Text: Genesis 12:1-3, “(1) Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: (2) And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: (3) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Trust In God’s Will[1]
“All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Genesis 11:4, “Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12:1).
“So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him” (Genesis 12:4).
We can be eternally grateful God does not give us what we deserve. Truthfully, we deserve judgment; He gives us mercy. We deserve death; He gives us life. Like a judge allowing a guilty person to go free, the mercy of God allows us to escape the death penalty of sin.
But since God is holy, He cannot just ignore sin; someone has to pay the penalty and suffer the sentence we deserve. The gospel—the beautiful covenant God’s Word keeps pointing toward—teaches us that God Himself took our sins and our sorrows on Himself. He paid our penalty; He suffered our sentence. The covenant blessings of God go beyond a spiritual pardon. Not only do we not get what we deserve because of His mercy, but we get what we do not deserve because of His grace. Jesus announced: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:2–3).
Abraham Believed and Obeyed
Believe and obey are action words. Like Noah, Abraham put feet on his faith. When God told Abraham to go, Abraham went. As Abraham walked with God, God continued to reiterate and refine His covenant. Not surprisingly, Abraham battled fear and doubt throughout this long journey. He even sired a son named Ishmael when God did not answer as quickly as Abraham had hoped. During one moment of doubt, God instructed Abraham to look up toward heaven and count the stars. This was enough reassurance for Abraham. “He believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:5–6).
The sign of the covenant for Noah was a rainbow in the sky; for Abraham and his descendants, it was circumcision. God commanded: “And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you” (Genesis 17:11). Then, God unfolded another prophetic page in His great master plan: “But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year” (Genesis 17:21).
The New Testament opens with these words: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). When Abraham looked up at the night sky to count the stars, little did he know that one of his descendants would be Jesus Christ, God manifested in flesh, the “bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16).
“My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8).
“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17–19).
“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (Acts 3:25–26).
“And again, I will put my trust in him” (Hebrews 2:13).
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6).
[1] SOURCE: God’s Word for Life. Covenant. Fall 2025 Lesson Guide. Lesson 4 – Abraham and Isaac. Pentecostal Publishing House.
The Pillar and Ground of Truth 