As we finish chapter 11, it is immediately followed by the calling and separation of Abram in Genesis 12.
I want you to see verse 3 in relation to chapter 11, verses 1-9. All the nations are put under a curse because of what they did at Babel and so they are away from the blessings of God. But God has not forgotten His purpose, and now we see in chapter 12 that He is going to separate one man away from the families and nations of earth, and through him all of the nations of earth will be blessed.
You can see a pattern developing that helps the church to understand its unique position in relation to God and the world. The pattern here is going to be repeated in the church. So we look at the Old Testament and what do we see? One family being separated out from the nations of the world; being a blessing to all the families of the world that are now being cursed.
Now, you might not be aware of it, but that blessing is so important, that it is repeated five times within the book of Genesis alone. If something is repeated that often, God wants us to get something—there is something important here. We will only look at two of them. Turn to Genesis 22, and see why there needs to be this blessing. This is being repeated to Abraham:
That is in the past tense. It is directly tied to Abraham’s obedience. Then in chapter 26, we find that it is spoken to Isaac,
The nations of Genesis 10 and 11 are going to be blessed because of Abraham’s obedience. This includes every nation on the earth.
That puts a bit of a responsibility on the world—on the Gentiles. This was repeated in Genesis 27, only this time it was spoken to Jacob.
What that original promise to Abraham contained, then, were two conditions: (1) Israel had to be faithful, and (2) the nations had to respond by blessing God's covenant people.
Now that statement there contains a lot more than it appears to have on the surface, and we would probably tend to just brush by that without thinking on it too deeply. What Peter is saying to these people is this: That commitment to Jesus of Nazareth brings one in harmony with the promises made to Abraham. Another way of saying that would be just to change the wording a little bit. And that is that being in Christ, which is a common phrase that people use, made them an heir of the prophet.
You see what he was doing here? He was destroying their ideas that inheritance of the promise was hereditary. That was a bombshell. I am sure that for those people it did not just slide by like it would slide by with us. We try to, every once in a while, mention to you people that you are not born into the church. A person comes into the church by means of repentance, baptism, and the receiving of God's Holy Spirit. But the Jews had the idea that they were sons of Abraham by birth. They were confusing the physical with the spiritual and what Peter was telling these people is that the physical did not apply one iota toward becoming an actual heir of the receiving of the promises that were made to Abraham, that that was something that was reserved to those who were converted and who were the possessors of God's Holy Spirit, and that could be done only through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. I do not know how many of them caught it.
You see, Jesus is the Seed of Genesis 12:3. It is not multiple seeds. And what God was saying is that there is only one through which all of mankind is going to be blessed. And that in order for us to come under that benefit, we have to have a commitment to Jesus Christ.
I want you to see verse 3 in relation to chapter 11, verses 1-9. All the nations are put under a curse because of what they did at Babel and so they are away from the blessings of God. But God has not forgotten His purpose, and now we see in chapter 12 that He is going to separate one man away from the families and nations of earth, and through him all of the nations of earth will be blessed.
You can see a pattern developing that helps the church to understand its unique position in relation to God and the world. The pattern here is going to be repeated in the church. So we look at the Old Testament and what do we see? One family being separated out from the nations of the world; being a blessing to all the families of the world that are now being cursed.
The nations of Genesis 10 and 11 are going to be blessed because of Abraham’s obedience. This includes every nation on the earth.
That puts a bit of a responsibility on the world—on the Gentiles. This was repeated in Genesis 27, only this time it was spoken to Jacob.
What that original promise to Abraham contained, then, were two conditions: (1) Israel had to be faithful, and (2) the nations had to respond by blessing God's covenant people.
This is what we see in the Exodus Passover. Israel's sins were mercifully overlooked because of God's faithfulness and covenant loyalty to Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3; 15:13-16; Exodus 2:23-25; 6:4-6). The Passover represents the beginning of Israel's relationship with God. It demonstrates God's profound grace in initiating fellowship with a sinful nation, and delivering those who believed Him at least enough to follow the Passover instructions.
