“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house[hold] [forsaking all the protection and benefits of belonging here] unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation…
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son…and they went forth…and into the land of Canaan they came…And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Genesis 12:1-7)
At this point in time, Lot is Abram’s “seed” i.e. genetically related offspring. The proof of this is that Abram splits his land inheritance with him.
“And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle…And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee…separate thyself, I pray thee, from me…
Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and…Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain.” (Genesis 13)
Lot’s choices led to inevitable results. He is the certainly the poster child for “saved, but so as by fire,” losing all inheritance.
“And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look…For ALL the land which thou seest, to THEE will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” (Genesis 13)
Just lost his heir, so what seed?
“After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying…he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” (Genesis 15:1-4)
“And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her [as a surrogate mother]…And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid…and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife…and she conceived [out of Abram’s bowels!]…
And the angel…said unto her…thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard…and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” (Genesis 16)
This should sound familiar, coming as it does from the same speaker.
“And the angel said unto her…thou shalt…bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus…and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:” (Luke 1:30-32)
Another significant parallel is in the name given to Abram’s son, Yshma-el, combining the words “shama” – to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc) and “El”. Exactly as defined in the passage – “call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard / responded.“
“The” Shama (remember Hebrew has no explicit vowels) is also the “name” of a daily Hebrew recitation encapsulating its monotheistic essence.
“Hear / Shema , O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Whether or not contemporary Judaism acknowledges the broader reach of the God of Israel to Ishmael, there is a definite connection here.
“when Abram / Father Of A Nation was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him…thy name shall be Abraham; for a “father of many nations” have I made thee…and kings [of many nations, not just a lineage of Israel] shall come out of thee…
And I will give unto you and your seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
This is God’s side of the covenant – grantor of the land.
Next, the grantees have an obligation in this covenant
And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep / attend to my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which YE shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.…a token of the covenant betwixt me and you…
As for Sarai thy wife… I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her…and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
“Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live [forever, eternally] before thee [in thy presence, serving you in the eternal kingdom of God to come]!
This is exactly what the mother of James and John asked for her sons:
“Then came to him the mother of Zebedees children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him…Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.” (Matthew 20:20-21)
Catch what Jesus says to her in reply:
“to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” (Matthew 20:20-23)
With this in mind, pay strict attention to God’s reply to Abraham. He assents to Abraham’s request.
“And God said…I have heard thee…Behold, I have blessed him…”
Not just generally, but specifically with land ownership and dominion in the kingdom of God.
Ishmael is not only a son of God, he was granted a unique blessing as the seed of Abraham.
In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.
And God was with the lad.” (Genesis 17, 21:20)
No question about it – Ishmael’s descendants – the Arabs – have rights to their land.
Genesis 49 details the varieties of estates / nonmaterial benefits bequeathed by Jacob / Israel to his heirs.
What many readers may have missed in the list of twelve tribes’ varied inheritances was that,
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- Jacob cut both of Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manassas into the 12-way split of land
- therefore Dan’s inheritance is not a blessing like the others.
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“Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.” (Genesis 49:16-17)
The clear description of Dan as a sneaky death-dealing saboteur of his brethren is confirmed by the distinction between As + noun means ‘in the role of’ to like + noun means ‘in the same way as’.
His name was not given by Jacob, but by his mother Rachel.
“And Rachel said, Elohim hath judged me / dan-anni, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan.” (Genesis 30:1-6)
The King James Bible has translated “elohim” as “God” as in Almighty God”, but Rachel proved her paganism when, as she fled with Jacob back to the land of Canaan, she stole her father’s gods clearly believing they empowered her, as she did not relinquish them until forced to by her husband.
Significantly, when Rachel applied the name Dan to her son it was KNOWN as the place-name, i.e. name of its founder, one of Canaan’s giant hybrid tribes.
“And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants…and pursued them unto Dan…the left hand of Damascus.
These geographical details are put there for a reason.
On the left of Damascus is Mount Hermon, where the pre-flood fallen angels set up base camp for invading earth to breed demigod monsters with human women (Genesis 6:1-4)
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The ancient city-state of Dan was therefore a Canaanite giant stronghold along with the other giant city-states referenced in Genesis 14 at this early stage of post-flood history.
Upon entering the land of Canaan to finally take possession of the promised inheritance Moses prophesied that
“Dan is a lion’s whelp: he shall [future tense] leap from Bashan.” (Deuteronomy 33:22)
Like Jacob’s prophecy, this too reflected Dan’s inherently evil nature.
“and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh / Joseph’s son; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.” (Deuteronomy 3:12)
Dan was rejected as God’s son. In the last days his tribe is not found in Revelation 7 when “there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”
Instead, his twelfth portion was transferred to the tribe of Simeon who was initially scattered without any recognition in Israel (Genesis 49:5-7), but who, we must infer, like Levi, converted their fighter nature to serve God.
Dan’s choice to reject The Hebrew God is detailed in the book of Judges, a quick synopsis here:
“the Amorites [giants] forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley [so impoverished quality of life akin to that of the Appalachian mountain people]… yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed [i.e. in comparison to the Danites failure to win their battles due to their failure to trust in God.]
the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in…came to Laish [outside the boundary inherited by the twelve tribes] and saw…how they dwelt careless, quiet and secure…
And there went from thence of the family of the Danites…unto mount Ephraim, and came unto the house of Micah…and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image [golden calves]. And they said unto [the priest]…go with us, and be to us a father and a priest…And they…came unto Laish…and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire…set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh [son of Joseph, not a Levite], he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.” (Judges 18)
This exactly replicates the rejection of the Hebrew God who dictates – in every sense of the word – his way to a people who didn’t want to go that way.
“the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods…And he…made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt…And they…offered burnt offerings [roasted meat], and brought peace offerings [wine]; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play [have an orgy]” (Exodus 32:1-6)
And again, when the northern ten tribes of Israel seceded under Jeroboam, from the tribe of Ephraim:
“the king…made two calves of gold, and said unto them…thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (II Kings 12:26-29)
The captivity of the northern tribes of Israel and its bordering peoples occurred when “Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, took the northern ten tribes captive to Assyria.” (II Kings 15:29).
Dan may have been left out of this as being clearly pagan, or returned to the area. “The Druze religion is believed to have started in Egypt. Its mystery teachingsare known only to a privileged few members. The Druze keep to themselves and even today do not allow conversion to Druze or marriage to non-Druze.
An immigrant work colleague struggling between his desire to marry an American girl and his father’s threat to permanently disown him asked for my advice, since I was steeped in the culture from my 15 year marriage to a Lebanese immigrant. I could only tell him that being disowned was a better option than the alternative – constant attacks against the wife, but one way or another it was up to him to choose birth family or an American wife, he’d never have both.
The same goes for everyone’s spiritual family. Simply being born into a certain religion doesn’t confer membership in God’s family. “Ye must be born again” by choice, giving up one’s previous identity.
Kingdom Come 