Before Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, a major event that would have gargantuan consequences took place.
The Lord entered into a covenant with Abraham and He formalized it in typical Middle Eastern fashion.
What do I mean by that?
Well, according to the procedures of those times, an animal was sacrificed, chopped up into two pieces and then divided into two piles.
What happened next was the agreeing parties walked between the two piles as an indication of their acceptance of the terms of the covenant.
The idea was that if one party did not keep his end of the agreement, he would end up being sliced in two just like the dead animal they had used to seal the agreement.
However, something interesting happened during the covenant-making process between God and Abraham.
What happened was that…
…ONLY GOD WALKED THROUGH THE PIECES OF THE ANIMAL.
This is a huge detail we shouldn’t overlook.
The reason is because this shows that the covenant made between God and Abraham was unilateral.
In other words, Abraham was NOT obligated to do anything.
The terms of the covenant 100% rested on God’s shoulders.
It didn’t matter what Abraham or his descendants did or did not do.
No matter what happened, God would carry out the terms of the covenant.
Folks, this is why the covenant that God entered into with Abraham is called a promise.
The Lord promised certain things to Abraham but the opposite was NOT true.
Abraham did not make any promises to God.
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