20250427 Genesis 12:1-3 The Gospel to Abraham
This is how important Abraham is in the Bible. He appears in 15 chapters from Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11, but after his death, his name occurs 135 times in the Bible. The reason for the Exodus according to Exodus 2:24 was God’s promises to Abraham. In Isaiah 51:2-3, Israelite survivors of the exile in Babylon were told, remember Abraham and Sarah. The story of Abraham teaches us how God works. He takes the non-life and turns it into life. They were without children and God made them multiply in the same way he took the formless, empty, and dark of Genesis 1:2 and created Eden.
This is how important Abraham is in the NT. In the NT,
Matthew begins his Gospel this way, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Upon hearing that she will bear the son
of God, in Luke 1:55, Mary thanks God for his plan of redemption that he
promised to Abraham. Abraham is foundational to the story of the Bible. Gen
11-25 explains God’s merciful posture towards his people to deliver them throughout
the ages.
Now, in the storyline of Genesis, Abraham answers the
problems of Gen 1-11. So far in Genesis, God created a good world for humanity
to live for his glory. Humanity fails continually. They fail by eating the
forbidden fruit (Gen 3). Cain murders his brother (Gen 4). Lamech is a violent
polygamist (Gen 4). Violence leads to the destructive flood (Gen 6). Pride leads
to the division at Babel (Gen 11). Following this bleak backstory, Abraham,
somehow, is the solution to sin. He is the heir of the promise of Gen 3:15 that
a male child would reverse the Genesis 3. Throughout the Bible, Abraham’s name
evokes God’s plan to bless all the families of the world.
The NT books of Galatians, Romans, and James use Abraham to
teach about salvation by faith. Abraham is such a big deal that becoming a
Christian is equated with becoming a child of Abraham. Paul writes in Gal 3:29,
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, ….” (c.f. Luke 3:8, Rom
4:16). Understanding Abraham is key to understanding being a Christian. Abraham
is very important.
Gen 12:1-3 are three of the most famous verses in the Bible.
In light of Genesis 3, Genesis 12:1-3 shows Abraham will be the solution or
part of the solution to sin. This is what Paul says about our text in Gal 3:8,
“Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith
and told the good news ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will
be blessed through you.” According to Paul, Gen 12:1-3 is the Christian good
news! This is the claim that I want to explore in three points with the three promises
of Land, Offspring, and Blessing. These promises are equivalent to Christian
blessings.
James Hamilton shows that the blessings of Gen 12:1-3 answer
the curses of Genesis 3. In Gen 3:15, God tells the devil that a male
descendant of the woman will crush him, now Abraham is promised descendants. In
Gen 3:17, God cursed the land. Now, Abraham is promised Land. Gen 3:16
announced conflict in human relationships because of sin. Now, in Abraham, all
the families of the earth will be blessed.[i]
God commanded Adam and then Noah to be fruitful and multiply
and rule the earth. To Abraham, these commands become the promises, “I will make
you into a great nation, I will bless you” (Gen 12:2). “All the peoples on
earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). “I will give this land to your
offspring” (Gen 12:7).
With the backdrop of sin in Gen
1-11, Gen 12:1-3 is good news. God promises Land, Descendents, and Blessing. We
will see that these promises anticipate New Eden, Abraham’s Descendent, Jesus,
and the blessing of the forgiveness of sins for all the families of the world
in Christ.
We can get caught up in OT narrative with the epic stories. I
wanted to dedicate a whole message to show that from the beginning God’s people
had the gospel. Christian faith is the faith of Abraham. We just have a few
more details, but the essence is the same. I want to keep this before us when
we dive into details of the Abraham story. The promises made to Abraham are the
gospel of the enjoyment of eternal life, and the forgiveness of sins, in our savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I will spend the rest of our time trying to prove
this!
Gen 12:1 – First, we look at the Promised Land as a foretaste of a renewed Eden.
The Land Promised to Israel is a big deal in the Old
Testament. My goal in this first point is to show that the land points back to
Eden. I’m going to show this from three different angles. The big implication is
that if God promises a renewed Eden, he is also promising salvation and the
reversal of Genesis 3. So my goal is to show that the promise of Land
anticipates the work of Christ, the rest found in him, and ultimately that this
promise to Abraham points to the New Eden in the New Heavens and New Earth. I’m
excited!
Genesis 12:1
In Gen 12:1, the Lord tells Abram to go to the land that he
will show him. In Gen 12:7, God tells Abram about the land of Canaan, “I will
give this land to your offspring.” The following are three ways the Promise
Land connects to Eden.
First, eleven chapters earlier, God blessed Adam and Eve and
told them to multiply in Eden. Now, God promises to multiply Abram and tells
him his descendants will live a land. For Abram, the Land is as Eden was for
Adam.
Second, the prophets make the connection between the
Promised Land and Eden explicit. Isa 51:3 associates the land with Eden, and Ezek
36:35 with the garden of the Lord. Joel 2:3 states, “The [promised] land is
like the garden of Eden.”
Third, in the Land, Abram will repeatedly build altars to
the Lord to call on his name. He does this outside a tent, on hilltops, next to
trees. These elements anticipate the Tabernacle and the Temple where God meets
his people. Living with God, on a hilltop, with sacred trees also evokes Eden.
Now, this is the implication. In a world marked by sin, the thought
of Eden is the thought of returning to the harmonious delight. Any chance of
entering Edenic rest must require a reversal of the curses of Genesis 3. So, the
promise of an Edenic Land points to Christ’s redemptive work.
Application
The application is that we need to think about Israel’s
promised Land the same way we view God’s intentions for Eden.
The land promised to Israel in the Bible has become a hot
topic in World politics and International Relations. If we understand Abraham
as the solution to Gen 1-11, and see that the Promised Land is a New Eden, we
know that the promises to Abraham are not fulfilled today by bringing the
Jewish people back into land in the Middle-East. God's promise of Land to Israel
is fulfilled as Israel brings God's blessing to all people, to the ends of the
earth. This is done by announcing Christ’s saving reign for people to repent
and believe, making disciples of all nations.
God has never stopped caring for the whole world. Even in
the Abraham narrative, God has more in mind than the boundaries of the Land of
Canaan. God tells Abraham in Gen 22:17-18, “Your offspring will possess the
gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by
your offspring.” God told Jacob in Gen 28:14 Your offspring shall be like the
dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and
to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the
families of the earth be blessed. In Ps 2:8, God tells the Messiah, “I will
make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”
(c.f., Isa 54:2-3). The NT has the same view. Paul writes in Rom 4:13, that Abraham
and his descendants would “inherit the world,” and the Greek word is cosmos!
God's purposes for the land promised to Abram are the same
as his purposes for Eden. God wants his people’s land to fill the whole earth. God
wants all humanity to fulfill their vocation as image-bearers. God wants a world
full of worshippers who live for his glory and enjoy his abundant provision in
Edenic peace.
The Bible teaches us that the fullness of future glorified
Eden is brought about by Jesus. Jesus fulfills Eden and what this promise of
Land points to. Jesus destroys the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and offers
the rest and abundant life of Eden (Matt 11:28-30; John 10:10). In Matt 11:28
Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest." This is Edenic rest. In John 10:10 he says, "I came
that they may have life and have it abundantly." This is Edenic life.
The fullness of renewed glorified Eden will only be enjoyed
in the New Heavens and New Earth. Eden was a place of perfect harmony within
each person, psychologicaly and emotionally, between Humanity and God
(spiritually) and between humanity (socially). Sin ruptures any sense of
harmony and alienates us emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and
socially. In Christ, there is redemption and restoration, and so Edenic joy.
This is an example of how we can start to enjoy Edenic
Harmony socially. Desmond Tutu following Apartheid in South Africa sought to
uncover human right abuses during the apartheid era. His goal was to promote
healing and forgiveness rather than revenge. While our sin divides and
alienates us from each other. Tutu, a Christian pushed for Edenic harmony
through social reconciliation. This vision for the world flows from Christ’s
atoning and reconciling work on the cross. It points to the fullness of
Christ's redemption in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Gen 12:2a – Second, we will see that the
promise of Offspring is the promise of a savior.
Gen 12:2
In Gen 11:30 we learn that Abram’s wife, Sarai is not able
to have children. Yet, in Gen 12:2, God promises Abram, “I will make of you a
great nation.” In Gen 12:7, the Lord says, “To your offspring, I will give this
land.” God promises to do something great in Abram's old age.
My suggestion is that so far in
Genesis there are two promises of offspring that bring blessing to the world,
one to Adam and Eve then one to Abram. They have to be the same offspring. In
Abram, God is fulfilling his promise to Adam and Eve.
God promises Abram seed or offspring. Genesis is a unified
book and this early in Genesis, we have to connect any promise of seed or
offspring to bless the world with the greatest promise of seed. This was the promise
in Gen 3:15. God promised a seed or offspring who would crush the devil's head.
This is a promise to destroy the works of the devil and reverse the Genesis 3
curses. Since the flood, humanity has multiplied. In Gen 12:2, the line of this
promised head-crusher has narrowed down to Abram’s line.
In Gen 12:3 God promises that in Abram, all the families of
the earth. Gen 22:18 explains that this universal blessing will occur through
his offspring. The word "offspring" can refer to the singular or
plural. If we understand Gen 22:18 as adding detail to Gen 3:15, we conclude
that one of Abram’s descendants will be this savior of the world.[ii] Paul makes this
conclusion in Gal 3:16. He states that Christ is the offspring of Abraham who
brings a blessing to all the families of the earth.
Application
The first application is that Jesus is the promised
offspring of Abram. A second application comes from God’s promise of children
to a couple to old to have children. This application is based on Isa 51:3 and
Rom 4:17. These verses teach that what God did in creation, he did with Abram
and Sarai. Rom 4:17 reads, by promising offspring to Abram, God “gives life to
the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” The promise of
offspring to the old is the promise of life to the dead. For all of us, the application
is that this is the kind of God that he is. God takes the dark, empty, and
formless and gives light, meaning, and fullness. When we become Christians it
is because God found us in the kingdom of darkness and said, “Let there be
light.” He gave life to the none life.
He can do this in all the areas of our lives that are
tainted by sin. God works in our marriages, our work places, and on our
character.
We will find ourselves in hopeless situations. Because God
made the world out of nothing and allowed Abram and Sarai to have children, we
can have hope. Nothing is impossible with God. He is a God who keeps his
promises. We have a sovereign and gracious God who takes care for us.
Gen 12:2b-3 – Third, we look at the promise
of a Blessing for all the Families of the World as the promise of Christ’s
redemptive work.
Gen 12:2b-3
Gen 12:2b-3 teach about God’s blessing of Abram. God will
bless Abram and will bless those who bless Abram. God will curse those who
curse Abram. In Abram, God promises to bless all the families of the earth. How
you treat Abram will dictate how God treats you.
This verse can serve as a commentary
on the rest of Abraham’s life and his interactions with people.
Now, I’m going to make the same argument I made in the
previous point. Genesis contains a unified story.
At this stage in Genesis, any meaningful blessing would have
to deal with reversing Genesis 3. Now looking forward, Gen 22:18 teaches that
way God blesses the world, is through his offspring. Because Jesus is the promised
offspring, he also brings the promised blessing. Gen 12:3 finds is fulfillment
in Christ and his work.
Those who bless Jesus, by accepting his atoning work, and
praising him as the Lord of life will be blessed. This blessing is being born
again. It is enjoying the forgiveness of sins. It is being indwelled by the
Holy Spirit. The blessing is the enjoyment of Eden's blessings. It is harmony
with God, with others, and within ourselves.
Today, cursing Abram is cursing his offspring, Jesus. Cursing
Jesus is rejecting his work on the cross and refusing to submit to his saving
reign. The curse that results is separation from God in this age and the age to
come. It is living Genesis 3 forever.
Application
The first application is bless Abraham by blessing Jesus.
A second application comes from Gen 12:2 "I will bless
you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." From this
verse comes the Christian phrase, "Blessed to be a blessing." One of
the ways Christ blesses us is by making us into the offspring of Abram. As
Abram’s offspring it is now our job to bless the world. One of the ways we
apply “blessed to be a blessing” is that we are “forgiven to forgive.” We
cannot have postures of contempt towards others. Whenever we hear of a horrific
act that we find unimaginable it means we do not understand sin well enough. When
we are aware of the depth of the sin in our hearts and know we are forgiven all
things, we forgive all things. There is nothing, no crime, no act, that a
Christian is not called to forgive. We are a blessed to be a blessing and so
forgiven to forgive.
In 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca attempted to assassinate, Pope John
Paul II. He fired four times and hit him twice. Following the shooting, Pope
John Paul II asked people to “pray for my brother whom I have sincerely
forgiven. Two years later, the pope met with him in prison. The Pope stayed in
touch with his family. Eventually, the would-be assassin announced that he had
converted from Islam to Christianity. He was released from prison in 2010. In
2014 he visited John Paul’s tomb and laid white roses on it. What an example of
“blessed to be a blessing.” May John Paul’s extreme example motivate us in the
little things to return evil with kindness.
Another application relates to God's concern for all the
families of the world. It was clear in Gen 1-2 that God intended to bless the
world and all humanity. Gen 12:3 reminds us this is still God's intention. For
people to bless Abram to receive God's blessing, they need to bless Jesus. For people
to bless Jesus, we need to make him known and teach all to keep everything
Jesus commanded. We need to make disciples of all nations, starting right here
in this church.
Conclusion
Gal 3:16 told us that Gen 12:1-3, particularly v.3 was the
Christian good news that anticipated the salvation by faith of the gentiles. My
goal was to show that Paul is not crazy. You can come to this conclusion by
studying the blessings of Genesis 12:1-3 in light of Gen 3 and the rest of the
Abraham narrative and conclude, the land is a new Eden, the offspring is the offspring
of the woman, the blessing is future Edenic life made possible by a savior’s
redemptive work.
All Christians enjoy the blessing of Gen 12:1-3 in Christ. We
have received the blessing of the forgiveness of sins, through Abram's
offspring, Jesus, to enjoy hints of life as it was in Eden.
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