1. What is the basic promise that God makes with Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3, 7? What does God mean by blessing/bless? Explain.
2. What happens to Abraham every time he leaves the land God took him to (12:10-20) or takes a shortcut around Gods promises because of impatience (Gen. 16)? How is faith proven? Have you faced a time when you found your faith tested? How did you respond?
3. In Genesis 15, what does God explain to Abraham? What does promise? How does Abraham respond (15:6)? How does this episode become the model for Christian faith (see Rom. 4:1-5; Gal. 3:1-7)?
4. In Genesis 22, what does God ask Abraham to do? Is this a faith that allows for any kind of fallback plan? What does Abraham name that place (22:14)? Why? Do you think that this is the event that Jesus was referring to in John 8:56 when he said that Abraham saw His day and rejoiced? Why or why not?
5. In Genesis 28:10-22, God appears to Jacob in a vision (have you noticed that Gods presence is appearing an awful lot in visions since Genesis 3? Hmmm.). Do you think that Jacob is trying to manipulate God as he did his brother and father in his response to this vision in 28:20-22? Is he trying to establish it on his terms? Why or why not?
6. In Genesis 35:1-2, Jacob comes full circle geographically-speaking. How about in his attitude? What makes you think one way or the other?
7. What is Gods ultimate end in giving Abraham a nation of descendants and land? What does He seem to keep saying in Genesis 12, 15, 17, 22, 28, etc