The patriarchs are the fathers God called before Israel was a nation.
Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.
The word is father of a clan. In Scripture it settles on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three names God uses when He introduces Himself to Moses. Sarah and Rebekah are in the story, not beside it. The promise runs through their sons. Joseph carries the family into Egypt. The nation is not born yet. The family is.
- God calls Abram out of Ur, walks the land with him, and swears a seed, a land, and a blessing for the families of the earth.
- Isaac is the son of promise. Jacob is the one who limps away with the name Israel. Twelve sons become the tribes.
- Canaan is the country they sojourn in, owning a grave before they own the hills. The Promised Land is oath before it is possession.
The Abrahamic Covenant is the bond. Circumcision is the sign in the flesh. Faith is counted as righteousness before the law is given. The Patriarchal Age is this stretch of the story, from the call to the family that goes down to Egypt. The Exodus is what God does later, because He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus does not replace the fathers. He is the seed the oath was aiming at.
The patriarchs died not having received the things promised.
They saw them and greeted them from afar.
The blessing still runs through the Son.
- Patriarchs means the fathers of the people, not a vague ancient age.
- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the three names on the oath.
- They live as sojourners. A grave in Machpelah is the first deed.
- The promise is seed, land, and blessing. All three have to be kept in view.
- Faith is reckoned righteous in Genesis, before Sinai.
- Egypt is the waiting room, not the canceling of the oath.
- The Seed is one. The fathers point to Him. They are not discarded.
- The Call – Leave country and kindred; go to a land He will show.
- The Three – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the names God bears.
- The Mothers – Sarah, Rebekah, and the promise through the son He names.
- The Oath – Seed, land, blessing; sworn by Himself.
- The Sojourn – Tents in Canaan; a grave before a kingdom.
- The Family – Joseph in Egypt; a clan becoming a people.
- The Seed – The blessing comes to the nations in Christ.
- Genesis 12:1-3 – “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
- Genesis 15:5-6 – “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them… So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
- Genesis 17:5-8 – “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations… I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings.”
- Genesis 26:3-4 – “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you… I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.”
- Genesis 28:13-14 – “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac… in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
- Exodus 3:6 – “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
- Exodus 2:24 – “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”
- Hebrews 11:8-9 – “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance… By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.”
- Hebrews 11:13 – “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.”
- Galatians 3:16 – “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.”
- Matthew 22:32 – “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Go from your country to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
He believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land. These all died in faith, having seen the things promised and greeted them from afar.
The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, who is Christ.
Do not treat the fathers as a preface you can skip. God still names Himself by them. They lived in tents and died looking ahead. The seed is the Son. The blessing for the families of the earth still runs through Him.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.