Understanding Covenants

2 Corinthians 6:16 ESV

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The language we use to speak about our faith dissonant

what does it mean to be a temple?

Is this a promise statement or a covenant

Promises are an affirmation an oath…

Covenants carry a legal implication (binding agreement)

Two general types of covenants

Promissory Covenant

Deals with people of unequal power and status

Obligatory Covenant

Deals with people of equal power and standing

Promissory Covenant

Elevates the person who does not have the ability to stand on their own to the status of the one with greater power.

Focuses on the relationship between the two parties

The one obligated to the covenant is not the one of lesser power its the one of greater status. The one of lesser is only required to take the oath.

The relationship is chosen not obligated.

Forming a Covenant

The Introduction of the Giver

Genesis 15:1 ESV

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

The Lord introduces Who He is and What He has done

Moses : I am the God of your father …Abraham, Jacob and Isaac

The Boundaries

Deuteronomy 11:14–15 ESV

he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.

Boundaries for the covenant found in the if-then statements

This is the substance of the covenant

The promises

The Election (marker of intimacy)

The inheritance

Every covenant has parts that are Conditional and parts that are Unconditional

The Witness

Deuteronomy 4:32–35 ESV

“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.

People who have seen

People within the covenant

Self

Rocks, mountains parts of creation

Blessings and Curses

Blessings

Deuteronomy 28:1 ESV

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

In every covenant there is a proclamation of the blessings to be found.

The vows or promises of good to come for the beneficiary (there is only one beneficiary)

Curses

Deuteronomy 28:15 ESV

“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

The beneficiary is asked to promise to uphold the conditions or terms of the covenant

The beneficiary is the only one who can walk away from the covenant with no harm other than the removal of the benefits of the covenant giver.

Sealing the Covenant

The Sacrifice

Genesis 15:8–10 ESV

But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.

Spilling of blood

The animals were to be cut in half

this was to symbolize what was to happen to the giver of the covenant if He failed to fulfill the promises of the covenant

The beneficiary was a witness to this

The Exchange of Clothing

1 Samuel 18:3–4 ESV

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.

The covenant giver clothed the beneficiary

Makes sense why Jesus promises to Remove our old clothing and to dress us in white. The promise is to cloth us in what He occured to Him during the transfiguration.

Remembrance of the Command

Genesis 17:10–11 ESV

This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

Every covenant carries with its signs that serve as a remembrance

This sign serves as remembrance

Covenant giver

Beneficiary

Witnesses

Adversary

Today there is a covenant that stands as an everlasting binding agreement between God and the people of God. It is evidenced through His Son Jesus Christ.

The signs that we have are found in the sacraments we perform baptism, communion.

There is a promise that is made inside of this everlasting covenant I Will Dwell with them.

What God would would commit to a covenant that He would not benefit from. To use His is own Son as the sacrifice to signify what was to happen to Him if He breaks the covenant. Yet not holding being God as something to hold onto He gave Himself for us the beneficiary of the covenant.