Abraham: Covenant of Faith
Abram (God later changed his name to Abraham) lived with his father and extended family in an area of Asia Minor that was in the southern part of what we call Turkey today. He received a message from God:
“Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
to the land that I will show you.
Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,
and I will make your name great,
so that you will exemplify divine blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,
so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
to the land that I will show you.
Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,
and I will make your name great,
so that you will exemplify divine blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,
so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
So Abram took all his possessions and servants as well as his nephew Lot, left his home and family, and began a journey as God directed him. Eventually Abraham (formerly Abram) reached the land that God had promised him but, since he did not have any children, he was questioning how God would be able to deliver on the promise of making him into a great nation. God assured Abraham that he would have a son of his own as an heir. In Genesis 15:6 the Bible says:
Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him.
Following the tradition of the time, God had Abraham kill some animals, cut them in half, and lay the pieces opposite each other. The Bible puts it this way in Genesis 15:17-18:
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts. That day the Lord made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land...
The smoking firepot and the flaming torch passing between the animal parts represented God's sealing of the covenant with Abraham. In this covenant God made a promise to Abraham and Abraham trusted (believed) God to deliver. You can read the details of Abraham's encounter with God in Genesis 15:1-20.
Moses: Covenant of Law
With the passage of over 400 years Abraham's family did grow into a "nation", estimated at about 2 million people when Moses led them out of Egypt and out of slavery. After they left Egypt and as they moved toward the land that God had promised to Abraham (and them), God made a covenant with all the people of the nation with Moses serving as a "mediator". This covenant differed from the covenant with Abraham:
- God made a promise to Abraham but Abraham did not make any promise to God; he simply trusted God to deliver on the promise.
- In the giving of the "Law", God promised the people blessings if they obeyed and curses if they disobeyed; and the people agreed to keep and obey the Law.
A significant part of the Old Testament in the Bible describes how the people of Israel failed to live up to their commitment to the covenant.
David: Covenant for an eternal King and Kingdom
Hundreds more years pass and the people are not content to have just God as their "King". They want to have a powerful human "king" to rule them and to fight their battles for them "like all the other nations around them". So God gave them the kind of human king they wanted: a physically strong, attractive, charismatic man. Unfortunately, King Saul was more interested in his own personal well being than in serving the people or upholding God's standard.
As a result, God sent the prophet Samuel to find and anoint another king, one who would be a better servant of God and his people. God's choice was not what human beings would have expected. He selected David, the youngest son of a sheep farmer who spent his days tending his father's sheep. Some of David's early life experiences remind us of what Jesus experienced during his time here on earth:
- His father left him out in the field with the sheep when the prophet Samuel came to visit.
- He was seen as just a kid
- His brothers did not respect him
- Over 20 years pass from his anointing by Samuel until he becomes king, much of it spent in exile fleeing for his life
Compare this to Jesus:
- His family thought he was crazy
- People of his home town rejected him
- Jewish authorities plotted to kill him
Unfortunately, David was a flawed human being just like the rest of us and in many ways he fell short of God's standard, but God showed compassion to him and provided forgiveness to him. Looking to David's descendants and the future of the people of Israel, and indeed all future inhabitants of the earth, God made a covenant with David: that one of his descendants would be the king of an eternal kingdom.
The Lord said,
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have made a promise on oath to David, my servant:
‘I will give you an eternal dynasty
and establish your throne throughout future generations.’”
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have made a promise on oath to David, my servant:
‘I will give you an eternal dynasty
and establish your throne throughout future generations.’”
Jesus: Humble Servant, King of Kings
Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, is the continuation of the Covenant of Faith established with Abraham. God promises a place for us in his kingdom if we will believe in and trust Jesus.
Jesus, as the only human being to ever perfectly obey the Law of God given when Moses was the "mediator"and perfectly live up to God's standard, has "fulfilled" or completed the Law. Then, as a humble servant, he sacrificed himself to pay the price for our failure to live up to God's standard.
Jesus, as the Son of God and as a descendant of David, is the King of an eternal Kingdom that exists right now and that we can be a part of.
Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, is the continuation of the Covenant of Faith established with Abraham. God promises a place for us in his kingdom if we will believe in and trust Jesus.
Jesus, as the only human being to ever perfectly obey the Law of God given when Moses was the "mediator"and perfectly live up to God's standard, has "fulfilled" or completed the Law. Then, as a humble servant, he sacrificed himself to pay the price for our failure to live up to God's standard.
Jesus, as the Son of God and as a descendant of David, is the King of an eternal Kingdom that exists right now and that we can be a part of.
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Scripture quoted by permission. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
This post is the result of my studies based on the book by Mark E. Moore, Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Building your Bible IQ in a Year, published by WaterBook (Penguin Random House)
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-525-65325-7
ebook isbn 978-0-525-65326-4
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