RUSSELL SANDERS
10-31-2020
ABRAHAM PART 18
THE COVENANT
After Melchizedek, Priest-King of Salem (Jerusalem) and pre-incarnate form of Jesus, had blessed Abram and brought him communion (bread and wine), Abram returned to his dwelling in Hebron, the Plain of Mamre.
There he had a unique encounter with God. It began as Abram recalled God’s promise (Genesis 12:7), “Unto thy seed (heirs) will I give this land.”
In Genesis 15:1 God appeared to him in a vision affirming protection and great reward. Abram responded by questioning God about the original promise seeing that he had no heir. Was his servant (steward) the Syrian Eliezer to be his heir? God said, “No, it will be one that shall come out of your own flesh.” (my paraphrase.) God then numbered his seed (offspring) as the number of stars in the heavens. Abram chose to believe Him. God then sealed this promise with a blood covenant.
As instructed in the vision by God, Abram divided in half a heifer (young cow), a ram (male goat), and a female goat, each being three years old (a number of the trinity) and laid them upon a stone altar along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.
As evening approached, Abram fell into a deep sleep. God spoke to him and prophesied about the Egyptian bondage of his heirs and how they would emerge from it with “great substance.” During the trance, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between the sacrificial pieces that were on the altar where their blood had been shed. God then spoke again saying, (Gen 15:18) “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt (Nile) unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Babylon and Assyria).”
The blood on the altar sealed the promise of God as an eternal covenant. It is often called the Abrahamic Covenant, although his name was still Abram at that time.
At a later time, we shall see that Isaac became the “seed of the promise,” yet the vast territory was indeed populated to this day with Abraham’s seed and not just from Isaac and Jacob (Israel). His seed over this enormous territory, produced from his loins in his old age, came from Ishmael (and his twelve sons), Isaac, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishak, and Shuah, eight sons in all. Yes, Abraham had many sons during his 175 years of life. God had indeed promised him a long life (Gen. 15:15).
God loved Abram and made him great among the nations. Abram was not perfect; he made many mistakes, but God loved him and favored him anyway. That “favor” is the very meaning of “grace.” That same “grace” from God is given to you and me when we have the “faith like as of Abraham” in our God, Yeshua – Yahweh.
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