Abrahamic Covenant

For my own personal reasons I have a deep interest in the Abrahamic Covenant, so when we studied it today, I really perked up. I got the chance to teach about it this last year when we came to the lesson in Sunday School and had a really neat experience with it. I had prepared the lesson with PowerPoint and had a video clip and everything all lined up for class, but when I went to set up, I discovered that the media wouldn’t work that day. So, I put away the projector screen and drew a chart on the board and led a discussion on the details of the covenant. We outlined what God promised to give Abraham and the responsibilities Abraham accepted on his part. The beauty of teaching that lesson was how well I really understand the different parts of the covenant because of drawing that chart. For the first time I felt a real click in my mind about the details of the covenant and how it specifically applied to me. I love studying about Abraham because I feel that the better I understand his life and relationship with God, the more included I feel as a member of his family.

I understand about the literal descendants and the need to be a literal seed of Abraham, but I also see how the adoption into the house of Israel reflects the great mercy of the Lord. He promises that we can become literal descendants when we make covenants with Him. There is an actual change that occurs with covenanting with God that enables us to partake of the Gospel fully, even as there is a very real change that occurs when we repent of our sins and use the Atonement in our lives.