Covenant Series: Abrahamic Covenant

Two chapters after the Noahic Covenant, we are introduced to Abram, the son of Terah (Genesis 11:27-32). Genesis 12:1 immediately leaps into the call of Abram and God’s covenant with him. However to truly understand the covenant, we need to understand what comes right before this covenant. We have to go back to right after the flood waters have subsided.

Noah and his family disembarked, built homes, and cultivated the land. Noah, we are told had a vineyard and got drunk one night then laid uncovered inside his tent. His son, Ham, “uncovered his father’s nakedness.” There are many theories about what this phrase means, and I will most certainly do a post about it at a later time, but the important piece for us to see is that the earth had just been recreated and already sin had penetrated into the chosen family of Noah. First, Noah became drunk. Both the Old and New Testament give many warnings about being and becoming drunk. It is and has always been considered a disgrace because it dishonors the image of God which mankind bears and often times leads to immorality (See Genesis 19 the men of Sodom insist on having sexual relations with Lot’s visitors, and at the end of the chapter, after Sodom’s destruction, Lot’s daughters make their father drunk in order to have sex with him so they can become pregnant). Drunkenness can also be considered an abuse of nature, and what God has made available to mankind for food and drink. All that said, sin was still in existence in creation.

Chapter 10 is often called the “Table of Nations” because it gives an account of all the families and people groups on the earth. Once again, we have an inclusio. Verse 1 begins by identifying that the following verses are records of the descendants of Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth after the flood. The last verse of the chapter, verse 32, also states that the above verses were a list of the “families of the sons of Noah…after the flood.” At this point, all peoples in existence are equal.

In Chapter 11 we find out that all people groups actually spoke the same language. The people gathered together to build a city and a tower that would reach into heaven. In the Ancient Near East, “heaven” was considered to be the air or space above the clouds. There was not an understanding of heaven being a place outside of the created world of time and space. Thus, God dwelt in heaven, that is, beyond the clouds, where He was not readily visible to mankind on earth. In building this tower, the people wanted fame, recognition, and a memorial so they would not become divided and scattered across the earth. This tower, which would reach into the heavens, would stand as a monument to mankind and what man was capable of. This was no monument or testament to God, this was a purely self serving attempt to make themselves like or greater than Him. If their tower reached the heavens, then they didn’t need God to get them there. God looked upon their efforts and saw that with the one language and good communication, “nothing will be impossible for them.” So God destroyed civilization once again. Not with a flood, and not by destroying all of nature, but by introducing the chaos of different languages into their midst. The people were then scattered so that their sin would not abound to even greater heights.

Now we come to Abram. Genesis 12 begins immediately with God calling Abram to go to a certain place, away from his father and homeland. 12:2-3 detail God’s promise to Abram, “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so 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.” Here we see God offering to Abram everything the builders of Babel sought: a name; fame; a great nation; and blessing. These things are available to us! But they must come from God at His desire, not our own. Abram and his descendants will be God’s instruments of blessing to all the nations of the earth, which means all the people groups that were scattered at Babel. As God scattered, he will also provide blessing and a way for those people to gather back together. However, at this particular time, there is not a specific gathering place mentioned. That will come later.

There are people who ask, “Why is there so much evil in the world?” Perhaps they should ask, how much more evil would there be had God not been watching out for mankind? If God had not confused the languages and scattered the people, how much more terrible would we be? Not ten generations after the flood, and the people were already building a monument to themselves and had forgotten the God who saved their ancestor Noah and his sons from being utterly destroyed. Furthermore, how much good would there be in the world today if God had not made a covenant with Abram and all his descendants that their obedience and worship would bring blessings to all the people of the world?

The rest of Genesis narrates Abram’s story, and how he became Abraham, was given Isaac as a son, Jacob as a grandson and Jacob’s 12 sons. The covenant is repeated several times with each new generation of Abraham’s family and the height of blessing and the vastness of his descendants and the nation that will come from him is expanded upon. God is, through repetition, showing us that His word is good and true and He is prepared to uphold his end of the Covenant. In Luke 19:1-9 Jesus encountered Zacchaeus, a tax collector (read: traitorous scum who collected taxes from the Jews for their Roman overlords). When Zacchaeus repented of his thieving ways and promised to do right by those he has cheated, Jesus told him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” What Jesus was doing was connecting Zacchaeus to the Abrahamic Covenant. He was going to go and be a blessing to others through his obedience to God. In Romans 4, Paul wrote, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.” Those who have the faith of Abraham, who believe in God’s promise of salvation through his son, Jesus Christ, are part of Abraham’s family, and have a part in the Abrahamic Covenant. Your faith in Jesus Christ has made you a part of a great nation and has enabled you to be a blessing to others through your obedience to the will of God. This is how the rest of the world should know we are followers of Christ: because we love our fellow countrymen and believers and bring the blessings of God to others.