God had foretold of one who would come and restore all things, and now this was being put into place one piece at a time.
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your fathers house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
Genesis 12:1-3 NASB
God chose a man through whom he would bring the Messiah, the one who would reverse the curse and destroy the serpent. He called Abram out of his country, and away from his family to become a mighty nation in a land that he would give him and his descendants.
The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
Genesis 12:7 NASB
The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you."
Genesis 13:14-17 NASB
Now it needs to be mentioned that Abram, who was 75 when he departed from Haran, was childless. And Sarai, his wife, was barren. Imaging how Abram must have felt. A promise like this would be an incredible thing.
In Genesis 15 we read of the actual covenant that the LORD made with Abram. The LORD took Abram outside and asked him to look at the stars and try to number them, and nd then told him that that was how numerous his descendants would be. Abram believed the LORD, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:1-6).
The LORD had Abram bring a heifer, a female goat, a ram, and a turtle dove and pigeon. He cut the animals in half and laid them out opposit from each other. The birds he left whole. At sundown Abram fell into a deep sleep. Then what appeared as a smoking oven and flaming torch passed in between the animals (Gen 15:7-17).
In that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite."
Genesis 15:18-21 NASB
This covenant was made by God, to Abram, without stipulations on Abram's part. The LORD Himself walked through the pieces of the slain animals in making this covenant. What He was signifying by this act was that if He did not indeed fulfill this covenant by giving this land to the descendants of Abram as an eternal possession, then may what happened to these animals happen to Him. Bear in mind that Abram did not pass between these animals, he was in a deep slumber. God has pledged this land to Abram's descendants. This chapter alone absolutely refutes the idea of "replacement theology", the teaching that God has rejected Israel, and now these promises are symbolically applied to the Church. If this false teaching is true, then a major part of end times prophecy makes no sense at all, and leaves a huge portion of Christians in the dark on the topic of the last days.
In Chapter 17, Abram is now ninety-nine years old. The LORD appeared again to him and reaffirmed this covenant. Again, Abram, whose name has been changed to Abraham, is promised to become a mighty nation, and the land was promised to him and his descendants after him as an eternal possession. God would be their God, and they would be His people (Gen 17:1-8).
It is also at this time God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, as the sign of the coven between them. Any disobedient male, refusing circumcision, among them would be cut off from his people for breaking the covenant (Gen 17:9-14). So, an individual may fail to remain within the covenant, but yet the promise still remained for the nation. This is a major theme, and has ramifications for what will transpire in the last days. I will go deeper into this in a post discussing the Mosaic covenant given at Mount Sinai.
We also read in this chapter that Sarai, Abraham's wife will bear a son whom they will name Issac. It will be through Him that the covenant made with Abraham will be passed down (Gen 17:25-21).
In Genesis 26:1-5 we now read of the covenant made with Abraham being passed down to his son Isaac.
"Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham."
Genesis 26:3 NASB
And from Issac we see the same covenant pass down to his son Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob had a dream. In it he saw a ladder reaching up to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it (Gen 28:10-12).
And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
Genesis 28:13-14 NASB
As one reads through the Old Testament numerous references are made to God being faithful to the covenant made with Abraham and the fathers. God chose a people through whom a deliverer would come, fulfilling prophecy, destroying the serpent and reversing the curse. God has sworn an oath, and He will fulfill that oath. That plays a huge part in the events that unfold in the last days.
It must also be mentioned that Abraham had other son's. In fact his eldest, Ishmael was sent away. The covenant was not to pass to him. And Jacob had a twin brother named Esau. The covenant went through Jacob and not Esau. Tragically Jacob relied on trickery to gain Isaac's blessing, and it created a rift that exists to this day. These two events play a significant part in what is to come in future days.
These are topics for future posts as I lay out a case for the how and why the end time events will play out.
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