Abrahamic Covenant

• Also see: Covenants

The Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional covenant. The first part of the actual covenant is found in Genesis 12:1–3:

12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

12:2 I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

Another part is found in Genesis 17, where a name change and circumcision is prescribed, and God states that Isaac will be the child of the promise.

• 17:1,2 : Walk before me so that I may complete the covenant (as well).
• 17:3-8 : Essential re-iteration of covenant
• 17:9-14 : Circumcision as an explicit sign and requirement of the covenant forever
• 17:15-21 : Isaac explicitly chosen by God as child of the promise (twice: v.19 and v.21).
• 17:22-27 : All males in household circumcised.

Some of the specifics of the covenant are the range of the land:

• Genesis 13
  • 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,
  • 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
  • 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
  • 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
  • 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

• Genesis 15
  • v.18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give[c] this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
  • v.19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
  • v.20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
  • v.21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

• Genesis 17
  • v.8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

• Genesis 17:7-8
  • 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
  • 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

• Leviticus 26
  • 40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,
  • 41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,
  • 42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
  • 43 But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.
  • 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.
  • 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

Here, “I am the Lord.” is a statement that he is the one true God who holds ultimate Ecumenical Authority and you have no right nor means to disagree with him.

God has prophesied the fulfillment of the covenant:

• Genesis 18:17
  • 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
  • 18 seeing that Abraham will become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
  • 19 For I have chosen him, because he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, such that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.“

Centuries after Abraham died, the children of Israel took possession of the land under Joshua’s leadership (Joshua 21:43). At no point in history, though, has Israel controlled all of the land God had specified. There remains, therefore, a final fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant that will see Israel occupying their God-given homeland to the fullest extent. The fulfillment will be more than a matter of geography; it will also be a time of holiness and restoration (see Ezekiel 20:40–44 and 36:1—37:28).

The Abrahamic Covenant also promised many descendants (Genesis 12:2). God promised that the number of Abraham’s children would rival that of “the dust of the earth” (Genesis 15:16). Nations and kings would proceed from him (Genesis 17:6). It is significant that the promise was given to an aged, childless couple. But Abraham “did not waver through unbelief” (Romans 4:20), and his wife Sarah “considered him faithful who had made the promise” (Hebrews 11:11). Abraham was justified by his faith (Genesis 15:6), and he and his wife welcomed Isaac, the son of promise, into their home when they were 100 and 90 years old, respectively (Genesis 21:5).

God reiterates the Abrahamic Covenant to Isaac and to his son Jacob, whose name God changes to Israel. The great nation is eventually established in the land where Abraham had dwelled. King David, one of Abraham’s many descendants, is given the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7:12–16), promising a “son of David” who would one day rule over the Jewish nation—and all nations—from Jerusalem. Many other Old Testament prophecies point to the blessed, future fulfillment of that promise (e.g., Isaiah 11; Micah 4; Zechariah 8).

The Abrahamic Covenant also included a promise of blessing and redemption (Genesis 12:3). All the earth would be blessed through Abraham. This promise finds its fulfillment in the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34; cf. Luke 22:20), which was ratified by Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham and Redeemer who will one day “restore everything” (Acts 3:21).

Five times in Genesis 12, as God is giving the Abrahamic Covenant, He says, “I will.” Clearly, God takes the onus of keeping the covenant upon Himself. The covenant is unconditional. One day, Israel will repent, be forgiven, and be restored to God’s favor (Zechariah 12:10–14; Romans 11:25–27). One day, the nation of Israel will possess the entire territory promised to them. One day, the Messiah will return to set up His throne, and through His righteous rule the whole world will be blessed with an abundance of peace, pleasure, and prosperity.