God’s Plan to Bless All the Families of the Earth

“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 12:3

God has a plan to bless all the peoples of the world. In this study we want to trace the development of this plan from the time of Abraham to the present.

In Acts 7:2 Stephen declared to the Sanhedrin that “the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.” Mesopotamia, which means “the land between the two rivers,” was the fertile valley lying between the Tigris and Euphrates. Abram and his father Terah, who came from Ur in Mesopotamia, were idol worshipers, as we read in Joshua 24:2, 3, 14, and 23. Jewish tradition says that Terah made money by trading idols. Abram and Terah worshiped the moon god known as Nana, or Sin, since Ur and Haran were both centers of moon worship. So Abram had known only dumb and lifeless idols when he was suddenly confronted by the true and living God, the God of glory.

God’s Demand

This God made a singular demand of Abram. As the God of glory, he alone can demand and expect absolute obedience. What was it? “Leave your country, your kindred and your father’s house, and go to a land I will show you” (v. 1).

The God of glory still makes the same demand of those who are sinners. He tells us, “Deny yourself and take up the cross daily and follow me.” He says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” He says, “Sell all you have and give it to the poor; come and follow me.” He says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple . . . . In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26, 27, 33)

The God of glory demands total trust, absolute obedience, and complete surrender. Herein lies true freedom for creatures like us. He made this demand of Abram and he makes it of us also.

Demand and Blessing

Not only did God demand Abram’s obedience, but he also promised to bless him. God will bestow a multitude of blessings on those who render him the one demand of absolute trust, complete obedience, and total surrender.

In Genesis 12:2-3 we find the sevenfold blessing that followed Abraham’s obedience to the God of glory. God told Abram, in essence, “I will do it-I will, I will, I will, I will.” As we read in 1 Corinthians 1:20, all his promises are “Yes” and “Amen” in Jesus Christ.

What were the blessings God promised to Abram?

1. “I will make you into a great nation.” Abram’s wife Sarah was barren. Yet God Almighty him, “I will make you into a great nation.”
2. “I will bless you.”
3. “I will make your name great.”
4. “You will be a blessing.”
5. “I will bless those who bless you.”
6. “I will curse those who curse you.”
7. “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

As Bishop Ryle said, Abram renounced the certainties of the past to face the uncertainties of the future.

A Life of Blessing

A life of faith, obedience, and total surrender results in manifold blessing. What are these blessings? First, there is blessing to the individual who obeys God. Second, there is blessing for that person’s family. Third, we bring blessing to the nation, just as Abram brought blessing to Israel. Fourth, we bring blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

The Sovereign God of glory fulfilled his promises to Abram based on his obedience. Not only does this God of glory demand absolute faith, he also enables us to trust him. God himself regenerates us and gives us the gift of saving faith so we will rise up, take up our cross, and follow him.

Abraham’s Example

At God’s command Abram moved first out of Ur and settled in Haran. Then he said, “This is not what God said,” so he moved out of Haran also.

After Abram left Haran, God spoke to him again. God is not going to speak to us until we render obedience to his demands. But when Abram completely obeyed him, God appeared to him again. Thus, in Genesis 12:7 we read, “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.'”

Abram moved first from Ur to Haran, then from Haran to Canaan. But even Canaan was pointing to something else. In Hebrews 11 we are told that Abraham was looking forward to a city with foundation whose builder and maker is God.

Result of Obedience

What was the result of Abram’s obedience? God blessed him and made his name great. Abraham is revered among Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians alike. God made him a blessing to many. Additionally, God made him into the great nation of Israel. Although his wife Sarah was barren, when she was ninety years old and Abraham was one hundred, she was able to conceive and give birth to Isaac. This was the work of the all-powerful God of glory. Later David, a son of Abraham, became the king of Israel. This also was part of the blessing. And, finally, God blessed all the peoples of the world through the great Son of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

“Through Abraham” meant “through his offspring,” as we are told in Genesis 18:18 and 22:18. And according to Galatians 3:16, “through Abraham’s offspring” means “through Jesus Christ,” the Son of David. He was the Son of Abraham, who made the highest sacrifice in obedience to his Father’s demand. He did not merely leave Ur of the Chaldees; he left heaven itself. He left his Father’s bosom so that through him all the people of the earth would be blessed. God sent him, Paul says, in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. In Jesus Christ, God became man and died for our sins.

In Philippians 2 we read about the sacrifice Christ made so that God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. Concerning Jesus, Paul writes,

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)

What obedience! What supreme sacrifice! Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification.

Blessing for All the Peoples of the Earth

Every year at Pentecost, people came from all over the world to worship in Jerusalem. But on one Day of Pentecost, such people became the recipients of the blessing promised through Abraham.

Acts 2:9-11 tells us Peter preached the gospel to “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs. . .” On this great Day of Pentecost, people from all over the world heard the gospel, repented, believed in the Son of Abraham, Jesus, and were blessed with eternal salvation.

This happened again in Acts 3 when Peter preached to his Jewish audience. In verses 24-25 he said, “Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the peoples on earth will be blessed.'”

The Jewish people on the Day of Pentecost received the blessing that was promised to come through the offspring of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s promise to Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth,” speaks of Jews as well as Gentiles.

But not only were Jews blessed, Gentiles also were blessed. Soon the Spirit-empowered Jewish Christians were persecuted and scattered from Jerusalem. Until this point, most converts to Christianity spoke only to other Jews about the gospel. But in Acts 11 we read that some men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who were probably led by Lucius of Cyrene, went to the third largest city in the Roman empire, Syrian Antioch-a wealthy city of a half million people in which there were great orgies, false worship, and all. PGM The Holy Spirit came upon these men, who said, “Not only we should preach to the Jews, but we must also preach to the Gentiles. Who knows? God may save them also if they repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Because these Jewish believers dared to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles, the first Gentile church was born in Syrian Antioch. Here the believers were first called Christians. This first Gentile church became the center of world evangelization, sending out Paul and Barnabas to go throughout the world and preach the gospel, primarily to the Gentiles.

On Paul’s first journey he and Barnabas went to the region of Galatia in modern Turkey. In Galatians 3 we find reference to how the blessings of Abraham came not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles also. Citing the same scripture Peter cited in Acts 3:25, Paul wrote in Galatians 3:8, “The Scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.'” In Galatians 3:13 Paul wrote, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” What was the curse of the law? Death. Paul continued, “[I]t is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.'” In verse 14 he concluded, “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”

Have You Received the Blessing of Abraham?

Thus, it came to pass in the fullness of time, through the obedience of the man from heaven, the Son of Abraham and David, all the peoples of the earth are being blessed. You are blessed, I am blessed, and our children are blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have not been blessed in this manner, the word of the Lord is coming to you today as it came to the idol-worshiping Abram in the Ur of the Chaldees. What is that word? “Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ-the Son of God, the Son of Abraham. You will be saved and blessed with one blessing after another blessing.” As we read in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” In Isaiah 45:22 God tells us, “”Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.”

The moon god cannot save you. No idols can. They are merely lifeless creations of your head, whether they are idols of ideology or idols of metal or wood. You must throw them away and then rise up and come to Jesus, the Savior of the world. Trust him, obey him, surrender to him, and your life will be filled with one blessing after another. He demands only one thing-obedience-and promises eternal life.

This Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the man from heaven who is the last or second Adam, as Paul puts it, is full of blessings. In John 1:16 John tells us, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another”-wave upon wave of blessing. You will be blessed, your family will be blessed, your clan will be blessed, your tribe will be blessed, your nation will be blessed, and through you all peoples of the earth can be blessed.

All this blessing depends upon one thing: Are you willing to trust in him and leave your Ur of the Chaldees? Are you willing to deny yourself, take up the cross and follow him daily? Are you willing to surrender to him totally? Are you willing to render obedience to him completely? If so, he says, “I will bless you and I will make you a blessing.” Not only will he bless you, but he will also enable you to be a blessing to all those around you. As you come to him who said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink,” all of a sudden not only will your thirst be quenched, but out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water for all the peoples of the earth.

May God bless everyone who humbles himself and surrenders to him. May he bless those who leave all their past certainties and foundations to face the uncertainties of the future and walk with the God of glory. God will speak to such people and guide them through his word, the Bible. Yes, he may sometimes tell us the exact opposite of what we want to hear, but when we surrender to him and do as he demands, we will be blessed. We will experience the truth of Proverbs 3:5-6, which tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on our own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Amen.