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? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, 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. 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. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

The Covenant of God With Abraham

In chapter 15 God speaks to Abraham and this covenant begun in chapter 12 is expanded and formally entered into. Genesis 15:7-18 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. … 17 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. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

The Hebrew word here for covenant is berit and it is translated as covenant, compact, solemn agreement, testament or treaty but these words don’t fully capture the full idea of what an ancient covenant was or how important it was to those entering into the covenant.

We can see this by the actions taken here in this covenant. After preparing these clean animals by splitting them in half, the two parties of the covenant would walk through the halved animal carcasses. This signified the absolute binding power of the covenant. It could not be broken any more than the broken animals could be put back together.

Now can you imagine in modern times going down to the car dealership buying a car and they would say, “Okay, lets enter into the contract.” And then suddenly they started slaughtering a heifer, a she goat and a ram?!? The difference between how we would react is the difference between our idea of contract and the ancient idea of a covenant. To them it was much more solemn, much more binding than just signing a piece of paper.

There are covenants established by landmarks such as the Mizpah stone marked between Jacob and Laban. There was a salt covenant, where the two parties exchanged salt from their salt bag into the salt bag of the other symbolizing the power of the covenant by the mixing of the salt, if you could find your original salt, then the covenant could be broken, since that is impossible the covenant can’t be broken. Boaz, Ruth’s kinsman redeemer covenanted with the nearer kinsman by exchanging a sandal, a token the showed beyond dispute that the covenant was entered into.

Here in the Abrahamic covenant, the nature of the covenant is altered because when it was time for the two parties to pass through the split carcasses, God put Abraham asleep and then He and only He passed between the pieces of the animal. The burning oven or furnace and a flaming torch or lamp symbolize God in his cleansing of the land He would give to Abraham. It also reminds us of the Shekinah Glory that descended upon the tabernacle, filled the temple and church in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. It is the presence of God in a form that man could behold.

By putting Abram to sleep and not allowing him to pass through the animals, this covenant become an unconditional, unilateral covenant meaning that only God would be responsible for keeping it. Abraham was covered by the covenant, but it could not and would not fail because it would be kept by the infallible God of Abram.

The Covenant of God For Us

The Abrahamic Covenant gave to Abram, later renamed in chapter 17 as Abraham, personal blessings in his son Isaac, national blessing through the nation of Israel and most importantly the blessing of the Messiah who would come through that family and through that nation and be the blessing and hope of all the world.

All these blessings and gifts were bestowed on Abraham and his family and ultimately on us when Abram departed from Haran, when he believed God’s word and stepped out in faith. It was not Abraham that could in his own strength or even in his own faith bring about God’s promises, but God’s promises were applied to him, his family, his nation and to us when he stepped out in faith. God’s power would keep the covenant, but Abraham had to believe or that covenant and the blessings of God could not cover him.

In our age, the New Covenant is the covenant of grace for us and like Abraham it must be entered by faith and it also is kept by God’s power and not our own. The New Covenant is between God the Father, God the Son. We are blessed through the New Covenant of Grace but we are not a part of the agreement that established it. We didn’t sign on the bottom line when this covenant was arranged. Like Abraham our faith brings us into the New Covenant of Grace, but it is kept not by anything that we can do, but by the power of God alone. It is unbreakable, unending, and unchangeable. God keeps this covenant, Jesus fulfilled this covenant, the Holy Spirit brings us under the blessings of this covenant and my only participation is to accept the blessings of salvation. Faith places me under the covenant because I believe Jesus died for me and took my sins upon himself. That faith is my departing Haran and God sees that step of faith and gathers me up in His loving arms and places me and all those who believe in the eternal new covenant of His amazing grace.

Hebrews 9:14-15 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, (these are the parties of the covenant) purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Under the Abrahamic covenant those who believed like Abraham believed were blessed, though they had no part in keeping the covenant. The same is true of the new Covenant we are blessed under it but it is kept not by us but by the power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is why we cannot lose it because we do not keep it. This is why we can’t ever be lost because God’s grace has found us. This is one of the reasons we know that it is Once Saved Always Saved. It is the eternal security of the soul else there is no salvation at all and all the promises of our Lord were lies.

Promises of the New Covenant:

John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

There is no sacrifice of animals, no passing through their split blood but something much greater than binds the New Covenant. Jesus shed his own blood, paying the price for the covenant of grace and you and I by faith are cleansed in that precious flow.

There is a Fountain by William Cowper

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

E'er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.