Читать книгу Hinge Points of History - John Hunsuck - Страница 5

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.’” Genesis 12:1-3 (NASV)

Note that the Covenant includes a clause “...be a blessing...” repeated “...be blessed.” God chose Abram to carry a message to all generations: God is and God cares! The fact that Israel existed in the past and exists again today continues the saga of Divine Revelation begun with Abram. Ignore this fact to your own destruction! Note also that the earlier Covenant is not abrogated. We must assume this also is an addition to those Covenants (Adamic and Noahic) already existing.

Notice that we now use the name Abraham instead of Abram. As was the ancient custom of Covenants, Jehovah put part of His name into Abram and created “Abraham.” This change took place when the “seed” of Abraham was planted: Isaac. This Covenant is truly a blood Covenant. The bloodline of Abraham is with us today in the personage of the Jews. It is through these people that the revelation of the Creator’s intent to mankind and the history of the world is made known. Isaac’s son Jacob had the Covenant reiterated to him after he had fathered 12 sons. God then changed his name to Israel.

We leave the details to the reader ... any good Bible will fill you in. Just start at the front of the book!

The 70-member family called Israel moved to Egypt because of a drought, and over a period of 430 years grew into a nation of 600,000 adult males. If you add the women and children, we come up with about 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 people. Moses was chosen to lead these folks out of Egypt and into Canaan, the land promised to Abraham and his seed over 500 years before.

The world during this time was trying to become organized in different ways and in different places. Kings and emperors, using both battle and official “families,” were writing edicts and laws to govern their “subjects.” The “Code of Hammurabi” may have been written in this era or may have preceded it a few years. The point is that men were struggling in new ways to establish security and justice. Most of the efforts had a simple theme: do it my way or die.

Moses led the Israelis to the desert of the Sinai to the foot of the mountain where he received a new chapter to the Covenant: the Ten Commandments. A new era of law had begun, although it took the Jews over a thousand years to begin living up to the law. Even then, it took a trip to the woodshed (called Babylon) (Ref 6) to work the idolatry out of them. Why do we call the Ten Commandments a Covenant? Read Exodus 24:7. This and other references show that the Covenant really was one and continues today.

We end this chapter with the consolidated Covenant as it stands, because Israel was established as a nation of law.

ADAM: Genesis 2:15-17, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” Genesis 3:19, In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread ...”

NOAH: Genesis 8:22 and 9:11, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. ...I set My rainbow ...”

ABRAM: Genesis 15:18, On that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the Great River, the river Euphrates: ...” Genesis 17:4, “As for Me, behold, My Covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; ...” Genesis 17:10-12, “... you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised ... be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.”

ISRAEL: Exodus 19:5, “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My Covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; ...” Exodus 20:1-17, The Ten Commandments.

Exodus 24:7, Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!”

Thus, the nation of Israel accepted its part of the Covenant with God and its inhabitants became the people through whom the whole world would someday “... be blessed.”( Ref 6)