In verse 11 God said to Jacob, "I am God, all-sufficient: be fruitful and multiply" (Heb.). This is the first item of God's promise. At Bethel, God promised Jacob that he would be fruitful and multiply. All of us in the church life, including the least and the youngest, need to believe this promise and claim its fulfillment, saying, "Lord, I do not agree with being a solitary believer. I stand on Your promise to be fruitful and multiply." If you do this, after a certain time, there will be thirtyfold, then sixtyfold, and then a hundredfold. When I was young, I prayed this way many times, and the Lord has surely answered my prayers. We all must pray to be multiplied. The Lord will answer our prayer and honor His promise. The way of the Lord's recovery is narrow and will never become a mass movement. No mass movement can be of the Lord's recovery, because the Lord's recovery is a matter of a multiplying life. Look at the plants: they have life and multiply. We are living with a divine life, and this life is a multiplying life. We have the confidence that we shall multiply. Pray for this and stand on His promise, taking hold to His word. Some may say that this was only a promise given to Jacob and that none of the Old Testament promises are for us today. Literally speaking, this is true. But all the promises made to Israel are types. Since we are in the reality today, the promises in type are also for us. Stand on the Lord's word and say, "Lord, what You promised Jacob was a shadow, but it must be a reality to me."
God also promised Jacob, saying, "A company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins." Firstly, we have "a company of nations," indicating multiplication, and then we have kings, indicating the kingdom. Following Jacob, there was the nation of his descendants. Then there was the kingdom of his descendants under David and Solomon. In New Testament times there was the kingdom under his descendant, Jesus Christ; in the next age there will be the millennial kingdom; and after that, the eternal kingdom in the new heaven and the new earth. This one matter of the kings requires all the subsequent books of the Old Testament and the New Testament for its fulfillment. Revelation 11:15 is a part of this promise made to Jacob: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." Even the church today as God's kingdom on earth is included in this promise. I am aware that when some hear this they will argue with me, saying that by mixing the church with Israel I am teaching wrongly. Literally speaking, this may be correct, but remember that everything in Jacob's life was a type to be fulfilled by us. Do not be satisfied to have one or two people saved through you. Rather, you should say, "Lord, I am not happy with this. I want to see the kingdom. I need the multiplication that will issue in the kingdom." This is a great matter. Do you have the faith for it? We all must say, "Lord, I would have the faith to be multiplied, not for my empire, but for Your kingdom."
Still another aspect of God's promise to Jacob is mentioned in verse 12: "And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land." Here, Jacob is given the promise of inheriting the land with the seed. This promise is like a huge mountain. Do not think that the land mentioned here is simply the narrow strip of the land of Palestine. That narrow strip of land was a type of Christ as the good land. Christ as the good land for our possession eventually will be the stone that falls from heaven in Daniel 2. This stone will become a mountain filling the whole earth. Do you believe that the entire earth will be a great mountain and that there will be no plain, only a holy mountain? This great mountain is Christ.
In verses 14 and 15 we see Jacob's reaction to God's promise. Every time the Lord speaks to us, we must react. We should not be dull, dumb, or dead. Because I am living, I react to whatever people say. If a brother had no reaction whatever to anything I said to him, I would conclude that he was either dumb or dead. When I speak to my grandchildren, they are very active and aggressive because they are living. When God spoke to Jacob, he reacted immediately.