Terms of the Covenants

There were marvelous blessings and covenants made with Abraham and his descendants. Those blessings are available to us today. However, we are expected to do our part. The covenants are not without conditions.

The Abrahamic covenant is explained in Genesis chapters 15 and 17. God made promises and did his part to confirm the promises. God promised Abraham and his descendants all of the land the Canaanite tribes possessed, and that Abraham’s descendants would multiply exceedingly. Different scriptures compare their promised numbers to the sand of the sea, the dust of the earth, and the stars of heaven. Also, many nations and kings would come from them. There were other promises which may or may not have been part of the Abrahamic covenant. Nevertheless, they were made by God to Abraham’s descendants. They were promised a great name (Genesis 12:2), that God would bless those that blessed them and curse those that cursed them (Genesis 12:3), that they would possess the gates of their enemies (Genesis 22:17), and that they would spread abroad to the west, east, north and south (Genesis 28:14). Also, the descendants of Israel were promised to become a nation and a company of nations (Genesis 35:11).

God did his part in confirming his covenant with Abraham and his descendants. A smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between various animal parts that had been cut up by Abraham (Genesis 15:17). This was symbolic of God, who is a consuming fire, passing through death. As part of the covenant, Abraham and his descendants were expected to do their part. First, they had to believe God (Genesis 15:6). Secondly, they had to be circumcised (Genesis 17:10-11). Those who were not circumcised were to be cut off from the people (Genesis 17:14).

Now let us travel in time 1700 years later to Jesus Christ. God confirmed the Abrahamic covenant by passing through death; not just as a smoking furnace but the real person of Jesus dying on the cross. “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” Romans 15:8. God did his part in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now it is up to us to do our part in the covenant agreement. First, we must believe God. That means we must believe everything Jesus said in the gospels. Secondly, we must be circumcised; not the fleshly circumcision, but rather the cutting off of sins. “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:” Colossians 2:10-11. This does not mean we never sin, but if Christ is in us, we will have a desire to keep God’s commandments. The apostle John wrote, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments.” 1 John 2:1-3.

If we fulfill the conditions of the Covenant, we can expect all of the blessings God promised to Abraham in his covenant with him. There are many more blessings mentioned in the Bible upon God’s Israel people, given by words of prophecy. We can expect all of those blessings if we are in Christ. Isaac said to Jacob, “Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” Genesis 27:28-29. Also, Jacob blessed the tribes in Genesis chapter 49 and Moses blessed the tribes in Deuteronomy chapter 33. All of those blessings are available to us if we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

There is more. Israel was given promises beyond what we can imagine at Mount Gerizim. They are too many to mention in this brief article, but they are mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 28. A few of the blessings are: “And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.” Deuteronomy 28:10-12. More blessings were given to Israel by Moses in the wilderness of the land of Moab. One such blessing was that there would be no sickness in the nation (Deuteronomy 7:15). All we have to do is obey God’s commandments, statutes, and judgements for those blessings to come upon our nations, but there is the problem.

The problem in Israel was the heart of the people. They did not want to obey God. The solution came 1300 years later when Jesus died on the cross, was resurrected, and sent the Holy Spirit to his followers after he went to heaven. This is his promise to those who are born again by his Word and his Spirit. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:” Hebrews 8:10. We are part of that covenant if we are in Christ.

If we have received new life by the Word of God and the Spirit of God then we can claim the full blessings of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants because we believe God, and have been circumcised by the circumcision made without hands, and obey his commandments because his laws are written on our hearts. We have fulfilled the terms of the covenants. In fact, we have all of the blessings promised to Israel in the Bible plus eternal life, plus a kindred relationship with God and other believers. However, we still need a revival so that our Israel people can nationally claim the covenant promises.