In our reference verses today, Abraham was challenged to leave his homeland and move to a land that would be given to him. That land was the land of Canaan; present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. Although Abraham did not yet have enough descendants to occupy that land, God had promised to multiply Abraham’s descendants and give them this land as their promise. God reiterated this promise to Abraham’s son Isaac (in Genesis 26:3-4) and later raised up Abraham’s grandson, Israel. This grandson of Abraham’s, named Israel, later had twelve sons of his own, who are still recognized to this day as the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Today, we’re going to take a look at how the blessings and promises inherited by the twelve children/tribes of Israel are still relevant to us up until this day. We’re going to see why it is so important for us to be aware of what God’s promises to Abraham were and how these promises still apply to us.
To occupy the land of Canaan, the multiplication of the children of Israel began with Israel having a son named Joseph. Joseph became a governor in Egypt. Then later, when Israel and Joseph’s eleven brothers were experiencing a famine in their homeland, they too moved to Egypt with Joseph and stayed there for a few generations. The Bible says that, as this family began to multiply in Egypt, the new pharaoh of Egypt enslaved them and afflicted them. However, as stated in Exodus 1:12, the more the children of Israel were afflicted, the more they multiplied. This happened until eventually, Moses rescued God’s people from Egypt and (with the eventual help of Joshua), the children of Israel were finally led into the land promised to them through their father, Abraham.
So what does all of this have to do with us? I remember during the time we were in quarantine, we did a blog series following the lineage of the kings who reigned over this freshly formed nation of people from out of Egypt. Their first King was King Saul. Their second king was King David and every week we continued looking at the lineage of the kings of Israel until we got up to the reign of Israel’s final king, King Jesus. If we were to take a look at Isaiah 11, it gives us further insight into the relationship between King David and King Jesus. It starts off with a verse that says, “Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.” This is a picture of how the biological family of Abraham would “bear fruit” that technically would not be “biological” to the family of Abraham, but would still be considered part of “the royal family.” Notice how the opening verse of Isaiah 11 says “David’s family will grow a shoot—yes, a new Branch.” This metaphor is referring to those people who believe in and follow the principles of Jesus Christ. So, this verse is talking about us.
When we continue to read through Isaiah 11, we notice that the story of the nation of Israel is actually still unfolding up until this day. For example, Isaiah 11:11 talks about God bringing back the remnants of the children of Israel scattered throughout Assyria, northern Egypt, southern Egypt, Ethiopia, Elam, Babylon, etc. This is an example of something that is still happening up until this day. Then, do you remember during the quarantine blogs when we spoke about the tribe of Judah being separated from the eleven other tribes of Israel, under the rulership of certain kings? Well, Isaiah 11:14 even talks about the nations of Israel finally uniting to continue seeking to fully occupy their promised land. If we watch the news, it’s not hard to see that this is something that is also still happening today. The funny part is that even though the Bible tells us we are a part of these current events, they are truly not things most of us think about often.
On Monday, we’ll continue breaking down Isaiah 11. As we keep examining these ideas and principles of the blessings of Abraham, and how we are the branch of Jesse (also entitled to these Abrahamic blessings), I think we will realize something very significant: When God said to Abraham, “I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,” I think it’s safe to say we are actually a part of the nation of people being spoken of in this promise. We are a part of the nation intended to bless all families of the earth. This concept begins to show us that the more we continue understanding the relevance of who we are, the more we’ll continue seeing the significance of why it’s so important for us to be blessed.
Lots of Love, XO
