Covenant

Covenant A covenant is a formal, solemn, and binding agreement, promise, or contract between two or more parties. [ Genesis 15:1-21 (background: Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 17) God used the most solemn covenant ritual of the ancient world with Abram - then broke the normal pattern in the one detail that changes everything. I. The Promise Before the Covenant (Gen 12:1-3; 15:1-6) ● Gen 12:1-1 (esv). 'Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." ' ● Gen 15:1-2(esv). 'After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" ' ● Gen 15:4-5 - "Look toward heaven... so shall your offspring be" ● KEY VERSE: Gen 15:6 - "he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness" - Paul builds Romans 4 / Galatians 3 on this II. Abram's Question, God's Answer (Gen 15:7-11(esv). 'And he said to him, "I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." But he said, "O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. ' V.8 - "How am I to know?" - not doubt, asking for the culture's mechanism of certainty ● V.9-10 - heifer, goat, ram, dove, pigeon - cut in half, laid opposite each other ● V.11 - birds of prey come down, Abram drives them off (watchfulness detail) III. What a Covenant Meant in the Ancient World ● Hebrew idiom = "cut a covenant" (karath berith) - comes FROM this ritual ● Walking between the pieces = self, oath: "may this be done to me if I break my word" ● Jeremiah 34:18-20 - confirms the custom; God judges covenant-breakers "like the calf they cut in two" ● treaties: historical prologue + obligations + blessings/curses - the ritual is what made it binding, ● Normally BOTH parties walk through - set this up clearly before section V imagine signing a contract by walking through a reenactment of your own death as the penalty for breaking it. IV. The Dream - Deep Sleep and Fire (Gen 15:12-17) ● V.12 - tardemah - same word as Adam's deep sleep (Gen 2:21) - God-induced, not ordinary tiredness ● V.13-16 - prophecy given WHILE Abram is unconscious: 400 years, slavery, judgment, return "in the fourth generation" ● V.17 - smoking fire pot + flaming torch pass between the pieces - NOT Abram - imagery (burning bush, pillar of fire, Sinai) ● If asked "was it a literal dream?": tardemah = trance-like state, not natural sleep V. THE CLIMAX - God Walked Alone (Gen 15:17-18) ● Normal covenant = both parties walk through. If one person was not has rich, not has high up on the social ladder etc... the lessor would walk through ● Here = ONLY God (fire pot/torch) walks through - Abram is asleep, never walks, never takes the self-curse ● The point: God takes the ENTIRE obligation on Himself - "if this breaks, let it break on ME" ● This is a covenant of grace - unilateral, unconditional in its certainty - not a 50/50 contract ● V.18 - ratified by God's action ALONE, while Abram could contribute nothing VI. Sealed Later - Circumcision (Gen 17) brief section ● 17:1-2 - "I am God Almighty... I will make my covenant between me and you" ● 17:9-14 - circumcision = the SIGN, not the foundation ● 17:5 - name change Abram → Abraham ("father of a multitude") - absurd for a childless man; a walking reminder of God promises VII. The NT Payoff ● Romans 4:1-5, 16-21 - Paul roots justification by faith here; Abraham's faith grew AS the promise got more impossible ● Galatians 3:15-18 - the promise stood before and independent of the Law given at Sinai ● Hebrews 6:13-18 - "he had no one greater to swear by, so he swore by himself" - God binding Himself alone ● Luke 22:20 - "this cup... the new covenant in my blood" - full circle: at the cross God didn't just walk through a symbol, He actually died, bearing the curse Himself