I made a Covenant with God.

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Sep 7, 2019
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#1
While searching for a deeper understanding of current events in the Middle East, I turned to The Holy Bible for an answer to the seemingly eternal struggle between descendants of Ishmael* (Muslims believe Mohammad, their prophet, was descended from Ishmael) and the Jews** in the State of Israel. I reasoned that, even though I did not believe (at the time) in the veracity of the Bible, it was evident that the parties in question both believed in a kinship in the distant past that may have something to do with the territorial dispute of the present. So, I went in search of what more I might discover about Ishmael and the Jews in the Book of Genesis.

*Ishmael, Abraham's actual first-born son was born to a servant and raised by her and subject to her foreign religious influence. As such, he could not be counted upon to keep his father's covenant with God. The Blessing of the Covenant went to his younger brother Isaac instead.
**Something similar happened to Judah, when Jacob blessed Judah with right of the first-born because of his elder brothers' transgressions but the Blessing of the Covenant went to Ephraim, the second son of Joseph.

So neither Judah, nor Ishmael, received the Blessing of the Covenant, yet both believed in their youth that they would/should have been the one. Their children (physical and/or spiritual) are still fighting over their mutual misunderstandings. The Blessings of the Covenant and the right of the firstborn are two different things. The right of the firstborn is a custom of man that does not have primacy over God's Covenant.

On the quest for these answers, I stumbled upon something very peculiar. What caught my eye, began with something as simple as the repetition of a symbol within a series of individual blessings. When it happened a second time within a few verses, I stopped to diagram the names, symbols, and verb phrases.

I quickly recognized there was something important going on here. What I was looking at was certainly a deliberately crafted puzzle, yet no one had told me about this, and nothing I had read anywhere up to that point in my life had said a word about this. How could this be? I had thought that I knew enough about the Bible to reject it.

Then it dawned on me that I had rejected God and His Word based upon the words and actions of men. I had not truly studied the entire Bible myself. I had gone to Sunday school, read the New Testament over and over, dabbled in the Prophets, etc., but my understanding had been built with with too much hearsay. I had come to a conclusion, that now seemed, well... in error.

So I prayed to our Father in Heaven, in the Name of His Son, Jesus, for the wisdom and understanding to unravel this mystery. In return, I promised to tell the world, and glorify His name. Then, when I returned to the Bible with faith and expectation, inspiration came quickly and the rest of the puzzle began falling into place.

The mystery was far bigger than I had ever imagined, and so I my mission in life has become, my covenant duty: To tell the world, and glorify His Name.
 

tourist

Senior Member
Mar 13, 2014
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Tennessee
#2
The OP was unclear exactly the kind of covenant that you made with God. Can you offer some clarity on this? Also, what is this mystery that is far bigger than you had ever imagined?
 

NotmebutHim

Senior Member
May 17, 2015
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#3
The OP was unclear exactly the kind of covenant that you made with God. Can you offer some clarity on this? Also, what is this mystery that is far bigger than you had ever imagined?
I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

But then again, we all might just be called ignorant......... :cool::p
 
Sep 7, 2019
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#5
I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

But then again, we all might just be called ignorant......... :cool::p
The OP was unclear exactly the kind of covenant that you made with God. Can you offer some clarity on this? Also, what is this mystery that is far bigger than you had ever imagined?
My Covenant with God: I asked God for the wisdom and understanding to solve the rest of the intricate puzzle found in the book of Genesis, that I had begun deciphering but could not complete on my own. I promised that if He were to grant me these things that I would tell the world and glorify his name.

When God performed on his side of the proposal, it constituted acceptance, making this a legal and binding contract. On my side of the deal, I am obligated to perform, but more importantly, I have authority to tell what I have learned, despite the fact that He sealed it in the first place. He knew what I would do with the information if he gave it to me, and he gave it to me anyway.;)

The mystery is that the cluster of inter-related and cross referenced word puzzles is actually a tutorial that teaches a new perspective, a new way to read the scriptures in order to see things that have always been there, but never recognized for what they truly are. These literary devices are common to many languages and cultures and we all use them or hear them in regular conversation, but few notice many of them in the Word of God.

The tutorial reveals a cluster of inter-related prophecies that are later fulfilled in detail in subsequent books within the canon, proving the deductions and acting as an answer sheet to check your work. Engaging and solving the same devices the rest of the way through the Bible is like reading just below the surface and finding additional narrative that augments the story on the surface with vital information.

After reading the Bible as any book, from cover to cover, beginning to end, using this method, I can see time the way God and the Prophets describe it. I know the seasons and what is to happen in them. I know the Four Horsemen so well that I call them by their first names. I can trace the Lost Tribes through history and know who they are today. The things they were recorded to have done and everything prophesied about them for the future are manifestations of metaphysical laws that govern these people, and these people alone. I have illustrated the pattern of persecution endured by the Jews occurring as fulfillment of prophecies that tell who will do it and why, as well as precisely when, and in God's seasons.

I could go on and on, but I'll cut it short with this: The more you learn from this method, the more the Word of God fits together on several levels, simultaneously. It is the greatest literary Journey one can imagine.

The Method: Start over from the beginning, and read out of it only what it says... not into it what others have said. This is crucial. The Scriptures will interpret themselves, if you let them. Use only the faith of a child (Open-mindedness, thirst for knowledge), the wisdom of an adult (Logic, Reason), and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. By default, Jesus becomes your only teacher.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
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#6
*Ishmael, Abraham's actual first-born son was born to a servant and raised by her and subject to her foreign religious influence. As such, he could not be counted upon to keep his father's covenant with God. The Blessing of the Covenant went to his younger brother Isaac instead.
It matters not that Ishmael was Abraham's first born son, for any way you look at it, Ishmael was NOT the son of promise or covenant according to that which was given to Abraham and Sarah. The son of promise came directly through Sarah in her old age just as promised, and it is through the line of this descendant of Abraham's (Isaac) that the whole world would be blessed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Ishmael is described in Scripture: "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." The result of Abraham and Sarah taking matters into their own hands and not waiting upon the LORD to fulfill His promise to them has dreadful repercussions to this day.
 

calibob

Sinner saved by grace
May 29, 2018
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#7
It matters not that Ishmael was Abraham's first born son, for any way you look at it, Ishmael was NOT the son of promise or covenant according to that which was given to Abraham and Sarah. The son of promise came directly through Sarah in her old age just as promised, and it is through the line of this descendant of Abraham's (Isaac) that the whole world would be blessed by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Ishmael is described in Scripture: "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." The result of Abraham and Sarah taking matters into their own hands and not waiting upon the LORD to fulfill His promise to them has dreadful repercussions to this day.
True, also however that is a reoccurring theme in the Bible as well. from Cain and Able Ishmael & Isaac, Esau and Jacob. David was adopted by Saul and usurped Saul's son and became king. Absalom and Solomon and now Christians receive the Jews inheritance.