In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.—Genesis 12:3¹
In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth ²bless themselves.—Genesis 22:18. ASV ^margin

More than any other, God’s promise to Abraham is repeated, and it is cited again and again in both Old and New Testaments. In it is a promise to all the peoples of the earth.
 

How Abram came to leave Ur

The names of Serug and Nahor are preserved in the names of cities, Sürüc and Nahur, in the region of the western Euphrates. Nevertheless, Nahor’s son Terah had moved east to Ur by the time his sons Haran, Nahor, and Abram were born. Haran died relatively young, in Ur (Genesis 11:28), but when Terah and family moved back west to the upper Balikh River Valley he named their new city Haran, which name continues today (Harran, Turkey).

It was about this time that Ur-Nammu, king of Sumer (Amraphel, king of Shinar, Genesis 14) was king, reigning from Ur (B.C. 2054-2036, following the low chronology of Wm. F. Albright, with Yigael Yadin concurring). In his fourth year he claims the victory over the west described in Genesis 14:1-3. But in his eighteenth year he was slain on a battlefield, as described in Genesis 14:5-17. The destruction of these campaigns likely accounts for what archaeologists call the end of the Early Bronze Age, commonly thought to be around B.C. 2000.

Perhaps Nahor was an army officer in Ur-Nammu’s first war, as he is not listed in Genesis 11:31 among Terah’s family moving to the West (or possibly Abram was, if ‘trained [servants]’ in Genesis 14:14 is to be understood in a military sense).

The year of the first war God called Abram to get out of Ur and go to a land God would show him. Abram did so in two stages: first, his father Terah took the family to Haran (410 miles NNE of Jerusalem) in a region tributary to Ur-Nammu; and second, five years later after his father died, Abram crossed the river Euphrates (whence “Hebrew,” meaning “he who crossed over [as a river]”) and went south into the land of Canaan, a land tributary to Kutir-Lagamer (Chedorlaomer), king of Elam.

As recorded in Genesis 12:1-5, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy-five years old when he ³departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.”
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1. All quotations from the Revised Version (ASV or other editions), unless other wise noted.
2. Reflexive tense, as in ch. 26:4, but not in ch. 12:3 or 28:14.
3. Apparently on Nisan 15. Cf. Ex 12:41. Around full moon would be the best time for travel.

The Promised Land

Passing through Shechem, God promised him, “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Genesis 12:7). He and his nephew Lot encamped between Bethel and Ai, visited Egypt (in the days of Mentuhotep) to escape famine, and thence returned. Due to the famine, they needed to separate. Abram offered Lot his choice in the land promised to the former; the latter chose the Jordan valley (perhaps just the east bank), and moved city by city until he dwelt in Sodom. Here it appears he was appointed a judge—to sit in the gate, where official business was transacted.

God further promised to Abram, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then may thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for unto thee will I give it” (Genesis 13:14-17). Abram then moved south to Hebron
 

Battle of the Kings

Genesis 14 reviews the war in which Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar were subjected to Ur-Nammu and his allies, and then these cities’ rebellion (and others) thirteen years later. In the fourteenth year Kutir Lagamer, king of Elam, led the army to put down the revolt in the territory allotted to him, allied with Ur-Nammu, king of Sumer; and their lesser allies, Arioch (Eri-Aku?), king of Ellasar (Larsa?), and Tidal (Tudaliya?), king of Gutium (or Goyim, or Caucasians).

The eastern alliance won resoundingly but then made one mistake: they took Lot captive from Sodom. Abram was now duty bound to try to rescue Lot. Abram grew up in Ur, and thus knew well the military tactics and weaknesses of Ur-Nammu’s army. Together with his three Amorite allies, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre (who had doubtless all been paying tribute to Elam through Melchizedek, king of Salem), they pursued, and waited until night, when the enemy was in drunken celebration; then they attacked in the upper Jordan valley from both south and north, slew the four kings, and pursued the rest for more than forty miles upstream until they were north of Damascus. Ur-Nammu’s son and successor describes the surprise attack: “[Ur-Nammu] had been abandoned on the battlefield like a crushed vessel."¹

Melchizedek, king of [Jeru]salem, was undoubtedly relieved to be free of eastern domination and came north to meet Abram and his allies with sustenance of bread and wine (like the Memorial emblems). For a thousand years thereafter, the West was free of eastern dominance, wherefore Abraham (whose name was changed from Abram) is still deemed the great patriarch by many different peoples today.
 

The Promise Elaborated

God promised Abram a great reward, but Abram asked what reward could he be given, because he had no son, no heir. Then said God, “Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them … So shall thy seed be.² And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:1-6)

God further promised, “I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. … Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;³ and also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come pout with great substance. But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorite [or Westerner] is not yet full” (Genesis 15:7,13-16). And again in verses 18 to 21, “In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from ⁴the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the ⁵Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.”
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1. Samuel Noah Kramer, The Sumerians; University of Chicago Press, 1963; pp. 68, 131. This battle was probably two years before Ishmael was born.
2. Thousands of stars are visible, though not mil lions. (There could be 1022 stars in the uni verse.)
3. Com pared to the 430 years of total sojourn in Exodus 12:40,41, the 400 years was pre ceded by 25 years
until Isaac [Itzak] was born and apparently another five until Ishmael mocked Isaac at the feast of weaning.
4. Contrasted with the great river (Euphrates), the river of Egypt would be the Wadi el Arish, not the Nile.
5. In later times, as some nations were con quered and others arose, the names and numbers vary over time. The Kadmonite (aboriginals or easterners in the area), Kenizzites (cf. Numbers 32:12) and Kenites (cf. Numbers 24:21-22; 1 Samuel 15:6), and Rephaim (giants) disappear from subsequent lists, while the Girgashites also disappear but the Hivites appear in Exodus 3:17; the Girgashites and Hivites recur inJoshua 24:11, while Jericho is also added. These lists have ten, six, and eight peoples respectively.

Later, God again promised, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called ¹Abram, but thy name shall be ²Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:4-8).

To all this God re-emphasized the covenant, betokening it by circumcision. Concerning Abraham’s wife, God said, “As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but ³Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her: yes, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be of her. … Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name ⁴Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year” (Genesis 17:15,16,19-21).

In Hebron God promised again, “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken to him. And Jehovah said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know” (Genesis 18:17-21).

Abraham would have had Sodom spared, but not even ten righteous men were there. When the Sodomites demanded to use the angels for homosexual purposes, righteous Lot was called to come out, and the next day Sodom was history.

After a brief visit to Gerar, in Philistine territory to the southwest, Isaac—the son of promise—was born. At the feast of Isaac’s weaning, Ishmael (not quite twenty years old) mocked Isaac, so Ishmael was disinherited and expelled. In this, the Christian sees a type of Israel according to the flesh mocking spiritual Israel and being disinherited (within forty years. But when Abraham died, both Isaac and Ishmael buried him, suggesting that in the future, spiritual Israel and fleshly Israel will ultimately cooperate together (Genesis 25:7-9).

King Abimelech of Gerar came to Abraham to make a sworn covenant of peace with him. Abraham took seven ewe lambs to seal the covenant (the Hebrew word, sheba means both the number seven and oath⁵—Genesis 21:27-30).
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1. That is, exalted father (Strong’s #87).
2. That is, father of a multitude (Strong’s #85).
3. That is, Princess (Strong’s #8282).
4. From the Hebrew word meaning to laugh (Strong’s #3327).
5. Hence, when we see the number seven (Strong’s #7651) in the Bible, we should tentatively associate it
with some feature of the oath-bound covenant of God to Abraham, whether Jewish age, Gospel age, or Millennial age.

 

The Promise Confirmed by an Oath!

Then God told Abraham to take his only son remaining with him to the land of Moriah, where later Solomon would build the Temple of Jehovah (or Yahweh), and offer him as a burnt offering, just as Jehovah Himself would later offer His own son. When Abraham demonstrated his willingness to comply with God’s command, God further promised, “By myself have I sworn … because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth ¹bless themselves; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18).

The promise is “in thee” before and after Ishmael was born. After Isaac was born and no longer in the loins of Abraham, the promise is “in thy seed.” Thus Isaac (and through him, Christ) is designated the Seed of Promise.

When another famine came (likely in the days of Sesostris I of Egypt),² God told Isaac: “Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these lands; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Genesis 26:2-5).

Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob bought from Esau the birthright, and by obeying his mother he obtained Isaac’s dying blessing. As Jacob was fleeing Esau, from Beer-sheba towards Haran, God chose Jacob over Esau when he said: “I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt ³spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the land be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (Genesis 28:13-15.
 

Be Blessed or Bless Themselves?

Variously the promise says:⁴

a. all the families of the land shall be blessed (see Genesis 12:3; 28:14);

b. all the nations of the earth shall be blessed (see Genesis 18:18);

c. all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves (see Genesis 22:18; 26:4).

Which wording is correct? May not all three be both correct and complementary?

The first two expressions [“a” and “b”] assure us that all ethnic groups shall be blessed [from heaven above], even if they have been administratively divided among several nations. The last expression [“c”] tells us that the several peoples will also bless one another. Perhaps because peoples blessing one another is so foreign to experience in this present evil world, God further swore he will do it!

In all cases it is “in thee” and/or “in thy seed” that the blessing comes. In no case is a blessing prophesied outside the Seed of Promise.  Paul explains who are the seed: “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ … And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise (covenant)” (Galatians 3:16,29). Thus, all peoples will need to come into harmony with the Christ, both to receive blessings from heaven and to exchange blessings on earth.
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1. Reflexive tense, as in ch. 26:4, but not in ch. 12:3 or 28:14.
2. Sesostris’ father had over thrown the dynasty that had reigned when Abram visited Egypt; he also taught his son to distrust every one. These two things may explain God’s command to Isaac not to go to Egypt.
3. Hb. break forth to the west (Strong’s #6555).
4. When Peter cites the promise in Acts 3:25, it is not an exact quote of either the Hebrew or Greek of any of those Scriptures. Rather, he conflates the Greek Septuagint texts of Genesis 22:18 (with a minor change of word order) and 12:3 (with a slightly different word for ‘families’). The Hebrew verbs of Genesis 22:18 and 26:4 alone are not niphal (passive; prefix = ‘n’) but hithpael (reflexive; prefix ‘hith’).

 

ALL

Common to the promises concerning all families and nations is the word all. When the angel was sent to announce the birth of Jesus, he said, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10, 11). Paul confirms, saying, God “would have all men to be saved, and come to a full knowledge of truth. For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself having been a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own times” (1 Timothy 2:4-6). John bears witness of the words of the son of God: “the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto a resurrection of life; and they that have done [or, practiced] evil unto a resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28,29). Under the guidance of Jesus Christ and the other faithful who previously received a resurrection of life, the thousand-year “day” of judgment will restore the multitudes of willing people back to perfection, so they may be judged worthy (2 Peter 3:7-8,13; Revelation 20:1-7¹). Then death and hades [hell] will be destroyed, along with any still willfully wicked (Revelation 20:14,15).

If Jesus Christ died once for all, then should not all benefit? Even the wicked of past generations will be given one full and complete opportunity. Some may ask about Sodom, where not even ten righteous could be found. “This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49). Yet, “thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate” (Ezekiel 16:53-55). Moreover, Jesus said they were salvable: “If the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee [Capernaum], it would have remained until this day” [two thousand years later!] (Matthew 11:20-24). Thus, Jesus commands us, “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44,45).

It is the god of this age—Satan—who has blinded the minds of the unbelieving (2 Corinthians 4:4). When he is bound for a thousand years, when the Lord’s “judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9). Christ in his thousand-year kingdom on earth will “render to each man according as his work is” during that age. (Revelation 22:12)

The law given through Moses was good; it was weak only because fallen humanity is weak (Romans 8:3-4). In this age, when people do not obey the laws, men change the laws. In the thousand-year kingdom, when people do not obey the laws, Christ will change the people.

After the thousand years, after the final exam of Satan’s little season, people will have been perfected and be able finally to “stand” before God Himself. Then Christ “shall deliver up the kingdom to God … then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him … that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
 

Blessings for All

Blessings everlasting are promised through Christ. That all the peoples shall be blessed is promised by the Lord God, and He has sworn He will do it! While universal salvation need not mean universal reconciliation (i.e., all people to fully reform), it does mean no less than universal opportunity. After the thousand years it cannot then be said of anyone, “He never had a chance.”

As plainly as God said it—and swore to it—what seems remarkable is how few people really believe it. Though tens of thousands believe God meant it and will do it, hundreds of millions are taught to disbelieve it and to fear that God will curse the majority of people.

Few doubt that God is keeping a dozen other oaths He has sworn to do. Moreover, He has already multiplied Israel and Arabs as stars of the heavens and sand upon the seashore. Israelites according to the flesh are already back in their land. Will the world’s peoples yet come under Christ and bless one another? It is wise to believe God and not man.

If Ye Know These Things…

What should we do? In the Millennium, when Satan is bound, people will come into harmony with Christ and begin to bless one another. It means something to the Christian now.

Each of us must change self: We are to first learn to love—demonstrate heartfelt kindness to—even our enemies, if in the resurrection we are to bless them. It is for the Christian today to practice kindness towards all, mindful that each individual will likely become a blessing in the Millennium. How does each of us want to be remembered?