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<2018.06> The Work of Salvation as Seen through One Family

2006 Latin American Bible Study Meeting
April 19, 2006, Evening
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 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.”  Genesis 12:1-3
Abraham Entered the Cursed Land of Canaan
Previously, through the relationship between the two brothers Cain and Abel, we were able to see an image first of the Jews—who had received the word of God— and then the Church consisting of those who later discovered Jesus Christ. We also took a look at the image of the resurrected Jesus Christ as seen through Seth, the new son who was born to Adam in his own likeness. 
Genesis chapter 5 outlines in detail how mankind multiplied on earth and how history unfolded at that time. Then from chapter 6 to chapter 9 we have a record of the events of Noah’s flood. Let’s take a look at one particular incident that occurred within Noah’s family after the flood. 
Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.”  Genesis 9:18-27
This passage narrates an incident regarding Ham, one of the three sons of Noah and father of Canaan. Ham saw his father lying naked and went and told his brothers, but this led to Noah cursing not Ham, but Canaan, Ham’s son. After this, mankind began to increase and multiply through the three sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth.The descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham, settled and lived in the region which is present-day Israel.
At the beginning of the Bible we find the words, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). This is followed by an account of the creation, finishing with God resting on the seventh day (see Genesis 2:1-4). Through the Old Testament, we can see that this exact same sequence has repeated itself in the course of history. 
In Genesis chapters 10 and 11, we read how mankind grew and spread out through the three sons of Noah. In the midst of this, one family arose through the lineage of Shem, Peleg, and Terah and then Abraham. History is gradually unfolding to manifest the nation of Israel little by little within God’s unfathomable plan.
Abraham and his family had lived to the east of Canaan in a region that is in present-day Iraq. Adam and Eve were cast out eastward of Eden. Mankind’s journey towards the garden of Eden is towards the west where the sun sets. In the tabernacle where the Israelites carried out their sacrifices, the Most Holy Place where they met with God was also located to the west. 
After Abraham, who lived to the east, was called to travel westward, he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans and arrived in Haran. There his father Terah passed away, and Abraham now bereft of his father entered the land of Canaan. This shows the death of the old man. 
Yet if we consider the deeper significance of God’s plan in calling Abraham and leading him to a land that had been cursed, we can see in advance His tremendous plan of salvation that would some day be carried out when He sent His Son into this sinful world. Even though this land was inhabited by the Canaanites who had been cursed, God’s plan to bestow His blessing upon mankind was beginning to be revealed through Abraham’s footsteps. 
Let’s turn to Genesis chapter 12.
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 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.”  verses 1-3
The land Abraham had to enter was inhabited by the descendants of Canaan who had been cursed because of Ham’s actions. Similarly, God the Father also commanded God the Son to come to this sinful world. Just as God had commanded the light to shine into the formless emptiness, God sent the man He had chosen to the land of Canaan which had been cursed. When God called Abraham to the land of Canaan in this way it was a shadow of God’s plan to command God the Son to come into this world some day. 
He sent God the Son to this world of sin in order to carry out the plan that was in the heart of God the Father to save mankind. This is the gospel.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Philippians 2:5-8
When Adam disobeyed God’s words, his blood became that of a sinner, and that blood has been passed down to us so that we were born as sinners. Just as God told Cain to rule over his sin, He also gave the law through the Israelites and commanded that it be kept. Nevertheless, just as Cain was not able to rule over his sin and so he killed his brother, man has also been unable to rule over his sin and has lived his life as a sinner continually committing sins. When God searches the depths of our hearts through our blood, He sees that they are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (see Jeremiah 17:9-10). We are sinners who cannot help but commit sins. Because of the sinful nature that is alive and active in our blood, we cannot prevent sin from radiating from our blood no matter how hard we may try. 
This is why God established a plan so that He might be able to look at us not through the blood we have received from Adam, but through the blood that He sent to us. In order to accomplish this, He needed the blood was completely different from the blood we have received from Adam. This is why God’s Son, Jesus Christ, was born on this earth as a man with blood flowing through His veins and He fulfilled the law in its entirety. He was God who came in the form of a man. Also God promised that when He shed His blood on the cross, He would look at mankind through that blood.
When God looks at our blood, all He sees is Adam living there. He can only see the blood we received from Adam who disobeyed God’s words. Yet, the moment Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross, God began to see the whole of mankind through the blood of Jesus. So the Bible is saying that Jesus becomes our own personal sacrifice when we look to His blood. It says that God has made Him our peace offering through faith: “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith” (Romans 3:25). 
Through the Bible, we can see that God has covered this terrible sinner with the blood of Jesus Christ, and He looks at man through that blood. When those words of life become your own, God will accept you and His words together just as He accepted Abel and his sacrifice. He will accept both you and Jesus Christ. 
God is guiding history along towards this goal. God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans and led him to the land of Canaan, but, even before the nation called Israel was established, He already had a plan to send God the Son to this world some day to be nailed to the cross and to die. 
Then God spoke to Abraham who was brought into the land in this way. 
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.  Genesis 15:1-6
Abraham had many possessions but he had no son to whom he might pass on his inheritance. Then one day God appeared to him and said, “Do not be afraid, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward!” Abraham responded to this saying, “What is it that you give me seeing I have no son? Shall I give everything to my servant, Eliezar of Damascus?” So God said, “This one shall not be your heir, but the one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Abraham believed God’s words and God accounted it to him for righteousness. 
Abraham is the forefather of many nations, but the Bible also refers to him as the father of faith. Through the book of Hebrews, however, we can see clearly that the founder of faith is Jesus Christ. Abraham is included in passages like this simply to provide a preview of the many people whom God would later justify through faith. 
Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.  Genesis 15:7-14
Here we have a prophecy regrading the Israelites moving down to Egypt. 
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying.  Genesis 15:17-18
God said, “One who will come from your own body shall be your heir,” and it says that Abraham believed these words. Abraham then asked, “How shall I know that I will inherit this land?” So God told Abraham to bring Him certain animals. Then when the sun went down, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between the divided pieces of meat. Through these animals that were cut in two, God provided Abraham with a testimony of His promise.
Through the Old Testament, we encounter prophecies regarding the blessings that God would bestow upon the Israelites. Within those words of promise, we can see that God gave the law, He gave the tabernacle in which the law was to be observed, and He said many more things through the prophets. Nevertheless, the Israelites, who had been promised such blessings, went through many tribulations because they rejected Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They had the promises, the law and the covenants, but they turned against God. The events in Genesis chapters 15 through 17 provide us with an image of this. 
In Romans chapter 10 it says, “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (verses 2-3). The Israelites served God according to their own thoughts. Their pride in regard to God became their religion and this was their downfall. Within passages like this, we are also able to gl
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