“And in your
offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have
obeyed my voice. I will multiply
your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these
lands. And in your offspring all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept
my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” -Genesis
22:18; 26:4 (ESV).
When God promised to bless all the
nations of the earth through Abraham’s offspring, the context was extremely
impressive. Abraham had undergone a
great test of faith. He heard God’s
command to him to offer as a sacrifice his son Isaac. He went to the mountain with his son to
perform the act of sacrifice. God
intervened and stayed Abraham’s hand from killing Isaac. The writer of Hebrews in later centuries noted: “He
(Abraham) considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which,
figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Hebrews 11:19). The commendation from God was that Abraham had
obeyed His command. He had carried
through on the intent to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Was this act on the part of Abraham—offering
his son—not a foretaste of the same sacrifice God Himself made in offering His
only begotten Son as a propitiation for sin?
The Messiah was in the ancestral lineage of Abraham, as we noted in the
December 1 devotional. And through the
Messiah, all the nations of the earth have been blessed, are still being
blessed, and will continue to be blessed.
In Genesis 26:4, the word of promise is
to Isaac, Abraham’s son. A great famine
hit Israel and Isaac went to Gerar to King Abimelech of the Philistines, no
doubt to seek help with food due to the famine.
God appeared to Isaac, telling him not to go into Egypt (as Abraham had
done at the time of a previous famine [see Genesis 12:10]). Then God renewed basically the same covenant
as He had made with Isaac’s father Abraham, telling him that He would make his
offspring as numerous as the stars of the heavens and bless them in all the
nations of earth. This would be possible
to and through Isaac because Abraham, his father, had“obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and
my laws” (Gen. 26:5). The amazing truth
about this promise made to Isaac is that it was to a person with flaws of
character—not perfect by any means. But
through people God accomplishes His purposes.
Did this promise come true? Here
is what New Testament writers penned about the fulfillment of this Messianic
prophecy: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “and to offsprings,
referring to many, but referring to one.
‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). And
in Hebrews 6:13 we read, “For when God
made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He
swore by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” God’s promises are guaranteed by God’s
own perfect and trustworthy character.
There is no one greater than God who can assure the promises God makes;
therefore, His oath for blessing all the nations of the earth through “the
offspring”—the Messiah—was made on His own character. And from the days of Abraham until the seed
of Abraham came to Bethlehem to enter earth in human form as a tiny Baby, God
was working out the pledge He had made to Abraham and to Isaac. Wrapped up in that tiny Baby in a manger was
the means of blessing all the nations of the earth. And “the
gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations,”(Mark 13:10) which is a sign of the close of the
age. Until then, we basically have the
same work as assigned to Abraham: “to obey
God’s voice, to keep His charge, His commandments, His statutes and His laws.”
Prayer:
It is amazing, Lord, to think that we now are the recipients of the
promise made to Abraham and to Isaac.
Thank You for working Your purposes out through ordinary people with
extraordinary assignments until finally Jesus came, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.
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