Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1676
March 9, 2025
Genesis 12.1-3 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“I Will…”
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
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God’s Covenant Command
One of the main terms we use when teaching about the Bible is the word covenant. Our God is a God of covenant. A covenant is simply an agreement or a contract that is made between two parties. The biblical language is that of cutting a covenant and the “cutting” language comes from the practice of cutting an animal in two and walking between the two halves to finalize the agreement. The meaning was that if either of the two parties broke the covenant, he would suffer the same fate as the animal. It certainly added a measure of seriousness to the task of keeping covenant.
In the Bible there are two kinds of covenants, conditional and unconditional. It is fairly simple, in a conditional covenant there are conditions to fulfilling the agreement. If one party fails to keep their part of the covenant, then the other party is not obligated to keep their part. An example of a conditional covenant is when God promises Israel something if they keep commandment. An example would be “If you keep my commandments then I will...give you the land.” Or we read in Exodus 19.5-6, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
An unconditional covenant is one without conditions to keep. God makes a covenant and there is no responsibility on our part or Israel’s part. God sets the covenant and that’s that! “I will be your God and you will be my people” (2 Corinthians 6.16). We don’t have a choice! Genesis 12.1-3 is considered an unconditional covenant. But, there is something Abram is required to do in this passage...go. Go from your country and kindred. Still, this covenant is mostly unconditional because God is going to make Abram the father of a great nation. Later when the covenant is cut, only God walks between the divided animal, Genesis 15.17-18, “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.”
Let us not forget that the shedding of blood with the animals in cutting a covenant is also a part of the new covenant with Christ who shed His blood for us, “And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14.24). We walk in the shadow of the cross where Christ’s blood was shed for us.
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Go…
In Genesis 12, God’s covenant command is to go. Leave your country, leave your kindred, and leave your father’s house. There is, as I have said, something for Abram to do within this covenant. But the language is one of command and Abram is more than willing to obey that command. Genesis 12.4 says, “So Abram went!” No hesitation, no questions asked. Abram went as the Lord commanded.
I think there is a parallel of promises within this covenant command. What is promised in leaving will be far greater than if Abram stayed in his home.
“Go from your country” is turned into “I will make you a great nation”. Where Abram lives currently is nothing compared to what God has in store in this covenant.
“Go from your kindred” becomes “I will make your name great”. Abram is leaving behind his relatives, in a sense leaving the family name as it stands now for a name that will be much greater. And as we know his name will be changed from Abram to Abraham.
“God from your father’s house” is transformed by “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”. His father’s house, that is, his family, will be left behind for the sake of all families who bless Abraham’s family, God’s chosen family.
Everything looks great in this covenant promise and command, but there is one warning of curse for any who dishonor Abraham. Dishonoring God’s people is not good. Dishonoring God’s chosen, dishonoring the Christ, dishonoring all who belong to God will lead to destruction.
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God’s Covenant Promise
This is God’s covenant promise of Genesis 12, to bless all who bless Abraham and to curse those who dishonor Abraham. We still adhere to and trust in this promise of support for the nation of Israel. Some, in the modern world of complicating things, do not acknowledge this promise. Not all Christians acknowledge this promise. Our former denomination often boycotted Israeli companies citing things like “occupation” of the west bank, for instance. The claim was that Israel is not the same nation as that of Genesis 12. This is not to say that everything modern Israel has ever done is free of sin or free of problems, but it is to say that to abandon this promise of Genesis 12 is to one’s peril. I do not think it is helpful to quibble over Israel’s existence as biblical Israel vs modern day Israel.
God makes a promise to bless. It is a promise to show favor, to honor, to love, and to grant grace. Genesis 12.2-3 includes fives uses of bless. I will bless you...you will be a blessing...I will bless those who bless you...families of the earth shall be blessed. Blessings all around! The real blessing though, comes when families or nations follow Abraham’s example of following God’s way and God’s commands. Israel is the blessing only in so far as they also follow God’s command and keep His covenant. God’s mission for the Jews is to be a blessing to all peoples. This shows that Israel does not live only unto themselves, but as a beacon of faithfulness to God for all other nations to see and replicate. It did not and does not require all people to become Jewish, but to follow God. This is what we see in the New Testament as Jew and Gentile come to faith in Christ. This was one of the arguments in the early church about whether someone had to become Jewish before becoming a Christian. No, Gentiles can come straight to Jesus Christ without first converting to Judaism.
God’s covenant promise is found in the promises of what God will do. It is all in the “I will” statements.
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I Will…
God says, “I will show you (the land). I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you. (Implied) I will make your name great. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse (those who dishonor you). I will...God will. All statements of what God will do, not about what Israel will accomplish. It is all God’s work, God’s purposes, God’s will. This is a vivid contrast to our story last Sunday, the Tower of Babel, what the people believed they could do for themselves. This is a key factor in the reformed understanding of salvation and God’s grace as the work that God does to regenerate our hearts and minds toward Jesus. Ephesians 2.8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” It is not what we have done, but what God has done. It is the “I will” of God’s grace. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36.26).
God calls, Abraham follows (Gen12.4) Jesus calls, we follow. Abraham is the prototype of discipleship, the first to embrace God’s command in obedience as Jesus will also do. Not that Abraham was without sin as Jesus was without sin, but Abraham embraced God’s call in obedient faithfulness. We are called in the same manner, to embrace God’s call in obedient faithfulness and faithful obedience. These two go together and really cannot exist without the other. We obey God’s commands out of the gift of faith. We grow in faith as we obey.
Abram is told to go...and he goes. There is another command to go that we are familiar with… “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28.19-20). This too is a part of the covenant relationship we have with Jesus, to do as He commanded in making disciples, baptizing, and teaching observance of commandments. And within this covenant of grace is the promise of Jesus to be with us always to the end of the age.
Abram trusted God and was obedient to the call and command. We must also trust God in order to reap the blessings of covenant promises made throughout the Scriptures. The first blessing is that God has given us the faith necessary to trust and obey. Trust and go...take that leap of faith. God has said, “I will bless...I will do it.”
Just go – God will do the rest. Because God has promised in these words, “I will...”
Just speak – God will do the rest. Because God has promised in these words, “I will...”
Just act – God will do the rest. Because God has promised in these words, “I will…”
He will do it! We can trust in that. Amen.
