And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
This renewal came after nearly twenty-five years in Canaan, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, after he had left his father's house and family and an idolatrous nation to live in a strange land among people who worshiped idols. In that strange land God was educating and teaching him in order to make him a chosen instrument for the light and laws of His kingdom, first requiring him to break connection with his father's family and separate from their influence so that Jehovah alone would be the object of his worship. Presenting Himself as the Almighty God, He commanded Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect, and Abraham fell on his face while God talked with him.
He then established His covenant between Himself and Abraham and promised to multiply him exceedingly by making him a father of many nations with exceedingly many descendants. That covenant was everlasting and extended to Abraham and his seed through their generations, with God to be their God. The promised multiplication was tokened by changing his name from Abram to Abraham to signify father of a great multitude, and Sarai's name to Sarah to mean princess, for she would be a mother of nations with kings among her offspring.
At that time circumcision was given as a seal of the righteousness of the faith Abraham already had while still uncircumcised, and as its token and sign that he and his descendants were devoted to God's service, accepted as His peculiar treasure, and set apart from idolaters and other nations. By that sign Abraham and his descendants pledged on their part to fulfill the conditions of the covenant by remaining separate from other nations, living faithfully before God, being perfect, devoting life to God's service, and obeying the divine requirements including God's law and consulting God's will in marriage, family relations, and public life. A central condition was not to contract marriages with the heathen, lest they lose reverence for God and His holy law and be tempted into the sinful practices of other nations and seduced into idolatry.
The covenant was both temporal and spiritual and was to pass through the birthright from Abraham to Isaac and then to the heir, including inheritance of worldly wealth, spiritual pre-eminence as priest of the family, great increase of posterity, and the promise that the Redeemer of the world would come in that line. Failure to keep separate exposed them to idolatry, caused loss of reverence and much holy character, and drew them toward sinful practices, yet God did not forsake the descendants in Egypt because of His covenant with Abraham. Isaac and Rebekah held these promises as the great object of desire and hope and taught them to Esau and Jacob, with Isaac declaring Esau as eldest entitled, while Esau had no love for devotion and regarded the requirements of the spiritual birthright and the law as an unwelcome and hateful yoke of bondage, desiring only liberty for self-indulgence, power, riches, feasting, reveling, and wild freedom.
This renewal came after nearly twenty-five years in Canaan, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, after he had left his father's house and family and an idolatrous nation to live in a strange land among people who worshiped idols. In that strange land God was educating and teaching him in order to make him a chosen instrument for the light and laws of His kingdom, first requiring him to break connection with his father's family and separate from their influence so that Jehovah alone would be the object of his worship. Presenting Himself as the Almighty God, He commanded Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect, and Abraham fell on his face while God talked with him.
He then established His covenant between Himself and Abraham and promised to multiply him exceedingly by making him a father of many nations with exceedingly many descendants. That covenant was everlasting and extended to Abraham and his seed through their generations, with God to be their God. The promised multiplication was tokened by changing his name from Abram to Abraham to signify father of a great multitude, and Sarai's name to Sarah to mean princess, for she would be a mother of nations with kings among her offspring.
At that time circumcision was given as a seal of the righteousness of the faith Abraham already had while still uncircumcised, and as its token and sign that he and his descendants were devoted to God's service, accepted as His peculiar treasure, and set apart from idolaters and other nations. By that sign Abraham and his descendants pledged on their part to fulfill the conditions of the covenant by remaining separate from other nations, living faithfully before God, being perfect, devoting life to God's service, and obeying the divine requirements including God's law and consulting God's will in marriage, family relations, and public life. A central condition was not to contract marriages with the heathen, lest they lose reverence for God and His holy law and be tempted into the sinful practices of other nations and seduced into idolatry.
The covenant was both temporal and spiritual and was to pass through the birthright from Abraham to Isaac and then to the heir, including inheritance of worldly wealth, spiritual pre-eminence as priest of the family, great increase of posterity, and the promise that the Redeemer of the world would come in that line. Failure to keep separate exposed them to idolatry, caused loss of reverence and much holy character, and drew them toward sinful practices, yet God did not forsake the descendants in Egypt because of His covenant with Abraham. Isaac and Rebekah held these promises as the great object of desire and hope and taught them to Esau and Jacob, with Isaac declaring Esau as eldest entitled, while Esau had no love for devotion and regarded the requirements of the spiritual birthright and the law as an unwelcome and hateful yoke of bondage, desiring only liberty for self-indulgence, power, riches, feasting, reveling, and wild freedom.