The first Biblical reference to a covenant is the
one God made with Noah. Actually, it involved more than Noah, for God said that
it " is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh "(Genesis 9: 15a).
When Noah, his wife, his sons, and the sons' wives
left the ark after the flood waters receded, God promised them that, " the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh" (Genesis 9: 15b). As
a sign of this promise, God put a covenant rainbow in the heavens. Every time
God looks at a rainbow,
He remembers this everlasting covenant. "And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." (Genesis 9:16.)
The waters of the flood were the means God used
to remove all unbelievers from the earth. Therefore, the eight people who left
the ark were
believers.
The lines of two of Noah's sons Shem and Ham are
carried throughout history. Shem's line followed after the God of their father.
As a result, the
Messiah came from the line of Shem.
On the other hand, Ham turned against the things
of the Lord almost immediately after disembarking. Can you imagine being one
of only eight people
on the earth whose lives were spared by God and then turning your back on this
same God?
Ham's descendants under Nimrod, built the Tower
of Babel and began the kingdom of Babylon. Contrary to common belief, they were
not trying to reach
God. Rather, they intended to, "...build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven " (Genesis 11:4b).
According to archeological finds, the twelve signs
of the zodiac were around the top of the tower. This was man's first attempt
at astrology. The
mystery religions of Babylon are still with us today-the crescent moon, the stars.
You know the next part of the story, God came down
and confused the languages and the people were scattered.
This religion began to spread around the world
and people were perverted. It even began to influence the line of Shem, so God
had to do
something to preserve this godly line.
One of Shem's descendants was Terah who lived in
Ur of the Chaldees in the land of Canaan. Canaan was a son of Ham. As a matter
of fact, all the
different tribes which occupied the land of Canaan when the children of Israel
went in descended from Canaan.
Terah had a son named Abram. Abram took a wife
named Sarai. Many of their relatives including Abram's nephew Lot also lived
in Ur of the Chaldees.
One day God appeared to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees.
At this time, Abram was not a righteous man. He did not know the Lord. He worshiped
the
moon god and the sun god. He was into astrology and witchcraft; and yet, God
approached him. God never forces anything. If he was going to bring that line
back to a godly line, He couldn't force it, it had to be of Abram's will.
God approached Abram in a manner similar to the
way David approached Mephibosheth. He showed him all the things that He would
give him.
This covenant is covered in Genesis 12-15, but
it is in chapter 15 that we find the real drawing up of the covenant.
In Genesis 15:1 we read, "After these things the word of the Lord cameunto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I AM thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." God immediately offered Abram his garment ("I
am thy shield."). The garment represents all of His assets, everything that
God was. Abram knew exactly what God was talking about. He knew covenant rights.
He
knew that when someone came to him and offered his shield and offered his
coat, he actually was saying, "I want to enter into covenant relationship with you."
Abram also knew that it was necessary to find out
what the other person possesses. You don't want to enter into a covenant with
someone who has
everything to gain when you have everything to lose. "And Abram said,
Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the
steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" (Genesis 15:2).
In other words he was saying, "Lord, if I'm going to go into covenant with
you, that also includes my children. And I don't have any! Are you going to bless
my steward Eliezer? Lord, what
good is it going to do for me to go into covenant? My wife is barren. I'm too
old. We can't have children and now you're asking me to enter into a covenant?
"And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, 10, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." (Genesis 15:3, 4.) Not only was God
willing to enter into a covenant with Abram, but He would give him children who
could be included in the covenant rights. "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." (Genesis 15:5.)
God took Abram's imagination and stretched it as
big as the heavens and said, "You wanted children? We're going to have faith
children that are going to number as the stars of heaven." When God offers you something, God does exceedingly abundantly above
all you can ask or think.
God wanted the righteous line of Shem continued.
He had made a promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15, "I'll raise up the seed of the
woman and he will crush the serpent's head." Now it looked like the line was in
danger. That's why He had to come down and approach Abram and said, "Abram, I want
to be your shield and your exceeding great reward."
Notice that God didn't drop a belt out of heaven?
God didn't drop a coat out of heaven. God said, "I am your coat. I am your belt. You don't need
defenses in you hand, I am your defense. You don't need Me to give you righteousness,
I am your righteousness." Not only that, He said, "I
will be your seed. The seed that will come forth will be Me." The seed is the Lord Jesus
Christ in whom all the nations of the world are going to be blessed.
God is everything the nine points of the covenant
have to offer. He is the bread. He is the wine. He is the defenses. He is the
coat. He is the animal that was slain. He is everything. He says, "You look to the heavens and you will
be blessed. So shall thy seed be."
Abram must have thought, "I can't lose anything
by going into covenant. God promised that if He breaks it, it's on his neck,
not mine." "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6.)
The same thing holds true for us today; don't try
to figure it out, just believe Him. It's up to you to believe. It's up to Him
to bring it to pass. The Hebrew word for Lord used in verses one, six,
and seven is called Jehovah in English. However, the Hebrew has no pronunciation
for it. Actually the Hebrew for Jehovah has no vowels and looks like this: JHVH.
Also, the "J's"
can be translated another way, and that is where we get the word Yahweh or
YHWH. I am mentioning this because it becomes important in the covenant ritual
of exchanging names which we will discuss later.
In verse seven when Jehovah says to Abram, "...I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it," Abram
is in Canaan.
"And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?", (Genesis 15:8.) In essence Abram was saying, "Find God, You said
you'll be my shield. You said you'll be my reward. You said you'll be my seed.
You said all the nine points of the covenant. But Lord, I have one problem. I
can't see You. What am I going to tell my friends? You had better give me something
in the physical, in the natural, to show me that this thing is true." In verse nine we read
God's answer. "And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a I she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and ayoung pigeon. "
Verse ten tells us that Abram did what God asked.
He knew about covenants, so He knew exactly what God meant. "And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece [facing the other] one against another: but the birds divided he not."
All of these animals brought for sacrifice represent
the Lord Jesus Christ. They fall into the following two categories: animals that
walk on the earth and animals that fly. The three that walk the earth represent
Jesus' humanity. The two birds that fly represent His deity. He is a unique individual
such as never existed before. He is both God and man united in one person forever.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ, unique from God in that He is a man, but unique
from man in that He is God.
Notice in verse ten that the birds were not split.
This tells us that deity cannot be divided. Therefore, when Jesus was crucified,
only His humanity could be crucified. His deity did not die, nor was it split.
When Jesus talked about his work on the cross, he always said that the Son of Man would be crucified. "TheSon of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The Son of Man will be raised from the dead." Even when the angel appeared
at the tomb he said, "I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified." Jesus was His earthly title.
Verse eleven tells us what happened the moment
Abram entered into covenant by faith and began to layout these slain animals
as emblems of the Lord Jesus Christ. The birds came to steal the pieces of the
sacrifice. Likewise, satan comes to steal the Word immediately. We know that
these animals represent Jesus Christ in crucifixion, but they also represent
the bread, which was broken for us. "...Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. "(Mt. 4:4)
Abram's reaction to the fowls is interesting. Notice that he didn't say, "God,
get rid of the birds. I just entered into covenant with you. You get rid of these
birds." He knew it was up to him to get rid of birds. Once you get into
covenant relationship with the Lord, He gives you the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Word says, "YOU resist the devil, and he will flee from you." So Abram
was the one responsible for seeing that satan left the pieces of the sacrifice
alone.
Read on in Genesis 15:12,13, "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, 10 an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." Immediately God starts telling Abram about his seed. Why?
Because God is responsible for Abram's seed since He has entered into a covenant
with him.
"And it came to pass, that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces," (Genesis 15: 17).
Remember, just before dark, Abram went into a deep
sleep (vs. 12). It took so much time for the Lord to tell Abram about his seed,
that the sun set totally. Abram is still asleep. He is sleeping when verse seventeen
occurs. In a covenant relationship the covenant is only
as strong as it's weakest individual. Therefore, God could not enter into covenant
with Abram because Abram was subject to the weaknesses of man. In fact, Abram
failed God so many times from that point on it wasn't even funny. For example,
Isaac's birth was delayed some twenty-five years because Abram did not obey God's
command to leave Ur of the Chaldees and all his relatives.
Abram did leave, but he took his father with him!
When his father finally died nine years later, and Abram could go on, he then
took his nephew Lot with him even though in the very beginning God had said, "Go out by yourself,
just you and Sarai." So he went out taking Lot with him, and you know the story
of Lot and how that slowed him down. That brought up Sodom and Gomorrah. Then
after that came Ishmael. It was one mistake after another. If God had depended
upon Abram to keep the promise, we would have all been sunk. Eventually, Abram
did get his act together and stood on the covenant.
The point is, God did not enter into covenant with
Abram, yet two passed between the pieces of the animals. The two that entered
into covenant were the furnace and the lamp. The furnace is God the Father. He
is a consuming fire, burning up all sin that comes into His presence. The lamp
was the Lord Jesus Christ, the lamp of our path, the light of our way.
Because this covenant was between God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Hebrew says that we have I entered into a covenant
with God which by two immutable or unchangeable things cannot be broken. God
the Father is unchangeable, the Lord Jesus Christ is unchangeable and Abram got
to enter by faith into an unbreakable covenant drawn up between these two immutable
personalities.
Mephibosheth partook of a covenant that was drawn
up of between two individuals who swore it would not be broken, but we have an
even greater consolation because we have come unto the Lord Jesus Christ, to
God the Father, and to the blood of the everlasting covenant.
Did you remember that while God and Jesus were
drawing up this covenant Abram was sleeping. Why? So he couldn't "help." When Jesus
went to the cross, he didn't need man's help. Nevertheless, when He arose from
the dead He offered mankind the full plan. Likewise, when Abram awoke, God
offered him the plan or covenant. "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed I have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. " (Genesis 15: 18-21)
Did this covenant fulfill all the parts of the
covenant? Yes it did. For example a tree was planted. When Jesus went to the
cross, the tree was planted. All through the Old Testament, the different leaders
of the nations remembered the covenant. Moses carried a rod which is a type of
the cross. With this rod he cut down a tree and it hit the bitter waters of Marah
and they became sweet.
The covenant meal was eaten. In the previous chapter,
the covenant meal was presented to Abram by Melchizedek. He brought him bread
and wine.
All the different types of the covenant were fulfilled.
However, one of the most phenomenal parts was the exchange of names. "Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee," (Genesis 17:5). "And God said Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be," (Genesis 17:15). We have already covered the unpronounceable Hebrew words
for God JHVH and YHWH. Notice that God incorporated the letter "H" into
Abram and Sarai's names. "H" is the predominate letter in Jehovah and Yahweh.
And God said, "When you come into covenant relationship with me, Abram,
no longer will your name be Abram, but it will be Abraham." God put HIS name in the
middle of Abram's. He said, "Sarai, will be Sarah." And God made His
name part
of her name also. To complete the exchange of names, God took on Abraham's
name. From that point on He is no longer called God, or the Lord, rather He is
called the God of Abraham. After the next generation accepts the covenant He
is the God of Abraham and Isaac. Then He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He later on becomes the God of the whole nation of Israel. And today, He is the
God of the Church.
When Jesus arose from on high and gave the great commission, He said,"Go ye into all nations and in MY NAME... ", because
of this we have the name of Jesus Christ right in our name. In essence, Jesus
was saying "Use my name
like you do your own." Abram had the right of attorney with God the Father and
with the Lord Jesus Christ when he entered into that covenant. We too have entered
into that covenant through faith in His blood.
Copyright 2003 by Bob Yandian Ministries.
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