I Chronicles 3-5

As I continue to read through these first chapters of I Chronicles it is evident that the mighty hand of God is on the tribe of Judah and it's clear that God loves family. Throughout the genealogies of God's people there are stories of faithfulness and redemption sprinkled throughout from Jabez (I Chron. 4:9-10), the Simeonites (I Chron. 4:41-43) and the Gadites (I Chron. 5:19-22). While I do not personally have direct Jewish heritage I can know certainly that God's people includes Christians because of the redemptive work that Jesus did on the cross for all mankind. What I'm not doing here is confusing God's promise to Abraham to justify the theological error of Constantinian Christianity which misappropriates God's covenant with His people Israel by veering toward antisemitism which asserts that Gentile Christians are somehow the "new" or better covenant people of YAHWEH. What I am saying is that God's blessing to Abraham means that all people on earth will be blessed through Abraham and consistent with His loving and gracious character throughout the Tanach and New Testament God desires all men to humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from wicked ways.

Genesis 12:2-3 (NIV) "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Spending any amount of time studying the gospel of Luke one will quickly see that God the Father sent His son Jesus for all men, though first for the Jew. In order to be grafted in or adopted into the family of God one must go through Jesus alone by faith, Romans 10:8-10 makes it clear that there is salvation when man, in faith, declares with his mouth and believes that Jesus is LORD and resurrected from the dead then any man, Jew or Gentile, are ingrafted into the root of the family of God. Often I hear a gospel myth propagated that says "We are all God's children." The apostle John makes it clear that the title 'children of God' only applies to those who do what is right, you see all men are created in the image of God, we are all God's creation (I John 2:28-3:10). In Christ alone Gentiles can become YAHWEH's people through faith alone by the grace of God alone, therefore we must fear the LORD and through genuine repentance and deliberate obedience enter into the fullness of God's blessing. 

Galatians 3:13-14 (NIV) "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole" He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."

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