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Week 7 Genesis to Jesus – The Father of Faith
Part 1 – Three promises upgraded to three covenant events
Let me quickly summarize where we are at in the amazing book of Genesis. Genesis 10 lists the Table of Nations and established that the whole world is the family of God. The goal of God from the very beginning was to restore to Himself every person on earth. His “chosen” people were chosen for this very purpose. God would pour His divine life into His people, for the purpose of bringing back all the nations into the family of God. But then chapter 11 and the tower of Babel shows us that many of them would rather be their own god, rather than serve God. So how is God going to bring all the nations home, enter Abram.
Abram/Abraham is a giant of our faith and a powerful picture of faithfulness, recognized in both the Old and the New Covenants. He was called from a distant land with a promise that God will make his name great, and his seed will bless every family on earth and last forever.
Scott begins by telling us when he is called out his name is Abram which means “exalted father”, and later God renames him Abraham, “father of a multitude”. You very quickly realize this renewed covenant with Abram/Abraham will be centered on fatherhood. But the fatherhood of Abram takes on monumental proportions.Genesis 12:1–3 (RSV2CE) 1 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. 2 And 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. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.”This passage lays out three distinct promises. First, as the father of your family God will make a nation out of Abram’s family. Second, that nation will become great, with the understanding from the original Hebrew of developing into a ruling family, a dynasty. And last, but most important of all, through Abram’s family God intended for every nation on earth to be blessed.
In Genesis 10 we see the Table of Nations, God’s great big family, followedin chapter 11 and the Tower of Babel by God’s big broken family. But you just know God is not going to leave us in that broken state, so here comes the extreme mercy of God being deployed as a counter defense through a man who would become the Father of our Faith.
Understanding God as our loving Father is second nature to us today, we pray the “Our Father” all the time. But coming out of the Tower of Babel and including even the good line of descendants of Shem, men did not understand God as “father”. They knew Him as an all-powerful God, but not as a loving father. So how does God show His loving fatherhood to His ignorant children? God will reveal His true character as Father through a man, a man willing to become the father of a brand-new nation that is about to be born and through a son of promise that he will father, whose name is Isaac.
I want to add a side note here that I think is extremely important. Chapter 12 God calls Abram to follow Him to a new land that He will show to him. Abram follows God’s lead, but immediately the struggle begins. As Abram and his family travel toward this new land, they encounter famine and eventually end up in Egypt to acquire wheat to make bread, so Abramcould save his family from the death by starvation. The Christ-like parallels are so wonderfully obvious throughout all of Genesis, who else had to go to Egypt to save his family from death?The bread come down from heaven, Jesus, the bread of life.
Then this great man of faith, ends up telling Pharaoh that Sarai is his sister, so he can save his own skin. But please understand,the genius of God had already factored in this screw up and many others to come. Then in Chapter 13 Abram and Lot must separate due to strife among there herdsman, and Lot sets up shop right in the vicinity of Sodom and Gomora, a rather bad neighborhood to say the least. Abram comes to his rescue after a time of mediating with God in Lot’s behalf. This idea of a mediator is established as another picture of Christ, our mediator. Then Abram goes to rescue lot and defeats a number of kings in the process. Here is the side note that we really do not to miss.
Genesis 14:17–20 (RSV2CE) 17 After his return from the defeat of Ched″-or-laomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
These are Scott’s notes on this passage. 14:18 Melchizedek: A royal title or throne name meaning “king of righteousness” (Heb 7:2). He is the first person in the Bible to be called a priest and is mentioned elsewhere in the OT only in Ps 110:4. The identity of Melchizedek is a mystery. Modern scholars tend to view him as a pagan priest of the Canaanite high god, El, although this deity was deemed the father of the gods in Canaanite mythology, not the “maker of heaven and earth” (14:19). In Jewish tradition, Melchizedek is named in the Dead Sea Scrolls as a heavenly judge and eschatological deliverer (11QMelch) or is identified as Shem, the first-born of Noah (Targum Neofiti at Gen 14:18), an ancient figure who outlives Abraham, according to a literal reading of the Genesis genealogies (11:10–26; 25:7). Christian tradition sees him as a type of the royal-priestly Messiah (Heb 5–7) and has identified him as an angel, as a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ, or as the patriarch Shem. See topical essay: The Order of Melchizedek at Heb 7. Salem: A shorter name for ancient Jerusalem, as indicated by Scripture (Ps 76:2) and the testimony of Jewish tradition (e.g., Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QapGen 22, 13). Canonically, it is significant that Jerusalem is a center of kingship and priesthood under Melchizedek even before it is made the political and spiritual capital of Israel under David (2 Sam 5–6). bread and wine: The elements of a celebratory meal. These may have been communion portions of a thanksgiving sacrifice offered to God after a successful campaign (14:17), or they may suggest that a covenant is forged between Abraham and Melchizedek and is sealed with a sacred meal (cf. 31:44–46; Josh 9:14–15). • Allegorically, in the actions of the priest Melchizedek the sacrament of the Lord is prefigured; for Melchizedek is a type of Jesus Christ, who offered the bread and wine of Melchizedek, that is, his body and blood (St. Cyprian, Letters 63, 4). This interpretation, shared by many Church Fathers, is implicit in the Roman Canon of the Mass (“the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchisedech”, Eucharistic Prayer I) (CCC 1333). God Most High: The Hebrew is ’el ‘elyon, a title given to Yahweh in 14:22.
Back to Abram. God the Father makes three promises (no covenant oath yet)to Abram in the early verses of Genesis 12. Genesis 12:1–3 (RSV2CE) 1 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. 2 And 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. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.”
Here we have promised land, a great nation with a name that is great, and a promise that Abram will bless the entire family of God, including all the families within the great family of God. Remember what we just left in chapter 11, the great big broken family of God. But now God is raising up a new father, in a new land, with a new name and a new nation that will be great. And that new, great family will bless all the families on earth. And we also know in our generation that this not only applied to all those families back there in that ancient time…it applies to all families’ past, present, and future. That is one powerful blessing.
God then transforms those promises into covenant oaths, and we can actually read about that transformation in the New Covenant. Hebrews 6:13–18 (RSV2CE) 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16 Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
Did you hear that, God transformed promises to oaths, covenant oaths, so that we might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before. And I will tell you if you and I seize that hope, as we grab it and hang on for dear life, that “seized hope” becomes powerful faith.Faith that is based on God’s covenant love for us, He will not fail us.
First the promise of nationhood in chapter 12 becomes a covenant event in chapter 15.
Genesis 15:5–10 (RSV2CE) 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
Jump down to verse 17. Genesis 15:17–20 (RSV2CE) 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphra-tes, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
The second promise of a great name and a dynasty in chapter 12 becomes a covenant event in Genesis 17.
Genesis 17:1–7 (RSV2CE) 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.
The third promise of a worldwide blessing in chapter 12 becomes a covenant event in Genesis 22.
Genesis 22:3–18 (RSV2CE) 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. 9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only-begotten son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord will provide; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” 15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only-begotten son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Promises Nationhood Name (dynasty) Worldwide Blessing
Covenants Genesis 15 Genesis 17 Genesis 22
Why does God choose to accomplish all this through an old barren couple that are now far beyond child bearing years? Why these two, and why in their old age?