Identify and explain the Abrahamic Covenant

The first words that God spoke to Abram were: "Go from your country and your kindred

and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great

nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will

bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the

families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen. 12:1b-3, ESV) With this God's special dealings

with Abram began. God's first words to Abram contained a condition to go out from his

country and away from his family to a land that God would show. Although Abram was only

partially obedient to the Lord, as he did not leave his family but moved with them, God gave

him an unconditional promise in verse 7, "To your offspring I will give this land." The

promise was confirmed and expanded in the chapters to come: when Abram separated from

Lot, when he delivered Lot from captivity and met with Melchizedek on his way back home,

and when he was ninety-nine years old still without a son from Sarah. The promise was later

repeated to Isaac and Jacob. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the covenant of

God with Abraham to the nation of Israel. To understand just how great a meaning this has,

we must know what the covenant promised:

“1. That Abraham's name shall be great. 2. That a great nation should come from him. 3.

He should be a blessing so great that in him shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4.

To him personally (“thee") and to his seed should be given Palestine forever to inherit.

5. The multitude of his seed should be as the dust of the earth. 6. That whoever blessed

him should be blessed, and whosoever cursed him should be cursed. 7. He should be the

father of many nations. 8. Kings should proceed from him. 9. The covenant shall be

perpetual, "an everlasting covenant." 10. The land of Canaan shall be "an everlasting
 possession." 11. God will be a God to him and to his seed. 12. His seed shall possess the

gate of his enemies. 13. In his seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” 1

All these promises can be divided into three major categories: the promised land (Gen. 12:1,

13:14-15), the promise of redemption for the nation and all the people of the earth (Gen. 12:3;

22:18; Galatians 3:18), the promise of many descendants that would form a great nation (Gen.

12:2; 13:16; 17:2-6 ect.). There are three other covenants made with Israel that will expand

the three aspects of this initial covenant with Abraham. The following graph illustrates the

relationship:

And so we see that the most basic covenant out of these four was the Abrahamic, for through

it the nation itself was born.

1
William Lincoln, Lectures On The Book Of Revelation, pp. 206-207