Monday, February 23, 2015

Covenant: Abraham

"Isaac's Circumcision", Regensburg Pentateuch, c1300
Almost 400 years after the God makes a covenant with all of creation following the flood, God calls Abram to leave his home and start out on a trip to a new land. After he gets there, God makes a covenant with him giving his descendants the land he has been wandering around in. The troubling piece is that Abram has no children and age has not only crept up on him and Sarai, it has overwhelmed them.

Then, nearly 25 years after God called Abram to go, God appears on the scene again. Abram is now 99 years old, and again God promises the land to offspring, and promises to be their God. Abram and Saria get new names to announce their fruitfulness and Abraham, along with all of his descendants, and all of his household,  is required to carry a mark of this covenant.

The mark is intimate and becomes part of the very fruitfulness that is promised. The mark also produces blood, blood which seals this covenant, foreshadowing one to come.