COVENANTS OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB

Man's relationships with God are all about making and keeping sacred covenants.  God made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that all the world would be blessed through him.  His son, Isaac, renewed the covenant with the Lord as did Isaac's son, Jacob.  

Abraham, Issac , Jacob

Abraham had descendants through Isaac and Ishmael through Hagar and Sarah, as well as other descendants through his third wife, Katura.  His progeny through Esau, Jacob, as well as his other descendants, became the peoples of the lands we refer to as the Middle East.  The Arab nations are his descendants as are the Tribes of Israel.  Because our line came through Jacob/Israel, we know more about Israel than we do many of the others.

The Nephites and the Lamanites were among Israel's descendants, through Ephraim and Manasseh.  The Mulekites were also of Israel through Judah.  They joined with the Nephites under the rule of King Mosiah and were numbered among them, even though the Book of Mormon tells us that they were more numerous than were the original Nephites. (See Mosiah 25: 2, 3)  There were even more Lamanites.  All were children of the Covenant by birth descent.

Just because they were all children of the Covenant, not all kept or even remembered  the covenant.  The Mulekites, because they brought no records with them, had lost touch with their Jewish ancestry and the Covenant.  Only Nephi, who kept and treasured the records of their genealogy and covenants and it was they who taught the descendants of Mulek who God was and who they were in relationship to Him, i.e., the Covenant.  Of course, Laman and Lemuel rejected both God and the Covenant and were filled with hatred for their brethren who kept their promises to God.  They kept no records and, being taught to hate as their fathers hated, they asked, like Pharaoh of Egypt, "Who is God that I should worship Him?"

Muslims worldwide recognize both Christians and Jews as People of the Book, referring to their connection through birth or adoption to Abraham. Which begs the question: if we are all covenantally related, why is there such enmity in the world? For the same reasons that there was enmity between Isaac and Ishmael; Jacob and Esau; Joseph and his brothers; Laman and Lemuel. Family discord that leads to a perpetuation of the discord generationally is to blame.  Part of that discord has to do with those who keep and those who reject the original covenant. The illogical original premise of the argument is forgotten in an atmosphere of hatred and vengeance.

A few years ago, I was writing a biography of a friend from Afghanistan.  Because he was Muslim, I got a copy of an English translation of the Koran for background study.  The translator, an Islamic scholar from Tucson, addressed this very issue.  His conclusion was that we have all fallen so short of the Covenant because we don't really live it.  He said that if Moses returned today, the Jews would stone him; if Mohammed returned, the Muslims would behead him; and if Jesus returned, the Christians would crucify Him. I don't think he was too far off the mark.

I may not be able to bring peace to the world, or to moderate millennial-long animosity in the Middle East, but I can do my part by:

• Studying the Scriptures and learning all I can of those things God expects of His children.
• Praying constantly for the Spirit of testimony, understanding, and discernment.
• Doing my daily best to keep the Covenants I have made and daily repentance when I fall short.
• Loving and serving God by loving and serving His children, without anger, enmity, or judgment, recognizing in each the child of God he or she is.

I know that I'll have to work on it the rest of my life, beginning within my own family.

© May 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson