As Abraham obeyed and grew in faith, God continued to reveal to him the blessings he and his descendants would receive. What the Bible teaches is that the physical blessings to these people will continue until and after Christ’s return. Some think that the blessings were fulfilled and, hence, there is no continuance of the physical promises. Because of the multiple components that were part of this promise, it is also acceptable to refer to these components as promises to Abraham. The opportunity to receive salvation comes through the spiritual part of God’s promise to Abraham-the coming of Jesus Christ. Today it is commonly understood that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless all families of the earth through Abraham. But does God’s promise to Abraham have any significance today? Fairbank suggests that the challenges created by the climate of the country’s river floodplains fostered uncertainty among the people, which may have contributed to their tendency toward relatively impersonal religious creeds, like Buddhism, in contrast with the anthropocentric nature of Christianity.

While various interpretations of this phrase “gate of their enemies” range from having power and authority over others (legal transactions took place at the gate of a city) to controlling strategic land and sea gates, both of these concepts may have been intended. Again, God repeats His promise of land for Abraham’s descendants-this time formalizing this part of the promise with a covenant that included specific geographical boundaries. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. In response to Abraham’s statement that he was childless and that a servant was his heir, God told Abraham that his own child would be his heir and that through this child and subsequent generations, his descendants would become numerous, like the stars in the sky. God told Isaac, “Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. Adding to what He had previously spoken, God now told this patriarch that his descendants would be numerous and that He was giving this land to Abraham and his descendants forever.

“I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. David Treybig is a husband, father and grandfather. Green parlayed this success into being a judge on “The Voice” and getting his own TV show. They were both getting older, and it was looking like they would not have any children. But so far, Abraham and his wife had not had any children. At this time God also changed Abram’s name to Abraham, saying he would become a “father of many nations,” and the name of his wife from Sarai to Sarah, saying she would be a “mother of nations” (Genesis 17:5, 16). Even though it didn’t look like Abraham and Sarah would ever have a child, God continued to repeat and add details to the original promise He had made to Abraham. “Then God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

Even though Sarah was “past the age” for having children, God miraculously allowed her to conceive and bear a son. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham’s son Isaac and grandson Jacob were “heirs with him of the same promise” (Hebrews 11:9, emphasis added throughout). It is also acknowledged that Abraham’s descendants multiplied and eventually became the ancient nations of Israel and Judah. Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern. A significant detail here is that Abraham believed that what God had promised would indeed come about. In addition to Genesis 12:2-3, which we’ve already noted, here are a few more passages in this first book of the Bible that further expound upon the great blessing God was offering Abraham. More recently, there has been a growing interest in religions and religious themes beyond the scope of theism.