Promises for the Journey Study THREE: Patriarchs of the PROMISE ABRAHAM

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Juliet James
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1 Promises for the Journey Study THREE: Patriarchs of the PROMISE ABRAHAM I Day One: Introduction The stage for the PROMISE has been set with Eve s son Seth and Noah s son Shem in the early part of Genesis. They are set apart by God to serve as carriers of the godly seed for the sake of The Promise! They are a link to the scattered nations. The story of their descendants - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - dominates the rest of the book of Genesis, chapters The name Shem birthed the name Semites and Heber, (11:16, ancestor of Abraham) the name, Hebrews. Both names are applied to God s chosen nation, the Jews at different times in History until the present. The first Promise was made to one man and is called the Abrahamic Covenant. Yahweh (God s relational Name often written as LORD) called Abram ( exalted father ), to leave the sophisticated and advanced city of UR of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia to go to the land of Canaan. As the stories unfold, God makes The Promise to one man that will affect not only his progeny but the nations of the world. If you have not read Abram s story, Genesis is worth reading knowing that at each stop on the journey, God reveals specific instructions and promises to insure his plan will be fulfilled. ***ABRAM obeyed God and the SALT of the earth (Sarai, Abram, Lot, Terah) left UR to go to Canaan via HARAN. In Haran, TERAH (Abram s father) died and Sarai, Abram and Lot went to Canaan (Shechem). The famine in the land forced them to leave and go to Egypt until they were asked to leave and return to Canaan! II Day TWO: The Abrahamic PROMISE (Covenant) made to Abram 1. What three promises in Gen. 12:1-3 does God include in the Covenant with Abram? a. A LAND b. A SEED c. A BLESSING TO YOU and THROUGH YOU to the whole WORLD 2. What personal promises did God make to Abraham during these times? a. Gen. 12:2 I WILL MAKE of you, A GREAT NATION and I will BLESS you and make your NAME GREAT so you will be a blessing. b. Gen. 13:16 the LORD promises Abram OFFSPRING the number of the dust of earth! A BIG group! Gen.15:1-6 Abram desperately wanted an HEIR and suggested his servant Eliezar of Damascus serve as such; God s response is to say no, not him and promise Abram instead, offspring the number of the stars! Abram responds by BELIEVING God! He is counted righteous! (OT description of salvation)

2 c. Gen. 17:4, 5, 6 the LORD changed Abram s (exalted father) name to Abraham (father of a multitude of nations) AND promises him that he will be exceedingly fruitful and KINGS will come from him. d. Gen. 12:3 THOSE WHO BLESS you (Abram) will BE BLESSED and who DISHONORS you (Abram) will be CURSED; in YOU will all the earth s families be BLESSED! 3. What National promises did God make to Abraham during these events? a. Gen. 12:2 The promise of not just children but a NATION b. Gen. 12:7 The Lord appeared to ABRAM and told him he would give his OFFSPRING the LAND. Abram responded in worship by building an altar and offering a sacrifice. c. Gen. 13: the LORD promises Abram that the LAND he can see N, S, E and W will be given to his offspring; his offspring would be the number d. Gen. 15:18-21 on the day Abram believed God s promises and lived through the ritual whereby the LORD stated the covenant and walked through the slain animals to confirm His promise, He made an unconditional covenant with Abram. It is called the ABRAHAMIC COVENANT made with Abram and the nation of Israel not yet birthed! e. Gen. 17:7, 8, 19 the COVENANT is established between the LORD and Abraham and the future offspring and the land God will give them will be an everlasting possession and He will be their God! 4. What Universal promise was given for the families of the whole earth? a. Gen. 12:3 All nations will be BLESSED because of this unconditional COVENANT with Abram. The GENTILES are BLESSED because of it. That is US! We are blessed because of this covenant the LORD made with Abram Jesus is the Son of Abraham! b. Gen. 22:18 in the context of Hagar (the son Abraham had with the Egyptian slave woman), Hagar is kicked out of the house by Sarai and the LORD finds her without water and her boy under a bush to get cool. He promises that Ishmael will be turned into a great nation. This is the promise for the ARABS. c. Gen. 28:14 Abraham s grandson goes back to Haran, meets Laban and finds his wife all part of Abraham s family. MAPQUEST: Comment on what Hebrews 11:8-10 says about Abraham as he left an advanced civilization to go to the land of promise? What would he need to remember to keep him from going back home or getting impatient? Any lessons you could share here about your own journey of faith? 1. Abram obeyed when he was called to go told he would receive an inheritance. He didn t know where he was going but by faith lived in the land of promise. He lived in tents with Isaac (his son by Sarah) and Jacob who were also heirs of the same promise! He was looking forward to the city with foundations whose designer and builder was God! (Not man). 2. He would need to remember the PROMISES God made because there were long periods of time when NOTHING happened; he would need to WAIT on God for Him to give him the son of promise (Isaac). He would need to keep looking at the stars and scuffing his feet in the dust to remember the promise of a MULTITUDE of people and nations! He would need to say the promise of the LORD to himself over and over whenever he got discouraged. He would need to remember it was GOD S IDEA that he left UR and GOD S IDEA that he was getting a LAND a place to permanently live in the future so he wouldn t head home to Haran (where the family was) or UR. 3. Life is an ENTIRE lifetime of learning to REMEMBER to TRUST and not be afraid, to WAIT and not get impatient the way Sarai did to get a baby. My whole life is different to Abram s in how it has unfolded but

3 exactly the same in that I only have God s PROMISES to rely on for the future. I should learn to TRUST the LORD instead of getting anxious. III Day THREE: The Abrahamic Covenant God made the Promise of the seed, land and blessing to Abraham, but it didn t happen overnight! By Genesis 15, a detour to Egypt (Gen. 12:10-20), a distraction from Lot (Gen. 13, 14) and an encounter with the first King of Jerusalem (Gen. 14:17) prefaces the LORD S life changing conversation with Abraham in Gen What is Abraham s concern in Gen. 15:1-3? He needs to have an HEIR and wants it to be his servant. (He has become a rich man and still hasn t a son with Sarai). 2. What does the LORD clarify for him from Gen. 15:4-6? His servant WON T be his heir! A son from his very own body will come and his descendants will be more than the number of stars in the sky! 3. How does the LORD confirm and formally establish the Covenant for Abraham so there is no doubt (see Gen. 15:7-21) whose word the Covenant was dependent on, and why do you say this? He asks Abraham to bring certain animals, cuts them in half and in a ritual whereby a covenant is made, the LORD walks alone (seen in a smoking fire pot and flaming sword) between them as Abraham sleeps. This establishes the fact that the LORD Himself will keep the covenant and Abraham is given the information that his people will be enslaved by another nation for 400 years. God s ways are not man s ways!!! BUMPS on the JOURNEY: No journey with the LORD is free of road bumps. Some of the bumps along Abraham s journey forced him to stay focused on God s promise. State them briefly and compare the LORD S plan to keep His promise to Abraham s problem with it. God said the promised seed would not come from servant Gen. 15:2-6 God said the promised seed would not come from Hagar, a plan cooked up by Sarah, Gen. 16 God said the promised seed would be marked by the sign of circumcision which Abraham was commanded to obey even before the birth of the promised son! Gen. 17:1-14 God said the promised heir would come from the old bodies of Sarah and_abraham_; he would be called Isaac. Gen. 17: Sarah laughed at the promise! Gen. 18:9-15 MAPQUEST: Genesis 15:6 is a milestone in Abraham s life and becomes the primary plum line for true faith. How did Abraham respond (v. 6a) to God s object lesson in v. 1-5? What essential action does God take on Abraham s behalf? Abraham BELIEVED God. God made Abraham RIGHTEOUS or justified him before God so he would be forgiven of his sins.

4 SIDE TRIP: When Abraham believed that God would give him descendants numbering more than the stars of the sky, God counted him righteous. This means God charged righteousness to the account of one who had only earned death as the wages of sin. Paul in Rom. 4:1-5 and and James in James 2:20-26 use this to teach us how sinners are saved and includes US who share the faith of Abraham (Rom. 4:16, 17). Share a time in your life when you believed God s Word about Jesus so your debt was changed to paid in full and you were considered a believer. In Nov. 1957, I was born again and believed that Jesus died for me on the cross. My parents were both with me when I became a true believer. I didn t grow fast but eventually caught up! IV Day FOUR: TESTING the PROMISE Genesis 22 God s Covenant with Abraham throughout his lifetime concerning a seed, as we have seen, was fraught with challenges. Against all odds, two bodies as good as dead (see Heb. 11:11, 12) are enabled to bring forth a living child? We know the story of Isaac ( laughter ) as the story of The Promise God kept to Abraham and Sarah. But in Genesis 22 the story takes a sudden twist as Abraham is asked to give up his only son as a sacrifice. 1. What do you suppose is most difficult about this command from God? The call of God to Abraham to take his only Son Isaac up to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice seems bizarre and doesn t make sense because they had to wait for 25 years to have him and now he is going to die. 2. Describe the emotion that must have surrounded this journey in Abraham s and Isaac s hearts. What would the servants be thinking? What would Sarah be thinking? I am thinking he DIDN T tell Sarah other than what he said to the servants: we are going to worship. I am thinking the servants would not have thought anything than what Abraham said: I and the lad are going to worship. That Isaac went with his father is noble and normal. That he went up the mountain to worship is understandable. That he submitted to his father s tying of the rope around him and placing him on the altar is amazing. Was Isaac compliant or did he understand this most unusual but important request from God. He would not know that he would be a type of the Son of God who went to the cross to die and form Whom there was no substitute! 3. Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us exactly what Abraham was thinking about God! Why are our thoughts of God the most important thing about us? How do they affect how we look at God s promises? The writer of Hebrews, inspired by the Spirit, tells us that in this most difficult request, Abraham did not waver because he believed God could RAISE THE DEAD to LIFE! After all, hadn t God brought to life for the moment of conception, an old woman s womb (Sarah was 90) and an old man s body (he was 100) to produce the living son of promise! (Heb. 11:11, 12) He REMEMBERED that God had said it was through ISAAC, your offspring shall be named. While it is true we AREN T among the Patriarchs, the family Yahweh is developing into a nation, we DO belong to the LORD and the promises given us are that He is faithful, He is the same yesterday, today and forever! When He says He brings us from DEATH to LIFE (Eph. 2), He DOES IT. We are forever made ALIVE. We will be studying the Spirit Covenant (New Covenant) in the new year and rejoice together in this.

5 V Day FIVE: Consider and Meditate It is both humbling and exhilarating to read the story of Abraham, Terah s son as we watch him leave the familiar life, land and religion (Moon worship) of UR to go to the unknown life of Canaan. All based on the Word of God to him with three distinct promises. The Abrahamic Covenant is the first promise made with the father of the faithful and of the company that will become the nation of Israel. It is the first of three unconditional and eternal promises made by the LORD with Israel that depends on His Word and impacts the whole world. This promise expands the promise made to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 to be given to a specific family (the family of Terah beginning with Abraham), a specific place where they will live (a land the LORD would tell him about) and a specific effect on the whole world: blessing through the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent s head. As you pray, think about the verses below: - why not thank God the Father that all who believe what God has said about Jesus are counted righteous through faith, that all who believe are of Abraham s seed. - why not praise the Father for not sparing his own Son but who gave him up for us all? Ephesians 2:8, 9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Romans 8:31, 32 What then shall we say to these things (v. 1-3!)? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Event Date Sunday, December 10 - Saturday, December 16 Location McLean Bible Church Tysons Campus 8925 Leesburg Pike Vienna, VA.

December 3 rd, 2017 Event Date Sunday, December 10 - Saturday, December 16 Location McLean Bible Church Tysons Campus 8925 Leesburg Pike Vienna, VA. 22182 Christmas Village Volunteers Christmas Village