Ep. 49 | GENESIS 12 | Story of the Gospel | The Promised Blessing (Abraham)

God chose one man and his wife to set apart from all others—to build a nation set apart from all others. In the call of Abram, we will consider our own call to follow Jesus, and how God's grace extends to call imperfect people to follow our perfect God.


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A Look At Abram (Abraham's) Family
God chose one family to bring about His redemptive plan throughout history. Who is this family? And what does Genesis 12-50 show us? Bible Project has a great overview for us.

What is the Bible?
A video from the Bible project that helps us understand what the Bible is.
https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/torah-genesis-2/

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Transcript

 In Genesis, we have seen the pervasiveness of wickedness in humanity, from the garden to the time of Noah, and even during the Tower of Babel that you can read about in Genesis 11. Humanity over and over chooses to live their own way instead of God's way, to live in rebellion against God's commands. So, God chose a man and his wife, Abram and his wife Sarai, out of idolatrous worship to worship the one and only true God.

Abram and his wife, Sarai, would become the nation of Israel set apart from all others, so that maybe people would look at Israel and worship God, but I'm getting ahead of the story. Right now, we are in the end of Genesis 11, that links Abram with Adam. Abram is in the line of the seed of the woman, the seed of righteousness. 

God called Abram out of his pagan nation that worshipped a pantheon of gods to follow the one and only true God by faith demonstrated through obedience.

This is where we will meditate on scripture today.

 Before I read, take a moment to prepare your heart to listen to God's word. Come Holy Spirit, come.

Genesis 12:1–4

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “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.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
     and whoever curses you I will curse;
 and all peoples on earth
     will be blessed through you.”[b]

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

What did the Holy Spirit highlight for you? Think about this for a moment. 

I'm going to read these few verses again. Listen closely. 

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “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.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
     and whoever curses you I will curse;
 and all peoples on earth
     will be blessed through you.”[b]

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

What did you notice this time? Dwell on that for a moment.

Blessed to be a blessing. Through faith and obedience, Abram was blessed to be a blessing, but he was to obey God's command. And in order to obey God's command, he had to believe what God said.

God told Abram that God would bless him. God would make his name great. God would bless those who blessed him, and God would curse those who cursed him. And through Abram. God would bless all the people of the earth. God's choosing is God's doing. God's blessing is God's work. God's greatest blessing to all of humanity is through the seed of the woman. Through the family line of Abram—in Christ himself.

 I am going to read this week's verses one more time. Notice how the author records what Abram was to do, and then what Abram did. 

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “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.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
     and whoever curses you I will curse;
 and all peoples on earth
     will be blessed through you.”[b]

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

What did you notice? Think about this for a moment.

Abram went as the Lord told him. He obeyed God. Faith in God's promise was demonstrated by obedience to God's command. Faith in God's promise was demonstrated by obedience to God's went.

Lot went with him.  Abram was told to leave his home and his family, but lot went with him. Now, as we will see, this decision will bring some difficulty to both Abram and Lot, even though God's promise and blessing will still endure. 

And I wonder, are there places in our lives where we know we need to obey the Lord, but we don't quite obey him?

All the way, total obedience to the Lord brings total blessing from the Lord. Total obedience to the Lord brings total blessing from the Lord. The blessing of walking exactly in the way in which God has called us to walk that produces a life far more abundant in us than all the riches Abram and Lot brought along the journey. God's blessing comes through our obedience.

As we enter time to reflect and pray, how has God blessed you? 

How are you blessing others ? 

Or what is one way you need to obey God all the way? 

Pray about this or anything else the Spirit brought to mind in today's reading. 

Let's pray. . .

Thank you for joining me today on the WellSoul podcast for our story of the gospel journey. You WellSoul community. You can subscribe to the WellSoul community and receive encouragement and resources to live with a well soul directly in your inbox. See the link in the show notes to join us for free.

You can also follow the WellSoul on Instagram for more content to help you know God's word, walk with God and live with purpose. In closing, I remember my late friend, Brian Vasquez, who made this podcast possible. God bless you. And I pray that you have a well soul.