God's Covenant with Abraham
1. God made a covenant with Abraham.
2. A covenant is a formal agreement that creates a permanent family bond. It makes an unrelated person part of your family. God wanted Abraham to have that kind of relationship with Him - so He appeared to him in a vision saying...
"Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward."
But Abram said, "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!"
And behold; the word of the Lord came to him, saying; "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 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."
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:1-6note: Abraham's original name was "Abram" but God changed it to Abraham, "Father of nations." (see Genesis 17:5)
3. Every agreement has terms. The terms of God's covenant with Abraham were EXCEEDINGLY generous. He had already promised to give him the whole land of Canaan (Genesis 12:7), and make of him a great nation (Genesis 12:2) Now God was telling him that his descendants would be as many as the stars! These were God's terms, but what did He want in return? NOTHING! Nothing except relationship. (There is nothing Abraham could have given Him anyway!) All Abraham had to do was repent and believe - and then receive. WOW! THIS IS GRACE - by definition!
note: God made His covenant with Abraham because He knew Abraham would teach his descendants after him. (see Genesis 18:18)
4. But a covenant is a formal agreement. It has to be ratified to make it legal. A covenant is usually ratified by some sort of ceremony. In the days of Abraham there was a common practice of making a covenant by walking between pieces of animals that had been split in half. God used this ceremony to ratify His covenant with Abraham.
Then He said to him, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it."
And he said, "Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?"
So He said to him, "Bring Me a three year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old ram, a turtle dove, 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; and 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 (Yahweh), made a covenant with Abraham, saying;
"To your descendants I have given this land; from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates - the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."*** Genesis 15:7-21
note* These were the same animals that were latter used as sacrifices for sin. In this case they were also sacrifices for sin. (For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, and sins have to be dealt with before we can have fellowship with God.) God Himself accepted the sacrifices by walking between the pieces. But it was more than that. Splitting the animals in half and walking between them was like saying, "May this be what happens to me if I break the terms of this covenant." (see Jeremiah 34:15-22)
note** Abraham had to protect the covenant.
note*** Abraham's descendants would displace all of these other nations.
5. Abraham did not walk between the pieces of the animals he had cut in half - only God did. This covenant was based on God's word - not Abraham's. All Abraham had to do was repent and believe, but of course Abraham didn't even do that on his own. The Holy Spirit of God caused him to do it. Such is the covenant of grace. Read Romans chapter four.
6. Abraham would be asked to ratify the covenant later, with the sign of circumcision. (see Genesis chapter 18)