Articles
The Promises to Abraham - Part 1
The Promises to Abraham - Part 1 By Derek Long
Today we want to examine the promises God made to Abraham and their fulfillment. In Genesis 12:1-7 we read of God calling Abram, who is later named Abraham in Genesis 17:5, to leave Haran and go to the land of Canaan. The passage says, “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; 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; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” God makes three basic promises to Abraham we want to examine. The first promise is to make of Abraham’s descendants a great nation. The second promise is to give to Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan. The third promise is to have one come from the Seed of Abraham who will bless all nations of the earth. Have these promises been fulfilled? If so, how do we see their fulfillment take place?
Let’s first examine the promise to make of Abraham’s descendants a great nation. Abraham will have a son named Ishamael by Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar. However, in Genesis 17:20-21 God tells Abraham the promises will not be fulfilled by Ishmael but by Isaac whom Sarah shall bear. God tells Abraham, “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.’” Isaac would be born and God would promise to make of his descendants a great nation. In Genesis 26:4 God tells Isaac, “And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” Isaac’s son, Jacob, will have the same promises repeated to him. In Genesis 28:14 God tells Jacob, “Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Jacob and his descendants will be forced to leave the land of Canaan and enter the land of Egypt to find food during a famine. Depending on who are is included in the counting between 70-75 people based upon Genesis 46:27; Exodus 1:5; and Acts
7:14. From these 70-75 people over a period of about 430 years, the family of Jacob will grow into a large number of people and a great nation. Jacob’s family, the descendants of Abraham, leave the land of Egypt not as a small band of people but as a large nation. When the children of Israel arrive at Mount Sinai and take their first census, Numbers 1:45-47 tells us, “So all who were numbered of the children of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war in Israel - all who were numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty. But the Levites were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe.” The Levites were numbered and Numbers 4:46-48 says, “All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered, by their families and by their fathers’ houses, from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who came to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens in the tabernacle of meeting - those who were numbered were eight thousand five hundred and eighty.” These passages show us how God took a small family and made them into a great nations as He promised to Abraham.
- Bulletin_-_7_21_19.pdf (47.67 kB)
