In establishing a covenant with Abram, God clearly stated what He would bring to him through this agreement. Notice Genesis 12:1-3: Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family and from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
The Amplified Bible says it this way: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you with abundant increase of favors." He wants to bless and favor you. Think about that: abundant increase of the favor of God.
God considered it such a priority for His blessings and increase to be brought to mankind, He declared that it was the first thing He would do for Abram - if he would only obey Him. As Abram began to obey God and to walk with Him, he saw the power of His covenant in action. Immediately he would see the increase that it brought him.
In Genesis 13:6, it tells of the abundance that Abram and his nephew, Lot, received from the Lord: "Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together."
Their possessions had increased abundantly. It was more than they could contain as long as they stayed together. If Abram were to continue to increase, he would need to go on with God and be separated from Lot. The covenant brought an increase of possessions. But there would be more; God would give him land as far as his eyes could see. He would give Abram descendants and land and increase of wealth as well as influence, all because he would continue to live by faith in the covenant between him and God Almighty.
Abram is called the father of faith. He walked in the kind of faith that is a model to all generations, the faith that pleased God. He believed that his covenant with God would bring Him increase, and, for the rest of his life, he saw that increase come to him.
In Genesis 17, God again spoke to Abram regarding His covenant with him, changed his name from Abram to Abraham, established the way the covenant was to work and declared that He would "multiply him exceedingly." God would continue to increase Abraham in land, cattle, descendants and wealth. He would see God cause him to prosper in all aspects of his life.
When you grasp this relationship between God and Abraham you can begin to better see your relationship with God today, because we are the "seed of Abraham."
Galatians 3:29 says, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Therefore, the better you know how God blessed Abraham, the better you will understand your own position in Him.
Excerpt permission granted by Dennis Burke Publications