Genesis 17:2-9 An Everlasting Covenant

Abrahamic Covenant 

Covenant 

1.  a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement: compact

2. a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action 

Covenants have existed since the beginning of civilization. It is pretty much impossible to exist within a society and not participate in some form of exchange alliance. The biggest one that comes to mind is the exchange of monies for business purposes. Every time we barter a dollar bill the money becomes a symbol of our promise. I will give you service, goods, time, ideas, counseling, medicine, etc if you will pay me. 

Covenants are between two or more people or parties and represent more than casual promises. The term covenant conveys a more serious arrangement; thus the failure to fulfill the promise of a covenant carries a greater consequence. In my own life I have entered into a baptismal covenant (2x with different religions), city covenants (regulations about how I will live, park my car etc), neighborhood covenants (rules ), several business contracts that stipulate various terms of compliance on both parties. etc. 

With rare exception most of the business covenants that we will deal with in our life time will be for a very specific amount of time and for business purposes. And ... AND. because they are made with man, by man and for man they truly do not provide any "everlasting" element of security. Both parties must practice a measure of faith in one another.


Unfortunately, man has illustrated his ability to wiggle out of or change his definition of what trust and security actually mean.  One example I can think of is the infamous "Walking Purchase" as presented to the Lenni Tribe by the sons of William Penn. The amount of land being purchased was described as being the distance that one man could walk in one and one-half day. The Lenni agreed to the purchase believing that their ancestors had previously entered into similar agreements and also with the understanding that the term walk meant "leisurely." Penn's children had other ideas and soon had enlisted the three fasted runners of the colony to 'mark off' the day and a half distance. The Linni protested but their cries went unheard. 

I thought of this illustration because it represents mans often deceitful intentions to defraud and beat one another regardless of any pretense of integrity.  

Abraham no doubt had experienced this many times in his life. Genesis gives us many examples of Abraham's experiences with those who would kill him for his wife Sarai, would sacrifice him for their own religious rituals (his father), or even would plunder and steal away his nephew Lot for slavery. Where was the peace? Where was the security? He did not find it in politics? He could not find it in family? He searched for it in wealth? or business? 

Abraham turns to God. He is seeking, as we all do, something lasting. In this life of constant change and uncertainty Abraham sought an everlasting covenant with the only God he knew to be true, Elohim. God had proven himself to be trustworthy and constant. And likewise, God was searching for a man in whom he could trust, a man whom he could create a godly pattern of family. Abraham had proven himself to be trustworthy, filled with integrity and prayerful. God calls it his "everlasting covenant" and promises to multiply the seed of Abraham and "be their God." 

This covenant becomes known as the Abrahamic covenant. (next post)

A poem for visiting teaching friendships. 

Sisterfriend

I didn’t know

When I met you

That my heart would break

And I would need you

To walk with me

Until I couldn’t think of

Anything more to say

But God knew

I didn’t know

When I learned of your

Troubles and your heartache

How to love you

So I just pedaled close behind

And learned to listen

The way you taught me to

And say yes

To your smile

And return your hugs

And soon I knew that

God knew.

I didn’t know

How to reach out

And find the joy in

Helping another like us

But you walked with me

Until we both found our own strength

And then we knew

God walked with us.

And now when I think

Of the first time

I saw you

On the back row

Or in the library, hiding

I remember how I

Didn’t know

I was broken

And how you

Had the time

And the love

For me

But God knew.

And for all I didn’t know

I’m glad  I did know

That God knew.

Linda Conkey Shaw Copyright 2-19-2012

A Plain Man, Genesis 25:27 by Ann Y.

"And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents." Genesis 25:27

How appropriate that my wonderful and beautiful friend Linda should write about being perfect. You see, I too had thought much about perfection in the past few weeks. While reading 2 Nephi (I confess that I don't remember which verse right now) I had been directed through reading the footnotes, to turn to the story in Genesis regarding Esau and his brother Jacob (read your footnotes, people. There's good stuff in there!).

I confess that the story of Jacob and Esau is one of those Bible stories that irritated me, simply because it did not seem to make sense. Most people are aware of the outline of the story, but for those in need a refresher, it goes something like this: twins are born to a righteous woman and man after many years of trying to conceive. Esau is born first, and Jacob follows after. Each parent picks their favorite child. The father, Isaac, loves Esau the most, and the mother, Rebekah, loves Jacob. Throughout the story, it appears at first glance that Jacob is a deceitful man. He first tricks his brother Esau out of his birthright, and then (through his mother, Rebekah's, instruction) sneaks in and steals Esau's blessing by deceiving his father. Jacob doesn't sound at all like a future prophet, and I was sincerely bothered by this. So, as in every other time that I have been disturbed by the scriptures, I sought out my Father in prayer and then read the story again...and again, until it made sense.

I realized eventually that the explanation for this story is to be found in Genesis 25:27. It explains that Esau is a cunning hunter. Let's begin with this. The word "cunning" of course means clever, but the connotation of the word "cunning" is usually negative in the scriptures. I don't know of one scripture that refers to a prophet by the word "cunning" (of course, there may be one or two--I won't swear to it). The word "cunning" is most often used to imply, if not to state outright, that a person is deceitful and full of trickery. The next word that describes Esau is the word "hunter." That's an interesting word choice. Why?--because there were no supermarkets during this time; everyone was a hunter. Even those who were shepherds or farmers occasionally engaged in the hunting of wild game to feed their families. Now, if you work under the assumption that everything in the scriptures is there for a reason, you wonder why the writer bothers to mention that Esau was a hunter.

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. That means he wrote all of Genesis. There is one other place in Genesis where a man is described by the term, "hunter." That man is Nimrod. Nimrod was the man who developed the scheme of building the Tower of Babel. Why was he described as a hunter?

I heard a rabbi explain once that Nimrod was described as a "hunter" not because he was a hunter of beasts (because so was everyone else), but because he was a hunter of men. He used flattery and deceit to collect followers, to collect men. Because Esau is also described as a hunter is at least suggestive that he was not an honest and straightforward man. And this implication is reinforced by the contrasting description of his brother Jacob. Jacob is described as "a plain man." This description in itself is not very helpful. It seems to imply that Jacob was simply not a very interesting person. But the real story is told in the footnotes. The footnotes elaborate the word "plain" with the words: "whole," "complete," "simple," and "perfect." This matches wonderfully with Linda's definition of "perfect" (the Lord works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform!). Therefore, in contrast to his brother, Esau, who is a cunning deceiver--a man who does not walk with God, Jacob stands as a simple man who is whole and complete. He walks with God.

The next verse reinforces this still further by saying that "Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison..." To me, that says that Esau had purchased his father's love--with good food, and (perhaps?) with flattery? It does not say that Isaac loved his son because his son was a good man. It says he loved Esau because of the things Esau gave him. Suggestive, no?

The last piece of the puzzle for me comes near the end of the story. Isaac has given away Esau's blessing by mistake. He has been tricked. When Esau arrives to claim his blessing, Isaac realizes his mistake. He trembles. And then he declares to his favorite son that he has already blessed Jacob, and then he says something interesting. He says, in chapter 27, verse 33, that [he has] blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed. I believe it was at that moment that Isaac realized the whole truth of what had taken place. He knows the nature of the priesthood and the spirit of God. He must know that even though he himself had been deceived, in no way was God or the spirit of God deceived. Therefore, if the blessing was given to Jacob, in spite of his deceit, the blessing must have been meant for Jacob all along.

It is important to remember here that in chapter 25, verse 23, the Lord had informed Rebekah before the boys' birth, that she would have twins, and "the elder shall serve the younger." Therefore, we know that Isaac had known, or should have known that the blessing he had offered Esau had been reserved for Jacob since before the boys were born.

Isaac trembles at this point because (I believe) he suddenly realizes not that he had been deceived not by Jacob's trickery, but by Esau's. He had been deceived during Esau's whole life by Esau's flattery. He had been bought with venison. And Isaac knows in his heart that a prophet of God should not be for sale. And we know all of this from Isaac's last words regarding the affair--"yea, and he shall be blessed." Isaac has come to terms with the fact that the Lord and the priesthood has triumphed over even Isaac's own fatherly bias.

The Lord works with what he has been given. The Lord knew that Isaac, in his old age, had lost his ability to make good judgments. And the Lord put his trust and his mission in the hands of a righteous woman to make things right. Rebekah was not deceived by her son. She knew the true nature of each of her progeny. She knew which son was perfect.

Genesis 17: 1 Be ye perfect

Perfect: absolute, complete, a perfect circle, highly suitable for someone or something. exactly right. Math: of a number where equal to the sum of its divisors.
Grammar: a completed action.or a state of a habitual action that began in the past
Botany: of flower having both stamens and carpils present stage ro state of fungus in which sexually produced spores are formed. entomology: fully adult winged. 

 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Genesis 17:1

I believe there is a misconception that to be perfect means to be flawless. I have studied this scripture and thought about it a good deal, mostly because it has caused me to reconsider my fear and intimidation of the concept of perfection.

As a young child I might have thought I needed to be perfect at the piano by not making any mistakes. Of course the mere thought of not making a mistake made me unconsciously make more than a few mistakes. Only when I practiced a piece repeatedly and committed my fingers to muscle memory did I begin to approach the skill level where I was flawless. As I grew to understand music with its great complexities, I began to realize how far from perfect in my musical abilities I truly was. Even if I could play but one song perfectly there were so many variations in rhythm and such that I knew nothing about that the idea of me being complete in my piano and music abilities remained distant.

This is important because the Lord God did not tell Abraham to be flawless, without mistakes, without errors. I believe the word perfect has been purposefully misconstrued to cast discouragement and hopelessness in our way. We are not asked, nor ever have been asked to be flawless. We have been asked to show integrity, to repent, to work with God, to make covenants and to try our best. God knows that in our mortal state it is impossible for us to become perfect.

He did say to Abraham.. in his 99th year, to walk before God, and be thou perfect. I saw two things in this commandment. The first being that God will never ask us to be perfect alone. He asked Abraham to first walk before him. and then be perfect. This is significant because Abraham had to make the effort to walk before God and with God. In doing so God would make Abraham complete.

My husband and I have a inside joke about weather God is a mathematician or a biologist or an artist, etc. It's like asking which came first the chicken or the egg. It turns out that the definition of perfect attends to these different fields of study.
In studying the definitions of perfect, I found that you can have a perfect circle, (a complete circle) or an absolute circle. If you had an imperfect circle it would merely mean it was not complete... it would need to be connected. God is our connection. He makes us whole. When Abraham was asked to walk before God, God was asking him to become absolute in his faith with God. I do not believe God expected Abraham to become perfect (whole or complete) without Him. God's love is meant to make us whole.

In mathematics the idea of a perfect number meant that a numbers divisors could add up to the sum of the number (excluding the number itself). 6 is a perfect number because the divisors of 6 are 1, 2, 3 and 6. You can make an equation (excluding 6 itself) 1+2+3= 6. The equation is balanced, complete, whole and absolute.  Perfect numbers are rare. The first four know are 6, 28, 496, and 8128. Later 33, 550, 336 and 8, 589,869,056 were discovered. The connection between God asking Abraham to be perfect  could be equated to that of a perfect number. He needed to balance out the equation and be complete. God would provide the boost to make him reach and find the integrity needed to balance his life equation.

In grammar something is only considered perfect once it is completed. This definition takes me back to my piano practice; for to be perfect (in grammar terms) you must complete an action or be in the state of an habitual action that began in the past. So when Abraham was asked to walk before God and be perfect, God was asking him to practice habitual actions or to complete himself with a set of habits.

I love nature. And I loved this definition as it pertained to Abraham. In Botany a perfect flower is considered perfect only when it has both a stamen and a carpi. Because it has both reproductive organs it can reproduce. I may be going out on a limb here and I doubt seriously that this would ever be discussed in Sunday School class, but if you were to consider that at the age of 99 years old Abraham had not yet conceived and born children with his wife Sarah, if he were a flower he was not perfect.

And if you consider that the Lord is making a covenant with Abraham. He is about to promise him a family. For 99 years Abraham has not been able to bear fruit with Sarah, his wife. Now the Lord says to him, walk before me and be perfect. Covenant with me and be perfect. Include me in your daily life and have faith that includes me, and be perfect. Abraham, after his covenant, was able to have a child with Sarah. What does this say about his ability to conceive? If perfect flowers are considered complete because they have both stamen and carpils, and are able to reproduce, was God also making a statement to Abraham about his ability to reproduce?

Lastly, in the world of entomology insects are only considered perfect when they have wings. They must go through many different stages of metamorphosis in order to be considered complete. The different stages they pass through give them what they need in order to make it to their final and complete stage where they can fly. Once they have wings they are considered perfect. When we are perfect with God we have wings to fly above our temptations, wings to realize that perfection may not mean go through life without flaw.

Abraham becomes perfect not because he practiced habits that made him flawless. Abraham walks with God and finds perfection in the circle of God's love that gives him the needed spiritual wings to lift him higher and to balance out his own imperfections with God's own equations.

So now when I hear the scripture, "be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect," I won't allow mounds of guilt waylay me into depression. In stead I will imagine my own imperfections being made whole while I allow myself to continue to learn of God and his ways, and to practice the many different habits that will eventually make me complete with the love of God lifting me.