How God Shaped Israel's Future

Many people are familiar with the story of God miraculously freeing the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage and making them into a nation. He performed many other miracles to accomplish this. Not so familiar, however, are other miracles demonstrating that God personally oversaw the fulfillment of the promises He had made to Abraham.

The miraculous births of Isaac and Jacob, Abraham's son and grandson, also are important milestones. It was through them that God gave the 12 tribes of Israel the promises He made to Abraham.

By these miracles God demonstrated that the nation of Israel could never have come into existence without His intervention.

Consider the birth of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham's wife, Sarah, remained childless through decades of their marriage. Yet God intervened and miraculously gave Abraham and Sarah a son when she was well beyond the normal childbearing age.

Later Isaac, 20 years after he and his wife, Rebekah, married, also had no children. Finally, when Isaac was about 60, he prayed for his barren wife. Rebekah miraculously conceived and gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:21,26).

What important lesson can we glean from these miracles? God showed the descendants of Abraham they could succeed in the calling and mission He gave them only if they relied on divine help. That is a hard lesson for human beings to learn. That difficult lesson is written in the successes and tragedies of the people of Israel.

The writers of the Bible have already recorded much of it so all peoples can learn from Israel's example. From Abraham God miraculously formed a nation to illustrate to every other nation the benefits that come from obeying Him and the tragedies that come from disobeying Him. Israel has been an example of both. Its part in God's great plan is far from finished. Israel's finest hour still lies ahead.