Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
How is this possible? The promise is to Abram and His descendants. For those of us who belong to the nations of the world – the Gentiles – how can we, all the families of the earth, possibly be blessed by Abram?
Firstly – Well of course, as we have mentioned in previous posts, the physical nation and people of Israel are blessed and the innovations that are coming out of Israel are blessing the world -militarily, agriculturally, medically, cyber security, scientifically, technologically, water, fruit, computers, smart phones, google maps, cures for disease -etc. We daily benefit as the Gentile nations from this little blessed nation because God has blessed it.
Secondly, and much more importantly, we have been blessed because of the Messiah -Jesus.
Abram’s physical descendants – the nation of nation Israel, was the custodian of the Kingdom of God and the womb of the Messiah. Once Jesus had been born in that wonderfully royal bloodline of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David and Joseph and Mary – he was a gift, not only to the nation of Israel but to the whole world.
But how? Since the promise of God to Abram was only for his descendants -the sons of Abraham.
The purpose of the apostle Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles was to explain this mystery. That Jew and Gentile are now one in Messiah. But not just anybody -but to those who believe in Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Romans 11:11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
Paul goes on to say that this is the mystery – there has come a blindness in part to the physical descendants of Abraham, (which he refers to as the true branches of the cultivated olive tree) so that we wild Gentiles who worship any old idol that we take a liking to (who he refers to as wild olive branches) can be grafted into the cultivated olive tree. Yes that’s right. We can become a part of the promise of Abram – the Kingdom of God, as true sons of Abraham -by faith in Jesus.
Galatians 3:6-9 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
I hope you grasp the significance of this. It was the basis of Paul’s teaching.
You don’t need to go and become a Jew if you are a Gentile who already believes in Jesus as the Messiah. You have become a son of Abraham by faith.
And Jewish people you don’t need to become a Gentile and drop your Jewishness to accept the Messiah Yeshua as the long awaited Messiah. You are physical sons of Abraham (who still need to acknowledge your Messiah who has already come).
Surely ALL the families of the earth are blessed through Abram!!!!
Are you a son of Abraham by faith in Jesus?
Are you a Jewish person still trying to understand who, or what, the Messiah is?