"The Future of the Covenant" Genesis 22:15-19

Introduction:

In all the years that I was in school my favorite part of a taking a test was to know that it was over and that I passed it. It was always a great relief.

Abraham may have felt that way after sacrificing the ram caught in the thicket and hearing the Lord’s voice of affirmation confirming he passed.

It was then that the Lord ratified the covenant yet again by making the point that He was swearing an oath in demonstration to His covenant intentions to Abraham. Look back at your text to verses 15-16 at what I am calling the Supremacy of the Oath:

I. The Supremacy of the Oath (15-16).

A. The Lord swore by Himself to Abraham. There was no higher authority to swear by than Himself. No greater being than God alone to call God to account regarding His oath to Abraham (16).

The Lord’s oath is supreme because of the supreme essence of His fidelity and the goodness of His holy character.

The covenant that God made with Abraham was a covenant that pulled Abraham and His descendants away from trusting in any sense of self-sufficiency.

Ever heard the saying, “If you want anything done right you have to do it yourself”? This saying may have some merit when we are dealing with fallen human beings but it never has merit before the face of God in making good on His covenant promises.

God is the supreme being and there is no higher moral character possible to undergird His promises. He does not change like shifting shadows and His character is unchanging.

The writer of the book of Hebrews by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives us divine insight to the spiritual truth being revealed in Genesis 22:15-16. When we have the divine commentary on a passage of Scripture like our text this morning we have divine insight on how we are to understand it. Hebrews 6:13-17 picks up on the implications behind the Supremacy of the Lord’s oath to Abraham:

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

I remember the stories that the old men told of a time when men made business deals on their word alone. This was a time when a man’s word was his bond. Seldom were contracts ever drawn up men just did as they said they would do. And to insist on a contract with someone you knew well was like an insult to their character.

You see time has a way of revealing what is in the hearts of men when men do not seek to reflect their fidelity to their covenants with one another. Today we usually insist on contracts to make sure all the terms and expectations are spelt out and to impose a measure of accountability by the legalities of a contract. Especially when a lot of money is involved.

But even then a persons ability to carry out such contractual agreements are often tied to variables that they have no control over.

Story of contractor relative who was stuck with concrete work because he didn’t have a contract. “I am going to take this opportunity to teach you an important business lesson. Don’t do such things without a contract”.

Christian but with the Lord, He swore by Himself a covenant with Abraham that had the conditions of the fulfillment of that covenant tied to, and undergirded by, the divine grace of the covenant faithful God. And Abraham didn’t need a contract because He had the word of God revealed to him from God Himself.

You only need a contract when a party can’t be trusted to keep their end of the bargain. All Abraham had to do was to believe in the “I will” identity and fidelity of the eternal God. This is what faith does. It ties us to the the certainty of the promises given due to the absolute fidelity and greatness of the character of the Almighty God who can only capable of success in accomplishing His purposes. This means He is incapable of failure in everything especially when it come to His ultimate plan and purpose.

Now this may cause us to raise a question about the application of the Supreme oath in how it makes a difference to us in our human existence? We may want to know the answer to this because we live in an insecure world as insecure people. But the Lord pointed Abraham to another place for his sense of security. He directs Abraham back to the “I will” of his covenant faithful God. Look back at your text to verses 17-19:

II. The Security of the Blessing (17-19).

A. He secures our blessings through the gospel. And you say, wait a minute pastor, the gospel wasn’t even mentioned in verses 17-19 where do you get that this is somehow talking about the gospel in verses 17-19?

You know, I am so glad you asked that question. I get it from the divine commentary in Galatians 3:7-9 where the Apostle Paul is explaining how it is those who have faith who are the true descendants of Abraham:

“7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

So the phrase, “in you shall all the nations be blessed” in Galatians 3:8 is a quote from the covenant promise of blessing as seen in our text from Genesis 22:17-19. So the understanding of the divine commentary is that the Abrahamic covenant contained a statement that was proclaiming the gospel in such a way as to be not just a promise to Jews but a promise to Gentiles too.

B. And we are told in Genesis 22:17-19 that the covenant blessing will come through Abraham’s offspring. This is important because through this offspring descendants will be multiplied in numbers like the stars and like sand grains on the seashore (17a); and this offspring will possess the gates of His enemies (17b); and this offspring will be the means of blessing to the nations (18).

Who is this offspring that the Lord is speaking of? I think we need to know who the “offspring” is before we can identify the nature of the promises made in order to understand the fulfillment of those promises. Again the divine commentary helps us in an enormous way in Galatians 3:16:

“16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.”

He gives the blessing through Christ as the “offspring” of Abraham (Galatians 3:16). Christ came into the world to conquer His enemies. He stormed the gates of sin and death on behalf of His people. He led captivity captive; He has all authority in heaven and on earth; He is the first and the last, the living one, He died but is now alive forever more and He holds the keys of death and Hades (Revelation 1:18).

He is so glorious and mighty in the power His deliverance of God’s covenant people that Revelation 7:9-12 describes it this way:

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Ishmael can’t do that and neither can Isaac. Both Islam and Judaism come up short. Those who believe all religions are valid ways to God have never come to terms with the biblical truth of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as as the eternal Son of God who took on flesh to ransom a people for God by His death, burial and Resurrection.

Conclusion:

There is not lasting and eternal hope to be found in world systems of governments or religions of men. That is not a statement of pessimistic hopelessness. But it is a statement of the absolute reality of what we see in the world. The Christian is not called to be in denial about the condition of the world and to then attach a false hope to it to make people feel better.

The Christian is called to anchor their hope in Christ in anticipation of what is to come. And we are called and commanded to tell others where they can find it and how they can have it.

Unbeliever you must be born again to have this living hope in your lives. Believe the gospel.

Believers put your trust in the only covenant faithful God that there is. He has redeemed you for Himself and He is able to keep you for Himself for all eternity. Confess and receive. Let’s Pray!