Tuesday, April 6
“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 12:3).
Read Genesis 12:1-3. List the specific promises God made to Abram.
Notice that among these promises God says to Abram that “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). What does that mean? How were all the families of the earth blessed in Abram? See Galatians 3:6-9. In what ways can you see in this earlier promise the promise of Jesus the Messiah? See Galatians 3:29.
In this, the first recorded divine revelation to Abram, God promised to enter into a close and lasting relationship with him, even before He uses any language that speaks about covenant making. Direct references to the covenant that God would make come later (Genesis 15:4-21, Genesis 17:1-14). For the moment, God offers a divine-human relationship of great significance. The repeated “I will” in Genesis 12:1-3 suggests the depth and greatness of God’s offer and promise.
In addition, Abram receives a single, but testing, command, “Go forth.” He obeyed by faith (Hebrews 11:8) but not in order to bring about the promised blessings. His obedience was the response of his faith to the loving relationship, which God desired to be established. In other words, Abram already believed in God, already trusted in God, already had faith in God’s promises. He had to; otherwise, he never would have left his family and ancestral land to begin with and headed into places unknown. His obedience revealed his faith both to men and to angels.
Abram, even back then, revealed the key relationship between faith and works. We are saved by faith, a faith that results in works of obedience. The promise of salvation comes first; the works follow. Although there can be no covenant fellowship and no blessing without obedience, that obedience is faith’s response to what God already has done. Such faith illustrates the principle in 1 John 4:19, “We love him [God], because he first loved us.”
Read Genesis 15:6. How does it, in many ways, show the basis of all covenant promises? Why is this blessing the most precious one of all?
