Fireside Chats: Jerusalem, O, Jerusalem!

1. Open your Bibles to Genesis 12 and read verses 1-3. Notice in verse 1 that God tells Abram to leave his country and his family for a land that He would show him. That land was Israel. We will talk about that later. Notice in verse 3 where God tells Abram that in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The covenant that God is establishing with Abram is an international covenant that would go from Abram, to his offspring, and then out into the entire world population. It points to the reestablishment of His Kingdom rule on earth through the offspring of Abram, which leads to Christ.

Take time to talk about how this truth spoken to Abram connects to you.

Look again at Gen 12:2-3. List the 7 promises God spoke forth.

Look at Gen 15. In verse 8 Abram wants to know how he can be certain that he will inherit the land. God’s promise about the land belonging to Abram came through a covenant ratified by a blood sacrifice from a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon. In ancient times a covenant was initiated by a stronger party to a weaker party – God to Abram. A covenant is an agreement entered into between two parties with the power of mutual relationship at its core. This covenant never depended upon the faithfulness of Abraham or his descendants. The covenant God made was solely His to honor. It was unconditional, irrevocable, and everlasting. Read Gen 17:7-8.

Do you believe that this covenant God made with Abraham is still in effect today? Why? Or, why not?

What is the Mosaic Covenant? Unlike the Blood Covenant made with Abraham, this Mosaic covenant was based on what?

Because the children of Israel disobey the Mosaic covenant, what was the results?

Read Leviticus 26:44-45 Did the breaking of the Mosaic covenant, break the covenant God made with Abraham? Does this mean that the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still belong to their descendants?

The Jews were dispersed from the Land God gave them because of their disobedience. From that time until present day when the Jews began to come back to Israel, The Land was controlled by many conquerors. When one group of people controlled the land in the 7^th century, they build the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosques on the same exact sites of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. Who was this group of people? Did their conquest negate the Covenant God made with Abraham? Why?

As the Church moved away from our Jewish roots, what happened?

How long did the Muslim Ottoman Turks control Israel?

What did an ally victory in 1917 and the Balfour Declaration do for the Jews?