Abraham’s Prominence in the New Testament

Three Old Testament characters figure prominently in the mind of Jesus and the Apostles: Abraham, Moses, and David. David was the anointed King of Israel, the model and father for the coming Messiah, the Son of David who was to rule forever. Moses was the great prophet, the writer of the pentateuch and the origin of the Law. But Abraham was the recipient of the covenant, not its mediator. Abraham was the model for the believer, and the Father of all believers. To number oneself a son of Abraham was to claim to be the fulfillment of the promise he received, the promise of an offspring, descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars of the sky.

And perhaps it is for this reason that Abraham is foremost among these three. The name of Moses is perhaps invoked a few times more often, but many of these are simply formulaic in the quoting of the Law. Abraham is prominent in the geneologies, he is prominent in the mind of Jesus and the Apostles as the father of God’s true children, and, perhaps most importantly, he is prominent in the thought of Paul and the author to the Hebrews as the recipient of the covenant of grace, the example of salvation by faith, as opposed to the works of the Law. To read briefly the New Testament references to Abraham, as I’ve gathered them in a handout, is to hear the message of the Gospel itself.

Consider for a moment, before we move on to the story of Abraham, what this means.

Consider what it means for the relation between the Old Testament and the New. Dispensationalism, which classically taught that God dealt differently with his people in the New Testament era from the way he dealt with them in prior periods, or dispensations, simply cannot account for the believers intimate bond with Father Abraham. Christ may be the end of the Law, Christ may tear down that earthly temple, but this doesn’t mean that Christians are anti-semitic, or can stand to be dismissive or ignorant of the Old Testament. Jesus and Paul and the rest of the Apostles do not allow in any way for believers to ignore their roots in the Old Testament. Rather, they quite explicitly frame up the question in terms of which side of the Old Testament, which covenant? Abraham, or Moses? And Paul says flat out, the covenant with Abraham came first. It cannot be set aside. Moses is the detour, of sorts, in the story of redemption, the straight line runs from Abraham, through Christ, his seed, and to us, his heirs.

Abraham’s Career

When the Lord appeared to Moses, he revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the final 38 chapters of the book of Genesis are roughly divided into thirds, dealing with the generations of Terah/Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in about equal thirds. These three books, of each of the patriarchs, are interspersed with brief geneological treatments of Ishmael and Esau, the paired brothers who in turn split off and are grafted out of the covenant line.

The story of Abraham comes under the heading of his Father Terah, in part to signify that it is the story of both Abraham, and Sarah, who is also a direct descendant of Terah. And this story occupies a great swath of the book of Genesis, from his calling out of the land of Ur, through repeated revelations of the covenant in chapters 12, 15, 17, and 22, travels to Egypt, where Abraham pretends Sarah is his sister so it will go well with him, the first of second times this occurs in the book. To his relations with Lot, including their separation and division of the land, and his rescue from the kings of the plain in the episode with Melchizedek. It includes the Fathering of Ishmael by Sara’s slave Hagar, in an attempt to secure for himself the promises of the Lord, and the great conflict with his wife over the status of Hagar and that child. The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham’s courageous bargaining for their salvation. And, at last, the birth of Isaac, followed almost immediately in the text by the dreadful test, the command of the Lord to sacrifice his son, his only and beloved son on the mountain of the Lord’s choosing. And finally, the death of Sarah, the securing of the bride, Rebeccah, for Isaac, and the death of Abraham.

As we step back and look at this career as a whole, a couple of things stand out to us. First, who he is. While both Moses and David are presented to us at points as vigorous heroes, Abraham is portrayed to us almost from the beginning of his story as an aged man, in the words of Paul, “as good as dead.” Sarah is introduced to us as a barren one. Abraham, the model believer, is presented to us by the New Testament authors as a paragon of weakness, even though he led successful military campaigns and was blessed by the Lord with great riches, the beginnings of the material fruitfulness that would become the great nation springing from his loins. And yet, he is the incarnation of death. Paul says in the latter part of Romans 4 that Abraham believed in the God who could give life to the dead — that would be him — and who could call into existence things that don’t exist. To believe that he would be granted an heir according to the flesh was to believe against all rational hope.

And not only is Sara’s barrenness overcome, but after Sara’s death, the Lord provides another daughter of Terah, Rebecca, as a wife for Isaac. But Rebeccah is likewise barren. So Abraham must endure another twenty years waiting for a grandson to be conceived by the woman of the Lord’s choosing, a fellow Hebrew and Terahite. From its beginning to its end, the story of Abraham is the story of trusting in the promise against desperately long odds, and it is precisely this weakness, this emptiness, even his “deadness,” that makes him a model believer, a model of faith, and grace. For we all were dead in our trespasses, before God made us alive, raising us up together with Christ, the seed of Abraham.

Covenant Making

The second great aspect of Abraham’s career, after the who, is the How. How he is saved. Abraham’s career is defined by a series of promises, covenants, and oaths from the Lord — in chapter 12, 15, 17, 22 there are elements of divine covenant transactions. Abraham was the recipient of many forms of revelation from God, in word, in vision, in the personal visitation of the Angel of the Lord. But none of these were anything like the still, small voice of God that many spiritual people, evangelical Christians among them, claim today. These were external, and objective, revelations, not subjective hunches or intuitions. And they took a concrete shape in the form of a covenant. Paul even says in Galatians 4 that Abraham’s two wives, Sara and Hagar, the free woman and the slave, are an allegory for the two covenants, the one of the Law and bondage, having to do with Mount Sinai, and the other of freedom, and the heavenly Jerusalem.

And indeed, Moses is recording this story of Abraham and his covenants as a prologue to his book of the Law, the covenant that was delivered at Sinai. And neither Abraham, or the Israelites first reading his story, would have been unaware of what a covenant was, or how they operated, for they were a standard way in which men and nations worked with one another, much as they are today. A covenant is simply a legally binding relationship, like a mortgage or a credit card application, though not primarily related to the area of finance. A marriage ceremony is probably the clearest contemporary analogue, in that promises are exchanged, and sealed, that fundamentally change the relationship between two parties, binding them both intimately and legally before god and men [at least, a christian marriage].  In the ancient world, they were solemn events, overseen by the gods themselves, and ratified by more than a handshake, or a signature. Indeed, they were usually sealed with the blood of a sacrifice.

Indeed, the Hebrew verb for “making” a covenant literally means “to cut” a covenant, and this is related to the ceremonial cutting of animals that was required for the “making” of a covenant. Note that in our text, the Lord commands Abram to gather a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon — all animals typically related to the initiation of covenants. But Abraham prepares the animals ceremonially without any instruction from the Lord, which suggests that he was familiar with the ways of covenant initiation ceremonies [as he will enter into his own covenant with Abimelech in chapter 21].

The covenant form of God’s saving promise, first to Abraham, and then to his people at Sinai, and finally to us in Christ, is a classic example of what John Calvin described as the Lord accommodating his ways to human speech and understanding. Note that this ceremony — the formal making of a covenant in a legally binding fashion — is the Lord’s answer to Abraham’s plaintive cry, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. Abraham said “Amen” to the Lord’s promises, it was credited to him as righteousness, and then he cried out for assistance. From the beginning, the Lord uses the covenant and external means to seal and confirm the faith of his believing children. Abraham’s faith is a model, but it is not a personal accomplishment… Abraham’s faithfulness is expressed in reliance upon the tools that the Lord provided for him to be comforted and encouraged in the midst of his hopeless situation.

What’s remarkable about the initiation of this covenant is how passive Abraham is while it takes place: he is literally fast asleep. The oath ceremony is attested in contemporary literature. After the animals were cut in two, the two parties would swear to their vows, just as the husband and the wife both state their vows in a marriage ceremony. Then the two parties would join hands, and walk together between the aisle formed by the severed halves of the animals — and this passage indicated the threatened curse should the terms of the covenant be violated. [It’s probabaly a good thing that we don’t do this at weddings anymore, as it would be quite messy.] The message was clear to both parties: so shall it be done to whoever violates the terms of this covenant.

But the covenant with Abraham is unusual, precisely in that he does not promise anything to his Lord; the Lord comes to him and states unequivocally, with no condition:

“Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

And when the sun went down, after the Lord had made his vow, the person of God represented in the flaming torch and the smoking firepot passed alone between the pieces. The covenant-making Lord alone made himself subject to the curse of the covenant, and indeed, the cross is foretold by that passage through the severed animals. The covenant would be broken — by us — but the Lord would be the one to pay the price. And the text tells us, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.”

Covenant Seal

Two chapters later, the covenant comes to Abraham with even more specificity and clarity. Paul says Abraham received the sign of circumcision as the seal of righteousness that he had received by faith two chapters earlier. “Keeping the covenant” meant receiving and acknowledging the seal of circumcision… this, again, is no act of merit, or worth. The blessings of the covenant are no reward for obedience. Rather, this is yet a further sign of the Lord providing tangible proof, evidence, of the promise which was to come. Again, the promised blessing to an heir was unbelievable… Abraham sought to hold forth Ishmael as the recipient. But before the Lord allows Abraham to circumcise himself, and Ishmael, he reiterates, and clarifies the promise of a son by Sara, and names him Isaac, and promises his arrival in a year.

Covenant Trial

And, finally, the Faith of Abraham is tried at Moriah, in the demanded sacrifice of his son. Many modern commentators take this story out of context, consider it’s ethical significance, consider the great personal faith of Abraham. But we should not consider this occasion apart form the covenant of chapter 15, or the circumcision of chapter 17. How shall I know? The Lord had made an oath to Abraham, he had confirmed his promise by pledging that if the covenant promises were not fulfilled, he himself would bear the curse. He had sealed this oath with circumcision — the covenant blessings were his, not anyone elses. And so, Hebrews tells us, Abraham went to Mount Moriah, which most commentators take to be the same mount as Calvary, outside of Jerusalem. This demanded sacrifice is not arbitrary, but it yet again foretells the price that will be paid to life the curse of sin and death. And the author to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham reasoned that god could raise the dead, for there was no question that he would not be true to his sworn oath to bless abraham through his seed, and through his seed of Isaac. Abraham trusted in the Lord, beyond all hope, and trusted in the power of the resurrection even as he offered his only son on the slopes of Calvary. And as a result, he receives yet again the sworn pledge of the Lord: “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed by voice.”

The Promises Fulfilled

We err greatly if we think this means Abraham’s obedience earned his blessing. Rather, the blessing came to Abraham because his faithfulness bore the fruit of obedience. He believed in chapter 15; he was reckoned righteous. He obeyed in chapter 22, trusting on the promises and covenant oaths of the Lord PREVIOUSLY SWORN. The obedience itself was a promised blessing of the covenant; as Augustine prayed, Lord, grant what you ask of me.

This promise to Abraham — uncountable offspring, and the possession of the territory, the “gate of the enemies” — are both explicitly recorded as being fulfilled after the exodus. Joshua 21:43 tells us that “the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give their fathers; and they possessed it and lived in it… and no one of all their enemies stood before them… Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.” 1 Kings 4:20 tells us that Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore…

And yet, these promises were fulfilled to an even greater degree in the true Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ. In our New Testament text, Paul takes the promises to Abraham to refer not to the land of palestine, or to the ethnic people of the Hebrews, but writes to the Romans that Abraham is the father of us all, the father of many nations, and that the promise to Abraham was that he would be “the heir of the world,” the kosmos. The Apostles grasped that the promises to Abraham were truly cosmic in their scope… all the nations were to be blessed in his seed, and his inheritance was not to be local, but global. In the presence of the revelation of the Christ, the Lord of the covenant, it was clear that blessings that came by Moses were not the ultimate fulfilment, but a sign of something much greater yet to come.

And so, Paul can write that Abraham’s two wives, Sara and Hagar, are two covenants, and two cities. Sara, the heavenly Jerusalem, our true mother, born of freedom, and promise, and Hagar, the present, earthly Jerusalem, the children of Sinai, and the law; children of bondage.

Abraham, not Moses. Promise, not law.