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That was then – This is now! (Part 2)
In Part 1, I shared with you five of the covenants that the Lord had previously made in the Old Testament. The definition of Covenant is an “Arrangement between two parties involving mutual obligations; especially the arrangement that established the relationship between God and his people. . .” [1]
Genesis 2:15-16 records the first of these covenants that God made with Adam. It is called the Edenic Covenant. God promises Adam that he will live and work in the Garden and would be allowed to eat of all of the trees in the Garden, except one. By beneficiary, Eve created after that would be allowed the same life of luxury. They had only one condition to follow; “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16–17) That’s all! Their contractual penalty was Death!
The Noahic Covenant basically re-established the Edenic covenant given to Adam with Noah and his descendants. Genesis 8:20 – 9:17. The conditions for keeping that covenant by man is found with those verses as well as the consequences. “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Genesis 9:4–6) They were then told “And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” (Genesis 9:7)
Many Nations descended from Noah. I’m sure that Noah shared the story of the great flood with not only his sons, but the generations that followed. You think mankind would have learned their lesson and be fearful of this awesome God. But we find that in Genesis chapter ten where man attempts to reach the Heavens building the Tower of Babel and through the rest of the Old Testament that they did not remain faithful to the one and only true God. We will see that once again God kept His promise, but they did not. So, then God makes yet another covenant, this time to His special people Israel.
The Abrahamic Covenant found in Genesis 12 is the only one that has not been broken. This is essentially a one-sided covenant made by God; that is His people do not keep their promise(s) as God already knows they would not. God promises the land to Abraham's descendants [1] God promises to increase Abraham's descendants, promises the birth of Isaac, and reiterates the promise of the land grant.[2]God always keeps His promise! Too bad His people do not!!!
[1] Parks, J. (2021). All the Covenants in the Bible (Ge 15:1–21). Faithlife. [2] Parks, J. (2021). All the Covenants in the Bible (Ge 17:1–21). Faithlife.
The Mosaic Covenant is found in Exodus 19-24. It is essentially the same as the Abrahamic Covenant. In the book of Exodus, the people of Israel build God a palace to live in. Leviticus structures the daily life of Israel around the categories of clean and unclean that they were to follow. Those Laws are found throughout the six hundred thirteen laws in the Torah (the Pentateuch). Yet, as usual the people rebel, complain, and break the Law of Moses given to him by God on Mount Sinai.
The Davidic Covenant is where God promises a descendant of David to reign on the throne over the people of God. It renews the former covenants promising Davidic king, through whom he would secure the promises of land, descendants, and blessing.
A few weeks ago, we studied about King David during our weekly Bible Study and his sin against Bathsheba and her husband, Uriah the Hittite. Nathan confronted David with his sin as God sent him to do. “David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:13–14) David does repent from this encounter, as he wrote “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” (Psalm 51:4)
Yet, as Pastor Ted covers the rest of 2 Samuel, we will find out that David learned a very bitter lesson, in fact many – there are consequences for sin! The rest of 2 Samuel proves this as Nathan had confronted him in 2 Samuel 12:1–15 (listen to it here!). We would do well to keep these consequences in mind as we strive to lead a Christian life and be aware of our sins.
In the first five books of the Bible, we find the establishment of the Law and the anticipation of the Abrahamic Covenant. Yet, from the book of Joshua on through Malachi we repeatedly find the many sins of both the Israelites and the Gentiles. They sin; God sends them punishment either directly or through their enemies. Then they call out to God for help, and they repent; He keeps a remnant and remembers His covenant with them. Yet they go back to their sinful ways again and again.
The New Testament is not much different, is it? In fact, although the cannon is now closed and nothing is to be added to the Scriptures, today’s society and the world continues in this very pattern. We often try to justify our sins in various ways. We try through assorted ways as we attempt to intellectualize, rationalize, and justify, or even through socialization (the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society). As Christians we cannot follow the rest of the world, nor can we tolerate the sinfulness within it.
The bottom line is that God is Omniscient (all-knowing), and we cannot hide our sins from Him. He is a Holy God that cannot and will not tolerate any sin, not even a little “white lie.” We hear this repeatedly from our pulpit here at Lighthouse Bible Church. So, why try to hide it? We must turn from our sins and repent! We must try to keep from sinning. We must stay in His Word through our constantly studying, our Logos, our Saviour and intermediator, Jesus Christ.
That was then – This is now - Really!
Sin Has Consequences!
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Hyperlinks in this document are links to other blogs and/or pages on our website.
[1] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Covenant. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 530). Baker Book House. [2] Parks, J. (2021). All the Covenants in the Bible (Ge 15:1–21). Faithlife. [3] Parks, J. (2021). All the Covenants in the Bible (Ge 17:1–21). Faithlife.