As you gather in your group, do not forget to listen to each other, attend to each other’s needs, pray for each other, forgive each others’ confessed sins, share with each other how God has answered your prayers and blessed you, commit to help each other if any need help, and give thanks, above all, for the Lord Jesus Christ who brings you together to learn from his Holy Word and to follow him once more into his glorious victory.
From our previous lesson we can answer several important questions: Where did we come from? Originally we were created by God, but now, we come from Adam, the man of sin. Who are we? We are Adam, disobedient and rebellious, slaves of the devil. Where are we now? We are in a world filled with corruption, sin, and death. Where are we going? We are going toward death and it is inevitable. Nevertheless, from our first lessons on forgiveness, we know what to do. We must repent so that God will forgive us that we might inherit eternal life.
Genesis 3-11 describe the growth of the human race, its divisions into various tribes and peoples, the increase of sin, God's judgment against the human race by a flood, continued growth of the human race and of sin, the coming together of all peoples to build a tower in their own honor, and how God scattered the peoples of the world across the lands and divided them by languages. All these events are narrated in Genesis 3-11. As these chapters come to a close, the reader realizes that we are subject to so much sorrow, sin, and death that there seems to be no way for God to redeem the human race.
In his lesson, however, we will learn that God is never defeated. He was and is determined to redeem the human race. He does so by choosing a people, and with this people, he established his Kingdom, the rule of God upon earth. The choice of that people, and the beginning of that Kingdom began nearly 1800 years before Christ was born. At that time, God chose a man, Abram, and promised him a land and many descendents. Through this man and his descendents, God was forming a people, and he will make a covenant with this people, and by this covenant he will bind the people to himself and teach them how to live in his Kingdom. In a future lesson, we will study this covenant, for we also need to learn how to live as people God has chosen. All this begins with the choice of the one man, Abram, and from this one man and his descendents comes the Lord Jesus, the savior of the world. We will learn about these things by studying Genesis 12:1-5. Please read this at least twice, and consider the following questions for discussion.
Genesis 12:1-5
Discussion Questions
1. What did God promise Abram?
2. What did Abram need to do to receive the promises of God? God may not call us to leave our land, families, and friends, but he does call us to put Jesus Christ above all things. What do you need to do to receive the promises of God?
3. How often is the word "bless" or "blessing" used in his passage? How often is the word "curse" used? This shows us that God is more eager to bless than to curse.
4. One result of being blessed is that the evil one loses his power over us. What did Jesus do to show us that God is more eager to bless than to curse?
5. Notice that Abraham’s blessing included the land. In a future lesson we will learn how God intended the land to be used so that it would be a blessing for all as was intended in Eden.
6. When God told Abram that by him all the nations of the earth would be blessed, God meant that he would make Abram's descendents a great nation and bless all the families of the earth by means of that nation. For example, God gave the Ten Commandments to Abram's descendents, the people of Israel, and they preserved them for us in the Bible. These commandments are a blessing for us. How are you, your family, church, and community blessed by keeping the Ten Commandments? What happens to families, churches, and communities that refuse to keep the Ten Commandments? What are the effects of disobedience and how is that a curse?
7. Above all, and most important, Jesus is the descendent of Abram by whole all nations and persons are blessed. What blessings have you received as you follow Jesus Christ daily? What would happen to you if you were to reject Jesus, or even curse him?
8. The great nation that God began to create with his call to Abram was the people of Israel, followed by Jesus and all who follow him. In Genesis 17:5, Abram is renamed Abraham, and in general, the Bible calls him "Abraham." Followers of Jesus are spiritual descendents of Abraham, for it says in Galatians 3:29, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." How should you live so that you might be a blessing to others? How have you been a blessing to others, and in what ways have your failed to be a blessing?
9. In Jesus Christ, God has promised us a land, the Kingdom of Heaven, and descendents, that is, those we bring to Christ. Have you brought anyone to Christ recently? What do you need to do to bring people to Christ that they might receive the blessing promised to Abraham?
10. How, in light of what we have learned in this lesson, would you answer these questions: Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we now? Where are we going? What must we do?
Please pray for each other. Encourage each other, support each other, confess your sins to each other and receive forgiveness. You are the spiritual descendents of Abraham, a part of that great nation, the followers of Jesus. Through that great nation, all over the world, God is blessing all the families of the earth.
Humble yourselves before God. Ask him to have mercy on you, to empower you to impart the blessing. What a wonder it would be if God's people, that mighty nation, would become great blessings in their families, churches, and communities. He is faithful to his promise, and he has chosen you to fulfill the promise. Let us humble ourselves before God and pray that he will use us to bless others as he promised so long ago to Abraham.
Almighty, faithful, and ever-living God, we thank you for the promise you made so long ago and we thank you that you fulfilled that promise in Jesus. Pour out upon us your Holy Spirit that we may be true descendents of Abraham, a blessing to all the families of the earth. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
