The Abrahamic Covenant

The Bible Dictionary explains the Abrahamic Covenant this way: “He had conferred upon him the higher priesthood, and he entered into celestial marriage (which is the covenant of exaltation), gaining assurance thereby that he would have eternal increase….  Included in the divine promises to Abraham were the assurances that (1) Christ would come through his lineage, and that (2) Abraham’s posterity would receive certain lands as an eternal inheritance…. These promises taken together are called the ‘Abrahamic covenant.’”  The commentary states that the same covenant Abraham received was renewed with Isaac, citing these words given by the Lord to Isaac: “I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father” (Genesis 26:3).  The summary also suggests the Abrahamic covenant was renewed with Jacob as well: “And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee” (Genesis 28:3-4).  In fact, the Bible Dictionary states that “the portions of the covenant that pertain to personal salvation and eternal increase are renewed with each individual who receives the ordinance of celestial marriage.”  It references D&C 132:31-33 which says: “This promise is yours also, because ye are of Abraham, and the promise was made unto Abraham….  But if ye enter not into my law ye cannot receive the promise of my Father, which he made unto Abraham.”  In other words, the “new and everlasting covenant” that we can participate in today is essentially the same covenant that God originally made with Abraham. 

All of these passages suggest that though we call the covenant the Abrahamic Covenant, it was also made with those who came after him and is in essential aspects the same as He will make with us in the dispensation of the fulness of times.  So why do we call it the Abrahamic covenant?  Why is his name the one by which we recognize it?  It is not because he was the first to receive it, for we know that those before him also received this covenant with the Lord.  For example, the Lord made similar covenants with Enoch and Melchizedek, for we read that Melchizedek “was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch….  For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself” (JST Genesis 14:27, 30).  Perhaps the reason for naming the covenant after Abraham, then, is simply that Abraham was such an incredible example of keeping covenants that the Lord wants us to look to him as the model to follow as we enter into spiritual covenants.  Really the covenant should be named after the Savior, for it is He who makes the covenant with each of us and fulfills His promises perfectly, but He chose to name it after Abraham for His purposes.  Perhaps it is the same principle as why we name the priesthood after Melchizedek: “Out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that priesthood after Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood” (D&C 107:4).  Melchizedek was the great high priest, and so we call the priesthood after him; Abraham similarly was the great covenant keeper, and so we call the gospel covenant that the Lord makes with us after him.  Abraham was unfailing in his obedience to the Lord—willing even to give up his own son at the Lord’s request—and he followed the Lord’s commands wherever those took him.  As Isaiah put it, the Lord wants us to “look unto Abraham your father” as we consider our own obedience to the covenants of the Lord (Isaiah 51:2).