ALL NATIONS ON EARTH WILL BE BLESSED

(Special Christmas Message 1: God’s Promise to Abraham)

Genesis 22:1-19

Key Verse 22:18

“…and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” 

Merry Christmas! This Christmas season we’ve put together a series of messages about the meaning of Jesus’ birth. When we think about Jesus’ birth in the Bible, we are reminded of such passages as baby Jesus being born in a manger, shepherds out in the field, and the visit of the magi. But God had revealed his plan and purpose in sending Jesus long before that glorious night.

This semester we began studying Matthew’s gospel. Matthew introduced Jesus in a very particular way: “The son David, the son of Abraham,” and then he said, “Immanuel--God with us” (cf. Mt 1:1,23). God made promises to Abraham and to David that looked forward to Jesus. The messages that spoke about his coming are built upon these promises. For the next three lessons, we would like to follow Matthew's way of introducing the birth of Jesus by studying these promises. Today we begin with God's promise to Abraham as mentioned in Genesis 22:18.  The Christmas season is called a “time of giving.” But we know that it’s a time of receiving. Growing up each year being asked, “What do you want for Christmas?” Our tendency is to think about what we want during this season—more so that what we need. That’s why Black Friday sales are so good. But at least we can that all people say that we want to be blessed. Today’s passage tells us that God wants to bless us, and all people, too. 

The key verse says, "And through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." God sent Jesus to bless all nations on earth. This promise is called “the gospel in advance to Abraham” (Gal 3:8). 

All Nations on Earth (God’s Desire to Bless All Nations)

“and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed...” (Gen 22:18) This promise is for all nations on earth. It means God designed to bless all people through Jesus. But what does the word “bless” mean here? The word “bless” has so many meanings and is used in very serious and casual situations. When someone sneezes we say, “God bless you” (actually, these days most people just say, “Bless you”).  

To understand God’s intention, we have to consider what things were like between all nations and God until the time of Abraham. Surprisingly, when we review each major event up to Abraham’s calling in Genesis, we see major conflicts between God and man. Let’s briefly review the history in Genesis.  

Genesis 1-2. 

What major conflict occurs in these chapters? None. Genesis 1-2 tell us that God created this world and everything in it and then created man on the sixth day. After making man God said, “It was very good.” Then we see how God provided him a place to live in the Garden of Eden and he established the marriage between Adam and Eve. God was so pleased and man was so happy. They had a perfect relationship. God blessed the seventh day and rested.  

Genesis 3.

But what happens in chapter 3? Conflict begins. The serpent deceives Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and they chose to rebel against God, go their own way, and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, even though God had told them not to or else they would surely die. After they eat from this tree, God comes into the garden and asks, “Where are you?” But they rejected him and hid from him. And when he found them they blamed each other and God. So God had to pronounce the curse of sin, which is death, on mankind. The relationship between mankind and God was broken.  

Genesis 4-5.

In chapters 4-5 we see the first children, Cain and Abel. And we see Cain murder his brother Abel because God had looked with favor on Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. When Cain does this, God comes to him and asks, “What have you done?” But Cain rejected God’s help and decided to go his own and left. And he raised a bunch of children and grandchildren and great-grandchlidren who did the same. 

Genesis 6-9.

The next major event we see in Genesis is the Flood of Noah’s day. What was it like in those days? The whole earth was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence and immorality. Things were so bad that “the Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain” (Gen 6:6). At first he said, “It was very good.” Now he is grieved that he had made man and his heart was filled with pain. He said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever...” God was filled with pain because he had been fighting against sinful man. And so God sent the Flood and he destroyed all living things on earth, except those in Noah’s ark. Only 8 people were saved from the Flood. But, still, the Flood didn’t solve the problem, for God says soon after Noah and his family leave the ark, “...even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Gen 8:21).  

Genesis 10-11.

After the Flood people began to increase in number again on the earth. But what did they do? They came together to rebel against God and they were building a tower called the Tower of Babel. Again, God came down and he had to fight against their rebellion by confusing their language--and so we have language barriers now because of that incident.  

Genesis 18-19. 

Soon after God called Abraham, we see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Man’s wickedness was so great that an outcry reached up to heaven and God couldn’t help but destroy those cities with burning sulfur from heaven.  

Two things kept happening: 1) People rebelled against God; and 2) God broke out against them, even though it grieved his heart to do so. So Genesis presents a big problem at hand: the broken relationship with God. Rather than living as his children, we lived as his enemies. We lived as captives to our sinful desires and to the devil. Simply, we live under the curse of sin. We are not blessed, but cursed. When our relationship with God was broken, the whole earth became corrupt and worthy of God’s judgment. Sin was the root problem. Sin brought a curse and it created a barrier between us and God. Our days are no different from those ancient days. When we see what those people did and what goes on today, it’s no different. The relationship with God is broken—a broken spiritually family problem. Last month an 8 year old boy shot his father and another man who rented a room in their house. A study was published last week that said that 47% of college aged young people have a diagnosable mental disease that affects them socially which is rooted in the problem of broken families. I think that I was once in that category. In fact, one church member told me that when I first started coming to the church, she thought I was a mental patient because I looked so dark, gloomy, and isolated.

The Christmas season is a very important time for many because it is a time to try and bring the family together again. Especially as the economy is going further south these days, the majority of people do not have money to enjoy Christmas as they usually did, so they are focusing on the family now. The most famous Christmas movies have the theme of family relationships being restored out of the worst of circumstances (e.g., It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Elf, etc.). But we can see that the Christmas season is about more than that. God sent Jesus to bless us and restore the perfect relationship with him. God sent Jesus to break the barrier, to resolve the tension and conflict between sinful man and God. This means that he has to solve the problem of sin. But sin came at a price. And the price is death (cf. Gen 2:17). But as we see even in the account of the Flood, God doesn’t want to destroy all people. He wants us to be reconciled to him. He wants to be with us and build a family of God. 

II. The Lord Will Provide

This is where Abraham’s story takes effect. Genesis 22 is the story of God's final test to Abraham after more than 30-35 years after God first called him. After Abraham passed the test God gave him a promise that through his offspring all nations on earth will be blessed. This promise looks ahead to Jesus, the offspring of Abraham, who would bless all people on earth. Right now we are in the season of final exams. But who has heard of a final exam where other people receive a reward when you pass? Yet, this was the case for Abraham. Why? 

When God first called Abraham, Abraham was 75 years old. He was married, but his wife was barren and already 65 years old. His name at the time was ‘Abram’ which means ‘Noble Father.’ But he wasn’t a father. He had a lot of agony about this. Like God, Abraham also wanted to build a family; it was the one thing he wanted. Even though God made him materially rich at times or victorious in battle or popular, without a son, Abraham felt completely empty and at a loss, and he complained to God, “What can you give me, since I remain childless?” (Gen 15:2-3). When God first called him, God promised to make him into a great nation and to bless all peoples on earth through him. The promise of a great nation meant the promise of a son and to build a family. So when Abraham accepted God’s calling and left his country, his people, and his father’s household, and went to the land God would show him, he not only accepted the promise of a son, but the promise to be a blessing to all nations, and God honored his decision. 

But God did not send a son right away--in fact, not until 25 years later, when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife was 90. But during that time God had shepherded over him and trained him to live by faith in God’s promise in every circumstance. Without knowing where he was going, he followed God’s leading away from his country, his people, his father’s household, to a new place God had prepared. He went through money troubles, famines, he almost lost his wife to the natives, he was afraid that the gangsters in the area would kill him, etc. Many times Abraham made mistakes. But each time God helped him to live by faith in his promise and Abraham believed. Then God sent a son named Isaac when Abraham was 100 years old and his wife was 90 years old! It was a joyful miracle that brought laughter to everyone. But some time later God tested Abraham, which is the event in Genesis 22. It was God’s final test to Abraham. Let’s look at Genesis 22:2: “Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.’” All of Abraham’s life had been invested in Isaac. Of course, Abraham loved Isaac dearly. And God knew this and reminds Abraham about. What should he do? Abraham decided to obey God and got up early the next morning, took his son and two servants, cut the wood for the altar and fire, and went out for the region of Moriah.  

The passage tells us that Abraham passed the test. The key verse concludes, “because you have obeyed me.” God was so moved by this one man’s obedience that he would bless all people through his offspring because of his obedience. One person’s obedience can move God’s heart and bless all people. How was Abraham able to obey this impossible test? He obedience came from his faith in God’s promise.

It took three days to get to the region of Moriah. When they finally arrived, Abraham left his two servants behind, placed the wood on Isaac, and the two of them went up the mountain. But suddenly Isaac asked his father a question. Look at verse 7. “7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ ” This is probably the most heart-breaking questions a son has asked his father in all of history. Look at Abraham’s answer in verse 8. “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Abraham believed that God would provide the lamb for the sacrifice. This wasn’t just wishful thinking, because Abraham didn’t want to lose Isaac. This was a confession of faith based on God’s promise in Genesis 21:12, “it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In order for God to keep his previous promise, Abraham was able to discover that God would provide the lamb to make the sacrifice at that time. So verse 8 says, “And the two of them went on together.” Let’s read verses 9-14. 

Even though Abraham passed God’s test, the passage does not end there. God wanted to reveal something more through this event of testing Abraham. After Abraham passed the test, God provided a ram and Abraham continued the sacrifice. Verse 14 says that the ram was offered “instead of his son.” It was a substitute. So God still demanded the price of the sacrifice, but provided a substitute. Then Abraham confessed that God is the God who provides, and he named that place “The Lord Will Provide.” And to the day Moses wrote Genesis, that place was called, “On the Mountain of the Lord It Will Be Provided.” It was after this sacrifice was made with the ram God provided, that God called out a second time from heaven, and then gave him the promise of his offspring to bless all nations on earth, confirmed by an oath.  

In Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac and in the ram that God provided, we see a picture of Jesus Christ, who was provided by God as a substitute of sacrifice instead of us. Like Abraham, Jesus fully obeyed God when we went to the cross. He chose to obey his Father's will and die on a cross for the sins of the world. When he thought about it, he prayed even to the point of sweating blood, "Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done." He is also like the image of Isaac, who carried the wood for the cross up the mountain where he let his father bind him to be crucified. And through this one man's obedience, all people could be blessed through the gospel of sin forgiveness. And if sin is forgiven, the barrier between us and God is broken and removed. We can be reconciled to God. We can be made his children in the real sense. 

This event is the model of how God blesses all nations through Jesus Christ. God has his part, and Abraham had his part. God’s part was: “The Lord himself will provide the lamb.” This promise came with an oath. Look at verse 16, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD…” God swore by himself, because there was nothing greater to swear by. The point is that God wanted to give Abraham and us complete assurance of his perfect provision. Because we have complete assurance of the provision to meet the requirements to take away sin, God has offered us a hope. It is the hope of knowing him, of restoring the perfect union and relationship with him, of entering his kingdom eternally, and being saved from the slavery to this world.

With today’s economy, there’s no assurance. President-Elect Obama said, “It’s only going to get worse before it gets better. This Christmas many people feel bad because of our bad economic situation and we don’t have money (to buy gifts or do special things for Christmas). This is good for us, because we have the chance to think about what we really need. Today’s passage shows us that we need to have our relationship fixed with God. The only way is through solving the problem of sin. But the passage also says, “The Lord will provide.” Since he even provided that, Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”.

So we have a part, which Abraham gave us the example: that is, to live by faith in the Lord. We take hold of the hope God has offered us by living by faith in Jesus. To live by faith is to follow Abraham’s model of living—living as a pilgrim journeying to God’s kingdom. It is living for heavenly things, not worldly things. And it is to not withhold anything from God. Our confidence in the Lord means that we can stand up against the wickedness of this generation and fight against our sinful desires and struggle to obey God all the time.

And after God made this further promise in verse 18, Abraham believed and God didn’t need to appear to him anymore. Abraham received what was promised after waiting patiently. Jesus himself said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day—he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). When we see Jesus whom God provided, we can be glad. He is our Savior, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. So when Jesus was born that night, the angels in heaven couldn't contain themselves and they burst forth singing praises to God, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests!” and “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). In his right time God finally sent the Savior of the world, Jesus the Lamb of God. 

Thanks and praise be to God who provided Jesus to bless all people!

One Word: The Lord provided Jesus to bless all people

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