God’s covenant with Abraham

Features of the Abrahamic covenant

The covenant is based upon God’s gracious promise

Galatians 3:18 NKJV

For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

See also Ge 15:4–7; Ge 17:4–8; Ge 18:10; Ge 18:14; Heb 6:13–15

The covenant was confirmed by sacrifice

Genesis 15:9–18 NKJV

So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—

The covenant was given in perpetuity

Genesis 17:7 NKJV

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

See also Ge 17:13; Ge 17:19; 1 Ch 16:15–17; Je 33:23–25

God’s promises to Abraham

Genesis 12:2–3 NKJV

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God promised the land of Canaan

Genesis 17:8 NKJV

Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

See also Ge 12:7; Ge 15:18–21; Ex 6:4; Jos 1:3; Ne 9:8; Ac 7:5

God promised that Abraham would be the father of a nation

Genesis 15:5 NKJV

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

See also Ge 12:2; Ge 17:4–6 The change of name from Abram to Abraham is a sign of God’s covenant with him; Ge 17:16; Ge 22:17; Heb 11:11–12

God promised a relationship with himself

Genesis 17:8 NKJV

Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

See also Ge 26:24; Dt 29:13; Mt 22:32; Ex 3:6; Ac 7:32

The requirements of the covenant

Obedience

Ge 17:9–14 Circumcision is the sign of Abraham’s commitment to God’s covenant with him; Ge 22:18

See also Ge 26:5; Nu 32:11 by contrast, the consequences of disobedience; Heb 11:8; Heb 11:17–19

Faith

Ge 15:6; Ne 9:8

See also Ro 4:3; Ro 4:11–12; Ro 4:18; Ga 3:6–7; Heb 11:8–12; Jas 2:23

God’s faithfulness to the covenant

God remembers his promise

Psalm 105:42 NKJV

For He remembered His holy promise, And Abraham His servant.

See also Ge 21:2; Ge 50:24; Ex 33:1; Ac 7:17; Heb 6:15

God shows compassion for his people

2 Kings 13:23 NKJV

But the Lord was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them, because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them or cast them from His presence.

See also Ex 2:24–25; Ex 32:13–14; Dt 9:27; Lk 1:72–73

The scope of the covenant

The covenant continued through Isaac, not Ishmael

Genesis 17:19–21 NKJV

Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”

See also Ge 21:12; Ro 9:7–8; Ga 4:28

The covenant confirmed through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Leviticus 26:42 NKJV

then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.

See also Ge 26:24 Isaac

Jacob:

Ge 28:13–14; Ge 32:12

Ex 3:6; Dt 1:8; Ac 7:8

The people of Israel are heirs to the covenant

Deuteronomy 29:12–13 NKJV

that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

See also Ac 3:25

All nations will be blessed through Abraham

Genesis 18:18 NKJV

since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

See also Ge 26:4; Ac 3:25; Ga 3:8–9; Ga 3:14; Ga 3:29