An epic role in redemptive history. They cry out to God and God hears them, sending Moses to be his instrument of divine power to lead them out of Egypt towards the promised land.
When they reach the foot of Mt. Sinai God shows up in a big way like huge! Stipulation s : This was a conditional covenant of grace. Israel was to obey the terms embodied in all the laws given at Mt. Sinai summarized in the ten commandments. God promised to bring blessings if they followed his commands, but curses if they disobeyed see Deuteronomy 28 , most notably exile into foreign lands. And we get the feeling in Deuteronomy that the water is poisoned from the start.
Sign : Sabbath Exodus A sign that God sanctified and set apart Israel to be holy unto him. God establishes David as king over Israel and promises to make his name great. God will raise up a Davidic descendant who will build a house for the Lord and his throne and kingdom will last forever.
God then chooses David, the son of Jesse, from the tribe of Judah. This should pique your interest. But God has other plans. He will build an everlasting kingdom and throne for David, not the other way around. Stipulation s : David and his descendants must remain faithful to God, walk in covenantal faithfulness, and lead Israel in obedience to the covenantal laws. However, there are conditional and unconditional elements to the covenant. Hmmm…I wonder who that could be?!
He promises to make an everlasting covenant with his people in which he will write his law on their hearts, bring complete forgiveness of sin, put his Spirit in them to empower them to love and obey his commands, raise up a faithful Davidic king to rule over them, bring them back into the land to reunify them into one people of God, and cause them to be a light to the nations. Situation : The new covenant is explicitly introduced by the prophets in the context of total failure.
The curses of the covenant came upon them as they were exiled to Babylon. But there, the prophets give us hope—God would one day bring about a new covenant.
The anticipation of this covenant pushes the story forward into the pages of the New Testament where we are introduced to Jesus, the one who will fulfill all the prophetic promises and bring about blessing for all peoples.
Stipulation s : There are no stipulations to this unconditional covenant of grace. God both gives the promises and brings them about through the work of his faithful Son Jesus. Sign : This could be a big discussion! While Pentecost activates new covenant themes from Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31, so the death and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit can be seen as signs of the new covenant.
Do you see now how the covenants progressively build upon one another forming a backbone of sorts to the redemptive storyline? God preserved the world through Noah, initiated redemption through Abraham, formed a special people through Israel, promised a shepherd-king through David, and then fulfilled all of his covenantal promises through Jesus. The New Testament presents Jesus as the offspring of Abraham who trusted his Father, even to the point of death, and so became a blessing to all nations.
He is the obedient Israelite who perfectly kept, fulfilled, and thus transcended the law of God. Think about it—Jesus perfectly succeeded at every point humans failed. This makes him the guarantor and mediator of the new and better covenant see Hebrews and In this new covenant we get total forgiveness of sins and cleansing from shame.
We can actually do justice and righteousness, and so be a light to all the nations. We can walk in freedom and light, rather than sin and darkness. We have bold access to God and stand in the realm of grace. We trust that a renewed world is coming where peace and righteousness will reign forever under the rule of King Jesus. She holds her M.
And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him … When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. In this passage, Abram killed the animals, cuts them into pieces, and lays them out. If this covenant was between two, they both would have walked between the pieces, sealing the covenant.
Most covenants asked both parties to do something and not to do something. If someone failed, there would have been a price, sometimes death.
Crucially, God puts Abraham to sleep, taking on the full responsibility for fulfilling His part of the covenant, without requiring Abraham to uphold his word at the same level. God would sometimes institute signs to seal a covenant. In Hebrew culture, circumcision is also an important part of the covenant between the people of Israel and God. It began with Abram, when He was given the name of Abraham, and God promised to make Him a great nation and kings. This promise was made when Abraham was Unlike the previous covenant with Abraham, there was an expectation for people to uphold their part of this arrangement.
Over the course of history recorded in the Bible, there are several prominent covenants between man and God. Depending on which school of theology consulted, an expert may say there are six or seven. Each covenant defined the relationship between God and man, usually instituted with an individual that had long-lasting implications. The Edenic Covenant : Found in Genesis , God commanded humanity to be fruitful and multiply, and they would have dominion over the earth.
The Noahic Covenant : After the flood, God promised He would never destroy the earth with a flood, and left the rainbow as a sign of that promise as recorded in Genesis God promised to make Abraham a great nation, all the land from Egypt to the Euphrates, and that Abraham would become the father of many nations; all his male descendants were to be circumcised to seal this covenant.
A sacrifice of the blood of an ox on the altar sealed this covenant. The Priestly Covenant : When looking among the Levites for a High Priest, God ordained and made a covenant with Aaron and his descendants that they would be His priests, able to go before the altar at the appointed times as recorded in Numbers Christians believe Jesus fulfills this covenant as a descendant of David who will establish an eternal kingdom.
Jesus told His followers to eat bread symbolizing His flesh and drink from a cup symbolizing his blood which paid the price for the sins of humanity. Believers today live under the covenant of the New Testament, and Jesus Christ will return to rule from Jerusalem and fulfill the Davidic covenant.
People are still fulfilling the Edenic covenant. Still, it can seem that other than big, abstract ones, there are no covenants today. However, most churches consider marriage a form of covenant. The vows between the couple are made before God, and He holds the two accountable to one another. They agree to do certain things like obey and be faithful, and not to leave one another or commit adultery.
In other words, there was covenant blessing and covenant cursing. They ate from the forbidden tree and experienced the covenant curse. The rule originally given to Adam and Eve would be restored through the offspring of the woman.
As history unfolds, the horrific consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve became evident. Evil and corruption permeated the world. By the time of Noah there were only eight righteous people left in the world, and the promise of redemption through the offspring of the woman seemed like a distant memory. The entire world, except for Noah and his offspring were wiped out in the flood. Noah was in some ways a new Adam on a new earth, and thus the creation covenant with Adam was rejuvenated.
Still, salvation would not come through Noah because like Adam he sinned in the garden, and the fundamental evil in the heart of human beings persisted. After Noah the world again slid into sin, with the tower of Babel as the signature of sin. In this dire situation God called one man, Abraham, and made a covenant with him.
The Lord promised Abraham land Canaan , offspring Isaac , and a blessing that would extend to the ends of the earth. Abraham was like a new Adam and Canaan was to be a new Eden where God dwelt with his people.
As the children of Abraham trust in the Lord and obey him the promises would be fulfilled. At the same time, the Lord promised in a dramatic covenant-ceremony that the promise would certainly be fulfilled Genesis God pledged that he would keep his promise but he would do it through the obedient offspring of Abraham.
They lived in Canaan, which was to be like a new Eden, a place where God ruled and dwelt in the midst of a holy people. Indeed, they would even be ejected from the land and go into exile. The promise of victory over the serpent and his offspring will come through a child of Abraham Gen.
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