Covenant
Read this if you want to understand why we should want to be in a covenant relationship with God
1. Jesus told His disciples at the Last Supper
Luke 22:20 ~ This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
In everyday life - we seldom hear people talking about ‘covenant’.
Unless we’re a lawyer - we may not know what a covenant is.
2. So what is a covenant?
Ezekiel 20:37 ~ And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.
A covenant is a bond - which binds:
Us to God.
God to us.
It’s like a strong bike lock: the lock secures our bike to a: bike rack / fence / lamp post - to keep it safe.
In the same way - God’s covenant secures us to:
Him.
His promises.
Further reading
Isaiah 56:6-7
Matthew 11:28-30
Galatians 3:15
3. It's God who makes the covenant of salvation with us
As King David explained:
2 Samuel 23:5 ~ … yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure (= completely organised & secure).
Illustration
We can’t invite ourselves to a wedding - instead:
The engaged couple invite us.
We then decide whether or not to accept their invitation.
In the same way:
God invites us - to join Him in a covenant relationship:
It’s awesome that the Creator of the Universe - Almighty God - wants to bind Himself to you & to me!
But it also means that God lays down the terms & conditions of the covenant - they're not up to us.
Like the engaged couple decide on the wedding location & date - they're not decided by the invited guests.
We then decide - whether or not to accept God's invitation.
Further reading
Genesis 6:18, 9:9 & 11-12
Numbers 25:10-13
2 Chronicles 5:10
Psalms 25:14, 89:3-4, 111:5, 9 & 9
Isaiah 55:3
Luke 1:72-73
4. During His time on Earth, Jesus lived in the Middle East - so it helps if we understand the Middle Eastern tradition of covenant
People would not break a covenant - because they understood that a covenant is:
A. Binding
B. Everlasting
Further reading
Numbers 30:2
Joshua 9:15 & 19-20 (Joshua & the Gibeonites)
PROCESS of making the Middle Eastern covenant
The two people making a covenant would take a pinch of salt from their own pouch and place it in the other person's pouch.
The covenant could not be broken, unless an individual could retrieve their own grains of salt.
= Impossible to break the covenant!
The two people would often exchange cloaks = ‘All authority that I have, is available to you.’
The two people would often exchange weapon belts = ‘Everything that I fight with, is available to you.’
LEGAL OBLIGATIONS of being in a covenant relationship:
‘When you need me - I’ll be there.’
‘When I need you - you’ll be there.’
--> Think what this means for our covenant relationship with God!
The covenant would include BLESSINGS & CURSES:
‘If you do this for me --> good things will happen to you.’
‘But if you don’t do this for me --> bad things will happen to you.’
BROKE BREAD & DRANK WINE (from a common cup):
This is my body - I will give my body to be crushed, to lay it down for you.
This is my blood - it will be poured out for you.
There’s nothing I hold back from you - I pour out my life for you.
A covenant was CUT:
This usually meant cutting an animal into two halves, with the blood flowing into the passageway between: 'If I break this covenant, you can cut me like this animal.'
The Hebrew word for covenant 'briyth' comes from the word ‘to cut’.
God’s covenant with the descendants of Abraham involves cutting the flesh of male babies (circumcision).
A covenant was also SEALED WITH BLOOD:
The people would cut themselves and mix their blood together.
Just like the salt - it was then impossible to separate the mixed blood.
5. God also seals His covenants with blood
Exodus 24:8 ~ And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
Q - Why are there so many mentions of blood in the first five books of the Old Testament (= the Old Covenant)?
A - They’re pictures / foreshadows: looking ahead to the blood of Jesus in the New Testament (= the New Covenant).
Further reading
Psalm 50:5
6. A covenant gives us confidence in God's promises
Genesis 15:7-8
7And He (= God) said unto him (= Abram), I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
8And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
Abram wanted to be sure that God would give Him the Promised Land.
So God made a COVENANT with Abram - to give him CONFIDENCE:
Genesis 15:18 ~ In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
(The ‘River of Egypt’ probably isn’t the River Nile - but a stream which flows into the Mediterranean Sea, about 50 miles south-west of Gaza.)
Further reading
Nehemiah 9:32
Psalm 89:34
Hebrews 6:13-20
7. What are the other obligations and benefits of being in a covenant relationship with God?
A covenant is much more than a handshake agreement:
A. The covenant made by God with His people, imposed upon the Israelites an obligation to worship Him exclusively, and to obey His commandments.
B. The obligations of God were then to protect and defend His people - for example in Egypt:
Exodus 2:23-25
23And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
24And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them (= God was concerned about their well-being).
God watches out for people in a covenant relationship with Him.
He protects & defends them.
God went on to save the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus 12:51-14:31).
So being in covenant relationship with God is like having a bodyguard or guard dog - but much better!
Mordecai (in the book of Esther) understood this:
Haman planned to kill all the Jews.
But Mordecai knew this would never happen - because of God’s covenant with Abraham.
Which is why Mordecai could confidently tell Esther:
Esther 4:14 ~ For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance (= rescue) arise to the Jews from another place.
So being in covenant relationship with God gives us confidence:
That God looks after us.
About our future destiny.
Jeremiah 32:40-41
40And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.
41Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul.
When God makes a covenant with us - it’s to do us good.
‘Covenant’ isn’t just an empty religious concept - it’s something to be glad about!
Further reading
2 Kings 13:23
Psalm 106:45
8. Old Covenant
Deuteronomy 29:9 ~ Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
If people kept the Old Covenant --> God blessed them.
But the blessing depended on what people did.
Further reading
Deuteronomy 7:12
1 Kings 8:22-23
Nehemiah 1:5
Psalm 132:11-12
Daniel 9:4
Q - Do we always do what God tells us?
A - Probably not! (Even though we should.)
Let’s see what happened to the people in the Old Covenant who DISOBEYED God:
Leviticus 26:15-17
15And if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant:
16I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption (= wasting disease), and the burning ague (= fever), that shall consume the eyes,
and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17And I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
--> God punished people who broke the Old Covenant - even King Solomon:
1 Kings 11:11 ~ Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded thee,
I will surely rend (= cut out) the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.
Further reading
Deuteronomy 31:16-17
Joshua 23:16
Judges 2:20-21
Jeremiah 22:8-9, 34:18-22
Q - So do we want to be in the Old Covenant?
A - Probably not!
9. New Covenant
Hebrews 7:22 ~ By so much was Jesus made a surety (= guarantee) of a better testament (= a better covenant).
A. Jesus GUARANTEES the New Covenant
He’s like the guarantee with our washing machine etc. / the guarantor on a bank note (but He’s much more valuable than these!).
We can trust the New Covenant - because it’s guaranteed by the blood of Jesus.
That’s why it’s important that we frequently take Communion / Eucharist / the Lord’s Supper - to remind ourselves that we’re now in the New Covenant with God.
Further reading
Luke 4:16-21 then Isaiah 42:6-7
Hebrews 12:24
B. The New Covenant is BETTER than the Old Covenant
We only buy a new: phone / car / laptop etc. if it’s better than the one it replaces.
It’s the same with the two covenants:
Hebrews 8:6-7
6But now hath He (= Jesus) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator (= agent / go between) of a better covenant,
which was established upon better promises.
7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
10. How is the New Covenant better than the Old Covenant?
Hebrews 8:8-9
8For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not (= I turned away from them), saith the Lord.
The Israelites couldn’t keep the Old Covenant / they disobeyed some of the commandments, because it demanded absolute obedience & perfection - so the Old Covenant didn’t work for them.
It’s like having a phone which doesn’t work - it needs to be replaced with a better phone: which does work.
So God replaced the Old Covenant with a BETTER covenant which DID work:
Hebrews 8:10 ~ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord;
I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.
Instead of giving us a list of commands to keep (= the Old Covenant), God puts His ways of thinking into our hearts & minds (= the New Covenant).
It’s like installing a new computer program from God into our brain - which then prompts us to live how He wants us to live.
Hebrews 8:13 ~ In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old (= has grown old) is ready to vanish away.
If we have a new phone - we get rid of the old one.
Who wants to live in the Old Covenant when the New Covenant is so much better?
Further reading
Jeremiah 31:30-33
11. The Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle is a visual aid / foreshadow of Jesus - in three ways
#1 The Word of God
Deuteronomy 10:4-5
4And He (= God) wrote on the tables (= tablets) … the ten commandments … and the LORD gave them unto me (= to Moses).
5And I … put the tables in the ark which I had made ...
--> The Ark of the Covenant was the location of the Word of God.
Further reading
Deuteronomy 31:26
John 1:1 ~ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 ~ And the Word (= Jesus) was made flesh, and dwelt among us ...
--> Jesus IS the Word of God.
#2 Consists of two parts joined together
Exodus 25:10-11
10And they shall make an ark of shittim (= acacia) wood: ...
11And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.
The Ark of the Covenant was made of both:
Wood = Has a finite lifespan = A picture of Jesus as a man - human bodies have a finite lifespan.
Gold = Permanent = A picture of Jesus as God - who lives forever.
Just like Jesus on earth was both fully man and fully God.
Further reading
‘God’ message on WholeCounselofGod.com
#3 Where we meet God
Exodus 25:21-22
21And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony (= the ten commandments) that I shall give thee.
22And there I will meet with thee …
--> The Ark of the Covenant was the location in the Tabernacle where man met God.
John 1:14 ~ And the Word (= Jesus) was made flesh, and dwelt among us ...
--> Jesus came to earth so that we can meet God.
So God gave us the Ark of the Covenant as a visual aid or foreshadow of Jesus / the New Covenant.
Further reading
Numbers 7:89
12. Finally - let's look again at the benefits of being in a covenant relationship
A. Jonathan & David made a covenant (= they were bound together)
1 Samuel 20:16 ~ So Jonathan (= Saul’s son) made a covenant with the house of David …
B. David swore to Saul that he would not destroy Saul’s descendants
1 Samuel 24:21-22
21Swear now therefore unto me (= unto Saul) by the LORD, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.
22And David sware unto Saul ...
C. Jonathan was later killed in battle
1 Samuel 31:1-2
1Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.
2And the Philistines followed hard upon (= overtook) Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
D. Five years earlier - Jonathan had had a son
2 Samuel 4:4 ~ And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet.
He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled:
and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
---> ‘Bosheth’ in Hebrew = shame / worthless.
E. But David HONOURED HIS COVENANT with Jonathan (Mephibosheth’s father)
2 Samuel 9:1 & 3-4
1And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake?
…
3 … And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.
4And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar.
Lodebar in Hebrew = ‘No pasture’.
In a farming society: No pasture = Useless wasteland.
So Mephibosheth thought he was:
Worthless (Mephibosheth).
Living in a useless wasteland (Lodebar).
We may also feel like that!
F. Let’s see what happened next
2 Samuel 9:5-8 & 11
5Then king David sent, and fetched him (= fetched Mephibosheth) out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lodebar.
6Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence (= paid honour to David).
7And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!
And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father;
and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.
8And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
...
11 …As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons.
King David sent His servants to fetch Mephibosheth, so he could eat at the king’s table.
Even though Mephibosheth felt like ‘a dead dog’.
G. Jesus does the same - He brings us to Heaven to eat at His table
Revelation 19:9 ~ ... Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Matthew 22:2 & 10
2The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.
...
10So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Further reading
Genesis 6:2
Q - What had Mephibosheth done to deserve his place at the king’s table?
A - Nothing!
But because of David’s covenant - he welcomed Mephibosheth.
Q - Have we lived a good enough life to deserve our place in Heaven?
A - No! (Nor has anyone else.)
But because of the New Covenant - guaranteed by the blood of Jesus - God will welcome us into Heaven.
Hallelujah!
Further reading
Messages on WholeCounselofGod.com:
The Cross
Grace