A Case for The Promise of America
Exhibit “C”
Its Words
THE PROMISE OF AMERICA
Verse in question and its words: When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, and when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the Children of Israel. But the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is His allotted inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:6-8)
When Genesis describes the “spreading out” of Noah’s sons after the Great Flood, in which the Hebrew word is parad, we find that The Book of Deuteronomy uses two words that are both derivatives of this same root word—when the Most High “divided” their inheritance to the nations, and when He “separated” the sons of Adam. Of similar interest, when the King James Version of The Bible uses the alternative word “gave,” in reference to this inheritance of the nations, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance makes the meaning of this word clear in the Hebrew, where the English does not. In God’s “giving” of this inheritance to the nations, it is specifically a giving that speaks of it being “distributed,” “apportioned,” or “divided” among the various recipients.
OF GOD’S EXPANDING EMPIRE
Verse in question and its words: My Kingdom isn’t of this world. If it were, then My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now My Kingdom is from another place. (John 18:36)
The Greek word that Jesus used for “world” is cosmos, which doesn’t speak of the Earth and all its fullness per se but, rather, of a world system, as in, a world philosophy or ideology.
Our traditional view of the incompatibility of Jesus’ world and ours is based on the English phrase that states His Kingdom isn’t “of this world.” But actually, the Greek word used in this phrase is ek, sometimes transliterated as ex, as in, deus ex machina, which is to say, “god from the machine.” As such, what Jesus said was: His Kingdom isn’t “from this world.”
Chapter One — A FIRM FOUNDATION
Verse in question and its words: Blessed are the meek, because they will inherit the Earth. (Matthew 5:5)
This word “meek” is translated from the Greek word, praus, which doesn’t at all describe someone who is timid or feeble, as we’ve been led to believe by any traditional view of this word. The word praus actually describes the taming of the wild horses that were used in the Roman Coliseum.For this word “inherit,” the word is used, in The Old Testament, in the context of the Israelites taking possession of the Promised Land, as in when they were told to destroy the inhabitants of Canaan and possess Palestine, now that the “fullness of the Amorites was complete.”
Chapter Six — MISTAKES OF THE PAST
Verse in question and its words: These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these, the nations spread out over the Earth after the Flood. (Genesis 10:32)
When The Bible describes the clans of Noah, as “spreading out” into their own territories, we encounter a Hebrew word, parad, that reveals a great deal about what I’ll be trying to demonstrate throughout this investigation. In addition to its meaning of spreading out, it also speaks of “dispersing,” “dividing,” “scattering,” “separating,” and “unfolding.” Again and again, for those who care to notice, we’ll see how words like parad, and several others like it, all speak of dividing, scattering, and separating, and which together will provide us with critical signposts to guide us throughout this divine drama.
Verse in question and its words: Nimrod began to be a mighty one on the Earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; so it’s said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” (Genesis 10:8-9)
When reading this text in English, though, it’s easy to miss an all-important clue that only becomes apparent when we look to the meaning of the Hebrew word translated here as “before.” The word in question is panim, which means “to face.” According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, we see this word defined as “facing” in the sense of being “under the watchful eye of, or oversight of.” In this context, then, Nimrod wasn’t a mighty hunter because he was naturally skilled in the hunt. According to The Bible, his skill as a hunter came from his being blessed by God Himself, which is further indicated by the verse that tells us, “So it’s said, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.’”
Verse in question and its words: So the Lord scattered them from that place, and they stopped building the city. That’s why it’s called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world, and from there the Lord dispersed them into all the Earth. (Genesis 11:8-9)
Just as the word parad spoke of Noah’s sons “dispersing” across the face of the Earth, we find a similar Hebrew word employed here. Nimrod and his minions declared they wouldn’t be “scattered.” The word in this instance, which is very similar, etymologically, to parad, is puwts. In using this word puwts, we see how God had the final word in this scenario, in that Scripture declares: So the Lord “scattered” them, puwts, from that place, and “dispersed” them, puwts, across the face of the Earth, just as He’d originally commanded them to do.
Chapter Seven — THE DIVIDING OF THE EARTH
Verse in question and its words: Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his days the Earth was divided, and his brother was named Joktan. (Genesis 10:25)
Many times in Scripture a person was named in memory of a special event that occurred in their lifetime. In this case, Peleg, whose name in Hebrew means “division,” is so designated. The word used here should look familiar, in that it’s similar to the ones I spoke of earlier, in reference to the ongoing theme of dividing, scattering, and uniting. Here, the Hebrew word in question for “divided” is palag. And though the reason Eber’s son was named Peleg is alluded to, the exact nature of the “dividing” associated with his name isn’t spelled out for us, and so has remained a point of debate ever since.
Verse in question and its words: Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters. (Job 38:25)
The word for “divided” here, in Hebrew, is pilag.
Verse in question and its words: Destroy, oh Lord, and divide their tongues, because I’ve seen violence and strife in the city. (Psalm 55:9)
The Hebrew word here for “divide” is pallag.
Verse in question and its words: When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, and when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the Children of Israel. But the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is His allotted inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9)
When Genesis describes the “spreading out” of Noah’s sons after the Great Flood, in which the Hebrew word is parad, we find that The Book of Deuteronomy uses two words that are both derivatives of this same root word—when the Most High “divided” their inheritance to the nations, and when He “separated” the sons of Adam. Of similar interest, when the King James Version of The Bible uses the alternative word “gave,” in reference to this inheritance of the nations, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance makes the meaning of this word clear in the Hebrew, where the English does not. In God’s “giving” of this inheritance to the nations, it is specifically a giving that speaks of it being “distributed,” “apportioned,” or “divided” among the various recipients.
Verse in question and its words: God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the Earth. You divided the sea by Your strength… The day is yours and also the night; You established the Moon and the Sun. You have set all the borders of the Earth; You’ve made summer and winter. (Psalm 74:12-13, 16-17)
Notice how often here the psalmist drives home ideas so pertinent to this work: God’s salvation effort involving the Earth as well as a dividing of the sea. Then there’s the occurrence of a similar root word, parar, used to describe this “dividing.” Then we see the psalmist’s emphasis on God’s instruments of dividing time and space. The Moon and Sun create our experience that divides day from night, and they’re involved in the changing of the seasons that divide summer from winter. Finally, we have the way in which Earth’s borders divide one nation from another.
Chapter Ten — HIS LINE WILL CONTINUE FOREVER
Verse in question and its words: How lovely are your tents, oh Jacob, and your tabernacles, oh Israel! Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters. He will pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed will be in many waters, and his king will be higher than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted. (Numbers 24:5-7)
In this instance, we see Balaam speaking of the tents of Jacob “spreading out” like gardens beside a river and cedars “beside the waters,” and the “seed” of Israel being “in many waters.” In describing the tabernacles of Israel in this way, Balaam wasn’t just echoing the same idea that describes the inexorable worldwide migration of the sons of Adam, Noah, and Abraham. He was also providing us with two reinforcing ideas important to this study of God’s expanding Empire.
Balaam also used another word that’s critically important to this study of the various migrations of God’s people. The word is one that Balaam used when he spoke of the “seed” of Israel that “will be in many waters.” That Hebrew word is zera, meaning not just “seed,” in the sense of “children,” or “descendants.” According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, this word zera also speaks “especially of the seed of David as anointed to reign” and “as sitting on a throne.” As it is written: “The Lord is a tower of salvation to His king, and He shows mercy to His anointed, to David and his descendants forevermore.” This is borne out by the fact that when Balaam spoke of these descendants, he didn’t just speak of the descendants of Israel in general. If you notice, he said, “His seed will be in many waters, and his king will be higher than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.”
What’s more, this word zera carries with it a similar meaning from another Hebrew word, from which it’s derived; that word is zara. It just so happens that the word zara provides us with another clue to solve the mystery of who and where to find this “other people” with whom God plans to make the original Israelites jealous and angry. That’s because this word zara doesn’t contain just the idea of sowing seeds locally, but it also carries the idea of a worldwide scattering of seeds, or descendants. We see this idea expressed in numerous biblical passages, such as:
Verse in question and its words: I will strengthen the House of Judah, and I will save the House of Joseph. I’ll bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they’ll be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God, and I’ll answer them. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in faraway countries they’ll remember Me, and with their children they’ll live and return. (Zechariah 10:6, 9)
In this root Hebrew word zara, which speaks of the scattering of Abraham’s descendants, we have yet another clue to solve this great whodunit of the ages. Not to be missed in all this talk of royalty is something that’s completely lost in any English translation of The Bible. This word zara just happens to describe more than the scattering of Israel’s seed; it’s also the name that was chosen at the birth of one of Judah’s twin sons, Zarah, from the Hebrew word zerach, which means “dawning,” or “radiance,” as in, a “scattering of light.” The psalmist had this very thing in mind when he wrote: “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.”
Verse in question and its words: When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist, and said, “This one came out first.” But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Pharez. Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out; and he was named Zarah. (Genesis 38:16-30)
Before the twin sons of Judah even had a chance to grow up and make their own mark on the world, their naming already conveyed an important lesson about God’s control over history and His faithfulness to mankind. In the case of Zarah and Pharez, their names can be translated in various ways, all of which have important implications to this work, and which in turn lead us to a greater appreciation of the role played by these forebearers of every king and queen to be born of the House of Israel and the House of Judah.
Pharez can mean “breach,” “breaker,” “break out,” “burst forth,” “division,” “disperse,” “spread abroad,” “rupture,” and “blossom.” Notice how, in addition to introducing new word meanings such as “breach,” “breaker,” and “break out,” we see the connection this word has with previous words we’ve already discussed, such as “division,” “disperse,” and “spread abroad.”
Zarah can mean “seed,” “descendant,” “scatter,” “sow,” “winnow,” “disperse,” “dawning,” “radiance,” and “sift.” Notice how, in Zarah’s case, in addition to conveying the meaning of “dawning” and “radiance,” which is what we saw earlier with this word’s connection with “light,” we also see a clear overlapping of meaning, in connection with previous words we’ve looked at, such as “scatter,” “sow,” and “disperse.”
By way of what God intended to do, then, via the migratory drama of these regal twins, we catch a glimpse in their prophetic names: Zarah—in the “sowing” of light amongst all the nations of the world—and Pharez—the “break out” point from which those dispersed ones would venture forth with the blessing of Abraham.
Chapter Eleven — WHEN NEW WINE BREAKS FORTH
Verse in question and its words: And there at the top, the Lord was standing and saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your fathers, Abraham and Isaac. I’ll give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. Your descendants will be like the dust of the Earth, and you’ll spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” (Genesis 28:13-14)
Of course, it’s not surprising that most people overlook the implications of God’s promise to Jacob, because rarely if ever is the story of Abraham and his children viewed in the context of the larger drama of God compelling Adam’s descendants to fill the whole Earth.
Notice in this verse, God didn’t just repeat the promise He first gave to Abraham. He also added that in their descendants fulfilling this promise to become like dust, it included their having to “spread out” in every direction so that all the families of the Earth could be blessed. In this, we encounter another Hebrew word, parats, that’s similar to what we saw in the case of Noah and his family. There we saw how God ordered Noah and his sons to “spread out” across the world; there the word was parad, which spoke of both “spreading out” and “dividing.”
In the case of Jacob, who as it should be remembered was renamed Israel, the Scriptures now employ a similar word but with an added dimension. The Hebrew word for “spreading out” here, parats, not only speaks of God’s directive to Jacob and his children to expand their population, but it also speaks of a “breaking out” and a “breaking forth,” as in, when new wine breaks forth from old wineskins. What’s more, we’ll soon see how this word parats provides the key to unlocking the mystery of God’s promise that Abraham’s offspring will bless all the families of the Earth.
To begin with, in this word parats, we see that the land of Palestine will undoubtedly belong to the descendants of Abraham. Of this all history will confirm as a witness to God’s faithfulness to Israel. However, this land—of less than 7,000 square miles—won’t be the only land involved in this blessing that’s destined to impact the whole world.
What this verse is really saying, when we understand the implications of this word parats, is that Palestine is merely the cradle for a much larger movement as it pertains to God’s expanding Empire. That’s because while Abraham’s family began in earnest there, it could by no means accommodate a dust-like people whose destiny was to “break forth” like new wine from its original container en route to blessing all humanity.
And just in case you think I’m being overly dramatic with my declaration, let me provide just a taste of why I believe this to be true. Not only is this word parats, and its derivatives, used throughout Scripture to describe this “spreading out” and “breaking forth,” but parats is also the root word for the name of the twin son of Judah, Pharez, of which came the royal line of David, from which Jesus of Nazareth would one day be born. You should recall the twin sons of Judah—Zarah and Pharez—because we introduced them in the last chapter, where I also mentioned that just as God illustrated His divine wisdom by way of the lives of previous brothers, like Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob and Esau, the names of these twin sons of Judah also reveal an important truth.
In the case of Zarah, his name typified the way that not only were the descendants of Israel to be “scattered” and “sown as light” amongst the nations of the world but, more specifically, how this scattering pertained to the royal line of Judah as well. Now here we are discovering yet another way that the names of the twin sons of Judah reveal a hidden truth that will lead us to a completely unexpected thing. Whereas Zarah and his descendants were to be “scattered as light,” Pharez and his descendants provide the clue as to where that “scattering” began, and to where that “scattering” went.
That’s because, as it turns out, the root word for Pharez is another of those words that’s embedded in numerous biblical verses, in the same way as several other words I’ve already cited, like parad, palag, and puwts. In this case, it’s the same word the prophet Micah used when he wrote:
Verse in question and its words: I will surely gather all of you, oh Jacob; I’ll collect the remnant of Israel. I’ll bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture—a noisy throng. One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they’ll break through the gate, and go out by it. Their king will pass through before them, the Lord as their leader. (Micah 2:12-13)
In this case, when Micah spoke of one who “breaks open” the way, and those who “break through” the gate, he used a derivative of this Hebrew word parats. Not only does this word provide the key to unlocking the mystery of how Abraham’s descendants will bless all humanity, but it also helps to explain how Jesus Christ accomplished His messianic work in a completely unexpected way. In short, this verse speaks of an ancient messianic personage—of the royal line of Judah, as we’ll later see from sacred history—who typifies Christ, as one “who breaks open the way and passes through” before “the people” who, in turn, follow this king, in “breaking through the gate and going out by it.”
This verse, I submit, provides us with the foundational Scripture upon which rests my entire argument in this work. It is the key that unlocks the door that leads us to where God destined the perpetual earthly kingship of David to rule and reign. It explains how God provided a place for His people Israel, to plant them so they’d live in a place of their own and be disturbed no more. It explains the role played by Judah’s twin sons—Zarah and Pharez—in the transplanting effort of God’s people. And it explains how technology aided in this transplanting effort, as well as how technology aided the birth, growth, and progress of the land that would one day be called America.
Chapter Twelve — A NATION THAT WILL BEAR FRUIT
Verse in question and its words: So I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that will bear fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” (Matthew 21:42-44)
In this instance, there is a correlation of Hebrew words that Scripture employs in describing the interplay between God’s commission of “fruitfulness” and His need to “divide” and “scatter” those who fail to live up to this commission. Just as there is an unmistakable continuity in the Hebrew words describing these divinely ordained “dividing” and “scattering” events, there is a similar continuity in regard to God’s command to be “fruitful.” Whereas words like parad and parats are used to describe God’s “dividing” and “scattering,” it turns out that whenever God told His people to be “fruitful,” the Scriptures always employed another Hebrew word with a similar root meaning, which is to say, parah. In other words, whenever God told the next recipients of His commission to parah, or to “be fruitful,” God eventually had to parad or parats them, or to “divide” and “scatter” them, to ensure it happened.
As such, God’s original intention in telling humanity to be fruitful has never been a simple matter of physical plentifulness as one might assume in the natural. Rather, God’s true purpose in the call of Abraham or the scattering of Israel, to be fruitful and multiply, was always intended to create a plentitude of people, which would constitute national Israel, from which a lesser group of individuals would emerge, which would in turn constitute spiritual Israel.
Chapter Fourteen — AS CORN IS SIFTED IN A SIEVE
Verse in question and its words: And if, in spite of all these things, you still refuse to listen to Me … then I’ll scatter you among the heathen, and your cities will lie desolate. (Leviticus 26:33)
Something needs to be mentioned here, in the context of God’s dividing, scattering, and uniting of His people. Typically, when God’s word speaks of the scattering of His chosen ones, the words we’ve seen so far all hearken back to the days of Noah being told to spread out across the face of Earth. In the case of Nimrod, this spreading out was an important factor in counteracting humanity’s habit of consolidating power as a prelude to abusing that power. But in these verses in Leviticus, God introduced another dimension to this scattering effort. And again, this added dimension is one that’s completely lost when looking at these verses in English. That’s because when we look at the Hebrew word used here for this “scattering,” a startling insight leaps out at us, in the context of all we’ve learned about God’s ultimate purpose in dispersing the sheep of His pasture.
On the surface, we only see a God Who seems more interested in punishing sinners than rehabilitating them. This, of course, has always been a bone of contention with critics and skeptics alike, when God repeatedly, in The Old Testament, spoke more about judgment than He did about mercy. But not so when we re-examine these verses in Leviticus in the context of what we’ve established to this point.
When Moses said that if the Israelites refused to obey God He’d scatter them among the heathen, and their cities would lie desolate, the Hebrew word he used for “scatter” wasn’t parad, palag, or puwts, as in previous cases. The word he used was ezareh, from the root word zara, which as we learned in an earlier chapter spoke not only of being “scattered” but also of being “sown as light.”
So here again we see God’s word revealing that while the devil and his minions no doubt considered Israel’s failure a victory on their part, this failure actually became a doorway of hope for the rest of humanity. As in, when God warned His people of the consequences of their unwillingness to obey His laws, one of two things would happen: One, they’d obey and live happily in the land that God had given them, and in their being a “beacon of light” to the nations, they’d become a blessing to humanity in that act of obedience; or, two, they’d disobey and be driven from the land that God had given them, and in their being “scattered as light” amongst the nations, they’d become a blessing to humanity in that act of disobedience.
Verse in question and its words: See how I observe this sinful kingdom, having destroyed it from the face of the Earth, though I haven’t utterly wiped out the House of Jacob. Look at how I’ve commanded, so that I’ll sift the House of Israel throughout every nation, as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet I haven’t lost track of a single grain. (Amos 9:8-9)
From this passage we see that while humans may have lost track of the Lost Tribes of Israel, God never lost track of them. The prophet Hosea confirmed this, when he had God saying, “Israel isn’t hidden from Me, for I see that she’s defiled.”
This becomes even more obvious when we take the time to put the words of Amos into the overall context of our present investigation. When Amos spoke of God’s intent to sift the House of Israel as corn is sifted, he used two Hebrew words that are variations of the root word nua—as in, to “sift,” where the word is wahaniowti, and then, as corn is “sifted” in a sieve, where the word is yinnowa. In this word nua, we see several familiar associated meanings, such as to “scatter,” “shake,” and “wander.” Moses also used a variant of this word when he described God making the Children of Israel to “wander” for forty years in the Wilderness.
Especially noteworthy is that the Hebrew word yinnowa bears a strong resemblance to an English word we’ve seen associated with why God scattered Israel; that word is to “winnow.” God didn’t scatter the House of Israel to erase them from history, as is commonly assumed. We know this because of that other Hebrew word that keeps coming to the fore—zara—which also has as one of its meanings, to “winnow.” Far from intending to annihilate Israel in this scattering, shaking, and wandering process, God was winnowing them, as one separates chaff from grain, or insects from stored grain. Through the mouth of Hosea, God said to the rebellious tribes of the north:
Verse in question and its words: Therefore, they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window. (Hosea 13:3)
Taken together, we see in these verses that even while the Israelites as a whole refused to live up to their potential, God knew exactly how to sort out the kernels worth saving from amongst those that were not. In this shaking process, in causing them to wander, this sifting process winnowed out the faithless from the faithful. And in this way, God scattered the useful grain of Israel throughout the nations, as light is scattered to enlighten the whole world in due time. In short, what God did on a regional level, with Israel’s forty-year wandering in the Sinai Desert, He then did on a global level, with the northern House of Israel, subsequent to the Assyrian Captivity in 722 B.C.
Verse in question and its words: And Hosea’s wife bore him a son whom he named Jezreel, because God said, “Soon I’ll cause the Kingdom of Israel to cease.” (Hosea 1:4)
Once again, a closer look at the word meanings of those involved in this drama of Hosea and his children reveals so much more than meets the eye. When God told Hosea to name his first son Jezreel, we should, by now, be most intrigued to discover that the name Jezreel comes from a combination of two other root words. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Jezreel comes from zara for “sows” and from el for “God.” Therefore, Jezreel means “God sows.”So, when we only look to the English translation of The Bible, we might assume God sowed Israel to hide them in the ground where they’d be lost to history, or scattered them to have them absorbed by every other nation, as tradition so persistently insists. But not so when we understand the underlying meaning of the zara component to the name Jezreel. In God’s naming of Hosea’s first son Jezreel, a divine message was being relayed to those with eyes to see: Although God’s judgment of the House of Israel was painfully bitter to them, God’s act of dividing and scattering His people was actually one in which the rest of the world was inseminated with the true light that only the Lord could see within the potential of His “lost”—but not forgotten—“sheep.”
Verses in question and their words: No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, because I’ve made you a father of many nations. (Genesis 17:5)
You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will display My glory… I will also make you a light for the nations, to bring My salvation to the ends of the Earth. (Isaiah 49:3, 6)
So I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that will bear fruit. (Matthew 21:43)
The Scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” (Galatians 3:8)
Look at the four passages just cited, in which Abraham is called the father of many “nations,” Israel is to be a light for the “nations,” Jesus gives the Kingdom of God to a “nation” that will bear fruit, and all “nations” are to be blessed through the gospel. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the Hebrew word translated as “nation” is goy, while in the Greek, “nation” is ethnos, both of which speak of Gentile or heathen nations.
Just think of it: All these years we’ve heard that Israel would be a light and a blessing to the Gentiles and heathen, and we say, sure, I can see that. But when was the last time you considered The Bible is also hinting that Abraham was a father of said Gentiles and heathen, or that Jesus would hand over the Kingdom of God to them?
