A Divine Covenant – Part One

In light of Barack Obama’s speech yesterday, I did my very first video blog titled “Middle East Madness. You can view it below:

As I was meditating on the subject after taping the video, I was taken back to the Abrahamic Covenant, a divine covenant God made with Abram when God first commanded Abram, later renamed Abraham, to leave Ur of the Chaldeans for the Promised Land. There are two types of covenants God makes, conditional and unconditional. This one is the latter:

    “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” (Genesis 12:1-3)

In a conditional covenant, God says, “If you will…then I will.” In an unconditional covenant as the Abrahamic, God says, “I will…” God blesses Abram with this promise and Scripture records God’s faithfulness to this covenant. God renews His covenant with Abram by renaming him Abraham, which means “father of many nations”:

    “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.’ Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: ‘As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.’” (Genesis 17:1-8)

When God called on Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity, He once again renewed His covenant by His great name Jehovah:

    “And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel: “I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.’”” (Exodus 6:2-8)

When God punished Israel for her harlotry and idolatry with Moab, Jehovah spoke a new covenant to Moses that reinforced His divine Abrahamic Covenant:

    “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’” (Numbers 25:11-13)

In the Book of Judges we see the pre-incarnate Christ appear to the disobedient Israelites to remind them of Jehovah’s covenant:

    “Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: ‘I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, “I will never break My covenant with you. And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.” But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, “I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”’ So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.” (Judges 2:1-4)

Continuing His covenant with Israel, God makes a new divine covenant with David, known as the Davidic Covenant:

    “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” (2 Samuel 7:12-16)

After the death of King Solomon and during the divided kingdoms, Jehovah God remembers His covenant with David and spares Judah from total destruction:

    “Yet the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.” (2 Chronicles 21:7)

So far we’ve seen how God’s unconditional divine covenants are never forgotten by the Almighty in Heaven. Monday we will finish our journey through the Old Testament looking at how the Davidic Covenant is remembered and see it fulfilled in the New Testament through the Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray you have a blessed weekend and please remember to go to church on Sunday.

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2011 David Jeffers

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