“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).
When God called Abraham, three significant promises were directly issued to him. First, the Lord promised that He would make Abraham a great nation. Next, God promised that He would bless Abraham. Third, God promised that He would make Abraham’s name great. It is with these blessed promises that God expands the promise of the coming seed that will bruise the head of the serpent. Within these three verses, God continued the Genesis 3:15 promise by expanding into a promised people, the personal blessings of father Abraham, and therefore making a great name of renown among the whole world. Why would God choose this man Abraham to father a nation? What benefit would the blessings be? Verse 2 answers those questions in that Abraham receives a blessing so that he will be a blessing. To whom will he be a blessing? God said in verse 3, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” The one to be blesses will be a blessing to all nations. “The one who was blessed was now himself to effect blessing of universal proportions.” God stands by His man and God stands by His people. God cinched the blessing in assurance with the promise of He would bless those that bless Abraham and the nation and He would curse them that curse Abraham and the nation.
Abraham was promised a seed. In Genesis 12:6-7, God directed Abraham into the land of Canaan and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” Among the Canaanites, Abraham is a stranger in this land, but the God of glory is with him and promises Canaan to his seed. To make a great nation, Abraham would need an heir and with that, the heir would need an inheritance. In verse 7, the Lord reassures Abraham with the promise of a seed as an heir and land as an inheritance.
Abraham was promised an heir. But after years pass, Abraham and Sarah begin to doubt they can have children, so they use Hagar, Sarah’s handmaiden, as a surrogate mother. Hagar bares a son named Ishmael. Could this be the seed that God had earlier promised? No. Thirteen years later, the Lord appears to a ninety-nine year old Abraham and reiterates His promise with a few addendums. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. The Lord then states that He will bless Sarah with a son and calls her “a mother of nations” (Genesis 17:16). Sarah laughed; therefore the name of the promised child was to be Isaac. “Not even Abraham’s attempt to preserve this seed was to count, for the whole life of this child (and each one that followed him) was entirely a gift of God.” God blesses Ishmael, but it is Isaac that is the promised heir to continue Abraham’s seed.
Isaac would grow up and have a child to continue the seed. Jacob, whose named would be changed to Israel, would “be the marked heir to carry the line of ‘seed.’” We learn in the election of Isaac, even in the selection of Jacob to receive the blessing, it is specifically God’s choice and not a decision made from man of who is to carry the promise. Each son of promise would continue the unifying thread of God’s blessings to all people.
Abraham was promised an inheritance. Even from God’s initial communion with Abraham, the Lord mentioned a promised “land” (Genesis 12:1, 7). And again, when Abraham was ninety-nine, God made His promise an “everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:7, 13, 19) and the land an “everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8). The Lord tells Abraham that this land is “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18). It is a land full of different peoples, but God promises it to the seed of Abraham. God tells Abraham that it is a “land wherein thou art a stranger” (Genesis 17:8). Even though it is a land of other nations, it is an everlasting inheritance to Abraham and his seed.
By the provisions of God, Abraham and his seed formed a great nation. As a result of these fulfilled promises, the seed of Abraham develops a great heritage and a great name, as God also promised. “In contrast to the nations who sought a ‘name’ for themselves, God made Abraham a great name so that he might be the means of blessing all the nations” The faith of Abraham and his trust in God, led to the culmination of a great nation that would be God’s own and a “mediator of life” to all the nations of the earth that would receive the blessings of the Lord.
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