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NASB | Genesis 15:5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 15:5 And the LORD brought Abram outside [his tent into the night] and said, "Look now toward the heavens and count the stars--if you are able to count them." Then He said to him, "So [numerous] shall your descendants be." [Heb 11:12] |
Subject: Jewish population, why so small? |
Bible Note: Thanks Wisdom111 and Doc for your answers. Wisdom 111 you say that God fulfilled his promise to Abraham, but you do not tell me how he did it. If God promised the Jews they would be so numerous, then why are they so few? Doc, I take your answer to be that the promise has been fulfilled in Abraham’s countless spiritual children, therefore it is not necessary to fulfill the promise in the actual Jewish people. I would disagree. I believe that God has done exactly what he promised. But, we are just looking in the wrong place if we think that the world population of Jews, less than 15 million, fulfills the promise God made to Abraham. (Numbers 11:23) Ishmael’s descendants are much more numerous, yet he was not subject to the promise. The physical descendants of Abraham, countless as the stars, may be representative of his spiritual children, but it does not negate the promise of countless physical descendants. In the verse prior to Gen 15:15 God tells Abraham that his heir “shall come from your own body . . .” From the context of 15:15 I can’t imagine that God did not mean physical descendants. Also, God set a sign of Abraham’s physical descendants, which is circumcision. Gen 17:11 This is a sign of the Covenant regarding his countless descendants and therefore cannot be speaking of “spiritual children.” God tells Abraham numerous times that his descendants will be countless and that he will be “the father of many nations.” I think you can call these promises of race as opposed to grace. In the Bible, the term Jew is used to describe either a descendant of Judah or a citizen of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The term is never used to describe the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The promises of “countless descendants” and “father of many nations” were to be fulfilled by the Northern Kingdom of Israel and not by the Jews of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The tribes of Joseph were of the Northern Kingdom and when Jacob-Israel blessed Ephraim, son of Joseph, he said, “and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.” Gen 48:19 In the Book of Hosea, written about 722 BC, Hosea writes the following about the Northern Kingdom of Israel at 1:10, “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and instead of it being said to them, You are not My people, it shall be said to them, Sons of the Living God!” This was to be the status of the Children of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) sometime after they were carried off into captivity. These promises are fulfilled in the descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Who are these “multitude of nations” with “countless” descendants of Abraham. They were first told they were not God’s people, but are now “Sons of the Living God.” Could this mean Christians? These countries practice circumcision, are Christian, and have a multitude of people? There we will find the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. These countries constitute the modern Israel and are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The modern state of Israel is not ancient Israel, but ancient Judah. Someday “the children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together and appoint themselves one head . . .” Hosea 1:11, Isaiah 11 Yours in Christ, Jim Estes |