Abraham and the Covenant - Essay Example

Abraham and the Covenant Essentially, all of the Western religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - are based on one important commonality: they trace their roots to one God and his covenant with Abraham. According to Buddenbaum (1998), these religions’ understanding of that God as well as of the covenant relationship makes them fundamentally “one chance” and “one way” religions. (42) This paper will explore Abraham’s covenant with God as well as its impact on Western religions. The Covenant God’s covenant with Abraham started when he commanded him to leave his father’s house. This was laid out in Genesis 12:1 wherein God declared: Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you; and all the families of the earth bless themselves by you. All in all there were three such covenants, with the two others, in addition with the above cited, all laid out in Genesis (15 and 17) and reaffirmed the first. There were no explanations cited in the Old Testament why God specifically chose Abraham in the partnership. But there existed some Jewish and Islamic sources that explained why this happened. One account was that Abraham was a convert from practicing idolatry and God called him out of Ur, leading him to Palestine wherein the promise of blessing were further reaffirmed (Mahusay 37). The basic elements of the covenant – Abraham as the progenitor of a great nation, his role in God-man relationship, his blessing and favor in the eyes of God as well as of his descendants - would eventually influence the fate of Israel as a nation and/or the Hebrew identity as well as the three leading Western religions. Nwachukwu maintained that the covenant is what defines the relationship between God and Abraham in a way that is similar to the concept of righteousness as illustrated in Genesis 18 wherein the covenant made between God and Noah is one that is akin to a blessing, a promise of preservation as well as a sign (10). Because of this, the covenant is important primarily because it is God’s way of limiting himself in his dealing with man including his one-sided commitment to man regardless of his frailty and wickedness, hence, assuring his preservation. In addition, the unilateralism of the commitment was considered an everlasting pact that would last for generations until eternity. The Jewish Identity Again, as previously mentioned, the covenant was the root of the Jewish identity and Israel as a nation. The Jews consider its history as the foundation of their nation and the Abrahamic covenant is at its core. As Richards and Richards said, “all the Old Testament writers and prophets shared the common conviction that God is at work in history, carrying out His plan, and that His plan is unveiled in the covenant promises given to Abraham and his descendants” (415). One of the most important content of the covenant in the context of this particular point is that Abraham and his descendants would own the land that is called Palestine and that those people and families that would deal with them would either be blessed or cursed depending on how they treat Abraham and his seeds. And so, as the Jews lived dispersed throughout the world, under different rulers, the idea that one day they would settle in Palestine and establish self-rule never left their faith. Another important dimension to the covenant in terms of the Jewish experience is the responsibility expected of them as partner to the covenant with God. As the term implies, there is an expectation of obligation from both parties. On God’s end, there was his blessing and promises. On the part of Abraham and his descendants, there were specific terms laid out to be followed. One of these is the covenant of circumcision stipulated in Genesis 17, wherein God stated: “between Me and you and your descendants after you: circumcise every male.” Although there are no other obligations demanded in the Abrahamic covenants, it was implied (and the Jewish belief and laws recognize this) that the obligations from the previous covenants would be carried out as part of the continuing pact between God and man. A scholar maintained that Abraham’s covenant with God represented some form of a bridge between the past and future covenants between man and God. “The Abrahamic Covenant… in a sense affirmed a contrast to the Noahic Covenant because the latter manifested the terminal episode in the history of the world that then was, while Abrahamic Covenant signified [as well] all subsequent redemptive covenants in the world that now is” (Jeon 223). The Covenant and Other Faiths The fundamental influence of Abraham on Islam and Christianity, as cited previously, is the monotheistic belief. However, another important commonality in regards to the subject of the covenant is its interpretation. The Jewish interpretation emphasized their favored heritage by way of Isaac as Abraham’s heir and that their perspective in regards to the Ishmaelites is that they may be members of Abraham’s household but that they are not the bearer of his covenant with God. But in Islam and Christianity, the covenant “was based on the fact that God made Abraham into a model for humanity with respect to the faith he showed regarding the promise of progeny, and that all who believe as Abraham did are righteous” (Busse 81). Here, heritage bears little weight because faith has more importance in the claim to salvation. According to Busse, Abraham represented humanity and that being his child or his progeny did not necessarily assure salvation as the righteous and the believers are more entitled than any other (82). The obligations demanded by the covenant in these faiths, hence, were more general and are anchored on righteousness and faith as well. Conclusion Abraham’s covenant with God is a crucial element of the Western religions and monotheism. His story is one of the most important elements that these faiths share and revere. There is much to learn from this. For example, Abraham was chosen specifically for this part because he was righteous and a fitting model of what humanity is supposed to be. In addition, the episode in this religious episode show how the best possible depiction of God – one that loves his people. All in all, while there are various interpretations to the covenant, there remains the fact that it is all about redemption and God’s all-encompassing faith in man despite all his shortcomings. Works Cited Buddenbaum, Judith. Reporting news about religion. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1998. Busse, Heribert. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: theological and historical affiliations. Darmstadt: Markus Weiner Publishers, 1998. Jeon, Jeong. Covenant Theology: John Murrays And Meredith G. Klines Response To The Historical Development Of Federal Theology In Reformed Though. Lanham: University Press of America, 2004. Mahusay, Nancy. The History of Redemption. Xulon Press, 2007. Nwachukwu, Mary. Creation-covenant scheme and justification by faith: a canonical study of the God-human drama in the Pentateuch and the Letter to the Romans. Rome: Gregorian University Press, 2002. Richards, Larry and Richards, Lawrence. Bible Teachers Commentary. Osbourne: Kingsway Communications, Ltd., 2002. Read More