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“Sometime later Abraham was told, “Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor: Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.” Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah”.

(Genesis 22: 20-24)

I mentioned last time that there are four different types of descendants of Abraham

The first are those who are the natural physical descendants of Abraham. You could be a descendant of Abraham by simply being born Jewish. 

The second type of descendant is a natural physical yet specially chosen offspring of Abraham.

The third type is the promised descendant of Abraham who also has faith in the Messiah. So, these are the descendants who are both physically and spiritually as descendants of Abraham.

Or the Fourth type is you could have faith in Jesus the Messiah without being of Jewish heritage. That means they are a spiritual descendant of Abraham. That’s how most people become part of the family of God.  Gentiles, that’s us folks that’s how we got in. This fourth kind of seed is one which the Jesus Christ himself and the New Testament spells out for us.

These final verses I just read give us a whole bunch of names beginning at verse 20 and going through the end of the chapter in verse 24. In it we are told about a whole line of Abraham’s relatives. Let me tell you what this means without going through all those names again. Abraham two brothers, Heron died earlier in the story the second brother was a guy named. Nebhor and he had twelve sons, and those sons had children and one of those sons. Had a daughter.  Verse 23, “Betheul begat Rebecca”. That is what you need to know between verses 20 and 24. One of his relatives had a daughter named Rebecca and as we will see as we continue our studies in the Book of Genesis. She becomes. Isaacs’s wife.

God is going to fulfil his promise that Abraham is going to have a large number of descendants through Isaac and this passage ends with it telling us how God’s going to do it. God has got a wife already picked out for Isaac. By the way, there are only two people in the Bible for whom God picked out a wife. Eve, who had no other option, and Isaac as mentioned here and that’s it. Other than that, the Bible says you can marry whomsoever you want to. Only requirement is if you are a believer is that they also know the Lord. (I Corinthians 7: 39). The only restriction is if you’re a Christian is you must marry a Christian.  That’s all it says other than that. Good luck, now you should still be wise and  careful, the Bible would also say be wise because while you have the freedom to marry everybody, not everybody is a good fit for you.  So, make sure he or she is a good fit. 

All right, let me sum all this up and make some observations. The sum of this chapter is really simple. God tested Abraham by giving him a command to obey and Abraham immediately and completely believed God and was prepared to act upon it and God blessed him and future generations because of that faith. In short, when believers pass God’s test by trusting and obeying. God abundantly blesses them.  When you resist being obedient to him. You will always lose. 

The last point I want to make is that God blesses obedient believers.  He tests us by giving us something to obey and when we do, he blesses us. That’s the point of this passage. It is a test to see if he will obey and when he does, he is blessed.  Every time Abraham made a sacrifice for God, the Lord responded by giving Abraham more. 

One Abraham left his homeland and God gave him a new one.

Two Abraham left his extended family and God gave him a much larger family.

Three. Abraham offered the best of the land to lot and yet God gave him even more land.

Four. Abraham gave up the king of Sodom’s reward and God gave him even more wealth.

Five.  Abraham gave over Ishmael his first child by Hagar to God, and God made Ishmael the father of a second multitude who trace their lineage to Abraham.

Six. Abraham was willing to give up Isaac, and God allowed him to live, and through him gave Abraham numerous descendants.

In each case, God gave Abraham a deeper relationship with himself as well as more material prosperity. God has not necessarily promised Christians greater physical or material blessings like the money preachers claim. Whenever we make a sacrifice for him, he always rewards us with a deeper relationship with him. For this reason, we should not be afraid of making personal sacrifices for the Lord. This test of Abraham’s faith is the climax of Abraham’s personal history in the Book of Genesis.

This is the last major incident in the record of his life and it’s all about learning if we obey God, he will bless us. This is why he is the great example of the father of faith in all of the scripture. God today still sometimes tests us to see if he can trust us with more of his blessing. The very least we will always get out of these testing time, the very least, is a closer relationship to him.