Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
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 the one who curses you I will curse;
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Genesis 12:1-3 [NRSV]
The passage above is the covenant God made with Abraham and his seed. The covenant included a promise to bless Abraham in exchange for his faith in God (his belief, trust and obedience). This blessing included promised offspring as numerous as the sands of the seashore and stars in the sky. It also included land that he and his seed would possess. God would make him into a great nation, and make his name great. In fact, he would be so blessed that all nations would look at him and call him blessed.
God repeats this covenant several times in the Pentateuch (Gen 15:5; 17:4; 17:10-11; Deut. 28:1-14). Because Jews
are the natural seed of Abraham they also receive this promise “to bless”.
Hence, the Jews regard themselves as a blessed people.
What's glorious about this covenant is that it did not stop with Abraham
and his natural seed. This Abrahamic Covenant is just as important to Christians
as Paul instructs us that the seed Genesis refers to is Christ Jesus (Gal 3:16) and
that Gentile believers also receive Abraham's inheritance (Gal 3:13-14,29; Rom 8:17; Eph 1:3-5).
That's good
news to me. That means I too am blessed. And so are you.
