God said to Abraham...
Genesis 12:1-3 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.”
A covenant is a guarantee or pledge. Here we have the first of the several pledges that God will make to Abram or Abraham as he will later be called. Later in chapter 17 we see where God will make a covenant or pledge with not only Abram, but his descendents too. We need to be careful to always not take scripture out of context by combining them with other scripture in the Bible. God is not obligated to do things that he does not say he will do! Many preachers and teachers will go on what they call rabbit trails where they will try to incorporate things that are not meant to be together as one true statement or doctrine of God. This of course can be very dangerous. It can be very entertaining, but doctrinally it can be very dangerous and deceiving.
Where in chapter 17 we see God making a covenant with Abraham and his descendents in chapter 15 God is making a covenant with Abram. There is a difference and it should be taken into consideration. I will be talking about chapter 17 later, but for this devotion I will focus on chapter 15. Abraham gets a vision from the Lord. A vision is something that is seen while the person is awake. A dream which God can also speak to us when we are asleep. Both are valid means that God uses. He also uses many other ways as well such as the Bible, other Christians, angels, the Holy Spirit and even creation. The Lord comes to Abram while he is in Haran with his father Terah and gives him this promise. All Abram has to do is leave his country and his father’s household and go to a land he will show him. God doesn’t name the land, but it is obvious that he will direct him. It is not like Abram has to wonder around like a blind man. I believe it was much like the wise men that followed the star to find Jesus. Only they could see the star, because Herod or the religious leaders couldn’t see the star or they wouldn’t have had to ask about it.
Sad to say Abram may have left his father’s family, but he took his nephew Lot.
This would prove to be a mistake as not following God’s direction always is. Lot’s people became troublesome for Abram and in their separating Lot got the nice valley and Abram got the land of Canaan. Later Lot’s descendants, the Moabites, would later cause trouble for the descendents of Abram. God tells Abram that he will make him into a great nation. While we see in Gen 17:5 God says that Abraham will be the father of many nations, there is not a contradiction. In Chapter 12 God is pointing to a nation that a person will come that will bless the world. This is very important as we look for the fulfillment to point to a particular person, this of course we see later in scripture as it being Jesus Christ. God promises to bless Abram and he does. This promise was for Abram and not all his descendents. As we look throughout history all of Abram’s descendents were not always blessed, in fact much of the time all of his descendents have been living in conflict and persecution. The main reason for this is that they did not continue to obey God, nor do they today as much of them reject Jesus! Abram’s name has been blessed. Even today it is known throughout the world.
He is considered to be the ancestral and spiritual father of millions of people.
This next verse is most often taken out of context by saying that blessing and cursing is for all Jews. Once again this verse is for Abram and not his descendents. God even uses other nations to come against the Hebrews when they turn to idol worship. The next verse concerning the blessing of the world coming through Abram is once again for Abram. Not all of Abram’s descendants would qualify for the lentage of having the Messiah come through them.
So what is this devotional all about? It is the importance of understanding the promises of God or scripture correctly. To believe an error no matter how sincere we may be it is still a error, and God does not have to honor it no matter how much we may quote it or shout it. It is up to each of us to diligently search the scriptures to make sure that we have them correctly and not just trust a pastor, teacher, denomination or me! We will not have everything all figured out in the Bible, but we do know one thing and that is God is a good God and we can trust in his Son Jesus Christ for our forgiveness and reconciliation with God for all eternity.
Prayer: Lord please help us to not be deceived in these last days as Jesus says even the elect may. (Matt 24:24) Please give us the wisdom, knowledge and insight to discern your word correctly, so Satan, the powers f darkness and the evil of this world can have their way with us. Please keep us close to your heart and to our salvation! In Jesus name we pray.
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