pilgrim people

The Abrahamic Covenant

On page 293 of his book Kingdom Prologue, Meredith Kline summarized the Abrahamic covenant extremely well when he said, "Within it were the promises that were pregnant with the whole future of God's covenantal kingdom, both its old covenant and new covenant stages." The Abrahamic covenant functions like an anchor to all of redemptive history. We want to think about that covenant by looking at its promises, its fulfillment, and the one who fulfills the promises.

Looking at Genesis 15, we see that God promised Abraham (then still named Abram) two primary things: offspring and a land to possess. As we will see, however, these two promises are fulfilled on two marvelous levels in redemptive history. The Lord makes these promises in the form of a covenant and a solemn covenant ritual that was not uncommon in the ancient Near East.

The Lord tells Abraham to get certain animals and cut them in half. This might seem strange to us in the 21st century where treaties are made through signing legal documents. But in Abraham's day, treaties were often made in the method that we read in Genesis 15. When two kings entered made a covenant treaty with each other, animals were often killed and sometimes cut in two for the purpose of taking a blood-oath. After the conditions and sanctions (blessings for obedience, cursings for disobedience) were explained, an oath would be taken, usually by the vassal-king, who promised to fulfill the conditions of the covenant. It was a "blood-oath" in that the one who took the oath was essentially saying, "If I do not fulfill the conditions of this covenant, may I become like these bloody animals." 

This was far more vivid (and dangerous) than the type of covenants in which we enter today. For example, when a person enters in to a covenant with a bank for a car-loan, documents are signed. The one taking out the loan essentially takes an oath in which he or she says, "I promise to fulfill the conditions of our covenant" (which are the monthly payments stipulated in the contract). The penalties are explained in the contract: if you are delinquent on your monthly payments, the bank will take possession of the car. In covenants in the ancient Near East, however, the penalties were far more severe, and the warnings far more vivid.

The one taking the oath, usually the vassal-king, would then walk between the rows of severed carcasses. To do so was to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Abraham understood this ritual. This is how covenants were ratified and made official in his day.

What was so amazing about this particular covenant, however, is that God himself walked between the severed animals! Abraham did not take the oath in this covenant, God did! The Lord himself, the suzerain-king, took the self-maledictory, blood-oath and walked between the rows of animal halves in the form of fire and smoke, a form similar to the pillar of fire and pillar of smoke by which he would later lead his people in the exodus from Egypt. The Lord himself walked the path of death, not Abraham. The Lord invoked this bloodshed and death upon himself should he fail to fulfill his promise to provide Abraham with an offspring and a land.

Abraham believed this promise and, according to Paul in his letter to the Galatians, was justified by faith alone.

More to come...