The Everlasting Covenant with Abraham

Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.


Our church is preaching through the Bible this year. It is not a thorough study but rather more of an overview and touching on topics that the preacher chooses to preach on. This past Sunday the focus was mostly on Abraham and the everlasting covenant that God has made to him and his descendants. 

I like to take notes as the preacher delivers his message so I will post my notes below the Bible reading from Genesis 12:1-8

 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto theLord, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.

Pastor Ben was preaching and here are the notes that I took from his sermon:

We are looking at the big picture story of the Bible. 

God created the world and all of humanity and He said that it is very good.

But humanity rejected God and turned against Him.

God made a promise to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 12. He starts enacting this plan in order to combat and wage war against the evil that has enveloped his creation. God is looking to draw humanity back into relationship with Him. The covenant promise is an act of mercy and grace.

God is Holy. He is robed in majesty and power. Humanity rejected and betrayed Him. It is not surprising that there is judgement. God destroyed most of humanity in the flood of Noah's day and spared only Noah and his family. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah but spared Lot and his daughters. We can think of the tower of Babel when God confused the language of the people. 

The surprising thing is that God is so merciful and gracious. In judgement God shows mercy and grace.

Genesis 12 is a major shift in history - a change in how God relates to humanity. 

Verse 2 - And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

We are blessed through Abraham. The Scripture is written by a descendant of Abraham. Jesus our Savior is a descendant of Abraham.

What are the promises to Abraham in Genesis 12?

1) Descendants - a great nation 

2) He will be blessed and be a blessing

3) A promised land

Will God be faithful to these promises? Can we trust God to fulfill His Word?

Absolutely YES!!

Genesis 1-11 describes how humanity fails and are not faithful to God. People reject Him time and time again.

But God is showing that He can be trusted and He is faithful.

God does provide children to Abraham. Isaac is born - a miracle baby. Genesis 12 is a blessing to Isaac.

Then we see Jacob getting the promise of Genesis 12. Jacob has 12 sons and so they become the 12 tribes of Israel. God does give them children and they become a great nation and even to this day!!

Laban is on the receiving end of the blessing when Jacob lives with him. Laban recognizes this to be true. God is constantly fulfilling his promise.

God's promise invites us to respond, to change and to live a new life in Christ.

Just as God called Abraham to leave his old place behind him, so God calls us to leave our old ways behind and he invites us to come to Him - to change and to follow Christ.

We need to trust Him. We need to come to Him in repentance and faith.

Will you trust Him?

God has promised provision. He has promised to take care of us. He will provide for us.

This allows us to live in a new way. We do not need to cling to our possessions, to our bank accounts or retirement fund.  We hold our possessions with a free hand because God is our provider.

God has promised to be in relationship with us. We don't use people in our to get ourselves ahead. We don't need to worry because  we are resting in the promise of God.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Our well being does not come by living for ourselves. Society says "me first" .

The Bible says "me first" is a recipe for disaster.

We are learning to trust God and to live in His promises.

Thought for the week - "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, I used everything you gave me." Erma Bombeck 

Abraham - Hero of the Bible

God wants you to worship Him, follow Him and thank Him!

James 2:22-23  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Our church is starting a sermon series titled "Heroes of the Bible". We started with Abraham. Later on in this post I will share the sermon notes from my home church. But I must admit that the sermon really didn't answer the question I have about Abraham. The question I have is why is Abraham a hero? What character trait is it that God is looking for in us that He would call us "friend" as He did with Abraham?  Jesus says in John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. So we see that obedience is part of it.

 I found the following article written by Jeff Strite. I think he makes a good point. You can read the entire article at  Abraham - Hero of the Faith   Mr Strite writes the following.

He was so significant, that in Genesis 12:2-3 we find that God sought Abraham out and gave him some very impressive promises. God said to Abraham:

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

God promised he was going to make Abraham the father of a great nation and make his name would become great. Abraham would receive a special protection of God and not only was he to be blessed by God, but everybody on earth who would ever be blessed by God, was to blessed because of Abraham.

How did Abraham rate such an honor?

Because the eyes of the Lord had run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those who were loyal to Him.

God set Abraham up to be one of the major heroes in Scripture. And God made him a hero because God saw in him a special trait – Faith.

Romans 4:9 tells us that “… Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.”

So much so that Romans 4:12 tells us “he is the father of (those) who walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”

Faith is a highly valued commodity to God.

Heb 11:6 “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.”

And Hebrews 10:38 says “… my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”

God calls His people to LIVE by faith. That implies that not just any old faith is going to do. God wants a faith that changes how we live.

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 So we can see that it is when we put our faith in God that He becomes pleased with us. A faith that changes how we live, a faith that produces obedience to the Word of God - The Bible.

Hebrews 11: 8-12

 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

It's pretty clear from the passage from Hebrews 11 that Abraham is a hero of the Bible because of the faith that he demonstrated as he lived his day to day life in faith - faith that influenced his decisions and choices every day.

Now to our sermon notes. 


The text is Genesis 12: 1-9 

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto theLord, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.

9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

 Our speaker was Pastor Ben. Here is some of what he said:

Abraham is huge in the Bible. The Bible keeps referring back to Abraham.
God makes massive promises to Abraham in verses 2-3.
* I will make you a great nation 
* I will bless you and make your name great
* I will bless them that bless you and curse those who curse you
God promises to make Abraham a blessing to the entire world.
This seemed impossible to  Abraham - he was living in a tent in the middle east, doesn't even know that America exists. Abraham was about 75 years old when God called him. He is not a young man. Yet the promise of a great nation??

This shows us that you are never too old for God to work in your life. Abraham has no children, no power and no influence.

The question for us is "Is God Faithful and Can we trust Him?"
Can God be trusted to keep His Word?
God's promises are for abundant life to those who follow Him - Can He keep His Word?

Abraham demonstrates great faith when he packs up his family, his goods and possessions and goes as God commands him to do.
Abraham waits years and no child is born. Sarah and Abraham decide to "help" God with this so Hagar the slave is given to Abraham as wife in order to bear a child. Ishmael is born, but we soon learn that he is not the son that God has promised to Abraham and Sarah.
God reaffirms his promise to Abraham.

God is faithful and does keep His promises - Isaac is born.

It is our choice whether we want to keep walking with God or if we want to turn our back to God and walk away from Him. We can reject God's promises, but God does not give up on us nor does He forget His promises to us. God is faithful to His Word.

Abraham's name has become great.
Abraham has become a great nation - the nation of Israel.
God's promises have come to pass.
God is faithful to every one of His promises!!

Does God still speak through dreams??

I wonder what your answer would be to this question? Does God still speak to us through dreams? We know that in the Bible God spoke to people through dreams at night while they were sound asleep and also through visions during the daytime. I am not really thinking so much about visions but I would like to explore just a few of the dreams that people in the Bible had and then tie in a few more personal examples. It is important that we understand that God's main way of speaking is through the written Word, the Bible. If anything is contrary to what God has revealed in the Scriptures, then we can be 100% sure that it is not from God. God will never go against anything in the Bible. He doesn't change and neither does His Word.

It seems to me that God will sometimes use dreams to prepare a person for the future or to warn of danger or wrong doing. In the case of Joseph ( the son of Jacob and Rachel ) the dreams were to prepare him for the future. Genises 37 records the dreams in verses 5-10 :
⁵And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
 ⁶And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
 ⁷For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
 ⁸And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
 ⁹And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
 ¹⁰And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Both of these dreams had the same meaning and father Jacob recognized the meaning of the dream when he says in verse 10 : " Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" Through these dreams that God gave to Joseph in the night, He was preparing him as well as Joseph's family for what was to come. As we know from the Bible, Joseph's brothers hated him and sold him as a slave to Egypt. It was in Egypt that these dreams came true. Joseph was a good slave and though he experienced many difficulties there and was even unjustly imprisoned, Joseph became the ruler in Egypt and only Pharoah was above him in command. When famine hit the land and food was scarce, the brothers came to buy food and bowed down to Joseph just as his dream had foretold.
Another dream to consider is that of Abimelech in Genesis 20. It is the story where  Abraham and Sarah were on a journey and came to the place Gerar.  Abraham had made a deal with Sarah his wife that they would tell people that Sarah was his sister rather than saying his wife since Abraham was afraid men might kill him if they happened to become interested in Sarah. Though this was a very wrong thing to do God spared Abraham in the midst of it all. So Abraham and Sarah came to Abimelech in Gerar and sure enough Abimelech was interested in Sarah as a possible spouse. Genesis 20:2   ²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah., Then notice what happens in verse 3,4. -³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. ⁴But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?..   So here in this story God comes to Abimelech to protect him from making a bad mistake worse and Abimelech makes things right and gives Sarah back to Abraham because after all she is Abraham's wife.

We can also think of the story of the birth of Jesus and where  Joseph finds out that Mary is with child by the Holy Spirit, Joseph decides to put her away secretly so as to not bring any shame on Mary. But then an angel of the Lord comes to Joseph in a dream in Matthew 1:19-21 -Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
²⁰But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
²¹And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
And again in²²Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
²³Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
²⁴Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
Also in Matthew 2:13 an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph again in a dream with further instructions for Joseph.

Making it Personal
So it is pretty clear that God has spoken many times in the Bible through dreams. I believe God still speaks to us in dreams occasionally. One example of this in my own life would be before my daughter who has down syndrome was born. God prepared me for this in other ways also,  but one way was by a dream. I dreamed that I saw a family picture of our family - my husband, myself and our children. There were more children in the picture than the three that we had at the time, one also in Heaven already,  but one of our children in the picture looked "different". The dream puzzled me at the time but when our daughter was born it made perfect sense. As you probably know, a child with down syndrome has a distinctive look, very beautiful, a lot like our other children but different. And she is a perfect fit and wonderful part of our family.
Another dream that I had years ago that troubled me for some time was one that I was at heaven's gate but all that I had to bring was straw. I believe that this was an encouragement from the LORD for me that all I do is to be done for Him and such that He can reward. Also we can only enter Heaven by Jesus and not by anything that we bring.
Another would be a reoccuring dream that I had for several years which only stopped after a family issue was taken care of.
My Dad had a dream in which God revealed to him that he was called to be a preacher of the gospel. So when the actual call came, he was prepared and ready to work for the Lord.
As I said at the start of this post, it is important to make sure that we are guided by the already revealed truth in the Bible. God's Word in the Bible is true and it is  His Word to us and these other hints that he gives us are just "icing on the cake" so to speak. God Bless.