To Possess the Gates of their Enemies
Notes on Pastor Lawrence's Bible Study Course
Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant Promise:
To Inherit the Land
To Possess the Gates of their Enemies
Pastor Don Elmore's Review Notes
According to Genesis 22:17, God promised to Abraham that his “seed” would “possess the gates of their enemies”; this means that His covenant people would:
- would have enemies, and that they would
- Possess their enemy’s gates.
According to Joshua 21:43-45:
43) And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.
44) And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers:and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
45) There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
These verses show that the promise that Abraham’s descendants would possess the land was fulfilled and that the promise made about the enemies of Abraham’s descendants was also fulfilled.Both of these promises were conditional to the people of Israel.
But according to Deuteronomy 4:25-27, the following was true:
25) When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:
26) I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27) And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.
God gave to Israel these conditional reasons for his punishment by removing them from the land and “scattering them” :
- If they would not obey his commands
- if they would participate in Idol worship
- if they would become corrupt
- if they would practice evil
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 lists the consequences of Israel’s disobedience to God. In verses 63 and 64, it says that Israel would be uprooted and “scattered” from the land for “serving other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known.” The Northern House of Israel had been removed, according to this warning given in Deuteronomy, by the Syrians, followed by the Assyrians
Remember that the names “Ephraim” and “Israel” are interchangeable in many places. See Hosea 5:12-15; 6:4; 7:1; Isaiah 7:1, 9 for examples.
Before Jerusalem became the capital city in Judah, where did GOD choose His dwelling place [tabernacle] to be? The answer is SHILOH.
According to Psalm 78:54-60, what happened to Shiloh in Israel’s history? It was abandoned and destroyed by our GOD. Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC and the House of Judah was taken into captivity to Babylon for 70 years.A remnant then returned and rebuilt the Temple.
Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70: the final blow and dispersion of the remaining House of Judah took place in AD 70 at the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem.
According to 2 Samuel 7:10 (also 1 Chronicles 17:9, Isaiah 49:1-3; Ezekiel 34:13,29): While they were living in Palestine, God promised to Israel another place where they would go during the time of King David. This had to be true since Israel would become many, many nations in the future.
Today, Palestine is in a midst of battle between Israeli (Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Hassidic Jews) and the Palestinians (Arabs).WWIII will soon happen over who gets this land that was once Israel’s homeland.
