I want to take a walk through the Bible chronologically to watch this doctrine develop. In this first part I will go up through Joshua.

The Lord said to the serpent in Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."

We see here that the Lord distinguishes between the seed of the woman, the redeemed, and the seed of the serpent, the reprobate. We see this first in the enmity between Cain and Abel, and ultimately between Christ and the devil.

Genesis 6:5 said, "Then the LORD God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

A reminder that the Bible clearly teaches human depravity. I'm not denying that in any of this.

Now, we fast forward to Abraham. In Genesis 15:1, "After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.'" God promises to be Abraham's shield and his reward.

Now for the big passage:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

And God said to Abraham: "As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

There is a ton here. It is undeniable that Abraham's children were included in this covenant. After all, that's pretty much the point of it. God would be God to Abraham and to his children. In fact, notice that the male child had to be circumcised on the eighth day. He said that the one "who is not circumcised... has broken My covenant." He does not say that the one who is not circumcised will not be included in the covenant. But had broken the covenant. In other words, every descendant was in the covenant automatically. Being circumcised did not put a child into the covenant, but not being circumcised did break that child out of the covenant. This inclusion of the children in the covenant is not only promised, but commanded by God. There is a presumption here on the part of the parents that the children are indeed included in the covenant. That child could grow up and break the covenant, but the parents are presuming that he will keep the covenant.

In verse 19, God said, "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him." Here God specifically promised that covenant to Isaac.

In verse 23, "So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him." God had commanded that Abraham circumcise all his children. God had also just told him that He would bless Ishmael, but the covenant was for Isaac. Still, God had commanded it, so Abraham circumcised all his children, including Ishmael.

In 21:12, God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called." The promise was for Isaac.

We can follow this history of election through Jacob, "And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright" (25:34). Isaac had circumcised both Jacob and Esau, presuming the promise for them. Esau, though, grew up to break the covenant.

When Isaac was in Beersheba, "the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, 'I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham's sake.'" (26:24) God continued the covenant through Isaac.

In the Dinah incident, the sons of Jacob deceitfully used circumcision as a means for revenge. "And they said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us. But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone." (34:14-17) For that time, the Shechemites may have outwardly appeared to be in the covenant, but they were not truly covenant people.

However, in Exodus 12:48, God instructs His people, "And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it." This did place them in the visible community of the covenant.

In 19:5, the Lord said, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine." The dreaded if. If a child did not keep the covenant, then by his rebellion he could be proven lost.

In Leviticus 12:3, the command is clearly restated, "And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." This was the outward sign of the covenant.

God made clear the curses of breaking the covenant. In 26:14-16, "But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it."

Here is something interesting in Deuteronomy 1:39, "Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it." God promised to fulfill this covenant with the little ones who had no knowledge of good and evil. This acknowledges that even before these children could discern good and evil, the promise was for them.

In 4:9b-10, Moses instructs, "And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.'" No matter if the children are ultimately elect or not, parents must follow God's command to teach their children His Word.

Then, of course, the golden text of homeschooling, 6:7, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Because the covenant is for the children, they must be instructed in it.

In 11:13, 14, the Lord said, "And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil." Here again, the potential is held out for keeping the covenant or breaking the covenant.

This is seen even more in verses 26-28, "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known."

One of my favorite verses, is 29:29, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." God has told us clearly in Scripture how to obey Him. We do not know the secret things. The Israelites did not know if a child would ultimately keep the covenant or break the covenant. But the Israelites did know that a (male) child must be circumcised the eighth day and that they must instruct their children in the Word of God. As a parent, you do not know God's ultimate plan for your child, but you do know what God has commanded for you to do with them.

In Joshua 5:3, we read that "Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins." Joshua knew that God commanded the sign of the covenant be placed on the children, so he did that.

In the second part, I hope to trace this through David and the prophets, and in the third part, the New Testament.