road2answers

Genesis 25:27-34; 27:1-40 God chose Abraham, and promised to bless him and through Abraham to bless the whole earth.  After Abraham, the blessing passed to Isaac and then to Jacob.  The blessing then was passed down through the descendants of Jacob through David until the birth of the promised Messiah.  Jesus is the promise personified.  It is through Jesus that all the nations on earth are blessed.  It is Jesus that Abraham accepted and looked forward to by faith. The story of the fulfilling of the promise is one of incredible miracles, providence and provision.  It is also one of sorrow and heartache. For example, Abraham’s firstborn son was actually Ishmael.  Abraham pleaded with God to bless Ishmael and God told Abraham that He would bless Ishmael, but the promise would be through Isaac.  The story of Ishmael reflects the sorrow and heartache of which I speak.  From a strictly human point of view, this might be explained because the boys had different mothers. Howe

God chose Abraham. From Genesis 12 we understand the purpose for which God chose him.  Genesis 12:2&3 say: “ 2 I will make you into a great nation.  I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.  3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.  All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” [i] According to this, the purpose for which God chose Abraham was to bless him, and through him all the families on earth. The story of Abraham, his life and his blessings unfolds in Scripture as the story of redemption.  All the families on earth are blessed through Abraham because it is through Abraham and his descendants that the Messiah, our Savior, is given. For Abraham, the journey was not easy, and the way was not certain. He had to let go of everything that he was relying on.  He left his homeland, his relatives and even his father’s family.  At one point, he even offered his son Isaac as a sac

When we meet Abraham in Genesis, he is called Abram.  He is living in Mesopotamia with his father’s family.  God spoke to Abram while he was living in Mesopotamia and told him to get up, leave his home and father’s family and travel to a land that God would show him. Abram moved from what is now Iraq to an area that is Syria in the present day.  It was there, in a city called Haran that God appeared to Abram a second time and said: Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.  2 I will make you into a great nation.  I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.  3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.  All the families on earth will be blessed through you.  Genesis 12:1-3 [i] Abram moved away from Haran, leaving all behind except his nephew Lot.  Lot apparently was Abram’s heir.  Abram held on to this family connection until Lot and Abram’s

Pentecost, otherwise known as “The Feast of Weeks,” is the second of the three major Jewish festivals (the other two are Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles).  The Hebrew word for the festival is “ Shavuot, ” and it means weeks. Passover was in early spring and included first fruits offerings from the early harvest of barley.  Shavuot was in late spring and included first fruits offerings from the wheat harvest.  The Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot , was in the fall, was the final harvest and included first fruits of olives and grapes. All three of these festivals involved a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  It was required of all Jewish men to travel to Jerusalem to observe these three festivals. Exodus 34:22-24  22 “You must celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the first crop of the wheat harvest, and celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season. 23 Three times each year every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the LORD, the