Mankind’s sinful condition is reminiscent of the 3-year-old child who dropped his bowl of cereal, spilling cereal and milk all over the place.

Making that mess was easy, but it won’t be easy for a small child to clean up a mess like that.

We have been exploring mankind’s big mess. It is called the fall of man. Man sinned. Our mess was not a mistake. It was a decision. Our mess was the result of sin. The world was polluted with sin. Injustice, wickedness and sin were commonplace.

Sin had taken hold of humanity. God saw what was happening. He knew we were in no position to help ourselves. There was no way we could clean up this mess on our own.

Being the loving, gracious and compassionate God that he is, a decision had to be made. Would he choose to turn his back and walk away? Or would God help us clean up our mess?

We can all be thankful that God decided to address our mess. And he chose Abraham as the starting point for fixing the mess that humanity had made.

Abraham was just a normal guy. He had all kinds of problems himself. Abraham had lots of issues, but God had to start somewhere, so he chose to begin with imperfect Abraham. (see Genesis 12:1-3) God made Abraham three interesting promises.

First, he promised, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you.” This promise made by God to Abraham almost 4,000 years ago absolutely came true. God was about to address the problem of sin, disobedience and corruption in the world. He says, “I will make you into a great nation.”

His second promise, “I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” All of us have heard of father Abraham, even though we live halfway around the world in a different culture almost 4,000 years later. Promise kept. God always keeps his promises.

God’s final promise to Abraham was that all people on Earth will be blessed through him. God has made this promise when Abraham was an old man. He had no children, but God said everybody on the Earth was going to know Abraham’s name and everyone would be blessed through him.

Abraham needs some descendants. In Genesis 15:4, the word of the Lord came to Abraham that he would have a flesh and blood heir. Next time, we will find out why that is so important.

You may read Steve Greene’s blog at pastorgreene.wordpress.com or you can email him at [email protected].