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 dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Genesis 12:1-3

We all know the lyrics (and maybe actions) to the Sunday School classic “Father Abraham.” “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham, I am one of them and so are so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord!” Then we raise our right arms and our left arms and kick out our feet and nod our heads and we spin around. It’s great. I’ve sung that song in Sunday school and at summer camp countless times (it’s great for waking up sleepy campers in the morning!). But, even when we may know the song, we can sometimes miss an important piece in God’s promise to Abraham.

As we’ve been seeing throughout Scripture this year, our God is a God who pursues us. The God of Abraham is a sending God. And the God of Abraham does not begin this mission in the New Testament but in the First Testament (Old).

Professor Douglas Moo shows us three things encapsulated in this first call from God to Abraham to leave his home and head to the promised land. “God promises to:

1. make of Abram a great nation;
2. bless those who bless Abram;
3. bless all peoples through Abram.”[1]

Just a few chapters later we see “God confirm his promise by entering into a covenant with Abram”[2] and he “believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).

As Timothy Keller writes, “Abraham’s faith was in God’s promise of a descendant; ours is in what God promises one of Abraham’s descendants has achieved.” And of course that is the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ achieving justification on our behalf so that we can be forgiven of sins and be brought back into right relationship with God.

God promised to bless all peoples through Abraham. His mission was always about making His name known to the nations and it continues to be the case today. So it doesn’t simply begin with the Great Commission in Matthew 28 – our God is a sent God and a sending God. Jesus says in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” As His people today we are still called to this mission.

“The question is no longer if we are called, only where and how. The call to follow him is the call to be sent and to send.” – J.D. Greear

[1] Moo, Encountering the Book of Romans, 90.

[2] Ibid.