Abraham’s Faith: God’s Covenant Revealed

What Is a Covenant? Understanding “Cutting a Deal” in the Bible

Maybe you have heard of the expression, "cutting a deal" or "striking a deal". Have you ever wondered what that really means or where these strange expressions came from? When we say someone ‘cut a deal,’ we’re echoing an ancient practice that goes all the way back to Abraham, where deals were literally ‘cut’ in blood.

God first spoke His covenant blessings to Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 12:1-3, then confirmed them with a covenant ceremony in Genesis 15, and later reaffirmed them with a name change in Genesis 17:4-6. To avoid any confusion we will use the name Abraham throughout this study. This covenant, confirmed through Abraham’s faith, pointed forward to God’s ultimate fulfillment in Christ. But what is a covenant, really?

Defining a Covenant: A Binding Agreement in Scripture

A covenant is a binding agreement normally between two parties, either conditional or unconditional. For example, a marriage covenant is, in the eyes of faith, intended to be an unconditional covenant between two people. In Hebrew, the word covenant is related to the idea of "cutting a deal." Biblically, the agreement was between God and His people. In God's covenant with Abraham though, the promise was unconditional, made by God alone.

In Genesis 12:1-3, God's promises to Abraham were: to bless him and to make him a great nation; to make him great; to bless those who blessed him; to curse those who curse him and to ensure that all nations would be blessed through him. These promises laid the great foundation for His covenant.

Covenants in Biblical Times: A Common Practice

Generally speaking we don't go into a covenant with someone we don't trust. Covenant agreements were common in biblical times. The Bible talked of many different kinds of covenants: between individuals, kings and nations, and legal ones. God was using a framework that was well understood in those times.

Types of Biblical Covenants: Noah, David, and Beyond

Some covenants, including the ones with Noah and David, rested entirely on God’s promise rather than human effort. Noah was promised that the world would never again be destroyed by water and God vowed to David that he would have an everlasting royal lineage. David's covenant was fulfilled in Jesus. Both the New Covenant and the Abrahamic Covenant were based on faith and don't rely on our actions but God's. They are considered to be Covenants of Grace.

To better understand this difference, let's look at a modern example of a conditional covenant, such as a peace treaty between two nations. Both nations are obligated to uphold certain conditions. If one party fails to comply, then there are consequences, like sanctions, that can be placed on them. This mirrors the type of covenant we see in the Mosaic Covenant.

Covenant as Testament: The Old and New Testaments

It is interesting to realize that the word for covenant and the word for testament are the same Greek word, diatheke. Our Old and New Testaments are covenants made between God and His people. They explain our relationship to our Father in covenantal terms. Its foundation begins in Abraham’s story, where God’s covenant was vividly revealed through a vision.

Abraham’s Vision: God’s Covenant Reassurance

Abraham's vision began with what was a beautifully tender moment from God (Genesis 15:1). God told him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Today, our faith is our shield and Jesus is His great reward. Who could ever ask for more?

The Covenant Ceremony: Genesis 15 Explained

In Genesis 15:8, Abraham asks God, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” and then we read about a strange (to us) ceremony that God performs for Abraham so he will know that God will fulfill His word. This ritual affirmed God's commitment to Abraham.

To perform the ceremony, He told Abraham to get a heifer, goat, ram, dove, and a pigeon. Three, three-year-old animals would be split in two while the dove and pigeon would remain whole. Here we understand how covenant actually means to cut. Vultures proceeded to come down on the carcasses but Abraham scared them off.

That night, when Abraham fell asleep, God spoke to him in a vision. In it, God told him his people would endure 400 years of captivity and then would come out with great possessions, that Abraham would be blessed with a peaceful, long life, and eventually his descendants would return to the land God had promised them.

As the evening continued, God sealed His unconditional covenant appearing as a smoking firepot and a burning torch which passed between the halves of the animals (Genesis 15:17). God often showed Himself, his holiness and power, in fire and smoke in the Old Testament. Though this was Abraham's first time witnessing God in this way, he understood its meaning because, as Genesis 15:1 states "the word of the Lord" had already come to him.

This was confirmation that God's promise only depended on Him, not Abraham. Abraham had faith that God would keep His word because he would have understood that this ceremony was a powerful binding commitment. Our God is always faithful and true!

The common way to seal ancient Middle Eastern covenants was that both parties typically passed between the split carcasses. This signified that if either party broke the terms of the covenant then the same thing would happen to them. They would be torn in half and blood would be spilled. But in Abraham's covenant with God, something unique happened: only God passed between the pieces.

God also told him that his land would stretch from the great river of Egypt - the Nile, to the great river Euphrates - which flows from eastern Turkey to southeastern Iraq. This territory was far larger than what Israel would ever fully occupy, stretching across much of the modern Middle East. Even at its height under Solomon, Israel only partially realized this promise. While Israel inherited parts of this land, the full extent was never permanently occupied. We await God's future fulfillment of His binding commitment to Israel, which many scholars believe will be completed in the Millennial Reign as described in Revelation.

Unusual as these promises were, Abraham believed God was faithful and trustworthy. Many times God has called people to seemingly impossible callings and yet with God beside them they were accomplished, just as He later called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God uses the meek and the humble to accomplish His tasks because He knows they will rely on Him for everything, the same as Abraham did.

If God had promised you or me at the age of 100 that we would be the father of many nations and that all nations would be blessed through us, we might have had our doubts. Abraham was childless. His wife was 90 and, up to this time, had never had a child. Abraham's faith is childlike, the kind Jesus says we need to have (Matthew 18:3). Abraham was totally trusting that when God's abundant blessings were promised to him, it would happen.

In Genesis 17:4-6, God changed Abram’s name, meaning “exalted father,” to Abraham, “father of many nations,” this name change reflected His promise to make Abraham’s descendants "like the stars in the sky." It was symbolic of God's covenant with him. From that point on, Scripture refers to him as Abraham.

Abraham’s Faith: God’s Covenant Revealed

So what did Abraham have to do to gain this great promise? He only had to believe. In Genesis 15:5, we are told that God counted his faith as righteousness. Paul points to Abraham’s faith, as he was then called, as an example of how God’s covenant works. This covenant with Abraham becomes the pattern Paul later uses to explain justification by faith.

Paul emphasizes grace in contrast to keeping the law. When Paul discusses Abraham's faith, he explains that Abraham was justified by faith 430 years before the law was even given to Moses (Galatians 3:17). He explains it is faith, not observance of the law, that makes one a true child of Abraham, even when you aren't Jewish. In this way, God's promise to Abraham that all people, Jew and Gentile, would be blessed was fulfilled.

Mosaic vs. New Covenant: Law and Grace

One of the things that confuses many people is our understanding that the Jewish people were required to obey the Law of Moses to be blessed. This Mosaic Covenant is generally referred to as the "Old Covenant" (Exodus 19-24) and was conditional. The people were required to obey God's law. Sacrifices could be offered for sin, but the sacrifice of animals was never adequate (Hebrews 10:4).

We know, in hindsight, that this covenant had to be made to show people it was impossible to obey all of the laws perfectly. This is why the New Testament talks about the New Covenant which Jesus instituted (Hebrews 8:6-13). Jesus was the perfect sacrifice allowing us to regain the relationship of sons and daughters in God's Kingdom.

In the Old Mosaic Covenant the law was literally written on stone, but in the New Covenant it is written on our hearts. The Old Mosaic Covenant required works to keep the law, but the New Covenant is based on faith. The Old Covenant was only for the Jews, while the New Covenant is for everyone. This New Covenant is possible because, Jesus is our high priest (Hebrews 4:14), interceding on our behalf.

Abraham's children are not only the Jewish nation but all people of faith who believe in God's promises. All nations are called to God through Jesus who is a descendant of Abraham in the line of David (Galatians 3:8). We are Abraham's spiritual children (Romans 9:6-8).

We need to thank God every day that we live under this New Unconditional Covenant, based only on what God has done. His Son died and rose again that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). This abundant life we have been promised is not a life full of possessions, but a spiritually full life based on the joy that a deep relationship with God can bring. Do we have Abraham's faith? Do we trust God in our daily challenges, as Abraham did?

Abraham “cut a deal” with God, not on his own terms, but entirely on God’s. Today, we too are invited to trust in His covenant of grace through Christ.