As a remind of what we've been looking at here is the message which Paul in Romans through the book of Hebrews convenes.
DOCTRINE, REPROOF, CORRECTION, INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS and we're in Ephesians which is on a high ground than the first Doctrinal books which are Hebrews, Romans, I & II Corinthians and Galatians. To see how all of this works just review our earlier posts.
Genesis chapter 12, verse 2. Now just look at the promises, and since God is speaking these are promises.
Genesis 12:2
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing:"
These were all future tense. There was no way Abraham could see how all of this would happen in his life time, but it was a promise from God. This promise reaches all the way from this point on through and beyond our day. Because it covers all who come to trusting God or who take Him at His word by simply believing and receiving Him through it. For with John the Baptist and Jesus as the Son of man things were brought to a close and the start of the New came into being and establishment. And the work of the cross and through Christ Jesus this comes to pass, as herein promised. And then the greatest promise of all was in verse 3.
Genesis 12:3
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: (Why? Because through this man that all the promises were given would come the redeemer for the whole human race. Read on) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
This was not just for Israel, although that will come first as the earthy blessing, but it's going to end up being the plan of salvation for the whole human race through the Spiritual blessing, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and as Paul reveals herein our being the inheritance of Christ (Psalm 2:8) but it began with Abraham. See that's why we're reminding folks, take our Bible from cover to cover, who wrote it? Sons of Abraham. That's what we call Jews or Hebrews, "The sons of Abraham wrote this Book for the most part." Is this a correct saying? NO! For there are books written that were not written by Hebrews as such, but rather gentiles who knew God as the Most High God. Such as we've made reference to many times, Enoch being one of them. Remember his witness is that he was a righteous man before God and was no more, as God took him (Hebrews 11:5). To hammer his point home immediately Paul says that we're to live by faith because faith is our evidence of (Hebrews 11:1 and 6). Now pardon me, allow a little room here to vent some please and thank you. We're seeing more and more proof everyday from various articles and writers that even the one that a lot of people try to say is a Gentile, and he was no Gentile at all, and that was Luke. Luke the physician was not a Gentile, but rather he was a Hebrew that had taken on a Gentile name, but so did Saul of Tarsus when he was given the name, "Paul" so that wasn't so unusual. As God did with Abram, He did with Saul, because of a change in the way of His dealing with these two men. When Paul was out in the Gentile ministry he was given a Roman name. And it was the same way with Luke.
Now come back to the Book of Ephesians chapter 2. So the Gentiles during those 2000 years before Christ, when God was dealing only with His covenant people were the non-Jewish world were what?
Ephesians 2:12b
"...strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:"
We know that this sounds awful. It sounds like God was cruel, and unforgiving, but that's not the case at all. Because you see for the first 2000 years from the creation, all the way past the flood, and Tower of Babel, and up until the call of Abram the whole human race had opportunity for salvation. The whole human race had access to God, it wasn't just one group of people. And what did the whole human race do with it? Well they rejected it. Now there are recorded those few who knew God and walked with Him but they were few in number. And if you don't believe us, you'll certainly believe the account of the flood, and we think there were 4 or 5 billion people on the earth even at that time, and how many were true believers? Eight! And they're from the line of Seth. Now we think we're getting pretty small in percentage today, but we're not that few yet. It may get to that, but we sure hope not. But nevertheless that's what happened those first 2000 years of human history, for the most part they just walked it under foot like they're doing today. They just didn't care. Most people have absolutely no interest in the things of the spirit. Why? Because it's always been that way, when Adams eyes were turned inward and man became self serving. Because of Satan's character which was embedded within him. For man was created a receptive being not a self-sufficient one. That is why we can only serve one Master either God or Satan, mammon (Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13). And mammon is deified self. So looking at the end of that verse again and let's see what it says.
Ephesians 2:12b
"...no hope, and without God in the world:"
Our Gentile forefathers up until Paul had no knowledge of the One True Creator God. They had no concept of Him. All they had was their gods, and their goddesses, and their temples, and what have you. But so far as the True God of Creation there were only a very few who knew anything of Him. So this was the lot then of the whole non Jewish world until we get to Acts chapter 11. A lot of times people have a hard time believing us when we say that Christ in His earthly ministry had nothing to do with Gentiles with two exceptions. The Canaanite woman and the Roman centurion were the only Gentiles in Scripture that Jesus had anything to do with, and that's all we can go by.
We know a lot of people try to say that Galilee was Gentile, and since He performed so many miracles, He must have done it on behalf of the Gentiles, but the Book never says that, and we can't read that into the Book. We must Always let the Book stand on what it says. But also keeping in mind the fact that the cross is the pivotal point in mans history when all things became spiritual and no longer as material, practical, or earthy. For this is what blinded Israel and is now blinding what we know as the church. Which Paul called a partial blindness in Romans 11:25 and then again here in Ephesians 4:18.
Back on track with my train of thought. In Matthew 10:5 says that He came only to the nation of Israel. So this Book says that they were only Hebrews that He dealt with! Now here in Acts this is a recap of everything that took place when they were stoning Stephen, which we maintain was about 7 years after Pentecost. And look what it says in Acts 11:19.
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