1/24 Genesis 22:18

¹⁸ and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

God tested Abraham by asking him to take his son of promise, Isaac, to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there. At the last second, the angel of the LORD stopped Abraham and provided a ram as a substitute offering. Abraham had such faith in the promise of God that he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead. This act of belief in God was credited to Abraham as righteousness.

God then reaffirmed His promise to make Abraham's descendants numerous, to give them the land of Canaan, and to bless the world through the offspring of Abraham. The Jewish people did indeed multiply into a great nation and possess that land. Even after a 1900-year-period of absence they repossessed the land promised to them.

But what about blessing the world? The Hebrew word for "offspring" is singular. It can mean all the descendants as a single group or it can mean one individual. As a group, the Jewish people have disproportionately received more Nobel Awards than any other race. But the ultimate fulfillment of the promise is the individual offspring of Abraham, Jesus. The world has been blessed by His teaching. Even greater still, those who receive Him as Lord of their lives have become eternally blessed by the salvation He earned on our behalf. We are in every part of the world, and the transformation He brings to our lives blesses those

we meet.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord Jesus, that this promise has reached even to me. May Your life in me be a blessing to my part of the world as I yield to Your love.