Genesis 12:2-3a
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:…"
Do you see all those "I will’s?" Those are promises from God Himself to the man Abraham. And again as we’ve said so often, all you have to do is become a student of history and you’ll see that this has never fallen short. Every person who has chosen to Hear God speak through Christ Jesus His Son restored to them and now within them are the blessed as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were because they're counted as being the Righteousness of God. They are the son's of God through faith as these three Hebrew children were counted worthy. All right, but then the best promise of all is the last part. Its the spiritual blindness that comes upon a people or nation that opposes God to which the curse comes. This is true of the physical nation of Israel itself because they chose to deny God His place. They chose to deny God who was expressed through His Son as speaking to them and this has also become to stone of stumbling of the religious church world. Because they've become tied to the traditions of men and the book counting them of greater value than hearing God through His Son, the Spirit of Christ restored within us. The very point that Paul is making here in Hebrews. Because when this is properly understood then the rest of this verse comes into being:
Genesis 12:3b
"…and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Not just the one nation coming from his loins but every person on earth would one day feel the ramifications of this promise made to Abraham, which of course, was what? The coming of the Christ and His going to the cross. His death, burial, resurrection and ascension and all that was brought about because of the promises made to this man. And so, consequently, we can say that through Abraham, then, all the families of the earth were blessed.
Now we’re going to see where God repeats this same covenant, if I may call it that, to the next one on the scene, which is Isaac. And Isaac, too, is going to be given the covenant promises over in chapter 26. Because these promises were not for just one nation but were destined for all man kind through Christ Jesus as He alone would be the God Man or Immanuel, ie..God within man. How, by being the second Adam without sin or death operating in Him.
Genesis 26:1-3
"And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine THAT WAS IN THE DAYS OF Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar, And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, (now here it comes) and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father;"
Here He’s telling Isaac the same covenant that I made with your father Abraham, I’m bringing it on to you. All right, now let’s go up to the next generation and chapter 28. Here comes Jacob. Years are going by but God doesn’t change. God never forgets.
Genesis 28:1-4
"And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother. (now here it comes) And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people: And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham."
The world today knows nothing of all this. The world today won’t even recognize anymore the authenticity of this Book. And if you try to tell them, well this is what the Scripture says, they’ll probably scornfully rebuke you and say, "Well, that Book doesn’t count." Well, I beg to differ. As I’ve said, this is the only Book on earth that can prove itself as the revealed Word of God and Will of God. And everything we’re seeing in the Middle East and indeed around the world today is fulfilling everything that was started back here in Genesis. How can they miss it?
But here it is, that all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with regard to that nation of people inheriting the land of Canaan or Palestine. God later would promise that they would be scattered into every nation under Heaven because of their disobedience, unbelief. But that someday in the future, He would what? Bring them back again. And then when people scoff and shake their heads and say "Ah, well that’s Old Testament," remind them that Paul writes the same thing in Romans 11, that just because God broke them off as the branch from the main trunk of the tree, and scattered them into the nations and then would grafted in the Gentiles by virtue of the Body of Christ and His Gospel of Grace as revealed in the New Covenant of Grace in the power of an Endless Life through re-birthing by the breath of God. He says, "Now take heed ie..listen closely." Don’t you get puffed up because the same God that could break off those original branches and graft in foreign branches can break you off and bring the Hebrews in and what’s the word? "Again." That’s what it says in Romans 11. "And I will graft them (the Hebrews) in again." Here's the secret this was not meant to be in the practical or material but rather totally Spiritual realm.
Hebrews 11:9
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same (what?) promise;"
God promised it and they all believed and then received it in a form yet unseen even though it took so many hindrances - my goodness, just stop and think of the confrontation between Jacob and Esau. Who would ever dream that, out of that, God would fulfill the promises, but He did. So Jacob has to flee for his life, never seeing his mother again. He goes on up into the area of Syria to her kinfolk and begins to put together a family, then, that brought about the twelve sons, which in turn brought out the twelve tribes called collectively Israel, but it isn’t until they end up down in Egypt in slavery that God says, "they will become for the first time a nation of people!"
Now back to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 10 and the spiritual side of things:
Hebrews 11:10
"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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