MORE OF GOD'S DEALING WITH MAN

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

Gen 15:18-21

            In chapter 12 we have the record of God calling Abraham out of his homeland, the Ur of the Chaldees, and from his friends and families to a place not at that time yet revealed to Abraham.  He promised Abraham there, that He would make him a great nation.  He would be blessed, and his name would be great.  He promised also to make him a blessing.  He promised to bless his friends and curse his enemies.  He also promised that in him should all the nations of the world be blessed.  When we come to our text, Abraham is already in the land, and God promises to give the land to him and his seed after him.  This is the covenant in a nutshell.

            Notice what he was called from.  God said to him, get thee out of thy country.  He was not always a man of God.  He became a man of God, when God called him.  God did not call him because he was godly; He called him to make him godly.  That is exactly what God has done for us.  We were not godly either.  Like in the case of Abraham, God did not call us because we were godly, but rather to make us godly.  Joshua 24:2 tells us that the fathers of Israel which lived before the flood, even Terah, the father of Abraham, had served other Gods.  What gods did they serve?  We would assume that surely they were the Babylonian Gods.  Who were the Babylonian Gods?  They were the mother/son religion who in Canaan were known as Baal and Ashtoreth.  The people of Israel ate their cakes in worship of the Queen of Heaven, and wept for Tammuz in the gate of the Temple which was wicked.

            This is a picture of Divine Election.  Abraham was deep in this religion of his father, Terah, and he knew nothing of Jehovah.  Jehovah, however, chose Abraham and called him out from the land that had originated that wicked Babylonian religion.  Abraham did not know God.  It had to be election in which God chose Abraham and called him out. 

            God also called him out from his kindred and from his father's house.  Why would God command such?  Often unconverted members of our families, in what they think of as love, will stand in the way of one who wants to serve God.  God did not want Abraham to be delayed or kept from obeying the Lord by the attachment of family and friends.

            God called him to walk by faith.  He said, come "...into a land that I will shew thee:"   Abraham had to go from one end of Eden in Iraq to the opposite end of Eden just east of the Mediterranean Sea.  Had he known where he was going, he might have fallen by the wayside.  In the call of election, however, God had given him faith.  This hast to be true.  Otherwise why would He follow God not knowing where or how far He would take him?

            Thus we see God's dealing with Abraham began with Divine Election, the effectual call, faith, and separation.  All of this is part of our Christian Experience too.  We shall have more later on this covenant, but what do you think of this?