Genesis 28:14Plain English VersionLots of people will be born into your family, and they will become a really big mob of people. There will be lots and lots of them, just like there are lots of little bits of dirt on the ground. And those people in your family, they will spread out a long way, and they will live in lots of different places. Some of them will go west, some of them will go east, some of them will go north, and some of them will go south. And I will use your family to do good things for all the families in the world. See the chapter |
So I will do really good things for you. And I will give you a really big family. You see, lots of people will be born into your son’s family later on, and they will become a really big mob of people. There will be lots and lots of them, just like there are lots of stars in the sky, and lots of little bits of sand at the beaches beside the sea. And when other nations get up to fight against them, your family will win, and they will take the towns from those other nations.
Remember that promise you made to me. You said, ‘I promise that I will be good to you, and I will give you a really big family. Lots of kids and grand-kids will be born into your family later on, and they will become a really big mob of people. Nobody will be able to count them, just like nobody can count all those little bits of sand that are at the beaches by the sea.’ Please be good to me and my family, God, just like you promised. Please don’t let my brother kill us.”
You are the one that saved me and set me free from all the bad things that happened to me. So now, I’m asking you to be good to these 2 boys, Ephraim and Manasseh. Let them be just like my own sons, and give them those good things that you promised to me, and to my grand-father Abraham, and to my father Isaac. Let them have lots of kids and grand-kids, so that their families will become a really big mob here on earth.”
But Jacob didn’t move his hand. He said, “No, my son. I know for sure that I’m doing the right thing. Listen, your older son will have a big family, and they will become an important tribe. But your younger son will be more important than your older son. He will have a really big family, and later on, his tribe will be really big and really important.”
Then Jesus told them about something that will happen one day. He said, “Listen. You know that God picked you Israel mob to be his special people. But one day, a lot of other people will come from everywhere in the world, and they will join God’s family in heaven. God will put on a big dinner there for his family, and these other people will sit down and eat it with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. They are your grand-fathers that lived a long time ago.
Well, in the same way, nobody can change what God promised to Abraham, and to Abraham’s son, and to all the people in his family. You know, we can read this story in God’s book. God doesn’t say that he promised things to Abraham’s sons, like it is talking about a lot of people. No, he is talking about only one man. He says Abraham’s son. You see, God promised those things to just one man, and that man is Jesus Christ.