Genesis 12:01-03 – God’s Promises to Abraham – Part 1 – powerpoint – audio

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Text: Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

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Introduction

The words God spoke to Abram here form a spiritual foundation for our understanding of the rest of the scriptures. From God’s special calling and choosing of Abram we are able to see His progressive work that consummated is the coming of Christ, His death on Calvary and His resurrection from the dead. We need to understand how God fulfilled His promises to Abram (later Abraham).

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I. The Elements of the Promise:

When we describe the words of Genesis 12:1-3 ESV, we often speak of them as containing 3 interrelated promises. This is a good way to categorize the many promises that God made to Abraham. (Some suggest that it is best to understand the promise as a twofold promise:

1) A nation and land promise which was physical; and

2) a seed promise, which was spiritual).

The content of God’s promises to Abraham and His children were:

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A . A Great Nation

• Genesis 22:17 ESV – I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, God promised to turn Abram’s children into a great nation (I will surely multiply your offspring)
• All males of his household were given the special covenant of circumcision (Gen.17:1-14 ESV);
• His previously barren wife, Sarah, bore him a son (“of promise”) when he was “one hundred years old” (Gen.21:1-7 ESV).
• Later, that son, Isaac, took a wife from among his father’s people (Gen.24 ESV); and Jacob, the “chosen” son of Isaac, took a wife from his mother’s people (Gen.28:1-4 ESV). Both men were warned to take no wives of the Canaanites, nor of other nations where they dwelt, a warning extended throughout the generations yet to come. This was the “building” of a race of people who were to serve God’s purposes in a special way.
• Later known as the nation of Israel, (Jacob named called Israel by God). Israel became God’s nation through the giving of the law at Sinai, and God sanctified them through His commandments.

1. Prior to entering the land of the “promised land” of Canaan, Moses said, “The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.” (Deuteronomy 1:10 ESV)

2. Later Israel is identified as God’s special people, a great nation of His own making: 2 Sam. 7:23 ESV – And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeem for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods?

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B . The Land of Canaan

After Abram entered the land God led him to, God reiterated His intentions concerning the land: Genesis 13:14-15 ESV The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

God later provided definitive boundaries to the promised land to Abraham: Genesis 15:18-21 ESV – On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

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C. The Offspring

“in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” A repetition of the promise in Genesis 22:18 ESV reads, “in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” We are not left to guess the meaning. Paul writes, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16 ESV).

Paul’s grammatical emphasis makes it clear that the blessings for “all nations” did not depend upon Israel as a nation, nor upon Jews as a people, but upon one of Abraham’s descendants, Jesus Christ.

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II. The Fulfillment of the Promises

It is crucial that we understand the manner in which God fulfilled the promises He made to Abram in Genesis 12 ESV. Much false doctrine, especially the false teachings of pre-millennialism, has roots in a misinterpretation of these promises, and a failure to recognize their proper fulfillment.

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A. Pre-millennialism alleges that Jesus will return to this earth before he commences a thousand-year reign on David’s throne in Jerusalem. Pre-millennialism, and its theological sister, dispensationalism, argue that God intends to reestablish a physical Jewish kingdom in Palestine. The doctrine contends that there is yet a purpose to be served by physical Israel (interpreted as the present physical state of Israel that began in 1948). Dispensationalists also allege that in the “seven-year tribulation period,” just prior to Christ’s “millennial reign,” God will restore the Jews to Palestine, and a national conversion of the Hebrew people will occur.

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B. However, a careful consideration of the Bible text will indicate that God fulfilled every physical element of the promises He made to Abraham. Note: The physical aspects of these promises were but means to a far more important and eternal purpose of salvation from sins for all mankind. “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29 ESV).

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1. We have already seen that God fulfilled His promise to make Abraham’s children a great nation. This special covenant relationship was driven by the law given at Sinai, and predicated on their keeping of that law. In speaking about the value of the law to Israel Moses said… – Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? (Deuteronomy 4:6-8 ESV).

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2. God gave all the land He promised – Scriptures clearly refute all of the present “land claims” of the pre-millennialists. Joshua 21:43-45 ESV – Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

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The retention of the land was conditional on their faithfulness. Joshua 23:11-16 ESV – Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you, know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you. “And now I about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you, if you transgress the covenant of the LORD you God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

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3. God returned a remnant to the land: There is not a single New Testament passage that speaks of a restoration of national Israel and the literal return of Hebrews to Palestine at some future time. The prophets did speak about a restoration of Israel to the land after the 70 years of exile in Babylon. Jeremiah 29:10 ESV – For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon. I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

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a. Ezra 1:1 ESV – In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, through the work of Ezra and Nehemiah.

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b. Other predictions, which speak of a “restoration” of Israel, refer to a spiritual restoration (to God, not Palestine – such as Isaiah 49:6-9 ESV; where Isaiah speaks of Jehovah’s Servant (the Messiah) restoring Israel and blessing all nations. Paul references this verse twice (2 Cor. 6 ESV and Acts 13 ESV in Antioch) in connection with the preaching of the gospel to both the Jew and the Gentile.

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Conclusion

God promised Abraham:

• A nation
• A land
• An offspring

God fulfilled these promises in the nation of Israel, the Promised Land and Jesus Christ.