Originally published at: Exegesis of Genesis 12 (01 Nov 2023) | Corey J. Mahler Podcasts
(including all podcasts)
…
bc1qcr72vyc4v0jt25g98rg2ry87zwujd54m8nzrcg0xb3e698A919DB7Fee8294D1502819e6b6300d48c54UpSYuyE1GqkkwjcXnTjfsPJ84HNnpn9VGb9ZsaZWRzX
WEBVTT
00:00:01.160 → 00:00:06.360
This recording constitutes a section of my class on Genesis.
00:00:06.360 → 00:00:13.080
I began teaching the class before COVID caused any number of problems, of which we are all well aware.
00:00:13.080 → 00:00:31.280
At any rate, this recording is meant to be both standalone as an exegesis of a section of Genesis 12 and as an accompaniment to an episode of the Stone Choir podcast, one that will be released incidentally the same day as this recording.
00:00:31.280 → 00:00:34.680
It will be in the show notes for that episode.
00:00:34.680 → 00:00:42.300
The topic of that episode is Dispensationalism, which is why this particular section of Genesis is relevant.
00:00:43.780 → 00:00:53.300
The section of Genesis that I will be exegeting in this recording is the beginning of Genesis 12, and I will start by reading that section.
00:00:53.300 → 00:00:54.440
It’s just one paragraph.
00:00:55.920 → 00:01:10.520
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.
00:01:10.520 → 00:01:18.120
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.
00:01:20.000 → 00:01:36.020
For this recording, I will be focusing on verses 2 and 3, and so not the first verse about Abram leaving his country and his kindred, and going to a land that God would give to him or to his descendants more accurately.
00:01:38.660 → 00:01:45.360
Although this does not come through particularly well in English, there are seven blessings or promises here.
00:01:46.260 → 00:01:50.300
The first, God will make him a great nation.
00:01:50.300 → 00:01:53.040
The second, God will bless him.
00:01:53.040 → 00:01:56.180
The third, God will make for him a great name.
00:01:56.180 → 00:01:58.860
The fourth, he will be a blessing to others.
00:01:58.860 → 00:02:03.620
The fifth, he will bless those that his God will bless those who bless him.
00:02:03.620 → 00:02:07.040
The sixth, God will curse those who dishonor him.
00:02:07.040 → 00:02:11.760
The seventh, all nations will be blessed in him.
00:02:11.760 → 00:02:18.200
Now, this is an expansive set of promises, and we should spend some time unpacking them.
00:02:18.200 → 00:02:19.580
So, we will go in order.
00:02:19.580 → 00:02:22.120
First, great nation.
00:02:22.120 → 00:02:33.820
Of this promise, Luther contends that not only is it gospel, and so it is, but that it is also a most outstanding passage, and one of the most important in all Holy Scripture.
00:02:33.820 → 00:02:41.440
I would recommend you highlight or underline it, unless you refuse to write in your Bible, which I do with most of mine.
00:02:41.440 → 00:02:42.300
Again, from Luther.
00:02:43.320 → 00:02:53.980
First of all, you should consider that what the Lord promises Abraham here is altogether impossible, unbelievable, and untrue if you follow reason, because it cannot be seen.
00:02:53.980 → 00:03:04.620
If the Lord has something like this in mind for Abraham, why does he not let him remain in his land and with his kindred, where Abraham undoubtedly had some influence or reputation?
00:03:04.620 → 00:03:18.320
Is the way to success easier among strange people, where one does not even have a place to set one’s foot, than at home, where one’s fields, friends, neighbors, and relatives are, where one’s household has been well established?
00:03:18.320 → 00:03:32.000
Therefore, the power of the Holy Spirit was great and extraordinary in Abraham, because he was able to apprehend with his heart these impossible, unbelievable, and incomprehensible things, as though they were real and already present.
00:03:32.000 → 00:03:43.000
Such must have been the case, especially since he was already approaching old age, for he was seventy-five years old, but Sarah was ten years younger and barren at that.
00:03:44.300 → 00:03:45.880
The second blessing.
00:03:45.880 → 00:03:47.840
I will bless you.
00:03:47.840 → 00:03:53.700
We would do well to interpret this promise as applying both to Abraham and to his offspring.
00:03:53.700 → 00:03:55.880
But who were the offspring of Abraham?
00:03:55.880 → 00:03:57.680
From Romans 9.
00:03:57.680 → 00:04:07.720
But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham, because they are his offspring.
00:04:08.300 → 00:04:11.240
But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
00:04:11.240 → 00:04:19.360
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as offspring.
00:04:19.360 → 00:04:26.460
To some degree, this promise was fulfilled to Abraham personally, for he was truly blessed spiritually and physically.
00:04:26.460 → 00:04:34.280
To another degree, this promise was fulfilled to Old Testament Israel, as they, in accordance with the first blessing, became a great nation.
00:04:35.000 → 00:04:45.080
And, to the fullest degree, this was fulfilled in Christ, the greatest blessing of all, and a blessing in which Abraham participated through faith.
00:04:45.080 → 00:04:48.480
The third blessing, I will make your name great.
00:04:49.560 → 00:04:54.160
Need we even review this promise, this blessing, at any real length?
00:04:54.160 → 00:04:56.380
It is now 2023.
00:04:56.380 → 00:05:01.460
God made this promise to Abraham in the second millennium BC, to the best of our calculations.
00:05:02.280 → 00:05:06.240
Can you quickly name three people who lived 700 years ago?
00:05:06.240 → 00:05:11.200
Perhaps a medieval history major would have an answer for me, but the point should be clear.
00:05:11.200 → 00:05:18.000
Abraham lived more than five times 700 years ago, and yet here we are learning of him.
00:05:18.000 → 00:05:23.160
I do not suppose that history will remember most of us four thousand years from now.
00:05:23.160 → 00:05:29.920
Luther, perhaps, but Abraham will still have 3500 years on him, and Christ himself spoke of Abraham.
00:05:31.080 → 00:05:32.200
The fourth promise.
00:05:32.200 → 00:05:34.220
You will be a blessing.
00:05:34.220 → 00:05:42.440
Our fourth blessing is not merely a blessing, but also an interpretive lens for the preceding three blessings and for the following three.
00:05:42.440 → 00:05:46.780
It is a perfect centerpiece in God’s perfect seven-fold blessing of Abraham.
00:05:46.780 → 00:05:50.440
Here we see why God blesses Abraham.
00:05:50.440 → 00:05:58.040
Certainly God blesses Abraham because it is his good pleasure to do so, but he does so also with an aim and end, a goal in mind.
00:05:58.740 → 00:06:04.120
So that I will make you a great nation, so that you will be a blessing.
00:06:04.120 → 00:06:07.620
I will bless you, so that you will be a blessing.
00:06:07.620 → 00:06:11.500
I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
00:06:11.500 → 00:06:16.540
You will be a blessing, so that him who blesses you, I will bless.
00:06:16.540 → 00:06:21.700
You will be a blessing, so that him who dishonors you, I will curse.
00:06:21.700 → 00:06:26.040
You will be a blessing, so that in you all nations will be blessed.
00:06:27.880 → 00:06:30.140
Promises 5 and 6.
00:06:30.140 → 00:06:34.840
I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who dishonor you.
00:06:34.840 → 00:06:38.820
We must carefully note here that God’s promises are not idle.
00:06:38.820 → 00:06:44.980
Today the church seems small and shrinking, despised, held in contempt by the world.
00:06:44.980 → 00:06:47.240
But here we have the word of God.
00:06:47.240 → 00:06:51.820
He will bless those who bless us, and curse those who dishonor us.
00:06:51.820 → 00:06:59.300
Well over a thousand years of European Christendom speak to God’s steadfast love and faithfulness in his promise to bless.
00:06:59.300 → 00:07:04.120
And the drowned army of pharaohs speaks to the fate of those who persecute the church.
00:07:04.120 → 00:07:06.480
We know that persecution will come.
00:07:06.480 → 00:07:13.500
From 2nd Timothy, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
00:07:13.500 → 00:07:19.060
But we also know that Christ is and will be with us even until the end of the age.
00:07:19.060 → 00:07:22.780
This life may at times seem beyond even the vestiges of hope.
00:07:23.500 → 00:07:26.420
But we know that the victory has already been won.
00:07:26.420 → 00:07:37.480
From Revelation 1, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.
00:07:37.480 → 00:07:39.580
Even so, Amen.
00:07:40.940 → 00:07:46.000
Promise 7, In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
00:07:46.000 → 00:07:50.600
Thus far, the promises have been more or less material or temporal in nature.
00:07:51.340 → 00:08:01.320
However, the seventh and final blessing is clearly spiritual, in nature and casts a spiritual meaning upon the first four promises as well.
00:08:01.320 → 00:08:07.980
What we have here at the end of verse 3 is a recapitulation of the promise of Genesis 3.15.
00:08:07.980 → 00:08:15.720
For how will the families of man be blessed except through the Son, on account of the blessed seed who crushes the serpent’s head?
00:08:15.720 → 00:08:24.140
As Luther comments, But now there follows that promise which should be written in golden letters, and should be extolled in the languages of all people.
00:08:24.140 → 00:08:35.000
For it offers eternal treasures, for it cannot be understood in a material sense, namely, that it would be confined to this people only, as the previous blessings perhaps were.
00:08:35.000 → 00:08:50.100
But if, as the words clearly indicate, this promise is to be extended to all nations, or families of the earth, who else shall we say has dispensed this blessing among all nations, except the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ?
00:08:50.100 → 00:09:07.620
Luther actually goes further and reasons out the nature of the promise and Christ’s work from these verses, and in doing so he is well supported, for clearly only a true man, who was and is more than mere man, could proceed from Abraham, and yet bless all humanity, including Abraham.
00:09:09.580 → 00:09:23.580
If I were tasked with pulling from Scripture ten sections to summarize what and why we believe, this would be the second or the third, even if there is some danger in using a third of one’s allowance before leaving the first of sixty-six books.
00:09:23.580 → 00:09:29.880
These promises are properly understood as applying to the church, and what a beautiful set they form.
00:09:29.880 → 00:09:37.320
We begin with the promise to form from Abraham a great nation, and we end with a clarification of what kind of nation this will be.
00:09:37.320 → 00:09:41.060
Note carefully the language, and the ESV does in fact capture this.
00:09:42.120 → 00:09:48.280
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.
00:09:48.280 → 00:09:56.080
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.
00:09:57.340 → 00:10:02.820
Abraham will be a great nation, but all the families of the world will be blessed in him.
00:10:02.820 → 00:10:18.420
Scripture does not usually speak of families in this context, for the usual term is nation, which is to say ethnos or in the plural, ethne, instead of pesai ai fule, fule being the term for families here.
00:10:18.420 → 00:10:22.120
Why then do we have families in this verse?
00:10:22.120 → 00:10:23.960
Two reasons.
00:10:23.960 → 00:10:40.340
Nations would not work here, for Abraham’s seed, Christ, does not bring blessing to all nations, at least not in the sense here in view, because what he actually does is create a new nation, the Church, the true Israel.
00:10:40.340 → 00:10:45.940
Now, this is not to say that Christ’s work destroys national identities.
00:10:45.940 → 00:10:49.960
Soteriology does not destroy ontology.
00:10:49.960 → 00:10:58.120
However, it is to say that only the nation that is the Church is truly and completely blessed.
00:10:58.120 → 00:11:13.720
That nation is pulled from all members of all actual nations, which is to say the sense of nation used to mean blood, used synonymously with ethnicity, the sort of nation that is directly heritable.
00:11:13.720 → 00:11:26.840
And so, in that sense, all nations are, of course, blessed in Christ, but it is only the Church in which all members of the Church are individually themselves blessed in Christ.
00:11:26.840 → 00:11:34.040
And second, we are being told from whom Christ will craft his new nation, from all the families of the earth.
00:11:34.040 → 00:11:35.880
The scope of this blessing is universal.
00:11:36.480 → 00:11:38.900
Even if some will tragically reject it.