God loves Israel
God loves Israel and wants to pass on His blessings to all nations through this nation (Genesis 12:3) I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
* in God’s plan Israel has a special place: God chose Israel in his love and gave him a special position to be his own people.
* God also describes His relationship to this nation this way: Israel is God’s son (Hos. 11:1) – Israel is the apple of God’s eye (Zech. 2:12) – Israel is God’s bride, His wife (Isa. 54:5) In the same way that a man promises his love and devotion to a woman through the covenant of marriage, God connects Himself to Israel, His wife, through the covenant He has made with her. (Ezek. 16:8)
God’s love is an eternal love
* God always stands by His covenant (marriage) promises (Ps. 105:7-15)
* He remembers his covenant forever. We know from biblical history that Israel was always unfaithful to God (Ezek. 16:15 + 35-38)
* But God’s love for His bride is greater than His disappointment in her (Isa. 62:4).
God’s love is an unchanging love
*Israel is God’s creation – a chosen covenant people whose beginnings lead back to God’s promises to Abraham and Sarah and the miraculous birth of their son Isaac.
*The children of the promise are the tribes of Israel. This eternal covenant with them is unchanged and therefore still has its validity (Rom. 9.4-5 + 26)
*Abraham also had a son by Sarah’s maid Hagar: Ishmael.
*God promised that he would bless Ishmael’s descendants (the Arabs), which he did. (Genesis 16:10-12). But God’s covenant promises are to the descendants of Isaac (Genesis 26:1-6).
*In God’s covenant relationship with Abraham, He also gave at the same time a promise as well as a serious warning concerning Abraham’s descendants.
*We should remember that Israel, even today, remains the apple of God’s eye.
*From our behavior toward Israel, God’s behavior toward us necessarily follows.
Genesis 12:3
I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all kindred’s of the earth be blessed.
This is part 1 of several parts – taken from the workbook Why Israel?
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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