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NASB | Genesis 17:6 "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 17:6 "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. |
Subject: What about Jacob-Israel and Ephraim? |
Bible Note: Hi ekletos, I hope you enjoyed your visit and it wasn’t too hot for you. You wrote: “I think you may be taking this as 'literal nations' that would evolve from Abraham's seed.” I am speaking of literal nations of peoples who are descendants of Abraham. These nations would go hand in hand with God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as the stars or sand of the sea, too numerous to count. The promise of the Seed, Jesus Christ, was not a birthright promise. The promise of multiple nations and descendants were birthright promises. 1 Chron 5:2 “Judah prevailed above his brethren, and from him came the prince and leader [and eventually the Messiah]; yet the birthright was Joseph's.” God promised Jacob that he would be a “nation and a company of nations”, just as he had promised Abraham he would be a “father of many nations.” Jacob gave that blessing to Ephraim, the son of Joseph. Joseph is not an ancestor of the promised Seed in which all the families of the earth would be blessed. Therefore, the fulfillment of this promise of “many nations” does not refer to spiritual descendants or those which have faith in Christ. However, I think it is possible they could be the same as the actual descendants of Abraham. God set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the Israelites, who would be so numerous in the last days. Deu 32:8-9 The fulfillment was not in Ancient Judah or Ancient Israel or in modern Israel. In Genesis 49 Jacob tells his sons where they will be in the “last days”. He told Joseph, the holder of the birthright, the following; “ 22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well (spring or fountain), whose branches run over the wall. 23Skilled archers have bitterly attacked and sorely worried him; they have shot at him and persecuted him. 24But his bow remained strong and steady and rested in the Strength that does not fail him, for the arms of his hands were made strong and active by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25By the God of your father, Who will help you, and by the Almighty, Who will bless you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings lying in the deep beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26The blessings of your father [on you] are greater than the blessings of my forefathers [Abraham and Isaac on me] and are as lasting as the bounties of the eternal hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was the consecrated one and the one separated from his brethren and [the one who] is prince among them. Hoth |