Genesis 12:3, commentary and pictures

God promised Abraham that those who blessed him would be blessed and those who cursed him would be cursed, and that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed as God's chosen representative and witness. That universal blessing comes through Abraham's line in the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ descended from Abraham, in whom Jew and Gentile are brought into one fold. It was never meant for Abraham or Israel alone nor secured by birth or outward privilege, but is shared by all who seek Christ by faith and meet its conditions. Abraham received it by trusting obedience, going out without knowing the destination confident God would guide and keep His word, and his descendants share it only as they resemble him in faith, piety and obedience. God so blessed Abraham and Israel in order to make them a blessing, to reveal His character and make His salvation known to the nations, and He blesses His people still for the same purpose that they may communicate light and be a blessing to the world.

Covenant Words and Setting

The verse stands as part of God's covenant of promise to Abraham, in which God would bless those who blessed Abraham and would make all the families of the earth blessed through him, Abraham having been chosen as God's representative and witness to reveal God's righteousness to many people. He was called away from his idolatrous nation, country, kindred, and father's home to go to a land God would show him, in order to serve God, because remaining there exposed him to strong temptations and dangers surrounding him. That call is election to become members of the Lord's family, laying responsibility on those called to sense their charge as God's messengers, to be taught of God every day, to represent Christ in example after the Christlike pattern, to be constantly learning and teaching the most solemn message ever given to mortals, and to come out from the world in speech and action by maintaining a separate holy character under discipline to Jesus Christ.

He was called away from his idolatrous nation to serve God and become an example of faith and devotion. God promised him descendants as numerous as the stars and revealed that they would endure long bondage in Egypt. Though Abraham could see no land he could claim as his own, God presented him with the gospel and showed him the possession he would receive as an eternal inheritance. God called him and promised Canaan as an everlasting possession, which he did not receive in his lifetime, with final fulfillment in the whole earth as an inheritance for his seed through Christ.

The command to leave Ur of the Chaldees marks the beginning of the 430 years of sojourning ending with the giving of the law at Sinai. The sojourning includes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as sojourners in Canaan and is not time in Egypt alone, which was only about 215 years. The 400 years of affliction is a distinct shorter period reckoned from thirty years later, about the time Ishmael persecuted Isaac. The promise marks the beginning of the history of God's chosen people studied from that promise through deliverance from Egypt. With the covenant with Jacob it gives Shechem its sacred associations remembered at Joshua's final gathering of the tribes there alongside Israel's vows at Ebal and Gerizim, fulfilled in God giving Israel a land for which they did not labor, cities they did not build, and vineyards and oliveyards they did not plant.

Wherever Abraham pitched his tent he built an altar to God and worshiped Him with those accompanying him, placing his call to leave his kindred and sojourn in a strange land in the setting of worship. The promise belongs to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promised blessing was bound up with the promised heir Isaac who was to inherit it. Jacob remembered the promise and hoped God would wonderfully bless Joseph as the eldest son of his beloved Rachel.

Those who bless Israel receive blessing and those who seek to curse or destroy God's children bring the curse upon themselves. Balaam's prophecy applies this to Israel's enemies, declaring hostile plans will recoil upon them. For Israel's king is the Son of God whose throne will one day be established on earth and whose power will rise above every earthly kingdom.

Blessing to All Through Christ

The covenant was not made for a selfish purpose for Abraham alone nor for Israel alone, but so that blessing would reach all the families of the earth. Abraham was called to become a blessing to the nations and a light to those who did not know God. His descendants were made a distinct people and nation to carry out that purpose, so that through them God's name and blessing might reach all peoples.

The blessing promised through Abraham was meant for all families, not for his physical descendants alone. People from among the nations can share the spiritual blessings promised to his seed. They can be numbered among God's people.

All families of the earth receive blessing through Abraham's line because the Redeemer of the world would come from his descendants. This promise embodied Israel's hope and pointed to redemption through the coming Redeemer. It was precious to Abraham as an inheritor of faith. As God's purpose for redeeming humanity was revealed to him, he looked forward to the Saviour's day and rejoiced in hope of deliverance.

Abraham was called to be the father of a people who would preserve God's truth. Through that people all nations would be blessed at the coming of the promised Messiah. He was thus a channel through whom the promised Messiah would come to bless the world. His faithfulness and instruction of his household helped prepare that people for this role.

The call made Abraham a blessing through whom all families of the earth would be blessed, and that calling passed to Israel. Israel was chosen to preserve among men the knowledge of God's law and of the symbols and prophecies pointing to the Saviour. They were to be as wells of salvation to the world, revealing God among the nations. So Abraham was in the land of his sojourn, Joseph was in Egypt, and Daniel was in the courts of Babylon. His descendants would exalt God's law.

In Abraham all nations should be blessed, meaning the Messiah comes as Redeemer not of the Jews only but of the world. The people of Samaria based their faith in the Messiah on this promise together with the other early scriptures. They held to it even while discarding the later prophets. Jewish misinterpretation had obscured the first advent.

Every family on earth is to be blessed in Jesus Christ, the promised Saviour and newborn King and Prince descended from Abraham. The promise belongs to Gentiles as well as Israel. He is the promised star arising from Jacob, who took humanity and bore the image of God. Through Him the blessing promised to the nations comes to the world.

Gentiles as well as Israel can seek Him by faith. The Eastern wise men went forth by faith to seek Him, guided outwardly by the star and inwardly by the Holy Spirit impressing their hearts with hope. They presented the richest gifts of their land as homage and offering to Him. In this is shown blessing reaching all peoples through Abraham's promised offspring.

The spiritual blessings of the covenant belong to every family group on earth. They are secured to no one by outward privilege, position, or name, nor denied to anyone by outward disability. They are given only to those who meet the conditions. In every place and in every age those who fear God and work righteousness are accepted by Him. Fulfillment comes in and through Christ, in whom Jew and Gentile are brought into one spiritual fold.

Israel Called to Bless Nations

God chose Israel to receive rich blessings in order to share them, preparing the way for His light to reach all peoples. Through them the nations were to become acquainted with God, receiving spiritual advantages and reflecting His character. The principles revealed through His people were to restore the moral image of God in humanity. It was His purpose through Israel to impart rich blessings to all people and to prepare the way for light to be diffused to the whole world. Though the nations had lost the knowledge of God through corrupt practices, in mercy He did not blot them out of existence but purposed to give them opportunity to know Him.

He designed the Jewish people to be the channel through which His blessings would flow to the whole world, and His wonderful deliverance of them reveals His great care and love. Even their presence in Babylon as captives was to serve that purpose among the heathen nations. Abraham was chosen not only to be His special friend but as a means through whom divine privileges, illumination, and saving grace would reach the nations, to be a light amid moral darkness. God's purpose in choosing a people is likewise that they become agents in bringing salvation to others. He promised to bless and multiply Abraham's people, make them a power in the earth, and reveal His will through them, and they were to keep His law and make the knowledge of God known.

His care for Israel was not meant to exclude the rest of humanity but to reveal His love and grace, blessing His chosen people so they could share His blessing with all families of the earth. He blessed Abraham so that people beyond his own family and nation could be blessed through him, and Abraham's faithful and unselfish life revealed God to the peoples among whom he lived, including the inhabitants of Sodom. His descendants were specially blessed so they would in turn be a blessing to others, sharing His promises and love with surrounding nations rather than holding them as an exclusive right of birth. Turning election into superiority and building a wall of pride and self-sufficiency against others betrays the true import of Scripture and leaves His people unwilling to minister to those in darkness around them.

His purpose for the people He chose was for His blessing to reach all the world through them by revealing His character and, through the sacrificial service, pointing the nations to Christ so that all who looked to Him could live. Israel failed to carry this blessing to the world because they forgot God, used their advantages for their own glorification, and withheld religious guidance and a holy example from others. The Jews were His chosen people through whom He purposed to bless the entire race, and from among them He raised up many prophets who foretold the advent of a Redeemer who was to be rejected and slain by those who should have been the first to recognize Him as the Promised One. Even though Israel rejected His Son, He did not reject them, and at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Faith and Obedient Response

Abraham trusted and obeyed without outward evidence, going wherever he was directed in confidence that he would be guided and protected and that the word given to him would be faithfully kept. His obedience displays the faith and reliance required of those called to serve, and his life stands as an example of that faith to succeeding generations. He left country, home, kindred, and friends at the call without questioning whether the place ahead would be pleasant or easy and without demanding to know the destination, confident that he was being led. His example teaches that when duty runs against inclination, the part to act is to have faith and trust.

He obeyed at the command of One whom he scarcely knew, because his heart had been disposed to obey. His going shows what it is to grasp the divine will with sanctified intellect and living faith, to press on in the narrow way, to cultivate capabilities and wisely employ powers, and to keep a conscience void of offense toward God and man. Such a conscience is a safe guide only when the whole being is under God's control. He trusted the voice that spoke to him, and his faith produced fruit. His obedience was true faith, not belief only but trust producing fruits, which is faith in Christ imputed for righteousness, and by it he was saved just as the sinner today is saved by faith in Christ.

His faith was to move out in obedience without seeing the future opened before him, trusting for the support of himself and his family when the way was unseen. That same faith is required when conviction concerning the Sabbath raises fear about livelihood. Leaving home, kindred, and everything for a land of strangers was his first close test, and there he and his whole household suffered poverty and hunger in famine, with opportunity to distrust, so that adverse circumstances proved him. His faith and confidence at last brought great riches and possessions, and above all the blessing, yet the promised possession was not received in this life, for he owned not a foot of it and had to buy land to bury his dead. The promise opened to him immortal life on this earth purified as his home, so he lived satisfied as pilgrim and stranger looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, teaching that believers are not to expect all reward here in land or gold or silver but an eternal weight of glory and a claim on the future immortal life.

Fulfillment of the promises to him and his descendants, and through Christ to the nations, was not unconditional, for his share depended on the course he pursued. By restraining evil and teaching his household justice and godliness by example and instruction, he acted faithfully and in harmony with God. Mere descent from him gives no one a share in the blessings. Those who claim the promise must resemble him in faith and piety and show integrity and purity of life. The call and promise do not depend on literal descendants for fulfillment. Those who claim him as father while living in pride, selfishness, and cruelty are not children of the just and obedient man but a deadly curse to the people, and with the light received are worse than the heathen they despise, while God can call others to service as He called him, and even hearts as lifeless as desert stones can be quickened by His Spirit to do His will and receive the promise.

He was blessed and made a blessing because he faithfully commanded his children and household after him to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, making straight paths lest the lame be turned out of the way. That is the path for all parents: teaching children to work for Christ and schooling them for actual service, taking them into religious exercises, consecrating them to Christ, educating their minds in divine truth, and bringing them to associate with those who love God and with the people of God to build characters fit for eternity. When parents fulfill these duties as he did, they will be commended in the heavenly courts as he was commended, and thus a people is prepared for its role.

Living as Blessing Today

God's blessing on Abraham is the pattern for His workers today, for He calls men to go to people who do not know Him and to reveal in life and character the need to obey His laws. Those who follow Christ in self-denial and self-sacrificing effort receive His presence and strength and success in the work He appoints, and like Abraham they are blessed in order to be a blessing to the world.

Abraham was chosen not simply as a special friend and adopted son but as a medium through whom special privileges, divine illumination, and blessing would be conferred on the world, to be a light amid moral darkness. The same purpose rests on Christ's church and its members, for when God blesses His children with light and truth, with temporal blessings, and with salvation and eternal life placed within reach through Jesus Christ, it is not for their sake alone but for the world's sake. They are to communicate what they receive to others, to reflect light, to leaven the whole lump like salt, and to be a blessing to the whole human race and to every soul connected with them, and they are blessed as they bless others.

When God calls He sees all the dangers surrounding those called, and that call is election to become members of the Lord's family. It lays responsibility on those called to sense their charge as God's messengers, to be taught of God every day, and to represent Christ in example after the Christlike pattern. They are to be constantly learning and constantly teaching the most solemn message ever given to mortals, and to come out from the world in speech and action by maintaining a separate holy character under discipline to Jesus Christ.

God sent Abraham to an unfamiliar country and established him there to be an influence for good, and that placement served His purpose of bringing blessing to others. Abraham's call to go into new territory made him a light-bearer to the heathen, showing the outward, missionary purpose of the promise that blessing would reach all the families of the earth through him. His calling illustrates that believers are to work for others rather than live to please themselves.

Abraham's move in obedience placed him in different associations so that he could break the nets Satan had laid for his feet, and a change of place may do the same for others. Yet no move places anyone beyond Satan's temptations, so any move must not be hasty or haphazard but made understandingly from force of conviction. It requires determination to win heaven at any cost and refusal to imitate anyone's evil practices.