God Makes a Covenant

KEY VERSE: “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land.” —Genesis 15:18

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Genesis 15:1-6, 12-18

THE Lord first began dealing with Abram when he was in Ur of the Chaldees. He appeared to Abram and made a covenant with him to the effect that if he would “get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee … I will make of thee a great nation … and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:1-3) This was the promise that was the motivating force in the life of Abram. Associated with this covenant was the fact that Abram was to have a seed. But Sarah, his wife, was barren and as they both grew older over the many years that the Lord dealt with them, Abram became more and more concerned about fulfillment of God’s promise of a seed.

In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, this anxiety is expressed in verse three: “And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.” By this, Abram was apparently willing to accept a child born of a woman other than Sarah as his heir, provided that such an arrangement was approved by God. But God said, “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” (vs. 4) And then the account continues, stating that Abram believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.—vs. 6

After this Abram expressed concern about another aspect of the covenant which God had made with him, and that was concerning the land promised to him. God said, “I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he [Abram] said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Gen. 16:7) Abram felt the need of a further assurance, and so the Lord gave him the needed anchor to his faith by making another covenant with him. The Hebrew word translated covenant is bereeth. It means ‘to cut’, to make a compact (made by passing between pieces of flesh). The account continues, describing the cutting of three animals into six parts and two birds that were not divided, and these were spread out on the ground. God then is pictured as a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passing between the pieces as a means of sealing the covenant. Then the account continues, “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”—Gen. 15:18

As time continued to pass and Sarah remained barren, she began to lose faith in God’s promise to provide a seed and she arranged for Abram to take her handmaid, Hagar, as a concubine. From this union a child was born who was named Ishmael. God seemingly did not object and apparently for some time Abram thought Ishmael was to be the promised seed. But in Genesis seventeen we read that God again appeared to Abram and confirmed the fact that the original covenant was made with him (the implication is that it was not made with Sarah) and that it would be fulfilled. (vs. 4) It was also at this time that Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, which means ‘a father of many nations’. The account continues, stating that Sarah would bring forth a child and his name would be Isaac, and the covenant would be renewed with Isaac.—Gen. 17:21

As for Ishmael, God promised that he would make of him a great nation and would bless him. (Gen. 17:20) The Apostle Paul, in Galatians 4:21-31, tells us that this entire experience of Abraham with these two wives was an allegory, and that Hagar represented the Law Covenant and Sarah represented the Sarah feature of the Abrahamic Covenant. Ishmael, the son of Hagar, represented the Jewish nation. Isaac, the son of Sarah, represented the long-promised seed—the seed of blessing.

God reaffirmed his original covenant with Abraham after he had severely tested him by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise. Abraham was willing to carry out God’s instructions, believing that God would resurrect Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill his promise to provide a seed. (Gen. 22:15-18; Heb. 11:17-19) The Apostle Paul tells us the seed promised to Abraham was Christ. The meaning of the word Christ is ‘anointed’, and Paul continues, pointing out that Christ, the anointed seed, was to be composed of Christ the head and his faithful footstep followers.—I Cor. 12:12-14; Gal. 3:16,26-29

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