Genesis 12:2-3—The promise to Abraham
Adam-Seth-Noah-Shem...Abraham
Now we come to one of the most important people in the Bible, yea, in all of human history—Abraham. We have seen, thus far, the beginning development of God’s scheme for redeeming mankind from sin—the commencement of the fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 3:15. A Savior was to come as the “seed of woman,” i.e., as a human. He would obviously come through Adam and Eve. He would come through Seth. Then Noah. Then Shem. And now Shem’s descendant, Abraham.
We must keep historical perspective here. By Abraham’s time (approximately 2000 B.C.), there are countless millions of people on the earth, though we have no idea how many. There are countless tribes, cities, small nations: history tells us of many of them. But God chose Abraham as the one through whom the Messiah would come. And Abraham, of course, is the father of the Jewish people, who obviously still exist on earth today. The Savior of mankind would descend through the Jewish race. Look for him there. Not through the Persians or Greeks or Romans or Chinese or Apaches or Eskimos...look for Him through the Jewish people.
In Genesis 12:2-3, God made, in effect, three promises to Abraham:
1. A national promise. “I will make you a great nation”—the Jewish peoples, who still exist on the earth today, although technically, they shouldn’t because they all should have accepted Jesus and become Christians. But even with that thought, for 2000 years after Abraham, the Jews definitely became a large conglomeration of people—“great”, depending upon how you wish to define that word.
2. A personal promise. “I will bless you And make your name great.” I’m writing about Abraham right now, 4,000 years after he lived. That is sufficient to prove this promise.
3. A spiritual promise—the Messianic promise. “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Please note the word “ALL”. Salvation is for Jew and Gentile alike. We don’t have to guess at the meaning of this promise because Paul tells us what it means: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’"
The Messiah, the Savior of the world, Jesus of Nazareth, the fulfillment of God’s great promise found in Genesis 3:15 to save mankind—ALL of mankind—from sin, would come through Abraham.
The remainder of the Old Testament, and even the New, is the execution of this promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3. Even too many [supposed] Bible students have no clue as to this great truth. But if we don’t understand Genesis 12:2-3, we will never understand the Bible—or this world and its purpose.