[aruanan]

And just what does the covenant God made with Abraham mean?

God always had a single plan for the whole world through Abraham, the father of faith, that culminated in the faithful servant Israel, in the person of the Messiah, Jesus, giving his life to ransom all who, throughout history, have put their faith in God, believed him, and had it credited to them as right standing with God. This is the gospel. There is no gospel without the covenant God made with Abraham. Period.

I think the choice of Matthias to replace Judas was just another example of worldly thought, "Well, dang, we gotta do something, right?" WRONG. What they did was along the same lines as imagining that it should have been Esau, the elder, rather than Jacob, the younger, receiving the blessing of Isaac, or Jacob, crossing his hands and blessing the younger over the older of Joseph's two sons. God had other plans. This was demonstrated throughout the scriptures again and again and again. And again with Paul, whom Jesus chose as his apostle to the Gentiles. It was Jesus who chose the apostles, one of whom was a betrayer, not Peter and the rest through some bureaucratic need to do something. It was Jesus who filled the gap Judas Iscariot's departure left.

[smvoice]

"It was Jesus who filled the gap Judas Iscariot's departure left."

Absolutely right. It was not a "mistake", or the 11 acting outside God's will, that made Matthias the 12th Disciple. They prayed for days about this, and put it in God's hands. "And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two THOU HAST CHOSEN." Acts 1:24.

But my question was, why 12? Why was there a NECESSITY for there to be 12 Disciples? The answer comes in the next chapter of Acts. Chapter 2 and also Chapter 3.

Which will also answer the first part of your post to me regarding Abraham.