Just over five years ago, on September 15, 2020, The Abraham Accords were signed at the White House. Negotiated during President Donald Trump’s first administration, the signing of the Accords was hailed as a landmark achievement in Middle East relations which many hoped would lead to normalisation between Israel and its historically hostile neighbours. The end goal is to achieve a more integrated, peaceful, and prosperous Middle East with President Trump recently suggesting, with perhaps more optimism than realism, that Iran may eventually become a signatory. However, while the nations of the world continue to put their hopes of peace squarely on the carefully crafted words of The Abraham Accords, many seem to be forgetting that God has His own Abrahamic document that He is working to fulfil. It is known as the Abrahamic Covenant and it is the fountain from which flows all of God’s redemptive purposes for Israel and for mankind as a whole.
Although we do not often use the word “covenant” in our modern language, covenants were an important part of life in earlier generations. What we learn from the Bible is that covenants were generally made between nations and individuals, but a man could even make a covenant with himself, as evidenced by Job. In making a pact with himself to abstain from fleshly lust, Job 31:1 says: “I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?”
The covenants that God entered into with mankind fall into two categories: conditional and unconditional. As the name suggests, conditional covenants are contingent on conditions being fulfilled, usually related to obedience. Unconditional covenants (of which the Abrahamic Covenant is one) relies solely upon God fulfilling the terms of the covenant. So far as God’s unconditional covenants with Israel are concerned, we learn some key points. First, fulfilment of the covenant depends on God’s faithfulness, not Israel’s. Second, the covenants are to be interpreted literally. Third, they are made with Israel, which requires us to maintain the Israel-Church distinction. Fourth, the terms of the unconditional covenant are not repealed or replaced because of Israel’s sinfulness.
Although promises were clearly made to Abram (as he was still known at the time) in Genesis 12 and 13, a covenant was not formally established until Genesis 15. If you want clarity on the absolute certainty and reliability of God’s promises to Israel, particularly in relation to its land grant, Genesis 15 provides it. Yet, prior to 1948, some struggled to see it, despite the fact that Genesis 17:7-8 clearly confirms its nature as an everlasting covenant through Abraham’s descendants: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.“
In Genesis 15:8, Abraham (Abram) asks God how he will be assured of the fact that God has promised he and his descendants the land: “And he said, ‘Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?'” It was not an expression of faithlessness but a desire for confirmation of the divine promise. In response, God affirmed His covenant with Abraham (Abram) in a remarkable ceremony (Genesis 15:9-17), unilaterally committing Himself to carry out the terms of the covenant. Could God be trusted? Of course. Numbers 23:19: “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has he said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Parties to a covenant passed through severed animals as a pledge that if either one broke the covenant, that party would suffer the same cutting that their animals had undergone. Because it is impossible for the Lord to be severed and mutilated, Abraham (Abram) could rest assured that he would undoubtedly receive the promised seed, the promised blessing, and the promised land. In Genesis 12:1 God told Abraham (Abram) that He would show him the land. In Genesis 13:17 God told Abraham (Abram) that He would give him the land. But in Genesis 15:18 God told Abraham (Abram) He had given him the land. God’s covenant made it a settled matter. Psalm 105:8-12: “He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance,’ when they were few in number, indeed very few, and strangers in it.“
As you can see, there is an inseparable link between the Abrahamic Covenant and the prophetic passages which promise Israel’s total, permanent restoration to its homeland and future blessing. It is important to openly discuss the nature of the Abrahamic Covenant due to the fact that, unfortunately, the land element is often the portion to be most neglected because it demands a distinction between Israel and the Church and a future for Israel in the land – an inconvenient truth to those who wish to destroy the Jewish nation. As it stands, mankind may have forgotten, overlooked, reinterpreted or ignored the Abrahamic Covenant, but God hasn’t. He will fulfil it, and no President, Prime Minister, Pope, Prince or pauper can invalidate it or stand in the way of it. In the Millennial Kingdom, Israel will possess the land given to it – all of it.
