The Three Promises to Abraham

In short

God speaks directly to Abraham to give him three promises. But more than for only one man, these promises are the basis of the Old and New Testaments. No big deal.

Why it is important

The Bible says so. No, really! This is not one where people debate its importance. The Bible pretty much says, “This is the secret key that unlocks the purpose of Christ and the Old Testament.” This is REALLY key to a Christian’s understanding of Scripture.

Theology and doctrine

The promises are:

• Land (Gen 12:1) 🔹 “the land that I will show you” (ESV); in Gen 13:15 and Gen 17:8 the promise is reiterated and defined as the land of Canaan (which will become Israel)
• Nation (Gen 12:2) 🔹 “I will make of you a great nation” (ESV); the promise is said again to his grandson in Gen 46:3
• All people blessed (Gen 12:3) 🔹 “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (ESV); also Gen 22:18, 26:4 and 28:14 elaborate that it is fulfilled by Abraham’s offspring (remember this…)

🚨PAY ATTENTION FOR A MINUTE: A nation and a land are not the same thing!

For example:

• The land of Italy is that boot-shaped country where Rome is
• But the nation of Italians is a bunch of pasta-loving attractive people (I am asking for it…)
• See the difference?
• The land of Italy has French people in it (and others)
• And Italian people live in Germany (and other places)

So, there’s the LAND of Israel (aka Canaan). There’s the NATION of Israel (aka Jews). And then there’s that third promise. It’s the biggest so I’ll wait a minute to explain it. First the easier ones.

• The land and nation promises are part of the Old Covenant.
• The entire lesson tomorrow is about the nation promise, so tune in for that.
• The land promise is debated a little as to whether it was completely fulfilled yet.
• I’ll go into that in depth on February 20 when we discuss the Cities of Refuge.
• But for now, let’s just say that in some ways the nation of Israel conquered Canaan as God wanted them to, and yet if they had done as God asked, they would have expanded Israel’s territory much more than they did. Basically, they conquered Canaan and then gave up. If you look at a map today (of countries in 2021), modern Israel is still in the exact same spot.

The big promise

Alright, now for the last promise. This is a prophecy of the New Testament.

Galatians 3:8 explains its impact:

“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’”

Wait, what?! The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ! How in the world is this promise “the gospel”?!

A huge part of the gospel is that salvation is available for Jews AND Gentiles, and that is what is meant by “all nations” in this promise (Eph 3:4-6).

Furthermore, the New Testament explains that the promise is to Abraham and Jesus in Gal 3:16:

“Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ”