God's Covenant With Man — Leonard Ravenhill

Abraham as the Third New Beginning

And then there was a second start, when after the sin of Noah and the others, that God cleansed the earth by a flood. And then we have the third start, when he called this wonderful man Abraham. The outstanding figure, I believe, in the Old Testament, if not one of the most towering figures in all history.

Again, I remind you that he's revered by Jews and Mohammedans and Gentiles. That's more than you can say for Moses even. The Jews, I noticed just the other day, when some men and women, I think 60 of them, were rescued in a sinking ship, somewhere in the Philippines.

And they were taking on board an Israel ship of some kind, a merchant ship. Other ships had passed them, a Japanese ship, I think a Norwegian ship, and others in the Israeli boat picked them up, and signaled to Israel and asked what they should do.

And the new president there said, bring them here. We open our doors as our father Abraham told us. I thought that was rather interesting in the midst of all the news, our father Abraham. And they still revere him, and rightly they should.

Hiding God's Word in the Heart

You know, we get so used to reading things. I think very often we're in danger of reading the Word of God like we read a newspaper or a magazine. Just read it, that's it, now let's go milk the cow or a goat, and let's go do something else, you know.

The Word needs to infiltrate our minds and our spirits. Again, as the psalmist says, Thy Word have I hid in my heart. It's not enough even in my mind. As I say, it has to get into my bloodstream if it's going to build me up in my most holy faith.

And faith isn't something very mysterious. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And the more you know the Word of God, the stronger your faith is. If you don't put gasoline in your car, you'll run out.

If you don't put food in your body, your body will weaken. If you don't strengthen your spirit with the Word of God, you'll become spiritually sick. I believe there are spiritual accidents just like there are physical accidents.

And people who have spiritual accidents don't recover very quickly. They recover very slowly. And so the great antidote against the things that would assail us, the chief, to me, is again reading, believing and obeying the Word of God.

Abraham's Call to Leave Everything Behind

Now, we reminded ourselves about this twelfth chapter in Genesis last week. After these things, the Word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision. This is again the second time. Remember God came to him in Ur of the Chaldees.

Again, how dramatic was it? Well, I'll tell you what to do. Try it out on your wife or your husband. Just walk in the house this week and say, Sweetie, sell every stick of furniture, pots, dishes, wedding gifts.

We're going. Going? Where are we going? Well, never mind, we're going. Obey your husband. We're going. Oh. Is it very far? I don't know. Is it a good climate? I don't know. Who lives there? I don't know.

What kind of vegetation? I don't know. Is it a good country? I don't know. What do you know? I don't know. You see, we read it as though he had a highway map, as though he reserved holiday inns every 500 miles on the trip, as though he had a black top road or plenty of food.

Now it says that, and this again is staggering to me, that he went out, and it says in Hebrews, not knowing whether he went. But immediately following that, it says this, he could have returned if he wanted.

Now he not only went out, he stayed out. And God doesn't paint a very rosy picture for him and his ultimate inheritance. You see, God says he's going to run into some difficult situations. Blackness, opposition of the enemy.

Abraham's Servants and the Promise of Scripture

Now, what did the man have to hang on to? In this twelfth chapter, as I've just read it, after these things, after what things? Well here, there had been a battle with this famous king. I don't know why he has such a clumsy name.

It's longer and worse than mine, Cheodlehomer. Glad that's not my name. But he battled along with the other kings in the north. And you remember that Abraham took his servants. Now it says there in that fourteenth verse of the fourteenth chapter, the servants of his own house, they were three hundred and eighteen.

Now let's get this clear. It says in the fifty-first chapter of Isaiah and somewhere about verse two, I called Abraham alone. Well then, that's all it means. Now it can mean to me at least one of two things, I called Abraham alone.

Well it could mean I called him alone and nobody else with him. It would mean his wife because the two were one flesh. But I called him alone, nobody else. Or, I called Abraham alone, I didn't call the bunch that are coming with him.

Now it says here that he had what? He had in his own house three hundred and eighteen servants. And he got them all together to go after his son, or his son-in-law, or his brother-in-law, whoever in the world he was.

There's so many versions of this. But it was his brother's son that he went after. Now notice with you that this man came out of Ur of the Chaldees, he came with his father, they came to a place called Haran, and the father refused to budge there.

Because you see, the next obstacle in their way was the river Euphrates. And once they crossed the Euphrates, there wasn't even a toll bridge. There was no bridge. They had to ferry it. There were hazards in crossing that tremendous river.

One of them, do you remember, that came out of the Garden of Eden. And they were leaving behind them. This is a disaster to everybody else but Abraham. Again, I can't tell you how he heard that voice.

Stephen's Testimony and the God of Glory

I reminded you in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where Stephen is giving a defense just before they stone him. And he gives a marvelous recitation, the history of Israel. And he's talking to those men who said, We have Abraham to our fathers.

They said to Jesus, Why, why, you're not as old as Abraham? And Jesus, you remember, said, Well, do you know God is able to make children out of those very rocks on which you're standing as children unto Abraham?

That's no difficulty. But you see, as I say, he gave them a real thrust. He hit them where it hurt. He said, The God of Glory appeared unto our father Abraham. I'm convinced, disagree if you like, that I'm convinced the reason the God of Glory doesn't reveal Himself to you and to me, we're too much in a hurry.

We don't have time to wait, we don't have time to ponder. This man is called of God. He's in one of the greatest cities in the world, in Ur of the Chaldees, on the Persian Gulf. The great merchant ships came round from India, they bought their treasures, they came with their goodly pearls, they came with their marvellous garments.

How do you think God spoke to Abraham? Do you think it was some dazzling revelation like John had on the Isle of Patmos? Do you think it was like that revelation that I noticed there in Ezekiel 31, where there was a rainbow thrown, or like the revelation given in the 24th chapter of Genesis, where God is sitting in His Majesty, where there's a sea of emerald round about Him, where the man is lost for language to describe the majesty and beauty of God.

Did God appear to him like that? Or do you think God just made him sick one day? Now the word of the Lord came unto this man. As I've read Jewish scripture here, he's just come back from a battle. Previous to that, there had been the collapse of the Tower of Babel.

Abraham's Faith Without a Bible

God had promised that He would bless the world through Noah. But they built a tower, they were going to do it their own way. They were going to have their own United Nations. They built this tremendous, the first skyscraper ever made.

And they thought they were secure and safe, and the thing collapses. Now the immediate history of Abraham is disaster. The Tower of Babel, they've all been put to confusion. The flood has covered the earth.

Remember this man has no fellowship of the saints. Such a thing doesn't exist. He can't take the Bible, there wasn't one. He can't read the Ten Commandments, there weren't any. He can't talk to the patriarchs, they weren't yet born.

He can't say, I'd just like to have a word with Moses. Moses didn't even exist. The law was not given until 340 years after Abraham. This day of Abraham. But I meditated on this, and I may be wrong, but as a deacon once said to me, and they're terrible people.

A deacon once said to me, I may be wrong, but I'm sure I'm right. And I feel I've got a clue here. God is going to say to this man a little later, in the 17th chapter and verse 1. When Abraham was 90 years old, 99, the Lord appeared unto Abraham, this is a second appearance, and he said unto him, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect.

Now what in the world did Abraham have to hang on to? Again, he's no Bible. He can't tread in the footsteps of the saints. There's the Tower of Babel gone down. There's the battle with the kings. He's had quite a heartbreak.

You see, it's a very interesting study, isn't it? That Abraham brought with him his old father. Well, you need older men, they've so much wisdom. And then, he brought a young man with him by the name of Lot.

Now, I know what kind of a Lot he was, a good Lot or a bad Lot. I think he wasn't much of a Lot anyhow. And if it didn't say in the book of Jude, which is an epitome of the whole Bible, if it didn't say in the book of Jude that the conditions in Sodom and Gomorrah vexed his righteous soul every day, I would have thought his light went out.

Lot's Descent Into Materialism

You see, actually the study of Abraham and Lot is a study, a tale of two cities, if you want to quote Charles Dickens, a tale of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. A study in two attitudes, Lot and Abraham.

Again, the argument that Abraham became rich because he obeyed God doesn't hold water in my judgment. For the simple reason he had over 350 students, 350 students, 350 servants that were raised in his own house.

But one man, he lost control. The world got on top of him, instead of him sitting on top of the world. You see, he pitched his tent towards Sodom. Ah, it's the old story, isn't it? The woman saw the fruit, and then she took the fruit, and then she ate the fruit.

It's the old story, the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. And this young man moves towards Sodom. And not only moves towards Sodom, he became the most successful man there.

The word of God says he sat in the gate, and sitting in the gate meant two things. One, he was a judge, and second, he was the mayor of the city. And he got lost in the materialism. Now it didn't cost him very much, don't get me wrong.

Didn't cost him very much to become a superman, a multimillionaire, and a socialite. It didn't cost him much, only his family. But in God's name, if you lose your family, what have you left? He lost his family.

His daughters married Sodomites. And he's going up and up and up. You see, he began away there in Earl of the Chaldees. He was nameless, homeless, wifeless, childless, moneyless, positionless, possessionless.

The Danger of Reaching the Top

An old bald-headed man came in a prayer meeting we were holding one morning in a town called Eccles. We'd locked the gate outside of our big old tent, but I don't know to this day how that man got in, unless the Lord transported him.

But he came in the tent and he knelt in the sawdust and he prayed with us, and at the end he began to talk, gave us some words of counsel. It was 1937, the year I met my dear wife. And he said this, remember this, gentlemen, I'm 82 or 84 years of age, I forget which, he was over 80.

And he said, remember this, if Satan can't keep you on the bottom rung of the ladder, he'll help you get to the top and he'll push you over. Now he was talking to preachers. It's a very good word of advice, really.

You see, I say this man began in Ur of the Chaldees. Homeless, wifeless, childless, moneyless, positionless, possessionless. He got on the giddy ladder and he went up and up and up until everybody coveted him.

They saw his name plate on the door, his name in the newspapers, if you like. Everybody spoke of him as the most successful man around. And then he starts going down. Blessed is the man, what? Well, who trusteth in the Lord.

But you see, he began to trust in other things and his ears got very heavy to the voice of God. And I remind you again, when God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he didn't send a message, he didn't send the angel to the president of the city or the mayor of the city.

He gave the message to the man in the prayer meeting up there on the hill. The man who I figure never put his feet in Sodom and Gomorrah. And he says, I'm going to utterly destroy these people. And the man who prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah, this man's prayer life was nil, I guess.

There's no communication to him. And so love gets lost in the materialism. I don't think for a minute that Abraham was a poor man. I don't read that he fired all his 380 servants afterwards. But he had everything under control.

They did not control him. Situations did not control him. You see, the greatest possession in the world isn't a million acres or a billion dollars. The greatest possession in the world is self-possession under God.

My personality is under control. I'm not given to my appetites. They may pull in some people strong enough, but when God is in control, then you've got the answer. Because you see, he constrains us when we're too slow and he restrains us when we're too fast.

Enoch and the Faithful Remnant

Now, I say I believe that I know a couple of reasons. I think that since there'd been so much damage done to what we might call the kingdom of God since the days of Adam, there were some outstanding lights, you know.

One of the things instilled into my mind as a little boy in a little church I attended was a pastor who repeated himself so often. I wished he wouldn't, but I'm glad he did. You see, you've got to keep hitting a nail on the same place to fasten it and make it secure.

And one thing he used to say amongst others was this, God will always have a remnant. He'll always have a remnant. He's always had a remnant. Yeah, there's that ugly blotch in the Garden of Eden, there's that mess at the flood, there's this disaster in Ur of the Chaldees, after Ur of the Chaldees, and then this disaster with the Battle of the Kings and the mess of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But wait a minute, there were some characters in the Old Testament further back in those unrecorded days. They were unrecorded then, but not now. And one of them was that marvellous man by the name of Enoch.

Now read his story, it's in the 5th, I didn't check it, or 6th chapter of Genesis. But when you read it you'll discover that nearly everybody in the chapter lived longer than he did. But he's the man who's on record.

And he's on record for what? He walked with God. He walked with God. Now God puts this tremendous challenge to Abraham. He says, walk before me and be thou perfect. And listen, in case you argue against it, there's a man and he walked with God in the midst of all the crookedness, just immediately before the flood.

Noah's Generation and the Folly of Modern Man

Secondly, I like to think that maybe somebody reminded him. Somebody who said Enoch was my great-grandfather or something like that. Or again, he may have seen something that reminded him of the disaster.

Or maybe it was the very attitude of the people that got lost in materialism. We were down in Baton Rouge where these dear friends come from just a couple of weeks ago. And two or three weeks ago, anyhow.

And I said as we, I went to a church to preach just one night, that's all they'd have me. But anyhow, I went one night. And as we went I said, my the buildings, the buildings, the buildings, everywhere they're building.

Now if you talk about the return of Christ and signs in the heavens and earthquakes and diverse situations. But you know, one of the conditions before the flood was they bought, they sold, they planted, they built it until the very day that Noah entered into the ark.

Do you think they're going to legislate in Washington that we can't build anymore or do this, that and the other and sit and wait for the return? No, no, no, no. Men are going to be going for all their worth till the very last second before the judgment of God comes.

They bought, they sold, they planted, they built it. And they were going back to the same old thing in Ur of the Chaldeans. And suddenly something inside of this man revolted. As I've said, God is eternally the same.

And it was as true in those days as in the days of Jesus or today that blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. And this man has an inward longing. Isn't it really folly what you want to say about modern man?

Modern Technology and the Bankruptcy of the Church

A genius or an idiot? I get angry three times at least this week they've mentioned this neutron bomb. They could drop one tomorrow when there's a festival or a carnival here or in... I suppose it's Baton Rouge again but San Antonio.

Somebody could devilishly drop that bomb and it wouldn't do any harm to the houses. It would just liquidate the population. Isn't that kindness? Can you think of anything more loving and gentle than that?

Huh? Man's technical knowledge is fantastic. We can liquidate a city of human beings and not blast a tile off the roof. If that isn't devilry in God's name, what is? Men have gone mad. Oh, there's an upsturch.

Oh sure, sure, sure. Everybody's mad now. Mr. Carter's given the bomber away. They say that's the best gift he's given yet on a silver platter to Russia. Oh, they're going to breathe much more easily and here we are.

We're crowded with this technology of evil. But I don't find people crowding prayer meetings or getting too anxious about these things anyhow. I say that maybe this man was disturbed when he looked on the wickedness of the city and said, listen, God's going to have to do something before long over this wickedness.

It could be that he saw some wreckage. It could be that he thought about this man who had walked with God. But there's another thing. Can you think of something God made after he finished the earth and finished with creation?

Something he made that he, he didn't forget it, but it wasn't needed. Well, it was a very wonderful thing. God says to Noah in the 9th chapter of Genesis and verse 9, Behold, I establish, listen, my covenant with you.

God's Covenant With Abraham

Now God has made a covenant with Abraham. He's coming up with Abraham there in that 12th chapter. The Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee.

That's all negative. That's all taking away. It's a wreckage again. Socially, economically, he had to leave all his land. Domestically, he had to leave all his relatives. And it seems God is stripping, stripping, stripping.

And then God turns round and says in verse 2, And I will make thee a great nation, I will bless thee, I'll make thy name great, thou shalt be a blessing, I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.

Somebody should write that in capital letters to Mr. Sadat because he's going to lose the next round anyhow. And in thee shall all the families of the earth, you notice that? He doesn't say the ten tribes of Israel and the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah shall be blessed.

He says all the nations of the earth shall be blessed of thee. Now that's God's covenant with this man. Well does God keep his word? After all, it's alright making covenants, but very often people make covenants and can't keep them.

They back down, they back off, they've all kinds of excuses. Now what example does he have? Can he reach again into history and say, Ah, but listen, God once made a covenant. Say, do you get a thrill every time you see a rainbow?

There's not much in it. Good heavens, you can fly over it, you can fly underneath it, you can fly through it. You can see one every day the sun shines at Niagara Falls. I've seen them many times. Nothing wonderful about it, but I'll tell you what, there was never a rainbow till God put it there.

There was no rain because God had watered the earth with a dew that went into the ground. And now God says, I'll make a covenant with thee. God made a covenant. In verse 11 of chapter 9 he says, I will establish my covenant.

In verse 12 he says, this is the token of my covenant. Do you know he mentions covenant seven times in this chapter? And there are seven colours in the rainbow. It seems as though God is just making it as strong as he can.

He says, listen, I'm putting my bow in the heavens. Now you can blow the earth up, but you can't blow rainbows up. You can destroy many things, you cannot destroy the rainbow. Dewitt Talmadge was a very, very picturesque preacher.

He preached in that great tabernacle down there in, down where in, I forgot the name of it. We used to live there in New York anyhow. Where did we live Martha? What state? Part of New York City. Brooklyn, Brooklyn.

The great Brooklyn tabernacle. Strangely enough he built the tabernacle and got married and the tabernacle burned down. And he rebuilt it and got married again because his first wife had died and the tabernacle burned down.

And he rebuilt it a third time, his third wife died and the tabernacle fell down. I think he gave up on tabernacles and wives. But he was a great preacher. And he said, you know, one day God, as a sign of his faithfulness, he took some ribbon and wrapped it round his finger and said, hey, that's the best bow you'll ever see in your life.

There it is in the heaven. It's God's permanent record of his faithfulness. He said, I set my bow in the clouds, verse 13, and it shall be for a token for a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass that when I bring a cloud over the earth, the bow shall be seen in the cloud.

And listen, I will remember my covenant, never mind you. He says, I will remember my covenant, verse 15 of chapter 9 of Genesis. I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the water shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh, and the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature.

And verse 17, and God said unto Noah, this is the token of the covenant which I have established. Now there God says, I have made an everlasting covenant. And you know, every time you and I should see it, you should thrill and praise God and say, there it is, there is God's sign in the heavens.

The Rainbow Around God's Throne

Now he not only says that there, but also he says in, um, I've forgotten the scripture again now, I get mixed up in them. But anyhow, it doesn't matter, the prophet Ezekiel I guess, in which Ezekiel says that he saw a throne, and he saw above the throne, he saw one who had a rainbow upon him.

Now, here in the book of the Revelation, in chapter, uh, chapter 4,.

Pardon me, Revelation 4,.

Let's read from verse 1. And after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.

And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper, a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

Now the throne is not only, pardon me, the rainbow is not only set in the sky as a permanent memorial, but here it is, it's around about the throne of God. Now, in the 10th chapter, it says, I saw another mighty, chapter 10, verse 1, I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven.

Listen, this is the clothing of an angel. An angel. Think how awesome it is. I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow upon his head, and his face was as like the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire, and, verse 3, he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth.

Now that's just one of the created beings, this is not the majesty of God, this is just an angel. His face is like the sun in its strength, his feet are like pillars of fire, he's clothed with a cloud, and he has a rainbow upon his head.

Prophecy as History Written in Advance

This is the finale, after the battle of Armageddon. You know, this hit me very forcibly this week, it may not have the same impact on you, but it did on me. You know, men have very neatly divided history into two sections, what they call secular history and biblical history.

They don't match in any way at all, because the whole of secular history is fallible. There are patches, there are guesses. Divine history is written by the one who is the faithful and the true. Do you know why men reject biblical revelation?

Do you know why they try and work on the theory of Darwin or something else? Because if they have to be intellectually honest, and they say they are. You see, what prophecy is, prophecy is history written beforehand.

Isn't it? Because every prophecy that God has made, there are at least a hundred prophecies have been fulfilled out of the Old Testament. Prophecy is history written beforehand. Therefore, if a man is intellectually honest and he says I'll accept the book, well, I'll accept right up to the Old Testament, but I won't accept the New Testament.

Do you know why he doesn't want to accept it? Because if he accepts the Old Testament, to be intellectually honest, he'd have to accept the New Testament. And you know that wonderful rosy day of optimism they're always talking about just doesn't exist.

You see, that God who put that boy in the heaven is exactly the same today as he was before there was ever a star in the heavens. Before ever there was a earth to plant the daisies on. Before ever there was a sun and a moon.

God was there in his majesty. And when this old earth has been removed and be dissolved, God will still be there in his majesty and in his glory. Now remember again, he says, I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven.

Well, if you go to the 11th chapter, verse 15, it says the seventh angel sounded and there were voices from heaven. But you see, that is the end of all things. There's no rainbow there. There's no rainbow at the 20th chapter of the book of the Revelation when Jesus sits with his hair as white as snow and his feet like burnished brass and his face like the sun in its strength.

There is no rainbow there because the rainbow is a sign of mercy and there is no mercy left at the 20th chapter of the Revelation. He's going to judge the nations with righteousness and in his holiness.

The Seven Trumpets of Revelation

Now I say, this is why men don't want to accept the biblical revelation. In the 8th chapter of Revelation, here it is. The first angel sounded. This is coming right down to the end of the age. Nobody knows what's going to happen.

Oh yes we do, read the book of the Revelation. Every prophecy made has been fulfilled. The first trumpet sounds. Listen what happens after the first trumpet. They followed hail, fire mingled with blood.

They were cast upon the earth and a third part of the trees was burned up and all grass was burned up. Verse 8, the second angel sounded. As it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

Verse 10, and the third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp, burning as it were a lamp and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and the fountains and the waters and the name of the star is called wormwood and the third part of the waters became wormwood and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.

Verse 12, the fourth angel sounded. Listen, and the third part of the sun was smitten and the third part of the moon and the third part of the stars. So as the third part of them was darkened and the day shone not for a third part of it and the night likewise.

Chapter 9, verse 1, the fifth angel sounded. I saw a star from heaven fall to the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit and he opened the bottomless pit. Verse 13 of the ninth chapter, the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet loose the four angels which abound in the great river Euphrates and the four angels were loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay the third part of men and the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them and I saw the horses in the vision.

Well, what does it mean? Well, there you have the finale. Two hundred million men fighting the final battle of Armageddon. It says the great river, the river Euphrates has dried up. This is symbolic of the kings of the east coming forth to fight in the battle of Armageddon.

But you see all the time there, there has been that. Now we come to the tenth chapter, verse 1. I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven clothed with a cloud and a rainbow was upon his head and his face was as it were the sun.

That's the point I'm trying to make however clumsy I've been. The rainbow was there upon his head even though the stars had fallen, even though the earth had been pillaged and raped and every conceivable evil which is beyond all the imagination of the Hollywood bunch to conceive that even there, that sign is there in the heaven of God's faithfulness.

He put a bow in the heavens and he said there is no chance of that bow ever being eliminated. It's a sign of my mercy. Isaiah 54 says this. In the sixth verse of Isaiah 54 it says the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken.

This is God speaking to the rebellious house of Judah by the way. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and the wife of thy youth when thou hast refused, saith the Lord for a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee.

Israel, Abraham, and the Nations

Now going back again to the promise that God made to Abraham he said in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. You may not like the Jews I'm not particularly fond of them myself but there's a mysterious covering over them.

You see all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed through them. Not merely the ten tribes and then the other two tribes of Judah and of Benjamin. Not just those but all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed through the Jews.

After all, all the great prophets of the Old Testament were Jews. Weren't the apostles Jews? Wasn't the day of Pentecost launched by Jews? Doesn't Jesus say to some of them you're going to sit one day in the eternal kingdom and you're going to judge the twelve tribes of Israel?