G.N.H. Peters states the point well when he says:

`In all earthly transactions, when a promise, agreement, or contract is entered into by which one party gives a

promise of value to another, it is universally the custom to explain such a relationship and its promises by the

well known laws of language contained in our grammars, or in common usage. It would be regarded as absurd

and trifling to view them in any other light ... the very nature of a covenant demands that it should be so worded,

so plainly expressed, that it conveys a decisive meaning, and not a hidden or mystical one that requires many

centuries to revolve in order to develop' (The Theocratic Kingdom 1:290-91).

The next point to note is that the unconditional covenants of the Bible are eternal. The one we are considering

concerning God's promise to Abraham, his posterity and their earthly inheritance is declared to be eternal in Genesis

17:7,13,19; 1 Chronicles 16:17; Psalm 105:10; Ezekiel 16:60. God's covenant with David and his throne is called

`eternal' in 2 Samuel 23:5; Isaiah 55:3; Ezekiel 37:25-28. The New Covenant is designated as `eternal' in Isaiah

61:8; Jeremiah 32:40; Hebrews 13:20. As these covenants are eternal and depend solely on the integrity of God for

their fulfilment, they are sure and certain.

It is important to note that all the covenants of the Word of God are made with the people of Israel, with one

exception, the covenant made with Noah and all mankind centuries before Israel came into existence (Gen. 9:8-17).

In Romans 9:3-5 the apostle Paul asserts:

`... my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption

(sonship), and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, Who is over all, God blessed for ever'.

As opposed to this, he states in Ephesians 2:11,12 that the Gentiles were `aliens from the commonwealth of

Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise'. One of the unique things about the nation of Israel therefore is

that they were in a covenant relationship with God which has never been true of any other nation. This relationship

permeates the whole Bible and the programme of God for the earth is incomprehensible without it.

So basic is the unconditional covenant made with Abraham, that it demands resurrection in order that its

promises may be fulfilled to many of Israel who have died. In Matthew 22:23-32 the argument of the Lord Jesus

with the Sadducees who did not believe in resurrection, concerned God Who said `I am the God of Abraham, and

the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living'. And this He said

`touching the resurrection of the dead' (verses 29-32).

The Lord had entered into eternal covenant relationships with these men who `died, not having received the

promises' (Heb. 11:13), and as Stephen said in Acts 7:5 `He (God) gave him (Abraham) none inheritance in it, not

so much as to set his foot on: yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after

him, when as yet he had no child'. God can never break His word; therefore He must raise them from the dead in

order to fulfil it completely (Matt. 8:11).

Initially the Abrahamic covenant was stated by God in this way:

`Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's

house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make

thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth

thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed' (Gen. 12:1-3).

Here is a sevenfold `I will' on God's part. Verse 7 tells us that this posterity was to have an earthly inheritance.

This was expanded by God in Genesis 13:14-17:

`... Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and

westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy

seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be

numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee'.

This unconditional promise is impossible to spiritualise for it concerned the literal land which Abraham `saw' and in

which he could `walk in the length of it and in the breadth of it'. In chapter 15 the promise concerning the land was