AN OVERLOOKED PIVOT POINT
Genesis 12:1-7 (KJV)
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
There are a number of things a Christian needs grasp in their Bible in order to really benefit from our personal Bible studies, or even to get the most of a preaching, there are a number. Without these certain pieces of understanding our Bible times become just a little better than motivational messages.
One of those keys to Bible understanding is the various dispensations or “ages” that are here.[1]
Some people deny that the “ages” exist in the Bible.
I think they are patently wrong.
First of all, the term is used, exactly as I use it here, to describe dispensations of time, 2 times, and the Greek word from which it comes, we would pronounce it, eons) is found well over 150 times in the New Testament.
Second, it is obvious to anyone who honestly studies the Bible that the work of God among men “progressed” from His first dealings with Adam and Eve, until the end of the world as we know it in the final chapters of the Revelation.
Usually those who deny that the ages exist do so for a noble reason. They want to prove that God does not change; that His plan for man is the same from the beginning of the Bible to the end.
And with that I completely agree.
The way of salvation has never changed.
God determined before the foundation of the world[2]to send His Son, Jesus Christ to be the propitiation of our sins.
God’s plan has never changed
He intends to fellowship freely with men who are holy by choice; who love God freely and not because they have been made to.
God’s way of salvation has never changed
It has always been, and will always be through faith in the blood of Christ, shed on behalf of undeserving sinners.
The plan has never changed.
But that doesn’t not mean the plan hasn’t had multiple layers of operation.
· Dispensations
· Ages
There are eight of these ages in the Bible:
· The Age of Innocence
· The Age of Guilt
· The Age of Government
· The Age of Law
· The Age of the Kings
· The Age of Grace
· The Age of the Millennium
· The Age of Eternity
These various ages are separated by what I call pivot points:
· The Fall[3]
· The Flood[4]
· Abraham[5]
· The invitation to the Cross[8]
· The Great Tribulation[9]
· The Return of Christ[10]
· The Great White Throne Judgment[11]
To be able to locate and to understand these pivot points in your Bible will propel your understanding of the Word of God onto an entirely different level.
Now, I have said all of that simply to say that, likely, the most underappreciated of any of these pivot points of the Bible is Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham.
Abraham is the original father of the Jews.
But he is much more than that. He is also the father of Ishmael and Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.[12]
That makes him the father of Islam.
More importantly, the Bible tells us that Abraham is the father of all those in the faith
Romans 4:16 (KJV)
Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
In more ways than we most of us ever really think, Abraham is the original Christian.[13]
Understanding therefore, the call of Abraham, is key to understanding who we are as believers.
In his light then, I ask you to consider first,
I. THE PROMISE
Genesis 12:1-3 (KJV)
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:
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:
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.
We might be able to identify several promises built into these verses:
A promised homeland
“unto a land that I will shew thee”
A promised greatness
“I will make of thee a great nation”
A promised prosperity
“I will bless thee, and make thy name great”
A promised protection
“I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee”
All of these are true of God’s promises to Abraham.
But the promise everyone:
· Jews
· Muslims and
· Christians
want to lay claim to is the final one.
The promise to be a blessing
“and thou shalt be a blessing….
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
The word blessing here means to be a source[14]of
· Peace,
· Prosperity and
· Praise
Abraham has sure been that.
· Abraham teaches me it is more blessed to give than to receive
· Abraham teaches me that a walk with God doesn’t have to be perfect to be meaningful
· Abraham teaches me that righteousness comes through faith
· Abraham teaches me that faith obeys and acts
· Abraham teaches me that God’s promises are sure, even if they are not immediately answered
Abraham has sure been a blessing to me.
Furthermore, he has been a blessing to families of many ages and all around the earth.
We can’t say that there are missionaries in every country of the earth or even that there are Christians in every kindred, tongue and nation yet.
But we can say that the message of righteousness through faith has reached almost every nation and that it would be effective even in those we haven’t yet reached.
Consider secondly,
II. THE PERSON
Genesis 12:4-7 (KJV)
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.
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.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Notice the word LORD.
The name is found in verses 1, 4 and 7.
It is the Hebrew, Jehovah, which means, “the self existing one.”
It’s best definition is found in Exodus 3:13-14 (KJV)
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
“I am that I am.”
God needs no explanation.
· There is no explanation of how He exists
· There is no explanation of what He did before He created
· There is no explanation of why He created
· There is no explanation of why He plans as He plans, or does as He does
· God does not have to explain why He created an angel he knew would rebel
· God does not have to explain why He created a couple He knew would fall in sin
He does not have to explain His plans to us or His ways to us.
He does not have to justify His righteousness.
He IS righteousness.
When you read in your Old Testament you will see the word Lord with the “L” capitalized.
It refers to God as our master.
When you see the whole word in capitals, it is more than a title He possesses, it is His very being.
And it connects Him to Jesus.
John 8:56-58 (KJV)
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Do you get it?
Jesus is the LORD who appeared unto Abraham.[15]
This will bring me to my final point
III. THE PROPHECY
Genesis 12:3 (KJV)
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.
Let me just get down to business and say, all this passage says about Abraham, can’t be answered onlyin Abraham.
· Blessing Abraham can’t bless people all by itself
· Cursing Abraham can’t curse people all by itself
Further, it can’t only be the nation of Israel
· Blessing Israel as a nation can’t bless people all by itself
· Cursing Israel as a nation can’t curse people all by itself
Ultimately this passage points us to Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:16 (KJV)
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Now, since I’ve shown you Galatians 3:16, and you can easily see that the “seed” God promised Abraham in Genesis 12:7[16]is Jesus, I’d like to read a bit more of Galatians 3 to you.
Galatians 3:8-13 (KJV)
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Notice especially the words blessed and cursed.
Christ is the fulfillment of Genesis 12.
· Those who place their faith in Christ are blessed.
· Those who do not are cursed
Conclusion
I think the only thing left to answer is “When?”
When will the believer be blessed and when will the unbeliever be cursed?
It doesn’t look like that’s happened yet, and Jesus has already come and hung on the tree.
Acts 1:10-11 (KJV)
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
That’s when.
Jesus is coming again.
Apostle Paul describes it in, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 (KJV)
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
Jesus is coming again
To the great joyto the believers, but to the great agonyof the unbelievers.
Jesus is coming again
The only question is,
· Will you rest with those of us who have placed faith in Christ? or
· Will you be punished with those who know not God?
[1]Colossians 1:26 (KJV)
Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
[2]Acts 2:23 (KJV)
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
1 Peter 1:19-20 (KJV)
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
[3]Genesis 3:1-24
[4]Genesis 9:1-7
[5]Genesis 12:1-7
[6]Exodus 20:1-17, 2 Samuel 7:12-16
[7]Technically David lives during the age of the Law. In this case, I would consider the Great Tribulation to be a separate age. But it is a very specific part of that age. The Kings of Israel could arguably define a whole age of their own.
[8]Matthew 11:28-30
[9]2 Thessalonians chapters 1 and 2
[10]Revelation 19:11-21
[11]Revelation 20:11-15
[12]Genesis 25:1-2
[13]Think of it, the Jews, the Muslims and the true Christians all lay claim to Abraham.
[14]Brown, Driver, Briggs
[15]Genesis 12:7 (KJV)
And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
[16]Genesis 12:7 (KJV)
And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
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