Michael King notes that since the fall of Adam, the prophets and patriarchs have been promised that they and their future posterity would one day return to the presence of God. Abraham, a man who "sought for the blessings of the fathers" (Abraham 1:2), received a renewal of this promise, which became known as the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 17:7-9).
The Lord's promises to Abraham can be loosely summarized into three main ideas, captured in the letters LDS, representing land, deliverance (through Christ and God's priesthood), and seed (Genesis 17:5-9; Abraham 2:6-11) The promise was that Abraham would have countless seed, a place to raise that seed, and power through a deliverer to lift his seed from the corruption of a telestial world. Neither Abraham, though faithful and righteous, nor successive prophets saw the fulfillment of the covenant during their lifetimes. Speaking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the apostle Paul wrote, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13; see also 11:10-16). [Michael L. King, "Isaiah's Vision of God's Plan to Fulfill His Covenant," in Covenants Prophecies and Hymns of the Old Testament, p. 164] [See the commentary on 1 Nephi 15:18, 22:9; Helaman 8:18; 3 Nephi 20:25; Mormon 5:20; Ether 13:11]