You see, then, how great he was. Abraham, our famous ancestor, gave him one tenth of all he got in the battle.

blessed him, and said, "May the Most High God, who made heaven and earth, bless Abram!

May the Most High God, who gave you victory over your enemies, be praised!" And Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the loot he had recovered.

When God made his promise to Abraham, he made a vow to do what he had promised. Since there was no one greater than himself, he used his own name when he made his vow.

Abraham was patient, and so he received what God had promised.

It was in faith that all these persons died. They did not receive the things God had promised, but from a long way off they saw them and welcomed them, and admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.

It was faith that made Abraham offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice when God put Abraham to the test. Abraham was the one to whom God had made the promise, yet he was ready to offer his only son as a sacrifice.

I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well."

After Lot had left, the LORD said to Abram, "From where you are, look carefully in all directions.

I am going to give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all; it would be as easy to count all the specks of dust on earth!

"I make this covenant with you: I promise that you will be the ancestor of many nations.

I will give you many descendants, and some of them will be kings. You will have so many descendants that they will become nations.

I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God."

I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies.

All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants---all because you obeyed my command."

The promises of God through his prophets are for you, and you share in the covenant which God made with your ancestors. As he said to Abraham, 'Through your descendants I will bless all the people on earth.'

When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.

They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises;

Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural "descendants," meaning many people, but the singular "descendant," meaning one person only, namely, Christ.