Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God: The Abrahamic Covenant?

Matthew 6:33  "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

While reading the verse above, it struck me! That is the Abramamic Covenant; the deal God made with Abraham many centuries before Jesus said this. Let's take a close look at what this verse means:

Seek - You have an obligation to DO something. It takes work to seek and by "seeking the kingdom of God" it's living Christlike by being righteous just as Jesus is righteous!

These Things - The second part of this passage is a promise "these things will be added unto you". What are those things? Clothing (verse 27), food, drink and clothing (verse 31) and your needs .(verse 32) which is food, clothing and drink  Ancient peoples would consider having all their needs met as being prosperous! (We're much more egocentric than they were because we've been spoiled because most westerners now consider "prosperity" as having most of our desires met!)

Therefore, Matthew 6:33 says (parphrased) "Be righteous and you shall prosper!" Is it obvious yet? Let's look now at the Abrahamic Covenant (AC). The actual covenants is as follows:

Genesis 12:1 "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 shew thee: 2 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: 3 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."

Most theologians would say that the  AC is "unconditional" in that God offered grace without stipulation. I believe that those theologians are influenced by Augustinian and Calvinistic viewpoints called "unconditional election", that the individual plays no part in his or her election. Of course "seek ye first the kingdom of God" disputes that theology in the New Testament, so it is bad theology, since "seeking" is in fact "doing"!

Within the text of the AC are also things Abraham must DO: 1) Get out of where you are and 2) go where I show you! (i.e., seek my kingdom which we find out later was Canaanland symbolic of the kingdom of God.

After DOING these things God's part of the AC was "I will bless thee"! With God's "blessings' comes prosperity (needs being met), but even more importantly, the spiritual needs. Through the AC the seed of Abraham was blessed by the Savior who was to redeem us. That's the ultimate blessing and eternal prosperity!

In addition to the AC scripture, the following later adds more information to the covenant:

Genesis 17:9 "And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

Part of the AC is circumcision.  To seal the agreement Abraham and his line were to DO something! As a show of testimony and faith, they were to be circumcised!  What and why? Males were to have the foreskin of their genitals removed so as to "cut off the flesh", a small demonstration that they were sincere in their commitment to God. "Cutting off the flesh" is symbolic of the believer's baptism where the entire "creature" or "the entire flesh" is cut off by washing it clean.

The Abrahamic Covenant, then is (paraphrased): "Do these things and I will bless you!" which is much the same as Matthew 6:33 which is (paraphrased) "Be righteous and you shall prosper!"

You see, God had a plan for mankind. Nothing changed between the Old Testament and the New. God, being consistent throughout scripture, didn't have different rules for different times. Salvation was always by grace through faith and men always had to SEEK God's righteousness to enter the kingdom of God! There was never a Plan A and Plan B! God didn't need two plans in case the primary plan failed. His plan was always "grace through faith". God merely described it in different ways!