Scripture often speaks of three men at the same time: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For example, Deut. 29:13 says,

¹³ in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We normally think of Abraham as being the one who received and believed the New Covenant promise of God, but in reality, all three of them believed the same promise. This was to fulfill the law in Deut. 19:15, “on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.”

But there is more to this, because each of these three men represent something different in what we might call a progression of faith. This is, I believe, partly what Paul meant in Rom. 1:17 when he wrote:

¹⁷ For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Therefore, if we “live by faith,” we embark on a journey “from faith to faith.” We begin by identifying with Abraham in that we believe that God is able to fulfill His promise in us (Rom. 4:21, 22). Next, we identify with Isaac, the obedient servant (Gen. 22). Finally, we identify with Jacob, who was transformed from a mere believer to an overcomer when the angel changed his name to Israel (Gen. 32:28).

The Broken Type in Israel’s Journey

When the Israelites journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land, they too were supposed to receive the revelation of righteousness “from faith to faith.”

The revelation of justification by faith came first at the feast of Passover when they began their journey. The revelation of sanctification through obedience came at the feast of Pentecost at the Mount of God when they heard the voice of God revealing His nature to them via the law.

If they had been able to hear His voice at that first Pentecost, they would have received the third revelation to bring them into agreement that would have allowed them to enter the Promised Land from Kadesh-barnea. They would have entered the land as manifested sons of God and would have conquered the Canaanites by “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17).

Unfortunately, the Israelites broke the type, as they say, making it incomplete.

Abraham’s Faith

When Abraham was concerned about having an heir, he asked God if his chief steward, Eliezar, was to succeed him. God’s answer is seen in Gen. 15:5, 6,

⁵ And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” ⁶ Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

This statement of faith is referenced many times in the New Testament as the example of faith for all of the descendants of Abraham. Paul makes it clear that his descendants were not physical but spiritual—those who followed his example, having the same belief in the promise of God. Gal. 3:6, 7 says,

⁶ Even so, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. ⁷ Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

Again, Paul writes in Gal. 3:26, 29,

²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus… ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Biological descendants of Abraham who do fail to follow his example of faith are not the descendants of Abraham that God promised Abraham. Jesus confirmed this in his dispute with the Jews in John 8:37-44,

³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. ³⁸ I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” ³⁹ They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. ⁴⁰ But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do”… ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me… ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil….”

Jesus acknowledged that they were biological children of Abraham, but because they did not follow Abraham’s example of faith, they were actually children of the devil. This was not to say that they were physical descendants of the devil, as some teach. We know this from Jesus’ acknowledgement in John 8:37 (above). But in Scripture a “son” has more than one meaning.

The Scriptures speak of the children of light, the children of darkness, the children of wisdom, and the children of the devil. None of these are biological. They are terms which describe actions and character. Who do you resemble? Whose example do you follow? That is how God identifies people according to their father. Those who fail to do the works of God are repudiated by God, and these are not the descendants of Abraham that God promised in Gen. 15:5.

So if we love Jesus and follow His commandments, we are the children of God and the children of Abraham, regardless of our ethnic heritage. We are, in effect, given a new ethnicity, for we are a new nation that God is raising up in the world according to His promise.

The Old Covenant was insufficient to bring forth the sons of God, because it was based on the promise of men to God, rather than God’s promise to men. So most of the Israelites, though they were religious, were not the children of Abraham by God’s definition.

Only those whose salvation was based on Abrahamic faith were counted as righteous sons of God and of Abraham. This included men like Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, along with the list of the men of faith in Hebrews 11. All of them did the works of their heavenly Father, doing great exploits by faith, knowing that God had promised them victory.

Isaac’s Obedience

In Gen. 22:2 we read,

² He said [to Abraham], “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

Abraham’s obedience is the main focus, and most people assume that Isaac was a small child who had no choice in the matter. But if you do the chronological study, you see that Abraham was 137 years old, and Isaac was 37. This is recorded in the book of Jasher 22:53.

https://sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/jasher/22.htm

Isaac was an adult who probably had more strength than his father and could have prevented his father from offering him up as a sacrifice. Yet we read in Jasher 23:50-57,

⁵⁰ And when they were going along Isaac said to his father, Behold, I see here the fire and wood, and where then is the lamb that is to be the burnt offering before the Lord?

⁵¹ And Abraham answered his son Isaac, saying, The Lord has made choice of thee my son, to be a perfect burnt offering instead of the lamb.

⁵² And Isaac said unto his father, I will do all that the Lord spoke to thee with joy and cheerfulness of heart.

⁵³ And Abraham again said unto Isaac his son, Is there in thy heart any thought or counsel concerning this, which is not proper? tell me my son, I pray thee, O my son conceal it not from me.

⁵⁴ And Isaac answered his father Abraham and said unto him, O my father, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there is nothing in my heart to cause me to deviate either to the right or to the left from the word that He has spoken to thee.

⁵⁵ Neither limb nor muscle has moved or stirred at this, nor is there in my heart any thought or evil counsel concerning this.

⁵⁶ But I am of joyful and cheerful heart in this matter, and I say, Blessed is the Lord who has this day chosen me to be a burnt offering before Him.

⁵⁷ And Abraham greatly rejoiced at the words of Isaac, and they went on and came together to that place that the Lord had spoken of.

We see from this historical record how Isaac was a perfect example of obedience with “cheerfulness of heart.” He is therefore the type of Christ Himself. Heb. 12:2 says,

² Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

True obedience is fulfilled with joy. Likewise, Jesus is said to be “the author and perfecter of faith.” To perfect faith, says James, one must do the works of faith, even as Jesus did when He went to the cross with joy. Not many believers have reached this level of obedience yet. Such obedience is a work in progress, a journey toward the perfection of faith—full agreement with the ways of God.

The so-called “Servant Poems” in the last half of Isaiah look back to Isaac and forward to Christ. God’s servant is also a collective body of people who follow their example of obedience. These are the children of Abraham and the children of God. These are the true Israelites as God would define the term—people, who, like Jacob, have wrestled with God until they finally lose the match, and in coming to the end of their fleshly struggle, they win.

Isaac, the Blind Servant

Isaac was blind during the last half of his life (Gen. 27:1). This is how Jacob was able to deceive him when he stole the birthright by pretending to be Esau. Isaac got sick and thought he might soon die, so he wanted to confer the birthright to his oldest son, Esau. As it turned out, he recovered and lived for many more decades.

If Isaac had known he would live so long, it is doubtful that he would have acted as he did. It is likely that Esau would have proven himself to be unworthy in the interim, and that Jacob would not have felt the need to deceive his father into giving him the birthright.

This blindness proved to be prophetic, as we see in Isaiah 42:19,

¹⁹ Who is blind but My servant, or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, or so blind as the servant of the Lord?

The prophet was speaking about the lost tribes of Israel, of course, but he was also telling us the prophetic meaning of Isaac’s blindness. There is no condemnation of this blind servant, because Isaac genuinely thought he was soon to die. And as for the blind Israelites, this passage is part of the last half of Isaiah, and we know that Isaiah 40-66 is the New Covenant message, where grace is extended.

God tells Israel through the prophet that He would lead them even while they were in captivity. Isaiah 43:8 says,

⁸ Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, and the deaf, even though they have ears.

Verse 10 continues,

¹⁰ “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me.”

Witnesses are normally those who have seen or heard something, but these are witnesses who are both blind and deaf. They bear witness of God’s sovereignty simply because they exist, even though most people assume that they are lost forever.

These are not Jews, but Israelites. The Jews were never lost as a people, even though they were scattered by the Romans. The Israelites, however, were indeed lost to most people—even to most Bible teachers, on account of their mistaken belief that the Jews are the Israelites of Scripture.

Isaac’s blindness has been repeated in the church, and this set up the background for another case of mistaken identity. Recall that Jacob stole Esau’s identity in order to steal the birthright, and this succeeded because Isaac was blind. Today, God has reversed the situation.

The blind church has allowed Esau to steal Israel’s identity in order to take back the birthright. Esau-Edom’s descendants were conquered by the Jews (Judah) in 126 B.C. and forced to convert to Judaism. The Jews then had two sets of prophecies to fulfill.

In 1948 the Edomite element within Judaism took the birthright by pretending to be Israel. The blind church accepted this, and so Esau-Edom’s case against God was resolved for a season. But in the end, Esau was not called, so the birthright would have to revert back to the true inheritors, the overcomers.

We now see world events moving toward the climax of Esau’s claim to the birthright. The Israeli state is soon to collapse, as the world turns against her, eats her flesh, and burns her with fire. Edom’s bloodthirsty nature, as seen in the attempted genocide taking place today, has exposed the heart of the Israeli state as being of Esau, not Jacob.

This Zionist detour around Edom has also prevented the overcomers from fulfilling their calling as true Israelites and from becoming manifested sons of God. The feast of booths (tabernacles) was held in abeyance while Esau needed time to prove himself to be unworthy.

Jacob-Israel, the Overcomer

Isaac’s son, Jacob, was not born an Israelite, nor was he an overcomer from birth. Though he was a believer from an early age, he did not become an Israelite until he wrestled with the angel Peniel at the age of 98. I believe that he thought he was wrestling Esau until the angel put his hip out of joint in a supernatural way. Then the revelation hit him that he was not wrestling Esau but God.

All of his life he had contended with Esau, not realizing that Esau had a place in the divine plan as well. This became his great revelation of the sovereignty of God, and it changed his life forever. The next day, when he confronted Esau in person, Jacob was able to tell him, “I see your face as one who sees the face of God” (Gen. 33:10).

It is only when we are able to see God’s face (purpose) in the face of our greatest enemy that we can truly say that we are Israelites indeed.

This brought Jacob-Israel into agreement with God, and this represents the third and final stage in the progression from faith to faith—from justifying faith to faith-obedience and then to faith-agreement of an overcomer.

Jacob-Israel represents the full journey of faith.

After Jacob was given the name Israel, he immediately traveled to Succoth, that is, “booths, tabernacles.” See Gen. 33:17,

¹⁷ Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth.

Jacob’s journey from start to finish was an early pattern of the progression of all the feasts of the Lord. This was centuries before the Israelites as a whole established the feasts in their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.

The Feasts

Jacob began his journey from Beersheba (Gen. 28:10), which means “the well of the oath.” It is a reference to the well of salvation and to God’s oath (Deut. 29:12). It also represents the feast of Passover and justification by faith.

Jacob then went to Bethel, where he dreamed of the stairway to heaven. When he awoke, he made a vow, for we read in Gen. 28:20, 21,

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, ²¹ and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.”

Jacob’s vow ran parallel to the vow that the Israelites made at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19:8 at the first Pentecost. Man’s vow to God is an Old Covenant vow. Fortunately, God’s New Covenant vow had preceded man’s vow, for we know that the New Covenant with Abraham was made centuries earlier. So also the well of (God’s) oath had been made at the start of Jacob’s wilderness journey.

From Bethel, Jacob journeyed to Paddan-aram to the house of his Uncle Laban. Little did he know that his uncle was a carnal man who essentially enslaved Jacob. But God had purpose in this, for it was designed to teach Jacob the art of obedience in accordance with his vow at Bethel.

So Jacob’s labor under Laban was the outworking of his Pentecostal experience. It was difficult, yet there he acquired his two wives, Leah and Rachel, who gave him children.

Many years later, God married Israel at Sinai, the place of their Pentecostal vow. This “bride” turned out to be a “Hagar” bride, of course, being an Old Covenant wedding. Paul explains this in great detail in Galatians 4. But there were also some New Covenant people who were of the “Sarah” company.”

In that sense, Jacob’s wives also represented the two covenants. Leah and Rachel are described in Gen. 29:17,

¹⁷ And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.

Leah, then, was afflicted with partial blindness and correlates with Isaac, the blind servant. Leah had a legal marriage, while Rachel had a marriage based on love. Rachel, then, brought forth the heir of the birthright, Joseph.

After 20 years, Jacob decided to leave Laban. When the angels of God met him, he called that camp Mahanaim, “two camps.” There he divided his family into two camps. This represents the feast of Trumpets, the day prophesied to be the out-resurrection (exanastasia) of the dead (Phil. 3:11). It is the moment when God divides the believers into two camps: believers and overcomers.

Jacob then went to Penuel (Gen. 32:31), which was his Day of Atonement (or Jubilee). That is where he received his new name Israel, and this qualified him for the next stop at Succoth, “Tabernacles.”

We see, then, how Jacob-Israel established the pattern for the feast days. To be an overcomer, one must experience all of these feast days personally. At this point in time, we are still in the realm of Pentecost, but we have the hope of better things to come. Our vision is to experience the autumn feasts, which will complete our journey.