"The Abrahamic Covenant"
Once again, we have a covenant from God towards Abram. The main difference between this one and the past ones, though, is the formality of the covenant. That being said, the covenant made to Abram consisted of 2 elements:
- That Abram, husband of a barren wife, would receive an heir of his own flesh and from that heir would descend a multitudinous people.
- That Abram and his descendants would possess "this land", being the whole of Israel as previously promised.
Additionally, God foretold that Abram's descendants would be enslaved in a foreign country for 400 years before truly inheriting the land given to them. Interestingly enough, you can look ahead (spoiler alert) and see that every word God spoke came true.
Also, I mentioned above that this covenant was more formally stated. It was. After hearing God's promise about possessing the land, Abram asked for surety of this latter covenant. So, God had Abram make a very specific, fairly large sacrifice and then affirmed to him in a vision this covenant with the specific details about the inheritance of Abram's offspring.
The passage ends with a formal acknowledgement of this covenant, stating in verses 18-21:
"On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, 'I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River: the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.'"God made a formal covenant that day and not only did He do that, but He honored and kept it, too. After all, our God is a God of truth and honesty. He is trustworthy and faithful..
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