Supreme Covenant

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-37

Kid’s Time:

The First Covenant Failed

A. The Covenant Had Faults

What is a covenant? It is an agreement or promise between two or more parties. We use the word “contract” for business covenants today. But a Biblical covenant wasn’t just any common promise. It is a promise between God and the people who want to worship Him that binds them together and gives terms on how God is to be worshipped and the blessings if it is done properly or penalties if that worship is done improperly. Each Covenant usually had a sign that would accompany it to confirm and remind the worshipper of the covenant.

Some Examples:

Covenant with Adam (Tree of Knowledge)

Genesis 2:16–17 NASB95

16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Genesis 3:15–19 NASB95

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” 16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Conditional. Failed, consequences remain.

Covenant with Noah (Rainbow)

Genesis 9:8–13 NASB95

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11 “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

Unconditional. Still in effect

Covenant with Abraham (Circumcision)

Genesis 17:7–10 NASB95

7 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. 8 “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” 9 God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.

Covenant with Moses (Sabath Day)

Deuteronomy 11:26–28 NASB95

26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

Exodus 31:16 NASB95

16 ‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’

Conditional, Failed, consequences remain

Hebrews 8:7 NASB95

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

What was its fault? It could not give life to the worshipper. It was faultless in its justice but failed in regard to salvation.

Galatians 3:21 NASB95

21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.

B. Israel Had Faults

Hebrews 8:8 NASB95

8 For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

Judah was in its darkest time. The temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 597 BC.

Jeremiah 31:31 NASB95

31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

The new covenant is with the Jews. Not with the gentiles. We benefit from this covenant. We are grafted into this covenant, but it is not primarily with gentiles. It is with His people Israel.

The church celebrates this new covenant.

1 Corinthians 11:25 NASB95

25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

It is now our covenant as much as it is their covenant.

Ephesians 2:13 NASB95

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Hebrews 8:9 NASB95

9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

II The New Covenant Replaced the Old

A. He Is In You (Internal)

Hebrews 8:10 NASB95

10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people.

Psalm 37:30 NASB95

30 The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, And his tongue speaks justice.

Psalm 37:31 NASB95

31 The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip.

What effect has the N.C made in your inner you?

Is the N.C. guiding the detail of how you live your life?

What does your mind dwell on most, earthly things or eternal things? material things or spiritual things?

What do you think about most when you are relaxing?

Is their evidence that God’s law is written on your heart?

Arthur Pink:

An Exposition of Hebrews Chapter 38: The Two Covenants (Heb. 8:10–13)

You may sit under a sound and scriptural ministry every Sabbath, but

B. He Is Personal to You

Hebrews 8:11 NASB95

11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all will know Me, From the least to the greatest of them.

John 1:18 NASB95

18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

1 John 5:20 NASB95

20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

C. He Forgives You

Hebrews 8:12 NASB95

12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”

III. The Old Covenant Disappeared

Hebrews 8:13 NASB95

13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

The Old C. is no longer valid because it is out of date. Just like your phone or computer when they send out an update to the operating system. The old operating system wasn’t bad or wrong, but the new one fixes all the old bugs. Unlike OS updates, it doesn’t make new bugs that need to be fixed or make new features that you don’t like.

This was written just a few years before 70 AD when history records for us the destruction of Jerusalem.

Nero had tasked Vespasian to settle a rebellion in Judea that began in June of AD 66 when the Jews stopped offering sacrifices on behalf of the emperor in the temple. Shortly after this Nero commited suicide in 68AD when the Roman senate demanded the death penalty for Nero’s crimes. Vespasian put the siege on hold while he secured power and became the new emperor. He then sent his son Titus to finish the job. In July of 70AD, Titus ordered a siege wall erected around the city to prevent escape. Starvation and factional infighting took a deadly toll upon the besieged Jews. The northern fortress of Jerusalem fell, and on August 6 sacrifice ceased in the temple. On the ninth of Ab (August 28, a.d. 70) Roman troops torched the temple. Brisco, T. V. (1998). Holman Bible atlas (p. 261). Broadman & Holman Publishers.

God allowed the temple to be destroyed, putting an end to the Old C. From 33AD when Christ rose from the dead to 70AD both covenants were functioning. Those 37 years were a time of transition. The Old C. was obsolete but its remnants remained and the New C. was in effect but had not gained strength.