Genesis 12: God's Promises to Abram

God now outlines the benefits which Abram will receive from following Him:

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Genesis 12: 2-3 (NIV)

There is a sevenfold structure to these promises. I will take it piece by piece and discuss each part.

1) I will make you into a great nation.
2) I will bless you.
3) I will make your name great.
4) You will be a blessing.
5) I will bless those who bless you.
6) Whoever curses you I will curse.
7) All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

I remember that when I first read these promises, some of them sounded redundant, like they were just repeating the fact that Abram would be blessed. However, there are subtle differences. I will explain each one, and hopefully, not bore you to death with the details. Not that the details are boring -- just that I hope I can express them in a way that is interesting and accurate. I think we should be excited at this point, because God is beginning to explain exactly what it is that He is doing. Some of these things will take years to accomplish. However, God always keeps His promises. If Abram could have seen the entire picture of what God was planning, he would have been overwhelmed. Living in these days when we can see more of what God did through Abraham and what He was planning, we, also, could be astounded. Then, when we realize that we, too, do not see the entire picture yet, well....