Читать книгу Blessed Generation (Second Edition): Understanding Covenant and Inheritance - Kenny Mokoena - Страница 7

It is of utmost importance that, as the heirs of Abraham, we understand the Abrahamic covenant for us to properly benefit from it. Let’s look at what God said to Abraham when the covenant was made.

When God told Abraham that He was going to make him a father of many nations, the promise was spiritual. God was not only talking about physical children of Abraham but also about us (the Gentiles). Romans 4:13 says, “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” This verse makes reference to “Abraham or his seed”. By “seed”, the Apostle Paul was referring to Jesus, meaning that the descendants of Abraham were not only going to be those who will come from his own loins, but also those who will come through Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul also states in this verse that the inheritance was not going to be conferred through the law but through faith. In other words, what he is saying is that there are no conditions for the inheritance. Do you also see that the promise was that Abraham was going to inherit the world? That promise was not only to Abraham, but also to us through Jesus Christ.

In Romans 4:14 the Apostle Paul tells us that “if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise of no effect.” What this means, in simple terms, is that a promise cannot be a promise if it is preceded by a condition. Where there is a condition, there is no need for faith. Where there is a need to fulfil a requirement, faith does not apply. Faith only applies where there is a promise. Where there is a condition, only action is required. The Old Testament calls the action obedience.

In a case where there is a need to fulfil a requirement in order to accomplish something, the one who fulfils it is entitled to boast when the condition is fulfilled. In the case of a promise, there is no room for boasting because it is dependent entirely on faith. Each time we testify that we did something and then God did something in return, we are boasting about having complied with a requirement. For example, to say, “I am blessed because I tithe” means that I have done something to earn me the blessing. The blessing was not a free gift.

God made a covenant with Abraham that he would inherit the world. Abraham’s descendants did not make any covenant with God, they benefitted from the covenant because of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob received the blessing from God because of the covenant with Abraham. In this context, the covenant was not an agreement but a promise.

Genesis 17:4-8

“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

Notice from Genesis 17 that the promise was about God telling Abraham what He was going to do for him. Abraham, in turn, had to keep the sign of circumcision, which was a picture of Jesus because of the shedding of the blood in the foreskin of the male children. The male represents the carrier of the seed. The shedding of the blood was symbolic of the blood of Christ. Interestingly, God did not say that Abraham had to keep the sign of circumcision to qualify for the blessing. The blessing was unconditional, that’s why righteousness was accounted to him before he was circumcised. This is similar to what happened to us because the bible says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). The circumcision was a sign pointing to Jesus.

David said something very interesting when he went to the camp and found King Saul and the army of the Israelites retreating from Goliath. In 1 Samuel 17:26 he said, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” When David mentioned the word “uncircumcised”, he was invoking the Abrahamic covenant. When he invoked the covenant, victory was guaranteed.

1 Samuel 17:45-47

“Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.’”

Look at what David said first, “I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand.” David relied completely on the strength of the covenant. When he said, “the God of the armies of Israel”, he was talking about the covenant.

God became the God of the armies of Israel through the Abrahamic covenant. Look at what covenant does, “This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand”. Covenant delivers into our hands. This is what David understood by revelation, that when you are in covenant, you do nothing except to receive. God does everything.

In the entire chapter 17 of the book of Genesis, it was all about God’s promises to Abraham. It was God telling Abraham what He was going to do for him. Abraham was never given an option to agree or reject the terms of the covenant. It was the greater undertaking or promising to bless the lesser. Abraham’s part was only to receive the promise. God further told Abraham that He was going to establish the covenant through Isaac. There was no covenant that God made with Isaac. Isaac became part of the covenant because of Abraham. I don’t know if you see where this is going. Isaac received the blessing because of Abraham, likewise, we receive the blessing because of Jesus.

Like Isaac and Jacob, the Jewish people have been enjoying the blessing because of Abraham. Although they rejected Jesus, God continues to bless them because of the covenant with Abraham. Have you noticed that it does not matter what the Jewish people do, God continues to bless them? They have suffered a lot throughout the years but the blessing of God never leaves them. God’s love for the Jewish nation is tied to the covenant that He made with Abraham. Israel is a small nation, but yet one of the most powerful and influential nations in the world. God’s hand is upon the Jewish nation because of Abraham. Hitler tried to wipe the Jewish people out and caused them to be scattered throughout the earth, but in 1948 God gathered them again and gave them back their land because of the promise which He had made to Abraham.

If you want to know how much the children of Israel suffered in the hands of Adolf Hitler, visit the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

By the time you finish the tour of the museum, your life will never be the same again. When I visited the museum, I only lasted for about an hour and could not take it further than that. It was just too much to bear. To properly explore the museum, you need at least a full day. Somewhere during the tour, I entered a room which looks like a law library, with black hard covered books in shelves everywhere. The tour guide informed us that the books in that room contain the names of the people who died during the holocaust.

Despite the many battles that they fought, and the total destruction of Jerusalem, look at what the Jewish nation has achieved today in just a few years. In 1947 Israel was once again re-established as a nation. This could only have been God, and He did it because of His covenant with Abraham, against all odds. I was so glad to learn, when we visited the Friends of Zion Museum that South Africa is one of the nations that voted in favour of the re-establishment of the nation of Israel. This did not happen automatically as we learned from the Friends of Zion Museum. God used different men and women, influential and ordinary people, to make the prophecy of Ezekiel a reality (Valley of Dry Bones, Ezekiel 37:1-14). I was too overwhelmed by what I witnessed at the Museum that when I returned back home from Israel, I resolved to become one of the Friends of Zion and support what they stand for. To get the glimpse of what I’m talking about, please visit the site of the Friends of Zion on to www.fozmuseum.com and watch the video clips. Your life will be impacted greatly. What you will see on the videos cannot come close to the experience of being there in person. The excellence, class, charisma and technology used to communicate the stories of love and heroism of those who stood with Israel during its darkest period is second to none.

The Jewish people have come a long way since then. Just recently, an oil reserve was discovered in Israel that is expected to provide billions of barrels of oil. This latest discovery is in addition to a gigantic gas field which was discovered in the Mediterranean in 2010. Israel, which was previously dependent on Egypt and other nations for oil and gas, is now positioned to export oil to possibly the whole world. God has kept this oil and gas hidden for many years, despite drills of over 500 exploration wells since Israel became a nation, so that it can be released at this time. Through these oil discoveries, God has positioned Israel to be a major oil export nation, meaning that God will cause the nations of the world to buy oil from Israel. With the oil countries having declared themselves enemies of Israel, imagine what was going to happen to Israel’s economy without any oil supply.

But God, in His infinite wisdom, prepared the provision of oil and gas for Israel long beforehand. Instead of having to scratch around for oil and gas, now the nations of the world will come to Israel to buy oil and gas. This is similar to what happened in the days when Joseph was the Prime Minister of Egypt. The whole world went to Egypt to buy food from Joseph. This is the season for wealth transfer. Remember that what happens to Israel, also happens to the Body of Christ, the Church.

If you go to Israel today, you will see a lot of construction taking place everywhere. Just when we left the airport in Tel Aviv after we landed and on our way to Caesarea Maritima, I noticed tall buildings under construction on both sides of the road over a long stretch. This I continued to notice throughout the nation of Israel. I noticed even much more construction in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. There are new buildings under construction everywhere. The Jewish nation is becoming more and more beautiful. God is establishing His covenant with Abraham. From what I have seen, and from bible prophecy, I believe that the nation of Israel is about to become the richest, the most powerful and beautiful country in the world.

Many people without the revelation of the word of God do not understand the importance and the significance of the Holy Land to the Church. A lot of doom and gloom has been said about Israel, but God’s hand is upon them. If we, the Church, knew the significance of the Jewish people to us, we would be praying for them every day as the bible says we should do in Psalm 122:6.

In Romans 11:11-12 the Apostle Paul, referring to the persecution of the Jewish people said, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”

The passage above shows us how we get to feature in the blessing of Abraham. When the Jewish people rebelled against God, He brought salvation to us to provoke them to jealousy. Based on the scripture above, we were brought in because of their fall. The Apostle Paul says that their failure became riches for us. However, the fact that we were brought in did not mean that God forsook His covenant with Abraham concerning the Jewish people. God will never forsake His covenant with Abraham. He is very committed to it and, for a lack of better word, He is obliged to bless them because of His covenant with Abraham. In Romans 11:28, the Apostle Paul says, “Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”

If it was not for the covenant with Abraham, there would be no Israel in the map today. But because of the covenant, Israel occupies its own land that God has bequeathed upon them by promise. This is a clear picture of grace. This is the kind of grace that we also enjoy, but not through the requirements of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. We enjoy the grace of God because of Jesus. It is through Jesus that we have gained access into the covenants of promises. Jesus is our ticket to the covenant of blessing which God made to Abraham. Jesus had to be born from the lineage of Abraham as a Jew and to die in order to graft us in. We, the body of Christ, are descendants of Abraham through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.