Following Christ-Rediscovering the Jewish Faith of Jesusნიმუში

Day 3: God’s Promise to Abram

God promised to bless and make Abram into a great nation—blessing all people through him. Abram responded to God, traveling to Canaan.

Even so, God’s amazing promise to make Abram a great nation seemed absolutely impossible. Abram was old, and so was his wife, Sarai. She was well past childbearing age. When Abram brought this fact to God, God simply assured him that his wife would indeed bear him a son.

However, his wife encouraged him to mate with her maid, Hagar, which Abram did. Hagar had a son that was named Ishmael. Nevertheless, God still insisted that this was not the son He had in mind, and that Sarai herself would bear a son.

God told Abram to look at the sky and count the stars. God told Abram that his descendants would be as many as the stars or the dust of the earth. The Bible says that “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

As a result of this faith, God made a covenant with Abram. To confirm it, God instructed Abram to cut some animals in half. Then Abram had a divine revelation of a torch and a smoking pot, representing God, passing between the pieces. This indicated that it was a one-sided covenant—meaning that the only obligation was on God to keep it.

There were essentially three parts to this promise (or covenant). First, God would give Abram many descendants (a great nation). Second, the land of Canaan would be Abram’s descendants’ eternal possession. Further, God promised to establish an everlasting covenant to be Abram’s God, and the God of his descendants. Abram and his descendants were to be God’s chosen people for all time.

As a sign of this eternal covenant, God commanded thatAbram’s male descendants should be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. This practice has been continued among the Jewish people, Abram’s descendants, to this day.

Some followers of Jesus have the idea that God has rejected the Jews as His chosen people. However, this flies in the face of the very nature of God. This is an everlasting covenant and God promised to never reject the Israelite people.

Abram believed God would keep His promises, even when that seemed impossible. God gives us the same opportunity.

Reflection

What promises has God given to you that seem impossible?

Are you able to believe that God will keep His promises, as Abram did?

Take a moment and make a list of the promises God has made to you. Keep them before you in prayer and let God build up your faith as you believe for each and every one of them.