And in your descendants shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.
Read Chapter 22
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
And to Abraham’s seed he promised—what? In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. His seed is Christ; because from Abraham came Isaac, from Isaac Jacob, from Jacob twelve sons, from these twelve the people of the Jews, from the people of the Jews the Virgin Mary, from the Virgin Mary our Lord Jesus Christ. And what was promised to Abraham we find fulfilled among ourselves. In your seed, it says, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. He believed this before he had seen anything; he believed, and he never saw what was promised. ..
In the third age of the world, God, testing Abraham’s obedience, commanded him to offer to him as a holocaust his one and only son, whom he loved. Abraham did not delay in doing what he was ordered, but a ram was immolated in place of his son. Nevertheless for his virtue of extraordinary obedience he was granted the inheritance of an everlasting blessing. Behold, [here] you have the third hydria, for when you hear that a greater obedience is repaid by a greater prize, you yourself [will] attempt to learn and to possess obedience. If in the immolation of his one and only son, whom he loved, you understand the passion of the one concerning whom the Father says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am wellpleased” (in him, since his divinity remaining impassible, only his humanity suffered death and sorrow, it is as though a son was offered but a ram was slain); if you understand the blessing which was promised to Abraham about the nation’s coming to belief as a gift fulfilled in you—then he...
For, in all humility, we too belong among those descendants of whom it was said that it shall be an everlasting law for him and for his descendants throughout their generations. We are not born of the lineage of Aaron, but we have believed in him in whom Aaron also, with the saints of that age, believed. Concerning him, it was promised to Abraham that in “in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” .
God seeks belief from you not death. He thirsts for selfdedication, not blood. He is placated by good will, not by slaughter. God gave proof of this when he asked holy Abraham for his son as a victim. For what else than his own body was Abraham immolating in his son? What else than faith was God requiring in the father, since he ordered the son to be offered but did not allow him to be killed? Sermon
