God’s Covenant with Israel
To understand the enduring, covenant relationship between God and Israel we must delve into biblical history and consider the origin of their relationship—a bond formed through a binding pledge. When we understand what God’s covenant means with Abraham and his descendants, not only will we understand Israel’s unique role and their status today, but we’ll gain insight into the eternal bond God has with each of us, people of faith.
Covenant with God and Agreements Between Men
We live in a day when high-level negotiations and agreements are often hard-fought, imperfect, and vulnerable to collapse. The old adage “an honest man’s word is as good as his bond” doesn’t carry the same impact as in other generations, and broken agreements produce relational fractures and failures.
Is any agreement foolproof? Fortunately, yes.
God sovereignly chose ancient Israel as a vessel through whom He would reveal Himself to the world and provide salvation through our Jewish Messiah, Jesus.
Many in the Church recognize that God chose the Jewish people for a unique role. But they are unsure when considering the question, Is Israel still chosen?
God had a unique relationship with ancient Israel, that’s clear in our Bibles. However, has their bond stood the test of time and weathered every storm? Does Israel’s ancient purpose extend into our modern context? Is God’s agreement with the Jewish people foolproof?
The answer is, yes. Israel remains a chosen instrument in God’s hand. Ezekiel prophesied that the revelation of God presented to the world through Israel’s witness did not apply only to past days but includes a promise for future days as well. Israel will again be a light to the nations, pointing all to the Lord.
Understanding Ancient Covenants
Covenant was not merely a contract but a deeply relational commitment. The ancient world used covenants to form binding agreements between men (1 Sam. 18:3) and nations (Josh. 9:16). Nevertheless, most notable were the covenants God established with individuals and the nation of Israel.
A cursory look at covenant meanings reveal they were either conditional or unconditional, temporary or permanent. Both covenant partners may have been required to uphold covenant terms, or one partner alone bore the burden, depending on the agreement.Covenant Meaning
The most unique feature of a covenant was the shedding of blood to confirm the bond. Our English Bibles use the expression “made a covenant” but in Hebrew, the phrase is to “cut a covenant.”
Covenant partners would cut an animal lengthwise and lay the two halves opposite one another. Then, whoever was responsible to uphold the terms of the agreement would walk between the pieces, through the blood, and verbally express their commitments. If it was a unilateral covenant, even though two partners were present, only the individual responsible to uphold the terms walked between the pieces.
That’s important to remember when we look at how God established His covenant with Abraham.
It’s hard for us to imagine this type of process, but the message illustrated was: May what happened to this animal happen to me if I break this covenant with you. It was that serious and binding.
The Abrahamic Covenant with God
God uses covenant as the foundation of His relationships. The ancient covenant between God and Israel began with Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people. And it’s this covenant that established Abraham’s family.
Let’s consider three scenes in Genesis and follow the unfolding of the Abrahamic covenant. As we do, keep in mind the question of the covenant’s status today. Have the covenant terms terminated, or are they still valid? Is Israel still chosen for a unique role in God’s plan of redemption?
Genesis 12
Genesis 12:1-3
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; and 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.” (emphasis added)
Through a series of “I will” statements, God promised Abraham: a family that would become a great nation, specific homeland, and that he and his family would be both blessed and a blessing to all the families of the earth.
There is a list of what God would provide Abraham, but no condition or requirement placed upon Abraham—it was a unilateral set of promises.
Genesis 15
In Genesis 15, we read that ten years later the promise of a family was reiterated and expanded. Ten years! It can be difficult for us to wait ten months for a promise to be fulfilled, let alone ten years.
Abraham was 85 years old, his wife, Sarah, was 75 years—the time for childbearing had long passed and the couple was still barren. Would God fulfill His promise? Could He? Maybe Abraham had misunderstood. The delay stirred Abraham to question.
In Psalm 105:19, the psalmist wrote about the time between a promise given and its fulfillment. It says, “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.” The word for tested can also be translated refined.
Waiting for God to move on our behalf refines us. It’s not easy to wait and rarely comfortable. As the heat increases, as the pressures swell, if we stand in faith, we’ll find the Lord is skimming unwanted dross from our lives, and creating a needed purity and resilience in us that will prove unshakable.
In this encounter, God promised Abraham that his heir would be his own son, not a servant born in his house, and not just one heir but descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Wrestling away all doubt, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:6) He was going to enter a covenant with God.
God instructed Abraham to prepare the animals for the cutting of the covenant. When it came time to walk between the pieces, God alone passed through the blood trail. The covenant would be upheld according to God’s initiative and faithfulness. Abraham’s job was to believe.
Genesis 17
Genesis 17 provides the final scene for us to consider in the unfolding of the Abrahamic covenant. This encounter took place fifteen years after Genesis 15, or twenty-five years from Genesis 12.
It had been a long road of barrenness for Abraham and Sarah to wade through month after month, year after year, wondering, contending, hoping . . . would God do as He promised? Would there be a son born to them?
The Lord appeared again to Abraham, and as if the promise of a son who would become a nation wasn’t enough of a challenge to fathom, God expanded the promise. Abraham would be the father of a multitude of nations.
A multitude of nations! The Bible records that Abraham fell on his face and laughed. I bet!
The Lord Almighty, El Shaddai, appeared to Abraham that day. The Almighty would have to pull this off—He and He alone could provide the miracle. A son, a nation, a multitude of nations–was far beyond Abraham’s and Sarah’s natural abilities. Abraham’s family would be supernatural.
The Everlasting Covenant with God
In Genesis 17:7, God spoke to Abraham and said, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout your generations for an everlasting covenant.
God’s promise to Abraham is an everlasting covenant. What does this mean?
He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. (Ps. 105:8-10)
The Abrahamic covenant is foolproof.
The apostle Paul called Abraham the father of all who believe. (Rom. 4:11) Abraham’s family includes his natural offspring, the Jewish people, and every person from any nation who comes to the same saving faith in the Messiah, Jesus, as father Abraham.
Abraham has physical and spiritual children. One day, according to Scripture, Abraham’s physical children, Israel, who are alive at Yeshua’s return will receive the Lord in faith. (Isa. 45:25; 59:20-21; Rom. 11:26)
God’s eternal covenant with Israel is still valid—meaning the Jewish people remain His chosen instruments. Every promise of God will be accomplished. Believers from every nation have been beautifully grafted into Abraham’s family by faith in Jesus—through the provision of the new covenant.
The New Covenant with God
The Abrahamic covenant laid the foundation for each of us to become part of God’s family. (Gal. 3:8, 28-29) It opened the way for the establishment of what Jeremiah and Jesus both called the new covenant, which God made with the whole house of Israel. The new covenant is offered to each of us. It’s the covenant of grace, the covenant of our salvation, made possible through the blood of Jesus. (Jer. 31:31; Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Peter 1:18-19) We are welcomed into Abraham’s family of faith, into God’s family, through the provisions of the new covenant.
It was the week of Passover. Fulfilling Zechariah’s ancient prophecy, Yeshua rode into Jerusalem seated on a donkey’s colt and welcomed by the crowd’s exuberant shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” (John 12:12-15)
Days later, with thousands of Jewish families in Jerusalem for the feast and each offering their required sacrifice, the blood of the Passover lambs filled the Temple Mount’s overflow drains and poured down into the narrow Kidron Valley. Every sacrifice was a reminder of how costly sin is and that innocent blood must be shed for forgiveness.
Passover Breakthrough
For centuries, the nation of Israel held within her national heart the hope and promise of the Scriptures that one day the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham would come, and with Him our salvation.
After the Passover meal with His disciples, Yeshua led the eleven men who remained with Him across the ravine of the Kidron to the Mount of Olives, the garden of Gethsemane, to pray. He struggled and He asked them to pray for Him. (John 18:1)
Jerusalem was full of people, full of joy, but even more so flooded with prophetic significance that was mostly hidden to everyone, even the eleven. But He knew. It was time. The fullness of time had come. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, the ultimate Passover Lamb, as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah to pay our debt, to purchase our freedom from sin and death.
“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You. Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done,” Jesus prayed in complete surrender. (John 17:1; Luke 22:42)
The soldiers led Him away. The new covenant was about to be cut. The terms had been written through the prophet Jeremiah but now was the time for the new covenant to be ratified, for the blood to be shed.
God’s Covenant through Jesus
Yeshua, the only one responsible to uphold the terms of the new covenant, walked, not between two pieces of flesh, but across the ravine where the blood of the Passover lambs was flowing, between the two mounts: the Mount of Olives, the place of surrender, and Mount Moriah, the place of sacrifice.
He crossed the ravine of the Kidron, also known as the King’s Valley. It is the same valley where Abraham met Melchizedek so many years ago and brought out bread and wine and a tithe of all he’d acquired. Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High; many scholars believe he was the preincarnate Jesus. (Gen. 14:17-18)
The Kidron is the same valley through which Abraham and Isaac must have walked in their approach to Mount Moriah (Gen. 22:2), where in complete obedience Abraham was willing to offer his only son whom he loved. His willingness to offer Isaac, prefigured God’s willingness to offer His only son, Yeshua, on the very same mountain.
Is it possible that the Abrahamic covenant was cut in this same valley? Perhaps so. One day we can ask firsthand.
Covenantal Chosenness
God kept His word to Abraham—Isaac was born and generations later the ultimate son of Abraham, the Messiah, was also born just as promised. The Abrahamic covenant passed to Isaac and Jacob (Israel), to each successive generation and remains today, for it is an eternal covenant based on God’s fidelity, not man’s.
Abraham’s spiritual family continues to grow with people of faith from every nation, including Israel, through the provisions of the new covenant.
The enduring chosenness of Israel is a testament of God’s perfect faithfulness. It is a resounding proclamation that we have a Father in heaven who keeps His word. He is a covenant keeping God. He’s not done with Israel and He’s not done with you and me.
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