23 MAY
The promise
‘And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.’ Genesis 12:2–3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Galatians 3:1–18
From the consideration of God’s command [in verse 1] we are led to the promise. For when the Lord calls his people out of the world, he does not bid them forsake all for nothing. A mistake in this point is the reason why they are pitied because they no longer run in the same excess of riot. So children might affect to pity grown people because they are no longer pleased with their childish sports. A part of this promise was personally to Abraham, that he should be the father of a great nation, and that in him—that is to say, as it is elsewhere expressed, in his seed—all the families of the earth should be blessed. This St Paul applies to Christ (Galatians 3). Here the promise first given in general terms, of a seed of the woman, is restrained to One of Abraham’s posterity and it was his especial honour and privilege to be the head of God’s chosen people and the root from whence, according to the flesh, the Saviour of men should spring. Here Abraham began to see the day of Christ, and it was by faith in him, who in the fullness of time was to descend from him, that the covenant was established to Abraham himself.
FOR MEDITATION: ‘A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah, … Jesse was the father of David the king, … the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ’ (Matthew 1:1–2, 16, NIV).
‘Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all’ (Romans 4:16 NIV).
SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 23 [1/3], GENESIS 12:2
Milo 