God's Covenant with the Israelites and Abraham
In the most simplest of terms, a covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties, but in the Old Testament, the term covenant is most closely allied with the prophet Abraham and his covenant with God (i.e., Jehovah). Generally speaking, the covenant of the Israelites included God's blessings for honoring it and the consequences for ignoring it, and when the covenant was accepted by the Israelites, "God and Israel entered into a covenant relationship, a binding commitment to honor and fulfill their respective roles" as members of this special relationship with God ("Chapter 1," 2008, Internet). According to Julia Mitchell Corbett, writing in Religion in America, this special relationship with God was to be embodied in everything the Israelites did or thought and is very closely linked to the Ten Commandments as found in the story of Moses and the exodus of Israelite slaves from the clutches of Rameses II of ancient Egypt. Some of these commandments, much like the conditions laid out in a covenant, "deal with people's actions with respect to God," such as having "no other gods" (monotheism), keeping the Sabbath day holy and not taking God's name in vain." Other conditions are related to how the Israelites behave towar
Since he was always willing to obey whatever God commanded him to do, Abraham dutifully obeyed God's order to sacrifice his son Isaac, but when Abraham was about to kill his son, God stopped him. This promise was certainly kept by God, for in today's modern world almost all Jews who practice Judaism have been commanded by God as a result of the Israelite covenant with Jehovah to present an attitude toward their fellow human beings which reflects God's own nature, for "under the terms of the covenant, Jews are responsible to and for one another. But if a member is truly sorry and is committed to doing better and wholeheartedly seeks God's forgiveness, then God will forgive these backsliders, thus making them once again solid members of the covenant (Corbett, 1991, 95). This incident reveals that Abraham's character was quite unique as compared to other Old Testament prophets, for he apparently had no qualms about killing his son Isaac even when he felt in his heart that it was wrong. In the book of Exodus, Chapter 19, it is recorded that God said to the Israelites that "if they would keep the commandments of God, then God would be their only God and they would be His chosen people" (Corbett, 1991, 100). According to the King James Version, Abraham, originally called Abram, was born in the ancient of Ur and at the age of seventy-five moved into Canaan, the land inhabited by the Canaanites who were mostly merchants and traders. In addition, righteousness, love and tolerance must be the ever-binding rule, not only among Jews but also among all people of the earth. Thus, in the words of King David, "Remember His covenant always (and) the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations (and) the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac (and) to Israel for an everlasting covenant" ("Chapter 1," 2008, Internet). One's fellow human being is God's son or daughter and is therefore one's brother or sister" (Corbett, 1991, 99). In the land of Canaan, Abraham was highly respected as a prophet by the leaders of many important groups and quickly became a rather wealthy man. After this incident, Abraham entered into his covenant with God through which he was "promised a family and many nations as successors to his special relationship with Jehovah" (Corbett, 1991, 99). d one another, such as not murdering, stealing nor lying and "not wanting what is not one's own" (i. When Abraham was eighty-seven years old, he and his wife Sarah became parents for the first time with the birth of their son Ishmael; some ten years later, Sarah gave birth to another son named Isaac who would play a major role in his father's covenant with God.
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Acceptance Essays
