#7 Abrahamic Covenant

Abra. 1:1-4; 2:1-11; Gen. 12:1-8; 17:1-9
Well whether it’s because I don’t understand it fully or because I’ve heard this lesson many times in my life, I was completely bored every time I read through it. So I decided I wanted to play a game to quiz ourselves on the Abrahamic Covenant. Tic Tac Toe Seems to be an okay choice. The room will be split up into 2 teams and I’ve written the scriptures where all the answers can be found on the board. After we answer each question we will talk about it a little and how we can apply it to our own lives to make it mean something.

First let me ask how many of you have Patriarchal Blessings that state your lineage. Lineage meaning, the paragraph that states that you are from Abraham, Isaac, Ephraim, or Manasseh; hopefully everyone has that in their blessings. Well have you ever wondered why it’s there and what does that mean to you? With that simple statement the Lord is telling you blessings that you are given. With those blessings also comes more responsibility. The Lord covenants to us certain blessings; the Bible Dictionary, under Abrahamic Covenant says that by us seeking out Baptism, the priesthood, and Celestial Marriage we are making covenants back so that we can be worthy of those added blessings. If we aren’t doing our part the Lord doesn’t have to keep His part of the covenant.
And what happens when we don’t keep our end nor the Lord doesn’t keep His end? God told His people in Leviticus 26 that if they didn’t adhere to the Covenant then we would get to experience sorrow, hunger, war, disease, exile, and tragedy. So if we don’t want these things to happen we need to keep our covenants. Now we get to review what those are so we can make any changes we need to.

With that said let’s start our game; rules of the game, anyone can answer, anyone can help each other, we are here to make this fun, you get one try to answer if you miss the other team gets a chance to answer. Easy enough right?

#1 question Abraham 2:9; Gen 17:5-6: What is one of the blessings the Lord gives Abraham?
*His posterity would be numerous. Think about this for a minute, some of Noah’s posterity and all the rest of Adam’s posterity, minus Noah, had been wiped out. Think about what the Lord is telling Abraham, that no matter what happens his posterity would always be around till the end of mortality and into the eternities. It says in Gen. 17:6 that the Lord would make “nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee”
#2 The Bible dictionary states that one of those kings that would be born through his line would be who? Jesus Christ.
#3 Name another great king or prophet that came from Abraham’s line?
Parley P. Pratt said, “From this lineage sprang the Prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, the Apostles; and from this lineage sprang the great prophet and restorer in modern times, and the Apostles who hold the keys under his hand. (General Conf. April 10, 1853 Jour. Of Discour. 1:261)
John Taylor (Journ. Of Discourses 20:224) said, “We go to the promise made to Abraham, which was that in him and in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. Moses, as I have said was of his seed, and he was the deliverer of the whole of that nation. And who were the prophets that existed among ancient Israel? They were descendants of Abraham; and to them came the word of God and the light of revelation. Who was Jesus? After the flesh of the seed of Abraham. Who were the people that came to this continent-Lehi and his family, about 600 years B.C.? Of the seed of Abraham. Who were the apostles they had among them that spread forth among the millions that then lived upon this continent? Of the seed of Abraham. Who was Joseph Smith? Of the seed of Abraham.”

Joseph Smith also received from the Lord this revelation about himself and us, “Abraham received promises concerning his seed, and of the fruit of his loins-from whose loins ye are, namely my servant Joseph- which were in the world;…This promise is yours also, because ye are of Abraham and the promise was made unto Abraham; and by this law is the continuation of the works of my Father, wherein he glorifieth himself. (July 12, 1843 revelation recorded in D&C 132:30-31)
Think about what that means for us? We, the Faithful are in the same family line as Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith.
Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said, “Every person who embraces the Gospel becomes of the house of Israel. In other words they become members of the chosen lineage, or Abraham’s children through Isaac and Jacob unto whom the promises were made. The great majority of those who become members of the Church are literal descendants of Abraham through Ephraim, son of Joseph. Those who are not literal descendants of Abraham and Israel must become such, and when they are baptized and confirmed they are grafted into the tree and are entitled to all the rights and privileges as heirs (How One may become of the house of Israel, Oct: 1149)
#4 What is another promised blessing from the covenant? Gen 17:8; Abr. 2:6 give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land…for an everlasting possession.
Joseph Fielding Smith wrote in the Doctrines of Salvation 1:88, “The land of Canaan, or Palestine, (Bruce R. McConkie said this is part of land of Jerusalem. Mormon Doctrine p14) was promised to Abraham and his descendants, even though he never personally possessed it “The Lord gave the promise to Abraham that he should have Palestine, or the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession. Yet, as Stephen said at the time of his martyrdom, Abraham never received as much as a foot of it as a possession while he lived. “Then what did the Lord mean in making a promise to Abraham of that kind, giving him that portion of the earth as an everlasting possession for himself and his posterity, the righteous part of it, forever? Simply this, that the time would eventually come, after the resurrection from the dead, when Abraham and his children who have been faithful in the keeping of the commandments of the Lord, should possess that land, and they shall also spread forth as far as it is necessary for them to receive and inheritance.”
Through Lehi’s line which is also of Abraham’s line, have been promised the America’s as the promised land. That is the significance to us-that we too have a promised land that will be given to us if we live worthy of that blessing after the resurrection. (3 Nephi 21) We have also been given it to us today to live in, we take this for granted because we forget that when Israel broke these covenants they were scattered,(3 Nephi 20:25-29) I would think we probably should take this covenant a little more seriously if we don’t want history to repeat itself.
#5 What is another blessing the Lord gives in the Abr. Cov. (AC)? Abraham 2:9&11 That we shall receive the ministry of the Priesthood which shall bless all the families of the earth with the blessings of the Gospel and salvation, even of life eternal.
Meaning-We will have access to the priesthood power. So knowing this think, back to previous lessons where we talk about what the Priesthood blessings give us.
#6 What are some of the blessings that come through the priesthood? (name 2) Temple ordinances, which give us eternal life, families, and salvation; the Book of Mormon all came about because of priesthood power, revelation, etc.
To personalize this and how important it is, think of all the blessings that the priesthood has given you and your family, think now about losing all those or never having had the priesthood in your life; is this not a great blessing the Lord is giving to us as His covenant people

Now for our part of the Covenant, the Lord gives us all those and asks in return one thing.
#7 What is that one thing? (Abr. 12:3; Bible Dictionary) Sharing the Gospel with others.
“In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” & “Being an heir to the Abrahamic Covenant does not make one a “chosen person” per se, but does signify that such are chosen to responsibly carry the gospel to all the people of the earth. Abraham’s seed have carried out the missionary activity in all the nations since Abraham’s day. To fulfill the covenant God made with Abraham—having particular reference to the fact that the literal seed of his body would be entitled to all of the blessings of the gospel a number of specific and particular things must take place in the last days. The gospel must be restored, the priesthood must be conferred again upon man, the keys of the sealing power must be given again to mortals, Israel must be given again to mortals, Israel must be gathered, and the Holy Ghost must be poured out upon the gentiles. All this has already taken place or is in process of fulfillment.”
It was Joseph not us that restored the gospel and priesthood, however we too have a duty to keep our part of this covenant.

#8 How can we do this? We still must pass the priesthood and confer, or have conferred the Holy Ghost onto our generations, by instilling a testimony of those things into their lives, a desire to live the covenant themselves and pass it on to their children. As well as living this covenant within our own families, we are asked to pass it on to others, like our home teaching families, people we serve in our callings etc. We can also keep this covenant by going on missions, as a teenager or couple, as well as doing temple work for all mankind in every country!

So now we know what those covenants mean do us what will you do about it? Do you need to make changes? Perhaps take the Gospel teachings a little more seriously? That is a personal decision for each person because it will be the Lord we have to answer to.
I Love the Lord! It is through these blessings and covenants we see how wonderful, merciful and generous He is, even though this topic can be boring it is crucial to our salvation, it is our job to make it fun! It is our job to work together in teams to spread the gospel to our family, friends, and neighbors so that they have a desire to gain their own testimonies and keep spreading the Gospel which brings more and more people under the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant in the name of Jesus Christ amen