Just seven times-no more, nor less,-God covenants with Abraham before Isaac is offered up; and the eighth and last time when Isaac is received in a figure from the dead. In this the meaning is plain-completeness of testimony, and all founded on resurrection. Let us now consider each covenant (or repetition of the covenant) in detail, and see whether each one does not fall numerically into its place. Both the first and second are found in the following verses:-
I. Gen. 12:1-7.-" 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 show thee: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 in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.' So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, . . . and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land . . . unto the plain of Moreh. …"
II. "And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, 'Unto thy seed will I give this land:' and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." I dwell but briefly on these. In the first, appropriately to the number one, we have the announcement in sovereign grace of what God will do; nothing even as to how He will do it. It is the one perfect thing presented to the mind,-God's call and promise, and Abram's perfect obedience. In the second covenant, "unto thy seed will I give this land," we have the way of redemption announced, that is through the Seed, that is Christ (Gal. 3:16). This answers to the second book of Moses,-Exodus-where redemption is the subject, and the Redeemer is the Second Person in the Trinity (Matt. 28:19). The necessity of redemption (though the less prominent thought here) suggests the evil meaning in this number, -sin,-alienation from God,-and so not oneness, but division. But blessing is the subject here-blessing through the Son.
III. The third covenant is beautifully instructive. "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. . . . Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.' Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.", Here we reach the plains of Mamre, the place where Abraham afterward (chap. 18:) entertains the Lord (the three); that is, we have reached communion with God, as in Leviticus, the third book of Moses, we have the sanctuary and priesthood. And " walk through the land " and " seed as the dust" show liberty and fruitful-ness on resurrection-ground, to which our number brings us.
It is when we see that we are alive unto God in Christ risen, that we know the liberty in which Christ has made us free, and have our fruit unto holiness (Rom. 6:22). Communion, liberty, and holiness. None are free but those who have the living God as one to whom they live in holy fear. Otherwise it is bondage in some form.
On the third day Jonah was cast up upon the dry land of liberty. Before that, it was the depths where all was darkness and helplessness, and the cry for deliverance. It is inasmuch as Christ was raised from the dead that we can walk in newness of life, having been baptized unto His death. Either we walk in the way of death, or else in newness of life in Christ risen from the dead. Every Christian should say, The doctrine of Romans 6:has set me free. (Rom. 6:17, 18.) We are alive in Christ in Romans 6:We are told to " walk in Him " in Colossians 2:In no other atmosphere can we breathe and live. " From the place where thou art" was the word to Abram. The standing being known, he could look to all points of the compass. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ in heavenly places (our Canaan). We belong to heaven, let us freely enjoy our possession, but it must be " from the place where thou art." Abram had overcome and turned away from what had overcome Lot; otherwise he would have had no " ear to hear," and no power to see the "vision of the Almighty." (Num. 24:4.) God could not tell Lot to view the land. May our eyes not be closed to the heavenly vision.
IV. In chap. 15:we have the fourth renewal of the covenant. Now this portion is separated from the three foregoing covenants by the words "after these things," a phrase which does not occur again until just before the eighth and final covenant. We can therefore group the first three and the last four of the seven, and then the eighth. This being the case, there must be something that characterizes the four as a group in comparison with the three. It is this, prominently, whatever else there is, namely, that in the four, man's responsibility, or exercise of soul in the believer comes in; for such is the case from the fourth to the seventh, Abram or Sarah have a question or a doubt, whereas in the first three God alone speaks, man is silent. First, God declares His purpose, then accomplishes it in and through man in the seven as a whole. God manifest in the flesh is the great mystery of godliness, and all is based upon the eighth. He is "received up into glory." The Old Testament answers to the four and the New Testament to the three, the order reversed in the whole history of redemption; first, man is on the scene, then God; yet in the Old Testament, by itself, the order is the same as in the three followed by the four,-that is, the promise is followed by the law. God announces His purpose, then His people (Israel) are tested and redeemed through faith, and all by Christ risen from the dead.
Taking the whole seven (covenants) together, the three followed by the four, we have this:"We are saved by ' grace (the first three), through faith " (the last four).
It may be well to note at this point the tests and exercises of man's heart in the last four. In the first three, as already seen, there is an entire absence of it. But in the four we have the following:Abram says (chap. 15:), "I go childless;" God says, " So shall thy seed be," pointing to the stars. " He believed in the Lord " and was counted righteous. He says, " How shall I know I shall inherit the land?" and then, called to offer the sacrifice, gets a glimpse of the cross, enters the deep sleep and darkness, and has a vision of the furnace and lamp, -trial and guidance of his people, and the announcement that after four hundred years, in the fourth generation his people would be redeemed.
In the fifth covenant (chap. 17:) Abraham laughs at the thought of Sarah having a child, cleaves to Ishmael (like Paul to Jerusalem in bondage), is circumcised with his house.
In the sixth (chap. 18:) he entertains the three, answers to his responsibility, but Sarah doubts and laughs.
In the seventh (chap. 21:12) Abraham is grieved that the bondwoman and her son are to be cast out, but submits to God and to the word, " In Isaac shall thy see be called." In all this God's people are portrayed in their exercises and failures and final rest of faith.
But in the first three not a hint of this, it is purely the sovereign purpose of God declared.
In the first eight chapters of Romans we have what answers to the four, only in the latter part of the eighth we have the three, " Whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified." Romans being thus linked with Ephesians, but ending where Ephesians begins. On the whole, Ephesians is like the first three, Romans the last four.
How marvelous is this frame-work of Scripture! men (as Abraham and others) living their lives through events, ordinary events of the day as well as extraordinary, and these events coming to pass and following into their place in a scheme of lessons for our instruction, with exact precision in each minute detail.
The Lord willing, we may dwell more particularly upon the covenants that follow, from the fourth onward. E.S.L.