A Blessing to All Nations

Posted by Karah

Pause

Find a different location for your time with God today, somewhere you don’t usually go. Ask God to speak to you in a new way as you study His Word.

Read Genesis 12:1-3 aloud today, then dig into the deeper meaning behind God’s words of blessing to Abram.

“I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

—Genesis 12:2-3

Great Nation: A nation generally involved a great population with common land, language, and government. Yet God made this promise to a 75-year-old man with no children and a wife well past childbearing.

Make your name great: Through his obedience to God, Abram would achieve the fame the builders at Babel (Gen. 11) had sought. Think over what you know about Abram, the Old Testament, and God’s chosen people, the Jews. How do you know God fulfilled this promise?

All the peoples: “All” is the Hebrew word kol, which means every. God’s promise to Abram would spread to the whole world through Abram, Israel, the prophets, and eventually, the Messiah. How is the Messiah a blessing to all people? Explain.

Look over God’s promise to Abram one more time. What does this blessing have to do with you? What parts of it affect you? How?

The Point

God’s promise to Abram isn’t just a nice historical story. Through Abram would come the Messiah, our only hope of salvation.

Respond

Abram would enjoy land, descendants, and blessing, but he would also be a part of something much bigger. From Abram’s line would come the Messiah.

Take some time to meditate on and revel in the scope and intricacy of God’s plan. All those years ago, He was at work, putting the pieces of His story together so that redemption—your redemption—would be possible. Record your prayer of praise in your journal.

For further study on this topic, read Romans 9:4-5 and Galatians 3:8,16.

Behind the Story

The word translated “nation” in verse 2 is the Hebrew word goy. It literally means nation and was used to refer to the Jewish nation (Gen. 12:2; Ex. 19:6). In later usage, the word began to be used in a derogatory way to describe those who were not of Jewish descent. In modern Hebrew and Yiddish, goy is the standard term used to mean Gentile. Through Abram, God would create the Jewish nation. And through Abram’s line would come the Messiah, the Savior for Jews and Gentiles alike.

Posted in Devotions, Girls | Tagged Camp Crestridge for Girls, Reprinted from ec magazine. © 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Used by permission., Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Weekly Devotions