|
Scripture: Nehemiah
9:7-8
7 “You
are the LORD God,
Who
chose Abram
And
brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees,
And
gave him the name Abraham.
8 “You
found his heart faithful before You,
And
made a covenant with him
To
give him the land of the
Canaanite,
Of
the Hittite and the Amorite,
Of
the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite—
To
give it to his descendants.
And
You have fulfilled Your promise,
A. Praise to God for Abraham’s
Calling vs. 7a
God, having destroyed the
world with a terrible flood saved, Noah and his family.
Nine lengthened generations later Abram was born and God called him
out of Ur
of the Chaldeans. That marked
the beginning of Israel’s history. Our text says of God, “You are the LORD God,
Who chose Abram . . .” We read nothing about why God
choose Abram. The most we can
say is what God says about His people in
Deuteronomy 7:7,8;
7 “The LORD did not set
His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of
the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the LORD loved
you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought
you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from
the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
How
gracious is God who in love and mercy calls sinners to Himself.
Genesis
12:1,2 1“Go forth from your
country, And from your relatives
And from your father’s
house, To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great
nation, And I will bless you,
And
make your name great;
And so you shall be a
blessing;
B.
Praise to God for Abraham’s
Name
vs. 7b
“ . . . And gave him the
name Abraham.”
Genesis
17:5 “No
longer shall your name be called Abram,
But
your name shall be Abraham, For I will make you the father of a
multitude of nations.”
Abram
means “exalted father,” certainly a name of honor.
God, however, wished to convey a divine promise and changed his
name to Abraham, that is, “father of a multitude.”
This was God’s means of establishing
His people in the land, preserving a lineage for the Messiah-Redeemer, and
ultimately the means to reach the world through His Churches and govern it
in the Millennial Kingdom. All of this hangs on this historic Abrahamic
Covenant.
C.
Praise to God for the
Abrahamic Covenant vs. 8
1. The
Recipient of the Covenant vs.
8a “You found his heart
faithful before You.”Abraham
was tested and found faithful. See his
trial with Isaac; Genesis
22:9-14; 9And they came to the place
which God had told him of. And Abraham built the altar there, and laid the
wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon
the wood. 10And Abraham stretched
forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11And the angel of Jehovah
called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
Here I am. 12And he said, Lay not thy
hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that
thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son,
from me. 13And Abraham lifted up his
eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a caught in the thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a
burnt-offering in the stead of his son. 14And Abraham called the
name of that place Jehovah-jireh. As it is said to this day, In the mount
of Jehovah it shall be provided.
2. The
Nature of the Covenant vs.
8b
a.
Unconditional
Genesis
15:17, 18a; 17 And it came to pass, that,
when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a
burning lamp that passed between those pieces. 18 | 
