The Promise of a Savior!
God chose to reveal His plan of salvation through His Covenantal promises. Covenants and contracts are not the same. . In a covenant you exchange your very being, “I am yours and you are mine.” In a contract, you exchange something you have – a skill, a piece of property, money.
The difference between covenant and contract in the Old Testament and throughout the Bible is profound. it’s the difference between prostitution (contract) and marriage (covenant). Or between owning a slave (contract) and having a son (covenant.) .
Biblical Covenants
1. Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:26–2:3)
2. Noah and his family (Genesis 9:8-17)
3. Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:1-14; 22:16-18)
4. Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 19:5-6; 3:4-10; 6:7)
5. David and the Kingdom of Israel (2 Samuel 7:8-19)
6. Jesus and the Church (Matthew 26:28; 16:17-19)
Each covenant in the Bible contain
* Mediator (the person God makes the covenant with) and his covenant role (whom the mediator represents);
* the blessings promises in the covenant;
* the conditions of the covenant;
* the “sign” by which the covenant will be celebrated and remembered.
* the “form” that God’s family becomes as a result of the covenant.
The Covenant with Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:26–2:3)
Adam is the covenant mediator in his role as husband. God promises blessings – that their union will be fruitful and their offspring will fill the earth and rule over it. God establishes a sign by which the covenant will be remembered and celebrated – the Sabbath, the seventh day of rest. God imposes one condition that they must keep to fulfill their obligation under the covenant – that they not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And God attaches a curse for disobedience – that they will surely die. By this covenant, God’s family assumes the form of the marriage bond between husband and wife.
The Covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:8-17)
God promises never again to destroy the world by flood. The covenant is made with all humanity, through the mediator, Noah, in his role as the father of his family.
The covenant includes blessings to Noah and his family (that they will be fruitful and fill the earth) and conditions that must be obeyed (not to drink the blood of any animals, not to shed human blood). The sign of the covenant is the rainbow in the sky. By this covenant, God’s people assumes the form of a domestic household, an extended family.
The Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:1-14; 22:16-18)
God promises to give Abraham a great land and to bless his descendants. God makes the covenant with the mediator Abraham in his representative role as chieftain. God promises the blessings of land and a great nationhood for his descendants, and through them to bless all the nations of the earth.
The sign of the covenant is the mark of circumcision. an outward physical sign of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people. For the Israelites. circumcision was a religious rite representing God’s blessings and Israel obedience to God. Circumcision and what it represents is also the condition that Abraham and his descendants must obey in order to keep the covenant. By this covenant, God’s family takes a “tribal” form.
REFLECTION
God’s covenant with Abraham is a promise of a great nation as long as they keep the sign of the covenant. Of course, we know from history the many times Israel lost their great nation by straying from God’s will, the Syrians, the Persions, the Romans…
How is our nation doing today? What is my part in bringing our nation back to God?
The Covenant with Moses (Exodus 19:5-6; 3:4-10; 6:7)
By this covenant, made with the mediator Moses in his representative role as the judge and liberator of Israel, God swears to be Israel’s God and Israel swears to worship no other but the Lord God alone. The blessings promised are that they will be God’s precious chosen people.
The conditions of the covenant are that they must keep God’s Law and commandments. The covenant sign is the Passover, which each year commemorates Israel’s birth as a nation. God’s family assumes the form of a “holy nation, a kingdom of priests.”
REFLECTION
Israel swears to worship no other God but the Lord God alone!
How about us? How many false gods out there tempt us, riches?, fame,? pleasure? …
When we fall to temptation what do we do? do we deny it, make excuses, or reconcile with God?
The Covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:8-19)
God promises to establish the mediator David’s “house” or kingdom forever. through David’s heir, To David in his role as king, God promises to make David’s son His son, to punish David if he does wrong but never take away his royal throne. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever.” Through the blessings of this kingdom, God promises to give wisdom to all the nations. The sign of the covenant will be the throne and Temple to be built by David’s son, Solomon. By this covenant, God’s family grows to take the form of a royal empire, a national kingdom.
I AM THE WAY,THE TRUTH, THE LIFE
The sixth and final covenant is made through the mediator Jesus, who by His Cross and Resurrection assumes the role of royal high priest and fulfills all the promises God made in the previous covenants.
The Bible isn’t simply a collection of separate poems and histories and prophecies written over the course of centuries. It’s one book that tells a single story. The Bible is the story of God’s love for His people. It’s the story of how God slowly and patiently unfolded his plan for the world, how He taught His people the reason they were created – to share His life with Him, to be part of His family, to be His children. He wants us to share in His very Being in the most Blessed Trinity.
though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness;*
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.*
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name*
that is above every other name,
Phillipians 2:6-11