Day 2: God chooses a man to
begin a nation
Read Genesis 12 and 15
Genesis 22:17-18 - I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your
offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And
your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my
voice.
Mankind continued in their sin until God destroyed everyone except for Noah and
his family – eight people. Then the day came that God chose one man to make a
nation from whom this “seed of the woman” – the Messiah – would be born. This
man was Abraham.
God could simply have given Abraham many children and said the Messiah would
come through one of these many children, but instead God gave Abraham a very
specific promise. Even though Abraham had several children after he was an old
man, God gave him one special son, miraculously born of his wife who was also
too old to have children, and promised the Messiah would come from this man –
Abraham’s son, Isaac.
Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob, and God again promised the nation and the
Messiah would come from just one of them - Jacob.
*What promises of God do you have trouble believing will be fulfilled
completely?