of the earth be blessed!' The same is repeated to Jacob, as we saw, in Gen. 28: 13,

14: and from Jacob's twelve sons come to the people of Israel.

Now we must keep this well in mind; it is very important to understand as we trace

out the Divine purpose in the Bible. God reveals that He is going to use them, the Jewish

race, so that He might reach world wide with salvation and blessing. The light of the

knowledge of the gospel and the truth is going to spread to all families of the earth

through this seed. But we stress this, there is one thing that God cannot do, He can not

use unredeemed, unclean channel. So this nation, this seed, needs redemption; they

cannot be used as a channel of blessing to all the earth until their Redeemer has come and

died for them. They must be saved and cleansed and then they will be in a position to be

used by God in this way. Note, geographically the land of Palestine, and Jerusalem its

capital are right in the centre of the earth, and Jerusalem is yet to be the world's most

important city, both commercially and spiritually.

We expect you have uttered the so-called Lord's prayer many times. You have said:

"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is asking God to

bring in this kingdom on the earth and one day it will be fulfilled through the redeemed

Jewish nation. We must not confuse this with the heavenly part of God's great purpose.

There is a literal kingdom that is coming on this earth, otherwise why pray this prayer? It

is most surprising how so many people utter this prayer yet deny there is a possibility of

God's kingdom ever coming on the earth in this way! It is surely coming to pass,

otherwise the whole thing is a mockery.

But it will only come by reason of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has died to make

it possible, died to save this channel, the people of Israel, so that they can take the

knowledge of truth to the ends of the earth; then the kingdom will come. That is the way

it is going to work out. In the fullness of time, Scripture tells us "God sent His Son".

The Lord Jesus comes to His earthly people, this seed of Abraham, as their great Priest-

King; in this twofold capacity we have Christ's relationship with the people of Israel.

He was their Priest, He was their King, and in that order. Sometimes it is reversed and

we say, King-Priest but this is the wrong way round. One of the O.T. prophecies, the

prophecy of Zechariah, looking forward to His coming said this: "He shall be a Priest

upon his Throne." Note the priestly side is put first: He cannot be king--until His work

as Priest and Offering as well. Only in this way can the sin of Israel and that of all His

people be dealt with so that a holy God can use them. In other words, His great

redemptive work on the Cross has to be accomplished first, before that kingdom can be

set up. Israel must be redeemed; Christ must die for them, as He must die for you and

me if we are ever going to have any part in this glorious and wonderful purpose. John 1:

11 reads in this way: "He came unto His own but His own (Israel) received Him not.

But as many as received Him to them He gave the power (right) to become children of

God". As many as received Him, we wonder if you are one of these? Have you received

the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you committed everything to Him, have you believed Him,

in that sense? To such He gave the privilege of becoming children of God, of being

members of His family. You are not a child of God therefore unless you have received

Christ as Saviour. It is not true to say that every single human being by natural birth is a