The Abrahamic covenant was established as the Dispensation of Promise. This covenant is available to all Jews and Gentiles who are born again. Hebrews 11, verse 8 says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."

From reading the phrase, "not knowing whither he went" we can get the impression Abraham just walked around not knowing where he was going. However, Abraham knew exactly where to go even though he had never seen the place before. God told him to go to a place called, "the land of milk and honey." When Abraham arrived, there was a famine in the land. The first thing he thought was he must have missed God, so he went off to Egypt. When God calls you, do not be surprised at what you see with your eyes. Follow the Lord. God does not always call you to a place that is just wonderful - where no problems exist and everything flows wonderfully.

Verse 17 of Galatians, chapter 3 says, "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect."

The promise given to Abraham and Moses was the Abrahamic Covenant. The Mosaic law came later, but it did not disannul the covenant established between God and Abraham. The One who came and brought the covenant to Abraham was Christ. Christ was sent as God's representative. Genesis tells us it was the "Lord" who appeared to Abraham, but the "Lord" who appeared to him was the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ existed long before He came to earth; in fact, there has never been a time He has not existed.

Verse 6 of Galatians 3 says, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
Verses 7 and 8 continue, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, forseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."

The Greek word for "children" is "huios," which translated is "sons." The word "heathen" is also the word for "Gentiles." The Abrahamic covenant was never designed to bless only one nation; it was designed to bless all nations.

This verse says again, "...preached before the gospel unto Abraham." What does "before" mean? God preached the gospel to Abraham BEFORE he was a Jew. Abraham was not born a Jew; he was born a Gentile. How did he become a Jew? Some would say Abraham became a Jew through circumcision, but Abraham became a Jew by faith. The Jewish race is the only race that began supernaturally; it began by faith. Faith is what changed Abram to Abraham, and faith is what caused him to leave a place called Ur of the Chaldees. It was faith that made Abraham a Jew, and it was 25 years after first exercising his faith when Abraham was circumcised as an outward sign of what had already happened in his heart. Circumcision was performed on the part of his body representing reproduction, demonstrating he was to teach his children about faith. Children are born into the kingdom of God, not through natural birth, but by the hearing of the Gospel and the exercising of faith.

Genesis chapter 11, verses 27-32 describe how God called Abraham: "Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the Son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran."

Why didn't Haran get to go into the promised land of Canaan? Genesis 12:1 says, "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee."

The Hebrew word for "Lord" is the word "Jehovah." This is the name of the manifested member of the Godhead. "Jehovah" is the redemptive name and God the Father is never the redemptive member of the Godhead; the Lord Jesus is always the redemptive member of the Godhead.
This verse says again, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred."

"Kindred" includes father, mother, cousins, nephews. God told Abraham to leave everyone and everything, but instead he took his father, his father-in-law, and his nephew Lot with him. Abraham partially obeyed God; but partially meant he would only partially arrive in the Promised Land. Abraham only traveled as far as Haran and remained in Haran for 13 years until his father died. His father's death freed Abraham to enter into the Promised Land.

Verses 2 and 3 continue, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

Verse 4 and 5, "So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came."

Again, Abram did not enter the land of Canaan until his father had died; after Lot went into the area of Sodom and Gommorah. It was only then that Abram and his wife, Sarai went into the land of Canaan. When they arrived, they found famine in the land, so they departed and ran off to Egypt. They settled in Egypt for awhile until they were convicted and knew God had called them to the land of Canaan. They returned, but this time they brought a little bit of Egypt with them; they brought Hagar, the handmaid with them. Abraham was continually trying to hang on to the world - to hang on to the natural things. My friend, burn your bridges behind you; completely follow God and He will take care of you.

Genesis Chapter 15, verse 6 says, "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."

The Jews were the last race to be formed on the earth; all other races had been formed on the earth after the Tower of Babel. God started a new race on the earth called the Jews and out of that new race He began a new nation called Israel.

Genesis 13, verses 14-16, "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered."

Notice again, it was only after Lot had departed from Abram that God could clearly speak to him. This promise will not be completely fulfilled until the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Genesis 15, verse 18 says, "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 Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

Abraham never saw the fulfillment of this promise in his lifetime. Part of the promise was fulfilled later when the children of Israel crossed over the Jordan River under the leadership of Joshua, some four hundred years after the Lord told Abraham he would give him the land "and his seed."

Genesis 22:15-17: "And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."

Verse 18, "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."
Abraham's seed encompassed two races - a spiritual race and a natural race. He compared the spiritual race to the stars and the natural race to the sand. From the loins of Abraham came not only a natural race called the Jews - a natural nation called Israel; there also came another race out of him, which today is called the body of Christ. Galatians chapter 3, verse 16 says, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." The covenant was not made between Abraham and "seeds" (plural); it was made between Abraham and the "seed." The word "seeds" in the plural is a reference to the Jewish nation. God did not draw up the covenant between Abraham and a nation; He drew it up between Abraham and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The covenant included three areas: Prosperity, health, and righteousness (the new birth). What was the three- fold curse of the law? Poverty, sickness, and spiritual death. Galatians says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Jesus did not redeem us from the law - He redeemed us from the curse of the law. If He had redeemed us from the whole law, He would have redeemed us from the blessings too. Why was the covenant drawn up between Abraham and Jesus? It was because Jesus was the representative of the races yet to come. He was our representative. This is why Galatians 3:29 says, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." When Jesus sat back with Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, I sat with Him in Ur of the Chaldees, you sat with Him in Ur of the Chaldees; He was there as our representative, because in the loins of the Lord Jesus Christ was the Church.

Hebrews, chapter 11:8-10 say, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

The word "sojourn" means Abraham acted like a temporary resident. Abraham never settled down even though he was in the Promised Land. When Abraham followed after God he was wealthy. He could have had the finest of everything in that day. Even though Abraham had wealth and possessions, he chose to live in a tent as a witness to the world. He was not going to put his roots in this earth. Abraham had no natural foundations in this earth, but verse 10 says again, "...he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

The city Abraham was looking for could not be seen with the natural eye; Abraham was looking through the eye of faith. Look at verse 22 of Hebrews twelve. It says, "But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels."

Understand something, natural cities change, but in heaven the City never changes. Abraham knew he was headed for the City that would never change, the heavenly Jerusalem. We are headed there too. We have the right to approach it in praise and worship. Every time we come to church and enter into praise and worship, we come into the city of God - Mount Zion. We have a right to come before the Lord and His throne to praise and worship Him and present our petitions before Him. I believe during times of praise and worship, people will be getting visions of what that city looks like; and when they get to Heaven it will be no surprise to them because they have already seen it.

Bob Yandian

If you like this article, check out Hebrews 11: God's Hall of Fame at the BYM Store.

Copyright 2009 by Bob Yandian Ministries.
Reproduction of this material in whole or part in any format without written permission is prohibited. All Rights Reserved.