Missed Insights About Genesis 12:3 (Part 3)

See the series here 

‘I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
and in you, all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.’

Genesis 12:3

 

Perhaps ever since The Lord inspired Moses to pen this pivotal promise, people who read it likely had significantly different understandings of who would be the you in it. Abram, whose name The Lord changed to Abraham, is ‘the father of many nations’. So the possible choices are many across his vast line of descendants—Ishmael’s Arabs, Esau’s Edomites, Jacob’s Hebrews and Jews, and only God knows which others! The Lord changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and selected his to be the descendant line through which He would be born as a man, to pay the price for all sin. In light of this, Christians generally interpret the you in this verse, as Jews and governments of Israel. Yet The Bible reveals The Lord’s significantly different choice. 

 

Let’s conclude our exploration of Genesis 12:3, and finally learn who is the descendant you that is thrice referenced in this prophecy. Who gets to ‘claim the prize’ of The Lord’s blessings throughout history??

6. Spiritual Discernment. Genesis 12:3 establishes a binary choice of blessing or curse. Across The Bible, The Lord has inspired writers to present clear, binary choices of various kinds, all of which address various aspects of righteousness vs. sinfulness. History reveals human nature always leans toward the latter choices. Given the cloudy vicissitudes of life, navigating these extremes requires developing mature, Holy Spirit discernment—our defense against devilish delusions. The Bible requires believers to perceive, then align with The Lord’s overarching strategic plan, as revealed from Genesis-to-Revelation. Applying ‘religious mindsets’ to isolated passages, out of context of that plan, causes us to (a) misunderstand His broader, strategic objective and context, (b) fail to perceive His repetitive patterns, and (c) misconstrue the revealed sequence of His prophetic events.

 

Genesis 12:3 was never intended to be a blank check for the spiritual and political endorsement of ‘all things Israel or Jewish’, as many believers may think. Nor was it a clarion call for supportive nations to flood Israel with foreign military weapons. Discernment would reveal the latter only delays the core lesson ancient Israel and Judah iteratively failed to learn—that The Lord ALONE is its defense! (See: Out of My Way, USA! (Poem))

 

Ponder this: Would you agree that we believers today need much more spiritual discernment than believers may have needed during the phase-out of the 1st (pre-flood) and the 2nd (pre-cross) ages? Our world today is infinitely more complex; the global population is so much bigger; and devils are far more experienced, effective and efficient at tempting, deceiving, and deluding people now, than they were in the previous ages! As each age drew and will draw to its predicted close, they knew and will know their time was/will be short. ¹ Ergo, rest assured they are diligently ‘maximizing their harvests’ of as many people as possible into satan’s kingdom (to share their fate in The Lord's promised lake of eternal fire), before this current, 3rd age ends! The closing period of this age is definitely not the time for us to be slack in spiritual discernment.

 

When we bless sin as righteousness (whether the sins of Jews and/or their governments, our political leaders, or our own personal sins), we cloud our perception of The Lord’s unfolding strategic plan, and misrepresent His heart. So let’s pray for, believe we receive by faith, and then start confessing that we have keen Holy Spirit discernment. As we faithfully plant and nurture those seeds, The Lord will faithfully ensure they are fruitful. Amen?

 

7. So Who’re the You? Does it make any sense to you for the you in Genesis 12:3 to refer to The Lord blessing anyone who blesses ALL of, and everything about Jacob’s seed (the Jewish people and their governments), when their grossly sinful lifestyles across history, and even today, repeatedly tested and exhausted His Grace, forcing Him to curse, and drive them out of their lands, and then (get this!) promise to eliminate two-thirds of all Jews who will survive the apocalypse and Armageddon?? ² 

 

Ponder this: Genesis 12:3 was effectively The Lord’s first, indirect reference to His Genesis 3:15 'Seed promise’. Genesis 12:3 narrows the Genesis 3:15 strategic plan, from ‘the seed of a woman’, to Abram’s seed.  From that seed, HE, Himself, eventually became its FIRST FRUIT, spiritually born of, and by faith. Faith in that seed’s eventual fruit was released by many people across the 2nd age-- from Abram’s faith (Genesis 15:6), to Mary’s faith (Luke 1:38), until its fruit burst forth from Mary’s womb, ‘in the fulness of time’. Hallelujah!!! That fruit was severely tempted, tested, criticized, accused, convicted, and crucified, in order for YOU, dear faithful Christian, to become the you in Genesis 12:3. Please re-read that sentence.

 

The you in that verse has nothing at all to do with Jews or Israel! It’s all about the FIRST and SUBSEQUENT FRUITs of the Genesis 3:15 Seed. Please re-read that. The Lord’s faithful saints are the subsequent fruits of Jesus, The First Fruit, because we are spiritually-linked to Him, by faith. Galatians 3 affirms this pivotal point. ³ Christians who interpret Genesis 12:3 in light of Jacob’s seed and political Israel, have fallen into satan’s temptation, deceiving, delusion trap. His aim is to get our focus off of this quintessential message: 

 

Abraham was the father of Godly faith—

of all who would eventually believe!

Romans 4:11

 

When we read in Genesis 17:4 that Abraham would be the father of many nations, we might carnally focus on his diverse physical descendants, and totally omit His ‘spiritual descendants of faith’. If so, when we then read Genesis 12:1-3, we might repeat that error. When we are thus trapped, we parade our carnal mindedness to the on-looking world, and align our beliefs and actions, accordingly. Brothers and Sisters, how sad that must look from Heaven’s perspective!!

 

From the missed insights explored in this series, I hope and trust you will agree it would be wise for us today, to step back from our erroneous proclivity to presume ‘everything Jewish and Israel’ must be righteous, and, ergo, worthy of our blessings!’  It never was, nor shall it be… until the Millennial Reign, when The Lord will severely purge Jacob’s remnant physical seed. Genesis 12:3 was never about politics, ethnicity, or national loyalty. It was always about Heaven’s unfolding plan (a) to bless us who would be spiritually faithful to God, through Jesus, the First Fruit of Genesis 3:15, and (b) to curse rebellion against Him. The binary choice before us is whether we will or refuse to (i) bless what Heaven blesses, and (ii) discern and align with its strategic plan across the ages, until faith’s final fruit is formed in us who are ready for ‘harvesting’ at His appearing.

Here are two enigmas that are curious and unfortunate:

1. On one hand, we Christians erroneously assume WE are or will be the bride of Christ, though The Bible so very clearly states otherwise! (See: The Bride of Christ (Series))

2. On the other hand, we erroneously assume the you in Genesis 12:3 is anything but The Lord, Himself, and WE, His faithful-till-death saints.

What does that infer about our

spiritual discernment--

‘defense against devilish delusions’??

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¹ Don’t think for a second that satan didn’t learn about the pending global flood until the last minute, or that Jesus was likely The One Who would fulfill the Genesis 3:15 prophecy. And though all devils will be locked away during The Millennial Reign age—the fifth age of history, they will likely know when the time for their predicted release from the bottomless pit, will be approaching. (See: Revelation 20)

² See: Hasty Jewish Migrations (Series) and Zechariah 13:8-9. Where these 2 verses fit into the prophetic sequence is not entirely clear, but it clearly links with Zechariah 12: 10-14. In a pending series, I hope to share my intuitions about the sequence of the transition from the tribulation age, to the Millennial Reign age.

³ In 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, Paul mentions how Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection promise. That narrow distinction may trigger some readers to only perceive the ‘first fruit’ concept, as tied to resurrection. But Jesus could only become the first fruit of the resurrection promise AFTER He was born as the first spiritual fruit of the Genesis 3:15 promise.