God will honor the Covenant

The last post focused on Abimelech, king of the Philistines, who found himself in trouble with God for almost violating Abraham's marriage covenant to Sarah. He, or his successor, was in a similar circumstance regarding Isaac and his wife Rebekah as well.
In Genesis chapter 17:7-8, God tells Abraham,
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 
God warned Abimelech that if he did not restore Sarah to Abraham, "Know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine." (Genesis 20:7).
The punishment for violating God's covenant was death. Abimelech was the king of the Philistines, a people who resided in Gerar, which was slightly southwest of Gaza in Israel. After Jacob and his family went to Egypt during the famine, the Philistines expanded their territory and moved north to further occupy the land of Canaan which God had promised to Abraham's seed, specifically through Isaac and Jacob (Israel).
Exodus 23:27, 31:

I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
This is how God felt about those who were violating His covenant with Abraham. God gave this land to Abraham. He had warned the king of the Philistines that he and all that were his (the nation he ruled) would die for violating a man's marriage covenant. And now we see the same punishment exacted on those who were violating God's covenant with Abraham from Genesis 17.
God honored his covenant to Abraham, even though there were other nations in the way.
The covenant was between God and Abraham regarding the land. The land was a necessary part of the covenant, and although others had inhabited the land after the nation of Israel departed, God saw that the land still belonged to Israel, on account of his covenant. Those that were in the way of the covenant would be destroyed, so that the original covenant could be honored.
Next time: Deuteronomy 24, and the entrance of the divorce concept into the covenant of marriage.