Friday, March 3, 2017

JESUS and the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen.12)

In Genesis 12:1-3, the LORD prophecies Jesus' coming to earth...
3    3    3    
(Genesis 12:1-3)  Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great;  and so you shall be a blessing;
3    And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
I know that later on, God will build on this prophecy of Jesus coming to earth through Abram/Abraham's "seed" (meaning "descendants").  This is why all those passages of who begat whom are so important.  And knowing a few things about Abram's story going forward. even though Abram did not understand this last part, Abram trusted and obeyed God with this.

Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all their possessions, and headed to the land that God would show him.  Abram was already 75 years old at this point, and Sarai had not been able to give Abram any children (Gen.11:30).

When they reached the land of Canaan, (Gen.12:7) the LORD appeared to Abram to tell him, "To your descendants I will give this land."  Curious to know HOW the LORD appeared to him, but it doesn't really matter.  Abram built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.  Abram even built a second altar in another spot... but then...

Because of a drought, they went into to Egypt.  There, not only did Abram NOT build an altar to God, Abram decided NOT to trust God regarding his wife Sarai - even after just trusting God with the huge move to another land.  And even after God had promised that GOD would make him a great nation... GOD would bless him... Abram still decided to take matters into his own hands and lied to protect his wife.  Which didn't work, by the way.  The Egyptians still took her.  And because of Abram's sin, the consequences fell onto the Egyptians, which angered the Egyptians toward him.  Curious to know how the scenario would have gone if Abram would have trusted God???

But here we see just how faithful and patient God is.  God saves Sarai, and she is returned to Abram, even though Abram had failed.  We know that God still kept His promise... Jesus still suffered and died for us and rose again to provide salvation... BECAUSE - it's pretty obvious! - We need saving!!!

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