And I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.
God speaks these words to one man, Abram, just after the world had tried to make a name for itself at Babel. The promise grows in stages: a nation, a blessed man, a great name. Then it turns Abram himself into a blessing for others.
The call marks a turning point in the Bible's story. The layout of Genesis shows how big the change is.
The nation's history began when God called Abraham out of his old place and connections. He was to go to the land of God's choice, and there God would make him a great nation. This is shown in Genesis 12:1-3, and it was an event that opened a new age. Genesis 1-11 covers a slightly longer stretch of time than all the rest of the Old Testament. Yet it packs that time into a few chapters, while the rest is spread out over many books. The call of Abraham marked a new departure in God's ways with the earth.
Just one chapter earlier, men on the plain of Shinar said, "let us make a name for ourselves" (Genesis 11:4). God answers that ambition by promising the opposite kind of greatness to a man who leaves it all behind.
Notice the Lord's word to Abram in Genesis 12:2, "I will make your name great." Compare it with the ambition of the men in chapter 11:4: "Let us make a name for ourselves." Men's schemes, whether the Tower of Babel or any other, come to an end. The names of those who plan them and push them through die with the world they belong to. But the man who ties himself to God's interests gets a name that will last for ever. Far better to let God make our name great than to seek anything for ourselves in a scene like this.
Abraham's name has outlived the builders'.
The call of God carried Abraham into a path far away from the power and fame of the men who built Babel. He started his pilgrimage with God's promise to make him a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great, and to make him a blessing. God has been as good as His word. People still honour the name of Abraham today. That, however, is a small thing. Far greater is the honour that God Himself calls him "Abraham, my friend" (Isaiah 41:8). Here is true greatness — greatness that lasts, while Nimrod's tower and city are only shapeless ruins on the plains of Mesopotamia.
The promise is attached to obedience to the call — the man who steps outside receives what those inside are grasping for.
Fourthly, there is great present blessing for the one who answers the call. As separated from this present evil world, God says to Abraham, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great." The men of this world seek to make a great name for themselves; they say, "Let us make us a name." But God says to the separated man, "I will bless you and make your name great."
The word came true in his lifetime, and it was the world itself that admitted it — at the grave of Sarah, where Abraham still called himself a stranger.
Sixty years before this, God had said to Abraham that one result of answering the call of God, and taking the outside place, would be that God would make his name great (Genesis 12:2). Here we see this word fulfilled, for the world itself has to own that this separate man is "a mighty prince of God."
The last clause is not more of the same. It changes Abram's role entirely.
It was much for God to say, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great." But there was another word, and this was especially dear to the heart of one so blessed himself. "You shall be a blessing." This was to make him not only the object of grace, but the instrument of it. It was to give him fellowship with God Himself in the activity of His own goodness.
Commentators separate the parts of the promise.
God says, "I will make of you a great nation, and you shall be a blessing." He puts him at the centre of blessing... and then you get the point Galatians 3 presses: "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The seed is not mentioned here: the great nation is the line of natural descendants. Abram is the root of the tree of promise.
That blessing reaches beyond Abram himself:
This is above all a prophecy concerning Christ, the Seed of Abram, through whom blessing is to come to the entire world.
God asks for nothing in return. He only says what He will do.
God's covenant set no conditions. It made no demands. It put no yoke on the neck and no burden on the shoulder. When "the God of glory appeared to Abraham" in Ur of the Chaldeans, He did not speak to him with words like "you shall do this" and "you shall not do that."... His word to Abraham was, "I WILL GIVE."
- Called — God called Abraham out of his old place and connections, and that call opened a new departure in God's ways with the earth.
- Given — the promise sets no conditions and strikes no bargain. God's word is "I will give," so it rests on His faithfulness alone.
- Named — Babel wanted a name for itself and lies in ruins. God made Abraham's name great, and even the world called him a prince of God.
- Sent — "you shall be a blessing" makes him not only the object of grace but its instrument, sharing God's own goodness toward others.
- Widened — the great nation is his natural line, but through Abram blessing reaches all the families of the earth in Christ.
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.
God calls Abram away from his country, his relatives and his father's house to a land he has not yet seen. The promise then runs far past Abram — to those who bless or dishonour him, and at last to every family on earth.
The promise does not stop at what Abram receives. God had said that Abram would himself be a blessing, and one writer weighs what that adds:
This word was especially dear to the heart of one so blessed himself. It made him not only the object of grace, but the instrument of it. It was to give him communion with God Himself in the activity of His own goodness.
No law existed yet, and Abram had done nothing to earn this. One writer weighs how wide the last promise reaches:
No one can limit such a word as this. It shows how the heart of God went out to all, even in earliest times. Blessing for Gentiles was always before His mind. But on what ground? Certainly not the ground of law, to which the foolish Galatians were turning in vain. The law did not yet exist when God spoke this way to the father of the faithful. The promise was unconditional and depends on God alone for fulfilment. It was not drawn out by anything in man, nor even in Abraham individually; it flowed only from the grace of His heart.
Everyone else's standing is now set by their attitude to Abram. One writer sees in this a place that mirrors God's own:
Blessing marked his calling. He is blessed and a blessing. Blessing comes to others according to their attitude towards him. And he is the one source of blessing to all the families of the earth... God is blessedness in Himself. It marks Him. He is the source of it to all who have any. This was, in a derived way, exactly Abraham's place... If there was a curse, it was only for hostility to this.
The same principle carries forward to a coming judgment of the nations. The test there is how they treated Abraham's descendants:
Balaam therefore closes his prophecy with the words of God to Abraham: "Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you." Matthew 25 shows how this is fulfilled. There the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory. He separates the nations one from another by how they treated one of the least of His brothers, the children of Israel.
Galatians 3:8 calls this line good news spoken in advance. One writer draws out how little Abram could have known of its reach:
Abraham acted in faith in God's word, and God said to him, "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." We know the use that the Spirit of God makes of this promise. He says, "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed" (Gal. 3:8). Abraham did not, and could not, foresee how far the effect of that faith would reach. He acted on it in answering the call of God. But God foresaw that faith was the one way of blessing for all the families of the earth. So now, in our small measure, only God can foresee how far the blessing to others may reach from one soul who answers the call of God in simple, whole-hearted faith.
The words outgrow the man who first heard them. Their full weight rests on a descendant:
God certainly fulfilled the first part of this promise to Abraham. But as a whole it goes far beyond him. It looks on to the Seed, "which is Christ" (Gal. 3:16). Those who bless Him will be blessed forever. Those who curse or despise Him and reject His salvation will be cursed forever. Not all Israel were blessed in faithful Abraham. But in his Seed, in the glory of His coming reign, all Israel and all the nations are to be blessed.
History has already tested the middle clause, and the last clause remains open:
And all God promised to Abram He has kept. God has fulfilled every word to the letter. Nation after nation has hated Abraham's seed, his natural descendants. Each has found to its great sorrow how true Abraham's God is. These promises still hold good... The nations of the earth, all the families, are waiting, without knowing it, to be blessed by Abraham's seed.
- Grace starts it. Nothing in Abram drew the promise out; it came before the law and rests on God alone to fulfil.
- Grace makes a channel. He is not only an object of grace but an instrument of it, sharing God's own activity of goodness.
- Grace sets the measure. How people treat him decides whether they are blessed or cursed. The same test returns at the judgment of the nations.
- Grace reaches the Gentiles. Galatians calls this line the gospel announced in advance: God would justify the nations by faith.
- Grace lands in Christ. The Seed is Christ, and in Him all Israel and all nations are yet to be blessed.