Listen to Moses’ words, spoken by God to the patriarch Abraham…
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
(Genesis 22:17)
Back in chapter twelve, God told Abraham that He would create in the patriarch a great nation. Here, we’re told just how great that nation will be. His seed will be multiplied as many as the stars of the night sky, or as many grains of sand as there are upon the seashore. There will never be another with a larger lineage than Abraham. His inheritance will stretch beyond the boundaries of physical bloodlines. Through the Messiah that will come from his descendants, anyone can be blessed, regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, or earthly heritage.
The nation that spawns from Abraham will not just be numerous, they will be powerful. Specifically, the Seed (singular) of Abraham, that will come from his descendants, will “possess the gate of His enemies.” That Seed is not many, but one, the Messiah (Galatians 3:16). He will be a conqueror, and through Him, we will be more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). That is Abraham’s legacy: He created a template for faithfulness to God, and his lineage follows him in that faithfulness. As a result, the people of God, as children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), constitute a nation larger than any the world has ever seen. We are an army bigger than any in all of human history. Our King promises us that we will “inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
So, do we fight a crusade? Do we wage a holy war? No. Our goal is not to be militarily powerful or violent in our conquest. We deliver a message of peace and goodwill from God to man. In so doing, we will possess a spiritual victory, and will conquer the greatest enemies of all: Sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
That is the legacy of Abraham, and that is what we—as his lineage—get to enjoy.
~Matthew