Genesis 17:1-2 – When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram

Genesis 17:1-2 – When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”

A covenant is an agreement between two parties that binds them together in some fashion. Marriage is a covenant. In this case, it is an agreement between God and Abraham. As we see in a subsequent verse, this covenant also included Abraham’s descendants.

Genesis 17:7 – And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Two questions arise. The first is, “What were the conditions of the covenant?” The answer is given in the verses above. Abraham’s contribution was to “walk before me and be blameless.” God’s obligation was “to be God to you and to your offspring” and “multiply you greatly.” What does it mean to walk before God? The Bible explains it in literally hundreds of places. One such explanation is “Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him” (Deuteronomy 8:6).

God’s obligation to be God to Abraham and his descendants is also described in numerous places. It meant blessings of various sorts, a future promised land, and numerous progeny. In somewhat veiled language, a special descendant was promised, the same Seed promised to Eve.

Genesis 26:4-5 – I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

The second question is, “Why did God want the covenant with Abraham?” This question is related to the question that naturally rises from the creation: Why did God create Adam and Eve? The simplest answer is that He just wanted us as creatures made in His image – to fellowship with us. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3). The trouble was that not long after Adam and Eve, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). After the flood in Noah’s day, there was the rebellion at the tower of Babel. Therefore, God selected a man from whom He could build a faithful people: Abraham. With Abraham and his descendants as God’s servants, He would seek to win the hearts of as many people as possible.

Exodus 19:5-6 – Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

The “kingdom of priests” was to carry the message of the love of God to a world determined to self-destruct.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 – For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand.

The messages we should take away from this are:

· God loves people and wants the best for them.

· He selected a group of people to be His ambassadors to the remainder of

the world, so that He could save as many as possible.

In time, the Hebrews rejected God and His Son. Jesus proclaimed the separation when He said, “your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). However, we, in our time, are ambassadors for Christ, chosen every bit as much as was Abraham. In the New Testament we read:

1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Corinthians 5:20 – we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Galatians 3:29 – if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.