Father figures are important. They play a very unique and powerful role. A good father stabilizes, affirms, casts vision, and builds confidence. No other person could say, “See that goal, you can make it,” “You’re doing good,” or, “I’m proud of you,” and have the same impact.
Fifteen times in the Old Testament and seventeen times in the New Testament, Abraham is referred to as “father.” Even Yeshua the Messiah gives him that title in the parable of the rich man and Lazurus (Luke 16), and the very first verse of the New Testament is very careful to show that Yeshua is a son of Abraham. Notice that the genealogy does not start with Adam or Noah.
Eleven times in the Old Testament and five times in the New Testament Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, is referred to as “the God of Abraham.” This is amazing. God uses Abraham’s name to identify Himself!
In Matthew 8 and Luke 16, Yeshua equates sitting with Abraham to being in heaven! When you think of heaven, what do you imagine? God’s throne, Yeshua, and… Abraham?
Upon realizing that she had been chosen to bring the Messiah into the world, Mary burst forth into song and proclaimed that God had “Helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.” (Luke 1:54-55)
When Zacharias’ mouth was opened, knowing that his son would usher in the Messiah, he proclaimed that God had remembered: “His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham.” (Luke 1:72-73)
Did you catch that? The Messiah had come to earth and Mary and Zacharias immediately connected Him to Abraham! Father Abraham is still very relevant even after the Messiah arrived!
Now, here is the kicker. Galatians chapter three, verses seven through nine says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”
Wait, God preached the Gospel to Abraham? How could the Gospel have existed before Yeshua came into the world? I know that I need to believe in Yeshua, but do I also need to “believe Abraham”?
Yeshua, Mary, Zacharias, and Paul all understood something about Abraham that was critical to our faith. Let’s take a closer look at the Gospel passage in Genesis twelve.
In these verses God makes seven promises to Abraham – He will make him a great nation, He will bless him and make his name great, he would be a blessing, those who bless him will be blessed and those who curse him will be cursed, and through him all the families of the earth will be blessed.
According to Paul, this is the gospel! God’s master plan of salvation for the world was to find a man that was willing to follow Him, make him into a nation, and use that nation to bring blessing to the entire earth. Abraham was that man and that is why he deserves the title of “father.” He is the father of our faith.
The climax of this great vision is to see all the families of the earth blessed. It reminds me of the verse from Isaiah 11:9; “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” It is interesting that the verse leading up to that says, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.”
For thousands of years all nations outside of Israel, with very few exceptions (that didn’t last long), have cursed Israel – they have “hurt and destroyed in all God’s holy mountain.” Perhaps in order to reach the climax of God’s promises in Genesis twelve, we need to understand what leads up to the climax.
Has Abraham become a great nation? Yes. Has God blessed that nation? Yes. Has Abraham’s name become great? Yes! Have the nations learned that when they bless Israel they will be blessed and when they curse Israel they will be cursed? No! Have all the families of the earth been blessed by Abraham? Yes, but not the fullness of blessing that we will see.
What would happen if all nations began blessing Israel? Would they be blessed? Yes! Would we see a world revival like we have never seen before? Yes; I believe we would!
Is it possible that we have been so focused on the blessings that we have received from Abraham and his descendants – salvation, the Messiah, the Bible, etc… that we have somehow missed the fact that if we stop blessing Abraham we will cut off the flow of blessing?
The two words usually translated as “curse” in Genesis 12:3 are actually two different Hebrew words. The verse could be better translated as, “And I will curse him who lightly esteems you.” Have we lightly esteemed the nation of Israel and brought a curse upon ourselves?
Elon Moreh is one of my favorite locations to visit in all of Israel. The view is absolutely stunning. You can see for miles and miles in all directions. To the east, you can see the mountains of Jordan. The vast Tirzah valley lays before you as you face north, stretching from east to west. To the west are Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal; to the south, Shechem and distant Jerusalem.
This is the biblical entry point to the land of Israel. The children of Israel came out of Egypt and entered here. Jacob came from Laban and re-entered here. Abram left Haran with Sarai, Lot, all their possessions, and the people they had gathered in Haran, and they went to the land of Canaan. Abram came to Shechem, to the Oak tree (Elon) of Moreh.
And then, in that very spot, the same voice who spoke all creation into existence spoke to our father Abraham and said, “To your descendants, I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7) At that moment, Abraham knew that this was it! Israel was the land and his descendants were the people that God had chosen to bring blessing to the entire earth.
I believe it is time for Christians to have an Abrahamic, Elon Moreh encounter with God and understand the gospel that He preached to Abraham. It is time to highly esteem Israel. It is time to honor the Jewish People. It is time to see the whole earth filled with the knowledge of our great God!
Yeshua died so that you could be adopted into Abraham’s family. Your father Abraham is waiting to embrace you in his arms! Leave fatherless Christianity behind and join biblical Christianity, where Yeshua, the King of Israel, is your king and Abraham is your father.
Once you have embraced Abraham as your father, I think he might say something like this: “Let’s keep going until all the families of the earth are blessed. We can do it together. You’re doing good and I’m proud of you.”
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6)
Excellent article. Thank you!
Shalom!
I had an “Elon Moreh” moment in 2005 on a Christian Friends of Israel tour (UK) visiting the Biblical Heartland. We were standing overlooking “Nablus”, which always seemed to be in the UK news in those days, and our guide (who lived in Elon Moreh) was speaking about Shechem and Abraham from Genesis 12. That’s when the penny dropped for me and I realised Nablus was Biblical Shechem and that the world and even much of the church were willing to give away land, where much of our Bible took place, to form a muslim terrorist state, whose sole aim would be to destroy Israel. Since then I’ve spoken in a few churches in Scotland using the CFOIC map, pointing from north to south and informing people of the Biblical events that took place in Judea, Samaria and so called East Jerusalem. Christians were often shocked as I had been. In 2005 I had read through the Bible many times and even visited Israel but it took that Elon Moreh moment of God’s revelation in the Biblical Heartland that caused me to see the Truth. May many more have that blessing through the Israel Guys and HaYovel.
Good read, thanx.
yep
May the God of Israel give us more revelation of Israel.
a much needed reminder, great job thank yous, blessings
this is a wonderfully informative article. Thank you.