The
Abrahamic Covenant—3
By Rev.
Lonnie C. Crowe
In
review: God relates to His people through covenants. A covenant is greater than a promise. A covenant is a bond in which each of those
involved in the matter say, “Everything I have is yours.” Covenant is total commitment. In covenant with God, even though we are not
totally committed to Him, He is totally committed to us.
God’s
covenant with the patriarch Abraham, as with all His covenants and prophetic
words, has a message for the time when it was established, a message for the
Church today and a message for the future.
The
essentials of the covenant are outlined in Genesis 12:1-3 (NKJV): “Now the LORD
had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from
your father's house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great
nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in
you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
In part one, we
saw the importance of being separated unto the Lord in order to receive the
blessings contained within the covenant.
In part two, we learned that we are blessed to be a blessing. We are to be separated from the world in
order that we may more effectively serve in the Kingdom of God.
The Favor of
God:
When we are
walking in the will of God, the Abrahamic covenant assures us that we are
surrounded and protected by the favor of God.
He will stand against those who come against His people. Conversely, He will bless those who bless His
people.
The Hebrew word for blessing is “barak" which means “to kneel down.” When God blesses us, He kneels down to meet our needs. When we bless God, we kneel down to serve Him. In serving Him, we are blessed with His favor. The antonym of “barak” is “arar”.
“Whereas barak refers to divine favor that empowers a person, arar refers to divine bondage that renders one powerless. Thus, when Adam sinned, the earth was “cursed” (Gen. 3:17), meaning it would no longer produce fruit with the abundance it once did.” [i]Another Hebrew word translated as “curse” is “galal”. “Galal” expresses the “idea of making something small. Both arar and qalal are used by God in Gen. 12:3.” Those who curse Abraham (qalal), are those who make him small, who consider him worthless. They will be cursed by God (arar); they will be bound or made powerless by God. In this, we see that God, ultimately, is the protector of His people, and people's relationship with those walking in the favor of God defines their relationship with God Himself. [ii]
“The exact parallel arises ultimately in Jesus Christ. Those who bless Him are blessed–they are empowered to live as God intends; whereas those who curse, or belittle, Him are cursed by God, or bound by Him.”[iii]
Walking in the will of God and respecting Him in the lives of believers is empowering. Belittling God and persecuting believers holds people in bondage to their sin. That includes believers who belittle and shun others who know that Jesus died to pay the price for sin but who may worship differently.
We have a choice.
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