Advent Reflections: God’s Promise of Blessing

We are now through Days 1-9 of our Advent Bible Reading Plan as we prepare our hearts in anticipation for Christmas this year and God continues to work through His Word is great ways! As promised, I’m going to be sharing a small reflection after each section of the reading plan, so this reflection is on Days 5-9 of the plan. If you missed Days 1-4, check them out here. This is not meant to be a devotional, a summary, a deep dive into the passage, or really anything to add to your Bible readings throughout advent, but simply some reflections from my family and I along the way. 

My main goal is to encourage my own heart to really stop, dwell, and reflect on what we are learning together. I pray it will cause you to do the same: to slow down and reflect as you read, and allow the Spirit to work on our heart.

Let’s dive into this incredible section on God’s promise to His people!

God’s Promise to Bless All Nations Through His People

After going from God’s good creation, to the fall of people into sin, to watching sin spiral out of control as people choose to trust in themselves over their Creator, we now come to God specifically calling out people for Himself as He promises to bless them and make them a blessing to all nations. I LOVE this part of scripture so much, so I was so excited to get to it in our Bible reading plan and to dig into it as a family together.

There was one resounding thing that stuck out to us in this section: God’s big promise that began with Abraham that we see passed along to Isaac and then to Jacob. We begin to get a glimpse at how God would save His people and what this big plan was that He had to bless all the people He created.

He first passes along this promise of blessing to Abraham:

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:1-8

And then to Isaac (although this passage wasn’t in our reading plan!):

“And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Genesis 26:2-5

And then to Jacob:

“And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:13-15

“And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” Genesis 35:11-12

Did you see the language of each of these passages? God continues to pass down the same promise of blessing from generation to generation, just as He said He would do.

Then as we finished Day 9 with the story of Joseph, we see an incredible example of God already beginning to fulfill His promise to multiply them and make them a blessing to all the nations! We see God use an incredibly awful injustice done to Joseph by so many people to bring about blessing to the nations. Through Joseph, many are saved during the famine in the land. Look at what Joseph says in Genesis 50:20:

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.“

The story of Joseph is one of my favorites as we see so much about God’s sovereign hand in all situations, as well as how He empowers us to forgive others as we trust Him. Then, at the end of the book of Genesis, we get another reminder of how God’s blessing is continuing to pass down through the generations and into the nations:

“And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Genesis 50:24

Not only that, but we get a glimpse into God’s ultimate fulfillment of this promise, the promised Messiah, Jesus! As we spent time in the plan reading from Galatians, we see that God was blessing the nations through His people all through the generations, and the ultimate fulfillment of this blessing is in Christ. And this blessing extends to us, to all, because of Christ! Praise the Lord!

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith….And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3:13-14, 29

Tracking God’s promise through scripture is mind blowing and draws my heart to praise! We see so much about His character through His promises: His sovereign control, His faithfulness to keep His promises even over so many generations, and so much more. We see all the way back to Genesis 3 where He promises to one day crush the serpent, we look ahead to Christ doing just that, and then we look further ahead to the future hope where Christ ultimately makes all things new.

And it is here that I am reminded of the joy of advent! Not only are we anticipating Christ coming as a baby, His death and resurrection, but we are also looking with anticipation forward to the day of His return where He will wipe away all sin and death and make all things new in His New Creation! This is the joy and the hope and the peace of advent!

The promise of God’s blessing to the nations was the main thing that came up over and over in our conversations the past few days. I can’t wait to continue along the journey of advent with you in the coming weeks to see how God’s big story unfolds! How has God been revealing who He is and His grand plan to redeem His creation through Christ to you? I’d love to hear from you!

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