Christmas Foreseen in Abraham

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Friday, December 18, 2015
Jeff Lampl  

Christmas Foreseen in Abraham

“The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.  "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." . . . . .  “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring (or seed) I will give this land."                                                                  Genesis 12:1-7 (NIV)  

After the huge mess that the world had become as described in Genesis 3-11, Genesis 12 marks the beginning of God’s renewal project for planet earth and all creatures on it.   God started with Abraham and tells him that that “all peoples on earth will be blessed”, through him, a pretty big promise don’t you think?  

The message to Abraham was that he would father a nation which God would send on a rescue mission to the rest of the world with the clear implication is that this nation would succeed in rescuing the world from sin and evil.   

Notice verse 7 (the last line in the scripture above).   The promise is made to Abraham and to his “seed” which is a singular noun, meaning one seed.   We know that Abraham had one son by Hagar and another, Isaac, by his wife Sarah.  It was this one seed, Isaac, which led to the creation of the nation of Israel (through Isaac’s son Jacob and Jacob’s progeny)  

But there’s a problem.   

Israel never did become the healing and rescuing force for the world that would fulfill God’s promise to Abraham.   How, then would the promise get fulfilled?  

The Apostle Paul explains in Galatians 3:16  

"Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as referring to many, but rather to one. 'And to your seed,' that is Christ."

Paul is telling us that Genesis 12 is saying that through Abraham would come a great nation. From that nation would come great blessing to the world. In that nation there would be a seed, a seed that is none other than Christ through whom all other promises are fulfilled, which is why when you open the New Testament to the first page and the first verse, this is what you read in Matthew 1:1,

"The book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham."

And there is a genealogy that follows to show you step by step, person by person the full genealogy that begins with Abraham and ends up with Joseph the “father” of our Lord Jesus. The Old Testament said the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham and the New Testament confirms that indeed He was.

God has a plan and you and I, incomprehensibly, are written into that plan.

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