Missions: God's Blessings Series

We are looking now at a passage in Scripture (Genesis 12:1-3) that is the key to understanding God’s purpose for you. When our lives align with God’s purposes, when God’s church is in line with the purposes of God, then we are prepared to receive the blessings of God.

It begins with the creation of the world. Adam and Eve are created in the image of God and are in the Garden of Eden with beautiful fellowship with God. But one small sin separated Adam and Eve from God. This is because God is pure like the newly fallen snow on a Himalayan Mountain. Adam and Eve have sinned and become dirty like the mud in the puddle along the roadside. You cannot mix the two.

To this day religions are attempting to get the pious practitioner clean enough to be accepted by God. It is futile to try and become pure enough to reach God. We cannot reach up to God. He must come down to reach us. That was the purpose of God in the call of Abraham.

Genesis Chapter 11 sets the stage for the call of Abraham. Here we find the account of the Tower of Babel. We gain insight from this passage as to the origin of the over 3,000 languages that exist today (over half of those are found in India).

At the tower of Babel man devises a grand plan to make a name for himself. They are attempting to reach up to God. We read in Genesis 11:4 that man wants to make a name for himself at the expense of God. God responds in accordance with his righteous nature and punishes those who have sought their own glory (that is rightly due to God).

The sin of the tower of Babel is followed by the punishment of scattering the people and scrambling their language. Here we see that instead of one unified people, God has separated the people into peoples, ethno-linguistic units.

Immediately following the Tower of Babel account, God traces the genealogy of Abraham back, even preceding the tower of Babel, all the way back to the flood. This is followed in Scripture by the glorious message of salvation. This is our text, and one of the great texts for the biblical foundation of missions.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

When we grasp the full meaning of this passage, we see this as one of the central texts of the Bible, because God says much more to Abraham than just, “I will bless you”. The “so you will be a blessing to all the families of the earth” is the crucial, and central aspect in understanding the purposes of God.

God’s Desire is to Bless.

“I will Bless You” (Genesis 12:2)

No matter where on this earth you live, you will find the common desire of all people is to be blessed. Parents want their children to have more than they had. They want education, food, clothes and good health for their family. There is this universal desire to be blessed and it is found among all people everywhere.

The blessings of God however include much more than good health, food, shelter, and a good job. God’s blessing includes our salvation and our future heavenly home. God desires to bless us in ways that are spiritual and eternal.

Ephesians Chapter 2 highlights the true blessing of God. We are made alive when previously we were spiritually dead. The Spirit of God is at work in us. We were aliens, now we are in the family of God. These are indeed the blessings of God.

Our Call to Obedience is found in verse 1. The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. God clearly tells Abraham that He will bless him. However, God did not immediately pour out his blessing on Abram (Abraham).

God first tested Abraham and found him obedient. He required something of Abraham, something that was in line with his purposes. Abraham demonstrated his obedience and his call to faith, first in leaving his home and country and then later in his willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

We have a responsibility that goes hand in hand with our blessings. When Abraham obeyed God, we read how God responded. Genesis 17:18 “And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.”