The Fullness of the Time - Part One Dec 06, 2020 by: John Herbert | Series: The Fullness of the Time Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T036_20201206.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Isa 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given……… Why was Jesus the Son given to the Jewish people? Today we will find out. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday December 6th 2020 The Fullness of the Time Part One 1). Ga 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law……… Isa 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given……… When our Lord came into the world at His first advent He was born of a Jewish mother and was born as the King of the Jews. And from the time of His incarnation onwards and for all time, He will remain a Jew. a). Why then, of all the people groups on the earth, were the Jewish people the ones through whom the Messiah would come? Particularly given that nation’s disobedience and unfaithfulness. b). To answer the question, we must begin by realizing that none of this exists in a vacuum, but rather, to understand the ‘why?’ we must see Israel within the context of God’s overall purpose. c). God is in sovereign control of all things and all things are moving towards His predetermined conclusion. And He has seen fit to reveal this to us through the Scriptures that were written by Jewish hands under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. d). These things are not to be debated but accepted and believed. 2). Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The very first words of the Scriptures tell us that in unknown ages past, ‘God created the heavens and the earth’. Two realms that make up one province in His universal Kingdom. a). And implicit in this statement, as we compare Scripture with Scripture, is the fact that this one province, as with all the others, was not randomly created, but was orderly arranged and assigned an angelic ruler to govern – Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And for this rulership to take place, God created sons, angels, to rule – Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” The one we now know as Satan, along with an unspecified number of angels, was created to rule from the heavens over the earth. A role he still occupies to this day. b). Now we know that when Satan rebelled, the province he ruled over became formless and void. It was completely devoid of light and covered with raging waters. c). And then at the time God had predetermined in line with His purposes, He intervened in this situation to restore that which had been ruined – Ge 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God’s intervention had a predetermined purpose – Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion…….. A Man was created, not an angel, to rule over the 2 realms of this one province in the place of Satan. And the Man was to have a Woman to be his helper, his wife, to help him to rule. d). And they were given a specific location to rule from, the Garden of Eden, and a specific timeframe in which their rule would be exercised, the 7th Day. e). And that which God established in the beginning with respect to the restored earth and the heavens associated with it can never change. This is His purpose. f). A Man and a Woman must rule the heavens and the earth in the place of Satan and his angels. Their rulership must be exercised from a specific location and they are to rule within a specific timeframe. 3). As a result of Satan’s actions, the Woman was deceived, and the Man took her sin upon himself so that her redemption would be possible, bringing about what we have come to call ‘the fall’. And it is following the fall that 2 children are born – Ge 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. The first son, Cain, is rejected by God but the second son, Abel, is accepted – Ge 4:3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And as a result of this, the first son, Cain, killed the second son, Abel, forming the foundational type for the Jewish people, the first son, killing the second Son, the Lord Jesus – Ge 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” A third son is born who replaced Abel, the son God had accepted. As Abel pictures Christ in Death, so Seth pictures Christ in resurrection. a). Of the 2 sons of Adam alive at this time it is Seth only who has a God and Seth only through whom God will work. b). And it is through the lineage of Seth that we come firstly to Enoch, the 7th generation from Adam and then to Noah, the 10th generation from Adam, who provide us with the foundational types for the resurrection/rapture of the Church and the time of Jacob’s trouble, respectively. c). And at the time when God destroyed the earth with another flood, Noah is the only one said to be ‘perfect in his generations’. d). And the one ‘perfect in his generations’, also had 3 sons – Ge 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And we should note that the sons are given in the reverse order of their birth, Shem the third, Ham the second and Japheth, the first. And it is the third son, Shem, as with Seth, who is the only son to have a God – Ge 9:26 And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. Only one son would have a God and the others could only have access to, and be blessed by God, through that son. 4). Now, keep in mind that we are still following the lineage of the ‘seed’ of the Woman as we come from Shem to Abraham, the one man who would have a God, through whom God would work and to whom God would give the promises. a). It was Abraham whom God called, not his father Terah, nor his brothers Nahor and Haran – Ge 12:1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 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.” It is then this one man, Abraham, and his seed, coming through Isaac and Jacob, who have a God, and to this one man and his seed to whom rulership over the 2 realms in this province in God’s universe is promised – Ge 22:17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. To this one man and his seed to whom a specific location was given from which rulership would take place – Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And it is with this one man and his seed that God makes covenant, with respect to the promises – Heb 6:13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath……….. It is then, the descendants of Abraham and Abraham alone who will occupy the positions of rulership in the heavens and on the earth in the place of Satan and his angels in the 7th Day, just as God had purposed in Adam. b). Now, Abraham, as we know, had 2 sons. Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman and Isaac, the son of promise, the son in whom Abraham’s seed would be called – Ge 21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. The first son, Ishmael, was rejected and the second son, Isaac, was accepted. Isaac had a God – Ishmael didn’t. c). Isaac also had 2 sons – Esau, a man of the field and Jacob, a mild man living in tents. d). The first son, Esau, is rejected and the second son, Jacob, is accepted – Ge 28:12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Jacob had a God – Esau didn’t. The only way Esau and his descendants can have access to and be blessed by God is through Jacob and his descendants. Exactly what God had taught through Shem, Ham and Japheth. An unchangeable truth. e). Jacob, as we know had 12 sons with 12 being God’s number for government. These were the descendants of Abraham through Isaac, the ones to whom rulership had been promised, as the seed of Abraham. f). And we can see that Jacob and the 12 sons and the nation that came from them have a direct lineage through Isaac, Abraham, Shem and Seth to Adam, the one created to have dominion. God’s purpose being brought to fulfillment in reverse order through Seth, Shem, Abraham, Isaac to Jacob and the 12 sons. g). That which God had set in place from the beginning can never change. 5). With God’s purpose for creating Adam in mind, let’s remember what we find recorded in Isaiah concerning the descendants of Jacob – Isa 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. Here in Isaiah, we see a creation in Jacob and the creation in Jacob can only be for the same purpose as the creation of Adam – to have dominion, to rule. a). But let’s also note from Isaiah 43:1 that Jacob, speaking of the whole nation, is created, and Israel is formed, a word that has to do with being squeezed into shape. b). To follow the previously established pattern we have seen with Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac and Esau and Jacob, it is the Jewish people in their unrepentant, unfaithful condition who are pictured through the name Jacob. It is the Jewish people seen in ‘Jacob’ who are rejected and the Jewish people repentant and restored through being squeezed, who will be accepted, pictured through the use of the name Israel – the prince who will rule with God. c). And this transition of the Jewish people from Jacob to Israel that we see in Isaiah 43:1 has been prophetically set in a type taken from Jacob’s life – Ge 32:24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” 28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. In the type here we see that Jacob ‘struggled with God and with men’ through the night, until ‘the breaking of the day’. This pictures the Jewish people during the 7 years of the tribulation, through the darkest night of their history, persecuted by the Gentiles under the hand of God, until ‘the Sun of righteousness arises with healing in His wings’. Remember this time of great tribulation is known as ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble.’ d). And out of this desperate struggle the nation will prevail. Restored and repentant, they will no longer have any association with the natural man, ‘Jacob’, but will now be ‘Israel’, the spiritual man, the prince who will rule with God. e). The struggle we see in Genesis 32:28 is also seen in another type that deals with Daniel’s 70th seven, and most particularly the 3 ½ years of ‘great tribulation’ and the 75 days beyond – Ex 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. Then within the context of this struggle in Egypt let’s note God’s direct statement concerning the nation that will come out of it – Ex 4:22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. God declares plainly that Israel is His firstborn son. The family status necessary to rule in the 7th Day. f). But in order for God’s firstborn son to be delivered from bondage, there must be a deliverer – Ex 3:7 And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” God Himself would bring about the deliverance of His people from Egypt, but He would accomplish this through a Jewish man, Moses. A man who had previously been rejected by the Jewish people when he first became known to them. g). If we then take this forward to the time of Jacob’s trouble, for which the struggle in Egypt is a type, then God Himself will deliver His people from the Gentile nations, but it will also be done through a Jewish Man, who will previously have been rejected by the Jewish people when He first became known to them. h). And because it is God only who can deliver the Jewish people and provide salvation, He Himself had to be the Jewish Man, whose rejection at His first advent would provide the means of salvation and whose resurrection would guarantee deliverance. i). There could be no other lineage from which the Christ could come except that through Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Shem, Seth and Adam. j). And then within this lineage from Adam, there is even greater precision. Jesus could only be born to Mary the wife of Joseph. Through Mary, Jesus has the bloodline of David through David’s son Nathan. And through Mary’s husband Joseph comes David’s regal line through Solomon. And it is because of this lineage, because He is ‘the Son of David’, not just because He is the Son of God, that Jesus is born King of the Jews. We will remember what God had told David – 2 Sa 7:12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. Then we can take this back even further to the prophetic blessings Jacob gave to his sons before his death – Ge 49:1 And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days: 2 “Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father………………… 8 “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father's children shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. And so, when the fullness of the time had come and the announcement concerning Jesus was made to Mary, there is no element of surprise or randomness. All things in God’s purpose had been brought together in this predetermined moment in complete alignment with the Scriptures, in complete alignment with God’s stated purpose. Lk 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Let’s also remember, that the inheritance lost in the Garden can only be redeemed by a family member – Ru 2:20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.” [Lit. ‘a redeemer’] And it is the Man, Jesus Christ, coming from that unbroken lineage, who is the ‘close relative’, the second Man, the last Adam, who, as the Son of God, is the only One able to redeem that which was lost in the Garden – Re 5:4 So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. 5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” 6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. We will continue with this next time – If the Lord is willing. The Fullness of the Time - Part One Dec 06, 2020 Speaker: John Herbert Series: The Fullness of the Time Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T036_20201206.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Isa 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given……… Why was Jesus the Son given to the Jewish people? Today we will find out. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday December 6th 2020 The Fullness of the Time Part One 1). Ga 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law……… Isa 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given……… When our Lord came into the world at His first advent He was born of a Jewish mother and was born as the King of the Jews. And from the time of His incarnation onwards and for all time, He will remain a Jew. a). Why then, of all the people groups on the earth, were the Jewish people the ones through whom the Messiah would come? Particularly given that nation’s disobedience and unfaithfulness. b). To answer the question, we must begin by realizing that none of this exists in a vacuum, but rather, to understand the ‘why?’ we must see Israel within the context of God’s overall purpose. c). God is in sovereign control of all things and all things are moving towards His predetermined conclusion. And He has seen fit to reveal this to us through the Scriptures that were written by Jewish hands under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. d). These things are not to be debated but accepted and believed. 2). Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The very first words of the Scriptures tell us that in unknown ages past, ‘God created the heavens and the earth’. Two realms that make up one province in His universal Kingdom. a). And implicit in this statement, as we compare Scripture with Scripture, is the fact that this one province, as with all the others, was not randomly created, but was orderly arranged and assigned an angelic ruler to govern – Col 1:16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And for this rulership to take place, God created sons, angels, to rule – Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” The one we now know as Satan, along with an unspecified number of angels, was created to rule from the heavens over the earth. A role he still occupies to this day. b). Now we know that when Satan rebelled, the province he ruled over became formless and void. It was completely devoid of light and covered with raging waters. c). And then at the time God had predetermined in line with His purposes, He intervened in this situation to restore that which had been ruined – Ge 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God’s intervention had a predetermined purpose – Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion…….. A Man was created, not an angel, to rule over the 2 realms of this one province in the place of Satan. And the Man was to have a Woman to be his helper, his wife, to help him to rule. d). And they were given a specific location to rule from, the Garden of Eden, and a specific timeframe in which their rule would be exercised, the 7th Day. e). And that which God established in the beginning with respect to the restored earth and the heavens associated with it can never change. This is His purpose. f). A Man and a Woman must rule the heavens and the earth in the place of Satan and his angels. Their rulership must be exercised from a specific location and they are to rule within a specific timeframe. 3). As a result of Satan’s actions, the Woman was deceived, and the Man took her sin upon himself so that her redemption would be possible, bringing about what we have come to call ‘the fall’. And it is following the fall that 2 children are born – Ge 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. The first son, Cain, is rejected by God but the second son, Abel, is accepted – Ge 4:3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And as a result of this, the first son, Cain, killed the second son, Abel, forming the foundational type for the Jewish people, the first son, killing the second Son, the Lord Jesus – Ge 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” A third son is born who replaced Abel, the son God had accepted. As Abel pictures Christ in Death, so Seth pictures Christ in resurrection. a). Of the 2 sons of Adam alive at this time it is Seth only who has a God and Seth only through whom God will work. b). And it is through the lineage of Seth that we come firstly to Enoch, the 7th generation from Adam and then to Noah, the 10th generation from Adam, who provide us with the foundational types for the resurrection/rapture of the Church and the time of Jacob’s trouble, respectively. c). And at the time when God destroyed the earth with another flood, Noah is the only one said to be ‘perfect in his generations’. d). And the one ‘perfect in his generations’, also had 3 sons – Ge 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And we should note that the sons are given in the reverse order of their birth, Shem the third, Ham the second and Japheth, the first. And it is the third son, Shem, as with Seth, who is the only son to have a God – Ge 9:26 And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. Only one son would have a God and the others could only have access to, and be blessed by God, through that son. 4). Now, keep in mind that we are still following the lineage of the ‘seed’ of the Woman as we come from Shem to Abraham, the one man who would have a God, through whom God would work and to whom God would give the promises. a). It was Abraham whom God called, not his father Terah, nor his brothers Nahor and Haran – Ge 12:1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 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.” It is then this one man, Abraham, and his seed, coming through Isaac and Jacob, who have a God, and to this one man and his seed to whom rulership over the 2 realms in this province in God’s universe is promised – Ge 22:17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. To this one man and his seed to whom a specific location was given from which rulership would take place – Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And it is with this one man and his seed that God makes covenant, with respect to the promises – Heb 6:13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath……….. It is then, the descendants of Abraham and Abraham alone who will occupy the positions of rulership in the heavens and on the earth in the place of Satan and his angels in the 7th Day, just as God had purposed in Adam. b). Now, Abraham, as we know, had 2 sons. Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman and Isaac, the son of promise, the son in whom Abraham’s seed would be called – Ge 21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. The first son, Ishmael, was rejected and the second son, Isaac, was accepted. Isaac had a God – Ishmael didn’t. c). Isaac also had 2 sons – Esau, a man of the field and Jacob, a mild man living in tents. d). The first son, Esau, is rejected and the second son, Jacob, is accepted – Ge 28:12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Jacob had a God – Esau didn’t. The only way Esau and his descendants can have access to and be blessed by God is through Jacob and his descendants. Exactly what God had taught through Shem, Ham and Japheth. An unchangeable truth. e). Jacob, as we know had 12 sons with 12 being God’s number for government. These were the descendants of Abraham through Isaac, the ones to whom rulership had been promised, as the seed of Abraham. f). And we can see that Jacob and the 12 sons and the nation that came from them have a direct lineage through Isaac, Abraham, Shem and Seth to Adam, the one created to have dominion. God’s purpose being brought to fulfillment in reverse order through Seth, Shem, Abraham, Isaac to Jacob and the 12 sons. g). That which God had set in place from the beginning can never change. 5). With God’s purpose for creating Adam in mind, let’s remember what we find recorded in Isaiah concerning the descendants of Jacob – Isa 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. Here in Isaiah, we see a creation in Jacob and the creation in Jacob can only be for the same purpose as the creation of Adam – to have dominion, to rule. a). But let’s also note from Isaiah 43:1 that Jacob, speaking of the whole nation, is created, and Israel is formed, a word that has to do with being squeezed into shape. b). To follow the previously established pattern we have seen with Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac and Esau and Jacob, it is the Jewish people in their unrepentant, unfaithful condition who are pictured through the name Jacob. It is the Jewish people seen in ‘Jacob’ who are rejected and the Jewish people repentant and restored through being squeezed, who will be accepted, pictured through the use of the name Israel – the prince who will rule with God. c). And this transition of the Jewish people from Jacob to Israel that we see in Isaiah 43:1 has been prophetically set in a type taken from Jacob’s life – Ge 32:24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” 28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.” And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. In the type here we see that Jacob ‘struggled with God and with men’ through the night, until ‘the breaking of the day’. This pictures the Jewish people during the 7 years of the tribulation, through the darkest night of their history, persecuted by the Gentiles under the hand of God, until ‘the Sun of righteousness arises with healing in His wings’. Remember this time of great tribulation is known as ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble.’ d). And out of this desperate struggle the nation will prevail. Restored and repentant, they will no longer have any association with the natural man, ‘Jacob’, but will now be ‘Israel’, the spiritual man, the prince who will rule with God. e). The struggle we see in Genesis 32:28 is also seen in another type that deals with Daniel’s 70th seven, and most particularly the 3 ½ years of ‘great tribulation’ and the 75 days beyond – Ex 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. Then within the context of this struggle in Egypt let’s note God’s direct statement concerning the nation that will come out of it – Ex 4:22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. God declares plainly that Israel is His firstborn son. The family status necessary to rule in the 7th Day. f). But in order for God’s firstborn son to be delivered from bondage, there must be a deliverer – Ex 3:7 And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” God Himself would bring about the deliverance of His people from Egypt, but He would accomplish this through a Jewish man, Moses. A man who had previously been rejected by the Jewish people when he first became known to them. g). If we then take this forward to the time of Jacob’s trouble, for which the struggle in Egypt is a type, then God Himself will deliver His people from the Gentile nations, but it will also be done through a Jewish Man, who will previously have been rejected by the Jewish people when He first became known to them. h). And because it is God only who can deliver the Jewish people and provide salvation, He Himself had to be the Jewish Man, whose rejection at His first advent would provide the means of salvation and whose resurrection would guarantee deliverance. i). There could be no other lineage from which the Christ could come except that through Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Shem, Seth and Adam. j). And then within this lineage from Adam, there is even greater precision. Jesus could only be born to Mary the wife of Joseph. Through Mary, Jesus has the bloodline of David through David’s son Nathan. And through Mary’s husband Joseph comes David’s regal line through Solomon. And it is because of this lineage, because He is ‘the Son of David’, not just because He is the Son of God, that Jesus is born King of the Jews. We will remember what God had told David – 2 Sa 7:12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. Then we can take this back even further to the prophetic blessings Jacob gave to his sons before his death – Ge 49:1 And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days: 2 “Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father………………… 8 “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father's children shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. And so, when the fullness of the time had come and the announcement concerning Jesus was made to Mary, there is no element of surprise or randomness. All things in God’s purpose had been brought together in this predetermined moment in complete alignment with the Scriptures, in complete alignment with God’s stated purpose. Lk 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Let’s also remember, that the inheritance lost in the Garden can only be redeemed by a family member – Ru 2:20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.” [Lit. ‘a redeemer’] And it is the Man, Jesus Christ, coming from that unbroken lineage, who is the ‘close relative’, the second Man, the last Adam, who, as the Son of God, is the only One able to redeem that which was lost in the Garden – Re 5:4 So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. 5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” 6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. We will continue with this next time – If the Lord is willing.