When God told Abraham to offer up his only begotten son, He knew that God was faithful to keep his promise. Knowing that God made a promise with him, he knew God would preserve the son who was the heir of the promise. Knowing the faithfulness of our loving God gives us the assurance of knowing God will keep His promise to us.
The Abrahamic Covenant
The Abrahamic Covenent is an unconditional covenant.
Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 12:1-3; confirmed, 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 17:1-8 The covenant of promise. Abraham's posterity was to be made a great nation. In him (ultimately through the Messiah) all the families of the earth were to be blessed (Galatians 3:16; John 8:56-58).
Genesis 12:1-3
Now the Lord said to Abram,"Go forth from your country, And from your relatives, And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;
- And I will make you a great nation,
- And I will bless you,
- And make your name great;
- And so you shall be a blessing;
- And I will bless those who bless you,
- And the one who curses you I will curse.
- And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
To Abraham: Genesis 13:14-17
14 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from theplace where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. 16 "And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. 17 "Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you."
Abraham walked through physical land. God promised Abraham specific land, the land of Israel.
Genesis 17:1-8
1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,
"I am God Almighty;Walk before Me, and be blameless. 2 "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly." 3 And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, 4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 "And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. 7 "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. 8 "And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
The covenant is given to Isaac and his descendants and not Ishmael Genesis26:2-4
To Isaac: Genesis 26:2-4
Genesis 26:2 And the Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you.3 "Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.4 "And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
Given to Jacob (Israel) and his descendants not Essau Genesis 28:13-15
To Jacob: Genesis 28:12
Genesis 28:12 And he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.14 "Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.15 "And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
The Mosaic Covenant
The Mosaic Covenant was a conditional covenant. Ex 20:1-31:18
The Mosaic Law consisted of 613 - Mitzvot (Commandments)
The legal covenant, given solely to Israel. It consisted of the commandments (Ex 20:1-26); the judgments (social) - (Ex 21:1; 24:11) and the ordinances (religious); (Ex 24:12-31:18); also called the law. It was a conditional covenant of works, a ministry of 'condemnation' and 'death' (2 Cor 3:7-9), designed to lead the transgressor (convicted thereby as a sinner) to the Messiah.
It did not replace the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant, instead it placed stipulations on receiving the blessings promised by the covenant. Participation in the blessings was dependant on the keeping of the covenant did not nullify the Abrahamic Covenant.
The Land Aspect of the Covenant
The land aspect of the Covenant is often refered as the Palestinian Covenant. Politically speaking the Bible never calls it the land of Palestine. This is a phrase coined to dejudize the land after the Roman conquest after the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem. There has never in history been a country of Palestine. There has never been a capitol of Palestine, and never a leader, president or king of Palestine. For more accurate theology a better reference is the Land Covenant.
Deuteronomy 30:1-10
"So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you,2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons,3 then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.4 "If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.5 "And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.6 "Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.7 "And the Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.8 "And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.9 "Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers;10 if you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. 11 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.12 "It is not in heaven, that you should say, `Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?'13 "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, `Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?'14 "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observerve it.15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it."
The covenant regulating Israel's tenure of the land of Canaan.
Its prophetic features include dispersion of disobedience (Deut 30:1), future repentance while in dispersion (30:2), the Lord will return of the remnant (30:3), the restoration (30:4-5), national conversion (3:6), judgment of Israel's foes (30:7), national prosperity (30:9). Its blessings are conditioned upon obedience (30:8, 10), but fulfillment is guaranteed by the new covenant.
Unconditional Aspect of the Covenants
Leviticus 26:44-45 `Yet in spite of this (sins of disobedience), when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them , nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.45 `But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.'
The Davidic Covenant:
The Seed Aspect through David - 1 Chronicles 17:4-15
The Davidic Covenant is a covenant of Messianic Promise. 1 Chronicles 17:4-15. The kingdom covenant regulating the temporal and eternal rule of David's posterity. It secures in perpetuity a Davidic 'house' or line, a throne, and a kingdom. It was confirmed by divine oath in Ps 89:30-37 and renewed to Mary in Lk 1:31-33. It is fulfilled in the Messiah as the World's Saviour and Israel's coming King (Acts 1:6; Rev 19:16; 20:4-6).
1 Chronicles 17:4 "Go and tell David My servant, `Thus says the Lord, "You shall not build a house for Me to dwell in; 5 for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from one dwelling place to another.6 "In all places where I have walked with all Israel, have I spoken a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people, saying, `Why have you not built for Me a house of cedar?'"'7 "Now, therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, `Thus says the Lord of hosts, "I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be leader over My people Israel.8 "And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.9 "And I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be moved no more; neither shall the wicked waste them anymore as formerly,10 even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I tell you that the Lord will build a house for you.11 "And it shall come about when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up one of your descendants after you, who shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom.12 "He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.13 "I will be his father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you.14 "But I will settle him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever."
God will not forsake His covenant.
Psalm 89:30-37
- 30 "If his sons forsake My law,And do not walk in My judgments,
- 31 If they violate My statutes, And do not keep My commandments,
- 32 Then I will visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes.
- 33 "But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness.
- 34 "My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.
- 35 "Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David.
- 36 "His descendants shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me.
- 37 "It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful."
The New Covenant
New covenant, Jer 31:31-33; Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; Heb 8:8-12
Jeremiah 31:31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (ie the Mosaic Law) , My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the Lord.33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.34 "And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." 35 Thus says the Lord,Who gives the sun for light by day, And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: 36 "If this fixed order departsFrom before Me," declares the Lord, "Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease From being a nation before Me forever."
If the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars cease to exist then and only then will the Nation of Israel cease to exits. The New Covenant of unconditional blessing based upon the finished redemption of the Messiah. It securesblessing for the church who are partakers of these Jewish spiritual blessings. These blessings flow from the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:13-20), and secures all covenant blessings to believing Israel, including those of the Abrahamic, Land, and Davidic covenants. This covenant is unconditional, final and irreversible. These covenants point to the new covenant.