Isaiah 51:2 NKJV
“Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; For I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him.”
From the land of Ur of the Chaldeans, God had a plan to raise a man for His glory. While Terah, Abram’s father, had it in plan to move to Canaan, he ended up dwelling and dying in Haran. On a fateful day, the LORD visited Abram and said, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1 NKJV). The promises followed immediately: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:2-3 NKJV), said the LORD to Terah’s son.
Several years later, the LORD would recount what He did, and encourage Israel through the Prophet Isaiah, saying (in our text), “Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him.” Hallelujah! Although idol worship was common in ancient Ur, God’s plan and purpose for Abram was greater! That plan and purpose involved the physical Israel and the spiritual: all Jews and Gentiles who would believe in Jesus Christ. Indeed, God’s call to Abram resulted in such an immeasurable blessing and increase that has lasted to date; for He made an everlasting covenant with Abraham (Gal 3:17).
Through the revelation Paul received from the Holy Spirit, we learn that “…those who are of faith [in Christ] are BLESSED with believing Abraham” (Gal 3:9 NKJV). More than that, Christ’s redemptive work was partly to the effect “that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the [HOLY] SPIRIT through faith” (Gal 3:14 NKJV). Oh, hallelujah! What physically started in Ur of the Chaldeans has, in Christ, resulted in our being blessed and gifted with the Holy Spirit. Despite all the challenges that Abraham and Sarah weathered, God’s blessing and increase spoke for themselves! That, in Christ, is our portion as well: what God has blessed is blessed!
Pst. Emmanuel
