A Restrictive Covenant

Why does God restrict the passing of His covenant with Abraham to only one child, Isaac?  Besides Isaac and Ishmael, Abraham has six other children with his second wife Keturah.  Why shouldn’t Ishmael and they receive the covenant, as well?  Doesn’t God promise a good future (after 400 years of slavery) for all Abraham’s descendants?  What theological logic could explain why He would exclude all but one of Abraham’s children to carry the covenant?  Is it reasonable for God to have done so? 

An answer may be that God makes a covenant with a group of people only when it agrees to follow His laws and commandments.  And, Abraham’s children may not know or fully appreciate what the latter are.  In addition, the approach to teaching the need for laws and commandments may necessitate a relatively small group.

God’s initial covenant would seem to cover all the generations of Abraham’s progeny.  He promises that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars.  And. He grants them land and success.  But, He tempers this by saying they will have to endure 400 years of slavery first.  From what we know later, this makes the covenant not all inclusive of Abraham’s children.  The prediction of slavery involves only the generations made through Isaac and Jacob.  

The answer to God’s restrictive coverage of the covenant begins with the fact that the commandments and laws will not be given explicitly until Mount Sinai.  Without that knowledge, Abraham’s descendants are bound to behave incorrectly, making their society incompatible for God’s presence.  Evidence that this would be the likely outcome is seen from the chosen line of progeny, itself.  Isaac and then Jacob and his family fail to measure up entirely to the ideals seen in Abraham (see “A General Theory of the Torah” in Finding Judaism in the Torah).

To be sure, one would think that all of Abraham’s children are loyal to God and know how to behave properly.  Abraham would have taught them.  But, this might not have been so.  Jacob, and his wife Rachel, for example, do not appear to have as strong a commitment to God as did Abraham or Isaac (see “A General Theory…”).  Jacob’s sons violate a number of commandments related to interpersonal ethical behavior.  The history of the Israelites subsequent to Mount Sinai shows how difficult it is to live up to the covenant.

By picking only one line of Abraham’s progeny, God focuses on a small group to create a society compatible for Himself.  There could be a couple of reasons for this focus.  The group needs to suffer 400 years of slavery to understand that the “reward” approach does not achieve proper behavior but laws, commandments and the threat of punishment are required (see “A General Theory…”).  This experience would be impractical if all of Abraham’s descendants were involved.  Also, God may not want to be extensively involved with the world, extrapolating from the double penalty stipulation for requiring His involvement in a dispute found in Leviticus (see “What God Wants” ...).  The Israelites’ behavior shows how much attention is demanded of Him.  He presumably lets Abraham's other lines create a similar society by themselves over time (see “Why God Permits Chaos” ...).


P.S. My book Finding Judaism in the Torah is available on amazon.com.