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The Abrahamic Covenant: It's Impact On History And Us
Contributed by Raymond Petzholt on Mar 12, 2024 (message contributor)
Summary: The Promises of the Abrahmic Covenant are guiding & eventually determine the ultimate outcome of history. They reveal God’s guaranteed long-term plan in the Middle East. It reveals Why Israel [the Jews] can Never be totally Destroyed
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The Abrahamic Covenant: It’s Impact on History & Us! (Gen. 15)
The Promises of the Abrahmic Covenant are guiding & eventually determine the ultimate outcome of history. They reveal God’s guaranteed long-term plan in the Middle East. It reveals Why Israel [the Jews] can Never be totally Destroyed. Understanding Blood Covenant brings us assurance of salvation if we genuinely repent & believe in Jesus Christ!
GOD CUT AN UNCONDITIONAL COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
God Reveals 2 Ways He Gives us Unshakable faith:
1.) God commits Himself to Abram with precious Promises (Gen. 12:1-3; 13:14-17; 15:1-5). A promise is only as sure as the character of the one making it: No one is more powerful, faithful & truthful than God (Heb. 6:13) God is omnipotent & Holy [perfect]. It is impossible for him to lie! (Heb. 6:17-18; Num. 23:19; I Sam. 15:29; Titus 1:2).
2.) God confirms the Promises with an unconditional Blood Covenant
Oath. (Described in Genesis 15:9-21). Once God swears by an unconditional Blood covenant it can never be changed. It is immutable!
(Hebrews 6:16-19) “Men verily swear [the promise] by the greater: & an oath [of a covenant] for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. (17) God, willing more abundantly to show the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: (18) That by two immutable things [the promise & the covenant] in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation & lay hold upon the hope set before us: (19) Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul.” Our HOPE is in God’s Word!
The Prophetic & symbolic Experience of Abraham entering a Blood Covenant Relationship with God
(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.”
[The deep sleep makes it very clear this covenant is unconditional] The horror & darkness hint the Promises will come through great suffering.
Genesis 15:13-16 is a 7-fold prophecy literally & completely fulfilled:
1. Abram’s descendants were to be strangers in a land not theirs
(Gen. 15:13). Fulfilled in Israel’s going to Egypt (Genesis 46 thru 50)
2. They will "serve" [be servants] in this strange land (Gen. 15:13)
Fulfilled (Ex. 1 & 2)
3. They will be ‘afflicted’ 400 yrs. (Gen. 15:13). Fulfilled (Ex. 12:40-41)
Why? Could it be related to the riches he took by deceiving the
Egyptians? (Gen. 12:9-20 esp. vs. 15-16) (Prov. 28:13)
4. The nation whom Abram’s descendants "serve" God would "judge."
(Gen. 15:14). Fulfilled in Exodus chapt. 5 thru 15 & history.
5. Abram’s offspring would come out of Egypt with "great substance."
(Gen. 15:14; Ps. 105:37). Fulfilled in Exodus 12:33-36. [the riches were so they could build God’s House]
6. “And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace” (Gen. 15:15) & be buried
in a good old age. Fulfilled in Genesis 25:1-11. Here we have a revelation of life after death. God must raise him from the dead to fulfill the covenant promise that he & his seed will inherit the Promised Land “forever” (Gen. 13:15). Fulfilled in his seed Jesus Christ’s resurrection!
Jesus confirms God’s relationship with Abraham implied Life after Death when He taught: “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, & Isaac, & Jacob?’ “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” They were astonished at his doctrine” (Matt. 22:31-33).
Do you want to know where Abraham went? – read Luke 16:19-31.
7. In the "fourth generation" Abram’s descendants would return again to Canaan (v.16). Fulfilled (Ex. 12:40-1 & Joshua) [here a generation is 100 years; generations are different lengths in other Scriptures]]
A SUBSTITUTE TAKES ABRAHAM’S PLACE IN THE COVENANT
(Gen 15:17) “It came to pass when the sun went down, & it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, & a burning lamp passed between the pieces.”
The burning Lamp points to Jesus the light of the World (Isa. 10:17; 62:1) who takes Abram’s place in making covenant with the furnace of God’s Shekinah Glory! (Ex. 3:2; 13:21; 19:18; 40:38).
(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: Because the Abrahamic Covenant is an Unconditional Covenant the Promised Land (all the land of Canaan) will be Israel’s for an everlasting possession (Gen. 12:1, 7; 13:15; 17:8; also Gen. 22:15-18; 26:2-5; 28:12-13).
The Promises of the Abrahamic Blood Covenant are found in (Genesis 12:1-7; 13:14-17; 15:1-21; 17:1-14; 22:15-18). Some Promises are not fulfilled yet. How do the Gentiles enter the Blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant? By FAITH in God’s Word! (Gal. 3:6-9)