THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
When Noah and his sons came out of the ark they faced a new world. A fresh start had to be made. Accordingly, they were given a repetition of the primal commission. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth'" (Genesis 9:1; RSV). The oldest ethnographic chart known to man is found in Genesis 10. It details the nations that came from Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It closes with the observation, "These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations; and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood" (Genesis 10:32; RSV).
In the next chapter, although certainly not in chronological order, is inserted a rather detailed account of how the dispersion was accomplished. At the time "the whole earth had one language and few words," (Genesis 1:11; RSV). Apparently, under the influence of Nimrod, a descendant of Ham, the people decided to resist being scattered. They resolved to construct a city and erect a high tower as a visible rallying point. In order to do this they fired bricks which they cemented together with bitumen, or asphalt. The place chosen was the plain of Shinar.
The power exerted in working together and in speaking the same things was attested to by God, who declared, "'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'" (v. 6; RSV). To overthrow the conspiracy calculated to avoid populating the earth, God said, "'Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech'" (v. 7; RSV). The record adds, "So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city." The "so" shows how it was done. It means "in this manner," or "by this method."
It is well to note that the descendants of Arpachshad and Eber, of the family of Shem, settled in that area along the Euphrates River which came to be designated "the land of the Chaldeans." It was not long until the tribes of mankind, seeking an outlet for the worshiping instinct, degenerated into idolatry, paying homage to both natural and artificial gods. The idea of one God, Maker of Heaven and earth, was fast disappearing beneath the weight of superstition and tradition. It became obvious that, if the concept of monotheism was to survive, it would have to be made the sacred trust of a particular nation, around which such safeguards could be constructed as to segregate it from the rest of humanity, with its contaminating influence.
Thus, when every nation on earth had chosen gods for itself, the God of Heaven chose for himself a nation on earth. To sire this select people, He chose an Arpachshadean from the city of Ur, whose name was Abram. Ab is the Hebrew for "father," and ram is the word for "high" or "chief." The very name signifies that its bearer was a man of destiny, one who was to be an outstanding progenitor.
Abram was the son of Terah, an idol worshiper, whose father, Nahor, had also served other gods (Joshua 24:2). Abram was instructed to leave his country, kindred, and 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" (Genesis 11:31; RSV). 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" (12:5; RSV).
They entered Canaan, later called Palestine, or "land of the Philistines" from the north. Since they were a band of nomads, they wandered southward as their animals found grazing to sustain them. Abram built an altar to the Lord, to mark every principal stop. Driven into Egypt by a serious famine, they sojourned there 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" (13:1; RSV).
A quarrel among the herdsmen was settled by an agreement between Abram and Lot 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. He was now separated from his kindred. It is appropriate that we note the words of the Lord immediately forthcoming. "The Lord said unto 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 for ever" (13:14, 15; KJV).
Why did the Lord select this one individual 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 that 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' (Romans 4:17; KJV). James declared, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18; KJV). It appears 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 basis of faith.
In order to bring mankind up to that state of maturity where a covenant based upon faith could be operative and effective, it became necessary to make another covenant with Abram that could provide the background and setting for the last and greatest agreement to be made with man. Thus there were two covenants embraced in the promises to Abram. One was fleshly and temporal, and 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 a more enduring nature. One of these covenants was not a continuation of the other, although the first provided a frame of reference for the second. They were addressed to different persons for different purposes. Unless this is kept in mind, one will become involved in serious error.
In his beautiful allegory to the vacillating Galatians, the apostle Paul says, "For these are the two covenants" (4:24; KJV). He distinguishes the subjects of the two by the expressions "born after the flesh" and "by the promise." It is true that he was dealing with the covenants made at literal Mount Sinai and figurative Mount Sion, but the covenant at Sinai was a national one conferred upon the physical seed of Abram. It was merely a ratification on a national basis of the original one given at a time when Abram had not one child. Before the Lord could make a "kingdom of priests," and a "holy nation" (Exodus 19:6; KJV), he had first to provide seed for the primal covenantee. This was a remarkable arrangement in itself, considering that Abram was "about an hundred years old," and reproductively his body and Sarai's womb were dead (Romans 4:19).
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" (Genesis 12:2, 3; KJV). Here, at the very beginning, 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 attainments to be achieved.
To those who are of the opinion that these words were spoken to Abram while he sojourned in Haran, we merely remark that Stephen said, "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran" (Acts 7:2; KJV). 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" (v. 5; KJV). This last fact presented a concern to both Abram and Sarai, although their reactions were different.
Sarai devised an expedient, suggesting that Abram have sexual congress with Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant, saying, "It may be that I may obtain children by her" (Genesis 16:2; KJV). Hagar bore a son, who was named Ishmael, and he became the illustrious head of twelve tribes, now represented by the Arabs. Later, when Sarai's own son was born, enmity existed between the two. That hostility between their seed still makes the headlines of our metropolitan newspapers regularly.
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 (Genesis 15:2, 3). But the Lord assured him such was not in the divine plan. His heir would be an offspring of Sarai and himself. Then occurred a demonstration that was remarkable and must have made a lifelong impression upon the patriarch.
Abram was taken outside his tent before dawn and directed to look toward Heaven. He was told that this progeny would be as innumerable as the stars shimmering in the still darkened sky. It was at this juncture the record declares, "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness" (15:6; KJV). To this important statement we will have to make frequent allusion. This is the first time the word "believe" occurs in the sacred record. Abraham was indeed "the father of the faithful."
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" (v. 7). When Abram asked by what means he could be certain of the inheritance, the Lord told him to provide a heifer, a female goat, and a ram, each three years old, also a turtledove and a young pigeon. It will be recognized that these constitute the representative categories of sacrificial birds and animals.
Abram killed all of these and split the animals in two, laying each half over against the other, leaving a passageway between. In Jeremiah 34:18 we are informed that this was a solemn way of ratifying a covenant. The parties to the covenant killed an animal, dividing the carcass lengthwise. They 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 suffer the same fate as the slain animal.
Abram kept 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 the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land" (Genesis 15:18; KJV). A description of the boundaries and the names of the nations inhabiting the territory was then provided. This closed a memorable day. It 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 covenant.
It would be well for us to study God's purpose in the covenant, as it is related to the land inheritance of the fleshly seed of Abram. The divine intent was to constitute a nation for the preservation of the great truth of the existence of one God. That is why the nation began with one who believed in God with such intensity of purpose that his very faith could be "counted unto him for righteousness" in the sight of God.
But the faith of an ancestor was not enough. It was essential to establish the nation that came from his loins in a territory of their own, to segregate them by law, custom, practice, and geography from other nations that were steeped in polytheism. It is difficult, if not impossible, to build a strong central power out of nomadic herdsmen, whose tendency is to be ever on the move and who prefer dwelling in the desert to living in the city.
Accordingly, God ordained for these people to become slaves in the most enlightened nation of that day. Here the wanderlust was burned out of them. They were taught by compulsion to make bricks. They learned the discipline of daily toil. They were forced to construct great cities such as Pithom and Raamses. So effective was the attempt to make them a settled people that when they were finally led forth into the wilderness, they longingly sought to return to the land of slavery.
Since every nation in that day was idolatrous, during the period of serfdom the descendants of Abraham were exposed to idolatrous practices. 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 heathen inhabitants and their gods of lower animal life. The superiority of the God of Israel was clearly demonstrated. God promised, "'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 judgment: I am the Lord'" (Exodus 12:12; RSV). Deliverance began with fearful judgment from the Lord 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 the divine purpose. It was selected from the lands of the earth, as Abram had been from the inhabitants of the earth, and as Israel was from the nations. As the seed of Abram became the people of God, so Palestine became the land of the Lord (Psalm 85:1; Isaiah 8:8). The land could not even be sold on a permanent basis. It did not belong to man to convey. As Israel became a holy people, so this territory became "the holy land" (Zechariah 2:12).
This territory was situated in a strategic position to accomplish the will of God. It was bounded on the north by the towering Lebanon Range, on the east by the Jordan River, on the south by the Wilderness of Sin, and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea. Even more remotely sealed in by the Arabian Desert, it provided for the compact dwelling of a people around the center of their worship. Yet it was also on the main trade routes, along which flowed the commerce of the ancient world.
The purpose of God with regard to the seed of Abraham was to keep intact the notion of one God. The ultimate design was to bring all nations to an acknowledgment of this truth through the coming of the Son of God, and also through Him to extend salvation unto all the earth. Israel was to be the nation of the Messiah in that it preserved the ideal of one God and thus prepared the world for the advent of Him who was "the only begotten Son of God."
Having taken this brief glance into the future of Abraham's seed in order to understand the purpose of God, let us now return to the actual covenant as God made it with Abram. The party of the first part in the covenant was God himself. The party of the second part was Abram and the coming seed, still not begotten when the covenant was made.
In Genesis 17 is recorded the validation of the physical covenant. Abram was now ninety-nine years old. Almost twenty-five years had elapsed since he forsook the land of the Chaldeans. Previously the Lord had appeared under the title of Jehovah. He now introduces himself as El Shaddai, God Almighty. This was assurance that whatever He promised He had the power to perform. In view of the majesty of His name, He began by instructing Abram, "Walk before me, and be thou blameless." The Lord said, "As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations" (Genesis 17:4; KJV). This was the fifth time God promised to make Abram the father of an innumerable progeny.
Frequently in history God memorialized an event of great significance by bestowing a new name, or by altering a previously existing one. In this instance the name of Abram was changed to Abraham. It was pointed out that "Abram" is formed by combining ab, father; and ram, chief. To this was now added hamon, meaning "multitude." The abbreviated form of Abramhamon, or Abraham, means "chief father of a multitude." The change in the form of address was accompanied by the words, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee" (17:7, 8; KJV). It was for this reason that Simon Peter referred to God as "the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers" (Acts 3:13; KJV).
Further, God promised to give to Abraham and to his seed after him the land in which he was a foreigner, or all the land of Canaan. He declared it would be an everlasting possession of his seed and further declared, "I will be their God." All covenants that God makes with man are based upon what He has done for man. It was thus enjoined upon Abraham and his posterity to keep the covenant inviolable.
"This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; every man child among you shall be circumcised" (Genesis 17:10; KJV). The seed by which the ova is fertilized, thus causing conception, is manufactured within the body of the male. It is deposited in the body of the female through the external organ of procreation. Thus, this organ was regarded as the very instrument of life, the channel of the physical seed. It was provided that the foreskin of this organ would be clipped or cut off. This left a permanent indication of covenant relationship that was directly connected with the begetting of offspring, who were in turn to be brought into covenant relationship. The operation was to be performed when the male child was eight days old.
The Lord declared, "My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant" (v. 13). So sacred did the mark of circumcision become that when one took a solemn oath affecting future seed, he was required to place his hand on the procreative organ. This is exactly as one today may place his hand on a copy of the Holy Bible when taking a judicial or executive oath. Thus when Abraham was preparing to dispatch his faithful servant to secure a wife for Isaac, he said, "Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac" (Genesis 24:2-4; KJV).
It was furthermore declared, "And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant" (17:14). It is evident that the blessings of the covenant applied to the individual, only when he had obeyed the ordinance of circumcision. The ordinance was not the covenant, but it was essential to bring one into the privileges and prerogatives of the covenant.
It was not enough simply to be born into the physical family of Abraham. If one so born was not circumcised, either through neglect or irreverence, he was cut off because he had broken the covenant.
Isaac was circumcised when he was eight days old, as God had commanded Abraham (21:4). In turn, he circumcised his own sons. Jacob, who was the father of twelve sons, did likewise with his offspring. As a result of this mark in the flesh, the nomadic tribes that descended from Abraham felt a kinship with God which was not felt by the Canaanites around them.
The writer to the Hebrews puts it in the framework of faith: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (11:8-10; KJV).
How strange it is that these wanderers who lived in tents in the wilderness had a dream of inhabiting a city constructed by divine power. With a mark in their flesh serving as a constant reminder of the covenant, they regarded themselves as heirs of a promise spoken from Heaven. It is said of them, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13; KJV).
Perhaps those who are the seed of Abraham, whether in flesh or faith, are doomed to be always strangers and pilgrims on the earth, always looking for a city that has foundations. Perhaps there are always promises that must be seen afar off, of which we must be persuaded, and which we must embrace. But God had to create a nation on earth through which His Son could come, that the kingdom of Heaven might be received through His coming.