99. The Best Promise: Abraham and the Faithful God

G' day and welcome to episode 99 of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Dave here.

It's been really great to hear from lots of people recently.

I should say, though, if you're a kid and you want to get in touch, please tell your parents or carers what you want to say and get them to send me a message.

It's just a way I can help to protect you and make sure your grown ups know what we're saying to each other.

If you've sent me a message and you're waiting for a response, I'd love to respond when your parent or carer sends me your message.

Now, on with the show.

What's the best promise anyone's ever made to you?

Have they said?

Or because it's your birthday, you can talk in any voice you like and everyone in the family has to copy your voice.

And so you talk like this, but then you change it up a bit and you try to see just how strange you can sound.

And the best bit is everyone else has to copy whatever voice you do.

Or maybe someone's promised you something even better than that.

Have they promised to take you to the three places in the world you'd most like to go?

And you're like, ooh, ooh, ooh, Timbuktu.

Oh, and Tipperary.

It's a long way to Tipperary.

Or maybe Antarctica to see the penguins.

Or to deepest darkest Peru.

Maybe someone's promised to give you something even better than that.

Have they promised that if you eat all your vegetables you can stay up late to listen to three episodes of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids?

And instead of just the usual one, well, you know what?

In today's episode, we're going to hear about a promise from God that's better than all of them put together.

A promise to one single man.

A promise that'll help the entire world get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, people were spreading across the world.

They'd tried stopping and making themselves as great as God with a city and a tower, but God had made them speak lots of different languages.

They couldn't work together as well, and so they kept spreading.

Everywhere they went, though, they took their sin with them.

They wanted to be in charge of their own lives.

They didn't want to listen to God.

It's the same story we've seen ever since the very first man and the very first woman.

Now, though, God's about to do something that'll make all the difference.

We're told about one of the family lines that comes from Noah's son Shem.

We're told how old each son is when he has his own son, and also how long he lives.

One of the things that starts to happen with those ages is they get shorter and shorter and shorter.

Noah lives 950 years, but his son only lives about 600 years.

And his son less, and his son less.

The effect of sin that leads to death is getting stronger and stronger.

Finally, we're introduced to a man named Terah who has three sons.

Their names are Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Really sadly, one of those sons, Haran, died, dies quite young.

He's old enough to have a son named Lot, but he still dies a lot younger than you might expect.

It happens while they're all living in their home city, a place called Ur.

No, I'm serious.

It really is called er.

Not, um.

Not.

Ah, not.

Hmm.

I wonder what I'll say next.

It's called and while they're in er.

What's it called again?

Oh yeah, Ur.

While they're in er, the other two sons, Abram and Nahor, get married.

Abram's wife is named Sarai.

And we're told something very sad about Sarai.

We're told she's not able to have children.

In Genesis, we've heard a lot about people's children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren.

But for Abram and Sarai, it seems like they'll be the end of their family.

They'll never have children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren.

It's especially sad when you think God told humans to have lots of children and spread around the world.

It seems like Abram and Sarai can't join in that part of God's plan.

Maybe because of all this sadness, Terah decides to take some of his family and make a fresh start somewhere else.

In Genesis chapter 11, verse 31, we're told Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, Haran's son, and his daughter in law Sarai, Abram's wife.

They moved out of Ur of Babylonia.

They had planned to go to the land of Canaan.

But when they reached the city of Haran, they settled there.

And that's where the story could have ended.

Abram and Sarai could live out their days in this place called Haran.

And eventually when they die, their family would come to an end.

And no one in the rest of history would ever hear any, anything about them ever again.

But God has other Plans.

Suddenly, one day, God speaks to Abram.

He tells him to do something.

He tells him to go, leave.

Get out of there and go to a different place.

The land of Canaan.

The land he and his dad had originally been planning to go to.

That sounds really easy.

But have you ever had to move home?

A long way away?

Away from the places you know, away from other family, away from friends?

It can be really hard.

But God's not just telling Abram to go for no reason.

God has a plan for Abram.

And he tells that plan to Abram by making a promise to him.

A really big, big promise.

The best promise that'll affect the whole world.

In chapter 12, verse one, we're told, then the Lord said to Abram, leave your country, your relatives, and your father's family.

Go to the land.

I will show you.

I will make you a great nation.

Hang on, hang on, hang on.

Make Abram into a great nation.

How's God going to do that?

In chapter 10, all the nations started by people having children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

That's how the country's got bigger and bigger and bigger.

But Abram's wife, Sarai, she can't have any children.

But of course, this is God we're talking about.

He can do anything.

So God promises, abram, I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you.

That means make good things happen for you.

I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

Hmm.

You remember what the people back in Babel wanted in the last episode?

They wanted to be famous.

They wanted to make themselves famous.

They didn't want God's help, and they certainly didn't want to help anyone else in the world.

They just cared about themselves.

God's promise here is really different.

Abram won't make himself famous.

God will make him famous.

And his fame won't just be about caring for himself.

Oh, yeah, I'm really famous now.

So you, like, have to all do whatever I say and buy the same fashionable sandals that I wear?

No, Abram will actually be a blessing to others.

His fame will help to care for other people.

God continues the promise in verse three.

He says, I will bless those who bless you.

I will place a curse on those who harm you.

And all the people on earth will be blessed through you.

So it'll be like, Abram is God's special servant on earth.

How people treat Abram will be how they treat God.

So if they bless God's servant Abram, God will bless them.

If they curse God's servant Abram.

God will curse them.

His relationship with God makes all the difference.

But this is even bigger than that.

It's about a huge blessing, a massive blessing.

A blessing to the whole world.

Ever since God made the world, he's been blessing people.

Unfortunately, people keep trying to mess that blessing up by saying they don't want God.

People think they're making life better by sinning, by putting themselves in charge.

But actually we just make it worse.

It leads to sickness and sadness and badness.

We miss out on all the blessings that come from God.

Now, though, God's going to do something that'll stop people ruining everything.

His blessing is going to spread throughout the whole world, starting with Abram.

So how's he going to do that?

Well, in the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, it's through Abram's family, who come to be called the Israelites, and later on they're called the Jews.

God makes the family grow really big, and eventually he gives them the land of Canaan.

They become a great nation.

If people blessed Israel, they were blessed too.

If they hurt Israel, they were cursed too.

And for a while, it seemed like the whole world would be blessed through them.

Sadly, just like Adam, just like Noah, they couldn't solve the problem of their own sin.

Even though God had blessed them and given them so many good things, they still thought they were better off without him.

They thought they could do better with other gods.

They thought they could figure out for themselves how to live.

What a disaster.

What the world really needed was someone who could deal with the problem of sin.

Thankfully, God sent his one and only son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be that person.

Jesus became a human in Abram's family.

He became the true Israelite, the true Jew.

He became the blessing through who the whole world could be blessed.

That's why in John 3:16, we're told, for God loved the the world so much that he gave his only son.

God gave his son, so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.

And just like God said to Abram when he said, I will bless those who bless you, I will place a curse on those who harm you.

Now that promise has come true through Jesus.

If you put your trust in Jesus as your king, you'll be saved and blessed.

Saved from the power of your own sin, saved from death, saved to be in God's family.

And that's true no matter where you are in the world.

If you don't trust Jesus as your king, you won't be saved.

By him, and you'll have to face all the sad things that come from that.

You see, even though humans turned away from God, he still wants to bless us.

He still wants us to know how good he is.

The greatest blessing in the world is knowing and trusting and obeying God because He's so good and kind and loving and faithful.

As we've gone through Genesis, every time people have sinned, it's because they've thought God is not good enough or they think they're better than Him.

Jesus shows us how good God actually is though, that God is the God who faithfully keeps his wonderful promise to bless the world.

There's no one better than him, and we can trust him always.

Back in Genesis, Abraham is going to have a long wait to see God keep his promises.

Sometimes he'll trust God, sometimes he'll think God's given up.

But then God keeps His promises in amazing ways.

But that's a story for another series.

Thanks for listening to episode 99.

It's so great to be sharing the truth about our great, great God together.

If you use Spotify, you can go to the SFG for Kids song playlist.

On there, song number 19 is called His Name Was Abraham by Ben Pakula.

It does a great job of singing about the wonderful news we heard today.

As I said at the beginning, I love hearing from you.

It's really important though that the grown ups send the message, not the kids.

So if you want to get in contact, get your grown ups to head to faithfulgod.net and send me a message.

I'm really looking Forward to episode 100 and the series that's coming next.

There are so many more wonderful true stories to tell about the faithful God.

So make sure you're following the show so you know when it drops.

And hey, why not tell other people about the show?

Tell friends and family.

Tell people at church.

Hey man, you need to check out Stories of a Faith for God for kids.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.