What was Israel supposed to be according to God's promises?
According to God's promises, Israel was to be a nation that God would prepare and use. The Abrahamic covenant, given in Genesis 12 around 2,000 B.C., was God's means of bringing about the nation of Israel, and it is central to the Old Testament.
Les explains that after Genesis chapters 1–11 cover the first 2,000 years of human history in only 11 chapters, Genesis 12 records the giving of the Abrahamic covenant. He stresses that nothing in all the Old Testament is more important than this covenant God made with Abram at 2,000 B.C., whose purpose was to bring about the nation of Israel. Israel, according to all the promises of God, was to be a nation that God would prepare and use. Les rehearses Genesis 12 and reads verse 1, where the LORD Jehovah told Abram to get out of his country, kindred, and father's house unto a land God would show him. He then pauses in Genesis and directs attention over to Joshua.