God's 5 Covenants

 

I’d like to summarize a wonderful set of sermons by David Pawson on the subject of “God’s Covenants.” I have to split it up into two weeks. These are God’s promises to us.

First, he distinguishes between covenant and contract. The contract is, when two parties each have something the other party wants, they strike up an agreement, usually on price, and complete the transaction.  In the case of the contractor to build a house, he has the skills, you have the money.  A covenant is different:  whereas a contract is bilateral, a covenant is unilateral. One person decides the terms, and may put themselves under an obligation to another or makes certain promises.  The other person cannot change the terms—the only choice they have is to believe and accept or ignore the covenant. 

Along this line, he mentioned marriage--we used to see it as a covenant, following Scripture.  To most people 75 years ago, marriage was permanent. The only way out, Scripturally, was by finding your partner was unfaithful.  And even then a divorce was still a scandal.  Now, marriage looks more like a contract—they negotiate who makes decisions, in what area. They may even, before the marriage, anticipate the division of assets in the event of a divorce.  So you’ve got one foot out the door even before you begin. God wants long-term commitment in marriages, like they formerly said in their vows, “for better or worse.” He knows what’s best, so our ignoring Him guarantees that divorces will multiply.  Explaining a definition of love will help; a Hebrew word translated “lovingkindness” should better be defined as “covenant love,” or “loyalty.” That also suggests sticking to a covenant.

An oddity is that many people, while ignoring covenants, try to make a contract with God.  “I will avoid this sin forever if You agree to let me win the lottery.”  But you can’t make a bargain with God.  That’s because you’ve got nothing that He wants.  In Psalm 50, God says

If I were hungry, I wouldn’t tell you.  The silver and the gold are mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

Everything you’ve got is His—even if we think it belongs to us. Really, how much can you take with you when you die—so who does it go back to in the end?   Even while alive, God could give something to you and later take it away, just like that.  Rev. Pawson muses that he has never heard a preacher do a sermon on that part of God’s sovereignty. Such “deals” don’t establish our relationship with God.  Some preachers encourage this by saying, ”You should give your money to the Lord, and He will bless your business.” Speaking of wrong theology, we should also note that if we are told to “tithe,” which usually means give 10% to the church, that idea originated under the Mosaic covenant, which we are not under any more, since Christ made a New covenant. (More on this later.)

Some covenants are “unconditional.”  Which means that if one party breaks their promises, the covenant still stands. But some are “conditional;” and they look more like a contract because God says “if you do this, I will do that forever.”  But He sets the terms, and they are non-negotiable, so it is still a unilateral bond—thus, a covenant. 

But think how amazing that a holy God, the creator of this vast universe, would pay attention to us and make a covenant with sinful people. He actually puts Himself under obligation to us when He forms a covenant.  Covenants have amazing good things for us—but in some cases, we have to stick to conditions to keep the benefits; in other cases, we don’t have to do anything, but the benefits still come around.

Another explanation that is needed to clear things up:  The Greek for “covenant” is the same word from which we get “testament” (as in “Last will and testament”), to unilaterally direct the flow of your assets to named other parties.  What’s beautiful about that is, WE (if we love and obey Christ) are the Heirs of His last Testament, or the New Covenant. This took effect upon His death.  (The fact that this covenant is still operating does not mean to suggest that He is still dead. He is very much alive). 

But there is a problem:  Since people know there is an “Old Testament” and a “New Testament,” they might think that God only has had two covenants--and that since the time of Christ, His New covenant replaced the Old one. So many people conclude that it’s not necessary to pay attention to the Old Testament anymore. Some modern theologians even suggest there is no real value in studying the Old Testament. This is wrong for reasons stated below.

Rev. Pawson believes God made five covenants. These are, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Davidic, and lastly, the New.  Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David lived in the Old Testament times, yet those covenants (except part of the Mosaic one) are still active, thus proving the value of reading the Old Testament after all. The New covenant replaces the Mosaic covenant. For instance, Jesus, author of the New covenant, commands, in the area of giving, to give everything above what we have to spend on necessities, and to give cheerfully (which replaces the 10% tithe in the Old covenant—and, I must say,  which even fewer people obey).

Each of the covenants we will briefly discuss. Each covenant is for a particular people (not always Jews), a particular purpose, and for a particular period. 

The first covenant in Scripture is with Noah, and is called the Noahic covenant.  Man’s violence and depravity had become so extreme that Scripture records that their thoughts were evil continually.  One of his worst sins was because mankind violated the “keeping separate” rules God demanded of animals, of mankind, and of angels.  Barriers were given, but crossed: Men had sex with animals.   Angels were having sex with human women, and producing non-human hybrids--strange creatures, including many tall and super-strong men. (I have another blog on that.)  Humankind DNA was getting perverted by crossing these barriers.  So, by a Flood, God wiped out the entire earth’s population—except Noah’s family.  Noah, once he landed on dry ground, would have been fearful about any further rainfall, but God reduced his anxiety by declaring His Noahic covenant—which is good for all mankind—that He would never destroy all of us again by water. The rainbow was His sign. He thus insured the survival of the human race, the purpose of the covenant—so it is still active. (Rev. Pawson makes an interesting case here:  Based on God’s desire to insure our survival, He has always kept food production capable enough to feed every single person on earth, no matter how much population has grown.  The fact that many die of starvation is due to mankind’s selfish desire to not share our food. (Ed. If you have ever read of Malthus and his fear of population increase, and his glum starvation theories, these ignore God’s promise.  Acting on them have led to horrible results—genocide, abortion, even some wars,  have all been encouraged by many of his adherents through the generations.

But the starvation is not God’s fault; it is ours.

To the question, “Is there a proviso in this covenant?  Is there a penalty attached if we don’t do something?”  For the Noahic covenant, the answer is No. BUT God hopes that we respect certain rules regarding separation, and there are judgments for breaking them.  Here are some facts that are too often ignored. Human life alone is sacred—made in the image of God; so killing a person intentionally is sacrilege, a terrible sin, and should have life for life penalty.  So God is in favor of capital punishment.  (Ed. This speaks volumes regarding abortion: the embryo, even the zygote, has separate life from the mother; so the mother who kills her baby at any time in the womb is guilty too—a fact never commented upon, either by law or by pastors—but is easy to figure from God’s statements). Rev. Pawson had predicted that once we in the U.S. ignored God’s rule on capital punishment for murder, our disrespect for Him and for life meant a loosening of laws on abortion would follow—which came true--but then euthanasia would follow after that. There are a few organizations that encourage suicide for the old, but this editor predicts that when the next widespread famine comes, euthanasia will be acceptable by law in many places. A widespread minority will think like Hitler or Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood), who have called the old or disabled “useless eaters.”

 Respecting God’s rules, there is no capital punishment for killing an animal, since none of them are sacred—so they could be for food.  Evolution and pagan theology have ruined our thinking on that, making man simply an evolved animal or making animals sacred. (Ed. Fornication without feeling guilt is happening more often among men, since they rationalize that, as animals, men cannot expect to be monogamous.) God allowed killing and eating animals, but—only if the blood is drained out first, so we don’t get a taste for blood. Having sex with animals is unfortunately a growing trend.  But violating these will not result in another Flood; since the Noahic covenant is unconditional.

God preserved Noah’s immediate family and started over, despite our sin, because He wants to develop a family from His creation; He wants to share with us, to love us in person, someday. The Bible often shows His feelings; God often said “I will be their God, and they will be My people.” That’s why we are here; He put us here to search for and find Him, and have an ongoing relationship with Him. As Scripture says, He is not far away.  Our “pursuit of happiness,” to quote Jefferson, cannot be obtained, except in relating to God.  BUT—he has rules involving sanctification and fellowship with Him before we obtain heaven.  So God started again, with a righteous family, Noah’s family. We are all descendants of Noah—but more important, if we are born again and obey God, we are His descendants.  He adopts us and we share His inheritance.

Now let’s look at the next Covenant that God made with the human race—the Abrahamic covenant.  God picked  Abraham because he had faith in Him.  Archeology proves that he was living comfortably in Ur of the Chaldeans.  But God told him to walk away from that to a Promised Land.  That would mean traveling a long distance—and he was 80.  And leaving friends and relatives.  He knew that he and Sarah, his wife, could not lay title in the new land (there were powerful territorial tribes around), despite God’s promise—it was for his race that he founded, the Jews. So they would be living in tents.  (I am amazed how Sarah was willing to do this, especially after Abraham tricked her. Despite his sins, his faith pleased God. He believed in the trustworthiness of God so much as to not only abandoning a house, but he also believed God’s promise of an heir. He and Sarah were childless, and she was around 70 years old, so having a child would be a miracle.  But he had faith that God would do that, so he did the trip. 

God’s covenant with Abraham was a covenant of selection. Abraham and his descendants became, because of their laws that He gave them, Jews.  They were supposed to be a people that “stood out,” blessed by God, following His kind laws, so other nations would see their blessings and give credit to the Jewish God, and glorify Him as the only true God, not the “gods” they worshipped.  Some of the Laws made no sense (like rules on making clothes), but those were only to make the people stand out. He didn’t choose blessings on Abraham and his descendants because they were especially “good.” The sins of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—were laid bare.  But these patriarchs had faith that God would do what He promised, and they did what He told them to do—they were obedient. God’s selection of them for blessing is called, by theologians, using an obsolete word this way, “the scandal of particularity.”  Why did God choose and bless that group of people, in some ways forever, when the people were small in number, and even turned to idolatry—and they even wanted to kill their Lord? They didn’t deserve it.  Well, none of us deserve it. And, honestly, that question doesn’t deserve an answer because it questions and judges God’s sovereignty, and we can’t truly know His plan with our limited mortal minds. Let’s trust in His goodness, which He has proven thus far, in other ways.

Still, we owe the Jews much:  Primarily, they did an outstanding job of preserving His Scripture over the ancient years before the time of printing—they spent a lot of money and resources to copy Scripture, and made counting rules that assured there were no errors.  Few people, secular or otherwise, doubt the Old (or even the New) Testament’s authenticity, and ALL of it was written by Jews. Also consider, many innovations have blessed society through these people today. The Nobel Prizes have been won disproportionately by them.

God was giving them responsibilities which they carried out well in most areas—for awhile.  One law that they were loyal to, could be a blessing or a curse because it made the men easily identifiable as Jews:  circumcision.  Interestingly, His Scripture directed them to cut with the knife on the eighth day after birth.  Yet that day was, as mankind didn’t find out until thousands of years later, the exact day when boy babies had the maximum chemical that was best to survive the operation from leaving infection.  It’s also true that stripping off an excess layer of skin there, would help reduce certain disease or infection that would otherwise grow between the layers—which did, indeed, happen to those uncircumcised men who refused to clean the area properly. This was another fact unknown to science of that day.  Other laws regarding “Jubilee” were effective in reducing the ups and downs of inflation and the business cycle—and still would be today.  So some laws God gave them were just to make the nation “stand out,” i.e., for evangelism, and others were for their benefit, as you can see above.

Details of the Abrahamic covenant: First, He promised land.  He laid out the boundaries of that land, in the area called Canaan.  Though Abraham never owned it, nevertheless, in his will, he gave it to his son—that’s how much faith he had in God’s promise.  Same goes for Isaac, leaving it for Jacob.  Jacob was renamed Israel. The boundaries were never quite obtained, except maybe under David much later—and the land they have now is a small slice of what God promised.  God told them to fight for that land.  But disobedience through their idolatry removed them temporarily from the land as exiles.  But in 1948 they chose that land again to live.  One day those of us who believe and act on Jesus’ commands will sit down there with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and have a banquet with Jesus, Scripture says.

Secondly, God promised Abraham a child so his generation could live on and form a nation and obtain the land. There is only one proviso, or condition:  If a man is not circumcised, he is out of the covenant.  As Rev. Pawson put it: “Every man who was circumcised was carrying the title deed to the Promised Land inside his trousers.” If you’re Jewish, don’t presume that this has anything to do with salvation, or heaven.  The early Jews thought they would obtain heaven just by being a Jew.  Paul, in Scripture, tells both Jew and Gentile the requirements for being a true descendant of Abraham—were being spiritually born again, on faith in God, as Abraham had. Also, the problem in the Middle East today with the Muslims is, they don’t believe God’s promise. They just want the land.

Thirdly, there is an international promise:  God promised that through the Jews, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Notice my comments above on that.  But the big one is, the Jews produced our Savior, Lord, and King,  Jesus. Those who want to go to heaven must believe in what He did, He being a Jewish Messiah.  Related to that, when the Gospel was proclaimed about His death because of our sin and His resurrection, it was proclaimed by Jews and went to the Jews first.  And our church began with the Jews. On that regard, despite how some feel about “organized religion,” which does, after all, have many members who are unsaved, and corrupt the Church, a simple reading of history shows not only evangelism in moving people to God, but social justice (see last week’s blog) and missionary activities to pagans-- all are good, on balance, when done by God’s true people. (Missions is not to make them to follow “white men’s” or “Western” laws,” or some other racist nonsense, but to bring people to follow Jesus, the ONLY way to heaven, per Acts 4:12.) It’s too bad that God’s people do not contain too many incoming Jews, currently.

 A possible explanation for that:  The good things that Jews did, they have been poorly rewarded with our mistreatment of them. This was done by many who call themselves “Christian,” so Christianity has a terrible reputation among Jews.  In fact, our mistreatment is fatal to the salvation of many people--this ungodly behavior will prevent many Gentiles from reaching heaven, along with the Jews who refuse to listen to the Christian gospel. Did you know that Jews have suffered more in “Christian countries” than in Muslim countries?  Just think of Germany 80 years ago.  There is a “codicil” to God’s covenant:  Scripture says that every nation who blesses the Jews, God will bless; and those who curse them God will curse. The stain of the Holocaust gave Germany a destroyed economy in World War II, for example. Yes, God curses as well as blesses; He hates as well as loves; He kills as well as heals. He is a God of goodness—and severity. Just read the Old Testament—and no, the New Testament does not give God a personality change, making Him gloss over serious sin (I have a blog on that). He is the same God in Old and New Testaments. 

There is a relevant poem:  How odd of God to choose the Jews. But odder still for those who choose the Jews’ God—but scorned the Jews. God, through picking Abraham and the resultant Jews, got a channel through whom He could communicate to the whole world, how blessed He could make you if you act under His Kingship.  And the position of Israel is in a perfect geography to do that—a land between the West and the East. But the Jews dropped the ball often, and also demonstrated how cursed they could be if they were idolatrous and unfaithful to Him. The Jews have been a living demonstration of both. Just like us.  (I have a blog on having us get together and healing our differences, with a Passover+”Easter” celebration. A LOT of people have no idea that those two events have anything in common.)  

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