Promises and Blessings

Before we look at the covenant God makes with Abram in Genesis 17, we should review the setting for the promise.  God has made promises to Abram 3 times so far.  The verses are listed below:

Genesis 12:2-3 and 7
Genesis 13:14-17
Genesis 15:1, 4-5, 13-21

Here is a listing of the things God has promised Abram (from the verses above):

• make Abram into a great nation
• bless Abram
• make Abram's name great
• make Abram a blessing
• bless those who bless Abram
• curse those who curse Abram
• All peoples of the earth will be blessed through you
• give Abram and his descendants a land to live in
• give Abram uncountable descendants
• to be his protector (shield)

To summarize, there are 4 main promises here:

• Blessing (for him and others)
• Protection 
• Descendants
• Land 

The protection, descendants and land are pretty obvious and easy to understand.  But what about blessing?  What else is included in that?  How is it different from the other three?

To answer what is included in that, let's make some obvious guesses first.  Money, Power, Influence, Security, Fame, Relationships, comfort, and Pleasure are things most people think of when they hear the word "blessing".  Let's rule out a couple of these as duplicates of other promises.  Security is basically the same as protection and Fame is basically the same as making Abram's name great.  I would argue that power and influence would be part of being a great nation so let's eliminate them too.  That leaves money, relationships, comfort, and pleasure.  Is this the kind of blessing God was talking about?

We could argue that Abram likely had these things for himself.  And, he probably improved the lives of his neighbors, relatives, and servants so that they could have a measure of these things too.  But I don't think this is what God meant when He said, "All peoples of the earth will be blessed through you."  People all over the world had these things apart from Abram.

So, what blessing was God talking about here?  Let's look back at Genesis 3:15.  Here, God talks about one of Eve's descendants breaking sin's curse.  I think this is the blessing God was talking about.  From Abram, a descendant would come who would bless all the people of the earth by breaking sin's curse.  This is a great blessing indeed!