10  Zacharias’s Song  of Salvation—Part 2:  The Abrahamic  Covenant  (Luke 1:72–75)

To show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. (1:72–75)

If one were to ask historians to name the single most important event in history, the one with the most far-reaching implications and that made the greatest impact, there would be no consensus. Some might suggest a major battle or war that reshaped the balance of power, or the influence of a great military or political ruler, such as an Alexander the Great, Pharaoh, Caesar, king, prime minister, president, or general. Others might suggest the rise to power of a major civilization or nation, such as Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, China, the British Empire, or the United States. Conversely, some might point to the fall of a major civilization, such as Babylon, Rome, or the decline of contemporary Western civilization.

Other historians might argue that a scientific invention or discovery made the greatest impact. Inventions such as the wheel, telegraph, telephone, automobile, airplane, radio, and computer, the harnessing of electricity, and the discoveries of modern medical science have unquestionably helped make our world what it is today.

Many would insist that it is ideas and beliefs that exert the greatest influence on history. They would point out the impact of thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche; religious leaders such as Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Muhammed; and of ideas such as evolution, communism, democracy, capitalism, and postmodernism. Nor can the significance of major movements or events, such as the Renaissance, Reformation, En lightenment, the American Revolution, or the French Revolution, be underestimated.

But while historians might debate history’s most significant event, history itself has already answered the question. The most monumental event of all was the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world. The division of history into B.C. (“before Christ”) and A.D. (Anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord”) reveals the unsurpassed significance of Christ’s incarnation; it is history’s great dividing point.

God created mankind to serve, worship, and glorify Him. To that end, He placed Adam and Eve in the perfect environment of the garden of Eden. Tragically, Satan’s lies led to the corruption of that perfect world as the fall plunged the human race into sin and depravity. But what Satan meant for evil, God used for His glory. He saved lost sinners, putting on display His otherwise unknowable attributes of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. The Father redeemed a people, and presented them to His beloved Son as a gift of His love. They will serve, praise, and worship Him forever.

The pinnacle of God’s redemptive plan was the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world. After living a sinless life of perfect obedience to God’s law, He died on the cross bearing the sins of His people. Because He treated Jesus as if He had lived their sinful lives, God is able through His grace to treat the redeemed as if they had lived Jesus’ perfectly righteous life. The incarnation, substitutionary atonement, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the Bible’s overarching themes. The Old Testament (most notably in Isa. 53) anticipates the death of Messiah as the ultimate sacrifice that the Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to. The Gospels give the record of Jesus’ sinless life and sacrificial death. Acts and the Epistles are a commentary on the theological significance of His life, death, and resurrection. Revelation gives the details of His return and millennial reign on earth, and His eternal reign in the new heaven and new earth.

In Zacharias’s day, the Jewish people were eagerly awaiting Messiah’s arrival. They longed for Him to come, set up His kingdom, and restore their land to them. Zacharias was one of those who “who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (2:38). The birth of his son filled him with anticipation; the angel Gabriel had told him that John would “go as a forerunner before [the Messiah, Jesus Christ] in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (1:17). Zacharias knew that if His forerunner had just been born, Messiah’s coming was imminent. That knowledge prompted his magnificent hymn of praise and worship. As befits a priest, a man who had devoted his life to studying and teaching God’s law, Zacharias’s hymn is saturated with Old Testament covenant texts. Specifically, he centers on the three covenants of salvation and blessing—the Davidic, Abrahamic, and New covenants. Having referred to the Davidic covenant in verses 67–71 (see the exposition of those verses in the previous chapter of this volume), Zacharias now turns to the Abrahamic covenant, noting its background, promise, and fulfillment in the coming Messiah.

THE BACKGROUND OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

To show mercy toward our fathers, (1:72a)

The Abrahamic covenant, which God made to the fathers of the nation of Israel (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), is a foundational element of biblical interpretation. A correct understanding of it is essential to properly comprehending all of redemptive history. In contrast to the Davidic covenant, which was universal in scope, the Abrahamic covenant is national, promising blessings to Israel (though Gentiles can enter into those blessings through faith; see the discussion of Gal. 3:6–7 and Rom. 4:11–12 below).

The Abrahamic covenant is preeminently a covenant of mercy, revealing that God is gracious and compassionate to undeserving people. The stream of mercy that began with God’s blessing of Abraham flows down through the centuries to provide forgiveness, redemption, and eternal blessing to all who have faith in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

After beginning with universal themes, such as God’s creation of the universe in six days, the entrance of sin into the world, and the worldwide flood of Noah’s day and its aftermath, the book of Genesis narrows its focus to one individual and his descendants: Abraham (then known as Abram), who is introduced at the end of chapter 11. He was a native of the sophisticated and powerful Chaldean city of Ur (v. 31), located in Mesopotamia (Acts 7:2). What his connection with the true God was is not clear, since according to Joshua 24:2 he was an idolater. But God sovereignly called him while he was still living in Ur, commanding him, “Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you” (Acts7:3). Later, after Abraham had settled in Haran with his father, Terah (Gen. 11:31), God repeated his call to him:

In obedience to the Lord’s command “Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him … and came to the land of Canaan” (vv. 4, 5).

THE PROMISE OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, (1:72b–73)

The holy covenant, the oath which God swore to Abraham, though first mentioned in Genesis 12, would not actually be ratified until chapter 15 (see the discussion below). Having called Abraham to leave his home for another land which He would show him (Gen. 12:1), God promised to make of his descendants a great nation, protect and bless them, through them bless the world (vv. 2–3), and give them that land (v. 7). The Lord’s promise to make a great nation from Abraham was humanly impossible, since his wife, Sarah (then known as Sarai), was barren (Gen. 11:30). The beginning of the fulfillment of that promise would be a conception miracle and the birth of Isaac (Gen. 18:9–15; 21:1–8).

God’s promise to make Abraham a “great nation” (Gen. 12:2) has indeed come to pass. The Jewish people have made profound contributions in such fields as medicine, the arts, education, literature, science, and finance. But more significantly, through the nation of Israel “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed” (v. 3) spiritually. The Jewish people “were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:2), the Old Testament Scriptures, whose Holy Spirit-inspired writers were all Jewish. They received the “adoption as sons” (Rom. 9:4); that is, Israel was sovereignly called by God to be His special witness nation and to receive “the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises” (v. 4). Most important of all, “from [Israel] is the Christ according to the flesh” (v. 5; cf. Rom. 1:3). All the blessings of salvation came through the Jewish people, leading Jesus to declare that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).

But while Israel has been the channel through which God’s revelation and blessings have flowed to the world, the nation has rarely shared in those blessings. Disobedience; idolatry; empty, ritualistic, outward worship; and, most heinous of all, rejecting the Messiah, have led to chastening from God instead of blessing. But despite their rebellion and resulting punishment, God has protected the Jewish people. They have survived exile to Babylon, the attempt by Antiochus Epiphanes during the intertestamental period to eradicate their religion and culture, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, being dispersed from Palestine and forced to live in Gentile lands, and centuries of pogroms and persecution, culminating in the twentieth century with the madness of the Holocaust. Yet Israel still exists as a nation, occupying part of the land God promised to Abraham. And in the future God will continue to preserve the Jewish people, sealing 144,000 evangelists, 12,000 from each tribe (Rev. 7:4–8), during the tribulation, rescuing the nation from Antichrist’s furious attempt to annihilate it (Rev. 12:13–17), and redeeming the believing remnant at the end of the tribulation (Rom. 11:25–27). But the Jews as a nation have yet to experience the complete fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham.

Underscoring its crucial significance in the flow of redemptive history, the Abrahamic covenant is reiterated eight times in the book of Genesis (chapters 12, 13, 15, 17, 22, 26, 28, and 35). As noted above, God announced the terms of the covenant in chapter 12, but the covenant was not actually set until chapter 15. That is clear from 15:18, which records, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram.” God sealed that covenant in a very dramatic way, one which emphasized its unilateral, unconditional nature.

In verse 7, God repeated the promise He had made to Abraham in chapter 12 regarding the land He would give to him and his descendants: “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” Seeking reassurance Abraham replied, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?” (v. 8). The ensuing ceremony, which was in keeping with Ancient Near Eastern custom, ratified the covenant:

Killing animals symbolized the seriousness of a covenant. The two parties making it would walk between the pieces of the dead animals, thus affirming that the same thing should happen to them if they broke the covenant. But in this case only the “smoking oven” and “flaming torch,” which represented God’s presence, passed between the parts of the slain animals; Abraham was divinely anesthetized. The covenant, therefore, was unilateral; an irrevocable pledge made by God alone and not dependant on Abraham.

Israel has never possessed all the land promised to Abraham (vv. 18–21). Only when the Lord Jesus Christ takes the throne of David and establishes His earthly kingdom will Israel experience the full blessings of the Abrahamic covenant.

Genesis 17 reveals another important component of God’s covenant with Abraham. In verse 2, God said to him, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly,” then repeated that promise in verse 4: “You shall be the father of a multitude of nations.” To further reinforce that point, the Lord changed his name from Abram (“exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”), because, God declared again, “I will make you the father of a multitude of nations” (v.5).

In keeping with that promise Abraham became not only the father of the Jewish people, but also of the Arabs. Earlier Sarah, despairing of ever having a child herself, “took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife” (Gen. 16:3). The child born from that union was Ishmael (v. 11), the ancestor of the Arab people. But Ishmael was not the child through whom the covenant blessings would come:

Three times in this chapter (vv. 7, 13, 19) God described His covenant with Abraham as an everlasting covenant. It will never be abrogated, but will ultimately be fulfilled when Christ reigns during the millennial kingdom.

Although the Abrahamic covenant was enacted unilaterally by God and is thus unconditional and irrevocable, the enjoyment of its blessings comes only through faith. Genesis 22 illustrates that principle. In keeping with His promise, God had given Abraham and Sarah a son (Gen. 21:1–3). Years later (cf. Gen. 21:34), when Isaac was a young man, God gave Abraham a shocking command: “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you” (Gen. 22:2). Humanly speaking, this was incomprehensible. Isaac was the son through whom God had promised to make of Abraham a great nation. Would not his death, therefore, abrogate God’s covenant with Abraham? But Abraham’s faith did not fail, and he set off with Isaac to obey God’s command. According to Hebrews 11:19, Abraham believed that after he sacrificed Isaac, God would raise him from the dead. But as he was about to plunge the knife into his son,

Abraham’s faith that God would keep His promise is a model for all believers to follow (cf. Gal. 3:9).

THE FULFILLMENT OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. (1:74–75)

In one of the most dramatic incidents in all of redemptive history, God’s covenant with Abraham was confirmed by his faith, expressed in his willingness to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. Israel, unlike Abraham, has through history failed to respond in faith to the revealed will of God, even when Messiah came. As a result, the promised blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, like those of the Davidic covenant, have not been realized. Not until the Jewish people acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah who comes in the name of the Lord (Luke 13:35), look with penitent remorse on the One they pierced and mourn their rejection of Him (Zech. 12:10), will the believing remnant be saved (Rom. 11:26) and the nation experience all the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant in the millennial kingdom. Only then will Zacharias’s fervent hope that the children of Israel, being rescued from the hand of their enemies, might serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all their days, be realized.

As is the case with the Davidic covenant (see chap. 9 of this volume), Gentile believers will also experience the vast blessings of the Abrahamic covenant. In a spiritual sense, all Christians share in the promises of salvation blessing in this covenant, and so in the sense of salvation are called children of Abraham, as the apostle Paul notes in Galatians 3:6–7: “Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” Looking ahead to the cross, God applied the righteousness of Jesus Christ to Abraham’s account. Those who believe the gospel and in faith embrace Jesus Christ “are blessed with Abraham, the believer” (v. 9). Even if they are not descended from Abraham physically, all who believe share the principle of faith with Abraham and thus are in that sense his spiritual descendants. The salvation blessings of the Abra-hamic covenant are for all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. To the Romans Paul wrote,

That all believers become Abraham’s children spiritually does not mean that the church is the new Israel, cancelling all the promises to the nation. That kind of “replacement theology” is unacceptable in light of the unconditional Old Testament promises of God and the New Testament reiteration of them. Paul says with regard to Israel, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). Israel has not been permanently set aside as a nation; God would not perpetuate and protect the Jewish people through the centuries unless He had a definite purpose for doing so. The apostle Paul recoiled in horror at the thought that God had permanently rejected Israel: “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! [Gk., mē genoito, a very strong negation] … God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom. 11:1–2). Though Israel stumbled into disobedience, “they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be [me genoito]! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous” (v. 11). Gentiles, like a wild olive branch, are grafted into the rich root of Abrahamic blessing (v. 17). But the natural branches (the Jews), “if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again” (v. 23). Indeed, after “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (v. 25), “all Israel [i.e., the believing remnant] will be saved” when Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation to set up the millennial kingdom (v. 26).

It is then that the Abrahamic covenant, anticipated by members of the believing remnant such as Zacharias, Simeon, and Anna, but rejected by the unbelieving nation when it rejected the Messiah, will be fully realized. Through redeemed Israel, its blessings will flow to the world in the earthly kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. (For further discussion of this critical issue, see Romans 9–16, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1994], chapters 1–10, and the excursus to chapter 11 of this volume.)