Abram's Covenant

Published Oct 24, 2024, 9:00 AM

# 15 - Abram's Covenant - In this episode of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein experience the profound moment when God makes an unbreakable covenant with Abram, promising descendants as numerous as the stars. This pivotal event marks the beginning of a divine relationship that shapes the destiny of nations and echoes through the ages.

Episode 15 of The Chosen People with Yael Eckstein is inspired by the Book of Genesis.

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For more information about Yael Eckstein and IFCJ visit https://www.ifcj.org/

Today's opening prayer is inspired by Deuteronomy 31:6, “... For it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

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Show Notes:

(03:17) Intro with Yael Eckstein

(05:24) Abram's Covenant - Cinematic Retelling

(21:48) Reflection with Yael Eckstein

Previously on the Chosen People.

Tell me more about this visitor at the perimeter. Did you learn his name?

He calls himself Melchizedek, King of Salem.

King Melchizedek, you honor us with your visit. Tell us what have you come to say?

I am a king, yes, but I am also a high priest.

A priest of what God.

El Elion, the one and only true God. There is the one who created both the heavens and the earth. He has many names, but he is one God, The God most High, is what I call him before you. Now, this is the God of Abraham, the God who has given him favor in his land. He is the god who blesses his friends and curses his enemies. This is the God who is granted you your victories and destroyed your enemies before you.

Melchizedek then stood gently, placing his hands on Abram's shoulders, closed his eyes, and began his blessing.

Blessed be apron by God most High, creator of heaven and earth. In him, you and your great nation.

Will have a protector and provider.

The King of Sodom wore a dark robe with crimson threads woven into an image of a three headed serpent.

Do not fear, Abram, call off your amorite god. Docs I told you had come to make a generous offer. I see you have all our possessions in people, but I will allow you to keep all the possessions. Call it an act of gratitude, a good will, even for destroying our enemies and avenging noosity.

Abram smiled. There it was this was what the king wanted, giving up the possessions he lost in a raid to gain a friend, to curry favor with Abram and the Emirates. King Bearer was looking to own Abram through this gift.

As my friends know, I have devoted my life to the God most High. All I have is his, and all I do is in his name. My victories are his and not my own. So it is to him that you should be grateful, and not me. My possessions are the same. Everything I own is his. I'm not a self made man. Therefore I have little taste for ambitious friendships, and I would not take even a thread or sandal strap or anything that belongs to you. I see the invisible strings attached to them. I will sever them now and give you what is yours. I will not allow you or anyone to say I made Abram rich. I cannot be owned because I am already under the lordship of another.

In the stillness of the desert night, a voice called out to the wanderer, and the divine promised lit up the darkness with the fire of an eternal covenant. Shallo, my friends from here in the holy land of Israel, i'm ya l Extein with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Welcome to the Chosen People. Each day we'll hear a dramatic story inspired by the Bible, stories filled with timeless lessons of faith, love, and the meaning of life. Through Israel's story, will find this truth that we're all chosen for something great. You already know what to do. If you've been impacted by these stories, we'd love to hear from you. So leave a review and share with us how the Bible has enriched and inspired your faith. I love to read about it. Now, let's begin. Imagine a man standing alone in the quiet desert, his heart filled with questions as endless as the sky above him. Abram is a wanderer, a seeker, a dreamer. He is called by a voice that echoes through time, promising him a future that seems as far away as the stars that he gazes upon. It's here where God meets Abram and offers him a covenant, as we say in Hebrew a brit But what is this breat this covenant? And how could a divine promise shape the destiny of nations and alter the course of history? As we journey into this dramatic retelling of Genesis fifteen, let's ask ourselves these questions. What does it mean to trust in a promise that seems impossible? How do we hold on to faith when evidence is scarce? And what can we learn about the nature of a God who binds himself to humanity through a solemn, sacred oath.

Then you told Berra that you would never be all by him. Ha ha, that's insight. I hoped never to forget.

I will allow you nor anyone to say I made Abram rich.

Oh Abram, that was masterful. I should say that King Bira would not soon forget it either.

Abram and his three emirate companions had finally returned home to Hebron. They dine together and toasted their recent adventures. Everyone had heard of their exploits and learned of their victories, piling them as mighty warriors. They soon found themselves something akin to celebrities. The Emirates returned wealthier than ever, while Abram declined his share of the rescued plunder from Sodom.

I may not understand this god you follow, Abramam. I certainly don't understand your strange devotion to him, but I appreciate how rich he's made me here.

Perhaps I too shall worship this God of money.

If he makes us say any richer, one of our sons will be blotting our demise to take control of our fortunes faster.

If I had known how rich I would become, I never would have had any.

I do not expect you to understand, but be careful how you speak of such things. I have seen the power of God most high hand, and in direct ways you have as well.

I'm sorry, we need no disrespect.

Okay, But but what of the wealth and influence you have amassed. You may have turned down your share of King Bear's possessions, but you are still a very wealthy man, and you speak often or your legacy and the nation you're building. I do not mean to overreach. But how do you plan to secure your line of inheritance without a son or any children for that matter? Have you named an heir.

Or easy to be our man, Eliezer. Isn't it a custom among you Hebrews that the most senior servant in your household stands to inherit if there is no heir of your own flesh and blood.

Yes, that is a tradition among my people. We call them the possessor, heir or son of possession. But no, I will not pass on what has been given to me to Eliezer. My God has promised me that Sarah and I will have a son.

Or really, Sir, I imagine he's become quite accustomed to the idea at this point.

But how Abram? Forgive me, but you are over eighty years old and Sarah is only ten years younger. She is certainly fair, But I don't think even an Egyptian fertility ritual could summon an air from her womb at this late stage in her life.

I hear your concern, ainair Escole, I really do. I do not know how it will come to pass, but my God has promised it, and I've yet to see anything he tells me, not come to pass.

Brothers, Let's not push Abram on this matter. Let us talknandrink of other things.

He The hour was late when Abram at last departed from Memory's household, and despite the lateness of the hour to walk around the long way home through the now deserted streets of the city. He did not want to admit it, but the conversation with his friends had shaken him. He knew his friends meant well, and they did not mean to offend him. But it had been almost ten years since his God had promised him a son, and though the God Most High had not specified a time in which this was to happen, and though he did not doubt the words, he still wondered at the mechanics of how Abram had never expected others to have the same faith as him. But he was surprised to find how alienating it was for his friends to vocalize their doubts. Would he spend the rest of his life defending this promise? His friends had been gentle. He could only imagine what his enemy said of him behind his back, but he could not deny that their lack of belief was a blow. Was he to carry this legacy alone. Just then, as had happened all those other times before, the quiet city went utterly still and silent, and Abram knew that his God was about to speak to him. Abral steadied his breath and heartbeat. He turned his face toward the hills. The breeze blew from behind him, as if to nudge him forward.

Abraham, do not be anxious, and do not worry about the opinions of others, For you are not alone. I am your shield. Your friends seek only temporal rewards riches of this world, but your reward will be far greater. I have not forgotten about the promise I have made.

You, God Most High, I know what you have promised me. But how can you blame my friends for questioning? I have no children. Will I truly need to settle with Eliezer, a mere servant becoming my heir? Is that how what you have said will come to pass.

No, this man will not be your heir. You will have a son who is your own flesh and blood, and he will be your heir. I want you to listen to me. Go outside the city walls, meet me in the quiet under the canopy of stars. There I shall speak to you.

Abram obeyed, hurrying beyond the city's boundaries. The verdant fannies darkened under the velvet skies. Abram knelt down, bawling the grass in his fists. He was anxious to hear more from his God. He strained to listen, thirsty for an ounce of clarity. He gazed up at the heavens, the stars shining with a cold, distant light.

What is my destiny?

What will be my you see? Do you see the stars spread across the heavens far above your head?

Abram nodded, his brows creased upward, desperation painted on his starlit face.

Can you count the stars, Abram?

Abram shook his head uncertain.

You cannot, for there are too many. It is impossible. It is to be the same with your offspring. The great nation I shall make through your air would be as innumerable as the stars in the night sky.

Abram could again sense the certainty, the absolute and unexplainable peace, that accompanied his God's words. Abram believed, although he was still uncertain about how these things would come to pass.

I am the God most High, the God who brought you out from Er. I have laid out my plans for you and have been your advocate since before you even heard my voice. I called you and was with you in Haran, Egypt, and Canaan, everywhere you have ever set foot, and I say, I will give you this land to possess.

Elle Leon, God Most High. I believe the words you have said to me. But how am I to know that I will possess it?

But you also believe I will do as I say. Your faith will be credited to you as righteousness. You ask for more than a contract. You ask for a covenant in your common tongue. A covenant is between us that would signify a permanent, everlasting agreement between us. This I will gladly do. Come to me here in this place tomorrow before sunset, and bring the following with you so we may make our covenant. A three year old cow, a three year old female goat, a three year old ran, a turtle, dove, and a young pigeon. Our covenant will be between the God of all creation and you my creation. I will come down to cut a covenant in the ways of your people, but this will be something else entirely. This covenant between us would be something new, the likes of which humankind has never seen before.

Abram did exactly as his God said. He acquired the sacrificial animals required to cut the covenant between them, and brought them back to the place and time the God Most High had specified. Abram had seen his God do incredible things, but that he would enter into this agreement with him was truly remarkable. As the agreement required, Abram sacrificed the ovens and cut them in half from head to tail. The blood dripped down the blade and down his forearm. The blood was wrong and unsettling on his skin. The gore was significant. The lives of innocence were given as a symbol of the purity of their covenant. The only animals he did not cut in half with the birds. He then laid the pieces, the bloody side, facing upwards on either side. Abram knew this ritual, Shadows of it were passed down since the ancient days. The crimson stained space between animals was the symbolic walkway for their covenant, the walk unto death. Once the ritual began, the representatives would circle the halved pieces and go through the walkway to signify that if either representative were to break the covenant, something similar would be done to them. Abram had not seen his God take a form, so he wondered how this portion of the ritual would be achieved. As he dragged the animals into place, would milkies at deck return? Would an angel descend from above? Abram stood back from his work and watched the blood from the carcassus seep into the earth, some of it flowing into the middle of the walkway. As he waited for his God, birds of prey began to circle above. They grew bold in hunger and dove before Abram for the sacrificed animals. Their talons and beaks hungrily picked at the.

Carcasses Where will you yet?

Abram ran at the birds like a fool, flapping his arms and screaming. The birds, relatively unperturbed, retreated to a nearby tree and waited. Abram laughed and shook his head. He stretched and yawned, wondering if God would show himself. He laid back and waited, his eyes sinking with each blink. As the sun slipped beyond the horizon, A terrible and unnatural darkness swirled around him, far darker than it should be. At dusk. Abram was then pulled into a deep sleep and fell to the ground. Abram saw nothing, but heard the voice of his God from the depths of his dream.

I will give you a new vision of what is to come. For four hundred years. Not unlike you, your descendants will be strangers in a country that is not their own. But unlike you, they will be slaves backs bruised by their oppressors. Do not fear.

Them, for I am a just God, and I will wield my judgment and punish the nation they served as slaves.

After this trial, they will come out with many possessions and be restored. Just as you feared that the birds would alter the workings of our covenant, I tell you nothing can all to my judgment and restoration, and so despite oppression and mistreatment, the covenant will be fulfilled. All that I have said will come to pass. But do not fear what is to come. You, Abram, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. Do not fret over the sins and wickedness of the people in Canaan. I see it and will judge. In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites, the Canaanites alike has not yet reached its full measure. I will wait until the proper time, but rest assured my judgment will come.

The God Most High's voice dissolved into nothing the darkness. A smoking firepot, an oven, and a flaming torch appeared. The light emitting from the pair of objects cast a warm glow. Abram watched the shadowy outlines of the halved animal carcasses in the walkway between them. The oven and the torch together as one passed through the pieces, completing the walk unto death. As they drew near to Abram where he lay, he could feel the heat of their cleansing purifying flames from within his dream.

Again, I say to you, you are to take this as a blessing to signify the beginning of our former covenant to your descendants. I give this land from the Wadi of Egypt to the great River the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, Kenesites, Calamanites, Hittites, Perizites, Raphaelites, Amorites, Canaanites, Gergoshites, and Jebucyites.

Despite witnessing all of this in a dream, he knew that the items were meant to represent his God to his human mind. His God had completed the ritual alone, releasing Abram from any responsibility beyond his faith. He wondered at a God who would go to such lengths to fulfill the most profound gesture to his Hebrew culture, just so that he would feel reassured of the promises made Ava marveled at what this meant for himself and the generations that would come after him.

Living here in Israel, each day, I am part of a story. I'm part of a legacy that stretches back to the dawn of time. Each stone and each ancient path tell us this story that connects us to our ancestors, the chosen people who walk this land with faith and purpose. In Genesis fifteen, God brought Abram outside and said, look up at the sky and count the stars. If indeed you can count them, and then God promises, so shall be your offspring. But this promise wasn't just for Abram. No, it was a covenant, a breach for all of Israel, a divine guarantee that the children of Abram would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Walking through Jerusalem today or gazing at the hills of Judea, I'm constantly reminded of this promise. Each star in the sky is a symbol of God's unwavering faithfulness to the Jewish people. And as we stand on this sacred soil, we are surrounded by the stars of our history, figures like David and Solomon, Esther and Deborah, whose stories light up the night of exile and remind us of our eternal bruit, our eternal covenant with God. And this story gives us the moment that changed everything, when God made his bruit, his covenant with Abram. I can't shake the image from my mind, the vast expanse of the night sky, stars shimmering like diamonds, scattered across the heavens, Abram standing there, looking up into the night, his heart pounding with anticipation and wonder. And then God, the creator of everything, speaks. He doesn't just speak, He promises to Abram, to countless lines of descendants and the land to call their own, just as God told Abram to look at the heavens. I'm reminded that even today, as long as we still look to the heavens, look to God. Our special relationship with Him as His chosen people still endures, and as His people, we are and will always be present in this land, this holy land of Israel, that God promised Abram in this covenant. To better grasp the magnitude of this moment and this brit, this covenant, let's look at that Hebrew word. Let's look at the Hebrew word for covenant, brit. In the cultural context of Abram's time and place, a breait wasn't just a contract. It was a relational agreement, more like a marriage than a business deal. Two people making a covenant a briat didn't just sign a piece of paper and shake hands. No, they exchanged vows, They shared a meal, they declared their commitment in front of witnesses. Is binding themselves to each other with promises meant to be forever unbreakable. That's the heart of a breat It's deeply personal. It's relational. It's a commitment that involves not just actions, but the very essence of the individuals involved. And here in Genesis fifteen we witness God making a brit with Abram. This is a relational bond. God isn't just promising land and descendants. He's pledging himself to Abram in a profound and intimate way. The cultural context of covenant making in ancient times adds layers of meaning to this event. When God made a covenant with Abram, he was inviting Abram into a relationship forever, and this brit was a testament to God's desire for a personal relational bond with his people. The gravity of God's covenant with Abram is immense. It's a solemn, sacred moment, sealed by a ritual that may seem foreign to us today, yet is relevant and enduring to us today. There's Abram standing before sacrificed animals. The air is thick with the weight of what's happening. This isn't a casual agreement, to my friends, it's a breet. It's a covenant. It's sealed with blood. Cutting animals and laying them out in has may seem archaic to us today, but in Abram's time it was a symbol. It was a dramatic representation of the seriousness and commitment of God's promise. You see, in Abraham's time, people would walk between the pieces of the sacrificed animals essentially saying, if I break this covenant, may what happen to be these animals happen to me. It's a vow marked by life and death. But here's the thing about the scene in Genesis fifteen. Abram doesn't walk between the pieces.

God does.

God, represented by a smoking firepot and a blazing torch, passes between the pieces alone. God himself is saying, I take full responsibility for this covenant. I will fulfill my promises no matter what you see. It's a unilateral covenant. What a thing, what a statement. God is making an unbreakable promise that isn't even dependent on Abram's actions, but solely on God's faithfulness. God is his own name, his own honor on the line with a binding, blood sealed promise. And all the while Abraham is actually passive, he is sleeping, but God is very much awake and very much active. And isn't this how our relationship with God still is today. We don't earn God's promises, but rather his convenidant is made with us simply because He loves us. This covenant continues into the pages of the Christian Bible, and to speak more on this is our good friend, Bishop Paul Linier.

Oh yeah, I tell you, I can't express to you just how grateful I am for the opportunity of talking about this remarkable passage of scripture, this Genesis fifteen. And I'm not exaggerating when I say to you that it's absolutely one of my favorite passages of scripture in all the Bible. And I'll tell you why. It seems like God is determined with even greater specificity to reveal to us this remarkable redemption he has assigned to all of us. Yes, I know he's talking to a man, but he's actually speaking of a movement. I realize he's speaking to a person, but God's thinking about a people. Remember God said too, that Abraham, through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed, all the nations of the world.

Wow.

And that's what God is expressing to Abraham in the very first verse. He says to him, Oh, your reward shall be great. You're going to be blessed. And we've seen me talks about herds and flocks and over in gold and Abraham, you know, he has already been in this conversation for a while with God.

And so it is.

But why God, why are you blessing me? Why? Why are you extending all of them? What good is prosperity without posterity. Maybe you're including Eliezer, that servant maybe Abraham purchased when he was traveling through Damascus.

I don't know.

Maybe he's even thinking about his nephew Lot. And of course you know that Ishmael is a part of this conversation. God says, no, no, no, no. I am the Covenant God, and I'm speaking to you as the covenant man, and your wife, Sarah's the covenant woman, and I'm going to extend and you're going to experience that covenant personally. You don't have to fix this situation for me. I know what I'm doing. Come here, Abraham, I want you to see something, and they go outside. God says to Abraham, I want you to look up there. I want you to look towards me through this mighty expanse of the stars that blink at you at night. You know the heavens declare his hand where you know that verse, It's remarkable. I want you to count the stars, Abraham. Can you imagine the look on Abraham's face when he heard those words from the Lord count the stars one, two, three, four, five, six, twelve, seventeen, forty three, one hundred inver. I don't know where he was in the counting when he finally realized I can't count any higher, or that there's just too many. And God didn't tell Abraham to count all those stars because he could, but because he couldn't. And God was trying to say to this man, I know you're obsessed with your nursery, but I'm thinking about the nations that are going to flow through your nursery. We do that, don't we. Sometimes we can become so preoccupied with a particular situation in our heart and our life and our family, and we are completely oblivious for all the great things, even bigger, more extraordinary, that God is determined to bring into our lives. How is this? And God responds to him with a statement that some of us would probably have a difficult time with. But God says, if you want to know, then you need to sew. If you're searching for a revelation, I'm waiting for an offering.

Wow.

I know a lot of people that would have a problem with that statement. But Abraham didn't wait, and he didn't argue a debate. He just gave God the offering he required. And then in verse twelve he says, God put Abraham in a sleep. And you know, yeah, we look back in this book of Genesis ad another time when a man was longing for his posterity. Didn't know what that meant, But what's my next? Look Like God himself had said, it's not good for man to be alone. God put this Adam to a deep sleep. The Bible says that from Adam's side God took and from it came Adams, next, his wife, his generations, his eve. And for Christians, we look over in the Christian scriptors, of course, at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and we look at that story where the Roman soldiers inflicted upon Jesus the Roman penalty for rebellion. That's what crucifixion was all about. And in those Christian Gospels reread that a Roman soldier took a spear and pierced the side of the Jesus while he slept. It actually passed and from that side came blood and water. And as Christians, we see those as baptisms. From his side was coming his bride we later called in the Christian scriptures the Bride of Christ or the Bride of Jesus. So we're understanding that this is not the first time nor the last time that from a sleeping man that God has put to sleep, something extraordinary comes. And while Abraham is asleep, God begins to reveal and speak this profound word about a people, not just a person. And God says, centuries from now, your posterity will be great. Your generations will be like those stars, incalculable, innumerable. And I'm going to tell you something, this tragic and painful, but I need you to hear me. This coming a moment when your generations will be imprisoned, and they will suffer unimaginable pain and anguish and heartache through slavery, inhumanity, brutality, and bones will be broken and flesh will be torn. But I'm telling you, as the covenant God, I'm making a covenant with you to them. This coming a moment, I'm going to deliver them. And as they leave their bondage, they will carry all the silver and gold of their captors.

Wow.

Now, later on in the book of Exodus, we're going to study and will see what happened. Of course, what you know we know as to be the Passover. God had instructed them to stay in their house. It was blooded by the lamb, the hissop that they took, and they painted the doorposts with the blood of the lamb. And I'm convinced that while they were in there, God was healing them from the broken bones, the torn flesh, and all of the anguish they had endured from the brutality of slavery. He had to heal them because they had to be strong enough to carry the silver and the gold. Sometimes God has to heal us before he can deliver us from a thing, and sometimes he has to deliver us from something so he can heal us. While at verse twelve thirty is just extraordinary, all of that passage, but I tell you something else, and I'm about to do with this. In verse fifteen, God begins to more explicitly speak of those nations that he sees as part of the Holy Land. And you know, in the Hebrew scriptures, the Christian scriptures, and since nineteen forty Israel has never truly occupied all the spaces places that God has specifically assigned as Holy land as covenant to his people. And when we don't fully occupy what God has promised, someone else will and they will become a torment, a problem. Boy has Israel suffered that? Well, I'm about finished with this chapter, but I want to pray with you, Oh, my dear God. I thank you. I thank you that Yai Elle and I are able to talk about this remarkable passage of scripture. And I thank you for the people who are listening to me now. And I'm asking you to help us to more fully understand all you have assigned to us in the Covenant Blessing. May we not settle at a place where we've settled. May we not settle for less than you've promised, than you have given in your word. May we passionately pursue every.

Part of it.

For you are that great God who dreams great dreams for us.

And for all of this we thank you, Lord. Amen.

God's promises are trustworthy and true, But it isn't always easy to see that truth. Is it? Abraham had to wait years before God's promises actually came to fruition, and he had to endure so much pain as he waited. We have to remember this and know this, my friends, that we must have faith as we wait for God's promises to be fulfilled and the beauty the light to shine. And as we hold on to these promises, our faith will only grow stronger and we will only get closer to God. Here's a final blessing and benediction for you from Numbers Ivre Hashem vishmerechra yeah heer hashimpanave ele y sa hashempanavelelch shellon. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you. May he be gracious to you, Made the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.

Amen. You can listen to the Chosen People with Isle Eckstein ad free by downloading and subscribing to the prey dot Com app today. This Prey dog comproduction is only made possible by our dedicated team of creative talents. Steve Katina, Max Bard, Zach Shellabarger and Ben Gammon are the executive producers of the Chosen People with Yil Eckstein, edited by Alberto Avilla, narrated by Paul Coltofianu. Characters are voiced by Jonathan Cotton, Aaron Salvato, Sarah Seltz, Mike Reagan, Stephen Ringwold, Sylvia Zaradoc and the opening prayer is voiced by John Moore. Music by Andrew Morgan Smith, written by Bree Rosalie and Aaron Salvato. Special thanks to Bish, Paul Lanier, Robin van Ettin, Kayleb Burrows, Jocelyn Fuller, and the team at International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. You can hear more Prey dot com productions on the Prey dot com app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you enjoyed The Chosen People with Yile Eckstein, please rate and leave a review.

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