DESTINY: Promises, Promises, Promises …

Continued from: Who in the world do we think we are?!

What if you had a parent who made promises that you knew he or she would keep — no matter what? That would be pretty “cool,” would it not? Unfortunately, our parents, as good as they may have been, lacked one thing, the same thing we lack, the power to carry out what we promise. I know there are some who understand the importance of keeping their word, and if they can’t, they know to keep the mouth shut.

But what if I told you that there was one, the ultimate parent, who first gave us life, as parents do, and then had the power to make and to keep promises that affect our life today?

In my last post (which started this series on “Who in the world do we think we are?!”) I alluded to the fact that we really don’t have a good answer to that question. We don’t really know.

English Speaking Countries, Listen!

I am writing specifically to the people who find themselves in English speaking countries for one reason or another. Many of your parents were outcasts in the country from which they immigrated. The English “among us” brought the language and culture of England to the United States and set up colonies around the world. But most of the people of the United States came from a number of different European cultures (“the old country”), and had to learn the language of English.

But of these, few can trace their ancestry back very far. Of course, some can. I remember when as a child, I attended a number of different family reunions. One time at the “Ball Reunion,” I noticed in the pavilion someone had placed a chart on the wall that traced one of the lines in the family back to the royal family in Great Britain. In spite of the fact that my last name is from Europe, there never was a family reunion tradition for the Sakach family name. There certainly was for the other family names.

But that was it. If I have any royal blood coursing through my veins and arteries, it is not very much. But one thing I know for certain that I am an American, because my family history can be traced back to pioneers and outcasts who did not feel at home in their “old country.” They had to immigrate out of it to a new country — a land of promise!

That tells me that most of us in this country and in the other English speaking countries, do not really know who we are in this world!

But there are other cultures, that have been around for thousands of years who know who they are.

But we really don’t. But it is now time that we all understand — both the English speaking nations and the rest of the world!

Let’s get back to the promises.

Saved by the Prayers of our Righteous Fathers!

As I wrote, we have all descended from righteous men. If it were not for them and their prayers on our behalf, we may not be living today. When Enoch learned from a dream that the earth was going to be destroyed he prayed, and this is what he said,

I lifted up my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One, and spoke with the breath of my mouth, and with the tongue of flesh, which God has made for the children of men with which they should speak. He gave them breath, a tongue, and a mouth with which they should speak,

“Blessed be You, O Lord, King, Great and mighty in Your greatness, Lord of the whole creation of the heaven, King of kings and God of the whole world. Your power, kingship, and greatness remain forever and ever, and throughout all generations. Your domain, and all the heavens are Your throne forever, and the whole earth Your footstool forever and ever.

For You made and rule all things, and nothing is too hard for You. Wisdom does not depart from the place of Your throne, nor turn away from Your presence. You know, see, and hear everything, and there is nothing hidden from You. You see everything.

And now the Messengers of Your heavens are guilty of trespass, and upon the flesh of men remains your wrath until the great day of judgment.

“Now, O God and Lord and Great King, I implore and cry to You to fulfill my prayer to leave me a posterity on earth and not destroy all the flesh of man. Do not make the earth without inhabitant, so that there would be an eternal destruction.

Now, my Lord, destroy from the earth the flesh that has aroused Your wrath. But the flesh of righteousness and uprightness establish as a plant of the eternal seed. Do not hide Your face from the prayer of Your servant, O Lord.” From Enoch: The Book Behind the Bible

We are a plant of the eternal seed!

Because of this prayer, offered by our father Enoch, we are alive today!

Plant of the Eternal Seed?

What is the meaning of the “plant of the eternal seed?” If that is what we are, then don’t you think we ought to know what that means?

Enoch was not just praying that some people would survive the “first end.” He asked that the plant would live forever!

As we approach the end of this age, it will appear that the earth is doomed. But that will not be the case. Not only will there be survivors, but never again will wickedness gain the upper hand and seek to destroy “forever” the righteous from the earth.

“The flesh of righteousness and uprightness establish as a plant of the eternal seed!

How was that going to be carried out? It doesn’t seem possible that we have that power. Those who are doers of what is right are often overwhelmed by the doers of evil even today!

It gets back to the promises, doesn’t it?

The operation of the establishing the righteous plant began at the time the prayer was offered. The commitment and strong desire of our righteous father was heard and the job began.

Here is how it happened.

Enoch’s posterity would carry the seed through the flood.

In the Book of Enoch, immediately following the prayer, is a recounting of another dream vision of Enoch where he saw the entire history of humanity from beginning to the ultimate destiny of all. It is too bad, the stodgy old church leaders decided keep this vision from you. In it is the future of the plant of eternal seed, and how they will bless the world and its people. But before that could happen promises were made.

Promises of blessing for the world

A certain man named Abram lived with his family in a place called “Ur.” His father and brothers had a business of making idols for the folk. It was an enterprise that apparently paid them well. Abram, however, objected to this business but his father, Terah, and brothers, Nahor and Haran, refused to listen. So one night Abram decided that enough was plenty and set their shop on fire. When Abram’s brother Haran saw the fire, he shouted at Abram, “What have you done?” then he ran into the shop to try to stop the fire and was instead killed.

And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth in Ur of the Chaldeans. Gen. 11

Haran was the father of Lot. But Abram, his wife Sarah, Lot, and Abram’s father Terah left Ur and went to Canaan and established a place called “Haran.” Terah died in Haran at age 205. The righteous plant was about to take root and grow.

Then Abram received a message from Yahua, “Go yourself out of your land from your relatives and from your father’s house, to a land I will show you. [PROMISE] And I will make of you a great nation and bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing! And I shall bless those who bless you, and curse him who curse you. And in you shall all the clans of the earth be blessed.” From Genesis 12

The most important phrase of “promise”, which will be repeated over again and again, is “I will … ” or “I give …” or “I shall …”

So Abram left with his wife, his brother Haran’s son Lot and all their possessions and the people who worked for them and came to the land “occupied” by the Canaanites (descendents of Ham’s son). Abram was 75 years old when they left Hanan.

And Yahua appeared to Abram and said, “[PROMISE] To your seed I give this land.” And Abram built there an altar to Yahua, who had appeared to him.

Then Abram moved to a mountain and “built there an altar to Yahua and called upon the Name of Yahua.” And he also pitched his tent there. From Genesis 12

“Call upon the Name of Yahua,” is the exact same phrase used to refer to Seth and his line after he had his son Enosh. It is important to understand that Abram is going to some effort to establish and guard this close relationship with Yahua.

Abram and Lot both became very prosperous and eventually Lot had to move away from this valley and this mountain. And after he left …

Yahua said to Abram, “[PROMISE] Now lift up your eyes an look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land which you see I shall give to you and your seed forever. And I shall make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that, if a man could count the dust of the earth, then your seed also could be counted. Arise, walk in the land through its length and width, for I give it to you.” From Genesis 13

Abram then moved his tent again, this time to Hebron, and “built an altar there to Yahua.”

The amount of “promised land” keeps expanding. These promises are being made while the Canaanites and Perizzites (a mix of Hametic people who lived in villages in the country, including the Philistines) still occupied the land. I intentionally use the term “occupy,” because this land was given to Shem and his descendants by lot and signified by an agreement (oath) as noted earlier. And now it is given by promise to Abram and his offspring.

After these things the word of the Yahua came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.”

Abram said, “Yahua of Elohim, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Look, to me you have given no seed: and, see, one born in my house is my heir.”

Then the word of Yahua came to him, saying, [PROMISE] “This shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir.”  And he brought him forth abroad, and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you be able to count them.” He said to him, “So shall your seed be.”

And he believed Yahua, and He counted it to him for righteousness.

And He said to him, “I am Yahua who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”

And he said, “Yahua of Elohim, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?”

And He said to him, “Bring me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

And he took to Him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds he did not divide. And when the fowls came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and an horror of great darkness fell on him.

And He said to Abram, “Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their’s, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. But you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. In the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”

When the sun went down, and it was dark, a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp passed between those pieces.

In the same day Yahua made a covenant with Abram, saying, [PROMISE] “To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: [now occupied by] the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” From Genesis 15

Abram assurance was a prophecy! “Know of a surety that …” The prophecy doesn’t say that the land was Egypt, but later this becomes clear. But there is another witness to this: the vision given to Enoch! Here from “Enoch: The Book Behind the Bible” we have this dream vision …

Then that white bull [Noah], which had become a man, came out of that vessel [the ship], and the three bulls with him. One of those three [Shem] was white like that bull [Noah]. and one of them was red as blood [Japheth], and one black [Ham]. And that white bull left them.

And they began to bring forth beasts of the field and birds, so that there arose different genera: including lions, tigers, wolves, dogs, hyenas, wild boars, foxes, squirrels, swine, falcons, vultures, kites, eagles, and ravens; and among them was born a white bull [Abraham], and these began to bite one another.

But that white bull [Abraham,] which was born among them, begat a wild ass [Ishmael] and a white bull [Isaac]. The wild asses multiplied.

But that bull [Isaac] which was born from him begat twins: a black wild boar [Esau] and a white sheep [Jacob]; and the former begat many boars.

But that sheep [Jacob] procreated twelve sheep.

When those twelve sheep had grown, they gave up one of them [Joseph] to the asses [offspring of Ishmael], and those asses again gave up that sheep to the wolves [Egyptians], and that sheep grew up among the wolves. And the Lord brought the eleven sheep to live with it and to pasture with it among the wolves: and they multiplied and became many flocks of sheep.

And the wolves began to fear them, and they oppressed them until they killed their little ones by throwing their young into a river that had much water. Then those sheep began to cry aloud on account of their little ones, and to complain to their Lord.

Skeptics will say that this was written after the fact. However, there is a problem with that reasoning. When, then, was it written? This dream covers the whole history of the human race, as does the vision of the Weeks. It is not possible to time stamp either of these after the fact because portions happened after the time they claim it was written and some prophesied events have not yet happened. According to Enoch‘s account, this vision came to him before he was married, and when he was a young man staying with his grandfather!

Now the promise extends from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq! And it also includes more offspring than can be numbered, like the dust of the earth or like the stars. And some think that this only includes the Jews in the State of Israel. Come on! Learn the history of the world’s people and quit imagining fables.

A Failure to Believe the Promises?

The promises are to Abram and to his seed. But then something happened. Abram and Sarai become impatient and Sarai gave her servant to Abram with the idea that Sarai could be “built up by her.” But that was not to be.

Hagar, Sarai servant, did conceive through Abram and this started a bunch of trouble. Sarai drove her servant away. Then a Messenger of Yahua came to Hagar and said, “Hagar, Sarai’s female servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of Sarai, my mistress.”

The Messenger of Yahua said to her, “Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hand. I am going to increase your seed greatly, too numerous to be counted. Look, you are conceiving and bearing a son, and shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahua has heard your affliction. And he is to be a wild man, his hand against every one and every one’s hand against him, and shall dwell over against all his brothers.” From Genesis 16

Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. But it is important to catch the promise that was made to him, and compare that with the promises that were made to the true heir.

And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, then Yahua appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am the El Shaddai; walk before me, and be you perfect. [PROMISE] And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

And Abram fell on his face: and Elohim talked with him, saying, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made you. [PROMISE] And I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be Elohim to you, and to your seed after you. And I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their Elohim.”

A man and his family have been singled out from all of humanity to be a blessing to the rest. He has been promised a section of the earth that will be his possession forever and belong to his offspring through a particular son, who has not yet been born. This man is now 99 years old. His wife, Sarai, is also almost 90 years old and it doesn’t look like either of them can even have children at this time in life. Yet the promises were made over and over again and each time they grew in scope and power!

What is happening here? What is the real focus of these promises and events, and what happened to his offspring, who were to be as the “dust of the earth.” Where are the many nations? Is this some horrible joke, or has something really happened that for one reason or another is not in our thoughts?

Where are these people, these nations, and what is their role on the earth today?

To be continued …