I’m going to share some more thoughts on the promise God made to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3.  You may have noticed that it has three parts, which were repeated to Abraham over the years.

Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

You’ve all heard reference to “The Promised Land,” that property they are still fighting over in the Middle East. God told Abraham it would be his. That was the promise his descendants rallied around in the Exodus from Egypt. The land flowing with milk and honey would be theirs.

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

When God spoke this promise, Abram was already old and had no children. This was quite a promise, yet God was able to accomplish it. Isaac was the child of promise. Jacob continued that promise. His twelve sons grew into the people of Israel, a mighty nation, a people who were blessed by God. Their name was made great among the nations, so much so that when David was king, Israel was the superpower of the world. Yet it all started with God making a promise to a childless old man.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

The third part of the promise was that everyone would be blessed through Abraham and his descendants. This is the most important part of the promise, because this is where we get something from God. We are part of the “all peoples” that are blessed through Abraham’s descendants, one descendant in particular: Jesus Christ. It was through the vehicle of the Jewish nation that God would bring His plan for the salvation of the world. Into a world of broken promises, God sent His promise made flesh. In spite of all the times that Israel had been disobedient and failed to live as God’s people, God remained steadfast and faithful. He kept His promise. He sent the one who would bring blessing to all peoples. Jesus came to do that. He would pay the penalty for all our sins, even broken promises, and through Him we are blessed.

When some people look at the three parts of the promise made to Abraham, they wonder about the first two parts. Why do we say that the Land of Canaan is no longer important, or that Jewish lineage is no longer significant. We spend all our time talking about the last part of the promise being what it is all about. How can we do that? Because that is what Jesus told us. He came as the fulfillment and completion of all God’s promises. In John 4, the woman at the well spoke of the Promised One, the “Messiah”  and Jesus stated, “I who speak to you am he.”

Everything in the Old Testament, the “Old Promise” was preparing the way for and pointing to Him, whether it be a specific land, an ethnic heritage or a system of laws. Listen to how the New Testament writers addressed this issue.

Hebrews 10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming–not the realities themselves.

Colossians 2: 16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

The reality is found in Christ. God’s promise to bless all peoples came in the form of His Son entering this world to be our Redeemer. His spotless life was the fulfillment of all those sacrificial lambs without spot or defect. His death on the cross, shedding his blood was the completion of all the sacrifices that had been offered for sin. And His victory over death brought the promise to its culmination by securing forgiveness and life for all people. All you have to do is believe the promise. And the promise is still good, because God is the one who made the promise.

While people will disappoint us by breaking their promises, God does not. And He promises that all who believe that Jesus is their Savior will have forgiveness and life.