Genesis 12

What’s Happening?

So far in Genesis, we’ve seen the promise God made about one of Eve’s offspring continue to hold true (Genesis 3:15). Through Cain murdering Abel, through the flood, through the division of Noah’s children, and through the scattering at Babel, God has preserved a people for himself.

Now we come to one of the most important children of Eve—a man named Abram, later renamed Abraham (Genesis 11:29). God calls Abram out of his land, family, and people, away from the Babel-like pride and idolatry of the world, in order to form a new people who belong to him (Genesis 12:1).

God makes Abram a threefold promise.

First, God will make Abram into a great nation. His descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). This fulfills God’s original purpose for Adam and Eve in the garden—to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth with his image (Genesis 1:28).

Second, God will bless Abram, and through him all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3). Adam and Eve were meant to spread God’s life and blessing throughout the world but instead spread curse and death. Through Abram, God picks up the story again.

Third, God promises to give Abram and his children the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1, 7). Like Eden, this land was to be a place of God’s presence and provision, the starting point for his glory to spread across the whole earth.

But almost immediately, this promise is threatened. A famine drives Abram to Egypt, where he lies about his wife Sarai, and Pharaoh takes her into his palace (Genesis 12:10–15). Here the line of promise—the seed of Eve—is endangered by a rival seed. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, becomes the first great representative of the serpent’s line, seeking to corrupt the people God has chosen. But God protects Sarai, strikes Pharaoh’s household with plagues, and forces him to release Abram with great wealth (Genesis 12:17–20). The story is a preview of the Exodus, when God will again plague Pharaoh, free his people, and bless them with Egypt’s riches.

In this way, Genesis 12 gives us both the promise of God’s blessing through Abram and a picture of how God will preserve his chosen seed from the serpent’s corruption.

Where is the Gospel?

Jesus is the true seed of Abraham and the promised child of Eve. God would not bring royalty into his family through the corruption of Pharaoh, but through his own Son. Jesus is born of a woman (Galatians 4:4), and as the King of the world, he comes to bring blessing to all nations.

Through Jesus, God has made a family so numerous it cannot be counted—drawn from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 7:9).

Through Jesus, all nations are blessed. Anyone who trusts him is brought into the covenant relationship God made with Abraham and receives the same blessing of belonging (Galatians 3:8–9).

Through Jesus, we enter the true promised land—life in God’s presence forever. Canaan was never the final goal. It pointed forward to a worldwide renewal, where Jesus will return, remake creation, and dwell with his people in a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:3).

The serpent’s seed may threaten God’s promise, but in Jesus, the promise comes to its true and final fulfillment. The King himself became the Lamb, laying down his life to bring people out of the land of death and into his family of life.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would show you the God who protects his people from corruption and keeps his promises. And may you see Jesus as the true seed of Abraham and the true King who brings blessing, belonging, and eternal life to the world.