“I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands”. Genesis 26:5 NRSV
Abraham in Christianity
Never underestimate what God can achieve in your life.
He promised Abraham many wonderful blessings; his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky – even though Abraham’s wife was barren.
If we are blessed with even a fraction of what Abraham was by God, it will exceed our wildest dreams. Abraham was not perfect, though, but he was faithful, and that is what God longs for us to be.
Scripture tells us that Abraham was 75 years old and living in a place usually described as Haran in modern-day Turkey when God came to him and told him to move to the land of Canaan, in modern-day Israel.
He promised many wonderful blessings; that Abraham would become a great nation, his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky, and his offspring would also receive many blessings through him. All the people of the earth even would be blessed through Abraham.
From Haran to Canaan would have been a journey of approximately 1,000 miles undertaken on camel and foot. Still, because of Abraham’s great faith, he did exactly what God had told him to do, taking all his family and possessions with him.
Abraham and Sarah struggled for many years to conceive children who would inherit the promised blessings from God. But by the time they had reached a point when it was not unreasonable to conclude they would remain childless, God told Abraham that Sarah would give birth to a boy and he should be named Isaac within a year.
Isaac (and his descendants) would inherit all the blessings God had promised Abraham. Much to their surprise, a baby was born within the year.
When Abraham arrived in Canaan, God appeared again and promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants.
A key to understanding this story is that God was planning to send his son Jesus to earth, and he was to be born into the lineage of Abraham.
When Jesus was born into the line of David, who was a descendant of Abraham, he became an heir to the blessings spoken of. Through faith in Jesus, Christians are automatically adopted as heirs into the Abrahamic lineage.
God demonstrated his incredible powers by granting Abraham and Sarah a son at such an advanced age. The power and blessings are spoken over them, and their child Isaac still covers Christians today through Jesus. They guide and protect us and offer great hope in this life and the one to come.
With Hope in Jesus, you are adopted into the Abrahamic family line and receive these eternal blessings.
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 12:2-3 NRSV
