Abram was 99 years old when the LORD appeared to him again. This was13 years after He appear to Hagar when she was pregnant with Ishmael. For the first time in Scripture God refers to Himself as “God Almighty”, as El Shaddai. This is a name meant to establish God’s power on earth, even over nature, and in the life of Abram and Sarai. God begins this new contact with Abram with two commands: to walk before Him faithfully and be blameless. Literally, God commands Abram to walk in the Lord’s presence and to be of good character (right doing). Let’s be clear at the onset, the covenant is conditional, just as it was when God met with Abraham’s descendants on Mt. Sinai.
This is unlike other times when God spelled out His promises to Abram. He begins this conversation by placing expectations on Abram to live a life worthy of the covenant relationship with God. We are not meant to understand that Abram was sinlessly perfect, or that he could become so. This only means that God expected Abram to center every aspect of his life around honoring the Lord.
God repeats the covenant to Abram, who will be a father of many nations and kings shall come from his descendants. God changes his name from Abram (exulted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude).
God tells Abraham that His covenant will be between them, to Abraham’s seed, and to their generations for an everlasting covenant. And, will be their God. This covenant of grace, which is a covenant of love, is fundamental to the entire course of salvation history – as was initially given in Genesis 3:15. The covenant is fundamental to the entire course of salvation history.
Covenant Terms
The terms God offered Abraham are identical to those He offered Israel at Sinai. Therefore, the blessings promised to Israel at Sinai on condition of their obedience to the covenant and the curses promised on condition of their disobedience all applied to the Abrahamic covenant just as surely as they did to the Mosaic covenant. The promise of the land to Abraham applied to his literal descendants only on condition that they remained true to God. The loss of the land resulted from their disobedience.
Another reference to land (Garden) can be made in relation to Adam and Eve. This is where the covenant began, God’s promise of life, dominion of the earth, descendants, a “oneness’ marriage relationship between a man and a woman, and a day to cease from all labor in a time of sanctification and holiness with God. This was a blessing to mankind. Mankind’s part was to stay in harmony with His law of love Hosea 6:7. This is the covenant that God made with the human race when we came on the scene. It began with Adam in Eden and God enlarged it with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and of course the New. It is important to understand the New Covenant is really not new at all because-since the promise in Eden of the seed who would bruise the serpent’s head-the plan of salvation has always been predicated on the death of Christ (Revelation 13:8, Jer. 32:40, Heb. 13:20-21, John 13:34). Also, the covenant of grace in not a New Testament truth, for it existed in the mind of God from all eternity. This is why it is called the everlasting covenant. This ‘new covenant’ transforms how we look at everything from the perspective of the cross. No longer by ‘faith’ were animals sacrificed pointing to the Lamb without blemish, but now looking at it from faith in reality (Jesus Christ). His laws of love are written upon the heart, transforming the heart. As we know, Adam and Eve transgressed the covenant and lost dominion, their garden home, etc. etc. See post titled: The Ten Commandments – God’s Law of Love. The Plain Word added this paragraph.
God’s approach to Abraham as recorded in Genesis 17 indicates that there were conditions to His promises. The covenant could only be everlasting to Abraham and his descendants if they were loyal to these conditions. God said to Abraham, “‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous” (Gen. 17:1, 2).(18) After giving the promise of the land for “a perpetual holding” (verse 8), the Lord added the condition: “God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations” (verse 9, italics supplied).
Then the Lord gave the command that every male in Israel was to be circumcised (Gen. 17:10, 11). It is clear that circumcision was to be the outward sign of the heart relationship between Israelites and their God. God wanted them to be circumcised in heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6). Circumcision of the heart is the same spiritual experience that is taught in the New Testament (Rom. 2:25-29). Abraham and his seed could not walk before God and be perfect merely by practicing outward circumcision. The Lord was looking for a heart relationship with His people, of which the practice of circumcision was to be the outward sign. Paul gives the real meaning of circumcision when he says: “He [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised” (Rom. 4:11, 12).
Genesis 15 records: “And he [Abraham] believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). Then is recorded how God made the covenant with Abraham (verses 7-21). Suppose Abraham had not believed in the Lord and received the gift of his righteousness, would God have made the covenant with him, giving him the promise of the land? Of course not! And suppose Abraham had refused God’s command that he should be obedient to His will (Gen. 17:1), would the Lord have restated His promises and given him the sign of circumcision? Since circumcision was the sign of a spiritual experience already enjoyed by Abraham, we can only conclude that, if he had not had that experience, the Lord would never have commanded him to practice the sign. And suppose Abraham or his seed had refused to keep the covenant that God had commanded (Gen. 17:9), would God’s promises have been fulfilled for them? The indication in Genesis 17 is that everything depended on Abraham’s and his descendants’ faithfulness to God. The promise that the Israelites should inherit and continually possess the land of Palestine was conditional upon their faithfulness.
When Abraham had a son by Hagar, he spoiled God’s plan of miraculously demonstrating that salvation is by faith not by human works. Paul refers to this as Abraham’s lapse from the everlasting covenant relationship (Gal. 4:22-31). Only by breaking off the relationship with Hagar could Abraham renew his covenant standing with God and again become the heir to the divine promises.
The Lord offered Israel at Sinai the same covenant relationship that He had given Abraham. The Lord offered them “my covenant” (Exod. 19:5). This is the same “my covenant” spoken of nine times in Genesis 17. How appropriate that God should offer Israel at Sinai the same covenant terms that he had offered Abraham! After all, he had promised Abraham: “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Gen. 17:7; italics supplied).
The New Testament teaches that the Abrahamic covenant applied to Israel at Sinai. Paul wrote to the Galatians: “My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise” (Gal. 3:17, 18). So the giving of the law at Sinai did not change the terms of the covenant. God offered Israel the same covenant He had offered Abraham.
God commanded His covenant “for a thousand generations” (1 Chron. 16:15). This is “the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance'” (verses 16-18).
Although God offered the Israelites the same righteousness by faith relationship that he gave Abraham, they did not make a genuine heart response. They said, “‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do'” (Exod. 19:8; compare 24:3, 7). But their hearts were not in their words (Deut. 5:28, 29). They broke God’s covenant by refusing the experience of Deuteronomy 6:4-6 and by turning to their man-made gods (Exod. 32; compare Jer. 31:32). God found fault with His chosen people (Heb. 8:8) “for they did not continue in my covenant” (verse 9). The faulty covenant of man’s own works, by which he separates himself from a faith-grace union with God, is called the “first,” or “old” covenant (Heb. 8:7, 13), because it was Israel’s first experience at Sinai. By contrast, the “new” covenant (verse 8) is the Abrahamic or everlasting covenant of righteousness by faith which Israel accepted at Sinai after God had rebuked their sin (Exod. 34; 35). But throughout their history the Israelites tended to turn away from God, forgetting His covenant and lapsing into a self-made religion of works. (See Jeremiah 7.)