¹³ For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.”

Many don’t realize that everything we have in Christ today is linked back to a promise God made to Abraham some 4000 years ago! Beginning in Genesis 11, the biblical story unfolds of how God called Abraham out of idolatry from the city of Ur in the land of the Chaldeans (in the southern part of modern day Iraq).

The promise is found in Genesis 12:1-3, and repeated (in various forms) in Genesis 15:18, 17:1-9 and 22:15-18. It was reiterated to his son Isaac (26:2-5) and to Isaac’s son Jacob (28:13-16, 35:10-12). The promise was passed down continually from there, and we find many places in the both the Old and New Testaments that connect back to it. One could rightly say that our salvation today is the result of it. What, then, was the pledge, the vow God made?

The promise is actually threefold. In essence, it was this: 1) God would provide Abraham a land, which we aptly call, “The Promised Land.” This is where he and his descendants finally settled. The area was originally called Canaan, but to some “The Holy Land.” In secular terms, today it is called either Israel (because of the Jews’ present occupation) or Palestine (which term is derived from the Philistines who were major inhabitants in the land in ancient times—the term is preferred by many non-Jews in the land today).

2) God promised He would turn Abraham’s descendants into a great nation. It was an inauspicious beginning with one man, through the very narrow line of his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob, and then Jacob’s twelve sons (who became the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel (the term Israel is taken from the name God gave to Jacob). (Although the term “Jews” was commonly used from the time of 2 Kings 25:25 at their deportation into Babylonian captivity, they were first called “Hebrews” as early as Gen 14:13. When the descendants of Abraham grew in size, they eventually were called the “nation of Israel” or just “Israel” for short). The people of Israel, the Jews, are all descendants of Abraham and have endured through 4000 years, maintaining a collective identity to this day.

3) God promised He would bless the world through Abraham and his descendants. Little did he realize what this would mean. And it is to this that our writer to the “Hebrew” Christians now turns.

Lord, I am thankful that You are a promise keeping God. I can trust that You always keep Your word.