OT Promise 21: Families Blessed in Jacob’s Family

  1.  Promise to Jacob

Genesis 28:13, 14 And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Jacob is camping out overnight on the way to his uncles Laban’s house. The Lord speaks to him from the top of a ladder stretching from earth to heaven. Now the threefold Abrahamic promise is repeated to Jacob: 1) I will give the land you are lying on to you and your descendants; 2) Your descendants will be great in number and spread out to cover the earth; 3) in your Descendant all the families of the earth will be blessed. All of this was fulfilled as God’s story in history was played out in the Bible, and it is still being worked out in our lifetime. The promise is for us, for we have the Kingdom of God in us forever; we have the Church people made up of believers; and we have the Great Descendant, Jesus the Messiah, who is the Blessing to all the people of the earth.

All the families of the earth will be blessed in Jacob and his seed. God entered our world through his family to save and bless us. That Entrance is remembered and celebrated in faith at Christmas. It is noteworthy that the word “families” is used in place of “nations.” A family is a smaller and closer bonding than a nation or a people. Every earth person is in some way a part of a family. In Christ, the Seed, God will bless the family. We may take that promise to heart. We may pray with faith that God will bless our family, the people we love and care about, in Christ. We may claim that promise when we pray for the Blessing on our family. We may also pray for our descendants for at least three or four generations. God blesses by family. God created the family. God loves the family, and God saves the family. All families are blessed through Christ; unfortunately, many families haven’t accepted the blessing. It doesn’t mean they weren’t blessed; it just means they haven’t received the blessing. Thank God, we have this promise for our family.