Abrahamic Covenant Genesis 17

     My earliest remembrance of learning about the Abrahamic Covenant came in Sunday School. Sister Price prepared each lesson with hand outs, visual aids, and treats. Her classroom table always had a table clothe on it upon which a vase of flowers sat. I loved her lessons.
     This one particular lesson was no less worthy of her effort. She gave us all a laminated list of what the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant meant to me. Although I had keen interest in her lesson there was much that I did not fully understand. Through the years I have always wanted to gain a deeper understanding. I got that the covenant was for Abraham, but not until recently did I understand the covenant was also meant for me. When I enter into a covenant with God he will take care of me - just as he did Abraham.
     Today I understand that Abraham's covenants started with his baptism, then his marriage, then his priesthood powers. As he and the Lord established a bond of trust and integrity with one another, God blessed Abraham and entrusted him with sacred powers of the priesthood. He taught him sacred truths.

About the Abrahamic Covenant, Elder Bruce R. McConkie had this to say:

Abraham first received the gospel by baptism (which is the covenant of salvation); then he had conferred upon him the higher priesthood, and he entered into celestrial marriage (which is the covenant of exhaltation), gaining assurance thereby that he would have eternal increase; finally he received a promise that all of these blessings would be offered to all of his mortal posterity. (Abra. 2: 6-11, D & C 132:29-50) Included in the mortal divine promises to Abraham was the assurance that Christ would come through his lineage, and the assurance that Abraham's posterity would receive certain choice, promised lands as an eternal inheritance. (Abra. 2: Gen 17: 22: 15-18, Gal 3)
All of these promises lumped together are called the Abrahamic covenant. This covenant was renewed with Isaac (Gen 24:60; 26: 1-4), 24) and again with Jacob. (Gen 28; 35: 9-13) ; 48:3-4) Those portions of it which pertain to personal exaltation and eternal increase are renewed with each member of the house of Israel who enters the order of celestial marriage; through that order the participating parties become inheritors of all the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (D&C 132: Rom 9:4 Gal 3:4) 

            Bruce R. McConkie Mormon Doctrine 1966 Salt Lake City BookCraft 

Once I understood the importance of the covenant in my life I was able to go back and do a reread through Chapter 17.

God Says:

• I will make my covenant ... will multiply thee exceedingly  vs 2 
• I will make thee exceedingly fruitful  v. 6
• I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed v. 7 
• I will give unto thee and unto thy seed after, the land v. 8 
• I will be their God v. 8 
• I will bless her and give her a son v. 16 
• I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him v. 19 
• I will establish my covenant with Isaac v. 21 

What a strong friendship. A strong promise. Who can go wrong with the God of Abraham? 

I am grateful for my baptismal covenant, for my marriage covenant, and for the reliability of the promises God made unto Abraham... and unto me. 

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The Generations of Adam Genesis 5

I want to say that before I studied this chapter, I almost passed over it. I thought it's just numbers, years, a genealogy. Surely there can be nothing new to learn from this. And then I turned the pages in prayer. 

I am always amazed at how patiently truth waits.... for the searching souls. 

The Generations of Adam

Adam, in Hebrew, is a common noun. It means man or mankind.

In Genesis 5 we are given the "generations of Adam" or the Generations of mankind. Why?

Why is it important to remember these men's lives? The years they lived? The faith they passed on?

Think for a moment if this information had been lost? What if there was no connection back to Adam? Would we be less likely to believe his testimony? How is faith nurtured? Who do we depend on to nurture our faith? 

The Priesthood

The men in my family have the Priesthood of God. (My brothers, my son, my father and my husband, my son-in-laws)The Priesthood is the Power of God on earth. It gives men the power to Act for God as they serve, heal, and organize God's Kingdom. The Priesthood was given to Adam after he was cast from the Garden. Adam remembered the Garden, walking with God, having all of his needs met, etc. But would Adam's children remember God? Thus began the journey of faith for the generations of man. 

It is within the generations of Adam that we see the Power of the Priesthood transferred from one righteous priesthood holder to another.

45  God called upon Cainan in the wilderness in the fortieth year of his age; and he met Adam in journeying to the place Shedolamak. He was eighty-seven years old when he received his ordination.
D&C 107:44-45

This book is meant to not only give us a timeline of the days of earth, (Adam's birth represented the first day of man's life on earth and his death marked the 930th year of the world) but to also give us a lineage (history) of the priesthood. 

I found this quote from "Lectures on Faith. 

 "Lectures On Faith".

 36. For instance, Abel, before he received the assurance from heaven that his offerings were acceptable unto God, had received the important information of his father that such a Being did exist, who had created and who did uphold all things. Neither can there be a doubt existing on the mind of any person, that Adam was the first who did communicate the knowledge of the existence of a God to his posterity; and that the whole faith of the world, form that time down to the present, is in a certain degree dependent on the knowledge first communicated to them by their common progenitor; and it has been handed down to the day and generation in which we live, as we shall show from the face of the sacred records.
Lectures on Faith, Lecture Second

You can play with the numbers and figure out fun things like Noah's father, Lamech was 56 when Adam died. And you might realize that when Adam's testimony was not alone:  Adam, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah all lived on the earth at the same time. Also it can be pointed out that Enos, Cainan, Mahaleleel, Jared, Methuselah and Lamech all knew Adam and Noah.

The 5th book of Genesis then shows us not only that the knowledge and faith of God came into the world through the Lord's Holy Priesthood first given to Adam, but that it was preserved, "it was retained in the minds of righteous men,"(Lectures) and it was communicated in righteousness down through "the generations of man." From the time of Adam's creation the truth of man's creation and the existence of God, a true and living God,  has been taught by and through the power of God's Priesthood first given to Adam.

23  And they were preachers of righteousness, and spake and prophesied, and called upon all men, everywhere, to repent; and faith was taught unto the children of men.
Moses 6:23
Adam.