God created all things in the world and entrusted humans to subdue and rule over every living creature. God set only one limitation on humans. That was the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. God said, “When you eat of it, you will surely die.” (Genesis2:17) But the humans disobeyed God and ate the fruit. (Genesis 3:6) Therefore, the death passed upon all humans as God said, “you will surely die.”
Every person is doomed to die because they are offspring of Adam, just like Adam perished. However, with His love to save humans, God sent Jesus Christ, His Son, on this earth. When His promise to save humans became specific, God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans and said, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you (Genesis 12:1).” Then the Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son (Genesis 18:10).” When Sarah laughed to herself, the Lord said to Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14)”
There is no verse in the Bible that says God returned to Abraham. Sarah’s pregnancy is evidence that God came to the family. There are many forefathers of faith like Noah before Abraham. Nevertheless, only Abraham is mentioned as the forefather of faith in the scripture because the genealogy of Jesus Christ who is our faith started from Abraham(Matthew 1:1).
The genealogy started from Abraham ended when Jesus Christ was born to Mary who was pledged to be married to Joseph. By this, you could understand that God showed the promise to Abraham, “Your wife Sarah will have a Son” through recording Jesus’s genealogy from Abraham to Joseph and Maria.
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #707
