Day 17: God keeps His promises

The Lord said to Abram, “‘My heart’s desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you, to make your name great so that you may be a blessing. My desire is to bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. … I will give this land to your seed.’ So there he built an altar to ADONAI, who had appeared to him.” – Genesis 12:2–3, 7 TLV

Richard and Carolyn Hyde share:

God said that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham and his offspring. Jews are only about one-fifth of one percent of the world’s population, exiled from their homeland and despised by most of the world. Yet, against all odds, this promise has come to pass. Jews’ contributions to science, medicine, technology, and numerous other fields have saved millions of lives and improved billions. Look at some of those blessings we can see through some of the Jewish people’s contributions:¹

• Jonas Salk, a Jew, created the polio vaccine, saving millions worldwide from paralysis and death.
• Jews have won twenty percent of all Nobel Prizes. Statistically, that is a hundred times more than they should have won based on their size.
• In medicine, they developed the pacemaker, several life-saving vaccines and antibiotics (including penicillin and the first cure for tuberculosis), local anesthesia, the technology used in MRIs, chemotherapy, the defibrillator, aspirin and more.
• In technology, they developed instant messaging, Google, key technology used in radios, TVs, wireless telecommunications and GPS, the development of the cell phone and solar power, color photography, remote controls and virtual reality.
• In science, they have made significant Nobel Prize-winning discoveries in DNA research, atomic structure, quantum mechanics and more.
• Other practical inventions include Jeans, sewing machines, microphones, ballpoint pens, stainless steel and traffic lights.

What do you think about all of the above?

Meditate on and study the following verses:

Genesis 12:2–3, 7.

• What was God’s heart’s desire for Abram?
• Abram means the father is exalted. God later changed it to Abraham, meaning father of a multitude (Genesis 17). What did God promise him?
• God’s covenant included the land and Abraham’s offspring. The land is very important to God. He also promised Abraham a global restoration (in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed). Ask God to reveal how your family has been blessed because of this covenant.

Genesis 15:5–18 (NKJV): God told Abram, “‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. … On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates…’”

• What did God promise Abram?
• How many descendants did God promise Abram?
• What did God say about Abram’s faith?
• The word “covenant” means cutting. Here God had Abram cut each animal he brought, other than the birds. The blood of the cut animals was necessary for ratifying the covenant. Read all of Genesis 15 to see the whole story. See also Genesis 17:7–8.

A prayer to pray

Adonai, thank You that I can trust You to keep Your promises to me, because You have kept and will keep all Your promises in the Bible. I can see You fulfilling Your promises to Abram (Abraham) in blessing Israel and making it into a great nation, despite the Jews being scattered for so many years. Thank You that You bless us when we bless Your people. Show me how to bless them right now. Show me any times I may have cursed Your people in any way, putting them down or speaking negatively against them. I confess those times and only want to bless Your people from now on.

Prayer points for today

• Ask God how you can bless Israel and Israelites.
• Confess times you or your family may have cursed Israel and Jews, even inadvertently.
• Ask God to continue to bless Israel with incredible ideas that bless the whole world.
• Pray for Israel’s safety from any attacks of the enemy, spiritual or physical, coming from within or from outside the country.

An action to take

Read the booklet mentioned in the note at the end of this devotion and thank God for all He has done to bless Israel. Share some of those blessings with someone (or more than one person) who may not yet understand God’s heart for Israel.

1. You can see a beautifully done booklet with this information and much more at https://heartofg-d.org/supernatural-or-just-remarkable/. Used by permission.