4. Abraham and His Descendants
Week 3 • Day 4
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” - Genesis 12:1–3
In the midst of the prideful generation at the Tower of Babel, Abraham (who used to be called Abram) was called out by God to be the father of a humble and God-centered family of people. Oddly enough, Abraham was childless and past the age where he could have reasonably expected to have an heir to carry on his name, let alone become a “great nation” that would influence the world. He had very little way to build up for himself any kind of kingdom on earth.
Despite all of this, God announces these promises for Abraham and asks him to have faith in an unknown plan. Amidst the chaos caused by the serpent kingdom, God continues to orchestrate events on a cosmic scale and the gospel of the kingdom begins to slowly break through Abraham and his family.
Through Abraham, God promises to rescue His people from the fangs of the kingdom of the serpent in order to bless them as their true God!
Through Abraham, God promises to orchestrate all things to return His family to - “the land I will show you.”
Through Abraham, God promises to restore our image-bearing rule by making Abraham’s family a nation that would dispense blessing to all people!
Could Abraham be the serpent-crusher we have been looking for to reestablish God’s rule?
The sequence is completed with yet another story of an entire generation doing wicked things during their time.
GOD’S MERCY TOWARDS ABRAHAM
Just after Abraham makes a sacrifice to God to thank Him for their new relationship, Abraham decides it is “good” to leave the promised place to which God had led him in order to go to Egypt during a famine. In Egypt, Abraham decides that it is “good” to lie about his wife and endanger his family of people - namely His own wife Sarai. In the face of these “moment of truth” situations, Abraham rules according to his own knowledge of good and evil rather than trusting the good promises that God has made for him.
In all ways, unfortunately, Abraham remained under the ruling thumb of the serpent.
However, God routinely orchestrates the events of Abraham’s life according to His mercy in order to take steps in the direction of the gospel of the kingdom. First, in response to his sinful wanderings, God focuses on creating a way for Abraham and his family to remain in a safe place despite Abraham’s faults.
Genesis 13:14–17. “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
When God speaks to Abraham in Genesis 15:1 (AMP) saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; Your reward [for obedience] shall be very great,” Abraham gets cheeky with God. Essentially, He responds with something to the effect of “What reward? Because what I really want is a child to be my heir, and all I’ve got now for an heir is my secretary.” God doesn’t get mad at Abraham’s forwardness, but instead gives him one of the most beautiful messages of reassurance in the Bible: the promise of his very own family of people through a biological son!
“This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he [Abram] believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:4-6
It was then Abraham’s simple act of trust in the rule of God that was enough for God to bestow upon him the quality of righteousness. In that moment, Abraham didn’t have to be perfect, or sinless, or win a battle, or preach a sermon, he just had to surrender his own throne in favor of buying into God’s kingdom rule over the situation. He couldn’t have made himself right with God on his own merit as one who remained under the rule of the serpent. Rather, it was God who mercifully reached out to this broken man and offered a relationship, a family of people, a place to live, and a purpose he never could have earned by himself.
The story of the Bible oscillates between human sin in the kingdom of the serpent and God’s mercy in the kingdom of God.
OUR RESPONSE: FAITH AND TRUST!
From Abraham’s generation forward, things would be different! This time, God establishes a covenant promise with Himself to go through with the plans of the gospel of the kingdom via Abraham and his family. In the passages below, we find this mysteriously divine “us” taking an extraordinary form and making a promise to rule by providing for Abraham’s family.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram...When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” - Genesis 15:12, 17–21
Like Adam, Noah, and the generations before him, God anticipates that Abraham would inevitably “fall asleep at the wheel” of faith. So God begins to slowly work out the gospel of the kingdom through Abraham not because of any internal, Abraham-ish quality, but because the divine “us” uses His powerful rule to take initiative in the relationship. God calls Abraham, squares his rap sheet, and chooses to lead his family of people into the place of promise. In this Abrahamic covenant, God decides within Himself to maintain this promise for however long
it would take knowing that this was going to be a serpent-like family.
GOD’S MERCY TOWARDS ABRAHAM AND HIS FAMILY
If the serpent-kingdom pattern remains true, then we should expect to see the steady downfall of Abraham. Consider how Abraham’s life follows a pattern we have already seen..
Yet in every case of Abraham’s life, God would remain true to His covenant. After being sexually abused then sent away into the desert, God appears to Hagar, soothes her fears, and promises that even Abraham’s illegitimate family was known and He had a plan to help them. Hagar’s sentiment after experiencing God is so beautiful:
Genesis 16:13 “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
In the same way, God would intervene to protect Sarai from the multiple lies of Abraham and rescue Lot from the serpent’s kingdom-city that had developed around Lot’s family. Surely, God would be faithful to choose someone from his family to be this faithful serpent-crusher!
But if not Abraham, then who? That is what makes the next story so shocking.
OUR RESPONSE: FAITH AND TRUST!
Abraham eventually received the heir he longed for, so he learned to faithfully follow God’s
instructions, even if it meant offering the same promised son to be sacrificed on an altar.
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” - Genesis 22:2
WHAT A DISTURBING PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE! Yet, we have seen that God’s plans were consistently being twisted toward the glory of the self over and over again. Therefore, God saw fit to use this time to see if Abraham was following God to glorify the King of Kings or if Abraham wanted this son only to lift his own family legacy high. As a result of Abraham’s faithfulness in this ultimate test of faith, we receive one of the most powerful pictures of the gospel of the kingdom momentarily revealing itself! Thankfully, the Angel of the Lord stops Abraham and provides a substitute sacrifice to die in the place of Isaac.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” - Genesis 22:11–14
The imagery of this Mt. Moriah scene is stunning!
Abraham - the father of many nations - has a faith in God so strong that he is willing to offer the promised son of blessing as a sacrifice!
Isaac - the promised son of Abraham - remains obedient to death and is brought from sure death to life!
God’s chosen family is able to continue because of the sacrifice that God provides!
In this moment, Abraham decides to take the heavenly perspective and radically trust in the Lord’s rule over his life. Thousands of years later, we are still pondering this shocking and exemplary story of faith! Our minds still cannot comprehend a father who is willing to sacrifice his beloved son. We still wonder why Isaac was such a willing participant in laying down his life on the altar in complete obedience to his father. Why does God test anyone like this and is there a scenario in which God would ever let someone go through with this kind of act?
The reality is that there are more questions than answers surrounding this passage. However, the pattern of the Bible tells us that when God’s servants remain faithful, the gospel of the kingdom begins to break through. Perhaps the invitation is to anticipate a moment in which a father rules by faithfully offering his own son as a sacrifice. Perhaps we are given an even clearer picture of the serpent-crusher; the promised offspring of Abraham who would remain faithful even to the point of death. Perhaps this scene shows us the sacrificial means by which God’s family of people would be saved! Perhaps something significant will happen later on a mountaintop located in the place of Moriah!
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. - Hebrews 11:17–19
As we eagerly anticipate the fullness of the gospel of the kingdom, our journey moves on from Abraham (who has already fallen to the serpent) onto this child of promise named Isaac as the next “serpent-crushing” candidate. Could this young man - who remained faithful to his own death - grow up to be the serpent crusher that we have been waiting for?
GOD’S MERCY TOWARDS ABRAHAM AND HIS FAMILY
Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. - Genesis 26:1,6–7
Isaac’s serpent-like decisions precisely match Abraham’s lies threatening the safety of his wife. As the son imitates the sins of his father and bows the knee to the serpent, would we once again see this ugly spiral into sin? If so, in the same way Adam and Eve’s pair of children (Cain and Abel) experience strife, and Noah’s son acts wickedly (Ham), we should expect Genesis to introduce us to a similar story of hostility involving siblings.
Right on cue, Genesis introduces us to Isaac’s pair of twin children named Jacob and Esau. Per the kingdom of the serpent, Jacob schemes to cheat Esau out of the family blessing leading to a long period of hostility. However, instead of this event leading to murder, war, or any other serpent-like reaction, Jacob escapes the situation and God mercifully meets him in a dream.
Behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” - Genesis 28:12–15.
God does not only spare Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel after “wrestling with God”), He reaffirms His covenant promises, He works behind the scenes to reconcile Jacob’s relationship with Esau, and He blesses Israel with 12 sons. At the moment you would expect war and disharmony to break out, the Bible shocks us with a scene of beautiful reconciliation.
And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. - Genesis 33:1–4
If you are keeping score at home, you should now expect to see a story about the troubles and complications of existing in a world in which people are slowly multiplying.
Abraham’s great-grandson named Joseph, was terribly mistreated by his large family of 11 brothers. The scriptures remind us, however, that God was with Joseph the whole time; even when he was in a pit left to die, accused of sexual misconduct, sold into slavery, and thrown into prison. Since God was working behind the scenes, Joseph’s enslavement slowly transformed
into a situation of respect. What seemed like steps backward to our eyes became the very means by which God raises up Joseph from the pit of death to the #2 leader in all of Egypt!
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” - Genesis 41:39–40
Under the faithful rule of Jacob, Egypt becomes a place of abundance and blessing that provides for the family of people all across the world during a period of famine. Through Jacob’s rule, the gospel of the kingdom breaks through once again turning the desert land of Egypt into a space which taps into the Garden river of life and blessing that flows out of Eden and to the nations!
OUR RESPONSE: FAITH AND TRUST!
Yes, the pattern of the serpent continues forward through the serpent-like family of Abraham. At the same time, God has committed Himself to working through the sinful actions of this family in mighty ways! The summary of the Genesis story can be found in the passage below:
Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”
In Genesis 50, Joseph is forgiving his 11 brothers (yeah, those guys that sold him into slavery and started a whole chain reaction of terrible life events for Joseph). Joseph explains how the free-will decisions of humans in this life couldn’t stand against the outcome that God had planned for His kingdom. God can do anything, even use awful things to bring about His powerful rule over His family people in His kingdom place !
God rules over all things and always provides!
But when we look at the story of Genesis up to this point, we discover a family of people whose hostility continues to increase, located in a foreign kingdom place called Egypt under the foreign rule of Pharaoh. In the midst of God’s work, the serpent still roams free. While we have seen glimpses of the gospel of the kingdom seeping through the stories of Genesis, God has yet to provide the one who would crush the serpent.
Instead, all of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve remained “strapped to the altar” of the serpent. Death awaits us unless our Heavenly Father stops the knife of judgment that will destroy us. Will God provide a substitute that can bring us out from the pit of certain death?
It wasn’t Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph. But we are given more information about the one we ought to be looking for from the tribe of Judah (1 of Israel’s 12 sons with a troubled serpent-like history, yet the one who was willing to sacrifice himself so that his brother Benjamin might live).
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. - Genesis 49:10
Could this descendant from Judah destined to take a king’s scepter be the king who would crush the serpent and - like Joseph - escape the pit of death to make his way to the throne of glory? As you can tell from our chart below, our story is far from over!
Share the Gospel: Abraham is called to have faith in God’s promises. Abraham’s simple act of trust in the rule of God was enough for God to bestow upon him the quality of righteousness. Amidst the chaos caused by Abraham’s serpent-like family, God continues to orchestrate events on a cosmic scale and the gospel of the kingdom begins to slowly break through Abraham and his family.
