The everlasting covenant that God made with Abram and confirmed to Isaac and Jacob concerned a people and a land. To Abram He said, “I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and make your name great…to your descendents I will give this land” (Gen. 12:2-7). To his son Isaac, He said, “For to you and your descendents I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I sware to Abraham your father” (Gen. 26:3). And to his grandson Jacob, later renamed Israel, He said, “the land on which you lie will I give to you and to your descendents…and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 28:13-14).
It has often been said that Genesis is the seed plot of Scripture. What is found there in germ form is amplified in later history. In this case, the covenant made with the patriarchs will continue until it is ultimately fulfilled in the New Covenant to be enacted in a future day with a regenerated Israel (Heb. 8:8-13).
The People
It is important, however, to see the variation in language used in the Genesis account. In Genesis 22:17, God says that Abraham’s seed will be “as the stars of the heavens and as the sand of the sea shore”—both a heavenly and an earthly people. In Genesis 26:4, the promise to Isaac is that his seed will be “as the stars in the heavens”—there is no reference to the earthly element. In contrast, God tells Jacob in Genesis 28:14 that his seed will be “as the dust of the ground”—exclusively earthly. The apostle Paul helps us to understand these distinctions in Galatians 4:22-31. In reference to the covenant made with Isaac, he contrasts the earthly Jerusalem associated with Hagar with the heavenly Jerusalem connected with Isaac: “the Jerusalem that is above is free…we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise” (Gal. 4:26-28). From this we surely can deduce that the reference to Jacob’s seed being as the dust of the ground relates to the abiding nature of Israel as an earthly nation.
The Land
Examining the covenant promise to Jacob, the additional details given exclusively to him are significant:
“I am the Lord the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie will I give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed…Behold, I am with you and will keep you and wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you” (Gen. 28:13-15).
In this, and many other passages, God promises Abraham and his seed the land of Israel.
The covenant made with Moses will be dealt with in a later article, but it is necessary in the context of the controversy that surrounds present-day Israel and her future to make a brief reference to it. In the Mosaic covenant, Israel is warned that if they disobey God, they will be scattered (Deut. 4:23-31). On numerous occasions, Israel rebelled and suffered the consequences.
But this did not invalidate the Abrahamic covenant. We must always distinguish between ownership and occupation when we refer to the people and the land of Israel. The prophet Joel refers to the Lord’s pleading, “for My people and My heritage, Israel” (Joel 3:2); in Isaiah 8:8, the land is called Immanuel’s land; and Ezekiel 20:6 refers to “a land that I have searched out for them…the glory of all lands.” The ownership is in perpetuity, whether they are currently occupying the land or not.
Unconditional
The detail that is afforded to us as to how God established the covenant with Abram is recorded in Genesis 15:7-21. It may seem an odd ritual to us, but, in those times, it was the custom for two people making a covenant to sacrifice animals, cut them in two, and walk between the pieces (see Jer. 34:18-20). In so doing, they contracted to keep the covenant.
It is interesting then, that in contrast to the accepted custom, the Lord did not permit Abram to join Him in the walk. He put him to sleep, thus preventing him from participating in the making of the covenant. Why did the Lord do this? Because He wanted to emphasize that the covenant was entirely of His own doing. It didn’t depend on Abraham’s obedience. It was unconditional. Abraham was a fallen man. Had he participated in its making, the covenant would not, and could not, have been irrevocable and everlasting.
Readers will be familiar with the apostle Paul’s treatise on this subject in Romans 9-11. He summarizes in chapter 11:11-15:
“I say then, have they [Israel] stumbled that they should fall? But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!…for if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”
In spite of periods of disobedience along the way, in the end, Israel will enter into all the blessings of God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham.
The Lord Himself
We have already referred to Genesis 22:15-18. Although the word covenant is not used, it is clear that this is a confirmation of all that the Lord had indicated to Abraham from the time He called him out of Ur. The language used is very powerful: “By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed…” The use of the word Myself reinforces the fact that this was a one-party covenant.
This has warm overtones of the conversation Abraham had just had with Isaac on their way to the place of sacrifice. Isaac had noted the fire and the wood but asked where the lamb was for the burnt offering. And Abraham said, “God will provide Himself a lamb.” But no lamb was provided that day. Isaac’s life was spared and a ram took his place. But the lamb for the burnt offering came two thousand years later as John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus and proclaimed, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29).