As a result of the disobedience of our first parents, there is a separation of man from God. This separation can be seen not only as a spiritual separation but also a separation in which God did not speak to mankind for a period of time after the fall. During this period the descendants of Adam had done terrible sins before the Lord. The Bible said that there was only one man who was just and perfect in that generation namely Noah (Gen. 6:9). The sins of those people were so great in the eyes of the Lord. For this reason, the Lord had to show His wrath to this world through the universal flood (Gen. 7-8). All things in this world died except Noah and his family and the things which were in the Ark. Nevertheless, from the time of Adam to Noah, hundreds of years had passed, God did not give further description of the promise of the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15).
However the Bible tells us that after the flood the descendants of Noah began to repopulate the world. From the three sons of Noah, Shem was the one whom God chose from which the line of the coming Messiah would come (Gen. 9:26). It can be clearly seen the genealogy of Abraham in Gen. 11:10-30, that Abraham was from the line of Shem. Henceforth, Abraham was the main character whom God had chosen that through his descendants, the Messiah would come. The clear affirmation of this truth is seen in Gen. 12:1-3 in the time God called Abraham. This is the reaffirmation of the promise of the first coming of Jesus Christ. Thus, it is right to say that it is an enlargement of the protoevangelion of Gen. 3:15. Reich rightly opines that this verse is “The prophecy concerning of the Seed of woman, becomes the promise of the Seed of Abraham.” Kligerman furthermore said, "This is more then the promise of ‘The Hope of a Prosperous.’ It is a promise of the coming of a ‘Personal Messiah,’ and it distinctly refers to Christ, if we take the word of such men as Paul and Peter, and this we gladly do, because these men, like the Old Testament prophets, were inspired by God and therefore are true prophets of the true God (see Acts 3:25,26; Gal. 3:8,9,14,16,19)."
When God gave this great promise to Abraham to be a great nation (Gen. 12:3), he did not have any child. The fact was, that the Lord would give him a child and through him, his descendants would grow and become a great nation. One may ask, who is the seed of Abraham mentioned in Gen. 13:1-3? The natural understanding of this passage is that the seed of Abraham is interpreted into three divisions namely the national seed of Abraham, the spiritual seed of Abraham and the Messianic Seed of Abraham. Nevertheless the question still remains, which one of these three as the primary meaning of the seed of Abraham? Kligerman gave the right answer when he said, “The primary meaning of this passage unquestionably is that of an individual, “The Seed” of Abraham, who shall bring this universal blessing to a world under the curse of sin.” Parks continues to say, "The seed of Abraham through which God promised to bless all the nation is his Messianic Seed, not his national or spiritual seeds. This point is stressed by Paul the apostle in Galatians 3:16: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. [God] does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ.” God therefore, in Genesis 12:3 (also 22:18; 26:4; 18:18), promised to bless the nations through Christ."
But this is not to deny that the nation of Israel has been a blessing to many nations. In fact the nation of Israel will be the main attention of this world especially during the seven years Great Tribulation.
Looking at the fulfilment of this promise, Matt. 1:1 clearly tells us that Jesus Christ is the son of Abraham. When Matthew wrote this gospel, he understood what he was writing because his writing was intended for the Jewish people. Clearly this verse denotes that the promise seed given by the Lord to Abraham referring to the Messiah which Matthew directly declares that He is the Christ. In fact Jesus Christ said to a group of teachers of the Law, that Abraham rejoiced to see His day (John 8:56). As Pounds said, “Abraham was overjoyed to see the fullness of time when the Messiah would indeed be a spiritual blessing.” This spiritual blessing comes to everyone who believes in the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross.
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