The Abrahamic Covenant: It’s the Lens in Which The Entire Bible Must Be Interpreted!
In the book of Genesis the reader encounters the Abrahamic Covenant, an unconditional, unilateral covenant God made with mankind to restore His perfect intention for man. Moses (traditionally assumed author by both Jews and Christians) theologically directs the main focus of Genesis to this covenant, which is not only the foundation of the book, but of the entire Bible.
There are three key elements of the Abrahamic Covenant developed in Genesis: “land,” “blessing” and “seed.” Although the covenant foundation starts in Gen. 12, these three elements begin to be developed in Gen. 1-11. Their significance must be discussed prior to examining the covenant, in order to properly understand how each element plays a major part within it.
Upon the examination of the elements of “land” and “blessing,” God establishes all creation, including all land aspects, starting early in Genesis and continuing throughout the first chapter. Moses reveals that all of creation was made for man (Gen. 1:26), who was created in God’s own image. Man had responsibility to co-rule with God over it. In chapter 1 verses 22, 28 the reader sees God’s blessings over His creation. Moses tells the reader that God thought all that He created “was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Thus, the reader sees God made a perfect, blessed land and entire creation by the close of this chapter.
As the reader gets to chapter 3, a new dynamic is introduced to the story of creation – human failure in following God’s requirements. This dynamic stands in contradiction to God’s perfect creation. Adam and Eve’s failure occurred when they disobeyed a direct commandment from God and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This sin produced a curse which resulted in the corruption of creation. God’s intervention was now necessary to restore what He had intended, since man had no power to do so. Immediately following this sin, God’s loving plan to restore His perfect creation will be abstractly revealed through the concept of a “seed” (Gen. 3:15), also known as the Proto-evangelium (the first time God revealed something about his plan for the salvation of the world or the “first Gospel”). This concept will be an important element elaborated in the Abrahamic Covenant and throughout Genesis.
When the reader examines the word “seed” in Gen. 3:15, it clearly identifies the serpents and Eve’s seed (the one which is to come who will defeat the serpent). Additionally it was used throughout the development of the Abrahamic Covenant referring to Abraham’s descendants. So when seeing the word “seed” in this covenant, the reader clearly needs to look at it in a multi-faceted way.
These foundational elements of “land,” “blessing” and “seed,” in addition to Moses reminding the reader how wicked men were, lead us up to Gen. 12, the start of the Abrahamic Covenant. An obvious question might be asked: “Why did God choose to make this covenant with Abraham?” Moses reveals the answer for the reader in Gen. 15:6. It was due to Abraham’s faith in God, which was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Additionally, inherent in the word “seed” throughout Genesis is the idea that the “seed” would consist only of people who had put their faith in God, like Abraham, and who had been declared righteous by God. It would be through Abraham’s seed that this covenant would continue to flow through to its fulfillment, with the ultimate seed that is to come to destroy evil and restore creation to God’s originally intended purpose.
In moving through the rest of the book, the reader sees God’s unconditional covenant promises of “land,” “blessing” and “seed” made through Abraham (Gen. 12:3, 15:1-21, 17, 22:15-18) continue through his descendants Isaac (Gen. 26:3-5), Jacob (Gen. 28:13-14, 35:11-12) and Joseph (Gen. 50:24), despite continuous human failure and obstacles jeopardizing this covenant and all the elements. All three covenant elements are magnified and developed from an eschatological perspective as Genesis comes to a close. Specifically, in Jacob’s blessings to his 12 sons (Gen. 49), each blessing has major significance to these elements. The blessings reinforce the idea that the covenant will be fulfilled by God in the end times (Gen. 49:1) to restore creation to an Edenic environment through the seed (Gen. 49:10).
In Genesis, Moses repeatedly emphasizes the Abrahamic Covenant and the development of its elements: “land,” “blessing” and “seed.” God remains faithful to His unconditional covenant with Abraham (and his seed) despite repeated human failure throughout this book. This extends way past Genesis, and does so through all the Bible and world history. “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deut 7:9). You see, “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Mal 3:6). God will fully restore and bless all creation through the “seed” (Christ) and restore what was “in the beginning” to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant at the inception of the Millennial Kingdom (see Rev 20 for more details), including the literal land promise He made specifically to Israel (Gen 15:18-21; Deut 30). The apostle Paul even specifically reconfirms the literal nature of this promise being fulfilled in the New Testament (Rom 11:25-27) when he states, “and so all Israel will be saved.” Paul affirms the legitimacy of Israel as rightful heir to the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant most emphatically and eloquently in Romans. The Israel Land, Davidic, and New Covenants are all fulfilled when Christ sets up His literal kingdom on earth after the Day of the Lord. And just like Abraham, anyone who has a true faith in the Lord will be the upcoming recipients of all these priceless blessings and amazing covenant promises.
The Abrahamic Covenant: it’s the lens in which the entire Bible must be interpreted! The apostle Paul does so in his writings, and plainly taught us to do so as well. You see, Scripture must be interpreted by Scripture, and it must perfectly harmonize from cover-to-cover. No one passage or chapter could be interpreted alone…the full canon of Scripture must all make sense together. If not, your “house of interpretation” will be built on the sand, not upon the rock. You know about the parable that Jesus taught as far as a house being built upon the rock verses the sand (Matt 7:24-27)…right? Christ taught this at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and you know closing words are almost always the most important ones. Jesus taught this parable specifically to exhort the people that their basis of understanding about Him, the Word (John 1:1,14), must be based on the rock foundation, which many of the Jews at the time had wrong. John 8:31-59 proves this point very clearly. At the end, the rock foundation of the Judeo-Christian faith is a proper understanding of the Abrahamic Covenant. All proper interpretation of Scripture must be filtered and harmonized through this unbreakable, literal, foundational covenant!