Tuesday: The Abram Covenant
“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” (Gen: 12:3).
Read Genesis 12:1-3. List the specific promises God made to Abram.
Notice that among these promises God says to Abram that “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen: 12:3). What does that mean? How were all the families of the earth blessed in Abram? See Galatians 3:6-9. In what ways can you see in this earlier promise the promise of Jesus the Messiah? See Gal: 3:29.
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In this, the first recorded divine revelation to Abram, God promised to enter into a close and lasting relationship with him, even before He uses any language that speaks about covenant making. Direct references to the covenant that God would make come later (Gen: 15:4-21, Gen: 17:1-14). For the moment, God offers a divine-human relationship of great significance. The repeated “I will” in Genesis 12:1-3 suggests the depth and greatness of God’s offer and promise.
In addition, Abram receives a single, but testing, command, “Go forth.” He obeyed by faith (Heb: 11:8) but not in order to bring about the promised blessings. His obedience was the response of his faith to the loving relationship, which God desired to be established. In other words, Abram already believed in God, already trusted in God, already had faith in God’s promises. He had to; otherwise, he never would have left his family and ancestral land to begin with and headed into places unknown. His obedience revealed his faith both to men and to angels.
Abram, even back then, revealed the key relationship between faith and works. We are saved by faith, a faith that results in works of obedience. The promise of salvation comes first; the works follow. Although there can be no covenant fellowship and no blessing without obedience, that obedience is faith’s response to what God already has done. Such faith illustrates the principle in 1 John 4:19, “We love him [God], because he first loved us.”
| Read Genesis 15:6. How does it, in many ways, show the basis of all covenant promises? Why is this blessing the most precious one of all? |
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Thanks for sharing it in fb.. I am following your page.. it helps a lot in Studying the word of God.
Hi Rudylyn, welcome to the blog as well, we look forward to you sharing your insight with us.
Today we are getting the introduction to the Abrahamic Covenant, in lessons 4, 5 & 6 we will be delving deeper into the details and implications for Abraham and his literal and spiritual descendants.
We start by learning that all the divine covenants are about a loving relationship between the LORD and firstly the individual and then extended to the group.
As we learn more about the covenant with Abraham we will find the DNA of the new covenant embedded in it, namely
(1) change our hearts to be like His - I am the LORD who makes you holy - I will bless you
(2) restore and/or deepen the relationship to be special -I will be YOUR God, you will be MY people
(3) share the blessings with the rest of the world- all will be blessed through you
(4) if you fail and/or fall there is a way to continue the relationship, I will forgive your sins and and I will impute/count/reckon My righteousness to you.
We will learn more about how by faith the LORD counts us as righteous and changes our characters to be more and more like His. We will find Gen 15:6 KJV fulfilled in James 2:14-26 KJV; Rom 4:1-25 KJV; Gal 3:1-9; 2Peter 1:1-11
O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
Isa 26:13
The Abram Covenant
The Lord knows the beginning from the ending. Jesus was promised to our first parents- Adam and Eve. The earth was corrupted at the time the Lord called Abraham out of a heathen nation to separate him for a holy purpose. The Lord wanted/knew his descendants will come through Abraham lineage, eventually Jesus will be born to live and die for humans.
Read Genesis 15:6. How does it, in many ways, show the basis of all covenant promises? Why is this blessing the most precious one of all?
The basis of all covenant promise is to TRUST the other individual even when we do not see or know. We have to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. We have to take him at his word, what he says he will do, and what he does, if it will affect humans, he always reveal it to human/s
Faith makes all the difference! "Without it, none can please God". The only way to restore the relationship with the Creator is by faith! That's our part! Everything else He has done for us! What shall we fear, then? Pandemic, hunger, death? Faith represents the necessary means for us to finish our individual and collective mission!
Paul tells us in Gal 1:6-8 that there is no other Gospel. It lives in Jesus through his living word (the Bible) and his inspired word (the holy spirit in us). Together they convict us and lead us into all truth. The remnants of Eden that we see today also clap their hands sing for joy as they return their praise to Jesus. We see beauty in that nature. All these convict us that Jesus is alive as the creator and sustainer. Abraham dwelt in those same feelings of conviction, except he didn't have the written word, only the oral tradition. We through a cloudy mirror look upon those things and sometimes it pierces our hearts and minds in conviction as well.
Is God not calling us individually today to leave our family and to make HIM first in our life? We may be Christians and yet continue to put our family ahead of HIM. HE may ask us to do something but we hesitate because a spouse , child does not think it makes sense. We must put our trust in HIM and like Abram step out in faith and leave the outcome to GOD.
Horace - I would agree that our Heavenly Father still calls those who want to follow Him to delicate their life to be His preacher, teacher, or missionary; though He never advocates to abandon our families. He wants to be sure that we meet our obligations to them in all circumstances.
Our Heavenly Father in Christ provided the role model for our conduct and obligations toward our earthly family.
May I point out - The father remains as the head of his family and is responsible to secure their welfare no matter his decision toward servicing God in the capacity of his calling.
We are indeed saved by grace, and the works are a consequence of being saved which show that indeed we have a relationship with God.
God always initiated covenants and He is the only one who can.
Ughh....
I can only say, thank you my Heavenly Father.