Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your
country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show
you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your
name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,
and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed." (Bereshit / Genesis 12:1-3; ESV)
The first
several chapters of the Torah set the stage for the entire Bible. Here we learn
that God, the sole originator of the whole universe created everything
"very good" (Bereshit / Genesis 1:31). Humans were purposely made by
God to take care of Planet Earth (see Bereshit / Genesis 1:26-27), but due to
Adam and Eve's disobedience, the creation was cursed (see Bereshit / Genesis
3:17-19); compare Romans 8:20). The curse didn't revoke our original mandate,
but greatly frustrated it through the introduction of death, pain, and
relational strife. Thankfully this condition was not to be permanent, since one
day evil would be destroyed (see Bereshit / Genesis 3:15).
The way God brought
this about begins to unfold in this week's Torah portion with the call of
Abram, whose name would be later changed to Abraham. This elderly childless man
was called by God to leave his ancestral home to journey to a foreign land
where he would become a great nation that would bring blessing to the whole
world. A couple of weeks ago (http://www.torahbytes.org/74-01.htm),
we saw how blessing is the impartation of life originating from God in the same
way as creation itself. Blessing enables living things to reproduce. It brings
life, resulting in more life. Without it there is no life. With it there is.
Blessing confronts the curse by bringing life where there was only death.
Abraham
illustrates this perfectly. He and his wife, Sarah could not have children. Yet
the Word of God comes to Abraham promising blessing. Not only will they themselves
have children, but they would also become
a great nation - a nation that would bring blessing to the rest of the world.
Choosing this couple demonstrates how God's blessing confronts death, since
they could not reproduce. Their bodies, being dead as it were, would eventually
overflow with life, life resulting in more life.
The New
Covenant Writings call the promise of blessing to the nations "the good news"
(see Galatians 3:8). While the good news or gospel is often defined as the
proclamation of the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah, it is more
than that! It has to do with what Yeshua's death and resurrection accomplishes:
the confrontation of the curse. The Abrahamic blessing is poured out upon the
nations through what Yeshua has done on our behalf. But that's just the
beginning! Yeshua gave his followers a mandate, not entirely different from the
original one given to all people at creation. Just as Adam and Eve were
commissioned by God to take care of this planet, so Yeshua's followers are to
go throughout the world teaching the ways of God in light of his coming (see
Matthew 28:18-20). As people are taught God's truth in this way, they encounter
the blessing promised to Abraham: the curse is confronted, death is replaced by
life, and they themselves become instruments of this same blessing to others.
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