Why God Chose Abraham: Israel's Purpose Finally Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, let's get everybody going again, and we're going to buy up the time, because these 30 minutes go so fast. I'm going to bring you right back again, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we're going to jump in right where we left off in our last program, which would be in verse 23. While you're looking that up here, and for those of you at home, we want to again remind folks that we do have all the programs available on video, in little books, and now on the audios. And if you're interested, you just drop us a note, and we'll get the information to you. Again, we have so many questions come in, well, who supports you? Well, nobody, except everybody. And just because we don't mention money or ask for it, doesn't mean that we don't have to pay our bills. Television time is not cheap, but we have found we've never had to ask for money. Now we don't have a lot of money. I got my bookkeeper back here, and more than once he said, Les, we've only got three hundred and fifty dollars in the bank, so we have to take that into consideration. So we don't run on a great big surplus, but whatever we do, just thank God for all of you who write, and all of you who support. I mean, it's just unreal. Iris and I almost just about shed tears once in a while at the outpouring of your letters and your contributions, and I've said it before, and I'll say it again, unless it gets an awfully lot bigger, we read every single letter that comes. Don't think for a minute that we don't. And some of them, if they've got questions and so forth, why we read two or three times. But we love to have you write to us, and we love to hear what's transpiring out in your situation. Okay, now let's come right back then to I Corinthians chapter 15, and coming in again at verse 23. I Corinthians 15 But every man in his own company, and then as we saw in our last half hour, that means that Christ and the firstfruits was the first little group of resurrection people, and then came the main harvest, which I feel is the Body of Christ, those who have been saved during this age of grace, and then after the tribulation has run its course, and we go for an extra 75 days, then the Old Testament saints, which of course would include Daniel and all the rest, and the tribulation saints, will be resurrected in their company. But before we go any further, I got the lines on the board, and it's been a long time since I've put my timeline up there, and I know this has opened a lot of eyes over the years to see how historically God's plan of the ages just keeps unfolding. To give you first where I'm going to go on my timeline, I guess I'll take you away from I Corinthians, and go back to Psalms chapter 2 for just a second, and all the way back to Psalms chapter 2, which I have always referred to as the outline of the Old Testament prophetic program. Now I've made the comment on this program umpteen times that all true prophecy is directed only to the nation of Israel, and usually that prophecy will be within a time frame. In other words, the first real prophecy given in the Old Testament was when God told Abraham that the children of Israel would end up in a land that wasn't theirs, and they would be in slavery. And He was speaking of course of Egypt, and how that afterwards they would come out, and they would come back to the land of Canaan. Now that was a distinctive prophecy of what would happen years down the road, but He put it in a time frame, 430 years. Then you get to Daniel chapter 9, and Daniel writes that 490 years are determined upon your people Israel. And there comes the prophecy again leading up to the crucifixion, and that's where we get our idea of the 7 years of tribulation. That was prophecy concerning Israel. Now there is nothing in the Old Testament, prophetic or otherwise, that connects it to the Church, which is His Body. Now in Psalms chapter 2 we see the brief outline of this Old Testament prophetic program given to the Jew. Why do the heathen, or the Gentiles, the non-Jews, why do they rage? And why do the people? Well naturally there is only one other group of people in humanity, and that's the Jew. So if the Gentiles rage, then the others would have to be the Jews, and they imagine a vain thing. And then verse 2. And the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers, that is of Israel, to consul together. Now remember even though Peter only blames the Jew in Acts chapter 2, yet we cannot just blame Israel for the crucifixion. The Romans carried it out, the Jews demanded it, but the Romans carried it out. So here's the word, together. They did it in consort. And so together they take consul against the Lord and His Anointed, and they said, Let us break their bands, that is God's desire to rule. Let us break their bands away, and cast their cords from us. In other words, they rejected His offer of being the King. You know that. And that was the whole scope of His earthly ministry. He had come in fulfillment of all these prophecies that Israel would have the Divine Son of God as their King, and their Messiah and Redeemer. But they rejected Him, they crucified Him. But Rome was involved. Now then, verse 4. He that sitteth in the heavens, in other words the triune God who is still watching over all of this. He sits in the heavens, and shall laugh at the foolishness, and the stupidity of mankind. That here they had the King. He could have set up His Kingdom, but what did they do with Him? They killed Him. They crucified Him, and they said, Away with Him, we will not have such a man to rule over us. Now read on. Romans 5. He shall have them, that is the Lord, shall have these nations in derision. Now verse 5. Then, in other words, after having rejected the Messiah, they have killed Him. Then He, God, will speak unto them, that is the nations of the world, as well as Israel, in His wrath. Here is the prophecy concerning the final seven years of tribulation. He shall speak unto them His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. And then what is the next event? Yet have I set my King, where? On the holy hill of Zion. And where is that? Jerusalem, just south of the Temple Mount. And it is from Zion, you see, that Christ is going to rule in His thousand year reign. Alright, there is your Old Testament prophecy then, your timeline in a nutshell. Now let me put it on the board, and maybe you can understand it a little better. We come away from Adam, of course, back here at 4000 B.C., and I'll try to make this a little bigger so that people can see it on the camera. Here we have Adam. The human race has run along now for 1600 years, 1600 years from Adam until the next big event in God's timetable, which is the flood, Noah's flood. Which from the reverse side, of course, will be about 2400 B.C. That's the flood. Now this is in general terms. I know you can narrow it down a little year by year, but in general terms, Adam's race went for 1600 years or up to 2400 B.C., and then you have the flood. Now the three sons of Noah come out of the ark, and under a whole new creation that came about as a result of the flood, then for 200 years they repopulated, and they stayed there in the Middle East, and then in total rebellion against what God had instructed to scatter and to repopulate the planet, they gather at the tower of Babel under one man called Nimrod. Now at Babel in a total rebellion again against God's authority, the tower wasn't intended of course to actually take brick and stone all the way to heaven, but what was it? It was a place of religion whereby they could literally usurp the throne of God religiously, and that of course has always been Satan's goal. And so this was the whole idea at the tower of Babel. They were going to replace the things that God had instructed with the things now that Satan is going to promote himself. And that's where every pagan, mythological, cultic, false religion even on the planet today has its roots. And you've heard me teach it over and over, that every false religion has its roots at the tower of Babel. I was just reading in the Reader's Digest Book of the Month about this cult in Japan where they put the poison gas in the subways here some time ago. Well where did the old boy who became the guru of that cult, where do you suppose he went for his so-called enlightenment? To the Himalayas. And so who did he find in the Himalayas? Some Buddhist guru who supposedly gave him the enlightenment, and he goes back to Japan and begins this cult. Well already you can see, you go right through Buddhism, and you go through these other Eastern religions, and where are their roots? The tower of Babel. And so every cult that's on the planet tonight, I don't care who they are or what they are, every pagan religion, every mythological religion that has ever existed, they all run their roots right back to the tower of Babel. One of the big highlights of course in the Old Testament economy, and so God scattered them. You all know the account of Babel, and it means confusion. Then another 200 years went by, and once again God does something totally different. He pulls off this mainstream of humanity, this man Abraham, and He brings about the nation of Israel by an act of a sovereign God. This didn't happen accidentally, but God sovereignly pulls out of the mainstream humanity through the man Abram, as he was first called, and He promises him the nation of Israel. Now this will answer the question that I get so often in one form or another. Some will write and say, Well where did the nation of Israel begin? I've had others that write and say, Well where did the Gentiles begin? Well now it answers it, doesn't it? The Gentile line, as we understand Gentiles, is this mainstream of humanity coming from Adam, coming from the three sons of Noah, coming through the nations scattered at the tower of Babel, and they just keep on going. This is the Gentile stream of humanity, and out of that stream of humanity God pulled the little nation of Israel by virtue of separating the man Abraham, who like I have made comment before, was not a Jew. He was born of Syrian parents, and when Isaac went up to Haran to get a wife from his uncle, what was Rebekah? She was a Syrian. And then later on Jacob goes up, and he gets his little wife from his uncle Laban, and what was Laban? He was still a Syrian. But by virtue of God's decree, and God's work of sovereignty, He declares that this man Abram now is the father of the Jewish race. And so if you've ever wondered where does the Jew begin? He begins when God separated Abram out of his family in Ur, the Chaldees, and by way of his wife, which he took from Ur, a half sister, he has the first son, Isaac. And so I always tell people, I guess if you want to be real technical, the first real Jew then would be Isaac. But nevertheless God refers to Abraham as the father of the Jewish people, even though he came from one of the other nationalities. So now we have the nation of Israel has made its appearance, and from Genesis chapter 12. All the first 11 chapters of Genesis cover the first 2,000 years of human history, just in 11 chapters. And then in chapter 12 of Genesis we have the giving of the Abrahamic covenant, and I'm almost refrained from using it too much, because I don't want to run it into the ground. But there is nothing more important in all the Old Testament than this covenant that God made with Abram at 2,000 B.C. to bring about the nation of Israel. Now Israel of course according to all the promises of God, was to be a nation that God would prepare and use. Now come back with me if you will to Genesis, and we'll just take a brief look at what I've already rehearsed in Genesis chapter 12. Like I said this has been on our earlier programs, and for those who have bought tapes I kind of have to apologize that you're going to get the same thing in this tape that you got in one of the earlier ones. But for benefit of all those who do not have the tapes, I feel duty bound to rehearse this once again. Genesis 12, beginning at verse 1, Now the LORD Jehovah had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. Now I've got to stop there, hold your hand in Genesis and flip over to Joshua, right after Deuteronomy, Joshua the last chapter, that's number 24. Keep your hand in Genesis, we're going to come right back, Joshua 24, because I want you to see where Abram really came from, waiting for the pages to stop. Okay and now you see I have to do that because I go by what I hear from the audience, and they'll write so many times, I'm glad you wait for the studio audience to find it, because that gives me time in my living room. So you see this is why I wait. Alright, Joshua 24, verse 1, And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and their officers, and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they, Abraham, Terah, Nahor, Haran, and they all served other gods. So what were they? Idolaters. Abram was raised in idolatry. Now when God spoke to him, and I'll come back to Genesis chapter 12, when God spoke to him and Stephen in Acts chapter 7 gives us the impression that God visibly, because that's the word He used when He appeared, from the Greek word optomiae. When He appeared unto Abraham, that Abraham saw God in physical form, and God or the Lord as we refer to Him now, told Abraham what you see now in Genesis chapter 12. He says, "...get you away from your country, from your kinfolks, and from your father's house." Why? To separate yourself from these false religions. You cannot serve Me when you're under the roof with idolaters. Then verse 2. Here comes the Abrahamic covenant, and I will make of thee a great nation. You want to remember back here in the antiquities when Israel comes out of Egypt, and I've always taught that it was a number of people, anywhere from 3 to 7 million. So you want to put it in the middle, about 5 million. There wasn't another tribe or nation anywhere in the Middle East that would come close to that. I mean they just did not get that large a number. And so in the numbers of antiquity, Israel was the largest nation in that area of the world at 5 or 6 million people. And this was God's promise, that I will make of thee a great nation, I will bless thee and make thy name great, thou shalt be a blessing. I will bless them that bless thee, I will curse them that curse thee, and thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Which of course is the promise of the coming of the Redeemer. Now turn the page a little bit if you will, and verse 15 in chapter 13. Now we see the next part of this Abrahamic covenant. Not only would they be a nation of people, but now God is going to have to put them in a geographical area of land. They can't just continue on in slavery in Egypt. If they're going to be a nation of people that God is going to work through, they have to be in their own borders. Here it comes, verse 14 of chapter 13. The Lord said unto Abram, after Lot was separated, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, southward, eastward, and westward. You want to remember if you've never been to Israel before, that right up through the spine of that little narrow neck of land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River are mountains. So here Abraham is on the high ground, and God says, Now Abram, look as far south, as far north, as far east, and as far west, for all the land which thou seest, to thee shall I give it, and to thy seed for ever. Now let's go to Genesis chapter 46. Now time has gone by, but it's still within that time frame of the prophecy. That was 430 years, and within that time frame now, Israel has become a nation, they're in slavery in Egypt, Joseph has come to the top of the government, and you all know the story of Joseph and his grain, and Jacob is over there in the Negev, which is desert, and he's about to starve to death. No food, they're in famine, have been for almost seven years. And so verse 1 of chapter 46, Genesis 1, and he came to Beersheba, that's down there south of Jerusalem, about 70-80 miles, and he offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac, and God spake unto Israel, or Jacob, and he said, Jacob, and he said, Here am I. Now look at this command, almost a total opposite of what he's been told up until now. He was told not to leave the land of promise, and God would bless him. But now look what God says. Jacob 3, and he said, I am God, the God of thy father, fear not to go down into Egypt, for there, Egypt, I will make of thee a great nation. Did he? Yes! And so Jacob ends up in Egypt with all his sons, and they come out, 215 years later, and they have 5, 6, 7 million souls. Now in just a few seconds, I want you to stop at Exodus chapter 19. Now time has gone by, another 215 years, and now Moses has led the children of Israel out of Egypt. The 430 years are now completed, and we see the nation gathered around Mount Sinai, and now God is getting ready to do something totally different than He's ever done before. And I bet most people don't even think about it. Do you know that from Genesis 1 until Exodus 20, there was never any written do's and don'ts from God, so far as what men could and could not do? Do you know there has not been one single item of God instituted worship until we get here? Oh I know, they probably brought sacrifices, but so far as having an organized system of worship there has been none. So here we have something that's never happened before, that God tells the nation of Israel that He's going to give them the Law, He's going to give them the priesthood, He's going to give them the whole system of sacrificial worship, and for what purpose? To make them aware of God's holiness, to make them aware of His sovereignty, and to make them aware that God is preparing them for a future role in the midst of all the pagan idolatry that was now all the way around them. Now you want to remember the whole world was steeped in idolatry now, except for the offspring of Abraham. Now look at what He says in Exodus chapter 19, and the children of Israel encamped at the base of the mountain, Moses is up there talking with God, and this is what God tells him. Now therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, the one that He is about to give, the covenant of Law, if you will keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people. What does that do with the nation of Israel? Just like I got the lion on the board, it lifts them out of that mainstream of humanity, and it puts them into that place of covenant relationship as God's favored, chosen people. Now we know that by the time we get to the book of Acts, when Paul so much as mentioned the word Gentiles to that Jewish audience, what happened? He had an uproar, a riot. Well it all began of course with good intentions, that God intended this little nation of people to be a particular people of value that He could use to reach all those pagans. That was the whole concept. Now look at it again in Exodus chapter 19. So He says, "...you are a treasure unto Me above all people." And why could God do that? Because all the earth is Mine. What is He? He's Sovereign. Oh I can't drive that home enough. That God is Sovereign. He created this ball of wax, and He can do with it whatever He wants. And man can shake their fist in His face all they want, and they'll never diminish God's sovereignty. And so in sovereignty He says to the nation of Israel, "...I have made you of an intrinsic value to Me, because the world is Mine." Now here comes the promise, that if they would be obedient. God says, "...you shall be unto Me..." Now He's speaking to the nation of Israel, "...and you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests." And anybody who knows anything about religion, the role of a priest is a go-between. So every Jew was to be a prepared person to be a go-between, some day down the road, between the pagan world around them, and Israel's God. "...and you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, or a set -apart nation. These are the words which you must speak to the children of Israel." Now most people can't understand that this is the purpose of Israel, that they were to be a kingdom of go-betweens. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time, for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.