God’s Gracious Covenant - Genesis 11:27-12:9

Maybe you’ve heard someone say something to this effect: “I told God that I would believe in Him if He would…” blank. The blank has been filled in with many different things by different people. “I’ll believe, I’ll change, I’ll do this, God, if you do that.”

You may have approached God this way before; with an ultimatum, with a demand that sounds almost like a warning or a veiled threat. 

This might work if God and man were somehow on a level plain. But the Old and New Testaments teach us that we are not. Humans cannot legitimately approach God with ultimatums and demands.

God, however, can and rightfully does approach humans in this way.

The Scriptures teach that God relates to humans within a “covenant” relationship. A covenant is a binding arrangement, a contract which only God may propose and containing requirements which only God may set.

The covenant was first on display at creation, when God gave a command to Adam that carried a blessing for obedience and a curse for disobedience. Adam broke the covenant, disobeying God, but God did not give up on Adam. 

Instead, He spoke of another covenant, one that became increasingly clearer over time. It was a gracious covenant, one displaying God’s undeserved favor toward hopeless sinners. And during the life of Abraham, God’s covenant of grace comes much more into focus. 

In fact, the first 11 chapters of Genesis have been building up to his life, and the rest of the Bible, both OT and NT, must be read and understood in light of his life. Why? Because through Abraham and his family, the redemptive plans of God develop and progress. God approaches Abraham and enters into this covenant with him. The scope of His covenant of grace then grows broader and broader, from a family to a nation of people and then to all nations for ages to come. 

What does this have to do with us?

Well, we should pay careful attention to how God deals with Abraham, because God is ever the same, and He enters into this same covenant with everyone He saves, doing so in basically the same way. 

But how is it the same? These verses contain the answer to this question. You can find these “answers” in the outline on pages 6-7 in the WG. When God enters into His covenant of grace with someone, He gives the call, the promises, and the reassurance. God initiates each one, and each one is an unmerited, unearned gift within His gracious covenant.

Now, at the end of Genesis 11, Moses, the writer of Genesis by the power of God, gives some background on Abraham, who, at first, was called Abram. But Moses begins with Abram’s father, Terah. He was a descendant of Shem, Noah, Seth and Adam. And like Adam and Noah, Terah had three sons whose names we learn. 

They lived in a city called Ur, which was located at the southern end of what is now Iraq. Ur was on the Euphrates River, not far from what we call the Persian Gulf. Archeologists have discovered that in the city of Ur, moon worship was prevalent, and scholars believe that Terah and his family most likely worshipped the moon god, Sin. One clue supporting that is here in verse 29. Abram and Nahor took wives, Sarai and Milcah.Both of these women’s names were the names of other false gods in that pagan religion.

Now, we get many other details here that come into play later, like the introduction of Abram’s nephew Lot,  whose father dies, and we learn that Sarai is unable to have a child. Abram marries Sarai, who we will later learn is his half-sister. Terah was also her father. Nahor, Terah’s other living son, marries the daughter of his deceased brother; his niece. Obviously, this is foreign to us and strange. But in the ancient world, marriage to close relatives was not uncommon. It was later prohibited in the nation of ancient Israel, but this early in history, genetic defect was apparently not so highly probable with the marriage of close relatives. 

Now, notice again verse 31. Terah takes his household and leaves Ur headed for Canaan. In Genesis 15, we find out that while still in Ur, God called Abram. In fact, what we read at the beginning of chapter 12 may possibly be a second call. 

They left Ur, and they traveled north up the Euphrates River, staying near water. Going straight to Canaan would have required crossing the Arabian Desert. They stopped in a city called Haran, far north of Canaan. And they settled there. In fact, Terah would die there. 

Look at verse 1 again, “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” The Hebrew text indicates something that might not quite come through in the English, and that is the great force with which God gives this command. God orders Abram to go. 

Why would God need to make this emphatic demand? 

Well, because this family was no longer passing through Haran; they were now dwelling there. But the journey was not complete. We don’t know why they stopped, but as we read on in Genesis, we learn that Terah would have been still alive when Abram left Haran for Canaan. 

And yet Abram journeys on in response to this call. Why did Abram obey?

Well, this is God’s covenant call, a covenant leading to salvation in Jesus Christ. And in 2 Timothy 1 in the NT, the apostle Paul makes a statement that helps us understand. Paul says in the covenant of grace, God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” God called Abram and Abram answered because of God’s grace. 

Abram’s life and family were in the city of Haran. But God called him to a better life. God intervened in the life of Abram. God confronted him with His call. Scripture says that Abram obeyed because of his faith. And what do we know about faith? Ephesians 2 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” 

Do you think there must be a shred of good in a person to compel them to choose Jesus? God’s Word tells us we are naturally dead in sins. You and I would never, by our own volition, choose Christ. We would never, by our own power, generate the faith necessary to trust in Jesus. This is why in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” 

Dr. Robert Godfrey sheds additional light on this. He says, “The covenant of grace is presented as the blessing of life and salvation linked to the duty of faith,” meaning that faith is required to respond to the call of God. However, Dr. Godfrey adds, “but since faith is a gift of God, even the requirement of faith is a blessing given!”

Puritan pastor Richard Sibbes says the same thing in a different way. He writes, "God knows we have nothing of ourselves, therefore in the covenant of grace He requires no more than He gives, and gives what He requires, and accepts what He gives." God’s call – both the hearing of it and responding to it with faith – is a gracious gift. It was so to Abram, and it still is to all who believe.

Now in these next verses we see the promises that accompany the call. God tells Abram to go, and verse [2], Yahweh says, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Pretty good deal, don’t you think? “You can have all these things – just go to a place.” 

Of course, Abram did have to leave his old life behind, what was familiar and comfortable. He left a life that seemed to be very secure, at least by sight. But by faith, so much more lay ahead according to the promises of God!

I mentioned earlier the covenant God spoke of after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. God said that an offspring, a seed, would come who would basically be a Savior. And from that point on, we follow that hope from generation to generation. But now, in Genesis 12, God is attaching that hope to a man who, along with his wife, cannot bear a child. 

And yet somehow, from them will come a people to inhabit a place, and they will, somehow, be a blessing to the world, and somehow, this makes Abram famous. That obviously occurred; we’re talking about him today!

What we find as we make our way on through Genesis is that they will have a son, Isaac, 

and then he will have a son, Jacob, then Jacob’s sons will form the nation of ancient Israel, and to Israel would be given God’s law and His prophets, the worship and knowledge of God through which more and more people would be blessed. Anyone who rose up against the people of God would have to answer to God Himself. 

However (and you may know this) the history of Israel would not always be so good. God did make them a nation and give them land and He blessed them. He taught them about holiness and sin and grace and truth. But they turned repeatedly to false gods, and God took away their land and their nation. 

And yet these promises continued to stand because they were never to be ultimately fulfilled in the Israelites. The NT clearly teaches that these promises were to find their final and greater fulfillment in Jesus Christ. For instance, in Galatians 3, Paul writes, “It is those of faith (in Christ) who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 

Did you catch that? “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” These promises were essentially the gospel, not yet completely clear. But the message was the same because God is ever the same. And we know that God God and His Word are essentially one and the same. His promises are as sure as His very existence.

We all make plans. You probably have plans for this week, for this month and year, and the upcoming years of my life. We give our word to be in certain places at certain times to do certain things. But we can’t absolutely guarantee that we can keep our word.

James the brother Jesus explained this to the churches. He said, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—[14] yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” We should give our word, and we should keep it. But our word is not like God’s Word. His Word is sure, and in the gospel He gives his holy promises as a gracious gift.

Are you placing all your hope in something that might happen? It’s good to have goals, and God leads us to do many things in our lives. But our abiding, underlying hope – our fixed, constant hope – must be in the promises of God.

Now you might read this far and think, “Alright, Abram is good to go. He has the call of God; he has the promises of God.” God has given him these and he has responded by grace. But the plans of God are developing. 

Abram and his crew leave for Canaan, but notice the end of verse 6, “When they came to the land of Canaan, [6] Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.” When Abram arrives in the land, it is occupied. Not vacant. In fact, it is held by the evil descendants of Noah's cursed son, Ham.

Dr. John Currid notes that, “God has decided to bring the seed of the woman right into the midst of the seed of the serpent.” Abram is outnumbered. Naturally he would be worried.

But notice verse [7] Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” God graciously reassures Abram. You must remember: Abram is a sinner. Even sinners with faith must be continually reassured of God’s presence, power, and love. And with the gift of God’s reassurance, Abram responds with worship, verse 8, “he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. [9] And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.” These location details will come into play as Abram’s life plays out, but it’s clear that at this point, even with God’s gracious call and promises, Abram would have to wait.

The Reverend G. Campbell Morgan, who was a mentor of Martyn Lloyd Jones, wrote at length about waiting on God. He said, “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”

We must wait for the fulfillment of the promises of God. But God continually reassures us. How wise of Him, to instruct us to gather for worship on the Lord’s Day, for His glory of His name and for the reassurance of His people, leading to our peace and joy.

As we continue in Genesis, we will see God going even further to reassure Abram. There will be a covenant ceremony in which God demonstrates His devotion to His promises. And the promises to Abram and his children will be represented by a covenant sign, the sign of circumcision. 

As always, faith is required to take possession of the promises of God. Abram had faith before he received the sign; his son Isaac would have faith after receiving it. So initially, the covenant sign was not for the child, but for the parents, a reminder that for these promises to be fulfilled, God alone must do it,and as reassurance that God keeps His promises.

Therefore, in Acts 2 in the NT, when Peter says repent and be baptized, he also says, “for these promises are for you and your children.” You see, if these not-yet-fully-developed old covenant promises and signs were given to believing adults and their children, how much more so the fully-developed new covenant promises and signs! 

These things are meant to strengthen us as we wait and as we walk by faith. They reassure of God’s grace. They reassure us of His power.

Do you have this assurance of God’s promises? In Galatians 3, Paul writes, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.” “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” Heirs of the covenant of grace.

How should we respond to God? Abram shows us how. With worship.

Let’s pray now, and sing to Him.