As we continue our study of the biblical covenants, a couple of key themes begin to stand out: man’s inability and unwillingness to obey the word of God, and God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant promises in spite of our sinfulness. Just as Adam and Noah were undeserving of God’s mercy and grace, we will find that theme once again played out in the life of a pagan from ancient Mesopotamia called Abram, whose name would be later changed to Abraham.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. First, let’s take a step back and look at how the post-Flood world became such an idolatrous place by Abraham’s time. As we established in the previous blogs concerning the Noahic Covenant, Noah and his family inhabited a renewed world after the Flood. According to Genesis 9, Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. But on one notable occasion, he became drunk and uncovered himself, and the text tells us what happened next. “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.” (v. 22-23). In response to Ham’s sin, Noah said something quite remarkable which set the stage for how the rest of redemptive history would eventually play out. In verses 25-27 we read, “‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.’” Much can be said about this text, but there are two major themes that I want to point out which will help us better understand the historical context of the Abrahamic Covenant. First, notice how it was Ham’s son Canaan, not Ham himself, on whom the curse was directly pronounced, even though Ham was clearly involved in the incident. The exact reason for this is a bit less clear at this point in the narrative; perhaps Canaan was also in some way directly involved in Ham’s sin and was therefore culpable for his actions (or lack thereof). But we do know that it would be the very land Canaan’s descendants later inhabit that God would promise to Abraham and his offspring in the centuries to come. Secondly, Noah’s prophecy revealed that the blessing would come from Shem’s lineage, and as we find later in Genesis 11, Abraham is a direct descendant of Shem. Japheth and his descendants received a blessing from Noah as well, but the phrase “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem” indicates a unique covenantal blessing that was bestowed on Shem and his descendants.

In Genesis 11 we read about yet another downward spiral into widespread wickedness. Rather than multiplying and filling the earth as commissioned by God immediately following the Flood in Genesis 9, mankind remained in one place and built a tower. Not just any tower, but one “…whose top will reach into heaven” (v. 4). Consequently, God confused their languages and scattered them across the whole earth (v. 7-8). Mankind did eventually fill the earth, settling in various continents and developing distinct cultures and ethnicities over time. The second half of Genesis 11 focuses on one particular lineage out of all the families that were scattered after the Babel incident, and it serves as yet another reminder that God is continuing to unfold His eternal plan of salvation, even as the whole world becomes enthralled with paganism and idolatry. Yet despite this, one pagan man found favor in the eyes of the Lord, just like in the days of Noah! It was as though history was repeating itself with what appears to be another new beginning, with Abraham being a new kind of Adam.

In Genesis 12, God called this pagan man who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldeans out of his homeland. His name, before God later changed it, was Abram, a descendant of Shem. It is the first recorded instance of God revealing to Abraham three distinct promises that would serve as the backbone of the Abrahamic Covenant: a land, a seed, and a universal blessing.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’” (Genesis 12:1-3)

We will begin to further explore this text, and how it relates to the land, seed, and blessing that God promised to Abraham, in the coming weeks, but today I want to focus particularly on Abraham himself and how he fits in the overall story of God’s redemptive plan. Who is Abraham, and what makes him so special? In short, he was a sinner just like the rest of us. There was nothing intrinsically valuable in Abraham that gave God any reason, other than solely by His lovingkindness and grace, to call him out from among the idolatrous Babylonians. In his book Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, Thomas Schreiner describes Abraham in this manner, using passages such as Nehemiah 9:7 and Joshua 24:2-3 as his basis: “Abraham was an idolater like the rest of his family, and Paul confirms Abraham’s ungodliness in Romans 4:5. But God chose him and took him from Canaan.”^[1]

Let us consider the implications of this profound truth. Abraham, whom Paul would later identify as the father of all who are of true, saving faith (Galatians 3:7), is just one idolater out of an entire population of wicked people. In other words, he was a sinner who deserved to be punished and judged for his sins just as we do. How is this possible? Why then did God choose him? Because this is the gospel: God choosing sinners out of His sheer love. And not only this, but just as God chose to have mercy on him and accredit him with His own righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Galatians 3:6), God graciously chose to likewise impute His righteousness on all who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, the perfect God-man, the promised Seed of Abraham, lived a perfect live and went to the cross as though He were a sinner. As Paul famously wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Even though the whole world once again turned to wickedness in the centuries following the Flood, God once again relented on bringing total annihilation on the entire human race that was rightfully deserved. Instead, He starts a new beginning with one man from Ur of the Chaldeans and establishes a covenant with him. In the coming weeks, we will dive deeper into all that is entailed in the Abrahamic Covenant.

[1] (Schreiner, 2017)