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UNWAVERING

Faith and Purpose

 

God’s Purpose Is Personal

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go [for your benefit and for your good] from your country and your father’s household to the land that I will show you.

 

2 “And I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you [with wealth],

and I will make your name great,

and you will be a [source of] blessing.

 

3 I will bless those who bless you,

and the one who curses you I will curse;

and in you [i.e., in your name] all the families of the earth will be blessed.” GEN 12:1-3

 

We Can Know God’s Purpose

 

God’s Purpose Is Revealed Progressively

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

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5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had accumulated and the people [i.e., slaves and maidservants] they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.

 

6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were then in the land.

 

7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there [for the tidings of the seed and of the land] to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8 And he moved from there [his tent] to the mountain east of Bethel and he pitched his tent [first Sarai’s then his], with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

 

Rashi’s Commentary

And he moved from there—His tent.

 

East of Bethel—Heb. מִקֶּדֶם, from the east of Bethel. Consequently Bethel lay to his west, and that is what it states Bethel in the west.

GEN 12:8

His tent—This word is written אהלה, which can be read אָהֳלָה, “her tent” to intimate that first he pitched a tent for his wife and afterwards one for himself (Bereishit Rabbah 39:15).

GEN 12:9

9 Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev. GEN 12:4-9

 

God’s Purpose Will Be Fulfilled Despite Our Failures

 

Mistakes and Failures of Abraham

 

Abram took Lot with him

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. GEN 12:4

 

Abram lied about Sarai

And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed [the time

has come to worry about your beauty] I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.” GEN 12:11

 

Abram had a son with Hagar

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian slave [the daughter of Pharaoh] named Hagar . . . GEN 16:1

 

Rashi’s Commentary

An Egyptian slave—She was a daughter of Pharaoh; when he saw the miracles which had been performed for Sarah, he said, “It is better for my daughter to be a slave in this man’s house than be mistress in another man’s house” (Bereishit Rabbah 45:1).

 

Abram lied about Sarai (Gen 20)

 

Our Mistakes And Failures Will Not Alter God’s Purpose In Our Lives

 

God’s Purpose Is Beyond Us And Will Always Be Bigger Than Us

 

God’s Purpose For Abraham Was To Become A Blessing To The Families Of The Earth

. . . and in you [i.e., in your name] all the families of the earth will be blessed. GEN 12:3

7 Understand, then, that only those who are of faith are children of Abraham.

GAL 3:7

8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”

GAL 3:8

. . . since Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? GEN 18:18

 

Rashi’s Commentary

GEN 18:18

Since Abraham will . . . becomeAccording to the Midrash: “The name of the righteous is a blessing.” Since he mentions him he blessed him (Bereishit Rabbah 49:1). But its real meaning is: “Shall I conceal it from him, seeing that he is so beloved by me as to become a great nation, and through him will be blessed all the nations of the earth.”

PRO 10:7

The name [i.e., mention] of the righteous is [accompanied by] a blessing,

but the name of the wicked will rot [from lack of mention]. PRO 10:7

GEN 49:10

The scepter will not depart from Judah [from David on, (an allusion to) the exilarchs of Babylon, who rule with the scepter by royal edict],

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet [(an allusion to) the disciples, the princes of the land of Israel],

until Shiloh comes [the king, Messiah, sovereignty being his (שֶׁלוֹ)],

and to him shall be the obedience of the nations. GEN 49:10

 

Rashi’s Commentary

The scepter will not depart from Judah—Even after the house of David ceases to reign. For this refers to the chiefs of the exile in Babylon who ruled over the people with the rod having been appointed by the government (Horayot 11b; Sanhedrin 5a).

 

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet—This refers to the scholars of the law: the princes of the land of Israel (as Hillel and his descendants who were heads of schools only and had no political power) (Horayot 11b; Sanhedrin 5a).

This work, "UNWAVERING: Faith and Purpose Epilogue" is a derivative of "UNWAVERING: Victory Series" © 2018 by VICTORY® All rights reserved

9 So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. GAL 3:7-9

GAL 3:9
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