The promise of a people, land, and blessing
God’s promise to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham points beyond Israel’s immediate future to the coming of Christ, who will fulfill the covenant perfectly.
The story takes a pivotal turn when God calls a man named Abram, later named Abraham, from the obscurity of his homeland in Ur of the Chaldeans. Out of the blue, God speaks to this 75-year-old man, telling him to leave behind everything familiar—his country, his people, even his father’s household—and go to an unknown place. This call isn’t just a change of address. It’s the beginning of something much bigger. God is laying the foundation for his plan of redemption to move forward through a specific people group, and Abraham is the starting point.
God makes three audacious promises to Abraham, recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. First, he promises to make Abraham into a great nation. Remember, at this point, Abraham and his wife, Sarai, are childless and aren’t exactly in the prime of life. The idea of descendants as numerous as the stars seems laughable—literally, as we see in Sarah’s reaction later. But God’s promises often defy human logic.
Second, God promises to give Abraham and his descendants a land where they can flourish and fulfill their calling.
Third, and most importantly, God promises that through Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Ge 12:3).
That last promise is the one that echoes the loudest across Scripture because it’s about more than just Abraham’s biological descendants. It foreshadows the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, the true seed of Abraham. Through Christ, the blessing promised to Abraham will extend to all nations, Jew and Gentile alike, as God’s redemptive plan unfolds through the ages.
The covenant becomes more formalized in Genesis 15 when God reaffirms his promises in a dramatic scene. Abraham is instructed to cut animals in half, laying their pieces opposite of each other, which was a standard covenant-making ritual. Typically, both parties would walk between the pieces, symbolizing that if either broke the covenant, they’d suffer the same fate as the animals. Abraham, however, doesn’t walk through. Instead, God alone, represented by a smoking firepot and a flaming torch, passes between the pieces. This is a one-sided covenant. God is taking full responsibility for its fulfillment. It’s his promise, and he will ensure it comes to pass.
In Genesis 17, God adds a sign to the covenant—circumcision. It’s a physical marker, a permanent reminder that Abraham’s descendants are set apart as God’s chosen people. This is the beginning of the nation of Israel, God’s special possession, through whom he will reveal his character, law, and ultimately, his plan to redeem all of creation. Circumcision is a sign of the covenant, but it also foreshadows something more significant: the circumcision of the heart, which Paul will later describe as the true mark of God’s people (Ro 2:29).
While the covenant is specific to Abraham’s descendants, its scope is universal. God’s promise to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham points beyond Israel’s immediate future to the coming of Christ, who will fulfill the covenant perfectly. Jesus, the seed of Abraham, will bring the ultimate blessing, salvation and reconciliation with God, to all nations. The Abrahamic Covenant is more than just a promise of land and descendants. It’s the launching pad for the entire story of redemption. It sets the trajectory that leads directly to the cross and the empty tomb.
Through Abraham, God begins to reveal that his plan isn’t just for one nation but all the nations. The covenant is a promise of grace, extended through the centuries until the day the true Son of Abraham, Jesus Christ, will come and bless the world by offering himself as the sacrifice for sin.
Recommended reading
The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom by Samuel Renihan Renihan provides a detailed analysis of covenant theology, highlighting the distinctiveness of the Abrahamic Covenant and its significance in the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan.
The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology by Pascal Denault Denault’s work explains how Reformed Baptists view the covenants differently from their Presbyterian counterparts, focusing particularly on the Abrahamic Covenant.