Covenant and Obedience
Genesis Bible Study • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Throughout Genesis thus far we’ve seen some interesting turns of events. We’ve seen Adam and Even sin, we’ve seen Cain murder his brother, we’ve seen the ramifications of sin and wickedness result in a worldwide flood, we’ve seen Abram and Lot continue to stumble and sin generations later as well. With all of the “bad” stuff that’s happened, we’ve also seen lots of amazing things. We’ve seen Adam and Eve walk with God in the Garden. We’ve seen Seth be born and his lineage lead to Noah. We’ve seen how God spared Noah’s family on the Ark. We’ve seen Abram follow God to a foreign land and trust in Him despite numerous obstacles and challenges along the way.
What we are reminded of in the book of Genesis is that God has a covenant with His people. We’ve seen God make several promises in the first 16 chapters of this book: A promise to Eve that her offspring will crush the head of the serpent. A promise to Noah that he would never flood the entire earth again. A promise to Abram that he would have many descendants and that the whole world would be blessed through him. Our God is the covenant making and covenant keeping God. He makes good on His Word!
Why is it important to us that God makes a covenant with His people? Why do promises 5,000 years ago impact us in 2021?
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Even though that was a long time ago in our world, He remains the same and still keeps His Word! We can remain confident in Scripture and in His promises because He will remain faithful. Hebrews 10:23
23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.
In our study this evening, we’re going to look at God’s covenant with Abraham, how this covenant impacts us today, and why covenants matter. Let’s begin reading this evening out of Genesis 17.
Please read Genesis 17:1-5. Why does God give them new names? What is significant about Abraham’s new name?
Fulfillment of God’s promise in Genesis 12:1-3 as Abraham’s descendants will bless all the peoples of the world and, therefore, Abraham is the father of many nations because of what we studied last week out of Galatians 3-4 as Christians of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities inherit God’s blessing given to Abraham. Again, it’s not just about Abraham and his physical offspring but it will benefit the whole world.
God has continued to remind Abraham of His promise to him from Genesis 12-17. Each reminder gets a little more in-depth and shares a few more key details. First the promise was descendants, then it was land, then it was more clarity about said land, then God revealed that Abraham’s descendant would be of his own body, then we now find that it will be through his wife Sarah.
Why is it so important for God to reaffirm Abraham throughout this journey? How has the Lord reaffirmed you in a difficult situation/time in your life?
Abraham was 99 years old! This has been going on for a while - he needs constant reassurance. We all have weaknesses, but I can only imagine the weaknesses a 99 year old would have whenever it comes to the idea of having a biological child. This just doesn’t make much sense! Yet, this is God’s promise and He continues to promise Abraham that He will see that it happens. The Lord has reaffirmed me in difficult moments that He is with me and that He has called me to this task. While that doesn’t always make the circumstance easier, it at least gives me assurance that He is with me and working through me.
We talk a lot about holiness and how we are called to be holy as God is holy. God calls Abraham to be blameless before Him. We know that this is our calling too - to walk holy and blameless. MacArthur draws out a good point on page 55 as this is impossible to live a sin-free life. But we are called to change our lives as Christians. Why is it so important to live as a new creation? Some people say that we just add Jesus to our previous way of life and we don’t have to change sinful habits or lifestyles. Do we have to change some things as a Christian?
Yes! We are called to walk in the light as Christ is in the light. We are a new creation and we should act accordingly. Failure to do so should concern us.
Please read Genesis 17:6-9. What new information is given to Abraham in these verses that he hadn’t received before?
This covenant will be an everlasting covenant and He promises to be their God.
Think of some of the ways that Abraham’s descendants fail and fall short of the mark. They worship false gods. They disobey God’s commands. They practice immorality. They simply don’t measure up as they should… Yet, we see that God promises to remain true to His covenant. There will always be a remnant - as page 56 bears out. Do we need to be reminded of this truth at times? Whenever we look around at our world and we see people disobeying and so-called Christians acting like the devil and promoting sin, it can be discouraging. We need to remember that God is true to His Word and His covenant is everlasting.
Another important thing to see in these verses is back in verse 7 as we read that God makes this covenant with Abraham, not the other way around. Abraham knew about God but God was the one who chose to make the covenant with him and his descendants. If Abraham had tried to make a covenant with God, it wouldn’t have worked because he wouldn’t have held up his end of the deal. Yet, because God initiated it, He would have to keep it through think and thin. This is a helpful reminder for us that whenever we fall short, there is grace. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t consequences for disobedience, though.
Look at these curses in Deuteronomy 27 for disobeying God’s covenant
10 Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and statutes I am giving you today.”
16 ‘The one who dishonors his father or mother is cursed.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
17 ‘The one who moves his neighbor’s boundary marker is cursed.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
18 ‘The one who leads a blind person astray on the road is cursed.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
19 ‘The one who denies justice to a resident alien, a fatherless child, or a widow is cursed.’ And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
On the flip side there are rewards for covenantal obedience in the next chapter.
1 “Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all his commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth.
15 “But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you:
God takes obedience and disobedience extremely seriously! Yes, there is grace, but yes, there are consequences whenever we willingly sin and disobey the Lord.
Please read Genesis 17:10-18. What is the big deal about circumcision between God and Abraham? What role do parents play in this process?
Very important as it is the outward sign of God’s covenant with Israel. Parents take their boys to get this done on the 8th day. Parents are accountable to this - but so much more too! Parents, per page 57, have a responsibility to help their children spiritually.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
Parents have a responsibility to help their children follow after Christ and trust in Him. Spirituality and discipleship have to not only be present in the home but they have to be prioritized in the home.
While circumcision is no longer required of followers of God in the New Testament, we know that parents still play a huge role in spiritual formation.
In the verses that follow we see that God changes Sarai’s name as well and promises that she will give birth to Isaac. What is Abraham’s reaction to this? He laughs! Do you think you’d do anything differently in this situation?
Please read Genesis 17:19-27. Why does God establish His covenant with unlikely candidates?
It should’ve been Ishmael, not Isaac. Esau, not Jacob. Reuben, not Joseph. Manasseh, not Ephraim. Jonathan, not David. So on and so forth. Why is this the case? Because God demonstrates and uses unlikely candidates to make His authority and power known to others!
Abraham finally receives the name of his promised son: Isaac. A fun play on words (he laughs)! How would you have felt about this promise and the subsequent action that God demands? Pretty painful decision coming up!
Please read Genesis 18:1-11. God has promised Abraham that he would have Isaac. What do you think was going through Sarah’s mind whenever she heard this proclamation?
She thought this was crazy talk! She literally laughs in the next verse.
Why does God chose this couple? Yes, they’ve been faithful. But could they boast about their power and greatness with the birth of Isaac? No. This was an absolute miracle and “God-thing” as this was beyond their control and ability. MacArthur calls this an “undeniable miracle” that foreshadows the virgin birth of Jesus!
Why would God wait this long? It’s been some 25 years since He made His promise with Abraham… Why continue to wait? Does Jesus wait to do do a key miracle with life and death in the Gospels? He does.
4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.
6 So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.
7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.”
23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.
Jesus could’ve left to heal Lazarus much earlier in the process but He chose not to… Why? To demonstrate HIS power and greatness. Why does God do things that aren’t necessarily expected? To demonstrate His power and greatness. This is what we see in our text. He proves that He can do the impossible. This is good news!
Please read Genesis 18:12-15. Is anything impossible for the Lord?
No! He can do all things. He knows all things.
MacArthur brings out that whenever we look at the virgin birth of Jesus, the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah is cake. We know that our God has the power to do anything! We know that nothing is purposeless to Him. How can this help you in a difficult time where you feel down and out?
I was listening to a Christian podcast last week and a person called in and talked about the suffering that he had been experiencing recently and was hoping to receive some encouragement. The podcaster shared the truth from Hebrews 4:15
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
Whenever we are enduring challenges and disappointment, we can take heart because Jesus experienced those things too. Further, if we want to be honest with ourselves, whenever we struggle we should remember what Jesus endured for our sake! That helps put our struggling into perspective. We know that compared with the cross, our suffering doesn’t look nearly as bad. We know that nothing is impossible for Him and we know that He is with us! Even whenever we laugh at His plans.
MacArthur again points to a New Testament text. Let’s study these verse out of Colossians 2 and see how this impacts the New Covenant Believer.
Please read Colossians 2:9-14. What does Jesus do for us in verses 12-13?
He makes us alive! Our old self/flesh is buried with Christ and we are raised to walk in newness of life. We are literally a new creation and He has taken our past/sins to the cross. As Paul will share in Colossians 3, we see this
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
This is good news, friends! Jesus, fully-God, full-man, does what we could not do! He lived a perfect life and took our sin upon Himself to the cross. In doing this, we see that circumcision/the sign of the new covenant is not a physical sign as it was for the Jews, rather it is a spiritual sign. Our old self dies, and we are a new creation. We are raised to life with Him through faith in Christ!
If our old self has been buried with Christ and if we have been set free from our sin and debt, how should we live day in and day out?
We should live a changed life. We put off the old and put on the new. This requires us to change the script a little bit. We can’t just add Jesus to our lives, we let Jesus reconfigure our lives from top to bottom!
Discussion Questions