Genesis 21:22-34

2007.Nov.28 15:13

Covenant between Humans

Read Genesis 21:22-23 | Full Chapter

About this time Abimelech and his army commander Phicol said to Abraham, “God blesses everything you do! Now I want you to promise in the name of God that you will always be loyal to me and my descendants, just as I have always been loyal to you in this land where you have lived as a foreigner.” And so, Abraham promised.
(Genesis 21:22-24, CEV)

Abimelech and Abraham promise to be nice to each other. Wow, isn’t that sweet. But this promise seems to be more of a promise in passing. So far, it seems to lack depth. But that will change.

One day, Abraham told Abimelech, “Some of your servants have taken over one of my wells.” “This is the first I’ve heard about it,” Abimelech replied. “Why haven’t you said something before? I don’t have any idea who did it.” Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and then the two men made a peace treaty. Abraham separated seven female lambs from his flock of sheep, and Abimelech asked, “Why have you done this?” Abraham told him, “I want you to accept these seven lambs as proof that I dug this well.” So they called the place Beersheba, because they made a treaty there. When the treaty was completed, Abimelech and his army commander Phicol went back to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped the eternal LORD God. Then Abraham lived a long time as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines.
(Genesis 21:25-34, CEV)

Now, Abraham and Abimelech have gone through a situation that has promoted their mutual promise into a covenant. You can divide the covenants in the Bible into groups based on the participants in those covenants: God with group of humans, God with single human, single human with single human, and so on. Something I’ve noticed throughout the Bible is a difference between promises and covenants within all these groups.

Now God’s promises are secure, but even in his case, covenants seem to be, if you will, a higher order of promise. They involve some sort of “signing” activity. So the promise that Abimelech and Abraham make is not backed by any marker to which they can point; that promise comes under fire over the issue of one of Abraham’s wells, which some of Abimelech’s servants take over. (Unless, that is, verses 22-24 are meant as a summary rather than a separate event; but I’m going to persist with my current point in either case). The two “A” guys sort it out, but Abraham adds something to this.

Abe presents Abimelech with seven lambs, to be proof that Abimelech has accepted this particular well as belonging to Abraham. They also make a treaty (written?). So, now there’s an evidence of the promise, which I think is a significant part of a covenant. But Abraham actually adds an additional marker, a tamarisk tree. My guess is this tree is a marker of Abraham’s thanks to Yahweh for whatever part he played in working this out (I imagine including given wisdom to Abraham).

So, in summary, it seems a covenant needs (at least benefits from) a marker of some sort. Markers are generally used in covenants anyway; maybe more important is to recognize that the addition of a marker ought to bring the promise to a higher level, ought to be accompanied by a deliberate decision to count the cost of the covenant before entering.