Genesis 12:1-3 – Blessed to be a blessing

Even with Noah and the eradication of evil, mankind remain grievously lost since the fall. It continued in the downward spiral despite the new start given through Noah. However, the key to the hope of a great future for mankind would soon begin with a descendant of Shem. He was none other than Abram, the exalted father. No doubt Abram lived in darkness until He heard God. Like him we too would be in darkness until we hear the call of Christ that clearly says, “follow me!” So to Abram God said:

“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

The enormity of the command God made to Abram was the great sacrifice that God required of him. He was to leave his country, his people and his father’s household. That’s not all. Another challenge lies in the vagueness of the destination he was going to. He was to go to a land God will show him. Nothing specific. This simply implied that He must believe God, trust Him absolutely and obey Him without question. What a requirement! Faith as it had been said, stands for “Forsaking All I Trust Him.”

This has been the demand of all God’s call on every life, ours included. Whatever we have held fast before we come to Christ must give way to the new and challenging demand of following Him. Can we now understand why our Lord should say in Matthew 10:37 that “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me”? He also said in Mark 8:35 that “…whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Like God’s call to Abram, Christ’s call to us remains as demanding. There is no guarantee of a life of ease in following Christ, but He promises to be with us and take us through every encounter till we reach our eternal home. With the just God we worship, we will never be short-changed. We see this clearly in the call of Abram. With the demand that God made of him, there was also the promise of blessing on his life. The blessing promised to him can only be experienced in full through his offspring – both Israel and the church.

Notice that the source of the blessing is God.  Everything would come from Him. The two words, “I will” appear no less than five times. It is an assertion that God Himself would see to it. Here we see God promised personal blessing on Abram. God promised to make him a great nation and give him a great name. The great nation part was particularly challenging, since his wife Sarai was barren. This would require an extraordinary miracle. But God did make him a great nation. The great name of Abram has today come through the ultimate King - Jesus, born with the borrowed womb of Mary, an Abraham’s descendant. This Jesus has been given a name that is above every other name. At His name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.  

God’s blessing on Abram was also a global one. The concluding part of this blessing is that through Abram shall all the earth be blessed. And again through Jesus Christ, the ultimate seed of Abram, that the world will be truly blessed. In blessing Abram, God also guaranteed protection. So we see that those who bless Abram will be blessed and those who curse him will be cursed. God Himself will personally deal with those who would despise Abram and his people. The blessing of God on Abram has now become the mandate of the church. We are blessed to be a blessing. And this we must diligently fulfill. Let’s be a blessing!