(Genesis) Genesis 22:17-20

Now, we find here in verse 17 and 18, and I'll read them again, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemy, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Now, we have here the fact that God says, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Now, what's he talking about here? What seed? Well, if you go to Galatians 3.16, you will find that Paul interprets what the seed means. And I'm reading now Galatians 3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, that's plural, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ.

You have the Bible's own interpretation of this. Now, Paul says back in the 3rd chapter of Galatians, the 8th verse, he says, And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, or the Gentiles, through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. All right, when did God preach the gospel to Abraham? When God called upon him to offer his son Isaac upon the altar, that was the time that God preached the gospel to him, because he says here, In thy seed shall all nations be blessed.

Well, that seed is Christ. And here we read in verse 18, And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. This is the gospel given to Abraham, if you please.

I would like to make this addition here because it's something that is customarily passed by. We assume that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all of these Old Testament worthies, they were great men, but they are not as smart as we are, and they don't know as much as we know. I'm of the opinion that Abraham knew a great deal more about the coming of Christ and the gospel that you and I give him credit for.

In fact, the Lord Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. So he must have known a great deal more than we give them credit for. You see, God had revealed a great deal to Abraham, but the Savior has not yet come.

He's not coming, we know today, for 1,900 years. But here on top of Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac, is a picture of the offering of Christ and even his resurrection. All of it is here, because after God called him to do it, it was three days before he even got down there.

And God gave him back to Abraham alive on the third day, so that you have the death and resurrection of Christ, and Paul says God preached the gospel to Abraham. That's very important for you to nail down. Now we have, as we come to verse 19, So Abraham returned unto his young man, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba.

And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. Now we find here that we have a little inside into the family of Abraham. I'm not going into detail here, but let's just read verse 20 together.

It came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor. Now he left him way back yonder in the land of Haran, and this is just a little side light on the family of Abraham. Now this line will not be followed, but they will cross the line of Abraham a little later, and we'll see that when we get to it.

But that is included here, and it's not our purpose to go into this. After all, if you read the rest of this chapter, you have quite an exercise in the pronunciation of names, and it's a worthy subject, but not for our purpose.