Covenant with Abraham

     What we will talk about today is a very important part of Jewish history.  It was at this moment that God had chosen Israel, and it was at this moment that God would make an everlasting covenant with Israel.  This is also a very important covenant for us to know about because we are grafted into this covenant that God has made with the Jews.  “But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree.” – Romans 11:17 NLT  If you are a Christian you are a benefactor of this covenant God made with Abraham, so lets take a look at it.  We will be covering large portions of scripture and a long period of time, so there will be a lot of scripture read tonight and some portions that I quickly go over without reading so pay careful attention to what is said and remember that this is going to be more of an overview rather than an in depth study of God’s Covenant with Abraham.   
   
     We will begin with Abram in Genesis 12.  God told Abram to go into a land that “I will show you”.  This is a scary demand.  God said pack up everything and go where I show you.  God did not give him directions.  God did not give him the final destination.  God just said go and I will show you where we are going and I will tell you to stop whenever we get there, but what was Abram’s response?  “So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed” Does this remind us at all of what we talked about last week?  In the conversation God had with Abram there is an amazing promise given.  The two that stick out are that Abram will be made into a great nation and that the nation that comes from him will be given the land that Abram has been guided to.  V. 2 and V.7.               

    We find Abram again in Genesis 15, which we will read portions of, not understanding God’s promise to him.  He is distraught because God has not yet given him a child.  Now we will read Genesis 15:2-6.  Abram is distressed, because it seems that the promise will go to Abram’s servant, because he is older and still does not have a child.  “Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth.  You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” V. 3  God assures Abram that this is not the case.  He says, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”  Abram had lost his faith in the promises that God had made.  Abram had become distressed and he did not trust God.  God then reassures Abram that His promise is good and that He will not fail Abram.  Remember Abram did not have a Bible.  He didn’t have scripture passages to quote, that would remind him of the faithfulness of God.  Which we have and often times, to our utter shame we do not use.  All he had was the word of the Lord, and when the word of the Lord revisited him and assured him of the promise which had been made to him the response was beautiful.  When we are struggling, when we are having problems, when we are doubting God we must move to His word and remember that God is faithful.  What He says He will do, He will do, but if you are not reading your Bible, praying, and spending time with Him it is very easy to forget God’s faithfulness.  How can you expect to live a life that will glorify God, if you do not spend time with Him?  Search the scriptures, be strengthened by the Word of the Lord and you will find yourself glorifying the Lord through the things that you do.             
    “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith”  Did Abram do anything to be justified?  Did Abraham work to be counted as righteous?  Was Abram counted as righteous because he was a good person?  Was Abram counted as righteous because he attended church services?  Was Abram counted righteous because he recited words that someone told him to recite?  Was Abram counted righteous because he came forward on a Sunday morning and said all the right things?  No, why did the Lord count Abram as righteous?  It is because Abram believed the Lord.  Paul tells us in Romans 4:1-13 that this is the same thing that happens to us, that we believe God and we are “credited” with righteousness.  Many times we look at the Jewish faith and we say, they were justified by keeping the commandments, but this is really not the case.  How was Abraham justified?  “Abram believed the Lord”, How are we justified, it is the same way.  We believe, or have faith in God.  The two words “believe” and “faith” are so similar that they are used interchangeably in the Bible.  It is because they mean the same things.  They convey trust in the Lord, and we trust in the Lord and the Lord credits righteousness to our account.  This is highly important because God does not allow anyone into heaven that has unrighteousness in their account.  “O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness; you cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked.  Therefore, the proud may not stand in your presence, for you hate all who do evil.” – Psalm 5:4-5 NLT  So, we are justified, or made right with God due to this crediting of righteousness to our account.  It is highly interesting that this that is credited to us is the righteous life led by Jesus Christ.  We are credited with the life that He led.  Look at this passage of scripture.  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” II Corinthians 5:21  So, what does that mean to us?  We are justified, or made right with God when we believe.  God credited our sin to Jesus on the cross, and credits us with the righteous perfect life of Christ.  This solves the problem of getting into heaven.  If we believe in or trust in Christ, turn from our sins and turn to Him we are credited with His righteous life.  He has been credited with our sin and we may enter heaven, otherwise the only way to enter is to live a perfect life.               

  The thing that is interesting is that when God is establishing the covenant with Abram God establishes it exactly like we spoke about last week.  God this time revealed more details of what would happen in the future.  “Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.  But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.  (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)  After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”  God was promising that Abram’s relatives would inherit the land promised, but not yet.  It would be later that Israel would inherit the land.  God told Abram that his descendants would be enslaved, but through this enslavement they would become a wealthy nation.  God is foretelling the Egyptian captivity and it is not until the time of Moses that they are freed from this captivity.  What is the reason that God is waiting to give them the promised land?  It is because God is going to bring judgment upon the Amorite/Egypt.  God is waiting to bring judgment upon Egypt, which are the plagues and the Red Sea.  Something very significant and oftentimes misses is here in these verses.  “After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.  So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River— the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,  Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,  Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”  God had put Abram into a deep sleep and then made this pledge with him.  It is interesting and helps our understanding to understand a little about ancient covenants. 

“The sign of ancient covenants often involved the cutting in half of animals, so that the pledging parties could walk between them, affirming that the same should happen to them if they broke the covenant” John MacArthur The MacArthur Study Bible 

We see this happen also in Jeremiah 34:18-19.  God put Abram into a deep sleep and passed through the animals alone.  This was done because all the promises were from God and not Abram.  God alone pledged this covenant with Abram and God alone would carry out the promises made during this pledge.  God alone would give the land to his descendants and God alone would bring them out of Egypt after their slavery.              

Overview of the Covenant of Circumcision slide           

Outcome slide

Dwain Minor