“Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” Acts 3:25
We see in this lesson the expansion of ‘righteousness’ and how it is developed. We know from last week that Noah was saved because he was a righteous man, now in this passage God elaborates on how one is declared ‘righteous’.
Our story of Abram begins in Genesis 12 with Abram in Haran where Gods gives instructions to Abram to ‘leave your native country and to go to the place I will show you’.
1The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
Acts 7:2-4 takes a couple steps back and provides more detail on this call of God, emphasizing that this call occurred while Abram was still in Ur of the Chaldeans.
“Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ 4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.
Notice the significance of this right at the onset of the call of Abram. In last week’s study we learned of the tower of Babel and we contrasted this to the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. One of the key points discussed included the ongoing spiritual differentiation between Babylon and Jerusalem. Notice now this call, Abram is called out of Ur (Babylon) to Canaan (Jerusalem). All through scripture Abram’s faith is emphasized. Faith that brings him to the Promised Land from the land of destruction, the same faith that brings us from destruction to promise. We are called to make this journey and trust the promise of God as we travel to a city whose architect and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:8-10 speaks of this faith:
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
No final destination, no answer to the question why, just go. With obedience, God reveals: where? The land of Canaan. Why? “ I will give this land to your offspring”. The blessings include: 1) I will make you into a great nation; 2) I will bless you and make you famous; 3) You will be a blessing to others (all families on earth will be blessed through you).
Don’t miss the promises revealed to Abram. He in essence receives that which the builders of Babel desired. They desired to make a name for themselves, and become a great nation, precisely what was promised to Abram with the additional promise of becoming a blessing for generations that follow.
In our next section of scripture, we notice this promise of descendants to appear out of reach to a concerned Abram as we look carefully at this passage. We see in verses 2 and 3 of Genesis 15 Abram’s expresses this concern to God. He specifically indicates his concern over having no son to receive ‘his inheritance’.
Abram uses phrases that indicate a concern for his current possessions or inheritance. Later in verse 7 God indicates the limitations of Abram’s current understanding of God’s blessing. God not only promises offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky, Abram’s current possessions are insignificant compared to the possession of Canaan. The Hebrew word (yaresh) used here for ‘take possession’ is synonymous with ‘to inherit’ and is the exact same Hebrew word used in verse 3 where Abram is worried about who will ‘inherit’ his possessions. Wow! Abram’s worried about having no son to receive his inheritance, then God not only reassures Abram of his promise of a son but then also completely redefines what that inheritance looks like, promises far beyond his current possessions, that of a promised land! And yet even more “I will be their God” (17:8).
Genesis 15:6; “Abraham believed the Lord and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith”.
This same belief and faith in God’s instructions is applied to Noah in Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family”
On to one of my favorite passages in scripture, Abrams vision. Abram asks “how can I be sure I will gain possession of the land?” (Genesis 15:8). God, in effort to re-assure him, completes a treaty with him. A treaty of kings, one requiring the kings of nations to pass between animals cut in half as a commitment to each other in establishing loyalty. Basically, if the kings were of equal status, both kings making the agreement would pass between the animals. Either king failing in loyalty to the other is cursed to the same fate as the animals they are passing between. If one of the kings is from a nation superior to the other, only the lesser king (the ‘vassel’) would pass between the animals establishing his loyalty to the superior king. Failure in this loyalty would result in his death.
What is noticeably absent in this passage, is the presence of Abram in this treaty. His only duty was to protect the cut animals through scattering of the birds of prey. God passes between the slain animals in the form of a blazing torch and smoking firepot (Christ with the Father), in essence declaring the punishment upon himself for man’s failure to continue covenant. Do we really grasp the full magnitude of this statement? God is saying to us “YOUR failure will result in ME, dying for YOU!”
Scripture is clear that all men have fallen short, and no one is worthy (Hebrews 9:11) and Christ, fully man and fully God, receives the punishment for our disobedience; the punishment as illustrated by the sacrificed animals, is carried out on His Son, Christ on the cross for us. Our part of this covenant is to scatter the birds. Protect the promise of God. A promise of inheritance and blessing which comes only through being ‘children of Abraham’.
So we continue our journey this week with the emphasis and call to righteousness. We reflect back on how Adam and Eve were stripped of this righteousness due to sin in the garden. The road back to the garden is started with a man named Noah. Noah was a ‘righteous’ man, and that righteousness saved him from the destruction of evil. God teaches us that our salvation from the flames of judgment is also based on our being righteous.
The story of Abram elaborates on how righteousness is obtained. Abram is righteous, not because of anything he had done, but by his faith. A righteousness full of promises, promises extending to Abram and his offspring. Now the question becomes, who are the children of Abram?