The Covenant with Abraham

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     In preface to this and succeeding articles in this series, let me explain that we are writing for serious students of the word of God. We recognize that these things will not commend themselves to the attention of the average nominal churchmember of our modern world, and that the casual reader who belongs to the fellowship of the unconcerned will cast them aside with hardly a glance, but we are impelled to write soberly with the hope that those who are the true leaven will be inspired to drink deeper of the water of life and affect for good the society in which we are forced to move while on our earthly pilgrimage. If you are reading this material for the first time, we urge you to secure copies of the initial articles.

     History is a record of the footprints of God in the life of humanity. The two most outstanding events of divine interposition in the affairs of this world were the flood and the Incarnation. Of such significance was the first that it stands as a constant rebuke to those skeptics who deny the possibility of a termination of the present world order based upon a false assumption of continuity in the natural realm since creation (2 Peter 3:3, 4). The second made such an impact that it changed the calendar, as if time itself stood still, then resumed with an utterly new meaning. The first recorded covenant of God began with the cessation of the deluge; the last was made in conjunction with the advent of the Messiah.

     In the flood God demonstrated his wrath; in the coming of Jesus he manifested his love. "Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell severity; but toward thee, goodness" (Rom. 11:22). The first event was a visitation of destruction; the second of salvation. The one was to terminate life; the other that it might be granted more abundantly.

     Both covenants were given in and through a comforter; the first through Noah, whose name means "comforter" (Gen. 5:29); the second through the Holy Spirit as a Comforter from the Father. Because of the original covenant we need never fear the destruction of all flesh by water; because of the last we need never fear the second death. The covenant with Noah produced the rainbow spanning the clouds of heaven; the covenant of grace has its rainbow round about the throne of Him who cometh in the clouds of heaven (Rev. 4:3). The God of the universe is revealed as a covenant making God. Our relationship with him is on the basis of a covenant. As finite creatures seeking to please him, we must investigate and become aware of the implications growing out of this fact. It is for that reason we continue our research in covenantal revelation after the flood.

     The divine injunction to Noah and his sons was to populate the earth. "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth" (Gen. 9:1). In the oldest ethnological

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chart in existence (Genesis 10) the origin of nations is attributed to the posterity of the sons of Noah. Here it will be observed that those generally designated Gentiles are Japhetic in ancestry (10:5). The Semitic peoples trace their beginning to Elam, Asshur, Arpachsad, Lud, and Aram-- fathers of the Persians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Arameans. The sons of Ham were Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan--the ancestors of the Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Canaanites. There was a population explosion in those primitive times, but it posed no problem of "lebensraum" for the earth was new and everywhere men looked they saw unbroken vistas beckoning them to settlement.

     Since the settling in one locality was in direct contravention of the design of heaven for universal occupancy of the earth, and in view of the fact that this was done at a place which is specifically declared to be the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod in the land of Shinar, the statement with reference to his character and qualities deserves some attention. What is meant by the expression, "he was the first on earth to be a mighty man"? It was said of the period before the flood, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown." There is reasonable ground for supposing that the term Nephilim is not so much one denoting physical stature as it is a description of state or character. It literally means "the fallers," that is apostates. It would refer to those who fall away from God and fall upon their fellowmen with ferocity and lust. If this be correct, the antediluvians were giants of wickedness, renowned for the enormity of their profligacy, rather than their size. This would serve to explain the qualifying verse, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." In any event, these were called "mighty men" and if the expression denotes size, degree of iniquity, or both, Nimrod was not "the first on earth to be a mighty man" in the sense in which the Nephilim were called mighty.

     Once more, we may derive some assistance from a qualifying phrase. "He was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord." This last was so outstanding that it became proverbial among the ancients who said, "Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord." Can this refer to special skill in pursuing animals with the type of weapons of bronze and iron long before forged by Tubal-cain? We doubt it. It would seem rather incongruous to inject such an item of information in a catalog of nations. Surely the expression must in some manner be related to the subject at hand.

     The word "Nimrod" is from the root marad, to rebel, and is supposed to be equivalent to "son of rebellion." It may not have been bestowed by his parents but by succeeding generations, as a means of designating his nature. The words "mighty man" are not in this case from the same form as Nephilim, hut from the Hebrew gibbor, a giant. Is this a term of size, or character? It is here the term "mighty hunter" will serve to enlighten. The Arabic translation is "a terrible tyrant." The Syriac is "a warlike giant." This seems to correspond with the usage of the original elsewhere in the sacred

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scriptures. It is not generally applied to pursuit of game, but to violence applied to men. In reference to the iniquity of his people, God says, "I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks" (Jer 16:16). The same original is used in Lamentations 3: 52, "Mine enemies chased me sore."

     It appears that Nimrod was a "hunter of souls" or one who pursued, and slaughtered not animals, but persons. Josephus writes, "He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his own power." The Targum of Onkelos says, "He began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord."

     If this be the case, Nimrod was the first man to seek to become great by prosecution of war, and his kingdom was founded by force and brutality, by compulsion and threat. Through him Satan introduced on earth the cruel doctrine that "Might makes right." In view of the fact that the term "might" is later applied to armed aggression, it may be that we are here informed that Nimrod was the first man on earth to seek universal dominion by force, and Babel (Babylon) which was the beginning of his kingdom was from its inception an enslaving power. Of course, this Babylon of Nimrod in Shinar, was the early Babylon, but it was the site of the later Babylon which was constructed by Nebuchadnezzar (see Daniel 1:2).

     These facts lend interest to the attempt to thwart God's intention by building up a huge concentration of mankind in a central location. The announced purpose was two-fold. The design was to gratify pride--"let us make a name for ourselves"--and to prevent dispersion and consequent world settlement. The method was to build a huge tower, or citadel, which could serve as a rallying point, and to construct a city in which housing would be provided for all of the inhabitants of the earth, who could thus better be kept under surveillance and domination. It is strange indeed that God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to succeed in the world dominion which his predecessor, Nimrod, attempted, but only to demonstrate the superior power of heaven. "You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand be has given, wherever they dwell, the sons of men, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, making you rule over them all-- you are the head of gold" (Daniel 2:37,38).

     The primitive migrants proposed to make bricks of fired clay, and to cement them with bitumen, or asphalt. The Lord recognized that because of their unity in relationship and language they would accomplish their design if left to themselves. He said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." Is there not here the secret to success? If the God of heaven had to confuse the language and thus scatter the people to keep them from acting in opposition to His will, does it not stand to reason that if those who love Him are one people, and speak the same thing, they will he able to accomplish His present will? Will anything be impossible for those who are united and speak the same thing?

     Certainly God employed the most effective way of scattering mankind. Nothing else is quite so potent a factor to accomplish this as a confusion of language. God said, "Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." Inability to communicate, failure to understand one another, brought about a universal dispersal of the people. It is not too much to say that all real unity depends upon our ability to communicate and to understand one another. Because of the confusion of tongues, the incom-

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plete city was called Babel, confusion. And because this occurred in the days when a son was born to Eber, a descendant of Shem, he called the name of that son Peleg, division. Babel and Peleg--these names may well be descriptive of our religious world today.

     Abram was the son of Terah, an idol worshipper, whose father Nahor, before him had also served other gods (Josh. 24:2). Abram was instructed to go from his country, his kindred, and his father's house. While he obeyed with alacrity the command to go, he did not, at first, fully comply with the conditions. He and Sarai his wife, accompanied his father and nephew, "and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there." This delayed Abram until after the decease of his father. Then, "Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go into the land of Canaan." Entering Palestine from the north, the band of nomads wandered southward, with Abram building an altar unto the Lord at every principal stop. Driven into Egypt by famine, they sojourned until sustenance was again found in Canaan. "So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb."

     A quarrel between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, was settled by an agreement to go their several ways. Lot chose the verdant plains of Jordan, and removed to Sodom. This divested Abram of the last of his relatives, and he was now separated from his kindred. It is significant to note the words of the Lord immediately forthcoming. "The Lord said to Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, 'Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.'" It is now time for us to think about the covenants made with Abram.

     Why did the Lord select this one from the multitude of men upon the earth, to be the progenitor of his mighty nation? Every nation began with one man, whose offspring became a clan, then a tribe, and eventually a nation. What was the outstanding characteristic of Abram which made him the subject of God's choice? Concerning this choice it is affirmed that God "calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). James declares, "Known unto God are all his

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works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18) It appears that God knew that Abram, of all men on earth in his day, possessed that one quality which commended him to the Lord, as the progenitor of a covenant people, whose relationship would be established upon the principle of faith.

     But in order to bring mankind unto the state of maturity where a covenant based upon faith could be effective, it became necessary to make another covenant with Abram, which would provide the background and setting for the last and greatest agreement to be made with man. Thus, there were two covenants made with Abram. One was fleshly and temporal. Its token was a sign in the flesh, its promises were carnal. The other was spiritual and lasting. Its promises were of a better and more enduring nature. One of these was not a continuation of the other, although the first provided a frame of reference for the second. But they were addressed to different persons, for different purposes. A confusion of these is the basis for a false philosophy which underlies most of the major sects in Protestant Christendom, and has introduced practices and ordinances unknown to the sacred scriptures, but valiantly defended by those who wrest the scriptures to sustain their theories.

     When God called Abram, he assured him, "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Here, at the very outset, we have the germ of both covenants, and it will be noted that both are to be realized through the seed of Abraham. National greatness and universal blessing--these are the achievements to be attained. The apostle declares "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ" For this reason he calls this "the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ."

     To those who are of the opinion that these words were spoken in Haran, we merely remark that Stephen says, "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran." The same speaker also says relative to Canaan, "He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child" (Acts 7:5). This last fact presented a concern to both Sarah and Abram, although their reactions were different.

     Sarah devised an expedient, suggesting that Abram have sexual congress with Hagar, an Egyptian maidservant, saying, "It may be that I may obtain children by her." Hagar bore a son to Abraham, who was named Ishmael, and who became the illustrious head of twelve tribes, now represented by the Arabs. Almost from the time of the birth of Sarah's own son, enmity existed between these two, and still makes the headlines of our metropolitan newspapers almost weekly.

     Abram had concluded that his trusted homeborn servant, Eliezer of Damascus, would be adopted and become his heir, in lieu of natural seed, and he so informed the Lord (Gen. 15:2,3). But the Lord assured him that was not the case, but

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his heir would be an offspring of his own body. Then Abram was taken outside his tent before dawn, and directed to look toward heaven. He was told that his progeny would be as innumerable as the stars. It was at this juncture the record declares, "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." To this important fact we shall again make allusion.

     The Lord said to Abram, "I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." When Abram asked by what means he could be certain of the inheritance, the Lord told him to provide a heifer, a she-goat and a ram, each three years old, and also a turtle-dove and young pigeon. It will be recognized that these constitute the representative categories of sacrificial animals and birds. Abram killed all of these and split the animals in two, laying each half over against the other with a passage way between. In Jeremiah 24:18 we are informed that this was a solemn way of ratifying a covenant. The parties to the covenant killed an animal, dividing the carcase lengthwise, then placed the pieces opposite each other, and walked between them to meet in the middle where they took the ritual oath. In effect the oath was a plea for the one who broke the covenant to meet the same fate as the slain animal.

     Abram kept the birds of prey off the slain beasts all day. At sunset he fell into a supernatural trance. He heard the voice of God speaking, and saw a smoking furnace and burning lamp pass between the pieces of animals, symbolizing that God was entering into a covenant. The record says, "In that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land." A description of the boundaries, and the names of the nations inhabiting the territory, is then given. This closed a memorable day which began before dawn and lasted until after dark. Abram had learned that his heir would be personally begotten, and that his seed would be granted the whole land of Canaan. All history after this was affected by this arrangement.

     Since every nation was idolatrous, during the period of slavery the seed of Abraham were exposed to idolatrous practices, but these were made abhorrent by virtue of an edict of the Pharaoh that all of their male children should be sacrificed to the maw of the chief god, the Nile River. Moreover, when the time of deliverance came, great catastrophes fell upon both the inhabitants and their gods of lower animal life. The superiority of the God of Israel was clearly demonstrated. God promised, "For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord" (Exodus 12:12). Deliverance began with fearful judgment from the Lord wreaked upon the helpless gods of mighty Egypt. This night which was memorialized for all future generations by a feast, served as a constant rebuke against idolatry.

     The land of Canaan was peculiarly adapted to fulfillment of the divine purpose. It was selected from the lands of the

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earth, as Israel was selected from the nations. As the seed of Abraham became the people of God, so Palestine became the land of the Lord (Psa. 85:1; Isa. 8:8). The land could not even be sold on a permanent basis, for it did not belong to man to convey. As Israel became a holy people, so this became "the holy land" (Zech. 2:12). This territory was situated in a strategic position to accomplish the will of God. Bounded on the north by the towering Lebanon Mountains; on the east by the Jordan River, and more remotely sealed in by the Arabian Desert; on the west by the Mediterranean Sea; and on the south by the wilderness of Zin; it provided for compact dwelling of a people around the center of their worship. Yet it was also on the main trade routes, which constituted the arteries along which flowed the commerce of the ancient world.

     Jerusalem, whose mother was a Hittite, and whose father was an Amorite, was virtually at the geographic center of the known world. "His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King" (Psalm 48:2). "Jerusalem, built as a city which is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was creed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord" (Psalm 122:3,4).

     The purpose of God with regard to the seed of Abraham was to keep intact the notion of one God. The Shema became the very foundation of all Jewish worship, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and beside him there is no other." The ultimate design was to bring all nations to acknowledgment of this truth by the coming of the Son of God, and through him to extend salvation unto all the earth. By the time Jesus was born among the chosen people, Palestine had been made in turn a pawn of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. This very fact made it possible for truth to be circulated to the ends of the earth, and although these successive cultures had left their mark on the Jewish homeland, there was no idolatry among the Jews when Jesus was born.

     Of all the sins for which he condemned the people this was not one of them. In the Babylonian furnace of affliction idolatry had been burned out of their consciousness until they fanatically piled their bodies up in death, rather than allow the Roman eagle carried by a standard bearer of the legion, to be planted in the sacred temple precincts. And this same temple whose courtyard had been the scene of idolatrous orgies, was defended by a mob which threatened to tear a Cilician Jew limb from limb, because they thought he had corrupted the temple by spiriting a Gentile into it. For all their prior deviations and defections, it must be admitted that when he came who was "the end of the law for justification," the descendants of Abraham had preserved inviolate the sacred oracles and the elemental truth which was the foundation of Judaism.

     The relationship of the covenant of promise made with Abraham, as it especially relates to ourselves will be noted in our next issue. Until that time, we commend our readers unto God and the word of His grace, with the hope that our continued meditation upon that word may strengthen us for our own responsibility to the God of Abraham, for "if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3: 29). Let us not forget these two great truths concerning God, as derived from his revelation to man:

     1. God, in his association with mankind, has revealed himself to be a covenant making God, and our relationship to him is created by adherence to such covenant as obtains in the generation in which we live.

     2. God has revealed that the blessings which he confers are bestowed in conjunction with ordinances enjoined, therefore, a share in such blessings must be obtained through conformity with such ordinances as the grace of God has provided in any given age.

     We urge all of our readers to send in their comments and criticisms on all we write. Our only hope is to arrive at saving truth!