Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Genesis & Exodus – God’s Covenant “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (Gen. 12: 1-3). Later, God renews this promise and also makes a small addition to it: “He [God] brought him [Abram] outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendents be.’ And he believe the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15: 5-6). Clearly, God begins to take action in Abraham’s life right from the start. And, because of Abraham’s overwhelming faith, God sets him as the leader of His “chosen” people, the Israelites. The conditional covenant that defines the relationship between God and Abraham (and, therefore, between the chosen people as well) extends through Genesis and Exodus, the first two books of the Bible. In the covenant that God makes with Abraham, we find him