The Covenant Program

A covenant is an agreement or contract between two parties. In our
case it is between God and the Israelites where He makes promises to
His people and usually, in return, He expects them to conduct their
behavior in a prescribed manner. There are two different types of
covenants we will explore here in our text. There is an unconditional
covenant that binds the one who is making the covenant to a certain
course of action, but there is also a second type that may have
conditions attached to it based on the response of the recipient. Even
though these conditions grow out of the original covenant they do not
change the characteristics of the agreement. These covenants are to be
read in their usual or most basic sense. They are literal promises from
God.

All the covenants of the Bible are eternal except the Mosaic
Covenant, which is declared to be temporary and was only to continue
until the coming of the Messiah, whereas the Abrahamic Covenant is
eternal and will be everlasting. The Palestinian Covenant, the Davidic
Covenant, and the New Covenant are all called eternal. All the
covenants in the Bible are dependent upon the power of God to be
fulfilled so all are unconditional in character. These agreements were
made for a covenant people, the Israelites, who would receive the
promises and enjoy the conditions relevant to their behavior. The
Gentiles have not received any covenant promises so they are not in a
covenant relationship with God.

To show an outward symbol to the descendants of Abram (which
means “exalted father”) God changed Abram’s name to Abraham
(which means “father of many nations”). The birth of a son to
Abraham was the confirmation of God’s covenant. “And I
will establish My covenant between Me and you and your
descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting
covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also, I
give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are
a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I
will be their God.”1

God confirmed His agreement with a specific area of land and a
specific people, and He established a rite which would be a sign of the
covenant. “Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you
shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a
sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old
among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your
generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from
any foreigner who is not your descendant. And the uncircumcised
male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that
person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”2
Circumcision was to be a sign to God of the father’s faith, but
only faith could bring the son into the conditions of the covenant, so
circumcision became a sign of faith and identified an individual with
the covenant. Those without faith were barred from the covenant and
any uncircumcised male would be cut off from his people. Anyone
without faith could not enter the kingdom of God. That very same day
Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; and all the men of his
house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were
circumcised with him.3

Lot was the nephew of Abraham, which made him an heir to the
promises of the covenant. Even though he enjoyed the blessings of the
covenant, his incestuous relationships with his daughters resulted in
children who were born and became enemies of the covenant and
created the tribes of the Ammonites and the Moabites. They were
constantly at war with the Israelites throughout history. We will see
time and time again that those who reject God and refuse to submit to
His authority will become part of the kingdom of Satan and will be
removed from the covenant promises.

Abraham and Sarah, his wife, were getting up in their years and
had yet to give birth to a child so Sarah proposed the idea of Abraham
producing an heir with her handmaiden Hagar. Here we find that
every time we try to circumvent God’s authority, disaster strikes our
lives. Good intentions combined with our fallen nature never produce
productive outcomes. Abraham used human effort to fulfill the
promises of the covenant and in doing so submitted his leadership to
Sarah. It was from this consummation that Ishmael was born. Instead
of producing an heir, they created a false kingdom that would create
the chief adversary of Abraham’s people throughout all of history.

The Bible describes Ishmael as “a wild man; His hand shall
be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he
shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”4 God rejected Ishmael
as the fulfillment of the covenant and insisted that Sarah would bear a
child, which would continue the promised lineage. At the exact time
God had predicted, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Abraham circumcised
his son, which placed Isaac as a descendant of the covenant. Since
Ishmael could not receive the benefits of the covenant, he had to be
put out so he could not receive the inheritance. This brought great
pain to Abraham because he loved the child.

God appeared to Isaac and confirmed His oath. He told Isaac to
stay in the land He had given his father and not to go down to Egypt,
and as long as Isaac was in the land God blessed him. “And I will
make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to
your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and
kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”5

God showed His blessings by providing plenty of water for Isaac’s
herds and crops, so Isaac recognized God as the provider of the
covenant by building an altar as a sign of submission. Just as his
father had done, Isaac called upon the name of the Lord.
Isaac took Rebekah as his wife, but she was barren just like Sarah
so God enabled her to have children because without a son the
covenant would be broken. A short time later she gave birth to Esau
and Jacob. They were twins, with Esau being the oldest, and he would
be expected to carry on the covenant except God had other ideas. At
an early age Esau showed that he was not a part of the kingdom of
God but rather the kingdom of darkness because of his distinctive
nature of unbelief. Esau was one who lived to gratify the flesh, which
came at the expense of the administration to the kingdom.

One day Esau came home very hungry and asked Jacob to give
him some food that Isaac had prepared, and Jacob said, “Sell me your
birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die;
so, what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of
this day.” So, he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And
Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank,
arose, and went his way. Thus, Esau despised his birthright.6 From
that day forward Jacob became the rightful heir to the covenant. By
faith the inheritance came down through Isaac to him.

Now Rebecca convinced Jacob to go and accept his father’s
blessing in Esau’s place, so Jacob placed animal skins on his arms,
took the food his mother had made and went before his father to
receive his blessing. Isaac, thinking he was talking to his son Esau,
blessed Jacob instead. “Therefore, may God give you of the dew of
heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let
peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your
brethren and let your mother’s sons bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless
you!”7 When Esau was rejected it caused him to hold a grudge and
hate Jacob. Esau built a kingdom of evil as the Edomites, who were
opposed to the kingdom of God through their unbelief.

Jacob fled from his family in fear of Esau and reaffirmed the
Abrahamic covenant. “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father
and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and
your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the
earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north
and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth
shall be blessed.8 This place where Jacob met God, he named Bethel,
which means “the house of God.” He set up a memorial as evidence
to his faith and declared he would give a tenth of his income to the
Lord.

1.) Genesis 17:7-8
2.) Genesis 17 10-12, 14
3.) Genesis 17:26-27
4.) Genesis 16:12
5.) Genesis 26:4-5
6.) Genesis 25:32-34
7.) Genesis 27:28-29
8.) Genesis 28:13-14