Many people look to the nation of Israel (the Jews) as the key to today’s answer to prophetic events. The nation began with a man named Abraham (originally Abram) who was born in today’s Iraq. Evidently Abraham’s father, Terah , decided to move the family to Northern Syria where he settled and named a town Haran after his deceased son, the father of Lot. Terah lived there until he died.
After Terah’s death, God spoke to Abraham and told him to forget about his native country and to leave his father’s family and to go to a land God would show him. “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your native country, your relatives , and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.'” Gen. 12:1-3 (NLT) Chapter 11 presents us with the idea that Terah was headed for the land of Canaan, but for some reason he decided to stop. But after the death of Terah, Abraham continued his journey to Canaan.
Then in Genesis 15 we find that God appeared to Abraham in a vision and again promised to bless him. Abraham was a very wealthy man by then. But Abraham asked a simple question of God, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” Gen. 15:2-3 (NLT). But God promised Abraham that Eliezer would not be his heir, but he would have a son who would be his heir. Then God took Abraham outside and showed him all the stars of the sky he could see with the naked eye and said his heirs would be as great in number as all those stars and the Bible says, “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. Gen. 15:6 (NLT). Thus, again God in His infinite mercy chose a man for no apparent reason to continue His Covenant of Grace with mankind.
Why was this grace? Paul in Romans 4 tells us exactly why. “Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’. When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.” Romans 4:1-5 (NLT) Once a man suggested to me that Abraham did work for his righteousness because accepting God’s statement was a work. But that misses the whole point. For instance, if I were a man destitute of everything in life, and another person handed me a check for a great amount of money, I could not claim that by taking the check I had worked for it; no, that check was a gift I did not deserve but received because of someone’s generosity. So, it is with righteousness; God’s grace is given to me because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross and proved its validity by rising from the grave. I did not deserve that, but I accepted what Christ did for me; it was all of God’s grace.
But the Covenant of Grace does not end there. Paul continues by saying, “In the same way, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’. The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, ‘All nations will be blessed through you’. So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.” Gal. 3:6-9 (NLT). And Paul goes on to say, “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on the character of Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.” Gal. 3:26-29 (NLT).
If then the promises given to Abraham belong to people who have put their faith in Christ, why do we look to an unbelieving nation as the key to prophecy? Instead, I believe, we should be praying for them to discover the Messiah and the salvation He brings.