The Abrahamic Covenant - Essay Example

Destroy all He created save one man, Noah, who walked in the ways of the Lord and had found favour in His eyes. So God instructed Noah to build a huge ark, which can house his family and a pair of each animal. Then the waters came upon the earth for forty days and forty nights, wiping out the mankind and beasts from the face of the earth, save those in the ark Noah built. Thereafter, God blessed Noah and his sons to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth again. Thereafter they went their ways and multiplied in numbers.

There was only one language, and in their pride, the mankind wanted to build a tower so high, that it would reach to heavens. So, God confounded them with various tongues, and they abandoned their edifice, but the vanity of pride and sin still prevailed. And it multiplied as did the mankind, filling the earth. During such times, God came to a man called Abram and said " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew 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 I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

"( KJV, Genesis 12: 1-3 ) And Abram beliAnd Abram believed in what he heard, and set out taking his family and his cattle and travelled all the places the Lord instructed. Then the Lord, in course of Abram's days, rechristened his name to Abraham, and his wife Sarai to Sarah, and in the ripe of their age, renowned His promise to them. "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. " (KJV, Genesis 17: 7-8). Then Abraham had Isaac for a son and his faith and belief is put to test when the Lord asks Isaac for a sacrifice. Abraham then passes it and the Lord is further pleased with Abraham. And Abraham dies, well in old age, having willed all his material possessions and the Lord's covenant to Isaac. Then to Isaac twins are born, Esau who comes out first, then Jacob holding Esau's leg.

By virtue of the covenant the Lord establishes with Abraham, it should further be carried to Esau and his children, but Esau sells his birthright to Jacob over a meal. The Lord Himself says in this regard Then Jacob has twelve sons and these twelve sons are the heads of twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. And Israel after serving Egypt in bondage for four hundred years is liberated by the Prophet Moses. This follows two most crucial aspects in the Jewish history, the meeting of the Lord on Mount Sinai, followed by handing over the Torah - consisting of five books, which discuss the advent of Hebrews since creation till the liberation.

Torah is considered to be the Law, in other words, it could also be called the directions given by the Lord to the nation of Israel towards keeping them chaste and in accordance to His will. This Torah further has the Ten Commandments, which are believed to be directly