Submitted by Terence Blackett
In the book of Isaiah 60: 6, 7 the prophet says:
“The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah: all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense: and they shall forth the praises of the Lord.. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance upon mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.”
To first of all understand these two verses, we must first be able to explain and understand what or who is Midian, Ephah, Sheba, Kedar and Nebaioth based on Biblical history.
In Genesis 25, we discover something very unique in the Word of God. Many well-meaning theologians, pastors and teachers ignore the Scriptures or simply are blind sided by prejudice as to what God is trying to say and show.
Most Christians today understand and are taught that Abraham had 2 lines of posterity. In actual fact, Abraham had 3 lines.
Let us start with Midian. As you read Gen. 25:1-2, the Bible says:
“Now Abraham married again, Keturah was his new wife and she bore him several children: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. And Jokshan had two sons Sheba and Dedan… The sons of Midian were Ephah and Epher…all these were the children of Keturah…”
It is important to note that Abraham’s [3] lines of descendants are pivotal to the plan of salvation, although heretical teachings to the contrary would have us believe that because Abraham bequeathed all that he had to Isaac the child of promise that it meant that Abraham’s seed (which according to Almighty God) would be like the sands upon the sea shore – we must conclude that the Abrahamic promised blessings also included all of his posterity.
What was distinctive about Isaac’s line or future genealogy would be that God choose this line to bring Messiah Yeshua into the world. However we must understand that this line would be interspersed and intermarried over the next 2000 years right up to the coming of Mary who was to be the one who would bear the Holy Child Jesus.
Abraham’s first wife Hagar bore him Ishmael; Sarah bore Isaac and Keturah bore him Midian. These lines are crucial to our understanding of Bible prophecy and how God is working out the plan of salvation through Abraham’s seed – heirs of a promise made by God to all those who believe – whether Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, bond or free…
So we have established that Abraham’s posterity based on Isaiah rendition of the sacred history shows that his [3] sons and grandsons from their respective mothers – we now come to Ishmael’s first born – Nebaioth and Kedar his brother.
We have been taught for most of our Christian lives of the line of Sarah from which Isaac came and the resulting historical record of the Jewish people. The ignorance of allowing the other [2] lines of Abraham to exist in virtual obscurity without paying the necessary attention to the part that they play in the prophetic scheme of things is the reason why God is now allowing the eyes of those who are seeking revelation, light and present truth from the Word of God to bring this knowledge to the forefront of the minds of men.
Jesus Christ cannot return to earth until there is unity amongst the children of Abraham based on the covenant God made with him. The fulfilment of that covenant extend to every man, woman and child of Abraham who will come into the promise by faith in Jesus Christ regardless of religious persuasion, race or creed.
In Isaiah 60: 7, the 2nd son of Ishmael – Kedar came first and then Nebaioth the firstborn came second according to word from the prophet. Why is this?
In a similar twist of fate, we see Isaac beget two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the firstborn – but sells his birthright to his brother Jacob. So Jacob becomes first and Esau becomes second. Have you noticed the parallels? Is God doing something interesting here? Whether you or I want to believe it, He sure is doing something or is allowing something to teach us a poignant lesson.
Jesus reminds us that the “first shall be last – and the last shall be first”. What does this means? And how can we apply this within the context of our understanding of religious matters today in our world?
It is important to note that the [3] lines of Abraham actually became [2]. Sarah’s line through Isaac became the [12] tribes of Israel and the children of Hagar & Keturah became the people of the EAST as they dwelt together… This is a very important distinction!
Whenever God refers to the people of the EAST, He is earmarking the sons and daughters of Abraham – not a separate and distinct group (though in essence, they were) but as a nation of people who had not been relegated to the side lines or had been forgotten.
It is important to open up from the Word of God and show decisively and distinctly who the ARAB people are – the sons of Ishmael, Midian and the others.
This is probably going to be the most controversial exegetical exposition of divine Biblical revelation ever seen from the Word of God and there are some who will be offended by this Scriptural discourse as it belies their inherent prejudices concerning the Bible.
We know from the record that Israel was founded on the basis of its [12] tribes. Is there anywhere else in Scripture where God speaks of tribes of peoples?
In Gen: 25 verses 13 through 16, we see clearly from the record that there are also [12] princes (tribes) based on the peoples of the EAST. Is this some freak of nature or some fluke of history that Isaac has [2] sons and the first becomes last and the last becomes first? Ishmael has [2] sons – Nebaioth and Kedar; the first become last and the last becomes first. Jacob has [12] sons who become the [12] tribes of Israel and Ishmael’s [12] sons become the princes from which the [12] tribes of the EAST arise.
Is this coincidence or is God doing something? YOU DECIDE!
Many within the Christian world do not accept that God alone is the only purveyor of absolute truth. He alone has the right to speak to whomever he wants and in whatever way He so chooses.
False teachings have made us callous in our understand and have shut us into a vacuum of exclusivity where we believe that God can only speak to a specific kind of person while dismissing the others because of whatever reasons. We forget that Christ came to save all. So God will speak to the Chinese, the Indian, the Muslim, the Buddhist – whoever He wants to reach, He will extend a hand to lead and guide men into the truth.
In the story of Joseph, he was sold into Egypt by his brothers. His brothers wanted initially to kill him but they decided to sell him to the Ishmaelites. The Bible says that a band of Midianite traders came by and so they pulled him out the pit and sold him. Is the Bible creating some confusion here in this context?
From this historical frame, we can see clearly where both the children of Hagar and the children of Keturah were living together – as the traders in spices, silks and other forms of merchandize, they are the ones who took Joseph from his brothers in lieu of the fact that down in Egypt, they could fetch a handsome price for him because of his physical stature. Joseph was not ill-treated by his distant cousins but was so well-fed and watered that on arrival in Egypt, Potiphar took him into his house because of his physical beauty and stature.
In a similar story, Moses’ brethren were fighting amongst themselves and he intervened and was asked if he wanted to kill them the same way he had killed the Egyptian earlier.
There is a line that seems to run through Scripture where brother wants to kill brother. This started in Eden. Clearly Moses’ brothers hated him and wanted him killed. The Pharaoh loved Moses as his own son because he was the son of his daughter. But when the news reached the Pharaoh of what had happened Moses ran off into Midian because his brethren brought bad news (false witness/gossip) into the royal court.
So for the next 40 years Moses lived in the land of Midian. Jethro – the priest of Midian became Moses’ father in law.
Many religious writers and scholars wrote books on Jethro claiming that he was an idol worshipper. But the Bible does not say that, neither does it infer it. Actually, Moses learns about the “TRUE” God from his father-in-law Jethro. For while, the children of Israel had lost their spiritual identity after 400 years in Egypt and where no priesthood existed, Jethro was a priest on to God, worshipping Him according to what had be laid down in ages past by the Spirit that had spoken through Abraham and his posterity.
When the Israelites were without the knowledge of the One True God, the children of Midian (the people of the EAST) were keeping the Sabbaths, carrying out the functions of the priesthood and worshipping the One True God.
When the Bible speaks of Ishmael being a wild donkey, it is speaking of the freedoms which the peoples of the EAST enjoyed unlike the children of Israel who were in captivity for 400 years.
There is an interesting paradox in the Word of God where Jethro – the priest of Midian relates to Moses a story of a man called Job. Nowhere in the Bible is anyone person so clearly detailed as to their possessions in the way that Job was. It was almost an accounting ledger of his assets down to the last minutiae.
Job chapter 1 verse 1- 3 says that this man was perfect and upright before God and stayed away from evil. The Bible says that this man was the greatest of all the men of the EAST. Was Job an Israelite? Clearly the answer is a resounding – NO!
He was a descendant from the line of either Ishmael or of the sons of Keturah. The story of Job was a popular story amongst those who lived in the EAST. The wealth of Job plus his righteous acts was common knowledge amongst the [12] tribes of the EAST.
So God used Jethro in the 40 years Moses lived with him to bring him into a knowledge of who God was and it became preparation for his Burning Bush experience; the deliverance and salvation of the Israelite tribes and the experiences for another [40] years wandering around the wilderness in search of the land that God would ultimately bring them into.
This line we have been discussing regarding how the Israelite people always wanted to kill or killed their own brothers. From Joseph who became the saviour of the nation in a time of unbelievable famine, to Moses their deliverer who was kept, taught and sheltered by his brethren in the EAST, to all the prophets who were killed from Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah to John the Baptist.
Then came Jesus – The Son of Man, the son of Mary and they took him too and murdered Him on a cross because He claimed to be the Son of God.
When we look at the genesis of the Christian church in the Acts of the Apostles, we see on the day of Pentecost that the ARABS* were the ones who received the Word of God spoken by Peter and the Apostles. They heard about Jesus in their own languages (the Libyans, Ethiopians, Africans, the Persians were all there) and their heart were pricked as they accepted Him as Lord and Saviour. This was to be the beginning of the knowledge of Jesus Christ to the people of EAST because the Scriptures shows that even the Ethiopian eunuch who was Queen Candice’s treasurer took the Gospel of Jesus Christ back to his homeland anointed by the fires of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine the unwritten history of these men and their exploits for God in their own nations?
When the Jews had rejected the message of Jesus – the Arab people and those from the East accepted with open arms the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Matt: 2:1, the Bible says:
“Now Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, and behold there came wise men from the EAST to Jerusalem. Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the EAST and have come to worship Him.”
How ironic that wise men who were worshippers of the One True God and who had studied the sacred text and knew of the prophetic times were able to discern from their deep study of the stars that Jesus Christ had been born while the Jews were oblivious to the knowledge of His presence far less the time of His visitation.
Just as the children of the EAST were worshipping the One True God in the days of Israel’s captivity and they were in darkness to who Jehovah God really was – so it was at the birth of Christ that the men of EAST were the first to announce the Saviour’s coming and be the ones to come and offer worship, adoration and precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
So again, just as in Acts of the Apostles, where 3000 for whom were Arabs, Africans and others from the Eastern lands heard the Word gladly and received Jesus – so it is again with the Wise Men who travelled a great distance just to worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus The Christ.
So 500 years before the coming of Jesus Christ, the prophet Isaiah in chapter 60 verse 6 prophesied that wise men will come on camels (not on donkeys, not in chariots); men from the lands of Midian (Jethro’s countrymen), Ephah and Sheba (The Eastern Lands) would come bearing gold and incense.
Many refuse to accept the Bible story. Many would rather accept the Christian story. We refuse to accept that the Christian story has been unadulterated by Greek mythology and Roman paganism. Christianity has been plagued by one-sided religious dogma which pits brother against brother. The Bible story is two-sided because it includes both sides of the coin.
Before Jesus Christ can return, the prophet says that “the flocks of Kedar must be gathered together to the Lord…the rams of Nebaioth (the sons of Ishmael – the Muslim nations) must minister to the Lord Jesus…they must come fully assured of salvation offering an offering of righteousness to the Lord…only then will the glory of the House of God be at its fullest..”
So the wealth – both physical and spiritually of the Muslim nations will be brought into the endtime church of Jesus Christ as a sign as did the Wise Men in His first Advent. Their ardour and ferverence in prayer will be magnified ten fold as they come into the knowledge of Christ and are baptized with the Latter Rain as the 3000 who were baptized with the Former Rain at Pentecost.
May we pray for the deliverance of all of the sons of Abraham…
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.