God continued, And I will make my covenant between me and you,
and will multiply you exceedingly. So God was still unwavering about
keeping his promise to Abram that He first made 24 years before about having
a son.
Abram fell on his face and God told him more. Abram would be a
father of many nations. His name would no longer be Abram but he would
now be called Abraham and
God's Covenant would be everlasting, to be a God to him and to his
descendants after him forever. All the land of Canaan, God gave to him as
an everlasting possession. And God told Abraham to keep His covenant and
for his descendants to keep His covenant in their own generations.
As for
Sarai, God changed her name to Sarah. Then he promised again that He would
bless her and give Abraham a son born from her.
Abraham said in his heart, shall a child be born to a man who is
100 and a woman who is 90?
And Abraham said, O that Ishmael might live before you!
But, God
said ... Sarah will most certainly have a son, and you will call him
Isaac: and I will set up my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant,
and with his seed after him, God told him. As for Ishmael, I've heard your
concern. I have blessed him and will multiply him exceedingly; he will be
the father of twelve princes and I will make him a great nation. But my
promise is with Isaac, which Sarah will give birth to at this set time in
the next year. Then God went up from Abraham.
Can
you imagine the relief in Abraham's heart when he heard God's promise
again? All of the moments of wondering if he heard God correctly, or maybe
God had forgotten, have now come to a screeching halt. Come back again and
find out what happens as Abraham continues on with renewed faith and hope to
a future of bright promises.
The following is an added excerpt from our New Covenant Study:
God made covenants with man and mankind. His old Covenant was the Old
Testament. But then ... God made a New Covenant as read about within the New
Testament in the Bible.
COVENANTS BIBLE STUDY WARNING
COVENANTS IN THE BIBLE BLESSINGS
Jesus went to
Matthew's house and many followed. There were a lot of sinners there
who sat down to eat with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees
(Religious leaders) saw it, they asked the disciples, Why does Jesus eat
with sinners? Jesus heard, and answered them, "People who are well
don't need a doctor, but the sick do. But you go and figure out what
this means: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, because I came to
call sinners to repentance, not the righteous." (Matthew 9:10-13)
Jesus
gave us words to ponder when He said "But you go and figure out what
this means: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" ... But what did He
mean? Let's find out.
Jesus also said ... No man sews a piece of new
cloth on an old garment, or the patch will shrink and the tear will be
worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles or the bottles break
and the wine runs out and the bottles are ruined, but they put new wine
into new bottles, and both are saved. (Matthew 9:14-17) What was Jesus
saying? He was teaching of the New Covenant (Testament). You can't have
a new game with the same old rules or you'll just have ... The same
old game. He was showing them that in this New Covenant ... Sacrifice is
being replaced by mercy now. What Jesus was saying was, God is putting a
new promise into new hearts and both will be saved. Remember
Jeremiah
31:31-34: THE NEW COVENANT. Accept this TRUTH and share it with others.
Did you know that just
as the Bible has 66 books, that the book of Isaiah has
66 chapters? In addition, the Bible is divided into
two sections, the Old Testament (LAW) and the New
Testament (Grace).
The Old Testament has 39 books and the New Testament
has 27 books. The book of Isaiah is divided in like
manner. The first 39 chapters are based on laws and
punishment. The last 27 chapters foretell of the
promise of the coming Messiah (Jesus)... Cool huh? Is
this just a coincidence or a form of prophecy of the
Old Covenant ending and a New Covenant being
instituted?
A Covenant is an agreement between two parties. In
this case the agreement was between God and man. It
was based on LAW given to the people by God, through
Moses. The Old Testament is based on this Old Covenant
and the New Testament is the New Covenant. Our Father
told us in the Bible that we will KNOW that He is God
cuz He tells us things that will happen before they
occur. Did our Father prophecy, through His servants
the prophets, of the coming of this New Testament?
ABSOLUTELY ... In
Zechariah 11:7-14 He tells us that He will break
His Old Covenant (Old Testament) and even prophesied
the timing that the Old Covenant would end and the New
Covenant would begin. He said that the Jewish people
would consider His worth as ... 30 pieces of silver.
(The amount the Jewish Religious leaders paid Judas to
betray Jesus) Now that's just too wild. God prophesied
through a prophet hundreds of years before it
happened. He KNEW the people would trade Him up and
even told the exact amount. So, as our Father promised
... He will prove HE is God by keeping us posted as to
what will be, by revealing it to the prophets.
But our Father did not
stop there ... In
Jeremiah
31:31-34 ... He said that He will make a NEW
Covenant (Testament) and explains what it will be. He
said that He would place the LAW within our hearts and
forgive all of our sins and remember the sins no more.
Now this does NOT mean that the Law is of no effect,
rather it is saying that when you believe in Jesus,
God will place the laws within your heart. It is
confirmed that He had performed this act in the New
Covenant (Testament) in
Hebrews
8:6-8 ...
COVENANTS BIBLE STUDY SUMMARY
COVENANTS IN THE BIBLE CONCLUSION
It says that God found the Old Covenant
to possess faults and that Jesus is the mediator of
the New Covenant (Testament) Think of it this way ...
The Old Covenant is kinda like a bride who married a
man and obeyed out of fear but lacked a foundation of
Love ... The Marriage failed just as many marriages on
earth do now for the same reasons. A marriage based on
fear and obligation is as nothing compared to one
based on LOVE. The marriages with a foundation in LOVE
can overcome all trials and tribulations the world
will throw at em. It is ETERNAL. God said that He
looked down on Earth and He could not find one soul
that had done good. NO, not one. Soooooo, in order to
save His children, He had to sacrifice His Son Jesus
as to establish a NEW blood Covenant worthy of
cleansing the sins of the people ... In the days of
Moses, blood was sprinkled on the people to establish
the Old Covenant. (Kinda like a blood pact between
friends) Now, in the New Covenant, it is the blood of
Jesus that established the New Covenant. In this
marriage ... It is different in that the bride would
CHOOSE to obey their husband because they loved Him in
FAITH because of what He has done for them. He
sacrificed His life so that those he loved might LIVE.
This marriage will prove to be worthy and ETERNAL.
They will make it through the trials and tribulations
that the world will throw at em cuz ... They LOVE Him.
That brings us to today with the CHOICE of Faith and
Love ... Is not our Father AWESOME?
CONTINUE TO THE NEXT STUDY