Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
God’s House of Israel
June 07, 2011
Abraham was a gentile, called out of the Chaldees, later known as Babylon, to separate from the household and the gods of his father to travel to a land with the promise that God would give it to him. He also received the promise that all of the nations of the world would be blessed through him. He would produce the son of inheritance, Isaac, who would only receive his inheritance by means of a crossover blessing; it would go from first son to second son, from Ishmael to Isaac, for Isaac was the son of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and the legitimate son of the marriage bed.
However, God called Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. God makes no mistakes; this was a deliberate command made to test the faith and obedience of Abraham at all cost, which would be the greatest price a man could pay – the loss of his son. God’s underlying purpose was to show the inheritance could not come from Isaac without a substitutionary sacrifice in his place, which would be provided by God. Without this sacrifice Israel would never have existed.
Because of the substitutionary sacrifice, Isaac lived that he might produce a son of inheritance who, in turn, was called Jacob. Now Jacob was a child of the sacrifice. He would only receive the name of Israel after having struggled the entire night with a Man who was also God (the only such man was Jesus). Jacob prevailed to have the victory, which would entitle him to the name of Israel. He wanted the blessing and he received it. The Man was symbolized by the substitutionary sacrifice required for Jacob’s father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham, both of whom would receive salvation posthumously through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross because they had been deemed righteous through faith and obedience.
The bloodline of the gentile, Abraham, played no part in either him or his descendants receiving the blessing of Israel. It came through what boiled down to being a battle between the Christ and the Antichrist, where faith and obedience would carry the day and open up the Promised Land in victory to the sons of Jacob, renamed Israel, as a result of the original substitutionary sacrifice for Isaac, the son of Abraham.
Jesus is the sacrifice, which opens up the Land and the kingdom to a spiritual house of Israel and true spiritual sons of the gentile called Abraham. He became part of the household of Israel because, and only because, of the same sacrifice, which saved the line of his inheritance through his son, Isaac. This is the source of legitimacy for all sons of Abraham who, like him, spring forth from the gentile nations.
In Jesus’ time, the nation, which had become one by bloodline, was deeply caught up in the religion of Judaism, making them sons of Satan like their spiritual fathers, the Pharisees. They rested on a foundation set in place by the lies of the serpent in the Garden, which led to religion and religious practices, all of which are the works of men. The nation, Israel, was no longer distinguishable from the gentile nations whence Abraham had departed.
All of those in the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would have to follow the route of the cross – the perfect sacrifice sent for them from God, the One who could redeem all men, going all the way back to Adam. The sons of Adam also were part of a crossover blessing from first son, Cain, to second son, Seth, with the death of Abel, the son between them who made a perfect sacrifice to God, which cost him his life.
The blessing of the faithful and obedient men and women of ancient Israel was not lost at death, but rather went on God’s credit card system, which would see the cost of death paid by another so that their graves could be opened in the end. The line of Judah, representing the nation, could be joined to the line of Joseph, representing Jesus and His church (see Ezekiel 37:16) and the two would dwell together forever as one in the Land.
This would be the result entirely of a crossover blessing in Israel, which took place at the cross, with Jesus as the Passover sacrificial Lamb of God. His body must be eaten before judgment day, for it alone can cleanse and give life, where there is no life. This is the victory found along the way, which can take man safely through the dark night on the edge of the sea in a struggle with Satan to take man down with him.
The rod in the hand of Jesus parts the seawater to make way for the blessing of Abraham upon all nations, which must come out of that harlot, Babylon, mother of all harlots called the religious system. This is the system responsible for leading men into liberalism and away from the truth of God. It is the very essence of the antichrist spirit; it travels along the broad road to destruction, leading in the opposite direction from the truth of the Christ, which always leads back to the Word of God.
The ability of man to produce the good fruit of the marriage bed of God with man is a direct result of his success, like that of Jacob, to complete the struggle with God and man and to prevail in order to be able to receive the surname of God, called Israel.
This struggle along the way crosses throughout the entirety of history to bring man, driven from the Garden, back to the Promised Land, which encompassed it, only for man to lose his right to be there, which resulted in the dispersion of Israel among the nations. Finally, with the return of Jesus, he will be returned to the Garden kingdom on earth where God and man will dwell together again in the perfect house of Israel, the household of God. The priest-king line of David shall rule and reign with their Beloved, forevermore, because of the perfect substitutionary sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
And so, the spiritual family of the gentile, Abraham, who became a Jew by faith and obedience, the prophets, the apostles and the bride of the church, will all come together as one stick in the hand of Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God, upon whom rests the inheritance of Israel. The name sounds like Ezra-el, meaning the priest of God.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “The just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “The man who does them shall live by them.” Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:10-14).
But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:23-29).