Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Genesis 12:3 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
AN ADVENT MESSAGE TO: ABRAHAM
This morning we consider another promise of the coming Savior to another who would be an ancestor of that Savior: Abram.
This is the recorded call of Abram, when the LORD called Abram to leave his home in Ur, trusting that the LORD would provide something even better for him. Notice that the LORD actually makes four promises to Abram, and as we become familiar with the book of Genesis, we realize that the LORD repeats these promises to him throughout his life.
The first promise that the LORD gives to Abram is a land promise: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you." As we go on in Genesis, we will hear this promise of land being repeated over and over again from Genesis 12-22.
The second promise is a promise of descendants: "I will make you a great nation." We should note the greatness of this promise, remembering that Abram's wife Sarai was unable to bear children (Genesis 11:30).
The third promise is a blessing promise: "I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you." This is another promise that is repeated to Abraham throughout the coming pages of Genesis, though not as often as the land and descendant promises.
Then, finally we come the promise of the Savior: "And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." This part of the LORD's promise was not just speaking about how great of a person Abram would be, or how many people he would have as descendants, or even the great land that he would possess later on. Here, in the LORD's promise to Abram He is speaking of the blessing of the coming Savior and Head-crusher, Who would be a descendant of Abram, and Who would be the Savior for all people!
