Covenants (Part1)
Today we are going to be looking at covenants something that is so important in the bible. Without understanding the covenants we will never fully understand the word of God, all that God is showing us and appreciate all He has done for us. But we need to know which covenants apply to us today , because it helps us with so many questions including tithing, the keeping of the Sabbath and many more.
When we look at the Bible we see that there are two sections, the Old Testament or the Old Covenant and the New Testament or the New Covenant. In a sense those titles can be a bit misleading in that many of the covenants made in the Old Testament are still in the New Testament and still apply. There is also one covenant that is mentioned in the Old Testament but does not happen until the New Testament
Jeremiah 31:31-32
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
But what is a covenant. A covenant is a bond that binds two parties together. Similar to a contract but is an agreement that is much deeper, more personal, more relational and more binding than any contract. But it’s not a contract in the sense that if you do something the other party will do something in return, its not a quid pro quo scenario- that’s where its different. We will be discussing 5 covenants that God made with man and they are not contracts because you cannot bargain with God! You cant make a promise to God along the lines that if God does something for you (maybe healing, wealth whatever..) then you will do something in return- God does not need anything from you. I’ve done this myself when I was looking for a job and promised all sorts of things for getting a job- it’s not biblical – God does not need anything I have to offer! So simply these covenants are a one side bond, whereas contracts are two sided. God does not do contracts.
Today we will be looking at 5 major covenants that God has made with us.
In the Old Testament the most solemn, sacred and binding covenants made by people were the blood covenants. In these covenants there was a spilling of blood to signify the gravity of this binding agreement. When we look at the 5 major Covenants that God has made with man, we will see 3 of them are clearly blood covenants and the other two have the spilling of blood through animal sacrifice at some point prior to the covenant being made. By the way we also have a blood covenant in our lives- whether we know it or not-when we get married we enter into a blood covenant relationship- between husband and wife. The blood covenant is consummated when the hymen is broken and that’s one of the reasons why extra-marital and pre-marital sex is a sin.
Let’s just have a quick look at the steps involved in a traditional blood covenant
There is an exchange of garments and weapons – we see this in 1 Sam 18 with David and Jonathan. By doing this we are saying I trust you, I believe in you and I give myself to you and you will fight for me and I for you. From a New Testament point of view we can say we exchange our filthy rags for His robes of righteousness, we receive the sword of the Spirit.
There may be an exchange of names- Abram becomes Abraham, Sari became Sarah. From a New Testament point of view we do things in the name of Jesus. Likewise marriage is a covenant so we exchange names.
There is a cutting and shedding of blood. An animal was sacrificed. Death would be the price to pay if the covenant was broken. We know the wages of sin is death and so the shedding of blood of innocent animals in the Old Covenant through sacrifice was initiated by God until this was replaced by the shedding of Jesus blood on the cross.
Then the covenant terms are given.
Then we leave a memorial to the covenant, this may be a sign, a monument or even a meal. The memorial that Jesus established in the New Covenant was of course the Cross and the memorial meal was the Last Supper
Let’s now look at the 5 major covenants that God made with man, they were all everlasting covenants except for one
The first covenant we are going to look at that God made with man is the Noahic Covenant. This was made with Noah and his seed, ie all of mankind.
Genesis 8:20-22
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”……….
Genesis 9:6-17 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
Do we sometimes look at a rainbow and remember this covenant- I often do. Do you also notice there is no penalty if we don’t follow this covenant?
This covenant is of course vitally important to us because its everlasting, it promises that God will keep the world going, keeping the seasons going. This is critical because without the seasons in their time we would have no food. So next time we go to the supermarkets and we buy our vegetables, fruit, meat whatever we can be grateful to the Noahaic Covenant! In fact at meal times we say grace, thanking God for His provision of food that goes all the way back to this covenant. Do we really appreciate that the food we have every day, and all the provisions we have come from God who has made a covenant with us to provide for us?
But God goes further He makes it clear that life-all life is sacred. In fact God makes it clear that there is an accounting for taking someone’s life. I would argue that capital punishment for murder (where there are no mitigating circumstances), is a biblically sound principle based on the Noahic Covenant which is everlasting (Gen 9:6). This is because life is sacred. And because we have lost the sanctity of life we have done away with the death penalty. Now we are legalising euthanasia and abortions with no medical basis at all. We are breaking this covenant- a covenant of the sanctity of life.
The Abrahamic Covenant- made with Abraham (a blood covenant), with the sign given of circumcision(Gen 17:11). It is also an everlasting covenant. Keep in mind when God asked Abram to leave his land where he lived in some comfort he was about 75 years old! And then he had to go live in a tent for the rest of his life in a foreign country! An obedient incredible man. Would we do that?
Genesis 12:2-3
2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 15:7-20
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
This covenant applies even now. The boundaries of Israel should have no dispute- it’s been made clear. The politicians don’t accept this covenant! This covenant also chooses the Jewish people as the people of God through which the whole world will be blessed. The Jews are Gods chosen people through which we are blessed. And it is though this chosen channel that Jesus would bless the whole world. Woe to any nation that would go against the nation of Israel. This applies to us as much today as it did then. The land given to them has been made clear by God- we should remember this. In 1948 the UK were instrumental in the problems associated with the formation Israel’s borders, look how fast the British Empire has retreated since then. Taking a stance against the Jewish nation is a recipe for trouble- we in Australia should take note. We also see God’s response to those that curse Israel- “whoever curses you I will curse”, and the Islamic nations do this very thing.
The third covenant is the Mosaic Covenant- made with Moses and Israel. This covenant which was made on Mt Sinai, is very different in that it was a temporary covenant of law, to teach righteousness and reveal sin until Jesus came and was crucified. It is no longer in force
Exodus 19:2-6 At Mount Sinai
2 After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.3 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
Exodus 24:3-8
3 When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” 4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
We read in Deuteronomy Moses telling the people
Deuteronomy 11:26-28 26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
And so this covenant introduces over 600 different laws that the Jews had to keep and the many blessings that would arise if they kept these laws. But the condition was that Israel had to keep God’s laws, they had to live God’s way and live in a righteous manner. The laws covered every aspect of life, and if the law was not kept there would be severe consequence, there would be curses. And we know that’s exactly what happened to the Jews. In fact within days 3000 were killed for breaking the laws. We can be grateful that we don’t have to follow all these laws. The sign for this covenant was interestingly the Sabbath.
Exodus 31:12-14The Sabbath
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, 13 “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.14 “‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.
That law about the Sabbath, was a temporary law just as this Covenant was temporary. It is no longer a sign of the Mosaic Covenant.
The Mosaic Covenant also was one of the reasons Israel went into exile for 70 years. One of the laws (Lev 25) was that the Jews had to work the land for 6 years then give the land a Sabbath year of rest in the 7th year. This they did not do for nearly 500 years (70 sabbath years) and so went into exile for the 70 years.
This covenant is replaced by the Messianic covenant which is eternal and not temporary, which is not based on law written on stone tablets, but on our hearts. This Messianic covenant is also not a national covenant as is the Mosaic one, but a universal one that applies to all.
The Davidic Covenant. This again is an everlasting covenant, where God promises to make David’s name great and raise a descendant from David’s line whose kingdom will last forever. This covenant became the basis for the hope of the Messiah
2 Samuel 7:8-16
8 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. 10 And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning …… 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”
This is confirmed in the Psalms. Psalm 89:3-4
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant,4 ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’”
In Acts we read about this Davidic Covenant and despite David and his sons’ failures, God keeps his promise to provide a faithful descendant of David to reign forever
Acts 2:29-33
29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
The final covenant we find in the New Testament and it is the Messianic Covenant. But we will do this next time.
So just to close off. Knowing these 5 covenants is foundational to our belief, because not only is it important to know the 4 covenants that are eternal and hence we still fall under them, but it’s just as important to know which covenant was temporary and who it applied to.
Galatians 3:23-25
23 Before the coming of this faith we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. And this is where we pick up the Messianic Covenant next time.
Acknowledgements to David Pawson, Richard Booker, Stephen Armstrong and others for much insight to this message