A Review
There was one man who lived about 340 years after the flood of whom God said, “In him should all nations of the earth be blessed,”
That was a very great promise, and reaches even to us. Do you know his name? It was Abram, and he lived near the land where the tower of Babel was started. The people there should have honored God, but, instead, they praised idols.
God spoke to Abram, telling him to leave that land and go to a land that He would show him, and He would make of him a great nation. Abram went first to Syria, later to Canaan, as God wished. (Canaan was the land we call Palestine).
There was room for Abram’s flocks and herds to feed on the hills and lowlands; he built no houses, but lived in tents, and owned no land. Yet God told him that all the land he could see from the high mountains, should belong to his children, or descendants.
At that time Abram had no children, and he and his wife were old; yet Abram believed God’s words. At last they had a son and he was named Isaac. Abram lived many years longer and trusted God even more. God repeated to him the promise of his descendants becoming a great nation, as many as “the sand by the sea shore”, which could not be numbered (Gen. 22:1717That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; (Genesis 22:17)), The name Abram meant “father”, God changed it to Abraham, “The father of a multitude.”
Abraham did not do what are called great things; he did not discover or Couer lands, or invent, or build towers; he was great in a better way, he believed all God’s words, and about things he could not see.
It was over 500 years before Abraham’s descendants had the country of Canaan for their own. You remember the story of Joseph, who was a great grandson of Abraham, how he was sold for a slave, but became a ruler in Egypt, and all his brothers went there to live. Their chiren and grandchildren made many people, who all were descendants of Abram, and were called Hebrews, as Abram was (Gen. 14:1313And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram. (Genesis 14:13); Ex. 2:77Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? (Exodus 2:7); also see Gen. 15:1313And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; (Genesis 15:13)).
God led all those people from Egypt to Canaan, the land He told Abram they should have. They built towns and cities, and became the great nation of that time. But God let them lose their power and homes, because of sins, and they were captives in Babylon seventy years. Then some of the people and their children rurned to Palestine, but never had great power, and many went to other lands, and are ill all parts of the world, known. as the Jewish race.
But how can all nations be blessed in Abraham? Because it was as a descennt of His that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus was born and suffered for the sins of all, and will bless all who trust Him. Jesus spoke of Abraham many times.