We have previously gone to some detail in this series of studies to show how the basic promises which God made to Abraham regarding his descendants becoming a great nation and company of nations has been literally fulfilled.  But these were not the only promises included in the Abrahamic Covenant.  So in this study we will look at these aspects, prior to studying in our next issue, God willing, the position of those who falsely claim to be the recipients of these wonderful Promises.
 It should be kept in mind that many of these promises are found applicable to other nations.  For instance, there have been many nations which have been “great”.  There have been several “maritime” nations.  But we find that ALL the promises are found evidenced in only one nation and company of nations, viz. The Anglo-Saxon-Celtic Western Christian Nations headed up by the descendants of Joseph, through his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.  So let us have a look at these “Marks of Israel”.

1. They were to be a Great and Mighty Nation.
         Gen. 12:2;  “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
2. They were to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
        Gen. 12:2-3; “ . . and thou shalt be a blessing:” “and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
3. They were to be a company, or commonwealth, of    nations.
       Gen. 35:11; “And God said unto him, (Jacob), I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee.”
       Gen. 48:19; “He (Manasseh) also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother (Ephraim) shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
      Eph. 2:12;   “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
4. They were to be the chief among the nations.
    Gen. 27:29;  “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee.”
    Deut. 7:6;  “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”
    Deut. 15:6;  “For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.”
    Amos 3:2;   “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”
    Psalm 147:19-20;   “He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.  He hath not dealt so with any (other) nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.”  (Amplified Bible).
    II Samuel 7:23;   “And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?”
    I Chron. 17:21-22;   “And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?  For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, LORD, becamest their God.”
5.    They were to be a maritime nation, having command of the seas.
    Numbers 24:7;   “He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters.”
    Psalm 89:25;   “I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.”
6.   They were to be a missionary nation.
    Gen. 22:18;   “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”
    Isa. 43:21;   “This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.”
    Isa. 49:6;   “And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
7. They were to be the custodians of God’s Word.
    Psalm 147:19;   “He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.”
    Isa. 59:21;   “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.”
8.   They would be a just nation.
    Gen. 18:19;   “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”
    Lev. 19:15;   “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.”
    Deut. 1:17;   “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.”
    Zeph. 3:13;   “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
9.   They would be God’s instrument in destroying evil.
    Jer. 51:20;   “Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war:    for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;”
    Dan. 2:34-35;   “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”
10.   They would be an undefeated nation.
    Isa. 54:17;   “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”
    Micah 5:8-9;   “And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.”
11.    They would be blind to their identity.
    Isa. 29:10-12;   “For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.  And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:  And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.”
    Isa. 42:16, 19-20;   “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”
“Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant?
Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.”
12.   They would possess the gates of their enemies.
    Gen. 22:17;   “thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;”
    Gen. 24:60;   “And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.”
13.   They would have multitudinous seed.
    Gen. 13:16;   “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.”
    Gen. 15:5;   “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
    Gen. 22:17;   “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore;”
14.   They would possess the wealth of the earth.
    Gen. 27:28;  “Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:”
    Gen.  49:25-26;   “Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:  The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.”
    Deut.  3:13-16;   “And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,  And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon,  And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,  And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.”
15.    They were to receive strangers and refugees.
    Lev.  19:33-34;   “And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.  But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”
    Isa.  14:1;   “For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.”
    Zech. 8:22;   “Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.”
16.   They would lose all trace of their lineage.
    Hosea 1:9-10;   “Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.  Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”
    Isa. 42:16;   “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”
      Rom. 11:25;   “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

 There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that there will be many who have read these verses who will immediately say that whilst these things all happened to Israel some time in the past, that many of them were now not applicable.  And you would be quite right.  Some of these promises were totally unconditional.  These included the original covenants made with Abraham.  But quite a number of them were conditional promises, in that their fulfilment was dependant upon Israel’s obedience to the Laws of God.  It always was, and still is, God’s intention to fulfil all these covenants and promises in and to His people Israel.  The fact that they are no longer in operation, or at least full operation, is the result of our disobedience.  It has never been a matter of them not being fulfilled, but a matter of when they would be fulfilled.   If the nation of Israel had continued in obedience to God they would never have ceased to experience all these blessings and promises.  But of course, we knew better then God, and decided to “do it our way”.  The result was catastrophic.  The blessings turned into curses.  Freedom turned into bondage and slavery.  Joy turned into sorrow and mourning.  Wealth turned into poverty.  Victory turned into defeat.  Life turned into death.  And we have been so utterly full of our own importance and invulnerability that we have totally ignored the cause of our present condition.
 So we ask ourselves, in view of all the wonderful promises that we have read above, “Did God know about our present condition when He made these promises?  What went wrong with His promises?  Why has He allowed this to happen?”
 The answer is “YES”.  God was very much aware of what was going to happen, and He gave us very timely warning about it in His Word.  In Deut. 32:29-36 we read;
 

"O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.”

“And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”

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