“(The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)” Deuteronomy 1:11.

(Note “Deuteronomy 1:11” is a reference to the Bible, which is a collection of books. It means that the quotation above referred to as “Deuteronomy 1:11” is taken from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible, the 1^st chapter, and the 11^th verse, where a chapter consists of numbered sections called verses.)

To begin with, I have written before about who God is, what He is like, and what is the Bible. I recommend that you read these earlier blog posts even if you are familiar with God and the Bible.

In this post, we will consider two Bible verses, specifically, Deuteronomy 1:10, 11. These verses state: “The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)” Deuteronomy 1:10,11.

Moses, the leader of the “the children of Israel” (Genesis 32:32) who were the Hebrew nation, otherwise known as the Jewish nation, spoke these words these words to the Israelites in approximately the year 1405 B.C. This was 40 years after Israel was freed from slavery in Egypt by God in the year 1445 B.C.

Note that “B.C.” means “before Christ” and it refers to the time before Christ, a member of the Godhead, was born in human flesh as a baby boy named Jesus. So, 1445 B.C. means 1,445 years before the birth of Jesus Christ on earth. Actually, though, due to an error in the setting of the date for the birth of Jesus Christ, it was found that Christ was born in approximately the year 5 B.C.

The two verses under consideration, Deuteronomy 1:10, 11, have more than one application and in this post we will look at two of these applications.

The Backstory

Ever since the sin (wrongdoing) of Adam and Eve, the first human pair created by God, God has had a “church” on earth. What is a church? It is a body of people made up those who have received “the gift of righteousness” (Romans 5:17) from God and, hence, their characters have been changed from selfishness and evil to a character of love identical to God’s own character for “God is love.” 1 John 4:8.

This is the definition of what we would describe today as God’s invisible church. They cannot be numbered by human beings “for the LORD [God] seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7. We can say of God in truth, “For thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men.” 1 Kings 8:39. There came a time, however, when God called the nation of Israel to be God’s visible church on earth. (See my previous post which outlines the origin and history of Israel.)

Jacob, whose name God changed to “Israel,” and his family went into Egypt from the land of Canaan, the land which God promised to him and his descendants, to escape a famine in Canaan. “All the souls [persons] of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten” (Genesis 46:27), which was seventy persons.

“The children of Israel” (Genesis 32:32) left Egypt 430 years later in 1445 B.C. “And the children of Israel journeyed…about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.” Exodus 12:37. When we account for women and children besides the men, all the people who left Egypt were about 2 million people. Thus, God had greatly multiplied the children of Israel within the span of 430 years according to His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Israel’s ancestors.

At the end of the 40 years which Israel spent in the wilderness because of their disobedience to God, and just before they entered into the land of Canaan in 1405 B.C., Moses repeats God’s promises to Israel to multiply them saying, “The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)” Deuteronomy 1:10,11.

God Gives Israel a Mission

Moses said to Israel, “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” Deuteronomy 4:5, 6.

“For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” Deuteronomy 4:7, 8. That is, Israel was to be “an holy people unto the LORD” (Deuteronomy 7:6), for “the LORD…God hath chosen…[them] to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” Deuteronomy 7:6.

God designed that the spiritual advantages of Israel would arrest the attention and catch the interest of the non-Jewish nations known as the Gentiles. These Gentiles would counsel each other saying, “Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD.” Zechariah 8:21. The Gentiles would say to Israel, “We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.” Zechariah 8:23. Nation after nation would “come over” (Isaiah 45:14) to Israel to be “joined with” (Isaiah 14:1) and “cleave to the house of Jacob” (Isaiah 14:1), that is, to cleave to Israel. “The sons of the stranger” (Isaiah 56:6), the Gentile, would “join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD.” Isaiah 56:6.

Eventually, “all the nations [would]… be gathered unto…[Israel], to the name of the LORD…[not] to… walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.” Jeremiah 3:17. As the numbers of Israel increased with Gentile conversions to God, they were to enlarge their borders, until their kingdom should embrace the world. Thus, Israel was to “blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Isaiah 27:6. This then was the purpose of God in setting apart Israel from all other peoples of the world.

Israel Fails to Fulfill Their Mission

Israel was an idolatrous nation and so God caused the ten northern tribes to be lost to Assyrian captivity in 722 B.C. when Assyria scattered them among many nations. The southern kingdom of Judah, consisting of the remaining two tribes, God caused to eventually go into Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C. for a period of 70 years because of their idolatry.

At the end of the 70 years of Babylonian captivity in 536 B.C., only about 50,000 Jews returned with a man named Zerubbabel from Babylon to Jerusalem, the capital of the Babylonian province of Judah. Zerubbabel was an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Some 79 years later in 457 B.C., about another 1,700 Jews returned to Jerusalem with a man named Ezra. This then was how the Jewish nation, Israel, was re-established in the land of Palestine.

Having suffered from the Babylonian, Israel built up a “middle wall of partition” (Ephesians 2:14) between themselves and all the other nations of the world in an effort to keep themselves from returning to the idolatry of the past that had brought God’s punishment upon them. Thus, they robbed God of their service and they failed to be a godly example to the world who were in the darkness of error.

Israel and Jesus Christ

When Jesus Christ was born into the world approximately 2,000 years ago in 5 B.C. as a baby boy named Jesus, the “middle wall of partition” (Ephesians 2:14) between Israel and the rest of the world still existed. Among the many reasons that Israel hated Jesus Christ was the fact that He associated with non-Jews whom the Jews called Gentiles. In the end, Jesus Christ was murdered by the Jews. Jesus, because of His rejection by the Jews, established a new, visible church, called the Christian church because its members were followers of Jesus Christ, before His death.

For Jesus Christ said to the Jews, “I [say] unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Matthew 21:43. Thus, to the Christian church Jesus Christ gave the mission which Israel failed to fulfill.

The Israel of God

God says, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed [descendants], and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29. Thus, all who are Christ’s are called the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) because they are accounted as spiritual descendants, not literal descendants, of Abraham.

In the strictest sense, the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) is made up of only the invisible church, they who have received the “the gift of righteousness.” Romans 5:17. However, in a broader sense, the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) is made up of both the visible Christian church and the invisible church. Of course, there is an overlap between the invisible and visible church.

Today, in the year 2019, the membership of the Christian churches in the world number a total of approximately 2.2 billion people out of an estimated world population of 7.5 billion people. But the true church of God, the true “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) is an invisible church of which only God knows the number.

The words spoken by Moses many years ago to literal Israel apply to the Christian church, both visible and invisible, which is the spiritual “Israel of God.” Galatians 6:16. Truly the words of God given through Moses in Deuteronomy 1:10, 11 have come true just as God has promised. “The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)” Deuteronomy 1:10, 11.

Before Jesus Christ’s second coming to the earth, the visible and invisible churches will combine to form one visible church on earth, after God purges the visible church of all sinners (wrongdoers). Then Jesus Christ will return to the earth to resurrect, which is to bring to life again, the righteous dead to take them along with the righteous living who make up the newly purified visible, Christian church, to heaven. Upon those taken to heaven God will bestow immortality so that they will live forever in the presence of God.

Thus, the end times group of people taken to heaven, consisting of all those that are saved to eternal life and saved from eternal death, are God’s own special people just as Israel was. Truly they may be called the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), a holy people indeed. They were seen by a man named John in a vision from God which is supernatural mental imagery. John wrote of them: “I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb [Jesus Christ], clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” Revelation 7:9.

So, according to His promise to literal Israel, God has fulfilled His word in multiplying spiritual Israel. God, speaking of spiritual Israel, says, “all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26) from eternal death. These then are the two applications of Deuteronomy 1:10, 11. One application is to literal Israel of old, that is, ancient Israel, and the second application is to the spiritual “Israel of God.” Galatians 6:16.

How This Blog Teaches Bible Study

My blog posts take one or more Bible verses and unpack what is often the hidden meaning in them, to help you to gain in your understanding of the Bible, and to receive insights into how to study it. For God says, “Study [the Bible] to shew [show] thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing [interpreting] the word of truth [the Bible].” 2 Timothy 2:15. There are new blog posts every two weeks on a Monday at 12:01 a.m. in timezone UTC-5 (GMT-5).

Further Reading

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