Gen 12:2-3 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (ESV)
Sometimes on a journey you get to a vantage point. You come to a clearing in the trees, the brow of a hill, or turn a corner on a mountain path, and suddenly get a panoramic view of the way ahead. You pause for a few moments, taking it all in, knowing that your next steps will take you back into the rocks or trees and your eyes will be back down on the path. You must make a mental map of what you see now to guide you later. This is just such a place in scripture.
As I come to look at the promises God makes to Abram I still have the command in my mind and particularly the massive cost to Abram in obeying it. What would it be like for me to get up and go from my home in the UK into a nation with a radically different language and culture? What would it be like to leave without an address to go to, sitting on a plane with no one waiting to meet me at the other end. What would compel me do that? For Abram it was a promise of blessing, both personal and global; intimate and international. Specifically God promises:
· To make Abram a great nation
· To bless him and make his name great
· To treat others as they treat Abram (bless or curse) and
· To bless all the families of the earth in him
Now that's a lot of blessing so I'll step through it a bit. This childless man will have a son Isaac and he will have a son Jacob who will be called Israel and from him will come a unique nation special to God. Abram himself will be blessed, not just with a son, I think, but in the full breadth of this word; a long life, a healthy body, resources to live life and do stuff, a relationship with God. You name it, he's going to get it. Wow.
Abram's name will be changed to Abraham (meaning "father of a multitude") and made great. Many will look back to him as their father. Even today he is a key figure in three of the world's major religions making up over half of the world's population. What is it in us that wants our name to be great? I think it's a hunger for significance, not to be snuffed out but to live on in some form or other, the desire for meaning, and to be somebody. Well Abraham was to be somebody with enduring significance.
But the blessing doesn't stop at Abraham. It is transferable! Those that bless him are blessed and those that curse him are cursed. Others can tap into Abram's blessing or cut themselves off from it by virtue of the way they relate to him. And God is here promising that this blessing will flow into every nation of the world. In one man's blessing is every nation's blessing.
Wonderful as all this is it is only a pencil sketch, a prophetic precursor to an even greater blessing. I'm reminded of the classic line in Crocodile Dundee when Mick is confronted by a mugger with a 6 inch knife. "you call that a knife? Now that's a knife" he says as he pulls out his 2 foot long machete. Well, that's what happens in the bible. As we get our heads around what we think are the extent of the promises to Abram we turn over the pages of the bible into the New Testament and God says "you call that blessing", "now that's a blessing".
The fullness of the nation that comes from Abram is not one of physical descent but spiritual. It's not all those who share Abram's genes but his faith who are his children. The fulfilment of these promises come through one of Abram's descendents, Jesus, the name above all other names. Blessings and curses are ultimately found in our response to Jesus. If we accept him we are accepted, if we reject him then we are rejected. It is in the name of Jesus that we find significance and meaning and purpose. It is faith in the name of Jesus that gives us eternal life and relationship with God. It is in the name of Jesus that blessing is released into the nations of the world as those from every race, tribe and tongue bless his name.
As I read this ancient story of Abram recounting events that took place thousands of years ago, I am struck at how much they are relevant to me. These promises have flowed into my life on their way out to all the nations of the world. In Christ I am part of the nation promised to Abram, made up of others from every nation. I have significance and purpose, and in fact every Spiritual blessing there is. In these few verses are my roots. When God chose Abram he had me in mind and countless others more numerous than the stars in the sky. Abram died without seeing the fullness of these promises, we see a lot more but I bet my thinking is still way too small. I'll get to heaven and God will say "You think you know blessing? I'll show you blessing!" and I will be wonderfully caught up in his infinite love and glory for all eternity. Let there be no mistake about it, the bible is a book about blessing. When I walk through some tricky passages and even hard experiences in my own life this is the mental picture I want in my head. God's plan for me and the nations is blessing, blessing, blessing through the person of his son Jesus.
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