Abraham, a friend of God, was chosen for a sublime purpose denied to the rest of humankind. From the beginning of his life, Abraham was a man that walked with God. No, he was not an idolatrous as his family was according to history. In fact, “Abraham lived in Noah’s house thirty-nine years, and he knew the Lord from three years old; he went in the ways of the Lord until the day of his death” (Ancient book of Jasher, pg.20). From the time that our forefathers sinned, God had a plan to redeem the human race through His Son. The nation of Israel was born for this purpose and Abram’s offspring was the one chosen to bring the Holy Seed into the world. When God redeemed Jacob’s sons from the land of Egypt, and took them through the wilderness for forty years, when the journey would have been of just days, His purpose for them was to form a nation after His heart. Since the sons of Jacob were deeply intrenched in idolatry for having lived in that country for over four hundred years, they had forgotten the God of their father Abraham. Now, the Lord God was taking away the gods of Egypt from their hearts, by instructing them through the Law. In the third month after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, the same day, they came into the Wilderness of Sinai (Exodus 19). It was in that wilderness that the Lord covenanted with them, saying: I am the Lord your God, Who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (1) You shall not make yourself any graven image (2) you shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them (3) you shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain (4) earnestly remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (5) regard your father and mother, that your day may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you (6) you shall not commit murder (7) you shall not commit adultery (8) you shall not steal (9) you shall not witness falsely against your neighbor (10) you shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s (Exo. 20:1-17).
Israel was created and formed by the Lord God to be a light to the Gentile pagan nations. Israel was to shine God’s purpose of redemption to a Gentile world corrupt and confused with many gods. Israel was to be for God a kingdom of priests and a holy nation; these were the words Moses was to tell them (Exo. 19:6). A beautiful plan, which included God’s plan of salvation by sending His own Son to the world through the nation of Israel. God’s covenant with Abraham was solidified in YAHSHUA’S coming, death and resurrection. Abraham became the father of many nations: As it Is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the sight of God in Whom he believed. Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the non-existent things that as if they existed (Rom. 4:17) “And in your Seed (YAHSHUA) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and [by Him] bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My voice (Gen. 22:18). Abraham, God’s friend, so God called him, has no equal to him in his supreme calling. His name is on the list of heroes of the faith, defining him of strong faith, a vessel in God’s hand to fulfill His promise of a Redeemer (Heb. 11:8-11). Although, Abraham’s descendants were far from being that which God intended for them, he, was a righteous man, worthy of the calling for his faith sustained his belief in God’s promise through the covenant in Genesis 22. God honored his faith and reassured Isaac of His promise in His covenant to Abraham saying, I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake (Ge. 26:24).
But when YAHSHUA came to fulfill His promise to Abraham’s descendants, there was no place for Him in their hearts. He was rejected, and handled to the Gentile nation of Rome to be scourged and suffer the death of crucifixion according to their merciless ways. However, that’s when the Gentile nations were engrafted in God’s plan of salvation, mentioned as the mystery Paul referred to. In the space of time, as it was prophesized by Daniel 9:24-27, seventy weeks of years, or 490 years, were decreed upon Israel and upon the holy city to finish and put an end to transgression, to seal up and make full the measure of sin, to purge away and make expiation and reconciliation for sin, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and prophet and to anoint a Holy of Holies in which the coming and death of their Messiah happened. Israel’s last week of years is yet to take place, when the time will come for God to deal with the nation by judgment through a period of tribulation of seven years, bringing them to repentance and their restoration, according to Zechariah 13:8-9: And in that land, says the Lord, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, but one-third shall be left alive; and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and will test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will hear and answer them, I will say, It is My people; and they will say, The Lord is my God.
Light from the Word 