God began the relationship of the Jewish people as his covenant and chosen earthly people with his making a covenant with Abraham the ancestor of the Jewish people. Abraham was also the ancestor of the Arabs and Edomites and Amonites and Moabites among others but God extended his promises and covenants with Abraham's son Isaac and Abraham's grandson through Isaac Jacob who God renamed Israel. God called Abraham away from his family and his homeland who were idolatrous moon worshippers in Ur of the Chaldees in what would now be southern Iraq. God called Abraham to a land that he would show him and to which God led Abraham when Abraham followed God by faith. This covenant land is the land of Israel or the promised land or holy land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and between the Euphrates River and the River of Egypt. God promised Abraham he would make Abraham's name great and that he would be a blessing. Among other things this has been fulfilled by Abraham being the ancestor of the founders or leaders of Judaism in Moses and Christianity in Jesus Christ and in Islam through Mohammed but again these promises and covenants are later extended through Isaac the son of promises and then to Jacob or Israel and not through Ishmael and the Arabs although God promised to bless the descendants of Ishmael too but not as the son of promises or as the ancestor of the Messiah (or Christ) and Saviour of the world. God also promised to Abraham that he would bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him and through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. Among other things it is through Abraham the idea of one personal God comes with a faithful and righteous moral system. But the covenant in its full sense is handed down through Isaac and Jacob or Israel included the promise to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. The scripture reference in Genesis 12 of God's Covenant through Abraham and his descendents of a promised land and blessings and descendents is as follows:
The scripture in Genesis 26 says there was a famine in the land beside the famine that was in the days of Abraham Genesis 12:10 which is referring to the holy land or land of Israel. God told Isaac to dwell in the land that he would tell him of. God made it clear this was the same land that he promised to Abraham in his covenant with him. God promised in Genesis 26:3 that he would be with Isaac and that he would extent his covenant with Abraham including the covenant to give the holy land or the land of Canaan. God promised he would deliver or give Isaac and his descendants all these countries meaning all the countries of the Canaanites such as the Amorites, the Hivites, the Hittites, the Gergasites and the Jebusites who were the former residents of what is now called Jerusalem. God promised Isaac in him and his seed which through his son Jacob are the Israelites or Jews all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God stated as his reason because Abraham obeyed his voice and kept God's commandments, statutes and laws. The extension of the covenant and promises of Abraham to his son Isaac the son of promise including his selection of Isaac as the one through whom God's chosen earthly people the Jews and their Messiah and the Saviour of the world Jesus Christ would come in Genesis 26 is as follows:
And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all those countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Genesis 26:1-5
Before he died, Abraham's son Isaac confirmed or extended the Covenant God made with him to his son Jacob who God renamed Israel in Genesis 28. Isaac with God's authority gave his son Jacob the blessing of the Abrahamic Covenant that God would multiply Jacob's descendants and make him or his descendants a multitude of people. Isaac with God's authority also extended the covenant of Abraham in its aspects to Jacob's seed in the line of promise of God's chosen earthly people and in the line of the eventual Messiah and Saviour of the world and for the promised land of Canaan between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean and the River of Egypt and the Euphrates River. The scripture reference in Genesis 28 of God authorizing Isaac to extend the Abrahamic Covenant and it blessing toAbraham's descendants and the holy or promised land of Israel to Isaac's son and Abraham's grandson Jacob who God renamed Israel and who is the father of all the Jews is as follows:
And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father (Jacob's grandfather); and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother (Jacob's uncle). And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitute of people; And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed after thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. Genesis 28:1-4
On his way from Beersheba on the edge of the southern Israeli Negev desert on his way to Haran near the top of the Euphrates River near what would now be the border between Syria and Turkey God appeared Jacob stopped for the night to sleep. When Jacob (Israel) went to sleep he had a dream of a ladder that reached to heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending on it. In this dream the LORD (God) stood at the top of the ladder in Heaven. In this dream God identified himself as the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and promised to extend the Covenant He made with Abraham and Isaac including the allotment of the promised land of Canaan to Jacob (Israel) and to Jacob's seed or descendants the Jews. God also promised to multiply the descendants of Jacob and that God would enable him and his descendants to expand in the promised land to occupy it fully. God also extended the aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant of Abraham and through Isaac and Jacob the Jews to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. This has happened especially through the extension of Jewish moral code of the Ten Commandments and other laws of the scriptures as well as the Old Testament scriptures and all the New Testament scriptures except the Gospel of Luke and the book of the Acts of the Apostles and also the Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth the Saviour of the world that are parts of the Abrahamic Covenant through Jacob (Israel) and the Jews. God also assured Jacob he was with him and would bring him back to the promised land of Israel after he took a wife around Ur of the Chaldees. When Jacob awoke he sensed God was in that place with him during that time and called it Bethel or the house of God. The scripture reference in Genesis 28 of God directly extending the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant to Abraham's grandson Jacob (Israel) the father of the Jews is as follows:
And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And to thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stones that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. Genesis 28:10-19
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