s atoning work on the cross and who He is as God the Son and Son of God.  
For the cross is the work of both Father and His Son it ties in with God asking Abraham to offer Isaac up to Him as a sacrifice, these things must be central in everything to do with Israel.  
⦁ As the land of Israel the throne of David, the ruler ship over the house of Jacob (Israel) the tribes of Israel and the church (temple) are His and they are His inheritance as are the nations of the world which is where the Gentiles come into the picture Psalm 2:8.

Introduction
⦁ When I first taught on the Olive Tree ten years ago I was desiring to teach about the Olive Tree of Israel more from a defence of modern Israel’s right to the land to educate people in the church about this fact.  As well as to counter not just replacement theology but to explain how Christ is central to both Israel and the church.  
⦁ What I was doing eight years ago is still my desire today to correct misinformation people have about Israel in relation to God’s love and plans for her and to speak about how they still are important to Him as His chosen people and how this relates to the two comings of Christ.
⦁ I have added extra verses from Romans to remind people that God will send a deliverer from Zion who will be His Son at the appointed time to save the remnant of Israel when the fullness of the Gentiles have come in.  As well as to remind people that God has partly blinded His people so that He can show mercy to the Gentiles through their unbelief so that we can show mercy to them  by pointing them back to God through sharing the gospel with them.
⦁ I will only be speaking on modern Israel as she is today briefly in this lesson and in other teachings where I feel it is relevant to do so in relation to the times we are in and how they relate to the soon visible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to take up His righteous kingdom here on earth based in Jerusalem.
⦁ This teaching series on the Olive tree from the root of the tree to the top of the tree will be focusing on the two comings of Christ and the Covenants God has made with Israel beginning with the Patriarchs from whom came the nation of Israel. Then on through Moses and David, to Christ Himself as the New Covenant that God has made with Israel through His atoning death on the cross and His being a light to the Gentiles to bring all who will hear the gospel to salvation.
⦁ I will still be teaching and warning people about replacement theology that is rampant in the church.  I will counter this evil theology through the lessons on the Olive Tree understanding Israel and the word of God.  I will be showing from the scriptures how Israel has the right to live in the land during these lessons.  I will speak about the land belonging to Israel as a people and nation.  
⦁ My main focus in these lessons will be on how the nation of Israel and the covenants God made with the nation/ people of Israel, relates to Jesus Himself being the inheritor of the land, the people of the land and the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of heaven which will be based in Israel at His return. 
⦁  This is what I believe God wants me to teach about in these lessons to help prepare people for the times that will be soon upon us of Daniel’s 70th week which will involve us going through the Great Tribulation.  These lessons will prepare us for these dark times to look beyond them to not be taken in by the false messiah but to remind ourselves that Jesus is coming back and He will return and restore all things to Israel as promised in the scriptures.  Which leads to my next point.
⦁ I will be explaining how the many messianic scriptures in the Old Testament and New Testament relate to God restoring Israel and in particular Jerusalem to be His chief city that He will raise up to prominence once more when His Son comes back to rule on the earth in righteousness.
⦁ I will not be focusing too much on the church or the age we are living in now.  I will only be speaking on these things when I deem it necessary to do so.  
⦁ As mentioned above I feel in the Lord that my main focus in these studies on the Olive Tree and the other studies I have written should be on the soon coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and what we should expect and how this all relates to why Israel as a nation is in existence today,
⦁ In order to understand the different covenants we have to go back in time and history to look at what the Lord did in establishing these different covenants with the people He chose and how they and these covenants relate to His Son.  This should be first and foremost our main focus on anything to do with Israel.
⦁ People today focus on Israel in the natural but they get so fixated on the land and people, the politics of Christian Zionism today that they forget that the false messiah will be coming to deceive the world and will be ruling from Jerusalem before the true Messiah comes back to the earth at the cry of His Israeli people to set up His kingdom on the earth.
⦁ Today people are focusing on Israel being a great nation but they are forgetting that Israel cannot be the great nation that God promised Abraham that a great nation will come from him until the real Jesus comes back.  It is at His return that Israel will come to life through His life giving Spirit and they will be changed and God will restore all things to Israel and will make of her a great nation for she will be the head over the sheep nations under her priest – king who will be her God in the form of His resurrected Son Jesus Christ.  This is when every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord at His visible return to this earth.
⦁ It is not up to us to try and bring the kingdom of heaven to the earth and this is what all the different studies are about that I have written with the Lord’s help in my study of His word.  That it is Jesus who will be bringing the kingdom of heaven to the earth to be established on Mt Zion in Jerusalem at His physical return.
⦁ As stated in the key points to remember before this introduction and let what is written in those points burn into your hearts that anything to do with Israel and the church must have Christ as its centre otherwise it is a waste of time and not glorifying to God the Father.  He will only bless those things including things to do with Israel if they glorify His Son.
⦁ With this in mind let us now begin the first study in the series on the Olive Tree of Israel the study on Abraham the first Patriarch the founder of the Judeo / Christian faith the root of the Olive tree well he and the Lord God Almighty are the root of the tree of Olive Tree of Israel.

Overview 

• What did Jesus’ priestly duties and atoning death on the cross do at His first coming and what they didn’t do in relation to the land covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed after him?  
• What did the New Covenant that Jesus made with the Jews and His being a light to the Gentiles fulfil and replace?

 Firstly lest look at what did the death and resurrection of Jesus do

1. His death annulled the old covenant. It brought to an end the Old Covenant of righteousness made on Mt Sinai between God and the Israelite people through Moses and a New Covenant of righteousness was established through His death and resurrection. Refs - Hebrews 8:6-10:38.
2.  His death ended the priesthood by direct descendants through Aaron.  It ushered in a new priesthood of the order of Melchizedek. Refs - Hebrews 5:1-10, Hebrews 7:1-28, Psalm 110:  
3.  Though He will still have a priesthood in His millennial kingdom made up of those who believed in Him and looked forward to His coming from both the Old, New Testaments and the times after them before His second coming. 
4. This priesthood will also include people who believe in Him and were faithful to God from the House of Aaron through the House of Zadok as spoken of in Ezekiel chapter 44 and Zadok is descended from Phinehas who was jealous for the Lord in Exodus concerning the sin of Balaam and God promised him the covenant of peace forever.  Numbers 25:1-13, Ezra 7:1-5.
5. Jesus is currently building a temple made of living stones through His body of believers which was empowered by the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem and went out to the whole earth and will return back to Jerusalem in readiness for the return of the Lord.  Refs - 1 Peter 2:5a, Ephesians 2:20-22 Zechariah 6:12-13, Haggai 2:6-9.
6. The church period has temporarily replaced temple worship; God wounded the nation of Israel by allowing the temple to be destroyed by Rome in 70 AD.  The sacrifices and the priestly order of services was stopped and Jerusalem was destroyed and her people taken captive in 135 AD.Refs - Hosea 5:11-6:3. Matthew 23:37-38, Matthew 24:1-2, Luke 13:35
7. What the Lord wants is open hearts to Him, He is the one who is building His church as mentioned in the point 3 above that He is building a temple made of living stones.  The type of worship God requires is found in John 4:21-24. How we are to worship the Lord is described in the following passages - Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3:15-17, Ephesians 5:15-20, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-23, Philippians 4:4-8, Hebrews 13: 15-16.  We are all called to be priests unto God. Refs - 1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:6, and Revelation 5:9-10.  
8. The early disciples did worship in the temple at the beginning, and they met in the temple and went from house to house Luke 24:50-53, Acts 2:46-47, Acts 3:1, Acts 5,12,25,42.  Even Paul came to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles and to give money to the poor that had been collected by the churches in Asia Minor and he went to the temple Acts 21:17-26.  
9. Also shortly after his conversion Paul went up to Jerusalem and was worshiping in the temple, while he was worshiping and praising the Lord in the temple he went into a trance and had a vision of the Lord.  In this vision the Lord gave Paul his commission to take the gospel to the Gentiles, the Lord also warned Paul to escape from Jerusalem as his life was in danger this is recorded in Acts 22:17-21 
10. The early church age was in transition from the period of doing things in accordance to Mosaic law the close of the 69th week of Daniel, the gap between the end of the 69th week and the 70th week of Daniel is the church age
11.  The style of worship changed from the temple after the temple was destroyed to house churches where people met in homes and of course over the centuries the church style of worship had evolved and changed to what we have today.  Some meeting in homes, some meeting in traditional style churches with priests and laity, some worshipping in more relaxed contemporary style in warehouses, schools or other types of buildings or in underground churches in barns, forests out in the open fields, caves where ever they can meet in countries where Christians are persecuted. 
12. The church era is only to be a bridge (It is a temporary period the period of the Gentiles) between the two comings of Christ.  In a sense the 70th week of Daniel is the kick start to get things ready for the coming kingdom of the Lord, the Temple to be built again and sacrifices but these will be done without understanding of what the Lord did on the cross until He comes again they will be offering the sacrifices in accordance with the Law of Moses. 
13.  His death also atoned for Israel and Jerusalem He died for His people and land, they have not been rejected by God.Refs - Isaiah 51:17-23, Isaiah 53:8 and John 11:49-53.
14. The door was opened to the Gentiles to hear the gospel and to allow them to be brought near to God by His blood to enter into salvation and therefore to be adopted as children of God to be part of God’s household.  Which is the house of Israel, to be grafted into the native olive tree and to allow them to be co heirs with the Jews in the promises and covenants that God made with His people through the Patriarchs and the Prophets.  Refs - Ephesians 2:11-22, Ephesians 3:6
15.  Both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus have been born anew by the Holy Spirit and have become New Creations in God and we both have access to God as our Father.  We are no longer of this world and are waiting for the second appearing of our Lord to bring in His righteous kingdom upon the earth.  Refs - Hebrews 4:16, Ephesians 2:13-19, Ephesians 3:12, 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, Galatians 4:6-7, Romans 8:14-17, Colossians 1:12-14, Galatians 1:3-4

Secondly

•  Let’s look at what Jesus death on the cross did not do in relation to Israel and the covenants God made with the Patriarchs and the people of Israel through Moses and to the house of David. As the land covenants and Jesus ruling on the throne of David over the house of Jacob will be fulfilled at His Second Coming.
•  Jesus death on the cross did not annul the land covenant and promises that God made with the Patriarchs which we will be studying these promises and land covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in depth.
•  God initiated the Land covenant not the other way around. Scriptures relating to this point will be dealt with in depth in our study of the Patriarchs
•  Nor did His death annul the promise of a kingdom or king to rule over the house of Israel   Jesus was promised a kingdom before His birth when Gabriel spoke to Mary that her Son will inherit a kingdom that He will sit on the throne of His forefather David and will rule over the house of Jacob forever.  It will be an eternal kingdom. 

 Luke 1:31-33
31 And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.
 32  He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His forefather David,
33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob throughout the ages; and of His reign there will be no end.

•  There are still many prophecies that speak of God sending a shepherd like David, a king like David a righteous branch from the stump of Jesse to be raised up to rule the house of Israel.  There are many unfilled prophecies about God restoring Israel and Jerusalem that have yet to be fulfilled and will only be fulfilled at the physical second coming of Christ.  Refs - Isaiah  9:6, 11:1-16, Jeremiah 23:5, Ezekiel 34:11-31, Zechariah 6:11-15, 8:1-23, 10:3-12 14:1-21, Revelation 1:5-7.
• When He died on the cross Jesus did not finish with His people when he made the New Covenant on the night of His death He was making this covenant with Jewish disciples the apostles of the church.  
• Jesus is the eternally living New Covenant to the people of Israel and this Covenant also includes people from the nations who believe in Him, Jesus as God the Son is the New Covenant thereby He is the One who links it all together as He is the One who called the Patriarchs who through God are the root of the Olive Tree and through the Patriarchs He founded the nation of Israel.
•  Jesus is the foundation and corner stone of the church and He being the corner stone links the prophets (Old Covenant) and the apostles (New Covenant) together to form the foundation of the church.  Even New Jerusalem bears the foundation of the apostles and the gates are the twelve tribes of Israel.  Refs - Revelation 21:1-14:, Ephesians 2:20-22, Hebrews 1:1-3, Moses and prophets speak of the Lord Luke 24:25-27, the Lord earnestly desired to eat the Passover with His disciples, He won’t eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God Luke 22:14-20, He is the chief corner stone 1 Peter 2:5-9, Isaiah 8:14, Isaiah 28:16.
• The church has not in any way shape or form replaced the Jewish/Israeli people or land.  The inclusion of the Gentiles into the Lord’s kingdom by adoption into His family has not excluded the Jews they have not been wiped out, rejected or overlooked by God. 

• They have only fallen off the Olive Tree by unbelief in what the Lord has done on the cross by way of salvation for them because when Torah Moses is read there is a veil over their hearts but when they come to Christ that veil is taken away. 

• They need to hear the gospel message too of salvation through their Messiah so that they too can be regrafted back into their Olive Tree through faith in Jesus. Refs - 2 Corinthians 3:12-18, Ezekiel 36:1-38, Jeremiah 30:7-24, Jeremiah 31:3-40, Jeremiah 33:3-26, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 62, 

Some Points of Interest re the people of Israel
⦁ God has sown His people among the nations and He will bring them home. 
⦁ Several times God speaks of bringing the exiles of Israel/ Ephraim the chief tribe of Israel from among the nations where He had scattered them.
⦁ God will be bringing all of His people back the remnant back when He Son returns to the this earth for He will be the standard that God will raise up to bring His scattered people back to the land.  During the brief reign of the Antichrist in Jerusalem many Jews including the priests may end up going into exile again fleeing for their lives from Israel to safe places that God will prepare for them in certain nations which may include Australian and New Zealand
Refs – Isaiah 11:1-12, Jeremiah 30-33, Ezekiel 20, Ezekiel 36, and Isaiah 60-66 some references have already been given above.
⦁ The points given above are very good reasons why we are not to boast against the native branches the Jews/Israelites because God can just as easily remove us as we who are from Gentile nations which are from a wild olive tree, to replace us with the branches from the native olive tree who are the Jews when they come to faith in their Messiah.
⦁  It is easier to re graft the native branches back into their own native olive tree than it is to graft wild olive branches into a native (cultivated) olive tree of which we from Gentile nations are such.

The Patriarchs of our faith
1. Who are the Patriarchs? 
The Patriarchs are the founding fathers of the nation of Israel, the first Patriarch is Abraham from whom came Isaac the son of promise he fathered twin sons Jacob and Esau but Jacob was chosen as we see in the following verses from Romans chapter 9.6-10 and Isaac’s son Jacob fathered twelve sons who later became the twelve tribes of Israel.
Romans 9:6-13 
6 However, it is not as though God's Word had failed [coming to nothing]. For it is not everybody who is a descendant of Jacob (Israel) who belongs to [the true] Israel. 
    7 And they are not all the children of Abraham because they are by blood his descendants. No, [the promise was] Your descendants will be called and counted through the line of Isaac [though Abraham had an older son]. 
    8 That is to say, it is not the children of the body [of Abraham] who are made God's children, but it is the offspring to whom the promise applies that shall be counted [as Abraham's true] descendants. 
    9 For this is what the promise said, About this time [next year] will I return and Sarah shall have a son. 
    10 And not only that, but this too: Rebecca conceived [two sons under exactly the same circumstances] by our forefather Isaac, 
    11 And the children were yet unborn and had so far done nothing either good or evil. Even so, in order further to carry out God's purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls [them], 
    12 It was said to her that the elder [son] should serve the younger [son]. 
    13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (held in relative disregard in comparison with My feeling for Jacob).

When Abraham was but one person, God called him and quarried him from the rock and made him many.
Isaiah 51:1-2
1 HEARKEN TO Me, you who follow after rightness and justice, you who seek and inquire of [and require] the Lord [claiming Him by necessity and by right]: look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole in the quarry from which you were dug;
    2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him when he was but one and I blessed him and made him many.

2.  Why are the Patriarchs important to both the Jewish and Christian people
⦁ The root of the Olive Tree the Patriarchs are very important and they are what our Christian faith or our faith in the Messiah who is Jesus is based on.  For they are the foundations of the Hebrew nation and people group.  Without the Patriarchs there will be no Hebrew race or nation of Israel and definitely no Messiah.  
⦁ Through the Patriarchs come the promises and covenants of God Almighty which He made with Abraham the Father of the Judeo Christian Faith to give him the land of Canaan wherever the sole of his foot treads is his and it will be given to his descendant/s after him
⦁ In the light of current attacks from various sources in the world today on the foundations of the Judeo Christian faith it is very important to have a good grounding about our roots and where our faith originated from, that is why Yahweh was very clear when He gave the history of the Hebrew race in the first book of the Bible Genesis beginnings because this is the beginning of the Hebrew race, the Bible tells the story of God, mankind, the Hebrew race which later became known as Israelites. 
⦁ Then after the time of Solomon the nation of Israel became two Kingdoms the Northern Kingdom belonging to the ten tribes of Israel Ephraim was the leading tribe, this kingdom was taken into captivity by the Assyrians over a hundred years before the Southern kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity by the Babylonians and the northern kingdom was scattered among the nations.  
The southern kingdom belonged to the tribe of the house of David Judah and Benjamin; some people of the other tribes of Israel may have been living in the land of Judah as well.  The Levites the priests belonged to God and possibly lived mainly in Jerusalem because the temple was there.  The history of the two kingdoms is found in 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Isaiah are the main prophets at the time of the two kingdoms.
⦁ The tribe of Judah was taken into captivity into Babylon and it was on their return from exile from Babylon is when they first became known as Jews.  Jew means one who comes from the tribe of Judah and Judah means Praise. Though nowadays the term Jews is given to anyone who comes from any of the tribes of Israel not just to those who come from the tribe of Judah. It is used to describe anyone who comes from the Hebrew race as a separate people group.
⦁ We must remember the tribe of Judah and any other people from the other tribes that were living in Jerusalem and Judah that were taken into captivity by Babylon returned back to the land of their fathers the first exile after seventy years.  
This was prophesied in Jeremiah 25:12 and 29:10-14 that there will be seventy years of captivity and Daniel prayed an intercessory prayer on behalf of his people in Daniel 9. The Lord anointed Cyrus a Persian king to be raised up and be an instrument of His to help the Jewish people to return from exile in Babylon to be allowed to rebuild the city of Jerusalem its walls and to rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem Isaiah 40-49, Ezra and Nehemiah.  
⦁ The Jews had to be in their land with a temple built for the Messiah (Jesus) to come the first time to be born into the land of Israel as a Jew under Roman rule so that He could be handed over by the Jews to the Gentiles to be crucified upon a Roman cross when it came time for Him as the Prince of Daniel 9:25-26 to be cut off in the 69th week of Daniel.  
That the world being under Roman rule and Rome had a widely flung Empire with good roads and safety in the provinces it made the way for the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ as a means to enter into the kingdom of God to be safely spread across the Roman Empire to east and west, north and south.
⦁ There are hints in the Old Testament about God making way for the Gentiles to be added into His plan of salvation Isaiah 56, Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49  over His sons Judah and Joseph both refer to a vine in the prophecy one is contained within Judah and one goes over a wall as a fruitful bough,. Ruth and Rahab both gentile women and Tamar included in the genealogy of the Messiah.

3..Why are the Patriarchs important to both the Jewish and Christian people a summary
⦁ The root of the Olive Tree the Patriarchs they are the foundations of our Judeo Christian faith.
⦁ They are the foundations of the Hebrew nation and people group.  
⦁ Without the Patriarchs there will be no Hebrew race or nation of Israel and definitely no Messiah as He comes from the Hebrew people through the tribe of Judah descended from Abraham.
⦁ The Bible is the only book that gives the true picture of God, His plan of redemption for mankind and Israel the desire of God to tabernacle with man at the end of the age.  No other book gives an accurate historical /future account of the Hebrew race from God’s perspective.

4. What difference does the land covenants make that EL Shaddai God Almighty made with the Patriarchs or importantly are these covenants relevant today?
⦁ God made a covenant between Himself and Abraham and Abraham’s descendants after him throughout the generations as an everlasting covenant that the land will be given to Abraham’s posterity after him as an everlasting possession. 
⦁ God does not go back on His word, what He says goes and He keeps His promises, He does not break them.  Even if the Jews or we as Christians break our side of the covenant / promise, God doesn’t.  He even swore by Himself as there was none higher to give the land as an everlasting possession to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac.   
The chief of Abraham's descendants through Isaac through Jacob, through the tribe of Judah is Jesus Himself who is God's Son.  We must remember that Jesus is the seed of Abraham as well on the human side through Mary the woman who gave birth to Him.
Hebrews 6:12-20 – Certainty of God’s promise.

12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

⦁ His nature and character stays the same and does not change.  Jesus is faithful as Paul writes about him in 2 Timothy 2:13 that Jesus is faithful when we are not faithful He cannot be otherwise as it would go against His character. Some scriptures showing the faithful character of God, that He changes not.
Refs - Hebrews 13:8, Isaiah 49:7, Isaiah 65:16, Hosea 11:12, 2 Timothy 2:13, Revelation 19:11
⦁The land covenants stand today that God made to the Patriarchs, to Moses and to David, Ezekiel saw in his vision of the temple Ezekiel 40-48 where the tribes were to have their inheritance in the land in the millennial kingdom. 
⦁ The land of Israel is the inheritance that belongs to Jesus.  This is the inheritance that is spoken of in scripture that we have a share in.  Refs – Ephesians 2:11-22, Ephesians 3:6.
⦁ When Jesus comes back to Jerusalem at His second coming He will be entering into His inheritance as Jerusalem and the land of Israel they are His inheritance and His kingdom on earth.

5 Some important verses to consider concerning Israel and the land that God gave to them and God’s relationship with Israel
(1)The Land belongs to the Lord 
Leviticus 25:23 
23 The land shall not be sold into perpetual ownership, for the land is Mine; you are [only] strangers and temporary residents with Me

(2)Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.-
 Jeremiah 10:16. 
16 The Portion of Jacob [the true God on Whom Israel has a claim] is not like these, for He is the Fashioner and Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance--the Lord of hosts is His name.

(3)Judah is the tribe of His portion this is the tribe into which His Son Jesus is born into.
Zechariah 2:12
12 And the Lord shall inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land and shall again choose Jerusalem.

 (4)The giving of the covenant of the land of Canaan to the Patriarchs and the people of Israel 
 (the Patriarchs were also God’s prophets)
1 Chronicles 16:13-22 
13  O you offspring of [Abraham and] of Israel His servants, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
14 He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.
15 Be mindful of His covenant forever, the promise which He commanded and established to a thousand generations,
16 The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His sworn promise to Isaac.
17 He confirmed it as a statute to Jacob, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
18 Saying, To you I will give the land of Canaan, the measured portion of your possession and inheritance
19 When they were but few, even a very few, and only temporary residents and strangers in it,
20 When they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people,
21 He allowed no man to do them wrong; yes, He reproved kings for their sakes,
22 Saying, Touch not My anointed, and do My prophets no harm.

6. The First Patriarch Abraham – Father of the Faith
God’s call of Abraham
God first spoke to Abram in Genesis 12: 1-7 in the land of Haran.  Also in regards to the land it is God who calls Abram and tells him to go to the land He will show him.
Genesis 12:1-7
 1 NOW [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you.
    2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favors] and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others].
    3 And I will bless those who bless you [who confer prosperity or happiness upon you] and curse him who curses or uses insolent language toward you; in you will all the families and kindred of the earth be blessed [and by you they will bless themselves].
    4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him; and Lot [his nephew] went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
    5 Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the persons [servants] that they had acquired in Haran, and they went forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
    6 Abram passed through the land to the locality of Shechem, to the oak or terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
    7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your posterity. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, Who had appeared to him.

Each time God spoke to Abram, His plan for Abram became more detailed
The next mention of the land is when Abram’s nephew Lot leaves him and goes to the fertile plains of the river Jordan where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were situated. 
Genesis 13:14-17
 14 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

7. Introduction of the Covenant that God makes with Abram
Genesis 15:1 
1 AFTER THESE things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your Shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great.
Genesis 15:4,5 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
Genesis 15:6 This is the first time that it is stated that Abram believed in and remained steadfast to the Lord and the Lord counted this as righteousness and right standing with God, Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
New Testament References:  Romans 4:3, 18 – 22. Galatians 3:6, James 2:23.
Genesis 15:7. He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."  
Genesis 15:13-16, (God revealed to Abram that his descendants will be slaves in Egypt for 400 years until the iniquity of the Amorites is full and completed as at the time of Abram it was not yet full and completed.) 13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
Genesis 15:18 – 21, God made a covenant with Abram, Abram had made a sacrifice as stated in the previous verses.  God covenanted with Abram that to him and his direct descendants through his wife Sarai, that He will give him the land from the river (Nile) of Egypt to the river Euphrates of Iran / Iraq. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river  of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."

8 God does bless Ishmael, Abraham’s elder son born to Hagar the Egyptian maid of Sarah.
⦁ Abraham has an older son called Ishmael he is the son of the Egyptian slave called Hagar, she was Sarah’s slave.  Abraham and Sarah got impatient they had been waiting ten years since God promised Abraham that He will give him an heir to possess the land of Canaan.  They tried to hurry things along a bit and help God out by having a son by surrogacy through the maid of Sarah.  The account of Ishmael’s birth is found in Genesis 16, God is the One who gives Ishmael his name. Ishmael means God hears.
⦁ God had not forgotten Ishmael, who Abraham asked God to bless also and God did bless him out of his love for Abraham as his friend. Genesis 17:20 God also told Abraham that He will make a nation of Ishmael because he is Abraham’s offspring And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. Twelve is the number of government, Ishmael had twelve sons as did Jacob have twelve sons which equals the twelve tribes of Israel.  Ishmael had twelve princes.  The Arab nations see themselves as one people, one nation.

9 Some notes about Ishmael and his descendants
⦁Ishmael would have known the name of the true God as his father Abraham would have taught him about El Shaddai. - Hebrew name of God, this is the name by which He revealed Himself to Abraham by.
⦁ All who were circumcised in Abraham’s household came into covenant with El Shaddai circumcision was a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham and Abraham’s household including servants bought by him and born in his house, including children born to Abraham. Genesis 17.
⦁ Though Isaac himself Abraham’s son to Sarah was born into this covenant, Ishmael was not born into this covenant; he was about thirteen at the time that God spoke to Abraham to have all those in his household circumcised this included Ishmael.  This was getting the house of Abraham ready for the son Isaac to be born who was to be heir of all that Abraham had including the land.  
⦁ Jesus too was born into the covenant of circumcision God made with Abraham and was circumcised on the eighth day.
Luke 2:21
21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
He was born into the land of Israel this land is His inheritance and He is the Son of Promise of the covenant of land with the token of circumcision that He belonged by being a direct descendant of Abraham through Isaac to the household of Faith.
⦁ When Isaac was weaned Ishmael was sent away by Abraham so that he would not live in the same land as Isaac, as the land of Canaan was to be Isaac’s and his descendants’ inheritance.
⦁ Ishmael married and became a nation of twelve princes, he married an Egyptian woman.
⦁ He and his descendants over the years probably drifted away from knowing the truth about God and how to worship him.  They would have gone into idolatry and followed the gods of the lands that they lived in.
⦁ The descendants of Ishmael eventually worshipped a myriad of gods, one of them a moon god called Allah.  It is interesting to note that in Judges 8:21, 24 and 26 at the time of Gideon it is mentioned that the camels of the Midianites or Ishmaelites wore crescent shaped ornaments.  
Judges 8:21, 24, 26
21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise yourself and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmunna and took the [crescent-shaped] ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.
24 And Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you—every man of you give me the earrings of his spoil. For [the Midianites] had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites [general term for all descendants of Keturah].
26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescents and pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and the chains that were about their camels’ necks.
The crescent moon is a symbol of Islam and it is the symbol of the moon god Allah.
⦁ Our God is never known by the name Allah, the name Allah is not found in the Bible.
⦁ His characteristics are very different to the god Allah; the two deities are very opposites in their nature and character.  
⦁ Allah lies, cheats, murders, kills, steals hates and destroys it is the nature of the devil.
⦁ Yahweh and His Son Jesus loves, blesses, heals, restores, is truthful, life giver, Father and Jesus are life giving Spirits, compassionate, forgiving, slow to anger, merciful.  These characteristics of God are found in Exodus 34:4-7, God’s love for the world is seen in John 3:16.

In the next post which will be part two we will continue on with Abraham’s life, the birth of Isaac, the testing of Abraham by God to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice to God and Isaac’s life.