#DailyDevotion Father Abraham Has Many Son
Genesis 12 The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your relatives, and your father’s home, and go to a land I will show you. 2I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and give you a great name, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and curse anyone who curses you, and in you all the peoples on the earth will be blessed.”
The LORD God created man and man sinned. The world went into ruin. Mankind had gotten so bad and messed up the world so much that the LORD called out Noah to start again and the LORD destroyed the world and everything in it with a flood. Now we are many generations after the flood and again mankind had fouled up the knowledge of the LORD. From out of the mire, the LORD called Abraham to make a people for himself and who would be the line through whom the promised seed of Genesis 3:15 would come to pass.
The LORD tells Abram, “Leave your land, your relatives, and your father’s home, and go to a land I will show you.” You can see echoes of what the Father would do to his son in Abram’s story. The Father sends his son away from heaven down to the earth. He would be away from that place and the glory he had there so he would fulfill the covenant he made with Abram here. Leaving land, relatives and your father’s home is a big deal. In world of lawlessness he would not have the support, emotion or militarily, that he would have at home. He wouldn’t have the rights and laws of his home country to depend upon. He would have to depend upon the LORD and his promise to live. The same is true of the Church. Jesus tells us, Matt. 10:37 “If you love father or mother more than Me, you’re not worthy of Me; and if you love son or daughter more than Me, you’re not worthy of Me.” We too are called to risk family, country and wealth to depend upon the LORD Jesus Christ if necessary to be faithful to him.
The LORD tells Abram, “I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and give you a great name, and you will be a blessing.” Indeed the LORD fulfilled his promise to Abram before the Israelites went into the Promised Land, the land promised to Abram here, by making Israel great and numerous. Look! Even now, we are talking about Abraham. Who else in all the world gets this much attention? Abram has certainly become a blessing. He preserved the true knowledge of the LORD to the world. More than that, through him the blessed seed of Gen.3:15 would come. On top of that Paul tells us in Romans 9 that all who believe in Christ Jesus are Abram’s descendents. The LORD indeed has increased Abram’s nation.
“I will bless those who bless you, and curse anyone who curses you, and in you all the peoples on the earth will be blessed.” Yes, all the peoples on the earth have been blessed through Abram for through Abram’s seed, Mary’s seed, Jesus, has come salvation, redemption and victory over sin, death and the devil. The LORD has separated people for himself from every nation, tribe, people and tongue to become children for Abram through faith in Jesus. All people everywhere are called to become children for Abram through baptism into Jesus’ name. Indeed, all nations on earth have been blessed through Abram.
Almighty God and Father, you separated Abram from all the nations to make him a blessing to all nations through his seed, your son Jesus Christ. May your Holy Spirit continually be poured out upon the nations so they may become children for Abram through faith in Jesus. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.