Wednesday
Wednesday
God’s Covenant with Abraham
“I will confirm my covenant between me and you.”
Genesis 17:2
It was in the aftermath of the flood that we first encountered the biblical theme of “covenant.” We saw that a covenant in Scripture is an agreement between God and human beings that is initiated by his grace, founded on his promise, and sealed with a sign.
God’s first covenant was with Noah; his second is now with Abraham. His promise to Noah was that he would maintain the rhythms of nature, while his promise to Abraham was to multiply his descendants and give them the land. The covenant signs were the rainbow on the one hand and circumcision on the other. The covenant with Noah was universal, whereas the covenant with Abraham was particular. It involved the covenant formula, repeated endlessly throughout the Old Testament, namely “I will be your God and you shall be my people” (see vv. 7–8).
Mention of covenant promises naturally raises the question of their fulfilment. Take as an example the promise of the land. Abraham never occupied it. He only passed through it, living in a tent. But when Sarah died, Abraham needed somewhere to bury her. So he said to some Hittites, with whom he was staying, “I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site” (23:4). There followed a typical Near-Eastern bargaining procedure, which ended with Abraham paying four hundred shekels of silver for a field with its cave and trees near Mamre (Hebron), in which in due course all the patriarchs were buried.
They all received the promise but “did not receive the things promised” (Heb. 11:13, 39). Promised a land, they received only a field; they were longing for a better country, “a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16). For God’s promises are not inherited through faith only, but “through faith and patience” (Heb. 6:12).
For further reading: Genesis 17:1–14