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THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
THE THEME OF THE BIBLE
DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?
At the beginning of each page of the Prophecy Section of this journal I ask this question, and explain God's timetable for the second coming of Jesus Christ. That timetable is Daniel's '70th Week'.
The first four pages of my Prophecy Section correspond to four links in a divine 'prophetic chain':
And while I encourage my visitor to examine those pages individually, I also offer a condensed combination of these four links in the following document:
SECOND COMING TIMETABLE (PDF)
Here my two main points are that...
If John's 'Little Book' did not exist, I myself would feel compelled to embrace one of today's three major views on Daniel's 70th Week; Post-Millennialism, A-Millennialism or Dispensationalism. But John's Little Book does exist. Its first three visions depict what God accomplished through the family of Abraham
And the fourth and final vision of John's Little Book depicts a singular characteristic of world history
1) THE TEMPLE AND THE COURTYARD (Revelation 11:1-2)
2) THE TWO WITNESSES (Revelation 11:3-12)
3) THE WOMAN, THE CHILD AND THE DRAGON (Revelation 12)
4) THE BEAST FROM THE SEA (Revelation 13)
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Abraham was a man who lived around 1900 BC, in a part of the world that is now known as Mesopatamia, or southern Iraq. Beginning in the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis, and continuing on to the final New Testament book of Revelation, over 99% of the Bible and its prophecies are focused upon two promises that God gave to Abraham, and God's fulfillment of those two promises. The book of Revelation ends with the eternal 'New Jerusalem' coming down out of heaven from God. That city has 12 gates named after the 12 great-grandsons of Abraham, and it has 12 foundations named after the 12 Jewish apostles of Jesus Christ (Revelation 21:12-14).
Beginning in Genesis 12:1, God instructed Abraham to leave his home city of Ur, and to go to a land that God would show to him. Abraham would complete that journey in two stages; first traveling to Haran, and then leaving Haran to travel to the land of Canaan (Acts 7:2-4).
ABRAHAM'S JOURNEY
God's essential message to Abraham was that someday a special Person would be born into the world through Abraham and his family. God referred to that Person as 'Abraham's Seed'. The apostle Paul wrote that, in the original Hebrew, the word 'Seed' in these verses is singular and does not refer to the many offspring of Abraham; but to one particular Person within Abraham's family:
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not 'And to seeds', as of many; but as of one; "And to thy seed", which is Christ.
Galatians 3:16 (Genesis 12:7, 13:15, 15:5, 17:8, 22:18, 26:4, 28:14)
God gave Abraham a special commandment; that every male in his family was to be circumcised, as a sign and reminder that it would be through them that the promised Seed would come into the world. And God's two promises concerning Abraham's 'Seed' were as follows:
In you (Abraham) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Genesis 12:3, 22:18
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying "In you shall all nations shall be blessed".
Galatians 3:8
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said "Unto your Seed will I give this land". And there Abram built an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
Genesis 12:7
In this second promise to Abraham we not only see the eternal possession of the land of Canaan, but the possibility that Abraham's Seed might establish a kingdom there. In the illustration below, I use a yellow arrow to symbolize the 'golden promise' of God's blessing upon all of the nations of the world. And I use a green arrow to represent God's promise that someday Abraham and his 'Seed' would possess the 'green land' of Israel forever. The lines are dashed because, during Abraham's life, neither promise was fulfilled.
THE ABRAHAMIC PROMISES
Abraham went on to father several sons before he died. But God told him that it would be through his second son, Isaac, that the promised 'Seed ' would come. And while Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau, God informed him that it would be through Jacob that the Messiah would be born. And so God began, from that time onward, to identify Himself as "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob".
And this is how God identified Himself to Moses 400 years after Abraham. God told Moses that being 'the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob' would be His memorial 'unto all generations'; in the past, in this present world and forever:
And Moses said unto God "Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them 'The God of your fathers has sent me unto you', they shall ask me 'What is His name?' What shall I say unto them?"
And God said unto Moses "I AM who I AM". And He said "Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel: 'I AM has sent me unto you'". And God said moreover unto Moses "Thus shall you say unto the children of Israel, 'The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you'. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto all generations".
Exodus 3:13-15
In this passage God revealed two things to Moses:
This is how important God's covenant with Abraham is. It is the main thing that God wants to be remembered for. Why is that? Because it is the full revelation of God's character; His commitment to both righteousness and grace. It was a promise that the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, would come down to earth in a human body to provide forgiveness for sinners, and restore them to an obedient relationship with God; a relationship leading to eternal life. This is why God made Daniel's '70th Week'...
'THE GREAT WEEK OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT'
It needs to be understood here that the family of Abraham was not singled out for blessing because they are better than other people. God makes it clear in His word that they are not. Rather, the fact that there will be a surviving remnant of the Jewish people upon the earth when Jesus comes back will stand as a testament to the grace of God:
Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us (Israel) a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.
Isaiah 1:9, Romans 9:29
PROPHECIES BEFORE ABRAHAM
We find four prophecies about a promised Savior in the first nine chapters of Genesis.
And the Lord God said unto the serpent "Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.
Genesis 3:14-15
This prophecy spoke of someone called the 'seed of the woman' who would someday crush the Satan's head, completely conquering and destroying him. In the process of crushing the serpent, this 'Seed' himself would be bitten and suffer death from the serpent's venom. Who is this 'seed of the woman'? It is the virgin-born Messiah; Jesus Christ.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21
This first sacrifice of animals on behalf of mankind was symbolic of a Savior who would come into the world, and allow Himself to be put to death so that our 'moral nakedness' might be covered.
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God (after he begat Methuselah) three hundred years; and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.
Genesis 5:21-24
But while we first encounter Enoch in the book of Genesis, his prophecy about Christ is not found there. It is given to us by Jude in the New Testament:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these (ungodly persons), saying "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints. To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed. And of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him".
Genesis 5:21-24
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
PROPHECY = THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS
In Revelation 19 the apostle John was receiving overwhelming prophetic visions and messages from God. And an angel had been directed by God to help John understand and record those visions. John was so moved by what he was seeing and hearing that he fell down at the feet of this angel to worship him.
In response to John's worship, the angel said...
"See that you do it not. I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Revelation 19:10
The angel was telling John that the purpose of Bible prophecy is to make known to us...
Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Son of God. He is a member of the divine eternal Family, known as the Trinity (see
What has He done in the past? He has left heaven above, entered a human body, lived a sinless life, and then allowed Himself to suffer the death of a criminal on a cross in order to make the forgiveness of our sins possible. Having accomplished that task, He was raised bodily from the dead by His heavenly Father. He is now seated at the Father's right hand in heaven above as both a physical human being, and as the eternal Son of God.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be clung to to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
What will Jesus do in the future? He will come back to this planet a second time to establish the kingdom of God upon earth.
I will declare the decree; the Lord has said to Me... "You are My Son. Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel." Now therefore, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
Psalm 2:7-12
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Matthew 24:30
Many people take an interest in prophecy because it intrigues and entertains them. They want to know about such things as 'the end times', 'Armageddon' and 'the Antichrist'. But in the grand scheme of things it is not what we know, but Who we know that matters. It is impossible to understand Bible prophecy, if we do not understand the cross.
It is through His cross that Christ has been able to open the prophetic 'seals' of the Bible (Revelation 5:9), and to make the Father's plans a reality. I believe that the "sign of the Son of man" that Jesus spoke of (in Matthew 24:30 above) is the cross. This was the apostle Paul's only priority in evangelism. If a person has not come to see his need for the cross of Christ, he cannot properly understand what the Bible has to say about the future.
For I determined not to have anything known among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2
Ultimately what we discover is that the Abrahamic Covenant is 'the testimony of Jesus'. It was the promise that the Son of God would become a man, in order to bless mankind. And having accomplished that, it is the story of how both He and Abraham will possess a 'promised land' forever. And so, once again, we can see why God the Father has made Daniel's 70 Week the 'Great Week of the Abrahamic Covenant.
THE MOSAIC SUB-COVENANT
Before going on to examine Daniel's '70 Weeks Prophecy', it is necessary to first consider two other covenants that God made with Abraham's family between the days of Abraham, and the days of Daniel. As God gave His promises to Abraham, He also told him that his family would not possess the land of Canaan until 400 years had passed. Until then Abraham and his family would be strangers and wanderers upon the earth:
And God said unto Abram "Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation (Egypt), whom they shall serve, will I judge. And afterward shall they come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation (of your family in Egypt) they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full".
Genesis 15:13-16
True to His word, God fulfilled the timetable He announced to Abraham, sending a man named Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt around 1500 BC; 430 years after Abraham.
THE JOURNEY OF MOSES AND THE ISRAELITES:
FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN
FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN
While He was using Moses to lead the children of Abraham out of Egypt and back to the promised land of Canaan, God established another covenant with them; known as the Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant was a system of moral laws and animal sacrifices that would govern the nation of Israel in its relationship with God. It would be administered by a priesthood from the tribe of Levi.
I refer to the Mosaic Covenant as a sub-covenant because it was subordinate to the Abrahamic Covenant. It was an explanation of HOW God would fulfill His first promise to Abraham; that Abraham's Seed would bring blessing upon all the nations of the world. God would bless the world by...
This is the two-part nature of salvation: the forgiveness of sin and a life of righteousness. The first part is accomplished through death and burial in union with Christ, and the second is accomplished by resurrection from the dead with Him and reception of the Holy Spirit. God requires real righteousness; something that the Bible refers to as 'sanctification'. This is why, in the first verse of Daniel's 70-Weeks prophecy, the fulfillment of God's promises is described as both the ending of sin, and the bringing in of righteousness:
Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city: To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquty, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
Daniel 9:24
The Mosaic Covenant was only a temporary 'place-holder', standing in until a genuine sacrifice for sins could be made. Its animal sacrifices were only symbolic, and could not accomplish real forgiveness and blessing. This is why John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the Old Testament Mosaic priests, pointed his disciples to Jesus and said...
Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
John 1:29,35-37
Both the prophet Jeremiah and the Lord Jesus spoke of a New Covenant that would replace the Covenant of Moses. This is why the apostle Paul wrote that the Mosaic Covenant was given to Israel and the world as a 'tutor' or 'school master', pointing mankind to Christ as the true 'Lamb of God':
"Behold, the days come" says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant (Mosaic) that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (the Mosaic Covenant); which covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them" says the Lord.
Jeremiah 31: 31-32
And as they were eating Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins".
Matthew 26:26-27
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Galatians 3:24
In the illustration below, the golden promise of blessing and the Mosaic Covenant are paired together, because the Mosaic Covenant was an explanation of how God would bring blessing upon all the nations of the world. Because this would be accomplished through the shed blood of a perfect sacrifice, the Mosaic Covenant is represented by a 'blood red' line. The lines are dashed because they represent a promise given, but not yet fulfilled under Moses.
In addition to giving the Mosaic Covenant, God brought the Israelites back to the promised land, and enabled them to take possession of it. And so, in this same illustration, the change from a dashed green line under the Abrahamic Covenant, to a solid green line under the Mosaic Covenant, represents Israel's actual possession of the land under Joshua.
THE MOSAIC COVENANT :
HOW BLESSING UPON MANKIND WILL BE ACHIEVED
HOW BLESSING UPON MANKIND WILL BE ACHIEVED
THE DAVIDIC SUB-COVENANT
Around 1030 BC, approximately 450 years after Moses, God established a third covenant with King David of Israel. God promised David that someday a man in his family, a promised 'Son of David', would establish the kingdom of David in Israel forever (2 Samuel 7).
Again, like with the Mosaic Covenant, I refer to this Davidic Covenant as a sub-covenant; because it explains the original Abrahamic Covenant. It tells us HOW Abraham's Seed would come to possess the land of Canaan forever. He would be a great King who would not only rule over Israel, but over the entire world.
When David received the Davidic Covenant, he already possessed the kingdom of Israel. As far as he knew his family would continue to maintain the kingdom until his promised 'Son' came to establish it forever. For this reason I have represented the Davidic Covenant as a solid blue line (rather than a dashed one) in the illustration below; because although 'David's Son' was an unfulfilled promise, the Kingdom itself was nevertheless an actual possession of David and his family, just as the land was an actual possession of the people of Israel.
THE DAVIDIC COVENANT :
HOW THE PROMISED LAND WILL BE POSSESSED FOREVER
HOW THE PROMISED LAND WILL BE POSSESSED FOREVER
In both the Mosaic and Davidic Covenants, we see the two promises of the Abrahamic Covenant further revealed; the 'blessing' promise and the 'land' promise. But these two promises were not given as equals. One depended upon the other, and had to follow the other.
God promised Abraham that he would be a source of blessing to all the nations of the world before He began to promise him possession of the land (Genesis 12:3,7). There is a simple reason for this. None of God's blessings are possible for any of us unless our 'sin problem' has been dealt with first. Abraham could have had no hope of possessing the promised land, if he was not first a partaker of the salvation that God would make available to all of the nations.
SETTING DATES
Before proceeding to talk about the prophet Daniel, it is necessary to explain the dates that I have assigned to Abraham, Moses and David. My reader may have noticed (in my illustrations) that I have set a date of 1910 BC for the Abrahamic Covenant. In addition, I have placed a date of 1480 BC on the Mosaic Covenant, and a date of 1030 BC on the Davidic Covenant.
These dates are not meant to be precise. I have chosen them because...
So how have I arrived at these dates? In this web page, and throughout my web site, I use a date of 1000 BC as the point in time when David's son, King Solomon, built the first Temple in Jerusalem. I do not believe that this is a perfectly accurate date for that event. There are many opinions about when the first Temple was constructed. I use a date of 1000 BC because it is fairly close to the date that many scholars give, and because it is a nice round number that makes it easy for people to think about connected events in Biblical history.
1 Kings 6:1 tells us that Solomon began to build the first Temple 480 years after the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Given my approximate date of 1000 BC for the construction of the Temple, this would put the Exodus at 1480 BC. The apostle Paul wrote that the giving of God's Law (through Moses) occurred 430 years after God's covenant with Abraham. This would put the date of the Abrahamic covenant at 1910 BC. And arriving at a reasonable date for the Abrahamic covenant is very important for an understanding of Daniel's 70-Weeks prophecy.
Now the 480 years, between Solomon's construction of the first Temple and the Exodus, are very clear. But there has been some confusion about the time period between Abraham and the Exodus. Some have understood the Bible to indicate that the time period between Abraham and the Exodus is a combination of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's wanderings in the land of Canaan plus 400 years that Abraham's family would spend in Egypt. This misunderstanding has arisen from two passages in the Old Testament:
And God said unto Abram "Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation (Egypt), whom they shall serve, will I judge. And afterward shall they come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation (of your family in Egypt) they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full".
Genesis 15:13-16
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:40-41
What needs to be understood here is that God was not saying that the children of Israel would be 'strangers' and 'sojourners' in Egypt for 400 years, but that they would be 'strangers' and 'sojourners' for 400 years, and would ultimately end up in Egypt in the later part of those 400 years. How can I prove this? By presenting three points:
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years.
Exodus 12:40-41
- As we look at God's original covenant with Abraham, where God told him that his offspring would be strangers without a land of their own for four hundred years, we see that God did not say that this landlessness would all be experienced in one particular place. He merely told Abraham that his people would be wanderers who would ultimately end up in subservience to a particular nation; and that God would deliver them from that nation.
But in the fourth generation they shall come here (to Canaan) again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full".
Genesis 15:16
- Moses was a fourth-generation Israelite in Egypt. Jacob was the first generation that came to Egypt. Moses' mother, Jochebed, was a daughter of Levi, Jacob's son (Exodus 6:20). And thus, although Moses' father, Amram, was a fourth generation descendant of Jacob, his mother was a third generation descendant. This made Moses a fourth generation great grandson of Jacob.
- Levi lived to the age of 137 (Exodus 6:16). His son, Kohath, lived to the age of 133 (Exodus 6:18). Kohath was the brother of Moses' mother, Jochebed, and father of Moses' father, Amram. It is likely that Jochebed was one of the last and youngest of Levi's children. Thus when Amram married his father's sister, even though she may have been younger than he was, he was marrying his 'aunt'. Amram lived to the age of 137 (Exodus 6:20).
- Given these longevities, and the fact that Moses did not confront Pharaoh until he himself was 80 years old (Exodus 7:7), it is altogether possible that 200 years or more transpired between Jacob's arrival in Egypt and the Exodus. Given the amazing reproductive rates of the Hebrew people, this would have provided ample time for their numbers to become a real threat to the Egyptian leadership, and account for the large population that Moses led out of Egypt (Exodus 1:7-10).
And this I say, that the covenant (Abrahamic) that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the Law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot annul, that it should make the promise of no effect.
Galatians 3:17
- Paul's testimony confirms that the Israelites did not spend 430 years in Egypt, but that the total wanderings of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants was 430 years.
Why am I going to the trouble of clarifying the length of time that Abraham's family spent in Egypt? Because it is very important for an understanding of Daniel's 70 Weeks prophecy.
