Genesis 12.2-The Abrahamic Covenant-Promises to Abraham

Tuesday November 8, 2005

Genesis: Genesis 12:2-The Abrahamic Covenant-Promises to Abraham

Lesson # 57

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 12:1.

This evening we will study Genesis 12:2, which records the establishment of the “Abrahamic” covenant and deals with the promises that were given by the Lord to Abraham personally.

A “covenant” is a compact or agreement between two parties binding them mutually to undertakings on each other’s behalf.

Theologically (used of relations between God and man) it denotes a gracious undertaking entered into by God for the benefit and blessing of man, and specifically of those men who by faith receive the promises and commit themselves to the obligations, which this undertaking involves.

The “Abrahamic” covenant that the Lord established with Abraham denoted the Lord’s gracious undertaking for the benefit of Abraham and his descendants.

There are two types of covenants: (1) Conditional: Dependent upon the faithfulness of the recipient for its fulfillment (2) Unconditional: Dependent upon the faithfulness of God for its fulfillment.

The “Abrahamic” covenant was “unconditional” meaning that its fulfillment was totally and completely dependent upon the Lord’s faithfulness.

Now we need to clarify an important aspect of an unconditional covenant.

An unconditional covenant which binds the one making the covenant to a certain course of action, may have blessings attached to it that are conditioned on the response of the recipient and that response is simply faith or to trust that God will deliver on His promise, which expresses itself in obedience to the commands of God.

The blessings that Abraham would receive were conditioned on his obedience to the Lord’s command to leave his country and his father’s house and go to the land, which the Lord would show him, namely, the land of Canaan.

The fulfillment of unconditional covenants does not depend on the continued obedience of the recipient but rather the integrity and faithfulness of God who instituted the covenant.

The Lord was responsible to fulfill the agreement and Abraham’s part was to take Him at His Word and accept it by means of faith.

Genesis 12:1, “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you.”

The Lord’s promise of land to Abraham in Genesis 12:1 is related to the “Palestinian Covenant,” which was “unconditional” meaning it depended upon the Lord’s faithfulness to Israel who promised land to them, which will be literally fulfilled during the millennial reign of Christ (Gen. 13:14-15; 15:18; 26:3-4; 35:12; Ex. 6:2-8; Num. 34:1-2; Deut. 30:1-9; Josh. 1:2-4).

The Palestinian covenant is related to the land that the Lord will give Israel whereas the “Abrahamic Covenant” is related to the “race” of the nation.

The Palestinian covenant was a confirmation and enlargement of the original Abrahamic covenant and amplified the land features of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 13:14-15; 15:18).

The Palestinian Covenant was confirmed to Isaac (Gen. 26:3-4) and Jacob (Gen. 35:12), reiterated to Moses (Ex. 6:2-8) who described the geographical boundaries of the land in Numbers 34:1-12 and who prophesied the fulfillment of this covenant during the Millennium in Deuteronomy 30:1-9.

The Land Grant under the Palestinian Covenant: (1) Most of the land in Turkey (2) Most of East Africa (3) Saudi Arabia (4) Yemen (5) Oman and Red Sea (6) Syria (7) Iraq (8) Jordan. The land grant has boundaries on the Mediterranean, on Aegean Sea, on Euphrates River and the Nile River.

The prophets of Israel prophesied of the Palestinian Covenant’s literal fulfillment during the millennial reign of Christ (Isa. 11:11-12; 14:1-3; 27:12-13; 49:8-16; 66:20-22; Jer. 16:14-16; 23:3-8; 30:10-11; 31:8, 31-37; Ezek. 11:17-21; 20:33-38; 34:11-16; 39:25-29; Hos. 1:10-11; Joel 3:17-21; Amos 9:11-15; Micah 4:6-7; Zeph. 3:14-20; Zech. 8:4-8).

The “Abrahamic Covenant” contained seven promises, which fall under three categories: (1) Personal: “I will bless you and make your name great” (Gen. 12:2) (2) National: “I will make you into a great nation” (Gen. 12:2) (3) Spiritual and Universal: “You will be a blessing…and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:3).

Any promise the Lord gave to Abraham was to be appropriated by means of faith.

Genesis 12:2, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing.”

“And” is the conjunction waw (w+) and the imperfect tense of the verb `asah (hCu), “to make,” which forms a purpose clause expressing the Lord’s intention for commanding Abram to leave his country, father’s house and go to the land, which the Lord would show him.

The imperfect tense of `asah is “cohortative” meaning it expresses the Lord’s desire or intention to act on Abram’s behalf.

Abram’s obedience to the Lord’s command, which expresses his faith, enables the Lord to act on behalf of Abram and also appropriates the omnipotence of the Lord.

Matthew 17:20, “And He said to them, ‘Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.’”

“Nation” is the noun goy (yw{G), which is in the singular referring to Abraham’s “national” posterity (Gen. 18:18), the nation of Israel that would originate from Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob.

“Great” is the adjective gadhol (lw{dG*), which refers both to numbers and to significance or impact the nation of Israel would have on both human and angelic history.

Genesis 18:17, “The LORD said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do.’”

Genesis 18:18, “since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?”

Therefore, the “national” posterity of Abraham, the nation of Israel has been a great nation in history during the reigns of David and Solomon and will be significant according to prophecy since she will be the head of the nations during the millennial reign of Christ.

Isaiah 2:1, “The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 2:2, “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.”

Isaiah 2:3, “And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’”

Isaiah 2:4, “And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.”

Israel has had a huge impact upon human history in that she was the custodian of the Old Testament Scriptures, the recipients of the covenants of promise, the Law (Rm. 9:1-5) and the nation from which the Savior, Jesus Christ would originate (Jn. 4:22).

Romans 9:1, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 9:2, “that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.”

Romans 9:3, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

Romans 9:4, “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises.”

Romans 9:5, “whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”

John 4:22, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”

Genesis 12:2, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing.”

“Bless” is the verb barakh (Er^B*), which appears five times in Genesis 12:1-3 and means, “to endue with power for success, prosperity, fecundity, longevity, etc.”

Therefore, the verb barakh indicates that Abraham and his descendants were endued with power by the Lord for success, prosperity, fecundity (offspring in great numbers) and longevity.”

Bruce K. Waltke, “The three nuances of bless-posterity (13:2, 5; 14:22-23; 24:35; 26:12-13; 30:43; 32:3-21), potency/fertility (1:28; 13:16; 15:5; 22:17; 26:4; 28:3, 14; 35:11) and victory (cf. 1:22)-are spelled out in 22:17. Horst says, ‘Blessing brings the power for life, the enhancement of life, and the increase of life’” (Genesis, A Commentary, page 205; Zondervan).

The Lord blessed Abram in the sense that the Lord multiplied his descendants so that his posterity was great in number both, racially and spiritually.

Also, the Lord blessed Abram in the sense that the Lord multiplied his possessions and livestock and prospered him financially.

The Lord blessed anyone who was associated with Abraham.

H.C. Leupold commenting on this second promise, writes, “This statement does not refer to the nation but to Abram alone. A man is blessed when due to the gracious working of God all goes well with him (cf. 39:5); the things that he undertakes thrive; and true success crowns all his endeavors. This certainly is a promise that was realized in Abram’s life” (Exposition of Genesis 1, page 412).

The phrase “I will bless you” was fulfilled “temporally” according to Genesis 13:14-18; 15:18-21; 24:34-35 and it has been fulfilled “spiritually” according to Genesis 15:6 and John 8:56.

The “piel” stem of the verb barakh is “real factitive” meaning that Abraham would experience the blessings that the Lord would bring upon him.

Ezekiel 17:24, “I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will perform it.”

“Name” is the noun shem (sv@), which refers to a person’s character, reputation and fame among men and in the kingdom of God.

The promise “I will make your name great” refers to the fact that the Lord would make Abraham a famous character with a great reputation among men and before God.

This fame and reputation is expressed throughout Scripture in that Abraham is called a “father of a multitude” in Genesis 17:5, a prince of God in Genesis 23:6, the man in God’s confidence in Genesis 18:17-19, a prophet in Genesis 20:7, the servant of God in Psalm 105:6 and the friend of God in 2 Chronicles 20:7 and James 2:23.

The phrase “and you shall be a blessing” is “not” a promise since the verb hayah, “you shall be” is in the “imperative” mood expressing a command and literally means, “so become a blessing” indicating that Abraham had a responsibility to walk by faith, which is expressed by obedience to the Lord’s commands.

The imperative mood of the verb hayah indicates that others would be blessed when Abraham walked by faith and was obedient to the Lord.

Therefore, the imperative mood of hayah teaches us that the Lord wants us to be a blessing to others and this is accomplished by obedience to the Lord, which expresses our faith in the Lord.