Verse of the Week: Genesis 12:1
“Go
forth from your country,
And
from your relatives
And
from your father’s house,
To
the land which I will show you; Genesis 12:1
A covenant
is an agreement between two parties. There are two basic types of covenants:
conditional and unconditional. A conditional or bilateral covenant is an
agreement that is binding on both parties for its fulfillment. Both parties
agree to fulfill certain conditions. If either party fails to meet their
responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party has to fulfill the
expectations of the covenant. An unconditional or unilateral covenant is an
agreement between two parties, but only one of the two parties has to do something.
Nothing is required of the other party.[1]
The
Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional covenant.
Now the
LORD said to Abram,
“Go forth from
your country,
And from your
relatives
And from your
father’s house,
To the land
which I will show you; Genesis 12:1
Now- At the right time, God’s timing, the LORD spoke
with Abram and revealed His will towards Abram and his family.
The LORD- The covenant-keeping LORD. The One whose
word can be relied upon forever.
When you read vv. 1-3 you notice all the “I’s” in the
passages. He providentially controls all in connection with Abram to preserve
the one from which would come the Savior.
Said to Abram- We know that God made this promise to
Abram before he left Ur of the Chaldees from Stephen’s testimony in Acts 7:
2 And he [Stephen] said, “Hear me,
brethren and fathers. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he
was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘DEPART FROM YOUR
COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND I WILL SHOW YOU.’
4 “Then he departed from the land of
the Chaldeans, and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God
removed him into this country in which you are now living. Acts 7:2-4
God called Abraham was first given while he was in
Mesopotamia. Later he went to Haran and later to the Promised Land.
Go forth- Depart. Get out. Start your long journey. By
leaving his country in obedience to God’s Word, Abram would start a chain of
events that would reverberate throughout the centuries. His obedience is felt
today in the simple fact that the nation of Israel, tiny little Israel, can one
day be threatened with annihilation, another day find a cure to some disease,
and another day be said to be the blame if there is another world war.
The willingness to obey this call would require the greatest
amount of confidence and faith in God that we read about in Scripture. There is
nothing in Scripture that in any way infers that Abram “deserved” or “merited”
this great honor. The only reason that he was elected to do this was God’s
will.
God’s commands should always be obeyed. Sometimes He
explains why and sometimes He doesn’t be we can be assured all of His commands
are for our good.
From your country- Haran. There was much danger in
this land. His father had died which left him the patriarch of his little
family. This compelled him to a complete obedience to complete the task set
before him by God.
The timing of this call cannot be overlooked. The
destruction of Babel was still fresh on mind of people. The dispersion of the
nations is still in progress when Abram is called. Men had added to their sins
against God by adding idolatry. God has apparently abandoned the nations and is
working through one man, Abram. From him He will build a new nation, a nation
that is dedicated to Him. A chosen nation whose purpose is to prepare the way
for God’s ultimate manifestation of love, Jesus Christ. This nation would be
the representatives to an ungodly world of who the one, true God is.
And from…And from- Break off all familial ties. This
was a call to break off all and separate himself from all natural ties and from
all that was familiar to him.
Maybe if he had paid total attention and hadn’t taken Lot,
he might have saved himself quite a bit of heartache.
Your relatives- Those tied to him by blood. Just like
with Abram, our families are able to exert a more subtle and powerful influence
over us than many of us realize.
Your father’s house- The sacrifice of breaking the
one nearest you.
Arthur Pink writes: “Abram called upon to separate himself
from his home and kindred and bidden to go out into a place which afterwards
God would give him for an inheritance, typifies the one whose citizenship in in
heaven but who is still in the world, and in consequence, called upon to walk
by faith and live as a stranger and pilgrim on earth.”[2]
To the land- One of three aspects of the Abrahamic
Covenant. This was the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, what would later be
known as Israel. The land possessed by the modern state of Israel is just a
small part of the promised that God made to Abram. The first provision of the Abrahamic
Covenant can be described as follows:
Land is the first provision mentioned of the
Abrahamic Covenant. It was a not any land, but a specific land, it was actual
acreage. The dimensions are specified in Genesis 15:
“To
your descendants I have given this land,
From
the river of Egypt[4] as
far as the great river, the
river Euphrates;
19 the Kenite
and the Kenizzite and the Kadomnite
20 and the
Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim
21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite
and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
Genesis 15:18-21
In Genesis 13 God gives Abraham all the land that he
can see, and the gift is declared to be “forever”:
for all the land which you see, I
will give it to you and your descendants forever. Genesis 13:15
God will never renege on His promise. Hundreds of years
after Abraham died, the children of Israel took possession of the land while under
Joshua’s leadership. However, at no point in history has Israel controlled all
the land God had specified. There remains, therefore, a final fulfillment of
the Abrahamic Covenant that will fully see Israel occupying their God-given
homeland. The fulfillment will be more than a matter of geography; it will also
be a time of holiness and restoration. This is a guarantee that has not come
true yet but will come into being when Christ returns and establishes His
millennial kingdom.
The territory given as part of the Abrahamic Covenant is
expanded in Deuteronomy 30:1–10, This covenant is often called erroneously
the Palestinian Covenant.
From this we understand that the Abrahamic Covenant is:
1.
Eternal. It will be handed down to Abram’s
descendants until the Perfect One returns on the scene and claims His kingdom.
2.
Literal. This is not spiritual or figurative.
3.
Unconditional. The Scriptures afford a most
complete line of evidence in support of the unconditional character of the
covenant. (1) All Israel’s covenants are unconditional except the Mosaic. The
Abrahamic Covenant is expressly declared to be eternal and therefore
unconditional in numerous passages (Gen 17:7, 13, 19; 1 Chron
16:17; Ps 105:10). The Palestinian Covenant is likewise declared to be
everlasting (Ezek 16:60). The Davidic Covenant is described in the same terms (2
Sam 7:13, 16, 19; 1 Chron 17:12; 22:10; Isa 55:3; Ezek 37:25).
The new covenant with Israel is also eternal (Isa 61:8; Jer 32:40;
50:5 ; Heb 13:20).[5]
Which I- Sovereignty. God is in control of every step
of this journey.
Will show you- Abram would know the direction, but he
did not know the specific inheritance that was being discussed. It was only
after Abram entered the Promised Land that God revealed to him that Canaan was
his destination.
[2] Gleanings
in Genesis, Arthur Pink, p 140.
[3] The
boundaries of the promise land are now given for the first time.
[4] The
river of Egypt- I.e., the Nile. This promise has not been fulfilled but
will be when Christ returns.
