The story of Abraham, beginning in Genesis 12, is foundational to both Jews and Christians. Abraham is described as the father of faith as he obeyed the call of God on his life and moved into what later became the promised land. In Genesis 12, the Lord speaks to Abraham, describing three important promises.
Let us look at these promises, even as they relate to the events of our times. Genesis 12 outlines God’s promise to Abraham, stating,
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
GOD PROMISED ABRAHAM THE LAND
Although the Jews would see it as the state of Israel, the ‘land’ mentioned in Genesis 12 is known as Palestine today. ‘Palestine’ comes from the Greek word ‘philistia,’ which originally referred to the Philistines. God only promised Abraham a comparatively small piece of land compared to the other countries surrounding it. Descriptions of this land go back many years. Here is an example.
“The following geographical description of “Judea, Palestine, or the Holy Land” is taken from an 1801 Bible published by Matthew Carey, but was found in many Bibles during this period.
Palestine is bounded on the north, by Mount Libanus, or Lebanon, which separates it from that part of Syria, anciently called Phœnecia; on the east by Mount Hermon, which separates it from Arabia Deserta; on the south by Arabia Petrea; and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, or Sea of Syria.
This country received the name of Palestine, from the Philistines, who dwelt on the sea coast: it was called Judea, from Judah: and is termed the Holy Land, being the country where Jesus Christ was born, preached his holy doctrines, confirmed them by miracles, and laid down his life for mankind.
Palestine is about one hundred and eighty-five miles in length, and generally eighty in breadth” (hc.edu).
Now, the question is, ‘Does the land of Israel still belong to the Jews?’ Without going into a long study of history, let us briefly summarize to date.
In 1918, Britain took control of Palestine at the end of the 1st World War. The League of Nations issued a mandate to Britain for the land of Palestine. This mandate gave Britain the provision for creating a national homeland for a Jewish state.
After two decades, in 1947, it was the newly formed United Nations that voted for the Jews to have a state of their own. So, in May 1948, Britain withdrew from Palestine, and Israel declared itself an independent state. “U.S. President Harry Truman was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state on May 14, 1948 “(trumanlibrary.gov).
In July 1949, by the end of the Jewish war of independence with its neighbors, Israel controlled more than two-thirds of the former British mandate, while Jordan took control of the West Bank and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.
After all this, the PLO was born for the purpose of establishing a Palestinian Arab State. The PLO considered the state of Israel to be illegitimate and originally was in favor of the destruction of Israel, but after the 1963 Oslo Accords, they accepted Israel’s right to exit.
In 1967, the Six-Day War resulted in Israel gaining more land. In 1978, at the Camp David Accords, Egypt received the return of the Sinai Peninsula. In 2006, Hamas, a Sunni Islamic militant group, was elected, and Hamas and Israel have been in conflict ever since.
Hamas, however, has not recognized Israel as a nation. Their goal became the concept of ‘from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean) with Israel being driven out. This brings us to the current conflict with Hamas launching a terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel declared, ‘We are at war with Hamas, and the battle began.
GOD PROMISED ABRAHAM A GREAT NATION
“I will make you a great nation.” Bearing in mind that Israel’s population compared to all the people in the world is only about 0.2%, it is certainly, though small, a great nation. The Jews were dispersed many times, especially when their enemies captured the nation, which involved at different times Babylon and, finally, the Romans when they conquered Jerusalem in AD 70. Yet, for over 2,000 years, they never lost their identity.
Almost two thousand years after the Roman conquest, the Hebrew language has been restored so that Hebrew is spoken as it was in Biblical days. It has also been seen in modern days that the small nation of Israel has prevailed against many nations much larger than they are. Yes, God has made Israel great, both in restoring the Hebrew language, in prevailing against their enemies, and establishing a land and a nation for the Jewish people.
GOD PROMISED ABRAHAM THAT THEY WOULD BE A BLESSING
People do not always realize what a contribution Israel has made to society today. As such, it is part of the fulfillment of Genesis 12:1-3, which declares that all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you (Abraham). I recently came across a summary of some of the blessings that have come from Jewish people.
“As you study history, you learn that the indestructible Jew has left his indelible mark upon history. The Jewish people are not great in number. Of the world’s population, they are only 0.2%. That’s not two percent. That’s less than one-fourth of one percent. Yet did you know that 22% of Nobel Prize winners have been Jews? In 2013, six of the 12 laureates were Jewish. Think of that.
Abraham’s descendants consistently win high percentages not just of Nobel Prizes but other awards in medicine, health, music, and public life. What a mark they’ve made upon our world.
Did you know it was a Jew who financed Christopher Columbus when he set sail for the west? Of his crew members, the first to set foot on American soil was a Jew. Did you know that a Jew, Haym Salomon, financed General George Washington in our Revolutionary War?
Have you ever taken an aspirin? Friedrich Bayer, whose company developed aspirin, was a Jew. Were you vaccinated for polio as a child? The injectable and oral polio vaccines of Salk and Sabin were so effective, the disease has been all but eradicated.
Has the dentist ever deadened your tooth before he started to drill? Alfred Einhorn, who developed Novocain, was a Jew. If you’re an anti-Semite, the next time you go to the dentist, why don’t you say, “Just drill away, don’t deaden my pain.” Have you ever had local anesthesia? Its inventor, Carl Koller, was a Jew.
When you developed an infection, the doctor prescribed streptomycin, developed by Waksman, a Jew. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew. Are you a student of philosophy? Spinoza was a Jew. Do you appreciate the Salvation Army? Its founder, William Booth, had a Jewish mother.
It’s amazing to study the mark God’s chosen people have made on the world. Jews can be thanked for the discovery of electromagnetic waves, the transistor, the first laser, oral contraceptives, antihistamines, anti-leukemia drugs, the electron microscope, vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague, the camera phone, nuclear fission reactor, sound-on-film technology, the discovery of neurotransmitters, the process by which we do MRIs, the Hepatitis-B vaccine, the first exact map of the moon—and do you like American music? Thank George and Ira Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Lerner and Lowe, and Stephen Sondheim, to name only a few.
All history has been dramatically impacted by six Jews: Moses, Paul, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and above them all, the Lord Jesus Christ” (oneplace.com).
In addition, there are modern contributions by Jewish people such as the ballpoint pen, the word processing computer, mobile phones, video games, camera phones, google, etc. All these involved Jewish people.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
So, we see in Genesis 12 that God promised Abraham:
- The Land
- The greatness of the nation
- The blessing to society
People will inevitably have different ideas and interpretations regarding Israel. However, let me state my own position.
- It all goes back to Abraham, and therefore, there is a long period of history when the land belonged to Israel.
- Unfortunately, most of the protestors against Israel today, including young people at colleges and universities, do not appear to have a grasp of history and are, in most cases, ‘antisemitic.’
- I believe the land belongs to Israel. God help us if America ever turns its back on Israel and its possession of the land.
- We need to recognize the greatness of Israel and the contributions and blessings that the Jewish people and Israel have made in our time. Let us remember what God promised to Abraham in Genesis 12.
- We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) and the leaders in Israel.
RESOURCES
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/recognition-israel
Kairos Ministries 
Spot on! I enjoyed every word! Blessings and oodles of Yeshua love!