God's Covenant with Abraham and Beyond!

Bear with me.  This is a bit long, but we need to establish the ground for the parables.  

In Genesis 15, God sets forth His covenant with the founder of the Jewish nation:  Abraham.  God promises an heir to Abraham, and to drive the point even deeper, He takes him outside, and showing him the stars in the night sky, says that Abraham’s descendants will be just as numerous. 

God’s first part of His covenant will be that an elderly man will be the father to a nation whose descendants will be as numerous as the stars.

Abraham’s part will be to believe in this promise—especially given the fact he has no son and is quite old, this is quite a step to take in faith.  Yet, he does: 

“And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” (Gen. 15:6)

The Lord then promises the second half of His covenant to Abraham:  Not only will he be the father of a great number of descendants, he will have a land to put them in: 

When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth, but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.” It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates…”  (Gen. 15:7-18 WEB)

God has Abraham divide several slaughtered animals into halves, and He then moves between them as a “smoking firepot with a blazing torch,” (NIV translation) which symbolizes His Presence.  In ancient times, both parties would walk through the two halves of slaughtered animals saying that if they did not honor the agreement, what happened to the animals would happen to one who violated the agreement (NIV 29).

 Interesting to note, the word “made” in verse 18 of Genesis is the same as the word “cut.”  So, in effect, the Lord “cut a covenant” with Abraham (NIV 29).    

Abraham later will try in his own power to make descendants with his maidservant, Hagar.  Sarah still has no children.  Abraham seems to have forgotten that God will keep His part of the agreement. 

Many years now have passed since Hagar had Ismael.  God appears to Abraham again and reiterates His part:

Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations. Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you. I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.” (Gen. 17:1-8 WEB)

(I bolded the words “as for me” because God is emphatically reminding Abraham of His part.)  Now, here comes Abraham’s part and the sign of His covenant: 

God said to Abraham, “As for you, you will keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you."  (Gen. 17:9-11 WEB)

With Adam, animals’ skin were cut away from their flesh to cover him and Eve.  The skin divided the wrath of God away from Adam.

With Noah, the rainbow cuts across the rain-swept skies, and divides the light of the sun away from the dark of the clouds.

With Abraham, each of his male descendants will bear, upon their own flesh, the sign of the covenant. 

Now, hundreds of years later, the children of Israel leave the land of Canaan due to famine. They go to Egypt and later will be enslaved by the Egyptians. God reveals His covenant to Moses:

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” (Exodus 19:5-6 WEB)

These slaves of Egypt are God’s very own.  He has not forgotten them as they slave away under a desert sun.  God will, through Moses, deliver them and secure their freedom to serve Him as a nation who will model what it means to follow the one true God.  God will ensure they take the land successfully, and He will protect them (NIV 19).  They will be blessed with abundance and will be the apple of His eye.

They must live by His rules as revealed through His servant Moses. They are serving God’s involvement in human history (NIV 19). God’s purpose is to redeem His chosen ones, and then all of humanity. God’s instructions, given to the Jewish people, the Torah (“law,” “instruction”) will one day be fulfilled in Jesus Christ:

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:17).

Before they entered the Promised Land, they had to wander in the desert, again due to their disobedience.  A lamb or goat’s throat would be cut by the priests in the Temple of Meeting, and its blood would divide the people away from God’s wrath.  

His covenant was equally manifested in Israel’s King David.  God would establish and maintain David’s line on the throne, and David himself prefigured the ultimate King, the Messiah Himself:

Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever. (2 Sam. 7:8-16 WEB)

David's earthly son, Solomon, builds the Temple, and although he did a wondrous work, he sinned grievously.  His sin did not negate God’s covenant with his father David, however.  God is faithful and brought about the New Covenant, from David’s line, just as He promised.  Another Son of David will come, whose kingdom is forevermore.  Now, the New Covenant looms over the horizon in Jeremiah:    

Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. (Jer. 31:31-4 WEB)

Can anything nullify God’s covenant with His people?  God continues:  

Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says: If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.  Yahweh says: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh. (Jer. 31:35-37 WEB)

In other words, nothing can separate His love from His people.  God expands His definition of "people" to include us--we are among the stars Abraham saw in the sky--but He has not forgotten His chosen people, nor have they been replaced.   

In echoing all the way back to Adam, God could have, by divine right, eliminated Adam and all of his sinful descendants with a sweep of His mighty hand. He didn’t.  Hear what He says in Isaiah:  

“In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment;
    but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says Yahweh your Redeemer.

“For this is like the waters of Noah to me;
    for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth,
    so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
For the mountains may depart,
    and the hills be removed;
but my loving kindness will not depart from you,
    and my covenant of peace will not be removed,”
    says Yahweh who has mercy on you.                   (Isaiah 54:8-10 WEB)

He proved His love to the point of sending His own Son to die and pay the price for our transgressions.  His blood splattered and God’s wrath was poured out.  The Lamb was slaughtered for us, and His love covers us.  Jesus’ blood divides us from God’s wrath.   He came to teach us these truths of His Covenant.  In fact, Jesus Himself is the New Covenant:

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.' (Luke 22:19-20 NIV)

Jesus:  The “Seed of the Woman” Who walked out of the Garden with our first parents.

Jesus:  Who was blessed by a dove as He came out of the water, just as Noah was blessed by a dove going out over the water.

Jesus:  Just as Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac, God was willing to sacrifice His only Son.  This time, He didn’t stay the slayer’s hand so we could be cleansed by His blood.

Jesus:  Just as the manna fed the freed slaves and provided them with nourishment in the desert with Moses, so too, does our Manna nourish and sustain us.

Jesus:  The Son of David, Whose own body would be cut for our salvation and Whose kingdom is forevermore. 

God’s covenant-love sings throughout Jesus’ words and parables.   Let us have eyes to see and ears to listen.