Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Intro
The whole world runs on relationships.
Everywhere you look you’ll see an interconnected web of relationships.
Every part of our communal life is based around relationships between people.
Some are familial, some are business, some are civil, some are military, some are religious.
One thing it doesn’t take very long to see is that just as there are many relationships, there are also many broken relationships.
People let each other down, people betray each other, people go back on their word.
So it comes at no surprise that we try and define the boundaries of relationships, and make it official.
We make it clear what we can expect from one another and what the consequences are of we fail to abide by the terms of the relationship.
In business we call it a contract.
And contracts are fine for managing property sales and terms of employment, but how can you define relationships?
That is what covenants are for.
They are for formalizing a relationship.
Unlike contracts, where you have to define the specifics, covenants are usually much more open ended.
Contracts have a specific end point, whereas covenants are open ended commitments.
We are doing our very best as a society to burn down the building we’re standing in, and that includes dismantling the formal bonds between people and their distinctive roles i.e. mother, father, male, female and so on.
Yet there still remains vestiges of one of the most foundational relationships in our culture.
It is the husband and wife bond.
This is a covenantal bond.
This is why when you go to a wedding, the man and woman will make promises to each other.
They will give up other things to be committed to one another to the exclusion of others.
Unfortunately we have been taught to think of marriage as a formalization of our romantic feelings, another way in which our community is being slowly killed.
But what this means is that if you think about marriage as a romantic relationship, then you’re free to leave when the romance dies.
This way of thinking essentially makes marriage meaningless, but I digress...
Healthy marriages will have romance, but covenant is the primary structure of what marriage truly is.
What does all this have to do with the Big Picture of the Bible and History?
Well as we’re working through 6 overarching themes of the Bible these few weeks, Covenant is one of those themes.
If you search the term “Covenant” in the Bible you will get over 1600 results.
It is a huge topic!
To simplify it, covenant is the way the LORD God of all interacts with humanity.
Covenants set the relationship between God and us.
Time and time again we see God making covenants with people and groups of people across the pages of scripture.
But here’s the cool thing - if you can get your head around the basic structure of God’s covenants, you can unlock the scriptures.
You’ll be able to see how the whole lot fits together!
So we’re going to fly over the pages of the Bible and take a passing look at the Covenants.
Like last week, I will have to summarise so much, and just mention things in passing, but if you want to get stuck into some detail then come hit me up.
Before launching our scenic flight over the covenants, we need to ask, what are we looking for?
In the Scriptures:
"solemn bond, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses.”
Doug Wilson
Between God & Humans, always entered into via a representative.
Often Unequal - either in authority/power or one party stands to gain more e.g.
Kings and vassals.
God’s Covenants are the most unequal, who are we that God should deign to enter into a bond with mere humans?
Adam
Some disagree that there is a covenant here, but even if there isn’t we see the shadow of one!
God gave gifts, responsibilities & boundaries.
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