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Genesis 12 – God’s Promises, Presence, and Shoes
God’s Promises, Presence, and Shoes?
There is very little more down to earth, than shoes. Literally, because shoes are literally down on the earth! The three promises made to Abraham are connected by shoes!
After telling Abraham to “go” (literally, “walk”) God makes three promises: land, nation, and seed:
Land – Genesis 12:1
“To the land which I will show you”
Nation – Genesis 12:2
“And I will make you a great nation”
Seed – Genesis 12:3
“And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed”
Now notice how the “beginning” of each fulfillment involves the presence of God:
Before Moses leads a group a slaves into becoming a nation:
God’s presence is seen in, “the Angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush (Exodus 3:2).
Before Joshua leads this nation into capturing the promised land, while camped outside of Jericho:
God’s presence is seen in, “I indeed come now as commander of the host of Yahweh” (Joshua 5:14).
Both times, Moses and Joshua receive an unusual command: “Remove your sandals for you are standing on holy ground” (Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15).
The presence of God and the removal of sandals are at the beginning of the fulfillment of the first two promises made to Abraham.
Now for the third.
Jesus is the seed promise. In many ways, He begins His ministry of blessing all the nations at His baptism. What happens at this beginning?
John confesses to others, “I am not fit to remove His sandals” (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16). This is more than John standing on holy ground. Jesus IS holy ground! Jesus IS God’s presence!
Of the three promises, the greatest is the third because while Moses and Joshua removed their own shoes, John is not even worthy to until – let alone remove – the shoes of Jesus.
These are the three promises, involving God’s presence in fulfillment, and “tied” together by shoes.
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