"God's Covenant with Abraham" - Genesis 12:1-9 & Genesis 17:1-22

1. Introduction

An earlier covenant had been made by God with Noah, that God would never again be a party to destroying life on earth. This might have been a difficult promise to keep, because of the consistent and ongoing rebellion of humankind – their refusal to live according to God’s ways. Yet God was serious about this and would put a reminder in the skies, a rainbow, so that God would never forget this agreement with humanity. So, despite what God would observe in future days, and how God might feel about this, this covenant could be relied upon, God would honour it, resulting in a continual search for people to come into relationship with God – this was God’s longing from the beginning of time, to be in harmony with what has been created on earth.

I’m wondering whether you are feeling that God is committed to you?

I’m wondering whether you know that God longs for an ever deeper relationship with you?

After it rains, God looks at the rainbow in the sky, and is reminded that the greatest driving force behind creation is God’s own love. God was at pains to remind the ancient people of His availability to them … to bless their lives with peace, hope and purpose. Ultimately God’s commitment to this promise brought Jesus to the earth. There was no sacrifice too great for God when it came to reconciling with you and with me.

2. Covenant

Have you ever received a promise that seemed to good to be true, yet it was fulfilled?
On the other hand, have you ever received a promise and had it broken?
Have you ever given a promise and broken it?

Sometimes, with some people, the very words ‘I promise’ can be very empty even flippant (because of the track record that sits behind such words).

Have you ever made a pact with someone? How did it turn out?

I remember those pacts we used to make at school … like ‘we’ll be best friends for ever (and won’t let anyone else get in the way)!’

God is serious about the covenants He makes!

‘Covenant’ is basically an agreement between parties, containing promises concerning certain attitudes or action, binding each party mutually to those undertakings.

An earthly example could be a ‘marriage’ undertaken on the basis of wedding vows that have intimate and life-long components to them (this however would be an exclusive arrangement between two specific parties).

The biblical covenants are God’s gracious initiatives toward relationship with all the peoples of the earth. Such covenants express God’s heart of reaching out to humanity. This is a missional God, a fact often forgotten by people who would prefer to contain God to their own needs. This is a giving God, who is able to make such everlasting commitments. Such a ‘covenant’ is not a reward for obedience, but rather just quite naturally what God is about, seeking to lovingly motivate the right application of our freewill.

So, the ‘old covenant’ (given in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures) reflects a cohesive and progressive plan for relationship between God and the nation of Israel (as a representation of God’s people), inclusive of all.[1] God offers mercy, guidance and blessing, whilst requiring commitment and faithfulness in return. This was a ‘two-way street’ of call and response, evoking relationships both vertical and horizontal.

The covenant God made in the time of Noah was unconditional, showing that God’s love is unconditional – there is nothing we can do that stops God loving us. We can disappoint God, offend God, oppose God; we can hurt others and hurt ourselves, destroy creation … and God will continue to love us, and be hopeful toward us. Never again would God bring destruction to the earth and its creatures by flood. The next stage of God’s covenant-making would concern providing descendants, giving land, and forming relationship.

What God desires, as we have said many times, is relationship with people. For any relationship to be real it needs to have at least two things:
(a) it needs to have been entered voluntarily (hence God has given us freewill), and
(b) it needs to have mutual appreciation, understanding and response (or you might say, effort). These facets of true relationship have already been expressed by God; now the call comes to the human side. The covenant made with Abraham calls for mutuality – the blessing that the covenant offers is tied to the faithfulness of the human party.

God’s love for us remains unconditional, and God’s covenanted care for humanity unfolds over time. Yet the covenant expressed in the days of Abraham reveals that God’s dealings with us through our every day lives are connected with our faithful, committed (even obedient) responses to God. Later, covenant expressed in the time of Moses took this further (with moral and ethical commandments attached); and then many centuries later, the ‘new covenant’ brought about by Jesus, tangibly offered a way through the mess of trying to be good enough and failing i.e. grace. Ultimately we would experience the forgiveness that maintains relationship through the gift of Jesus.

3. God and Abram

Abram was the son of Terah, who took Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and the son of Abram’s deceased brother named Lot, from their home in Ur of the Chaldeans towards Canaan, settling on the way in Haran. It was here that God spoke to Abram. This seems to just come out of the blue in Genesis 12:1, and we are not told that Abram had any particular qualities, yet we know that Abram was simply God’s chosen vessel. We don’t read about any shock or weighty decision-making (as we might expect) in the case of Abram; the story moves quickly to Abram’s obedience. What we simply get is a very clear statement of how faithfulness to God’s call will bring about God’s plans of blessing – not just individual blessing, much bigger than that, the blessing of a whole nation of people, a blessing that will indicate the sort of blessing that God wants to bring to all people at all times in all places on the earth.

Yet we still might read over this too quickly and fail to realise that Abram had to leave the known security of his settled life, and go out into the unknown, without knowing exactly where he would finish up. He may have had to convince his wife Sarai of the reality of God’s direction in this matter, putting aside the fear of criticism had everything gone pear-shaped.

This might be like a pastor I know who was led to move from Chelsea to Point Cook. This pastor’s wife was ultimately willing to move, even though it meant driving from Point Cook to Clayton every working day; but to make the transition easier … it cost this pastor jewellery, a new camera, and a Foxtel subscription. Sarai was possibly a little easier to get on board than this!

The very life of Abram was to build a picture of what relationship with God was all about and where this would lead. On the back of Abram’s faithfulness would a whole worshipping community be built … if only Abram would pack his bags and follow God’s leading into Canaan (and receive all God had to give them there)! Those who join the movement will experience like blessing, those who don’t … suffer the consequences of missed opportunity (truly a “curse” for them). For someone to be under the “curse” referred to here (12:3) is to be removed from the source of light and true community due to their refusal to recognise divine activity. Such a state is definitely to be pitied. On the other hand, those said to be under the “blessing” have recognised the source of Abram’s faith and thus begun their own faith journey.

This covenant included promises concerning nationhood (as a people of God) as well as reputation (“a great nation”), and then well-being (the provision of land – 12:7). “Blessing” means ‘well-being’ in all of life’s dimensions, but is best understood with a focus on the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘social’ aspects, with ‘material’ blessing being seen corporately rather than individually.

This statement of covenant would be a source of great encouragement to the many ensuing generations of God’s people, especially when faced with oppression at the hands of other powers or exile in foreign lands. It is of great comfort to us to know that God has always sought to guide and bless humanity. This is a never-changing characteristic at the heart of God. To know that God has made a ‘covenant’ with all humanity and completely followed through over the centuries, can be reassuring to those who are hard-pressed or overwhelmed with life.

As the Genesis stories of Abraham (as Abram became known from chapter 17) unfold, we see a broader and richer picture of this covenant relationship God was seeking with the people. At 17:1, we read about “El Shaddai” (God) again revealing himself to Abraham and saying, “…walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you…”; again showing that it would be Abraham’s example of faithfulness to God that would allow God’s covenantal promises to become reality across the earth – 17:4 reads, “… You [Abraham] shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations, and in 17:7 we read that God’s covenant will continue through Abraham’s offspring to the generations that follow. Later in 18:19 we read that God had chosen Abraham so that, “… he may charge his children … to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice – so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him”.

One might think that the possibility of such a covenant being maintained would nearly be impossible; about as impossible as a man of ninety-nine years fathering a child with a woman of ninety years. It sounds laughable, and both Abraham and Sarah laughed at this prospect, just like we might doubt at times, yet the resultant child Isaac would be the very line in which the covenant was passed through. With God, seeming impossibilities become realities. Later in the story of Isaac’s conception we read the beautiful verse “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” (18:14).

And whereas we are called to participate and be faithful, it is only God who can bring about good results in fulfilling God’s purposes in the world. We are called to be faithful … God will bring about the positive outcomes. Abraham, in considering the impossibility of Sarah conceiving his child, suggested to God another plan – using his younger son Ishmael (whose mother had been Sarah’s slave), but the text shows that it needed to be God’s plans alone (17:15-19), and not any substitute suggested by Abraham, that would fulfil God’s promises and take the nation forward.

What would it mean to ‘walk before God’ and be blameless??
· a life of trust (in God) as we see later in the Isaac incident – prepared to take a very tricky path knowing that God would not go back on His covenant promises (22:1-19); in fact Abraham was just as prepared to give up his son in sacrifice as God was willing to give up His Son;
· a life of reverence, a consciousness of God’s awesome presence, NB. “Abram fell on his face (17:3);
· developing our likeness to God, or we might say these days … becoming more like Jesus.

And why would this be important in the establishment of a covenant??
· God wants us to fully participate in the fulfilment of His covenant promises; to have a positive influence toward the blessing of others – in so doing receiving blessing ourselves;
· If we fail to ‘walk with God’ then the potential of this everlasting covenant can be delayed in reaching the people that it needs to reach.

The sign of this old covenant was circumcision (whilst the sign of the new covenant we are under is the presence of the Holy Spirit). Do we carry with us certain knowledge of the presence of God’s Spirit that others notice? Are we an active part of God’s covenant relationship with humanity.

4. Conclusion

God’s Eternal Promise is that Faithfulness brings Blessing. Other promises in the human sphere can get forgotten, and sometimes such promises seem conditional or negotiable or provisional. But God’s covenantal heart that seeks out relationships with His created beings is as constant as the universe itself. This has always been the case and continues to be the case today. Let us celebrate God’s faithfulness to us.

[1] Genesis 9:8-17, 12:1-3; Exodus 19:5-6, 24:1-8, 34:10; Deuteronomy 29:10-15.