Genesis Deeper ㊶ You Will Be a Blessing · Why Did God Bless Abram, Just One Man? (Genesis 12:1~3)
This series takes one Bible passage at a time and looks at it a little more closely. The images are free to use in worship, in class, and on social media.
Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:1~3 (World English Bible)
1. A Word That Came to Haran, and ‘Bless’ Five Times
Last time, Terah’s family was on its way to Canaan and had stopped at a place called Haran. Abram’s wife Sarai had no child (11:30), and his father Terah died in Haran (11:32). Today’s passage is what God says right after that. Abram is the man who will later be called Abraham. In the Old Testament, God is often called by his name, Yahweh.
God’s words here are three verses long. The first verse tells Abram to leave. He is to leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s house, and go to the land God will show him. The next two verses are a promise. God will make him a great nation, bless him, and make his name great.
If you read those two verses out loud, one word keeps catching your ear: ‘bless.’ ‘I will bless you,’ ‘You will be a blessing,’ ‘I will bless those,’ ‘who bless you,’ ‘will be blessed.’ In two short verses, the word comes up five times. This is not something only the English translation does. The Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. In the Hebrew, too, words built on the same verb, ‘to bless,’ appear five times.
The one receiving all this blessing is one man, Abram. And so a question comes up. Why did God give such great blessing to Abram, just one man? Does that blessing belong to Abram alone?
2. Is a Blessing Something You Keep?
Think about how we use the word ‘blessing’ in everyday life. Usually it means something good that comes to us. When we say ‘I feel so blessed,’ we mean good health, things going well, a home with enough. A blessing feels like something that comes to a person and stays there.
If we read today’s passage with that meaning, the story goes like this. Out of all the people in the world, God picked one man, Abram, and promised a great nation, blessing, and a great name to him alone. Then an uneasy question is left in our minds. What about everyone else? Does God look after only the one person he happens to favor?
But if we read it that way, the last line of the passage does not fit. God’s words do not end with Abram. They end with ‘all the families of the earth.’ We need to hold on to that last line to see what kind of blessing this passage is talking about.
3. Going Deeper · A Blessing Headed for the Ground That Was Cursed
Here is the answer up front. When God blessed Abram, he was not shutting the blessing up inside one man. In the early chapters of Genesis, the ground itself had been cursed. God wanted the blessing to reach all the families living on that very ground, and he began that blessing with one man, Abram.
To see this, we need to look back briefly at Genesis 1 through 11. In those eleven chapters, the Hebrew word ‘to curse’ (arar) appears five times. The World English Bible uses ‘curse’ in one more place (8:21), but there it stands for a different Hebrew word. This particular word is used in just five places. Let us look at them in order.
First, God speaks to the serpent: “…you are cursed above all livestock…” (3:14). Second, God speaks to Adam: “…the ground is cursed for your sake…” (3:17). Third, God speaks to Cain, who has killed his brother: “Now you are cursed because of the ground…” (4:11). Fourth, when Noah is born, his father Lamech speaks of “…the ground which Yahweh has cursed” (5:29). Fifth, after the flood, Noah says, “…Canaan is cursed…” (9:25).
Three of these five places also mention ‘the ground.’ The ground was cursed because of Adam. Cain was cursed because of that ground. And Lamech hoped that his newborn son Noah would bring comfort to people worn out from working the ground Yahweh had cursed. In all three places, ‘ground’ is the same Hebrew word, adamah (אֲדָמָה). Adamah means the soil that people plow and live from. The dust God used to form the first human was dust from this ground (2:7).
Now let us read the last line of today’s passage again. “…All the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (12:3). In English it says ‘earth,’ but in Hebrew this is the same word, adamah. The World English Bible translates it ‘ground’ in 3:17, 4:11, and 5:29, and ‘earth’ here, so the link is hard to see in English. In chapter 3 God told Adam that the ground was cursed ‘for your sake.’ In chapter 12 he tells Abram that all the families of that same ground will be blessed ‘through you.’
So the order goes like this. Over eleven chapters, the word ‘curse’ (arar) piles up five times. Then come the first words God speaks to Abram. In them, the word ‘bless’ comes up five times. And God’s words end with blessing reaching all the families of the ground that had been cursed.
The short line at the end of 12:2 points the same way: ‘You will be a blessing.’ God does not stop at telling Abram he will receive blessing. He tells him he will be a blessing. Blessing will not just flow into Abram and stay there. It will flow through him and out to others.
Seen this way, our first question has an answer. When God chose one man, Abram, he was not leaving everyone else out. He wanted to bless all the families of the earth, and he began that work with one man.
4. Word Study · Blessing · Treats with Contempt · Families
Let us look at three Hebrew words from today’s passage.
① Blessing · berakhah (בְּרָכָה). This is the word ‘blessing’ in ‘You will be a blessing.’ It comes from barakh, ‘to bless.’ It does not describe an action. It names the blessing itself. The other four times in the passage all describe actions. God blesses, people bless Abram, God blesses them in return, and the families of the earth are blessed. In the middle of those four actions, Abram alone is called ‘a blessing’ itself. The text sets Abram at the center of all this giving and receiving, and lets the blessing move through him out in every direction.
② Treats with contempt · meqallelkha (מְקַלֶּלְךָ). An older English translation, the King James Version, says ‘…curse him that curseth thee…,’ using ‘curse’ twice. But in Hebrew the two words are different, and the World English Bible shows this. The word behind ‘him who treats you with contempt’ comes from a word meaning ‘to be light.’ It carries the sense of treating someone lightly, looking down on them. The word behind ‘I will curse’ is arar, the same ‘curse’ we saw five times from chapter 3 on. The World English Bible also keeps another difference from the Hebrew. It says ‘those who bless you,’ more than one person, but ‘him who treats you with contempt,’ just one person. Some readers have long seen this as a hint of what God hopes for: many people receiving blessing. Even without going that far, in these two verses ‘bless’ appears five times and arar ‘curse’ only once. The weight of these words rests on blessing, not on curse.
③ Families · mishpechot (מִשְׁפְּחֹת). This is the word ‘families’ in ‘all the families of the earth.’ It means a large family group descended from one ancestor, a clan. This word appeared many times two chapters earlier, in chapter 10. Chapter 10 lists the peoples who came from Noah’s sons. It sorts them ‘after their families, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations’ (10:20, 10:31). It closes with “These are the families of the sons of Noah…” (10:32). There the English uses the same word ‘families’ as 12:3. Then in chapter 11, those people are scattered from Babel over the surface of all the earth (11:9). Today’s passage promises that all those scattered families will now be blessed through one man, Abram. This promise, that blessing will spread through Abram and his offspring, is repeated several more times in Genesis (18:18, 22:18, 26:4, 28:14). Only one of these uses exactly the same words as today’s passage, ‘all the families of the earth.’ That is 28:14, where God gives the same promise again to Abram’s grandson Jacob. The promise to the scattered families does not end with Abram. It carries on to his offspring.
5. One More Thing · A Name Is Not Made by Building a Tower
Today’s passage has one more word that links back to the chapter before it: ‘name.’
The people of Babel in chapter 11 said this: “…Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth” (11:4). What they did to make a name for themselves was to bake bricks and build a tall tower. But the work came to a stop, and they ended up scattered, the very thing they had tried to avoid (11:8).
In the very next chapter, God says this to Abram: “…I will bless you and make your name great…” (12:2). The ‘name’ in 11:4 and the ‘name’ in 12:2 are the same Hebrew word, shem (שֵׁם).
Put the two scenes side by side, and the difference is clear. The people of Babel tried to make a name with their own hands, but the text says nothing about Abram doing anything to get a name. Making his name great is God’s promise. What is more, the name the people of Babel wanted was meant to keep them together so they would not be scattered. But the great name promised to Abram becomes the way blessing reaches all the families that were scattered.
This scene backs up the answer we found earlier. The great nation and the great name God promised Abram were not given for Abram to store up as his own. They were given so that blessing would reach even the people scattered from Babel.
6. For Us Today
This passage leaves us with one thing. The blessing God gave Abram did not stop with Abram. It was given to flow through him to all the families of the earth.
If we look at the passage again, there is not one line saying Abram had achieved anything. Even so, God did not stop at telling Abram he would receive blessing. He said, ‘You will be a blessing.’ And those words ended with ‘all the families of the earth,’ reaching far beyond Abram’s own household.
We also receive good things, big and small, as we go through life. There is the coworker who sat next to us when we were new and showed us how things worked, one step at a time. There is the neighbor who, during a hard season, quietly left a dish of food at our door. There are meals our parents made, a word from an old friend, help we never expected. But once the feeling of thanks passes, the story usually ends there. We think, ‘That was so kind of them,’ and what we received stays quietly inside us.
Abram’s place in the story also looked, from the outside, like a place of only receiving. He heard God tell him to leave his country, and he was promised a great nation, blessing, and a great name. It does not look so different from our own place, where what we receive tends to stay put. But from the very beginning, the promise Abram received had other people in it besides Abram: ‘all the families of the earth.’ With these words in mind, we start to see what we have received in a new light. The coworker’s know-how and the neighbor’s dish reached us because someone passed them on instead of keeping them. If that is so, there is no reason the good things that have come into our hands must end with us.
There is one more comfort we can draw from the text. The words ‘You will be a blessing’ did not come to someone who had everything. They came to a man with no child to carry on his family, a man whose journey had stopped partway. So if you feel you are lacking something right now, you are still not shut out from passing good things on. Of course, there are days when we do not even have the strength to give anything to anyone. On days like that, it is enough to do what Abram did first: listen to the promise God speaks. The one who makes that promise come true is God.
As you go through today, one good thing someone recently gave you may come to mind. If it does, it might be good to hold on to the name of one person you could pass it on to. What you pass on to that person does not have to be anything big. You might show someone new the know-how you once learned. If you made plenty of a dish, you might set a little aside for a neighbor who lives alone. Small things like these are enough to pass the good along. May the one name you hold on to today become a small bridge for the good you received to cross over to the next person.
“God, you said to Abram, ‘You will be a blessing.’ Help us remember that every good thing we have received, great or small, has come from you. Let those blessings not stop with us, but flow on to the people around us. On days when we feel we have little, help us hold on to your promise, and make us a small blessing to the people we meet today. Amen.”
🕊 How to Use This in Ministry
Opening Question
Ask, “Someone gives you a whole bag of yummy cookies. What could you do with those cookies?” Listen to the children’s answers (eat them all myself, share with my little brother, give some to a friend). Then say, “In the Bible today, God says he will give Abram a great blessing. Let’s find out together what God wants Abram to do with that blessing,” and move into the passage.
Activity
Read 12:2~3 slowly, and have the children raise a hand every time they hear the word ‘bless’ or ‘blessing.’ Count all five together. Next, show the picture ‘All the families of the earth’ from today’s images, and write ‘Abram’ in the middle of a large sheet of paper. Read the last line of 12:3 again, and draw arrows going out from Abram in every direction. At the end of each arrow, have the children write people who stand for ‘all the families of the earth’ (our family, neighbors, friends in other countries). Finally ask, “Did God only tell Abram, ‘You will receive blessing,’ or did he say, ‘You will be a blessing’?” Then find ‘You will be a blessing’ at the end of 12:2 and read it together.
Application
Hand each child a small card. Have them write down one good thing someone gave them this week (for example, an eraser a friend lent them, a snack Mom packed, praise from a teacher). Below it, have them write the name of one person they could pass that good thing on to, and together write, “God makes me a blessing.” Sum up by saying, “God gave Abram a blessing so it would not stop with Abram, but flow on to all the families of the earth.” Then stick the cards at the ends of the arrows on the big sheet.
🖼️ Today’s Four Images · Press and hold or right-click to save
Now Yahweh said to Abram |
Go to the land that I will show you |
All the families of the earth |
You will be a blessing |
📄 Image license CC0 (public domain) · Free to use, modify, and redistribute without attribution.
🤖 These images were created with AI (Grok).
📖 Genesis Deeper ㊳ A Name for Ourselves · the Babel story, where people built a tower to make a name for themselves and were scattered over the whole earth
Origin Bible · Mission Zedero
Contact joypej@gmail.com
✍️ This article was written with the help of AI and reviewed by a person.
The text is CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to use it for noncommercial purposes with attribution.
Comments
Post a Comment