Masterful teachers make their points with a bang. They seem to be able to lure you in, make you think you know what is coming, and then turn the tables and drive home a point that you never forget. Jesus does this well. Whether it is the men receiving equal wages, the Samaritan stopping to help the wounded man, or the prodigal finding the blessings of a father he had despised, the listener is lured in, expecting the obvious, but is left amazed at the unexpected teaching.
The story line of Scripture does much the same thing. Just when we are getting used to the cycle of man’s sin resulting in divine punishment, God reverses the trend in Genesis 12.
In light of the preceding chapters, this chapter contrasts sharply. God speaks to a man and tells him that, through him, He will bless his descendants and, ultimately, all nations. In a story where, heretofore, man has only merited the wrath of God, we are left with all kinds of questions.
“Surely Abraham came from a family who lived better than everyone else,” we might explain. However, Joshua 24:2 confirms that Terah’s family (and, thus, Abraham’s family) worshipped other gods before the Lord God called Abraham. Genesis 8:20-21 tells us that man’s heart is continually evil: Abraham is not excluded from this condemnation.
So, why is he blessed by God? The answer to this is the same answer that we would give to any question involving God’s good dealing with His creatures: His grace. God has given something to Abraham (and, indeed, all who have called on His name) that he never could have merited. So how did God bless Abraham? The answer to this is the unfolding plan of redemption. Just as Genesis 1 begins creation, Genesis 12 is the beginning of a new creation.
It is not long into the story of Abraham before we learn that he will be the source of blessing to the nations. God promises this in Genesis 12:3 and 22:18. How dramatically this will come about is not realized immediately. Yes, after this, Abraham becomes linked with his Maker, for the one true God becomes referred to quite often as the God of Abraham. However, the richest blessing to and from Abraham comes from his seed.
This is miraculous because Sarai, his wife, cannot have a child, for she is barren (11:30). Besides this, the promise is given to them when Sarai is 80 and Abraham is 90 – way too old to have children. However, when Sarah is 90 and Abraham is 100, they are given a miracle baby as Sarah conceives and brings forth a son whom they name “Isaac.” It is through him that this promised seed (and blessing) would come.
We get an idea as to the identity of this seed to come as we read through the rest of Genesis. We see the following things:
1. Their names are changed.
In the seventeenth chapter, Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah. What is interesting about the changes is what their names mean. “Sarah” means “princess”; God reveals that she is so named because “Kings of peoples shall come from her” (17:16). In the same way, “Abraham” means “Father of a multitude,” for he is given a similar promise (17:6).
2. Abraham is treated as a king.
Their names are not the only source that brings our minds to think of royalty. Abraham himself is treated as a king. In Genesis 14:17-24, as Abraham returns from conquest, kings meet together with him in “the King’s Valley” (14:17). Thus, it is at least hinted at here that he is treated as a king. And then in chapter 21 we see the same kind of things as King Abimelech makes a treaty with Abraham – just as he would another king (21:22-24). Therefore, it is clear that Genesis paints Abraham and Sarah in a royal light.
3. When Isaac is born, God tells Abraham to sacrifice him.
This command of God is not in itself enough to think anything unusual about the one to come from the seed of Abraham; however, Abraham’s conversation with Isaac leads us to such a train of thought. On their way to the mount where Abraham intends to sacrifice Isaac, Isaac asks (for he does not know what is going on), “My father…Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (22:7). Abraham answers, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (22:8). Then, we see that Isaac is not the one that God provides for a sacrifice as Abraham is stopped from slaying his son as “the angel of the Lord” calls out and says, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him” (22:12). Finally, Abraham, after offering up the ram caught in the thicket in the place of his son, says, “The Lord will provide,” and it became a saying from that point: “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided” (22:14).
We see from this that Abraham expects God to proved a lamb for a burnt offering, and it will be “for himself” (22:8). Then we see that Isaac is not this lamb, but nor is this ram in the thicket the intended offering, for Abraham still declares (after the sacrifice) that the Lord will provide. Therefore, we are already keened into the thought that God will provide another (from the seed of Abraham) who will be an offering from God to satisfy Himself.
Then, to show that our thinking is leading us the right way, Isaiah remarks in Isaiah 53:6-7, looking forward to the Messiah, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but he Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”
Thus, we see that Isaiah anticipates an offering/ a sacrifice to come and take our sins upon himself, satisfying the judgment of God. Now, the lamb imagery may be inserted not to key our attention back to Genesis 22, but to remember Abraham’s statement that “God will provide for Himself the lamb” (22:8).
Then we must not forget the promise that God gives to Abraham in Genesis 22:18, as he says, “And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”
Therefore, the seed of Abraham that we anticipate becomes much bigger than Isaac, for it is hinted that he will be royalty – a king, a sacrifice – the lamb provided by God as a sacrifice unto himself, and the one in whom all the nations shall be blessed. We anticipate him possibly being “the seed of the woman” promised in Genesis 3:15, the one who might be able to reverse the effects of Adam’s sin and conquer death for his people. Possibly, this “seed of Abraham” could be the one to do all these things.
But who is he?
This question is answered in the first verse of the New Testament. Matthew writes in Matthew 1:1, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” So we see that Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham. And not only that, but he is royalty, for he is also the Son of David, who was the king of Israel. Thus, this seed of Abraham is king, his rightful claim mockingly placed above his head on the cross: “This is the King of the Jews.”
But what about the lamb?
John the Baptist’s first statement (according to John) when he sees Jesus walking toward him is “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Thus, Jesus is seen in the New Testament as the Lamb of God – no doubt the lamb that had been foretold in Genesis 22.
But what about being the sacrifice, satisfying the judgment of God?
This is what happens on the cross. God makes “him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 21) and pours out His judgment on His own Son. Thus, Jesus satisfies the wrath of God, propitiating God’s anger, and renders Him friendly toward us.
Therefore, Jesus is the seed of Abraham promised in Genesis. Yes, Isaac is a promised son that Abraham is miraculously given, but, ultimately, the one who fulfills the promise is Jesus Christ. Therefore, Paul rightly states in Galatians 3:16, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to his seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ.”
Thus, Jesus Christ is indeed to seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the King of the Jews, the Lamb offering as a satisfactory sacrifice unto God, and the way that man is redeemed from the fall. Jesus is born into the world through the lineage of Abraham. Thus, what we see in God’s pronounced blessing on Abraham is the beginning of the unfolding plan of redemption that remains a mystery until the appearing of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the climax of the history of redemption that begins with Abraham.
But how do nations come from Abraham and how are all nations blessed through his seed? After all, in reality did not only a few nations come from Abraham, and so how are all blessed through his seed?
The answer to this is found in Jesus Christ as well. Paul writes in Galatians 3:29, “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” Thus, as Jesus Christ sheds his bloods on the cross, he purchases men and women for himself; these people reap the blessings promised to Abraham and are, therefore, in Christ, and consequently, Abraham’s descendants.
But does this blessing come to every nation?
In Revelation 5, we read that those who Jesus purchases come from every tongue, tribe, and nations; Revelation 5:9 records the elders saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to break its seals; for you were slain, and did purchase for God with you blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” Therefore, because of the work of Christ, Abraham becomes the father of many nations and all nations are blessed through his seed, as individuals are justified in Christ.
But how are we justified in Christ? How are we declared righteous before God?
Again, we return to Abraham to answer this.
Abraham was like everyone else after the fall: he was depraved, tainted with sin and its effects to his very core. He was not an exception to God’s description of man in Genesis 6:5 and 8:20-21. Therefore, if he was to stand righteous before a holy God, it was not going to be because he lived perfectly. In fact, we read that he did wrong in sleeping with Hagar (Genesis 16:1-6) and in lying twice about Sarah not being his wife (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-7). Thus, if he is to stand righteous before a holy God, he needs a righteousness that can come from outside of himself.
This is obtained through faith, for Genesis 15:6 tells us that God credits Abraham’s faith as righteousness. Thus, any righteous standing that Abraham has before God is obtained through faith.
But what does this have to do with us?
It becomes the basis for the way in which we are justified. Paul writes in Romans 4:19-25, “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore ‘it was also credited to him as righteousness [a quote from Genesis 15:6]. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”
As Abraham was justified by faith before God, so are we when we believe that the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ is able to bring us forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Therefore, we are justified and united to Christ by faith.
1. Trust in God’s word and act accordingly.
God has shown us that his ways are the best ways. Even if it looks flawed (as the promise of a son did to Abraham), God’s seeming foolishness is wiser than man’s greatest wisdom. Therefore, in a day when so many professing believers are criticizing the church and wanting to have nothing to do with it, we need to remember that God has declared the church to be the means for God’s people to gather and to be that through which he will spread the blessing to the entire world. Thus, I urge you to get intimately connected with a local body of believers.
2. Live in the reality of God’s promise.
Everything Abraham did was eon in light of God fulfilling his promise. For us, God has promised that those who have repented and placed their faith in Christ will live for eternity as his people. Therefore, live in light of this, seeing the passing pleasure of sins (seeing them exactly as they are: passing pleasures), make your treasures things of eternal value, and pour yourself into knowing and delighting in God, for he is our eternal hope and joy.
And realize that we do all of this by the power that comes through the Gospel, whose story spans the entire Scriptures, climaxing in Jesus Christ and ending at His return. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.