Abraham's Blessing - Genesis

Preliminary

Invite Genesis 12:1-3

Introduction:

The Book of Genesis is named because of the first word it begins with - which means “creation” or “origin”

“Genesis is the seed-plot of the whole Bible. It is referred to or quoted 60 times in the New Testament, and divine authority is set like a seal on its historical facts. See Matthew 19:4–6, 24:37–39, Mark 7:4, 10, 10:3–8, Luke 11:49–51, 17:26–29, 32, John 1:51, 7:21–23, 8:44–56.” Richard Gunther1

1 Ray Comfort, The Evidence Bible: Irrefutable Evidence for the Thinking Mind, Notes, ed. Kirk Cameron, The Way of the Master Evidence Bible (Orlando, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2003), 1.

Genesis has tremendous meaning and purpose for the rest of the Bible.

I have heard some make comments that we could do without it - but I strongly disagree. Without the book of Genesis we have not starting place - one of the fundamental philosophical questions of life ‘Where did I come from?”

Some reasons for Genesis’ importance

Reveal God as creator

provides a historical point of reference from which all subsequent revelation proceeds

It explains the entrance and existence of sin

Shows God implementing plan of redemption

Some background:

Genesis 1-11 takes place in Mesopotamia

Genesis 12-38 takes place in Canaan

Genesis 29-50 takes place primarily in Egypt

Genesis has traditionally been thought to have been written by Moses.

A quick outline of Genesis;

Genesis can be divided into two periods - primeval history and patriarchal history

Primeval history (Gen 1-11)

Creation (Gen 1-2)

Fall (Gen 3-4)

Genealogy (Gen 5)

Flood (Gen 6-9)

Posterity of Noah (Gen. 10-11)

Patriarchal History (Gen 12-50)

Abraham (Gen 12-25)

Isaac (Gen 25-28)

Jacob (Gen 28-36)

Joseph (Gen 37-50)

The key element and overarching theme of the book of Genesis that flows throughout the rest of the Bible is the Abrahamic covenant

‌ covenant or agreement is the main way the Bible shows the relationship between God and man. While there are many covenants in the Bible focuses on the covenants between God and man.

Read Gen 12:1-3

Genesis 12:1–3 KJV 1900

1 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: 2 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: 3 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.

Abraham and All the Families of the Earth: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis 12–50 (Genesis 12:1–3)

It is said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The biblical story of redemption, as it begins in Abraham, is a journey in blessing from a single person to all the families of the earth.

Abraham was 75 years old when he got this call

The Abrahamic covenant, made by God with Abraham and his seed, contributes to the restoration of God’s purposes for mankind by singling out Abraham and his seed to be the means by which redemption and its blessings are brought to all the nations.

The Abrahamic covenant is seen as the foundation for all other covenants.

Craig A. Blaising; Darrell L. Bock

1. The Abrahamic Covenant

a. Top line of the covenant – God would bless Abraham

b. Bottom line of the covenant – God would bless all nations through Abraham

Repeated in

Genesis 18:18 “18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?”

Genesis 22:18 “18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

Genesis 26:4 “4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;”

Genesis 28:14 “14 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.”

Chapter 12 introduces the Abrahamic covenant and gives us its five parts.

1) I will make of thee a great nation;

2) I will bless thee and make thy name great;

3) You shall be a blessing;

4) I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee;

5) In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed[this is referring to the Messiah])

Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (Steinmann) B. The Call of Abram (12:1–9)

it is probably best to understand the reflexive form here as an indirect reflexive with an estimative force: all peoples … will consider themselves blessed

The whole purpose of God was to bless one people so that they might be the channel through which all the nations on the earth might receive a blessing. Israel was to be God’s missionaries to the world – and thereby so are all who believe in this same gospel.

Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (Abram Follows the Call (12:1–9))

Abram’s part is expressed in a single though searching command,

while the heaped up I will’s reveal how much greater is the Lord’s part.

At the same time their futurity emphasizes the bare faith that was required:

Abram must exchange the known for the unknown (Heb. 11:8),

and find his reward in what he could not live to see (a great nation),

in what was intangible (thy name)

and in what he would impart (blessing).

I want to look for a moment - just to get a clearer picture of the Abrahamic Covenant at Romans 4

Romans 4:11–16 KJV 1900

11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: 12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. 13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

Paul reminds us in verse 11 that circumcision was for a sign was a covenantal seal - not salvation

A note of trivia - probably drawing off verse 11-16 some writer had the idea of a song pop into their heads and to the chagrin of many and the happiness of others - "Father Abraham" was birthed to bless the lives of everyone …

But really this is the concept - Father Abraham had many sons - while we don't know for sure how many biological sons he had - he is the father of many nations (verse 17 from Genesis

Verse 13 makes this even clearer - "The promise of Abraham being the heir of the world was not through the law, but through the Righteousness of faith"

He argues this in verse 14 by saying - if heirs were made by the law - faith is made void - the entire promise is useless

Verse 13

There fore, the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law but through the righteousness of faith.

The promise to Abraham was embodied in God's covenant with Abraham, in which the patriarch was told that his descendants would be heirs of the world (Gen. 12:3; 15:6; 18:18; 22:18). In analyzing God's promise to Abraham, four significant factors emerge.

First, the promise involved a land (see Gen. 15:18-21) in which Abraham would live but that would not be possessed until some five centuries later, when Joshua led the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan.

Second, the promise also involved a people, who would be so numerous that they could not be numbered, like the dust of the earth and the stars in the sky (Gen. 13:16; 15:5). Eventually, Abraham would become the "father of many nations" (Gen. 17:5; cf. Rom. 4:17).

Third, the promise involved a blessing of the entire world through Abraham's descendants (Gen. 12:3).

Fourth, the promise would be fulfilled in the giving of a Redeemer, who would be a descendant of Abraham through whom the whole world would be blessed by the provision of salvation. That promise to Abraham was, in essence, a preaching to him of the gospel (Gal. 3:8).

Galatians 3:8 (KJV)

8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Abraham believed that gospel, and even when Isaac, the sole divinely-promised heir, was about to be offered as a sacrifice, Abraham trusted that somehow God would "provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering" (Gen. 22:8).

Through the writer of Hebrews, the Lord gives a beautiful revelation of the extent of Abraham's understanding and faith. "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, 'In Isaac your descendants shall be called.' He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type" (Heb. 11:17-19).

If we take out God’s Covenant to Abraham we take out the heart of the Bible