through Abraham

Pete Kersker - Dec 09, 2025

A covenant is an agreement between two parties. Conditional covenants can have different outcomes, depending on the conditions that are met. Unconditional covenants have unchanging outcomes. That's because an unconditional covenant is a promise.

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him" (Genesis 18:18-19 NIV).

The LORD told Abraham that he (really, his descendants) will become a great and powerful nation. God describes this statement as a promise (unconditional covenant). The LORD also promised that, through Abraham, all nations on earth will be blessed.

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17 NIV).

This covenant with Abraham appears to start out conditional. Abraham met the conditions on his part (obeying the LORD), so God will follow through with the blessings. Over the next two millennia, Abraham's descendants remembered God's part of the covenant as a promise because Abraham had already met the condition needed for he, his descendants, and all nations to be blessed.

Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me" (Genesis 22:18 NIV).

Did you realize that a conditional covenant
can become a promise, once the conditions are met?

Can you think of any other conditional covenants with the LORD
that turn into a promise, once we meet the conditions of the covenant?