In the Old Testament we learn about Abraham. He was a faithful man who did what God requested and was willing to leave his homeland and go to the land of Canaan (Israel today) as God told him to do.
He was given special promises by God, including the inheritance of the land of Canaan for himself and his descendants.
Genesis 13:14-16 And the LORD said unto Abram …… Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
He was also promised a special descendant who would bring blessings for all nations of the world. (This was Jesus Christ).
Galatians 3:8, 9, 16 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Abraham did not receive the inheritance of the land during his lifetime, but this would be at the future time when his special descendant Jesus Christ would return to earth to set up God’s 1000 year kingdom.
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Hebrews 11:9 & 10 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (New Jerusalem in the Kingdom of God).
Abraham was the father of various middle eastern peoples including the Jews.
God’s promise to Abraham was reaffirmed to his son Isaac and also to Isaac’s son Jacob. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and he was the father of 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel.
Genesis 28:13 & 14 (And the LORD said to Jacob) I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.