Bible Story of the Day: Of Abraham

Bible Story of the Day

Scripture is the story of Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation. There are over 400 prophecies and representations of Jesus in the Old Testament alone. The Old Testament pointed forward to the coming Christ, and the New Testament points back to Jesus. The Bible is a record of redemption through Jesus Christ who conquered sin and death when He died on the cross and resurrected three days later. The New Testament was written almost 2000 years ago. Some of the Old Testament was written over 4000 years ago. The Bible Story of the Day not only shows Jesus throughout scripture but shows how scripture is relevant to our lives today. Seeing Jesus in scripture is a major step into understanding who our God is, and how He impacts and affects our lives in every moment. I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your mind to understanding the verses and how they affect your life and gives you a better understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will post a link to the chapter that each passage is from, so that you can read further on your own.

Of Abraham

Genesis 12:1-3

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
² 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;
³ 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.” (NASB).

Where is Jesus and What Does This Mean to Us?

Have you ever had anyone come up to you while you were working on something and they tell you that you are doing it wrong or give you instructions on how to do what you are doing? Was the first thing you said: “who are you?’ Maybe you were not able to say something out loud, but I bet you have thought it at least once. I have been the one questioned, as well as the one doing the questioning. Who does this person think he or she is to tell me what I am doing is wrong? This happened to me and around me when a new boss came on the scene. The current employee did not know who the new boss was and just assumed it was another employee that they did not know that was trying to exert authority of them. If this has ever been you, then you know the feeling you had when you realized who the person was that was talking to you.

God chose Abraham. God could have chosen anyone else, but He chose Abraham. He spoke to Abraham and Abraham immediately listened and obeyed. God loved Abraham’s faith, even though it seemed to have waivered at time. He loved God with all his heart, and in turn God blessed him. God told Abraham that He would make a great nation of Abraham, and that all nations would be blessed through Abraham. The verses in Genesis are quite clear as to God’s blessing of Abraham. We know that Abraham is the father of the Jewish people through Isaac and the Arab people through Ishmael. The descendants of Abraham’s son Isaac was the great nation that God was referring to and the nation of people that would bless all other nations. The line of descendants of Abraham lead to Jesus. Matthew 1:1, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:” Jesus was the blessing of all nations that God spoke about to Abraham. Abraham, himself Is not the blessing to all nations. He is just a man, but from his seed came the Son of Man, Jesus, who blessed all nations, Jew and Gentile. Galatians 3:8, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”

Acts 3:25-26, “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶ For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” As Acts states, the Jews were the first nation blessed by God, but not the last and not the only nation. The Jews were not meant to be blessed and then take their blessing for granted and look down upon every other nation. They were chosen to be His people to spread the word of God to every other nation. God used the Jews to be His messengers. They were obedient and disobedient throughout history and God served them the justice they deserved for their actions whether good or bad.

All of it was meant to point to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, Son of God, and the physical manifestation of the Almighty God came to bless all nations. Just as we discussed in the first paragraph, everyone knew Abraham. Prophecy said the Son of God would be a descendant of Abraham. When Jesus was teaching people the ways of the Lord they acted like we have before. They said: “who do you think you are?” He is the prophecy fulfilled, the descendant of Abraham, sent to bless all nations. Abraham was given a promise by God that through him all nations would be blessed and 2000 years later the Messiah was born of Abraham’s seed.

Resource

• Gen 12 NASB – Abram
  Abram Journeys to Egypt – Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land