Background of the Abrahamic Covenant
Contents
Interwoven throughout Scripture are echoes of what God has historically accomplished through His covenant with Abraham. That in a broader sense, there is the Doctrine of the Works of God1 that includes various covenants with His people down through the ages. Ultimately to accomplish His purposes stemming from the Genesis 3:15 proclamation, there would become a long series of events that testify to who the Lord is and what He means to everything He has created. The spiritual and physical realms, sentient and non-sentient beings, both alive and dead, living matter, and His creation in full are witness to what He has done back through the corridors of time.
As a continuation of the Noahic covenant, Noah’s descendant Abraham came through the lineage of Shem. Whereupon recovery of the great flood (Gen 7-8), Noah and his family survived the earliest form of Semitic nations emerged to grow sizeable in number prior to their dispersal at the tower of Babel (Gen 10). The nations were disinherited, turned over to the governance of the sons of God (lesser elohim)2, and were subjected to isolation before future reclamation as a matter of eschatological reference and interest. The means by which the nations would become the reclaimed center around God’s own people chosen for himself. A nation among the others governed by lesser deities that were originated and chosen through Abraham to further His covenant oath in fulfillment of the Adamic proclamation. The Abrahamic covenant would become an anchor point between both Old and New Testaments that serves as a source of confidence and certainty about God’s redemptive work for His purposes and glory.
The LORD orchestrated conditions and circumstances to which we observe in Scripture a coherent view of the Abrahamic covenant. A covenant meaning that traverses Scripture to form an overall biblical theology that reveals our LORD’s work, accomplishments, and overall intent with the Kingdom of God now present upon the Earth. A Kingdom that originates from the first patriarch Abraham to those in Christ today who will in time occupy a new Heaven and Earth (Rev. 21:1) to gain a type of Edenic fellowship with the Most High.
Purpose of the Abrahamic Covenant
In fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham, the Lord originates an inexorable march toward recovery to what rightfully belongs to Him. He will have His creation and people in fellowship with Him, and there is nothing that will ever put a stop to that either in this life or the next. With the Earth that serves as a geographical canvas of Abraham and his descendants, the Lord’s chosen people will grow in population. They will occupy a chosen land with prosperity and blessings. Ultimately leading to a messianic outcome that far surpasses traditional and cultural expectations. First to the Jew and then to the Gentile (Rom 1:16), people born anew among nations will beckon back to Abraham’s time to recognize what the Lord has accomplished and worship Him for it. The Lord’s purpose in calling Abraham was to begin a covenant of grace3 as his status by faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). Abraham, the friend of God (Is 41:8), was called to become our first human model of a relationship with God that was rooted in belief, trust, faith, obedience, honor, and love. The Lord Yahweh of all Heaven and Earth treasured Abraham as His own possession and promised him blessings beyond full comprehension. It was in the high calling of Abraham that shepherded His people to eventually become a kingdom of Priests who would usher back to the Lord the nations of people who held a common view of Yahweh. People who would believe, trust, obey, honor, and love the Lord as He so deservedly wants (Deut. 6:5).
Nature of the Abrahamic Covenant
Throughout a series of dispensational periods in Scripture 4, there is a sequence of adjacent covenants that interface with one another through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. From beginning to end, most of these covenants overlap with one another over time. Not one abrogates another.5 Their purpose in the fulfillment of God’s redemptive work serves to bring forward promises to Adam and Noah plus the offspring that originate from Abraham. Without the patriarch fathers knowing any of the specific details, it was recognized that the LORD would bless Abraham with children and land to begin the nations.
Depending upon your perspective between covenant and dispensational theology, there are a different number of periodic intervals according to Scripture and the Doctrine of the Works of God. While some people only recognize a few dispensations, others see as many as eight in total that transpires across time.6 However, both historically and eschatologically, we see a common overlap between them to illustrate their interconnected relationships with one another.
While dispensations are linear in sequence across time, covenants from beginning to end are both linear and nonlinear according to the intentions and promises of God. Both perspectives are not mutually exclusive but instead appear complimentary. Where dispensational thought provides a mechanical or wooden method of functional recognition across conditional and unconditional covenants between the Lord Yahweh and His people. As they are the difference between mechanistic and organic expression, the Abrahamic covenant begins the unique, unilateral, and unconditional covenant of blessings, offspring, and territory.
The Abrahamic Covenant is situated among major biblical covenants sequentially formed and initiated 7 as follows:
a. Edenic Covenant Genesis 2:16
b. Adamic Covenant Genesis 3:15
c. Noahic Covenant Genesis 9:16
d. Abrahamic Covenant Genesis 12:2
e. Mosaic Covenant Exodus 19:5
f. Palestinian Covenant* Deuteronomy 30:3
g. Davidic Covenant 2 Samuel 7:16
h. New Covenant Hebrews 8:8
* Note: Literary analysis from Peter J. Gentry, “The Relationship of Deuteronomy to the Covenant at Sinai” concludes there is no such thing as a Palestinian Covenant. This is a dispensationalist idea that does not understand the literary structure and function of Deuteronomy 29-30 as a “Covenant Conclusion Ceremony and of the relationship of the Moab Covenant to that of Sinai.”
As all covenants carry considerable weight in meaning, the Abrahamic covenant was the beginning of a subsequent conditionality through the Mosaic covenant.8 The unconditional nature of the Abrahamic covenant was attached to the timing and participants of fulfillment and not conditional as a matter of comparison with specific individuals. The benefits of those who were to receive the unconditional and unilaterally delivered and fulfilled promises were those recognized as Abraham and his descendants. Like Abraham, they are those who would walk with God, trust Him, love Him, honor Him, and regard Him above all else who would receive the unconditional benefit of blessings befitting a friend of God (John 15:15, James 2:23). The highest of blessings among them as His presence and relationship with His people throughout the existence of humanity.
The Relevance of the Abrahamic Covenant Today
While the Abrahamic covenant was intended for the people of ancient Israel, it still bears meaningful continuity concerning God’s people today as a matter of theological principle for salvific purposes. The Abrahamic covenant was settled in redemptive history to establish a Covenant of Grace through a messianic future involving Christ through the Davidic covenant extending all the way to the fulfillment of all promises and prophetic records.9 Where this Covenant of Grace serves as a theological bridge from the ancient Hebrew people of God to Gentiles throughout the Greco-Roman empire and even to all people today who want to know, love, and serve the God of Abraham today through Christ (Rom. 4:23-25). With careful attention to the genealogical account in the gospel of Matthew, anyone can trace the lineage of Christ to Abraham (Matt. 1:1-16) in an effort to fully grasp Jesus’s role of Messiah. That while the Lord’s people are redeemed from sin and death; we have a righteousness of Christ through a Covenant of Grace. A covenant that is not conditional, but contingent upon a heart relationship with Him modeled for us by Abraham.
Conclusion
The closer one gets to understand the work of God through His covenants, the more it becomes clear that the being of Yahweh is unspeakably beyond what creation can attempt to describe, measure, or express. It either flees toward Him or away from Him in reverence or dread. What He has done through the covenants among His chosen and throughout the nations to bring upon us His kingdom goes to His glory and overwhelming reign. What becomes abundantly clear through Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham is how He fulfills it far beyond the blessings of prosperity, land, and offspring. There is a promise we have in Christ, by our God, who is a descendant of Abraham to attain fellowship with Him. As Abraham was in the presence of God as His friend, we are able to enjoy His presence as He wants. Where we are able to walk with Him, talk with Him, pitch tents with Him, love others on His behalf, gaze upon the wonder of His workmanship, and ultimately worship Him. The life of Abraham and the Lord’s covenant with Him and through Him gives us a way to see through the lens of our condition more clearly. So as because of the Lord and His friendship with Abraham, we can permanently aspire and attain His regard as a companion, a servant, and a loyal saint that He delights upon.
Citations
1. Brian Collins, Lexham Survey of Theology, The Abrahamic Covenant (Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2018).
2. The Unseen Realm. Divine Allotment (Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2015) 114
3. Brian Collins, Lexham Survey of Theology, The Covenants of Grace (Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2018).
4. Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth: The Covenants (Larkin, 1920). The Blue Letter Bible Website: https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/larkin/dt/26.cfm, Accessed 04/25/2020.
5. William Barrick. The Eschatological Significance of Leviticus 26 The Master’s Seminary Journal, 2005), 121.
6. Paul S. Karleen, The Handbook to Bible Study: With a Guide to the Scofield Study System (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 35.
7. Ibid, 35.
8. Keith Essex, The Abrahamic Covenant (The Master’s Seminary Journal, 1999), 210.
9. Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006), 292.
Bibliography
Barrick, William D. “The Eschatological Significance of Leviticus 26.” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 2005: 32.
Collins, Brian. Lexham Survey of Theology. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2018.
Essex, Keith. “The Abrahamic Covenant.” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 1999: 210.
Heiser, Michael. The Unseen Realm. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2015.
Karleen, Paul S. The Handbook to Bible Study: With a Guide to the Scofield Study System. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Kline, Meredith G. Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview. Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006.
Larkin, Clarence. Dispensational Truth. Philadelphia: Rev. Clarence Larkin Est., 1920.
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