Canada has one governmental system with three distinct but cooperative branches: the legislative makes laws, the executive implements laws, and the judicial evaluates laws. The whole depends on each part remaining distinct, doing what it is supposed to do and contributing what it is supposed to contribute. The system only works as intended if each branch remains clear on its unique role and unconfused with the unique roles of the other two. If judges start trying to enact laws rather than interpret them or if the prime minister starts making laws rather than applying them, the one system suffers.

The Abrahamic covenant functions in a similar way, containing three distinct but cooperative branches: the promise of a particular land, the promise of a multitude of descendants, and the promise of a global blessing. And it is important to appreciate each part for what it is, not conflating nor confusing them lest the whole of the covenant suffer.

SERMON MANUSCRIPT

Canada has one governmental system with three distinct but cooperative branches: the legislative makes laws, the executive implements laws, and the judicial evaluates laws. 

The system depends on each branch remaining distinct, doing what they’re supposed to do, and contributing what they‘re supposed to contribute. It only works as intended if each branch remains clear on its unique role and unconfused with the other two. If judges start trying to enact laws rather than interpret them or if the prime minister starts making laws rather than applying them, the one system suffers.

The Abrahamic covenant functions similarly. As we’ll see today, the oath God swears with Abraham—a covenant which finds its epicentre in Genesis 15—contains three distinct but cooperative branches. And we need to make sure we appreciate each for what it is, not conflating nor confusing them lest the whole of the covenant suffer.

Before we do that, I should offer a brief review for those who weren’t with us last week or for those who were but have memories like mine and would appreciate a refresher anyway.

A covenant involves multiple parties binding themselves to the requirements and conditions of an oath, formally declaring intention and creating anticipation. Last week we began a series looking at the six covenants God has made with humanity as recorded in Scripture because, in them, he declares his intentions for saving this world from sin and creates anticipation in those of us who are waiting for that day. 

First, there’s the Noahic covenant in Genesis 9 we studied last week and saw, quite simply, that God swears to never again destroy the world with a flood. The second, the one in question this morning, is the Abrahamic covenant. Then comes the Mosaic covenant, that which God makes with Israel after delivering them from Egypt. For that we’ll be in Exodus 19–24. Fourth is the Priestly covenant of Numbers 25 followed by the Davidic covenant of 1 Samuel 7 and, finally, the New covenant introduced in Jeremiah 31.

Each week we’re asking three questions of each of those six covenants. First, what is it? What’s the content of the covenant in question? What was originally heard and expected by its hearers? Second, where does it fit? How does it relate to the other covenants? And third, why does it matter? What difference does this covenant make in our lives today?

What is the Abrahamic Covenant?

So, what is the Abrahamic covenant? As I said, there are three branches to this covenant, the prelude to all being found in Genesis 12. Please turn there if you have a Bible. As you do, remember that God’s flood cleansed the earth but when Noah and his family came off the ark that delivered them from the water, they brought sin with them.

And it doesn’t take long for sin to spread again. In fact, in the same chapter that God cuts the Noahic covenant, Noah gets black-out drunk, passes out naked, and becomes a victim of incestual voyeurism. Then comes the tower of Babel where the people ignore God’s command in 9:1 and, instead, we read 11:4. Not willing to fill the earth themselves, God does it for them, confusing their language (11:8). 

Humanity’s default posture before our Creator is rebellion and, like a wicked metronome, we’d just keep ticking toward death unless a sovereign hand reaches in and intervenes.

And reach in God does in Genesis 12 (12:1a). Who’s Abram? Nobody, really. He’s just some guy God chooses to use.

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 will be blessed” (12:1–3).

This isn’t the covenant yet; that’s coming. Like in chapter 8 when God said he’d never again use a global flood and then, in chapter 9, made a covenant to that same end. So here, this is the pre-oath promise.

And notice the three branches of the promise being made. First, we have the promise of a location (12:1). There’s a promise of a particular land, a location. 

Second, there’s the promise of a population (12:2a–c). What makes this more striking is that 11:30 said Abram and Sarai had no children, she was unable to have children, and 12:4 says that Abram is seventy-five years old. But there are no obstacles for God and so, he promises, not only the blessing of a child, but of a multitude of descendants, a promised population to live at a promised location.

The third branch is the promise of global benediction (12:2d–3). Not only is God going to give Abram land and a great nation, he’s going to bless the globe through him. So, you see, there’s one covenant with three branches that are distinct but cooperative.

Now let’s trace those branches through the following chapters.

So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him (12:4–7).

While verse 3 was vague, “the land which I will show you,” verse 7 is specific. There’s also the mention of descendants, plural.

In chapter 13, the place they’re staying is getting crowded with all their combined wealth, so Lot picks a spot for himself and moves away.

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever (13:14–15).

The first two branches reaffirmed again: location and population … forever.

Coming to chapter 15 there’ve been speed bumps caused by Abram’s imperfect faith.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir” (15:1–3).

Abram is struggling to reconcile God’s three-branched promise with his current circumstances. In particular here, it’s branch two that’s bothering him, the promise of population.

Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir” (15:4).

Pretty clear, right? “It’s not one of your servants through whom a great nation will come. It’s through you.” There’s justification next (vv. 5–6). God granting an unrighteous, fearful, sinful, doubting man righteousness because of his belief.

And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it” (v. 7).

There’s branch one of the promise: location. Though righteous by faith, Abram is still seeking assurances (v. 8). What’s recorded in verse 9–11 was a common covenant-cutting practice in the day. Typically, the parties involved would divide animals, join hands, and walk between the them, essentially declaring “if I don’t keep this particular oath, may I be like these carcasses” (see Jer 34:18–19). So, a covenant is being set-up.

God then predicts the Egyptian bondage (vv. 12–13). And notice branch two of the promise is implied: “your descendants will be strangers.” And then there’s branch three in verse 14—benediction. Didn’t God say, the one who curses you I will curse?

While Abram won’t be alive to see it, eventually, after generations in captivity, his descendants (branch two) will return to the land (branch one) (vv. 15–15). Why the delay? Because God’s going to be patient with the current tenants and, while he won’t cause it, he knows that they will do what all sinful nations do—get increasingly wicked. And, when they reach the apex of their depravity, Abram’s descendent will come and take the land that they’ve been promised, serving as God’s arm of judgement simultaneously. But not yet.

Two entities are passing between the carcasses but not Abram (15:7). He’s asleep. It’s only God, the holy, pure Lord who produces heat and light represented by a smoking oven and a flaming torch. Branches one and two—location and population—reiterated (vv. 18–21).

In chapter 16 Abram again showcases an imperfect faith, attempting to help God with the population promise. He sleeps with his servant, Haggar, at the behest of his wife, Sarai. That doesn’t end well.

Verses 1–7 of chapter 17 are almost overkill. “A population, Abraham! Get it!?” And there’s location again in verse 8. Then God gives him the sign of the covenant. Like the rainbow for the Noahic, circumcision sealed the Abrahamic.

Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. “I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him (17:15–19).

In other words, this Abrahamic covenant will live in perpetuity through the son of promise, Isaac, and his son, Jacob (see 28:13–14 … all three branches!).

In chapter 22, Abraham’s faith is tested, a test he passes beautifully.

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (22:15–18).

Branches one, two, and three. In context, the seed refers to Isaac, who would be the headwater of the great nation to whom the particular land is reserved.

What is the Abrahamic covenant? Abraham will be given a particular location that will eternally be home to a population through whom God will dispense global benediction. One covenant, three branches.

Where does the Abrahamic covenant fit?

Now, Where does the Abrahamic covenant fit? Well, if the Noahic covenant is the foundation on which God intends to carry out his restoration of what was burned down in Genesis 3, the Abrahamic covenant builds atop it. It provides us, as we read through the Bible, more clarity as to how God is going to fix what sin destroyed. God’s going to bless it all, restore it all, but he’s going to do so through a particular people—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Think ahead: eventually, God’s going to promise a perfect kingdom. That requires a land. He’s going to promise a righteous King. That assumes a people to rule. Eventually, God’s going to deal with sin by sending a Redeemer, the Messiah, the Christ, to bless the world with reconciliation and forgiveness. But that Redeemer has to come from somewhere, and the Abrahamic covenant tells people where to look. That’s why Matthew starts his gospel the way he does (see Matt 1:1).

You see, the restoration project is underway. The foundation was laid and, on top of that, God has staked-out a location, will grow a population out of which will flow global benediction. That’s where the Abrahamic covenant fits.

Why does the Abrahamic covenant matter?

Finally, why does the Abrahamic covenant matter? What difference does it make for us today? I have two considerations for us as we close.

First, it reminds us that there’s salvation for the world. For God so loved … the world. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed, through Abraham’s seed (singular). Yes, this was Isaac, but ultimately it’s Jesus (Gal 3:16). Jesus is ultimate Son of Promise, the bringer of global benediction. This will happen totally when he returns to restore all things but, in the meantime, with the offer of eternal life through faith.

Like Abraham believed in the Lord; and [God] reckoned it to him as righteousness, so must every person. We aren’t righteous. We require an external and eternal righteousness to be with a righteous God. We need his righteousness reckoned to us, imputed to us, credited to our accounts. 

And we get that by believing in the Lord, specifically, that he sent his Son to die in our place on the cross, paying our debt, satisfying holy wrath, and that he rose again, defeating death. The moment we believe that we can check our spiritual bank account as see a balance of righteousness that wasn’t there before, that isn’t ours, but will never be removed. The blessing of salvation is for anyone who believes, it’s for the world. 

As Paul says in Galatians 3:6–7. When we, by faith, are saved, we are adopted into Abraham’s family. Now, be careful. I emphasized the distinctions between the branches of the Abrahamic covenant for this reason. By becoming sons of Abraham to which branch do we now have access? We find out if we keep reading (Gal 3:8–9). It’s branch three: global benediction. By trusting in Christ we become beneficiaries of the Abrahamic covenant, but not the whole thing. Paul’s not talking about branches one and two, location and population. 

Which brings me to the second reason the Abrahamic covenant matters for us today. Yes, it brings salvation for the world but it should also prompt intercession for Israel. 

If God means what he says, and he does, then those first two branches remain intact. God has implicated himself to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If he doesn’t grow a population that dwells eternally in that very specific location, then he’s a liar. He broke the covenant. May the God of the universe be as those severed animals. Obviously, this can’t happen. If God means what he says, then he still, even today, has unfinished business with Israel.

Paul asks and answers this very question (see Rom 11:1–2a, 25–29). God’s not done with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He can’t be. He swore oaths to make them a population with a location.

So, pray for Israel. Take seriously Genesis 12:3. It doesn’t mean you have to support them politically or ideologically but understand that the God of the universe has made promises to them and, while now they are being judged for their rejection of Messiah when he came the first time, they won’t reject him the second time. Pray for them. Ask God to soften hearts. To bring them to repentance. 

Salvation is for the world—eternal life to all who believe. Praise God for that! Be grateful for that, celebrate that, grasp that, if you’ve never before. But while we remember this salvation, remember also to pray for the nation through whom it came. Let’s do that now.

 

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