The Beginning of the Promise

Thursday:	The Beginning of the Promise
Story Passage:	Genesis 15
Other Passages:	Romans 4:3-16, Genesis 3:15, 9:8-17, 12:2-3, 15:1-21, 17:15-22, 28:10-15; Isaiah 9:1-7, Isaiah 53; Malachi 3:1, 3:16-4:6
Objective:	We should have faith like Abraham.
Memory Verse:	Hebrews 11:6, Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Introduction: Abraham

Has anyone here heard of Abraham before? Who was Abraham? Abraham lived in the Bible times. It talks about him in the book of Genesis. God called Abraham to leave his home land and go to the place God would show him. Abraham took off walking, and he didn't know the place where he was going. God took him through several different places before he finally got where he was going. Did you ever get in the car and go all sorts of places and not know where you would end up? Abraham wasn't worried, though, because he trusted God, just like you probably trusted your parents when they took you places in the car. Abraham finally came to the land we now call Israel, and God promised Abraham that his children, his offspring, would live in that land, that it would be theirs.

Story: The Promise

One evening, Abraham was whining. He said, My wife and I don't have any children, and when we die, all of our stuff will go to our servant, Eliezer. But God said, Eliezer is not your heir. You will have a child. Abraham and Sarah were old, and old people don't usually have kids. But God showed Abraham the stars in the sky, and said, Count them, if you can. That's how your offspring will be. Now, there are a lot of stars, but Abraham believed God. Would you believe God, if he told you that you would have that many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? Abraham believed. Abraham did have a son – two sons, in fact, but the son God promised him was named Isaac.

God had already promised Abraham that all the peoples on the earth would be blessed through him. Now he had promised him children, and later he promised Abraham more things. God also promised Abraham's grandson, Jacob, that all the peoples on the earth would be blessed through him and his offspring. What was God talking about?

Transition: The Woman's Seed

Who remembers what we talked about on Tuesday? What did Adam and Eve do? Were they supposed to eat from that tree? When they did, God told them some things. One of the things he told them was about their offspring. He said to the serpent, The woman's offspring will crush your head. Now, hundreds of years later, he's telling Abraham and his grandson Jacob that their offspring will bless the whole world. God was talking about the same person. Who do you suppose he was talking about, who would crush Satan and bless the whole world?

Application: Faith

God was talking about Jesus. Jesus was descended from Jacob, from Abraham, and from Eve. How did Jesus bless the whole world? By dying? Yes, by dying. How did Jesus' dying bless the world? He gave the whole world the chance to have their sins paid. He gave us the gift of life, eternal life, a chance to live forever in heaven with God, if we have faith in what Jesus has done for us. Abraham had faith in what God was going to do for him. God said what he would do, and Abraham believed it, and it was counted as righteousness. We have to have faith in what God already did for us, and it will be counted as righteousness for us. Then we can live with God forever in heaven.

Invitation: Salvation

[Invite the children to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.]

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.