Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are looking at God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12-17.

Our sermon covers a lot of ground and is entitled “Covenant, curse, and credit.”

But, before we examine the passages for today I’d like to make sure we are all on the same page with the concept of covenant as revealed in Scripture.

One of the major revelations or themes of the entire Bible is Covenant.

In particular the revelation that God relates to humanity through covenants.

In fact, God’s covenants are so significant that the Bible is organized according to them.

Covenants are the backbone of the Bible

The plan of salvation is revealed through the series of covenants between God and his people and forms what Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum call the “backbone of the Bible.”

Open your Bible to the table of contents.

When you get there you will see that the Bible is divided into two major sections.

What are those called?

(Testaments… that’s right.)

The word testament in the Bible is used interchangeably with the word covenant.

One example is found in Hebrews 9:15–17 (CSB), “15 Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant,, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

16 Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be established.

17 For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in effect while the one who made it is living.”

The Greek word translated as covenant here in Hebrews 9 can also be translated as testament.

In fact, the KJV renders the word as “testament” in its translation.

Even the word testament in latin means covenant.

As you can see through the organization of the Bible into the Old and New Covenants or Testaments it is essential that we take time to understand the way that God reveals His plan of redemption.

Thom Schreiner writes, “The Bible isn’t a random collection of laws, moral principles, and stories.

It is a story that goes somewhere; it is the story of redemption, the story of God’s kingdom.

And the story unfolds and advances through the covenants God made with his people.”

https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-we-must-understand-the-covenants-to-understand-the-bible/

The Old Testament is about the Old Covenant and introduces the New Covenant and points toward Christ.

The New Testament is about the New Covenant and points back to the Old Covenant.

In the NT we see the fulfillment of the Old Covenant in Christ and the establishment of the New Covenant through the sacrificial and atoning death of Christ.

As David Schrock writes, “Christ’s new covenant is the substance to which all the covenants in the Old Testament are the shadow.

Therefore, when we pay attention to the covenantal structures of the Bible, we are helped to understand how the Bible is organized.”

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-relation-of-the-old-and-new-testaments/#footnote-11

This means, that…

You cannot rightly understand the Bible without understanding the covenants.

I know that might seem like a statement out of left field for many people.

Or you might even be offended by the statement.

You may be thinking you’ve not needed to know anything about covenants before and have been just fine.

Well, I hope that today you are able to see and understand the Word more clearly.

If the God’s redemption story unfolds through covenants then we need this.

Remember, covenant is a relationship, an agreement made between two parties.

The truth is, without a biblical understanding of covenant we are left without a solid understanding of our relationship with God and even our relationship with one another.

Covenant

Covenants in Scripture are solemn agreements, negotiated or unilaterally imposed, that bind the parties to each other in permanent defined relationships, with specific promises, claims, and obligations on both sides (e.g., the marriage covenant, Mal.

2:14).

J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1993), 87.

The Covenant of Creation (or Works): Genesis 1-3

In Genesis 1-3 we read of God creating everything, including Adam and then Eve in His image.

God places them in the Garden of Eden and makes a covenant with them.

Genesis 2:15–17 (CSB) says, 15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Though Moses did not use the word covenant to describe the relationship God made with Adam and Eve, all of the components of a covenant are present.

If they obey the Lord then things will go well for them, if they sin and go against the Lord’s commands then they will die.

Here we see the blessing and the curse of the covenant of creation or of works.

As you can see in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sin and break the covenant and they are cursed because of it.

In fact, all of humanity is cursed because of their sin.

But, in the midst of God’s judgment on their sin (works) there is hope, and that hope is the grace of God.

As JI Packer points out, God reveals the covenant of grace to Adam and Eve.

Instead of immediately destroying Adam and Eve God reveals his redemptive plan, and that redemptive plan involves covenant.

Even though they receive the curse that God promised, there is the whisper of a new and better covenant of grace in the judgment that God gives to them.

The relationship that was broken through Adam would one day be redeemed and restored by the offspring of the woman.

Here at the foundation of the world and in the beginning of God’s story we find the seeds of the entire gospel… and that is not by chance, it is by design.

The Covenant of Noah

The sin of Adam continues its unraveling and corruption of the world.

God makes a covenant with Noah after He floods the world.

God promises in his covenant with Noah never to destroy with water again.

He gives the rainbow as a sign of his promise for all generations.

The covenant with Noah points us to the day when God will judge and destroy the world by fire in the end.

The Covenant of Grace (or Promise)

Not too many generations after Noah the world is again filled with sinful men seeking to displace God and live according to their own ways.

This time we see men building the tower of Babel as the pre-eminent sign of their sinfulness.

And, as God promised in Genesis 3 the covenant of grace is established through Abraham.

God promised to Abraham a home (land), a child through Sarah, and that he would be a blessing to every nation on the earth.

We will come back to this more in-depth in a few minutes.

This covenant is foundational to the rest of the Old Testament and is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The Covenant with Israel (or Moses)

God makes a covenant through Moses with the Israelites.

God saves them from Egypt and then makes a covenant with them.

Exodus 19:3–6 (CSB) says, “3 Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

5 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, 6 and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’

These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”

God promises his blessing to them if they obey the ten commandments and if they rebel against him they will be removed from the promised land and sent into exile.

The Covenant with David

The redemptive plan of God continues to unfold through God’s covenant with David.

God promised redemption through a child in Genesis 3, then God promised that child to Abraham in Genesis 12, and now through David we see that the child will be a king!

The child promised to Abraham that will conquer sin and death will also be a son of David.

As Adam was given rule over the beasts and the garden, the new Adam, the Messiah will reign over the kingdom of the Lord forever and ever!

The New Covenant of Grace

God promised redemption and restoration through the son of Abraham, the son of David.

God promised in the OT that the old covenant wouldn’t last forever.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (CSB) says, 31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”,—the Lord’s declaration.

33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration.

“I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

“For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.”

The new covenant is an Old Testament promise that fulfills everything promised to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David.

As Jesus said in Matthew 5:17–18 (CSB), 17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets.

I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.”

God doesn’t dismiss the Old Covenant, he keeps it and establishes a new and better one through Jesus Christ.

From Genesis to Jesus

Let’s connect these dots today from Genesis 12 to Jesus.