How was the Sinai covenant connected to God’s covenant with Abraham?

The Sinai covenant is fundamentally connected to the earlier covenant made with Abraham as a continuation and expansion of the relationship between God and the descendants of the patriarch.1

While the Abrahamic covenant first established a divine relationship with Abraham and his lineage, promising them land and the status of a numerous nation, the Sinai covenant built upon this foundation by formalizing the status of the Israelites as God’s "treasured possession". Under the leadership of Moses, this agreement became conditional: the Israelites were affirmed as God's people on the requirement that they accept and obey specific rules of conduct, including the Ten Commandments and the broader legal and ritual prescriptions found in the Book of the Covenant.21

In later tradition, the Sinai covenant became permanently identified with the obligation to follow the law of Moses, while the community itself was defined as the ethnic heirs of the original promise made to Abraham.3