ABRAHAM'S COVENANT
G-d said to Abraham
(in that time his name was Abram):
(Gen 12:1) ... Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
(Gen 12:2) And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
(Gen 12:3) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Abraham was to leave:
1) his country;
2) his kindred;
3) his father's house
Then he was to go to the land which Hashem promised to show him. G-d promised him too:
- to make of him a great nation;
- to bless him;
- to make his name great;
- he ''shalt be a blessing (to others)'';
- to bless them who will bless him etc.
Why did Abraham need leave his land firstly?
(Jos 24:2) And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, [even] Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
Did Abraham asked Hashem: what is this land? Where is it? Why did I need to go there? Not. Abraham didn't ask no questions. If G-d tells us to do something, we don't need to ask G-d the questions.
(Gen 12:4) So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram [was] seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
(Gen 12:5) And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
Let us to read these lines once more: ''...Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him...''
If G-d asks us to do something we need to do all He tells us.
We see Abraham took Sarah, his wife, Lot and all peoples they had gained in Haran too. Most likely Abraham told them about Hashem.
Then Abraham ''passed through the land to the place of Shechem, unto the Oak of Moreh'' (Gen. 12:6)
(Gen 12:7) And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
We see G-d led Abraham.
(Gen 12:8) And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
Later (afrer return of Egypt) Abraham went to Canaan (future Eretz Israel) again.
(Gen 13:3) And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai;
(Gen 13:4) Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
G-d said to Abraham
after that Lot left:
(Gen 13:14) ... Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
(Gen 13:15) For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
(Gen 13:16) And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, [then] shall thy seed also be numbered.
(Gen 13:17) Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
(Gen 13:18) Then Abram removed [his] tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which [is] in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
Later G-d shall tell him:
(Gen 15:5) And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
(Gen 15:6) And he believed (put his trust) in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness.
(Faith in Hebrew is emunah. Emunah is faithfulness, confidence.)
(Gen 15:7) And He said unto him, I [am] the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
Abraham asked G-d: ''...whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?''
(Gen 15:9) And He said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
(Gen 15:10) And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
(Gen 15:11) And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
(Gen 15:12) And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
(Gen 15:13) And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land [that is] not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
(Gen 15:14) And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
(Gen 15:15) And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
(Gen 15:16) But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites [is] not yet full.
(Gen 15:17) And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
(Gen 15:18) 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 15:19) The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
(Gen 15:20) And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
(Gen 15:21) And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Later Hashem told Abraham:
(Gen 17:1) And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I [am] the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
(Gen 17:2) And I will make My covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
We see in that time Abraham was 99 already. Almost 25 years passed after that G-d spoke Abraham for the first time. Why did it pass so many time? Most likely Hashem wanted prepare Abraham for this covenant.
(Gen 17:3) And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
(Gen 17:4) As for Me, behold, My covenant [is] with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
(Gen 17:5) Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
(Gen 17:6) And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
(Gen 17:7) And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
(Gen 17:8) And
I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a
stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be
their God.
What is the covenant with Abraham?
1)
G-d will be Abraham's G-d and God of his descendants;
2) the
Canaan's land will be given to Israel, for an everlasting possession (laachuzat olam).
"And I will give thee Canaan
for an everlasting possession - God had before promised this land to Abraham
and his seed, 15:18.But here, it is promised for an everlasting possession, as
a type of heaven, that everlasting rest which remains for the people of God.
This is that better country to which Abraham had an eye, and the grant of which
was that which answered the vast extent of that promise, that God would be to
them a God; so that if God had not designed this, he would have been ashamed to
be called their God..." (Wesley's Notes http://www.bible-center.ru/comments/wesley_eng/ge/17)
G-d said Abraham too:
(Gen 17:21) ... My covenant will I establish with Isaac...
Then G-d established His covenant with Isaac and Jacob.
Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) was the descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). The promise ''... in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed'' (Gen. 12:3) refers to Yeshua:
(Acts 3:25) Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
(Acts 3:26) Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
(Gal 3:8) And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, [saying], In thee shall all nations be blessed.
(Gal 3:9) So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
In order to G-d
would use us we need:
1) to be obedient, to do all Hashem tells us.
(1Sam 15:22) And Samuel said, Hath the LORD [as great] delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey [is] better than sacrifice, [and] to hearken than the fat of rams.
2) To have long-suffering.
2) To bless Israel, the Jewish people.
Jews, Christians and the Word of God