Chapter 6: The Abrahamic Covenant
Index
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Value
6.3. Elements
6.3.1. The Word / Promise
6.3.1.1. Land
6.3.1.2. Descendants
6.3.1.3. Blessing
6.3.2. The Blood / Sacrifice
6.3.3. The Seal / Sign
6.4. Ancillary Aspects
6.4.1. Natural Fulfilment
6.4.1.1. Land
6.4.1.2. Descendants
6.4.1.3. Blessing
6.4.2. Spiritual Fulfilment
6.4.2.1. Land
6.4.2.2. Descendants
6.4.2.3. Blessing
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6.1. Introduction
Genesis 15:8
“Lord, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
Abraham’s story begins in Genesis 12 with a calling, a calling away from the life that
he knew, away from his family, and away from his country into a new country. This
was both a natural journey as well as a spiritual journey for Abraham. It was a
journey of faith and a journey with God. On this journey Abraham experienced a
change of character and a change of name. Following this calling God promised him
a land, a nation and a blessing. These were the three Abrahamic promises.
Abraham followed on a series of adventures and misadventures. Each step of
Abraham’s journey rings of a sense of destiny. And then, having obeyed God, God
gives his promises anew, most particularly the promises of descendants and a land.
When Abraham sought assurance of this, asking, “How shall I know?” in Genesis 15,
God confirmed his promises by covenant. Once again we see the pattern of a
covenant following an existing relationship and acting in confirmation of that
relationship. It was true for Noah, and we find it again for Moses, Levi and David
later. In Genesis 17 God confirmed the covenant a second time, and in Genesis 22
God promised by oath to bless Abraham extraordinarily.
The Abrahamic Covenant, or Bit Milah in Hebrew, the covenant of circumcision, was
later confirmed and perpetuated with Isaac, rather than Abraham’s other son,
Ishmael. (Genesis 21:12; 26:3,24) (Ishmael was however also circumcised.) Later
God’s promises in terms of the covenant of a people, of blessing and of a land, were
again confirmed to Jacob rather than Esau. (Genesis 35:9-12)
In general terms the Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional covenant. Although
God affirmed his promises to Abraham after Abraham had responded in obedience
by faith, it is nonetheless submitted and concluded that the covenant itself is utterly
unconditional. The condition of circumcision as requirement of the covenant relates
to entering into the covenant rather than to the outworking or of the relationship
created by the covenant.
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6.2. Value
Much like Noah’s covenant, Abraham was promised a covenant as he ‘went on a
journey with God’ as it were. The covenant was given as affirmation of God’s
promises after Abraham had chosen to respond to God’s call. This journey is in a
certain sense central to the Abrahamic Covenant. God made covenant with Abraham
to confirm his promises to Abraham, and thereby also confirmed his relationship with
Abraham.
The relationship created by the Abrahamic covenant, it is submitted, is two-fold.
Firstly it is an endorsement of Abraham’s pilgrimage, his journey, which is
summarised in the word ‘faith’. In other words Abraham’s Covenant says that God
has a very special relationship over those who trust him.
Secondly, and more fundamentally, Abraham’s Covenant creates a relationship of
fatherhood. The idea of ‘Abraham’ has always been synonymous with a sense of
identity and belonging. More than anything else, Abraham lends identity to the
Jewish nation. Similarly still Abraham gives special identity to thee groups of people
today: Jews, Christians and Muslims.
For both Israelites and (Gentile) Christians the basis of this fatherhood is rooted in
covenant. For physical Israelites the claim is expressed in their physically being
descended from Abraham; whilst for Christians it is in following Abraham’s example
of walking by faith.
6.3. Elements
6.3.1.
The Word / Promise
6.3.1.1. Land
Genesis 12:7
“To your descendants I will give this land.”
Genesis 13:14,15
“Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – to the north,
southward, eastward and westward, for all the land you see I give to you and
your descendants forever.”
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Genesis 15:18
“On this day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your
descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the
Euphrates.”
Genesis 17:8
“And I will give to you and your descendants the land where you are a stranger,
the whole of Canaan, as an eternal possession, and I will be to them a God.”
God promised Abraham and his descendants land, specifically the geographic
locality of Israel. Interestingly enough, Israel has never come into possession of all
the land that God had promised them. Geographically Israel was at its largest during
the times of David and Solomon. God is faithful to his promises and this foresees a
time yet to come when Israel will be quite a bit larger than it has ever been.
6.3.1.2. Descendants
Genesis 12:2
“I will make you a great nation.”
Genesis 13:16
“And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can
number the dust of the earth, then your descendants could be numbered.”
Genesis 15:4,5
“Then the word of the Lord came to him and said, “This one shall not be your
inheritor, but the one born of your body, he will be your inheritor.” Thereupon he
took him outside with the words, “Look up to heaven, and count the stars, if you
can.” And he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”
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Genesis 22:17
“I will bless you richly and multiply your descendants greatly, like the stars of
heaven and the sand of the beach, and your descendants will occupy the gate of
their enemy.”
Having left his own family, God promised Abraham a new family, - that many nations
would be borne of him. His very name reflects this: Abraham or ‘great father’
becomes ‘Abraham’, ‘father of many nations.’ Perhaps it is accurate to say that not
only was Abraham the Father of Many Nations but also the father of many kinds of
nations.
6.3.1.3. Blessing
Genesis 12:2,3
“And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and curse those
who curse you, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Genesis 22:17,18
“I will bless you richly and multiply your descendants greatly, like the stars of
heaven and the sand of the beach, and your descendants will occupy the gate of
their enemy.
In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have
obeyed my voice.”
Thirdly God promised Abraham blessing. This blessing was two-fold. Firstly Abraham
himself would be a blessing. This might say something about identity, and a legacy of
his name. Secondly it suggests that Abraham would have a descendant in whom all
the nations of the earth would be blessed. Paul later (Gal. 3) interprets this as an
anticipation of the gospel, and of Jesus, Abraham’s seed who would follow.
It is arguable as to whether the promise of blessing forms part of the covenant, or
whether it is an independent promise made by God and confirmed by oath. For the
course of the New Testament it is treated more as an oath than a covenant, although
Galatians 3 contextualises it within the framework of the Abrahamic Covenant and
even suggests it as part of the covenant.
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6.3.2.
The Blood / Sacrifice
Genesis 15:9-10
“Bring me a three-year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old
ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to him and
cut them in two, down the middle, and place each piece opposite the other, but
he did not cut the birds in two.”
The blood or offering of the covenant was these animals, chosen and presented to
God. The choice seems to have been in some way ceremonial, three sets of three
year old domesticated farm animals, and two birds that by nature still suggest a
sense of peace and innocence today.
6.3.3.
The Seal / Sign
Genesis 17:10-13
“And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be the sign
of the covenant between me and you. And every male among you who is eight
days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations.”
The sign of Abraham’s covenant is quite simply circumcision. Every male person of a
family, including slaves and strangers who make permanent residence with
Abraham’s descendents were and are to be circumcised.
Circumcision led to two things: Firstly it is a sign of consecration. Being circumcised
means being part of a chosen people, a people chosen in Abraham. Throughout the
Old Testament books we note criticisms when the people of Israel behaved not like
the ‘circumcised’ but like the unclean nations.
Secondly circumcision also became a very strong social feature. It becomes a
metaphor for the ethnic identity of the people. The descendants of Abraham knew
themselves as ‘the circumcised’. This circumcision was and is something special.
Later the Jews saw themselves as the ‘circumcision’. Circumcision therefore granted
them a sense of social identity.
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Scripture puts these two meanings together, interpreting this ‘circumcision’ far wider,
as not being of mere body, but also or rather of heart. In this way God’s people are
those whose hearts are consecrated to him. (Cf. Col. 2:11,12; Rom. 2:28,29)
Why did God ask that the men of Abraham’s promises be circumcised? Why
circumcision? The simple answer is that we do not know. It may have been used
among other nations at the time, it may not have been. The history of circumcision is
lost in time, save for one thing. God ordered it, and we must accept it. The New
Testament is however clear that it is no longer necessary for Christians today.
Without circumcision a male cannot enter into the Abrahamic Covenant. Refusal to
do so is a refusal and a repudiation of the covenant. Although the covenant’s
blessings and promises are unconditional one has to comply with the covenant’s
requirements before one can partake it.
6.4. Ancillary Aspects
Sometimes God’s promises and prophecies have a kind of echo-effect. This is
sometimes called double-prophecy. A prophet is like a man who sometimes looks
forward and sees a mountain range before him. One mountain-peak before him may
be one peak, or two or more, each in the other’s silhouette. In other words
sometimes Biblical promises and prophecies come true more than once. And
sometimes also in different ways. Each of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant
had a two-fold fulfilment. It is as though the covenant had two sets of promises
contained in one. The Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled on two levels: both naturally
and spiritually. It identified two groups of people: one natural and one spiritual. It
identified two experiences of blessing. It identified two homelands.
Now I am naturally cautious reading any ‘spiritual’ things into quite natural promises.
In this case however I am led to conclude that in some natural promises more was
promised than we generally appreciate. Paul had no problem reading spiritual or
figurative meanings into Abraham’s history or his covenant (through a Jewish style of
interpretation called midrash). In Galatians 4 he draws a distinction between two
covenants that followed from the Abrahamic covenant. Two legacies of Abraham.
The Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant. One might even suggest that both the
Mosaic and New Covenants build on the Abrahamic Covenant.
But even if we do not give ourselves to symbolism, the fact of the matter as we find it
in the Bible is that the Abrahamic Covenant was and is to be fulfilled on two levels.
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This brings us to a difficult juncture. Whilst we can appreciate two sets of people, two
sets of blessings and two homelands, this is not to say that the covenant is aimed at
creating two groups of people.
Many have argued for and against the continuation of the Jews as God’s chosen
people. The New Testament is consistent: God’s Israel is the people who believe like
Abraham did and behave like Abraham did – with circumcised hearts. Nevertheless
the New Testament is also consistent that the Jews are ‘more natural’ to God’s
promises, that they have not been disqualified by God’s plan, but in fact that there is
a very special and significant part for them ahead.
What then are we to make of this? Well, I do note that God made certain promises to
the Israelites unconditionally. Therefore and trying to avoid those awful debates I
suggest as a matter of practicality that God has two chosen peoples: one natural and
one spiritual. God will guard, protect and express a special plan with both. God will
also judge both before he does any other. And I sincerely believe that before either
will ever fulfil their ultimate calling, they will ultimately to a greater degree have to
become one again. (That is not to say that Gentiles will have to become Jews as was
the conundrum in the early church, but rather that Christianity will only come into its
fullness when the Jews rediscover Yeshua as their Messiah.)
6.4.1.
Natural Fulfilment
6.4.1.1. Land
The land promised to Abraham was of course Canaan. This was the land that
Abraham toured during his lifetime. The land was given unconditionally in terms of
the covenant to Abraham. The promises were made to Abraham conditionally,
namely that Abraham should follow God, but the covenant itself set out the terms
unconditionally.
The Israelites subsequent possession of the land was and is regulated in terms of the
Mosaic Covenant. There is a difference between ownership and possession. Whilst
the land belongs to the nation of Israel unconditionally through Abraham, their
possession of it has been conditional in Moses. Ultimately however God will always
bring Israel back to Canaan, following his promise not to Moses but to Abraham.
The covenant was later confirmed with Isaac. The Jews are the inheritors of this
legacy. The Mosaic Covenant that followed the Abrahamic Covenant simply set out
the terms of possession of this land. It did not qualify its initial possession. I am
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therefore led to conclude that the Jews are entitled to the physical state of Israel,
whether or not they obey God’s commandments in terms of the Mosaic Covenant.
6.4.1.2. Descendants
God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as the sand of the sea –
uncountable. Within a relatively short span of time after Abraham, his descendants
numbered two million. Thus we have the nation of Israel, numbered in twelve tribes
after the twelve patriarchs of Israel.
6.4.1.3. Blessing
God promised to bless Abraham, and bless him he did. God blessed Abraham
spiritually, as well as naturally. Abraham succeeded in business, warfare and
leadership.
Now the promise of blessing is also made to the ‘seed’ of Abraham. One might infer
that God’s promise of blessing has therefore also come upon the Jewish people.
Whether or not Abraham’s covenant promises blessing to all the descendants of
Abraham or not, God certainly has blessed the Jewish people.
Jews have ranked amongst the foremost scientists, philosophers, social leaders,
religious leaders (even a pope) and generally their prosperity has provoked scorn
from other nations, Germany during the Second World War as foremost example.
‘Seed’ is a nebulous term. I anticipate that God has used it intentionally, both of a
people and of a person. In Genesis 3 God promises to Eve regarding the serpent
(Satan) that her seed would crush his head (authority). This promise came true in two
levels. People generally detest snakes, an often destroy them. But it also prophesies
of a man to come who would defeat Satan’s authority.
In a similar way I submit that God used his promise to Abraham to come true in two
levels. Firstly he has blessed the descendants of Abraham naturally, and he has
blessed the Seed of Abraham specifically. This seed as Paul explains in Galatians 3
is in fact the Messiah. Jesus is the natural fulfilment of the promise of blessing in the
Abrahamic Covenant or oath. The latter point will be discussed below.
6.4.2.
Spiritual Fulfilment
Abraham is mentioned with a special regard throughout the New Testament.
Everything written about Abraham in the New Testament brings him in regards to two
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things: identity and inheritance. We have a special identity in Abraham, as being
‘children of Abraham’ and that qualifies us to a special inheritance in him, namely that
of a spiritual homeland, a spiritual blessing and a spiritual nation: a heavenly family.
In Galatians 3 Paul takes specific time to explain exactly how we are qualified to be
‘Children of Abraham.’ Paul explains that God’s promises lodge in Abraham himself
and in Abraham’s seed. Not seed as in many, but Seed as in a singular person,
namely Jesus the Christ, or as the Jews knew him, Yeshua the Messiah in Hebrew.
The promise Paul explains is due to only these two people: Abraham and his Seed.
This Seed would be male, Jewish, free and also chosen. Though I am male and free,
I am not Jewish, nor am I chosen in that way God chose Jesus. Many others among
us share a similar situation. How then can we share Abraham’s promises?
Paul explains that by faith we are clothed with Christ, particularly as it is expressed in
the rite of baptism. Baptism throughout the epistles suggests this idea of
identification. Baptism is like getting someone’s passport. Doing something
physically, i.e. being dunked in water for the name of the Messiah, effects a spiritual
consequence, i.e. becoming entitled to Jesus’ privileges arising from his identity as
the Son of God. Thus we are qualified to receive Abraham’s promises. In Jesus we
are all, in a sense, male, Jewish, chosen and free.
Of particular significance is that the Abrahamic Covenant anticipates both the Mosaic
and the New Covenants. In a sense Abraham bore two covenants. (Gal. 4:22-31)
Anticipating the New Covenant, it is extraordinary to understand that the Abrahamic
Covenant is still relevant to us. We are all still under the Abrahamic Covenant, albeit
indirectly being clothed with Christ.
The Abrahamic Covenant therefore anticipated Christ. It is a covenant in anticipation
of a covenant, much like one might agree to an option contract in lieu of a contract to
buy property. It is prophetic of the New Covenant. As Christians we are still under the
Abrahamic Covenant although it does not bear any direct relationship to us, as the
promises vest at first instance with Christ, and through him, with us.
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6.4.2.1. Land
Hebrews 11:8-10
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he
would receive as inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was
going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling
in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he
waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews compares, throughout his letter, the two
dispensations of the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant. Nonetheless the
Abrahamic covenant has relevance in his writing, as being the precursor of both the
Mosaic Covenant as well as the New.
Writing of the ‘heroes of faith’, he mentions Abraham looking to a homeland. Now
whilst Abraham had travelled the land of Canaan during the course of his life, he
never came into possession of it during his lifetime. Abraham’s wanderings were both
natural and spiritual. Places in his physical journey, such as Hebron represented
spiritual places in his life.
Which is the more real? At this point the writer of Hebrews explains that Abraham
looked to a homeland of his own, a spiritual homeland reserved in the heavens. For
Abraham the truly real was not the land of Canaan, but the spiritual reality he hoped
for and dreamed of. Jesus when telling the tale of a beggar named Lazarus who
died, explained that this beggar was taken to a place called ‘Abraham’s bosom’
which once again refers to a place relating to Abraham or a place close to Abraham’s
heart; which can also be taken to refer to paradise (Luke 16:22) In John’s prophecy,
it appears that that homeland is the new earth, which we will enter after this earth has
passed away.
6.4.2.2. Descendants
Hebrews 12:22-24
“But you have come to mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the
church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to
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the sprits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a better covenant,
and the blood of sprinkling that speaks of better things than that of Abel.”
God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the sand of
the sea, and the stars of the heaven. At some risk I would submit that these might
illustrate two groups of descendants that follow from Abraham. The first, namely as
the sand of the sea, is his natural legacy – a people of the earth. The second, as the
stars of the heaven, number a spiritual legacy – people of heaven.
Whilst this interpretation is at first instance perhaps a bit broad, and perhaps also
wrong, it is nonetheless true in its execution. God’s promises to Abraham came true
both naturally and spiritually. Also two peoples follow from Abraham – one natural
and the other spiritual. The one according to law, the other according to faith. (Gal.
4:22-31)
Abraham has always been very significant in terms of identity. Today Christians,
Jews and Muslims all claim him as ‘father’. The Jews especially found a sense of
identity of being of the genetic lineage of Abraham. Identity gives a person a sense of
security. It tells you who you are and what you are about. Throughout the gospels
Jesus saw more in the term being a “child of Abraham” than mere genetic ancestry.
Jesus used the term ‘Children of Abraham’ in a different way from the Jews. In Luke
19 for example, he called Zaccheus, a Jewish tax collector, as someone ‘become a
child of Abraham’. In John 8 Jesus explained his ideas of identity. Identity as Jesus
explained is not of genetic lineage, but of heart and will. To be a child of Abraham
one has to live by faith, and live to do God’s will, just as Abraham did.
6.4.2.3. Blessing
Galatians 3
Paul contrasts throughout his letter to the Galatians the difference between being
under the law and being under grace. There was a particular group of zealots who
sought to bring about the idea that we are under both law and grace, or to put it
differently, that we are under both the Mosaic and New Covenants.
In Galatians however we read of a very particular manifestation of legalism, namely
circumcision. Circumcision is not at first instance part of the Mosaic Covenant, but
rather of the Abrahamic Covenant. Paul therefore discusses the Christian’s duty and
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life, not under the Mosaic Covenant, but under the Abrahamic Covenant, or
alternatively under God’s oath of blessing.
Doing so he addresses the promise of God’s oath to Abraham: namely a blessing, a
blessing that vests in two people: Abraham and his Seed. Paul goes onto explain that
this blessing is the blessing of the gospel, a blessing that includes both our
justification before God and the promise of the Holy Spirit. Paul emphasises
especially how we receive and move in God’s Spirit through the act of faith, in
blessing of Abraham’s Covenant.
In conclusion, the spiritual blessing of the Abrahamic Covenant, or at least God’s
oath following it, is therefore Christ, and through him, the blessings of the New
Covenant and Holy Spirit. It is also fair to say however that, through qualification in
Christ, we become entitled to all of Abraham’s promises – not only the Holy Spirit, but
also a heavenly land, and a heavenly nation, a spiritual family.
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