The show-and-tell lessons.
With the call of Abraham, God began revealing to helpless humankind how He would fulfill His promise to defeat the enemy and bring fallen people back to Himself. Although Abraham was only one man, God had a plan for all humankind. God shared His plan with Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:3. Abraham could not yet see how God would make His promise come true because his wife was unable to have children and was already past childbearing age. After Abraham rescued his nephew Lot and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, God blessed him and said, “… I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abraham asked, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless….” Genesis 15:1, 2.
Abraham had not yet realized that the blessing for all people on earth would not come from any of his biological sons, but from God, in the Son He had promised in the garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:15). Following his wife’s advice, Abraham fathered a son with her female slave and told God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” Genesis 17:18. “Then God said, Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac….” Genesis 17:19. So, when Abraham was one hundred years old, and his wife Sarah was ninety, they had a son, whom they named Isaac, as God instructed. Isaac was a shadow pointing to the reality—the promised Son whom God would send to a helpless humankind.
The lesson is that when Abraham and his wife could not have children, God stepped in and gave them a son through whom the world’s Savior would arrive at the right time. Similarly, when humankind was powerless to escape its slavery to sin and darkness, God intervened. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:6. As a result, God’s promise that “all the people on earth will be blessed” through Abraham became a reality in the Promised Son—Jesus Christ.
The ultimate sacrifice. Read the next blog.