God blessed Abraham. The blessing was a reward for his faith, and for his obedience to God’s call.
This blessing was not just for Abraham, but for all his descendants, all who would come after him, and all who would believe in the Seed who was to come from him.
That Seed is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and all would be blessed in Him who came to Him.
Abraham was granted a son through his wife Sarah even though it had been impossible since they were both beyond the generally accepted age of bearing children.
He was the son of promise. God had told Abraham he would be the father of many nations, the father of a multitude. That is literally what his name means, Abraham.
His descendants would number as many as the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea, he was told.
When, eventually, this promise was fulfilled in Isaac, Sarah’s firstborn, and Isaac was a young boy, God called on Abraham again and requested Isaac as a sacrifice.
Abraham was to bring him to Mount Moriah and offer Isaac.
Messianic line
Of course, Isaac was everything to Abraham. He was the promise, first of all. He was the future. The Seed was in him, meaning the Messianic line leading to Christ.
Yet Abraham willingly brought Isaac to be sacrificed. He believed that even though he were dead God would supply the sacrifice or raise the child from the dead. His faith remained intact.
Just as Abraham was to slaughter his son on the altar, God sent an Angel to halt him and reveal that there was a ram caught in a nearby thicket. The sacrifice was supplied.
Nevertheless, Abraham had carried through the instruction to the very point of sacrifice of his own son.
God’s reward was eternal.
But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
So he said, “Here I am.”
And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
Genesis 22:12-19
Abraham marks the altar as “The-Lord-Will-Provide”. Jehovah Jireh. Here is a direct transaction between God and Abraham. God’s provision to Abraham’s faith and obedience.
The expansion
Then the Lord extends this, expands it exponentially, and swears by Himself, that, multiplying He will multiply, and blessing He will bless. All the nations of the world, He declares, will be blessed in faithful Abraham.
This is called an immutable promise. It cannot be cancelled, nor negated, nor nullified. It is to all who believe in Jesus, have confessed Him as Lord, and have made him the Overseer of their life.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 613-20
So God’s promise to all His offspring, those who have made Jesus Lord, is that He will multiply and bless us in Jesus. He is the Seed, and we are the seed of the Seed. We are the multitude promised to Abraham, the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea, innumerable in number, and living into eternity.
We have become the blessing of Abraham.
