God’s Promise to Abraham

God promised Abraham to make of him a great country, to make his name great, and to bless him and make him a blessing to others (Gen. 12:2-3). Eventually, Abraham became a blessing to all the earth. In the previous chapter we saw Noah’s prophecy concerning his three sons (9:24-27). According to this prophecy, the sons of Japheth, the strong ones, would dwell in the tents of Shem. That means that Shem is a blessing to all these strong ones on the earth. In one sense, when we believed into the Lord, we confessed and admitted that we were weak persons. But in another sense, everyone who has believed into Christ is a strong one. If we were not strong, we could have never believed into Christ. Many of us are the descendants of Japheth who have entered into the tents of Shem. These tents are the blessing.

Galatians 3:8 says, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles out of faith, announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham: ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’” Here Paul says that the promise God gave to Abraham, “In you shall all the nations be blessed,” was the gospel. That was the preaching of the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Eventually, Genesis 22:18 reveals that this blessing actually is not Abraham himself but his descendant, his seed. This seed of Abraham is Christ (Gal. 3:16). Christ has become the biggest blessing to the whole earth, and Christ came out of Abraham. The Christian life is a life always motivated by God in everything so that we can be blessed with Christ and become a blessing in Christ to others.

Appearing to Him the Third Time

God appeared to Abraham the third time and promised him that He would give the land of Canaan to his seed (Gen. 12:7). God appeared and spoke to Abraham altogether twelve times.

Saving Him from Pharaoh’s Insulting of His Wife

Genesis 12:10-20 shows how God saved Abraham from Pharaoh’s insulting of his wife.

Promising to Give Him and His Seed 
All the Land That He Saw

God promised to give to Abraham and his seed all the land that he saw, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, and to make his seed as the dust of the earth (13:14-17). God was telling Abraham that he would get as much as he could see. Northward was surely up to Lebanon, the northern border of the good land. Southward was to the river of Egypt, the Nile. Eastward was to the great river, the river Euphrates. Westward was to the seashore of the Mediterranean. Abraham saw the boundaries of the good land.