Genesis 12:1-3 - Too Good—But It’s True!

1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

2 "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.

3 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 12:1-3)

The e-mail is from some West African country you’ve never heard of. This person desperately needs your help. Her husband just died, leaving her a multi-millionaire, and she needs a helpful and trustworthy person (like you) to help her get her money into the US. If you’ll just send her your bank account information and promise to give the money back, she’ll wire it into your account. For your trouble, you get to keep the interest and a small percentage of the principal, which will leave you several million dollars richer.

It’s known as a “phishing” scam. If you reply, you’ll soon find your bank account, not fatter, but completely empty. A good rule is still: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” But what if it were true? Maybe just this once?

Two thousand years before Christ, Abram (later “Abraham”) received an offer from God that must have seemed too good to be true. It came completely out of the blue. God promised to give Abram and his wife—who still had no children—a large family. God said he would make Abram’s family into a new and great people, one of the most enduring nations in all history. God said he would protect Abram from all his enemies, so that anyone who touched him would have to answer to God himself. And God would use Abram to bring the greatest blessing of all time to all people. One of Abram’s own descendants would be the promised Savior of all humanity—“Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).

What was it about Abram that made God choose him? Did God single him out because he was so helpful and trustworthy? The Bible says nothing about that. God chose Abram to receive his promises for the same reason he has chosen you and me—simply because he’s “the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God” (Exodus 34:6).

And what did God ask for in return? Simply that Abram receive God’s promises and trust them, and he did. Abram took God at his word, left his home, and travelled to the land God showed him. And God kept every single one of the promises he had made. Those promises not only made Abram rich, but when God fulfilled them in Jesus Christ, he also made you and me spiritually rich beyond our wildest dreams.

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