God also promised that He would bless those who bless Abram and would curse those who curse him (Gen. 12:3). History tells us that during the past twenty-five centuries, from the time that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem until now, every country, people, race, or individual that has cursed the Jewish people, the descendants of Abram, has received a curse. However, whoever blesses the Jewish people receives a blessing. This is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with Abram in Genesis 12:3.
Because God appeared to him and made a covenant with him, Abram had the strength to answer God’s call. He crossed the river and entered into the land of Canaan, arriving at the place of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh, the right place where God intended for him to be. Hence, God reappeared to him and made a covenant with him the second time.
God appeared to Abram and promised to give the land of Canaan to his seed (Gen. 12:7). This is the first time that God promised to give the land to him. In Genesis 12:1 God only told Abram to go forth to the land that He would show him. God did not tell him where the land was, nor did He say that He would give the land to him. But, here, God told him clearly that the land was Canaan, and He promised to give the land of Canaan to his seed.
After Jehovah God made a covenant with Abram the second time, Abram built an altar and pitched a tent to live a life of the altar and the tent (Gen. 12:7-8). This shows that he lived by faith, offering everything to God and completely trusting in God, and that he had a deeper fellowship with God by calling on the name of Jehovah. This was a high point of his spiritual experience. However, instead of remaining there by the mercy of God, he went downward toward the south, even down to Egypt, because of the famine (Gen. 12:9-10). There he sinned by lying, but he experienced God’s keeping grace and learned the lesson that God took care of him in everything and that everything was in God’s hand (Gen. 12:11-20). Then he went back to the place where he had built the altar and pitched the tent in the beginning, and there he recovered his calling on the name of Jehovah (Gen. 13:3-4). Lot, having acquired many riches there, strove with Abram and left him. However, because he trusted in God’s care, Abram did not strive for himself. Thus, he prevailed in this trial. Therefore, God appeared to him again and made a covenant with him the third time.
After Lot had separated from Abram, Jehovah God appeared to him and said, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever” (Gen. 13:14-15). Here God promised again that He would give the land of Canaan to Abram and to his seed, thus confirming the promise of the good land in Genesis 12:7.
In the covenant this time, God also promised Abram that his seed would be as many as the dust of the earth. Genesis 13:16 says, “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” The dust of the earth signifies the earthly children of Abram, the children of Israel in the Old Testament, the constituents of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament.
After Jehovah God made a covenant with Abram the third time, Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre. Thus he was brought into another high point of the experience of God to live in fellowship with God. When Lot was captured, Abram fought by trusting in God and prevailed (Gen. 14:14-16), testifying to the fact that God is the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth, receiving the supply of bread and wine from Melchisedec (Gen. 14:18-19), and overcoming the temptation of earthly substance (Gen. 14:21-23). After this incident, God appeared to him again to make a covenant with him the fourth time.
In the covenant God promised this time that Abram would have a son born of himself (Gen. 15:4). God called Abram with the intention of gaining a kingdom to exercise His authority on earth and to express His glory. In order to have a kingdom, a seed is needed. Only when there is a seed can there be the kingdom; without the seed, there is no possibility to produce the kingdom. Hence, in order to fulfill God’s purpose, a seed was needed, and the seed had to be of the promise of God and had to be born of Abram. Therefore, God promised that Abram would have a son born of himself to be his seed.