HOW CAN WE COPE IN A WORLD OF RAPID CHANGE ????? # 1 _Do you feel bombarded with change from every direction? Do you feel stressed, overworked, with too little time to appreciate and enjoy life? Do you find it difficult to keep up with everthing you need to do? If so, you're not alone. Our rapidly changing world is rapidly stressing us out. What can you do to cope?
# 2 _If you have children or grandchildren, chances are you can't help but notice what a different world they're growing up in compared to when you were their age. If you tell them what life was like when you were young, they may be astonished at how different things were "back then." I know when I tell my 20-and 16-year-old grandchildren stories from when I was their age, they have a hard time grasping the concepts of typing term papers on a typewriter, writing out letters by hand, only having four television stations to watch, and having to go to the library to get information for a school project.
# 3 _Of course, we've come to expect that lifestyle are going to change somewhat from one generation to the next. Amazingly, though, my kids have also remarked on how much the world has changed just since they were born. Though they're only in their mid teens, they can remember a time when people didn't carry cell phones and PDAswith them wherever they went, and when there were no such things as iPods, Wi-Fi Internet, You Tube, Twitter and Facebook. They'll often note how our "slow" computer we get frustrated with today was considered a "fast" machine just a few years ago. They can also think back to a time when we didn't have to wait in long security lines at the airport, and terrorism seemed like something that only happened in far-flung lands.
# 4 _Change now exploding exponentially _It all underscores a vital point: While our world has always experienced change, the rate of change is speeding up. Many historians, sociologists and journalists have expressed concern in recent years about the rapid change in our society. They tell us that today's world is changing at an accelerated rate, unlike anything past generations witnessed. In his 2004 bestseller Margin, physician and futurist Richard Swenson explains that change picked up momentum in the early part of the 20th century and has been rapidly accelerating ever since. The reason, he states, is that "the mathematics are different. Many of the linear lines that in the past described our lives well have now disappeared. Replacing them are lines that slope upward exponentially.
# 5 _"Because there is little in our day-to-day lives that changes exponentially, we tend to think with a linear mindset. The sun rises and sun sets. Twenty-four hours. Week after week, everything seems about the same. Meanwhile, largely unnoticed by us, history has shifted to fast forward. If linear still best describes our personal lives, exponential now best describes most of historical change.
# 6 _In other words, as time progresses the world is changing at an exponentially increasing rate. Yet a century ago, historical change was linear (maintaining the same pace) and thus was much less noticeable. This period of accelerating change we're now witnessing can and has put a strain on individuals and entire societies. In 1970, futurist Alvin Toffler described the effects of "too much change in too short a period of time" in his contemporary classic Future Shock. At the time, he predicted that people exposed to these rapid changes of modern life would suffer from "shattering stress and disorientation." They would be, in his words, "future-shocked." He maintained that the need to constantly adapt to changing situations could lead to feelings of helplessness, despair, depression, uncertainty, insecurity, anxiety and burnout. Four decades later, what Toffler wrote describes our world more than ever. Future shock is here!
# 7 _More change than we can handle "The fear of rapid change is big today," observe Gabe Ignatow, Ph.D., a sociologist at the University of North Texas. "Many people see the changes going on in the world around us and are worried and anxious. If they also have changes going on in their personal lives__maybe they lost their job or had to find a new place to live because their home was foreclosed__it can all be overwhelming." Most people can handle a certain amount of change, Ignatow says. The problem is, we are increasingly being overloaded with more change than we can handle.
# 8 _Susan Silbey, Ph.D., is a sociologist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a special interest in technology and societal change. She also sees the intensifying problems of uncertainty and anxiety resulting from too much change. She notes that mankind has always faced uncertainty, along with pain, hardship and tragedy. A few centuries ago, the uncertainty might have been: What's it like in the new frontier where we're headed to? Will this season produce a good crop? When will it rain again?
# 9 _A big difference between previous times and today, she says, is that in the past people looked to God to help them through difficult times. "Several hundred years ago there were very few people who didn't have some religion, which gave them an explanation of the world. But for many people today, that doesn't exist as an answer anymore." When the religious belief system erodes away, people generally do not cope as well with change and stress, she notes.
# 10 _The root of change _So what has caused our world to change so papidly in recent years? "Ultimately, it's due to thechnological advances," replies Ignatow. Case in point: With the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, there was certainly a paradigm shift (a change from one way of thinking to another), but it took a century for that shift to occur. Before that (with only word of mouth and slow travel), it may have taken several centuries for a major shift in societal views to occur. Now, with internet, such a shift may take only a few years. "There's a case to be made that with the Internet and communication technology spreading around the world, it has really upset a lot of social patterns," Ignatow says.
Certainly technological progress can lead to very positive changes. Inventions such as computers, the Internet, communications satellites and genetic diagnostic tools help improve our lives in many ways. Difficult tasks are made simple and can be done much more quickly.
# 11 _However, technological innovation can also lead to other changes__some of them not so positive. "Throughout history, when new inventions were introduced into a society, it has impacted the society's customs, values and beliefs," Silbey says. Since the Industrial Revolution, when the speed of change really started picking up, society has been transforming accordingly. It began with a shift from a rural, agrarian society to an urban, industrial society. Fewer workers were needed to cultivate greater crops, so more people moved to big cities to take factory jobs. That led to a whole range of changes in lifestyle, family structure, culture and values. The computer revolution that started around 25 years ago sent the rate of change into its exponential rise. Today, scientific and techological changes are taking place at such a breathtaking pace that many have difficulty keeping up with them.
# 12 _Seven kinds of stress-producing changes _Today we see at least seven major kinds of changes that are causing a great deal of stress and anxiety. Most of these changes are directly related to the digital revolution and have only become problems in the last 10 to 20 years. Some of the other changes have been occurring for a couple of generations now but have been exacerbated in recent years by technology. All of these issues have played a significant role in making our era different from all those that preceded it. What are these seven area of change, and how are they impacting our society, institutions and world?
# 13 __The pace of life is speeding up.__We are a society in a hurry. For years we've been told that the "faster" computers are the "better" machines. Somewhat that way of thinking has seeped into how we think we should live our lives. We have been cranking up the speed at which we operate, and life is becoming increasingly frantic. Silbey believes that our faster pace of life stems from the fact that modern communications technology has "collapsed" distance and time. For instance, this allows an American lawyer to get a deposition from a client, e-mail it that afternoon to workers in India who will transcribe it, and be able to have it back the next morning, all typed up. Effectively, day and night have been erased.
# 14 __"When you collapse time and distance, everything speeds up, because what had been physical, material limitation to human action is now gone," Silbey says. It then becomes expected that everything else in the workday should go just as fast. Even if there's no need to hurry, "faster" has become the normative way we do things today. We may find ourselves getting impatient and angry with slower drivers on the highway even when there's no reason to be in a rush. We may groan when we realize the customer in front of us at the grocery store checkout is having an item price-checked, even though it's only going to take an extra minute. We walk fast and wolf down our meals.Sometimes we don't even want to compose an e-mail message anymore because that takes too long. Some people now prefer communicating through texting and "tweeting" because the messages are shorter and faster to compose and read.
# 15 __We are busier than ever __As a society, we are busier than ever before. That's became while technology allows us to do our work faster and more efficiently, it also puts more demands on us. "Nowadays we're expected to accomplish much more with our time." says David Levy, Ph.D., professor at the School of Information at the University of Washington. In an attempt to get more done, "we multitask, always trying to do two or three things at the same time," Levy says. So we may eat our fast-food lunch and conduct business calls while we're driving or checking our e-mail.
# 16 __Another trend: Portable digital communication allows employees to be reached anywhere, anytime. "You can't get away from work anymore," Ignatow says. "Even when you're relaxing on the weekends, you're often bombarded with e-mail and calls from the office." It's not unusual to see people at the beach or park with their laptops or composing messages on their Blackberries. More people are also bringing work home with them. Everyone is working longer hours__not only because there's a lot more work to be done, but also because of concerns about getting laid off if they don't put in extra hours. Working overtime, working weekends and being on call 24 hours a day are standard for employees at many companies.
# 17 __Life is more complicated. _Our daily lives are becoming increasingly complex. Think about some of the purchasing decisions you make. In just about any product category, the number of choices are increasing. Whether you're buying pet food, selecting a cell phone plan, making airline reservations, choosing a doctor or setting up a retirement account, you may have more choices than you can realistically consider. Having so many options can be overwhelming. The same thing is true when seeking out information. You can easily become overloaded with facts and figures. For instance, you might do a Google search on a particular topic and get 10,000 search results. "Now you have to decide which of them you are going to read and which you are going to ignore. The very act of choosing takes time," says Levy. A lot of times you'll come across conflicting information, which can be very confusing.
# 18 __Ironically, another way our lives have become more complicated is by some of the technological innovations we bring into our homes that were intended to make our lives easier. Now it's certainly true that our modern gadgets can make our lives easier. But as complex as some of them are, they can really add to our stress levels. Some of our modern-day "time-savers" can be really hard to figure out and use! I know professionals who don't know how to use important features on their Palm Pilots, digital cameras and cell phones. As frustrating as that is, they simply have not had the time to read the manuals carefully. Actually, there are times when I miss my simple, old typewriter. Sure, it took a lot more time to type an article on it than it does on my computer. But the typewriter never crashed, it never bogged down because of spyware or viruses, and I don't have to read a manual to figure it out.
# 19 __Families are structured__and function__differently. _Family structure changed dramatically in the last half of the 20th century. The traditional nuclear family with Dad, Mom and kids has been largely replaced by new configurations, including "blended" families, single parents and unmarried couples with children. The divorce rate in the United States peaked at around 50 percent in the 1980s, after climbing for two decades. Since then, it has remained at that level. "The stigma associated with divorce has largely disappeared, and marriage as an institution has been weakened," says William Doherty, Ph.D., professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota.
# 20 __While divorce rates were climbing, more woman were entering the workforce. During the 1950s, 20 to 30 percent of mothers were employed outside the home. These were primarily poor woman who needed to work out of necessity. By the late 1980s, 70 percent of American mothers were employed outside the home, either full-or part-time. Unlike before, a lot of these were woman in middle-and upper-income household who were working to sustain their lifestyles and to pay an increasing tax burden.
# 21 __Today, three out of four households have two working parents, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In recent years, the American family has changed still further, albeit more subtly. Dads and moms are both working longer hours outside the home. Their commute times are increasing. At the same time, parents have been involving their children in outside activities such as music and sports. This is quite a shift from 10 to 15 years ago, when parents and kids spent most of their downtime relaxing at home.
# 22 __"Now parents are busy all weekend shuffling their kids to all the different sporting events they're involved with," Doherty says. "That's in addition to running errands or catching up on housework that didn't get done during the week." As a result, there's much less time available for quality face-to-face time between parents and kids.
# 23 _Of course nowaday's even when family members are home together, parents may be too worn out to talk and may instead simply "veg out" in front of the TV. Kids are either on the internent or plugged into their iPods. "In the past, you had to talk to the people under your roof and spend time with them, whether you liked it or not," observes Ignatow. "Today family members can tune into their iPods or laptops and tune everyone else out and 'be with' whomever they choose to be with."
# 24 __"Traditional" beliefs and values are being challenged. _As we mentioned up front, religion has been eroding in much of the Western world. Scientific developments have "invalidated" many of the assumptions underlying traditional system of faith, Silbey says.
# 25 __As a result, religion has lost a lot of its authority, and many people no longer hold to a system of ethics and concrete values. In its place is a secular view where everything is relative. This has reconfigured families, upset moral structures and devastated traditions.
# 26 _We now live in a society where just about anything goes and nothing is certain. We see a tolerance and acceptance of promiscuity, adultery, couples living together outside of wedlock, homosexual relationship, lying, cheating, alcohol and drug abuse, use of indiscreet and explicit language__to name just some of society's ills we've grown used to. This period of rapidly changing values started accelerating in the 1960s, about the time television gained a major foothold in society. TV proved to be an extremely effective medium to promote new values and new ways of thinking.
# 27 _Today, this media blitz has intensified with around-the-clock exposure through satellite TV, MP3 players, laptops and smartphones__much of it challenging traditional beliefs and values. Probably most of us can think of music with lyrics that shouldn't be repeated or TV programs where the characters with traditional values are made to look like fools.
# 28 _Regrettably, most of the new madia is viewed or listened to in isolation (unlike TV, which can be watched together as a family, or music on the radio, which everyone within earshot hears). "More often than not, parents do not even know what their kids are listening to on their iPods or what sites they're checking out on the Internet," Doherty says, "so kids are not getting any kind of direction as to what's wrong with these messages, and they go unchallenged."
# 29 _ Our sense of community is disappearing. _In recent decades, Americans have become increassingly disconnected from friends and neighbors, and less involved with community organizations like parent-teacher groups, civic groups or recreation clubs. Harvard professor and political scientist Robert Putnam discussed this social change several years ago in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. This loss of "community," maintains Putnam, threatens educational performance, safe neighborhoods, everyday honesty and even our health and happiness.
# 30 _Why the loss of community? One factor is certainly our busy lifestyles. With people working longer hours, often on the weekends, we have lee time for chats with the neighbors or for neighborhood barbecues. We're also changing residences more frequently than we used to, primarily due to divorce and job changes. According to the U. S.Census Bureau, 37.1 million Americans changed residences in 2009, up from 35.2 million in 2008. In a five-year period, between 40 and 50 percent of Americans will change addresses. Increasingly, these are out-of-state moves. All this moving means many people no longer live in the towns they grew up in, further eroding the sense of community.
Thanks to rapid transportation, what used to be local problems can quickly become worldwide concerns.
# 31 _A third factor is that for many people, social networking sites, chat rooms and other online venues have become their "community" of choice. "Instead of socializing with others face-to-face, more and more people are spending their free time sitting in front of their laptops," says Deborah Barreau, Ph.D., associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Such communication is "often much more trivial and superficial than face-to-face conversations," she says. "There's just not going to the same kind of connections with others digitally that you would have in person."
# 32 _The world is shrinking. _Technological innovations like the jet plane, satellite communication and the internet have allowed businesses to expand across national borders and become global economic players. This process has integrated nations and people economically, politically and culturally__and created a "global village" for the world's 6.8 billion residents.
# 33 _But like so many of the areas of change already discussed, we are treading on uncharted ground. Globalization is a new phenomenon. Many are concerned about where it will take us in the months and years ahead and how it will impact the world. On the one hand, globalization provides a global market for companies to trade their products, which can create economic growth for rich and poor nations alike. On the other hand, it could cause millions in Western nations to loose their jobs as work is outsourced to other countries where labor costs are cheaper. We may wonder whether our nation will remain competitive in the world marketplace and if we'll still have jobs in the future.
# 34 _Because nations around the world are linked economically, a stock market crash or banking crisis in one country can quickly spread to other countries__something we witnessed several years age after the U.S. housing bubble burst.
# 35 _Broadly speaking, though, globalization means more than just economic intergration. "What used to be considered 'localized problems' are now worldwide concerns," Ignatow says. New infectious pathogens that emerge in remote regions of the world do not stay there. Someone who has come in contact with a disease can get on a plane and carry it to the other side of the world in a matter of 24 to 36 hours, in some cases long before symptoms even appear. Air travel has made the world a smaller place.
# 36 _Terrorism is another problem that used to be localized, primarily in the Middle East. Sadly, that is no longer the case. Terrorists have taken advantage of technology, such as the ease of international travel and the ability to communicate with their networks around the world, contributing to the spread of terrorism worldwide. "It's the uncertainty of thinking about what could happen that has a lot of people feeling unsettled," Ignatow says.
# 37 _Our "Island of Stability" _If you are old enough to remember "the way things used to be," that in and of itself can be disconcerting. Most of us don't enjoy having to deal with changes that are thrust upon us, especially if there's a lot of change all at once. We prefer to stay with the status quo. That's more comfortable. Of course, even if we find all the technological changes exciting, it can be stressful trying to keep up with it all.
# 38 __And then the changes themselves can cause us angst__having too many pressure on our time, seeing morals deteriorate all around us, seeing how "family" has been redefined in our modern world. Or perhaps we feel disconnected from the people around us and wish we had more of a sense of community. Maybe we grasp how change is speeding up and are concerned about what society will be like a generation from now. How can we possibly cope with these changes?
# 39 __In Future Shock. Alvin Toffler wrote that when prople go through times of rapid change, they need what he calls "islands of stability." Those are things that do not change in your life__sources of security, safe harbors and anchors for the inevitable storms. You can probably think of some "islands of stability" in your life where you can find solid ground in challenging and difficult times__your spouse, longtime close friends, some sound advice that you were given long ago__to name a few.
# 40 _Ultimately, though, our true source of stability is the one thing much of society has let go of in recent years__God. He tells us in Isaiah 45:5, "I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me." Jesus Christ similarly says in Matthew 28:20, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." No matter how tumuluous or volatile this world gets, we can count on God to be our anchor and refuge. Malachi 3:6 assures us, "For I am the Lord, I do not change." We're reminded again in Hebrews 13:8 that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." God does not change. He is steady and reliable, His promises enduring forever.
# 41 - Indeed, we can trust completely in God's Word. Of course, in our society today, what's "true" one year might not be the next. We hear of studies that document the health benefits of a certain food, and then a short time later we find that another researcher reports the same food to be harmful. This doesn't happen with God's Word.
# 42 - In Isaiah 40:8 God says, "the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever" (See also 1 PETER 1:25). The Bible withstands the test of time. It will never be disproved and never goes out of date. God's truths are as applicable to our society today as they were to people hundreds of thousands of years ago.
# 43 - It's also important to remember that God's plan and purpose for us will never change. Psalm 33:11 says: "His plans endure forever, his purposes last eternally" (Compare PROVERBS 19:21).
# 44 - We know that God the Father will be sending Jesus Christ back to the earth to establish His eternal Kingdom, and included in that plan is "bringing many sons to glory" (HEBREWS 2:10). That should give us confidence and peace of mind. What a spectacular future to look forward to!
HOW JACOB BECAME ABRAHAM'S HEIR !!!!!!!
# 4 _Before sending Jacob away, however, Isaac summoned his only ambitious and crafty son and blessed him again. Isaac apparently forgave his son's previous deceptive behavior and this time willingly repeated his original blessing. By this time Isaac had probably remembered and acknowledge that God had designated Jacob, even before his birth, as the heir.
# 5 _Then Isaac rehearsed some of the key covenant promises that God had made to him and Abraham (GENESIS 28:1__5). In doing so Isaac openly announced to the prime responsibility for the family's everlasting relationship with God (GENESIS 17:19). God was making sure no one forgot His promises to Abraham. He was formally passing them from one generation to the next.
# 6 _Isaac passed on the key conenant promises to Jacob: "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may be a company of peoples. May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien__land that God gave to Abraham" (GENESIS 28:3__4).
". . .In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (GENESIS 12:3).
To understand some of the Bible's most amazing and inspiring prophecies, we must embark on a study that begins 4,000 years ago__when God began working with a man called Abraham. Abraham was a remarkable figue. God made astounding promises to him that continue to affect not only his descendants but the whole world. The story of his offspring is remarkable too. It covers much of what we know as the Old Testament. This is a story filled with great themes__the rise and fall not only of great men and woman but of kingdoms and empires. The story of Abraham's descendants has its share of twists and turns and ups and downs and more than a few mysteries.
# 2 _The books of the Old testatment describle Abraham's offspring growing into a mighty nation__the Israelite kingdom__and entering into a special convenant relationship with God. Comprised of 12 tribes, or family groups, the nation gained prominence for a time.
Yet before long the Israelites divided into two competing kingdoms. When the larger of the two, which retained the name Israel (comprised of 10 of the 12 tribes), rejected its partnership with God, it set in motion one of history's greatest mysteries when its people were forcibly exiled from their ancient homeland.
# 3 _The smaller, southern kingdom of Judah__comprisded of the two memaining tribes and remnants of another__failed to learn the lesson of its northern kinsmen. Its citizens likewise rejected God and were taken into captivity. For the most part, however, they retained their identity and have remaind visible through history as a small and often persecuted race, the Jewish people.
# 4 _But what happened to the 10 tribes of Israel whose enemies forcibly removed them from their land? The Assyrian Empire captured and exiled them from their Middle Eeatern homeland in the eighth century B.C. But standard history books make no mention of them today. The world remembers them only as the lost 10 tribes of Israel. God, however, had entered into a covenant__a divine commitment__with all 12 of the tribes. He had promised they would always be His people and He would always be their God. Can we count on Him to keep His word? How is that possible if the lost 10 tribes died out, as many assume? To add to the puzzle, Bible prophecy repeatedly tells us that these supposedly lost Israelites are destined to reappear on the world scene in a promient role immediately after Jesus return__after their rescue from a "time of trouble" that could dwarf their previous suffering. The prophets of old even speak of their restoration after that time of trouble to their original homeland under the rule of the Messiah.
# 5 _Notice this promise Jesus made to apostles: "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve throns, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (MATTHEW 19:28). Did Jesus mean what He said? If these descendants of Israel are destined to play a future role that God has prophesied for the world, where are they now? How can we identify them among the people of the world today? And why is this knowledge so important to us?????
# 6 _As we proceed with this eye-opening study, you will learn just how much God is involved in shaping crucial aspects of our world. You cannot afford to be ignorant of this incredible knowledge. If this information about the lost tribes were simply of historical and archaeological value, then it might indeed be of interest only to those who are fascinated with history. But it is far more important than that. It is a master key for understanding all biblical prophecy. It explains why so many prophecies speak of a coming restoration of all of the tribes of Israel as one reunited kingdom and why those prophecies are so prominent in the pages of the Holy Scriptuires. By understanding this incredible story, you can learn a lot about what God expects of all who would serve Him. May God grant you the spiritual insight to understand this amazing story and heed the lessons you are about to discover.
# 7 _WHAT IS A BIBLICAL COVENANT !!!!!!!!
In the Old Testament the word covenant comes from the Hebrew berit. It means "covenant; league; confederacy.' This word is most probably derived from an Akkadian root meaning 'to fetter'; it has parallels in Hittite, Egyptian, Assyrian, and Aramaic. Berit is used over 280 times and in all parts of the Old Testament" God's covenants contain two especially important components: terms and duration. Although humans may reach covenants or other agreements through their own devices, God's covenants with people are usually unilateral. He alone determines the terms and conditions; humans choose whether to accept them.
# 8 _For example, after God clearly defined the aspects of the convenant He was making with the nation of Israel, including the blessings for honoring it and the consequences for ignoring it (LEVITICUS 26; DEUTERONOMY 28__30), both parties__God and the people of Israel__accepted it. Through this process God and Israel entered into a covenant relationship, a binding commitment to honor and fulfill their respective roles.
# 9 _A second important concept for us to understand about God's coveant with Israel is its continuing relevance to our day. In reaffirming the covenant with the generation of Israelites who were poised to enter the Promised Land, Moses explained that they were doing this "that [God] may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sowrn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today" (DEUTERONOMY 29:13__15).
# 10 _The covenant clearly applied to Israel's descendants as well. Understanding the continuing nature of the covenant, King David, on the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem, wrote: "Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; talk of all His wondrous works! . . . He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. Remember His covenant always, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statue, to Israel for an everlasting covenant" (1 CHRONICLES 16:8__9, 14__17).
# 11 _Covenants are simply binding agreements between two or more parties. God Himself designed the covenant He made with Abraham and his descendants. When God makes a covenant, He will always perform what He has bound Himself to do.
A STORY OF RELATIONSHIPS AND AGREEMENTS !!!!!!!!
# 12 _Our story begins with a series of remarkable promises God gave to a man named Abram thousands of years ago. "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you," God told Abram. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all pepoles on earth will be blessed through you"
(Read GENESIS 12:1__3)
# 13 _As we will learn in this blog, God is always faithful in His promises. Preparation for His relationship with ancient Israel began centuries before its people became a nation. He initiated His plan for Israel as a group of tribes__or extended families__when He established a relationship with Abram. Later He changed the name of Abram, meaning "exalted father," to Abraham, meaning "father of a multitude" (GENESIS 17:5).
Notice again God's promise to him: "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" (GENESIS 12:3)
# 14 _What a fantastic commitment! With these promises God set in motion an awesome design destined to benefit "all the families of the earth"when they are fulfilled. The history and prophecies of this nation, springing from Abraham, are important not only for its own people but for the people of all nations. God later passed these promises on to Abraham's son Isaac, his grandson Jacob and then to Jacob's 12 sons__from whom came the 12 tribes of Israel. God provided succeeding generations more details about His purpose for Israel and how He intended to fulfill His grand design for them.
# 15 _This commitment by mankind's Creator is the thread that links the various parts of the Scripture together. It enhances the meaning and gives structure to the Bible. Even the mission of Christ is a continuation of this promise. Almost 800 years after Israel sisappeared as a nation, the apostle Paul described gentiles (non-Isralites) who are "without Christ" as "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world"
(EPHESIANS 2:12)
# 16 _That's strong language, but it underscores the importance of God's commitment to Abraham and that Paul recognized that Israel, including the lost 10 tribes, continued to exist. If Paul had been talking only about the Jews, the tribes comprising the southern kingdom, he would have spoken of Judah, not Israel. Paul then clarifies His meanings. "In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (EPHESIANS 3:5__6), How can all peoples share in the promises God made to Abraham through Jesus?? Paul explains, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (GALATIANS 3:29). This means that God must graft all who become His servants into the family of Abraham, and God has bound Himself by a series of covenants to accomplish this (ROMANS 11:13__27). God's promise to Abraham was not limited to a small and ancient people in the Middle East. It extends far into the future, and it is not limited by national boundaries. From the beginnning, God designed this promise to bring blessings to all nations. That is His purpose. That is what He will accomplish.
# 17 _WHY GOD SELECTED ABRAHAM !!!
Why did God choose Abraham to be His servant and, through him, bring ancient Israel into existence as a nation? What did God have in mind, and why did He call Abraham into His service at that particular time in history? After the Flood in the days of Noah, the earth's inhabitants once again began to turn their back on God. By Abraham's time all peoples had again grown corrupt. God then set in motion a major aspect of His plan to offer salvation to mankind. Selecting Abraham was a crucial step in God's long-term plan to turn all nations back to Him. The remainder of the Bible is woven around His plan to reconcile all humanity to Himself.
# 18 _You may remember that shortly before the Flood "God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for allthe people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, 'I am going to put an end to all people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth"' (GENESIS 6:12__13). God spared only Noah and his wife and their three sons and their sons' wives.
# 19 _Then, shortly after the Foold, when humanity again began to oppose theway of God, the Tower of Babel became the symbol of their rebellion (GENESIS 11:1__9). In the context of this rebellion, and the founding of the city-state system of human governance accompanying it, God initiated a new phase in His plan to lead all nations to worship HIM. He decided to select one faithful man and develop his descendants into a group of influential nations chosen for the explicit purpose of teaching and illustrating HIS values and way of life. A part of that plan involves God's desire that all nations recognize the stark difference between these two conflicting ways of life. He wants every person to learn that His ways alone can consistently bring true and lasting blessings to all people.
# 20 _HOW GOD SHAPED ISRAEL'S FUTURE !!!!!!!!!
Many people are familiar with the story of God miraculously freeing the people of Israel from Egyptian bonage and making them into a nation. He performed many other miracles to accomplish this. Not so familiar, however, are other miracles demonstrating that God personally oversaw the fulfillment of the promises He had made to Abraham.
# 21 _The miraculous births of Isaac and Jacob, Abraham's son and grandson, also are important milestones. It was through them that God gave the 12 tribes of Israel the promises He made to Abraham. By these miracles God demonstrated that the nation of Israel could never have come into existence without His intervention.
# 22 _Consider the birth of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham's wife, Sarah, remained childless through decades of their marriage. Yet God intervened and miraculously gave Abraham and Sarah a Son when she was well beyond the normal childbearing age. Later Isaac, 20 years after he and his wife, Rebekah, married, also had no children. Finally, when Isaac was about 60, he prayed for his barren wife. Rebekah miraculously conceived and gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob (GENESIS 25:21, 26).
# 23 _What important lesson can we glean from these miracles? God showed the descendants of Abraham they could succeed in the calling and mission He gave them only if they relied on divine help. That is a hard lesson for human beings to learn. That difficult lesson is written in the successes and tragedies of the people of Israel.
# 24 _The writers of the Bible have already recorded much of it so all peoples can learn from Israel's example. From Abraham God miraculously formed a nation to illustrate to every other nation the benefits that come from obeying Him and the tragedies that come from disobeying Him. Israel has been an example of both. Its part in God's great plan is far from finished. Israel's finest hour still lies ahead.
# 25 _CHOSEN FOR SERVICE _God created all peoples on earth "from one blood" (ACTS 17:26). The story of the Israelites is the story of a single family the Creator God chose for His service out of all the earth's peoples. Although the Israelites were a chosen people, in no way were they to be considered a superior people__ either in antiquity or now. The apostle Peter later explained that "in every nation anyone who fears [God] and does what is right is acceptable to him" (ACTS 10:34__35) This has always been true.
# 26 _Some may assume God chose to work with Abraham and his decendants because they were in some way greater or innately better than other people. That simply wasn't the case. God deliberately chose to work with a small group of people who had no international prominence. Notice what God said to ancient Israel: "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers . . . Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments" (DEUTERONOMY 7:7__9; compare 1 CORINTHIANS 1:26__29).
# 27 _God chose Abraham for a particular Job. But He also tested Abraham to see if he would be faithful to Him. Abraham passed those tests. God then began using him because he believed and trusted his Creator. "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness"' (Roman 4:3; compare GENESIS 15:6). God forged ancient Israel, under His careful guidance, from 12 related tribes, or extended families, whose ancestors were Abraham, his son Isaac and Isaac's son Jacob.
# 28 _Abraham's extended family grew into an even greater multitude, the descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob. God made them a nation and entered into a covenant relatioship with them. Collectively they became known as "Israel," "the sons of Israel" or "the children of Israel." Israel was another name for Jacob. When God began to work directly with Jacob He named him Israel, meand "one who prevails with God" or "a prince with God" (GENESIS 32:24__30). Israel's descendants were also to be known as "the seed of Abraham," "the House of Isaac," "the House of Jacob" or simply "Jacob"__and by their individual tribal names of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Benjamin and Joseph. The patriarch Jacob later adopted Ephraim and Manasseh, his grandsons through his son Joseph, as his own sons in regard to his inheritance. As a result, the nation of Israel has historically been said to consist of either 12 or 13 tribes, depending on whether the descendants of Joseph are counted as one tribe (Joseph) or as two (Ephraim and Manasseh).
# 29 _PROMISES OF HISTORIC IMPORTANCE !!!!!
As God worked with abraham He expanded the series of convenant commitments between them. These commitments were based on the most important and far-reaching series of promises and prophecies ever delivered by God to a human being. The later prophets of Israel, Jesus apostles and Jesus Himself all regarded these promises as the foundation of their work (ACTS 3:13, 25). Again notice what God told the patriarch Abraham: "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" (GENESIS 12:2__3; also note GENESIS 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14).
# 30 _The most important blessing ever to be made available to all nations through Abraham's "seed," we later learn from the apostles, is the blessing of erternal life through Jesus Christ (ACTS 3:25__26; GALATIANS 3:7__8, 16, 29). Through His mother, Mary, Jesus was born a Jew, of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Abraham (HEBREWS 7:14). His sacrifice opens the door to the people of all nations to enjoy a relationship with the God of Abraham. When people of my age race or background enter into a covenant relationship with Christ, they, too, become Abraham's seed. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28__29: "There is neither Jew or Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
# 31 _Thus, from the beginning of God's interaction with Abraham, it becomes increasingly clear that God's objective is to make salvation available to all. The remainder of the Bible reveals many more details of how God will fully implement this plan. But we find it foundation in the book of Genesis in the promises God gave Abraham. The Bible reveals many aspects of God's master plan for the salvation of mankind. The spiritual dimension of His promise to Abraham is only one part of the story. As physical beings we function in a physical world. Therefore God often achieves His spiritual goals through physical means such as giving or taking away physical blessings__using the principle of rewards for good behavior and punishment for sin.
# 32 _For example, we need to consider why God promised to make of Abraham a "great nation" (GENESIS 12:2). Many modern students of the Bible fail to understand the importance of this great physical promise. Critics of the Bible simply scoff at it altogether because they think the people of Israel never amounted to more than a pair of insignificant kingdoms at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. But they are wrong. God doesn't lie (TITUS 1:2). He keeps His promises. We will soon see why and how God fulfilled this particular promise of national greatness to Abraham.
# 33 _PROMISES OF GREAT NATIONAL AND MATERIAL BLESSINGS !!!!!!!! _From Genesis 12 through 22, seven passages describe the promises God gave and reconfirmed to Abraham. In the initial account (GENESIS 12:1__3) God told Abraham to leave his homeland and family. This was the first condition Abraham had to meet before he could receive the promise. When Abraham willingly obeyed, God them promised to bless him and make his name great. His progeny would also become great. (As we will see, the results of this promise would rank among the world's greatest historical developments.) A few verses later God appeared to Abraham and promised his descendants the land of Canaan (verse 7). God's promises unequivocally included material aspects__physical land and possessions.
# 34 _Genesis 13 provides more details about the promises. After the account of Abraham's willingness to give the fertile plain adjoining the Jordan River to his nephew Lot (verses 5__13), God, in turn, promised all of the land of Cannaan to Abraham forever (vreses 14__17), indicating that the temporal and eternal aspects of His promise were closely related. Although Abraham was still childless, God also promised that his descendants would be counted "as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then [Abraham's] descendants also could be numbered" (verse 16). The immense scope of this promise__the almost limitless expansion of Abraham's descendants__should not be taken lightly. As we will see, it has enormous implications. About a decade later God again appeared to Abraham in a vision. Notwithstanding that he still had no offspring, God again promised him an heir__and this heir, said God, would come "from your own body" (GENESIS 15:4).
# 35 _An incredible mulititude of people would develop from that heir, Isaac. "Then [God] brought [Abraham] outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them...So shall your descendants be'''(verse 5). How did Abraham respond? "And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness" (verse 6).
# 36 _Abraham's confidence that he could trust God to keep His word__even far into the future__was one of the reasons God loved Abraham. God chose him to be not only the father of several mighty nations but "the father of all those who believe" (ROMANS 4:11). God was working out a dual role for faithful Abraham. A few verses lather God promised him not only innumerable descendants but all the territory stretching "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates" (GENESIS 15:18). This swath of territory covered much more land than the land God included in His original promise of the land of Canaan (GENESIS 12:6__7; 17:8; 24:7).
# 37 _GOD EXPANDS HIS PROMISES - As Abraham further demonstrated his faithfulness, God expanded the scope of His promise to him. Ultimately they involved far more than He had originally revealed. The most detailed accounting of God's astounding promises to Abraham appears in Genesis 17. "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My coverant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly . . . As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
# 38 _'''No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I gave to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God'''(verses 1__8).
# 39 _ As with earlier statements of this promise, God's blessing was still conditional and based on Abraham's obedience and commitment to maturing spiritually. Here God again reminds him of this by saying, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blamless" (verse 1; compare Matthew 5:48).
A "GREAT NATION" IS EXPANDED TO "MANY NATIONS"
Remember that an important part of God's promise was to greatly multiply Abraham's descendants. Here God emphasized this yet-to-be reality by renaming the patriarch. Up to this point he had been known as Abram. God now told him: "No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations" (GENESIS 17:5). As mentioned earlier, Abram means "exalted father," but Abraham means "father of a mulitude."
# 40 _God elaborated on this aspect of His promise: "I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you" (verse 6; See also verses 15__16). God continued: "Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God ... You shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations" (verses 8__9). The account in Genesis 17 establishes God's commitment to Abraham as an "everlasting covenant" (verses 7, 13, 19), a binding agreement obligating God to give the patriarch's descendants the land of Canaan in perpetuity (verse 8). God's commitment to Abraham was major and far-reaching.
# 41 _The sixth account of God's promise to Abraham appears in Genesis 18 in a setting immediately before the destruction of the sin-infested cities of Sodom Gomorrah. Abraham's angelic guests__messengers with news about the divine punishment to come on the two cities__reconfirmed the soon-coming birth of a son to the 99-year-old Abraham and his wife, Sarah, 10 years his junior (verses 10__14).
# 42 _With God promising that He would not "hide" His intintions from Abraham (GENESIS 18:17; AMOS 3:7), the angels then visiting the aged patriarch affirmed the promises that Abraham would "surely become a great and mighty nation"__a physical, material and national commitment of immense scope. They also reconfirmed the messianic promise that "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him" (GENESIS 18:18). Dramatically fulfilling the promise, about a year after this encounter Sarah gave birth of Isaac (GENESIS 21:1__3). First Abraham had proven himself faithful to God. Now, miraculously, God proved His faithfulness to His commitment to Abraham.
# 43 _ABRAHAM'S SUPREME TEST __The climax of these seven accounts of God's promises appears in Genesis 22. Here we find one of the most significant events in the Bible. This is God's final elaboration to Abraham of His promise. In this account Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac foreshadows the foundational event of God's plan to offer salvation to all__God's willingness to offer His only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice (JOHN 3:16__17). Earlier we noted that God's promises were dependent on Abraham's continued obedience (GENESIS 12:1; 17:9). But after the events of Genesis 22 God transformed His coveant with Abraham by elevating it to a new level__and with good cause.
# 44 _God told Abraham to take Isaac, the son of the promise (ROMANS 9:9), and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah (GENESIS 22:2). Abraham's supreme test of faith had arrived. By this time in his life Abraham had learned to trust God implicitly. He had long experienced God's wisdom, truth and faithfulness. He proceeded to do as he was told, only to be miraculously stopped at the precise moment he would have slain his son (verses 9__11). We can learn serveral profound lessons from this incident. First, God__whether in ancient or modern times__has never sanctioned worshipping Him with a human sacrifice. Second, God prohibited Israel from following the pagan practice of offering firstborn children as sacrifices to idols. Human sacrifice was part and parcel of the Mesopotamian society from which Abraham was called, as well as the nations around him. But God made sure his faithful sevant would not actually slay his son, although Abraham did not know in advance what God had in mind.
# 45 _In the next verse God's words reveal what He really wanted to find out about Abraham: "Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me" (verse 12). In his willingness to obey the living God, Abraham had proven that he would relinquish that which was most precious to him, his only heir (verse 16; compare JOHN 3:16). God did not want Abraham's son as a sacrifice. But He did want to know if Abraham trusted Him enough to make the hardest choice God could put before him. Abraham passed the test.
# 46 _Third, Abraham's behavior demonstrated he was a man fit for the role of "father of all those who believe" (ROMANS 4:11__22; GALATIANS 3:9; HEBREWS 11:17__19)__that he was a suitable founder of the family of countless descendants who could become the people of God (GENESIS 18:19). However, God could not complete the plan He initiated through Abraham without involving the problem of human sin, and that problem would later require the sacrifice of humanity's Redeemer__Jesus the Messiah, the Lamb of God (JOHN 1:29).
# 47 _GOD'S COMMITMENT BECOMES UNCONDITIONAL _At this point God's promises to Abraham__physical and spiritual__became unconditional. His words, "By Myself have I sworn" (GENESIS 22:16), show that the fulfillment of the promise no longer depended on Abraham. The fulfillment of the promise would now depend solely on God Himself. He unconditionally committed Himself to fulfill His promise to Abraham and his descendants. God puts His own truthfulness and integrity on the line in these commitments. He has unconditionally bound Himself to bring all of His promises to pass in all their details. Because we understand the unconditional nature of God's promises, we have a better picture of what to look for down through history concerning the descendants of ancient Israel. Since God cannot annul His promise to Abraham because He will not break His word (NUMBERS 23:19), every detail in His promises becomes a guide in our search for the identity of the lost 10 tribes of Israel after their exile.
# 48 _Genesis 22 concludes with God restating the central elements of His commitment to Abraham: "Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the ate of their enemies" (verse 17). These physical, material and national blessings continue as clues to the identity of Abraham's modern descendants.
# 49 _God continued: "And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." (verse 18).
The apostle Paul, commenting on this verse many centuries later in Galatians 3:16, explains that this promised blessing refers to Jesus Christ: "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as referring to many, but rather to one, 'And to your seed,' that is, Christ." Through Christ, as the Seed of Abraham, God would make salvation available to the whole of humanity (JOHN 3:16).
HOW JACOB BECAME ABRAHAM'S HEIR !!!!!!
# 1 _God chose Jacob, the second-born of Isaac's twins, to receive the birthright inheritance that is usually reserved for the firstborn. This bestowed on him the right to become the family's patriarch upon Isaac's death (GENESIS 25:29__34). The birthright blessing made Jacob the direct heir of Abraham and the recipient of the divine commitments to Abraham and his posterity.
# 2 _At the time Jacob received the blessing, he still had not committed himself to live by faith in God. Though God had designated Jacob as heir of Abraham's blessing shortly before his birth (verse 23), Jacob and his mother were both weak in faith and resorted to deceit to obtain the blessing from Isaac (GENESIS 27). This earned Jacob the hatred of his brother. Esau seethed with anger and set out to kill him (verse 41). Their mother heard about Esau's plans, so she asked Isaac to send Jacob to stay with relatives far away so he would be safe
(vesrses 42__46).
# 3 _So Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob back to Rebekah's family in nothern Mesopotamia. Apparently the only reason they mentioned to their large household was that they wanted Jacob to find a wife from among Rebekah's relatives. This was true, but Rebekah was also trying to prevent Esau from killing Jacob.
