Monday: The Abrahamic Covenant
What covenant promises did God make to Abram in Genesis 12:1-5? What was Abram’s response?
God’s initial promises to Abram make up one of the more powerful passages in the Old Testament. These verses all are about God’s grace. It is God, not Abram, who makes the promises.
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Abram had done nothing to earn or merit God’s favor, neither is there any indication that suggests that God and Abram had somehow worked together to come up with this agreement. God does all the promising. Abram, in contrast, is called to have faith in the surety of God’s promise, not some flimsy so-called “faith” but a faith that is manifested by his leaving his extended family (at the age of seventy-five!) and heading to the land God promised.
“With the ‘blessing’ pronounced on Abraham and through him on all human beings, the Creator renewed His redemptive purpose. He had ‘blessed’ Adam and Eve in Paradise (Gen. 1:28, Gen. 5:2) and then ‘blessed Noah and his sons’ after the Flood (Gen. 9:1). This way God clarified His earlier promise of a Redeemer who will redeem humanity, destroy evil, and restore Paradise (Gen. 3:15). God confirmed His promise to bless ‘all peoples’ in His universal outreach.” — Hans K. LaRondelle, Our Creator Redeemer, pages. 22, 23.
After ten years of waiting for the promised son to be born, what questions did Abram have about God’s promise? Gen. 15:1-6.
It often is easy to glorify Abram as the man of faith who never had any questions or doubts. Scripture, however, paints a different picture. Abram believed, but he also had questions along the way. His faith was a growing faith. Like the father in Mark 9:24, Abram basically said to God in Genesis 15:8, “I believe, help my unbelief.” In response, God graciously assured Abram of the certainty of His promise by formally entering into a covenant with him (Gen. 15:7-18). What makes this passage so surprising is not the fact that God enters a covenant with Abraham but the extent to which God was willing to condescend to do so. Unlike other rulers in the ancient Near East, who balked at the idea of making binding promises with their servants, God not only gave His word, but, by symbolically passing through the pieces of slaughtered animals, He staked His very life on it. Of course, Jesus ultimately give His life on Calvary to make His promise a reality.
| What are some areas now where you have to reach out by faith and believe in what seems impossible? How can you learn to keep holding on, no matter what? |
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Some may have the idea that men and women in the Bible were perfect! But they were not. They were humans like us. With positive and negative characteristics! Their story is told so we can reflect on ours. May we learn from them and may we be counted worthy at the end!
Abram believed, but he also had questions along the way.
God does not reject our questions.
Come let us reason together
“I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” God
Do not turn your back on God.
"How can you learn to keep holding on, no matter what?"
I think that since God is the one who makes the promises and supplies the faith (the faith of "Jesus Christ" via His own Spirit) we only need to accept what He has provided. In the Faith of Jesus God holds our hand with our permission. The problem comes when we try to make up our own "faith" and do what Abram did when he followed his wife's suggestion to have a son through her handmaid, Hagar.
God's promises are fulfilled through the "Faith of Jesus Christ" in us which is brought in as the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
WOW! I had never paid attention to some of the specifics of the animals that GOD told ABRAHAM to bring: a three year old male heifer, a three year old male ram, a three year old female goat, a pigeon and a turtle dove.
I am sure that these animal sacrifices have a symbolic significance other than just the fact that ALL OF THEM have a significance about JESUS' sacrifice of HIMSELF FOR ALL SIN. But why the three larger animal ones of THREE YEARS OLD? And why one of them A FEMALE GOAT? I am sure that the pigeon and dove was probably to later have something for the POOR ISRAELITES to go by for their sacrifices for sin. Probably the MALE ONES represented JESUS SACRIFICE FULLY but what about THE FEMALE GOAT? What did that one represent?
There are many, many EGW statements that tell us that the fulfillment of promises involve obedience to what He asks us to do. Abraham's first act of obedience was he moved as directed. He sometimes doubted, sometimes made a misstep, but he obeyed. God could promise Abraham because Abraham obeyed.
But there are also enough EGW statements that indicate that here and this side of Jesus' second coming we will often have to bow down and weep at his feet because of our shortcomings and mistakes and also that we will often fail in our efforts to copy Jesus' divine pattern (obedience if you will,)etc.
Was Abraham circumcised before or after he had been called?
God called Abraham in Gen 12, and made several promises to him.
God made a covenant with him in Gen 15.
Abraham was not circumcised until Gen 17 - AFTER Abraham had drifted from faith and had Ishmael. God expanded the covenant to include circumcision.
It is interested to note that if Abraham had stayed faithful, there may not have been a need for circumcision.
It is also interesting to note that although the covenant of circumcision was called an "everlasting" covenant, it is no longer required. Circumcision of the heart has replaced it. The process of "cutting away" is what was everlasting, not the act of foreskin circumcision.
Abraham was circumcised way after he was called by God. God gave Abraham the rite of circumcision about 13 years after his first son, Ishmael was born, and he was only 86 years old then. The apostle Paul says that God considered Abraham as righteous because of his faith toward God way before God gave him the rite of circumcision. God put Abraham through several other trials before he finally gave him Isaac for his son from Sarah, then Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born.
Lesson---"Abram had done nothing to earn or merit God’s favor, neither is there any indication that suggests that God and Abram had somehow worked together to come up with this agreement."
Notice what kind of person Abram was.
"The son of Terah became the inheritor of this holy trust. Idolatry invited him on every side, but in VAIN. Faithful among the faithless, uncorrupted by the prevailing apostasy, he steadfastly adhered to the worship of the one true God."
Patriarchs & Prophets p 125
Notice what kind of parents John the Baptist had.
"And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Luke 1:6
But Abraham was not blameless and neither I am sure were John the Baptists' parents even though the Bible considers them all blameless. The Bible considers both Abraham and John the Baptist blameless and all other servants of God like, Enoch, King David, Moses, etc., blameless based on one little fact or should I say, huge fact that Jesus Christ and him crucified for them and that is why God considers us blameless and all his followers as being blameless too.