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8/10/2019 What the Bible is All About-letter Size

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BUILDINGUNDER-

STANDING:

WHAT THE BIBLE ISALL ABOUT

by Rev. Don Bryant


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It is a great irony that the Bible is the best selling book of all times, but for so many whoown a copy it is the least read. One survey indicates that only 12% of the people who said they

believe the Bible actually read it everyday; 34% read it once a week, and 42% read it only once ina great while.

What could explain this? Maybe you have heard comments like the following:

The Bible is such a big book. Reading it seems daunting, especially when so few barely find the time to scan the daily newspaper. The average American reads only one book ayear. The Bible on the desk in front of me has over 1500 pages. For many people, beginning,finishing and understanding a book of 1500 pages is a never before attempted feat. Its justintimidating. But is that a sufficient reason for not reading it? Surely not. Surprisingly to most,the Bible can be read in 80 hours total, or only 15 minutes a day for a year.

I just dont understand what I read. People may have a favorite verse here andthere. But for them the Bible is a book filled with customs, laws, history, people and unfamiliar

ideas. Getting the story line straight and the themes clear so that the different parts fit is difficult.Many have jumped in and made a promise that they would read it through, but they have givenup in quiet frustration - quiet because people generally dont shout out that they have stoppedreally trying to read their Bible.

The words are too unfamiliar . I cant even pronounce some of them. The Biblemost people own and try to read is an English translation of the Bible called the King JamesVersion. It is over 400 years old. While the King James Version remains a classic translation ofthe Hebrew and Greek languages in which the Bible was originally written, word usage andgramma r have changed significantly since it was first published. Todays reader can find suchword choices and style a challenge, to say the least. Today there are over large number newertranslations of the Bible from which the reader to choose. The Bible translation for this booklet isthe English Standard Version.

People use the Bible to defend all kinds of things. Who really knows what itmeans? It is true. People have quoted the Bible to support acts that are despicable anduniversally condemned. It has been used to support slavery, cruelty to women, religious wars andeven outright torture to convert people to the faith. This has made the Bible an object ofsuspicion to many.

But for many the chief reason that the Bible remains a closed book is that they do notunderstand the basic message and story line. It just seems to be a mix of personalities, stories,and teachings that cannot be put together. Without knowing the structure and flow of the biblicalstory, Bible reading becomes sort of pot luck, a hit and miss thing, filled with long genealogies,chapters of temple ritual, bloody war, and miracles that to the modern mind seem like fairy tales.Finding a reason to read it just escapes many people. Except for the fact that it continues to bethe most published book in the world and preached across the globe each Sunday! What couldaccount for this? Surely it is because Jesus of Nazareth, its central figure, dominates thelandscape of world history. We live in a Jesus haunted world, as one has put it.


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The sad result is that too many leave the Bible unread and depend upon one sermon aweek for their Bible knowledge, along with an occasional Christian radio program, cd, orChristian book. Are you one of those? I wrote this brochure to help you move past this barrier.While God has provided the church with able teachers, they can never substitute for the absence

of your own systematic and carefu l meditation on Gods Word. It is your capacity to mine itsriches that will in large measure determine the level of your spiritual life. God speaks yourlanguage! You can read His Word and know the very mind of God!

Even if you are a skeptic, the Bible is a basic fact of western civilization. Any person whoconsiders himself educated should have a working familiarity with any book that is at the centerof the cultural formation of the western world. Its content explains much of what we take forgranted our laws and judicial system, the sciences, medicine, the arts, literature, civil rights,eradication of slavery, the free enterprise economy, and the phenomenal number of charitableorganizations that are part of the DNA of the western world. Of course, the Bible itself is not awestern book. It impacts the nations of the world. Christianity is the first global religion and

today continues its amazing growth, even as it did in the ancient world.

Laying The Foundation:Unity of the Bible

Lets start with laying a foundation as we build toward an understanding of Gods Wordto us. An overview of the Bible will get you ready for your journey into understanding.

ONE THEME. The focus of the Bible is God becoming King. The Genesis story tellshow our first parents in alliance with the Evil One rebelled against the sovereign majesty of God.The kingdom of righteousness and peace was destroyed and Gods beneficent lordship over theearth rejected. The Bible is the story, the long, twisting, turning, dramatic and surprising story, ofhow God came back to his throne through the fulfillment of his promises to Israel, there to reignagain. In reality, God is always and forever a King, and no one can challenge his place orauthority. But in a world of free will and human choice, Gods place has been challenged and his

purposes seemingly overthrown. God may be challenged but he is up to it. He will not win backhis kingdom through brute force and authority but through mercy and love that reaches to theheart of men and brings them back into a covenanted love relationship with their true Lord. He

will do this through a single saving hero whom God promised would rescue us from thedestructive power and consequences of sin. That Savior is called the Messiah. 1 Jesus of Nazarethis that hero, and he begins his public ministry at age 30 with the words, "The time is fulfilled, andthe kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mar 1:15) In Jesus, theKingdom has become present and operative, though not yet in all of its glory. All who belong toGod operate in Kingdom realities, Kingdom values, Kingdom provisions. In Christ, the night isturning to day. "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Eph5:14) He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. (2Co 13:3) At the same


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time the church prays, Our Lord, come! (1Co 16:22) All the while, the church waits faithfullyand patiently for that glory which shall appear. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits,then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers thekingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For hemust reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is

death. (1Co 15:23 -26)

ONE STORY. Though the Bible was written over a period of 1600 years by 44 differentauthors, it tells one story. The Apostle Paul, the author of thirteen of the 29 books in the NewTestament, put it this way.

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong [a reference to the firstman, Adam] and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person didit right [Christ] and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble,he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong;one man said yes to God and put many in the right. (Romans 5, The Message

translation). 2

It is the story of our creation, fall into sin and misery, and the promise of a singleDeliverer who would succeed where we have failed and give to us all a new beginning.

That story is told in two parts. Any Bible you pick up is divided into two sections, theOld Testament and one the New Testament. The Old Testament covers the time of creation, thefall of our race into sin, the promise of a Deliverer and the preparation for His coming throughGods choice of Israel as the carrier of the message of a Kingdom of restoration that is to come. The New Testament covers the coming of that Deliverer, who the New Testament writers assertis Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ (or Messiah), and describes the work of deliverance he

performed. Through him the Kingdom of God comes. This is the Gospel, the Good News. TheGood News, or Gospel, is not how one gets saved. The message is that God has become Kingand the earth is now released from the power of the Evil One. How one enters the kingdom is

part of that message but not the whole of it.

Many see the Gospel as essentially a message of how the sinner can be forgiven of his sinand go to heaven when he dies, the plan of salvation. It is something purely private, purely

personal. In this conception of the Gospel the story of Israel and Kingdom and the fact that Jesuswas a Jew are stripped from the story. The robust Kingdom of God message of the Bible is morethan about getting saved. In fact, the message of the Kingdom is about something moreobjective and of larger proportions. It concerns the enthronement of God in the person of Jesus asLord over the earth. 2a The reality is that the normal message of salvation preached in mostchurches is not found in the form so commonly used in the Gospels at all. Is it not strange thatthe typical preaching about how to go to heaven when you die is hardly referred to in the Gospelsat all, the very stories that focus on the birth, life and death of Jesus. How could that be? Thisalone suggests to us that the typical framing of the Gospel as we preach it is not as rooted asmuch as we suppose in the Jesus story. The struggle here is trying to wedge the Plan of Salvationas we have framed it into the kingdom vision, something Jesus does not do quite the way many


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would like him to have done. Perhaps the form of our Gospel presentations is taken not so muchfrom the Bible as we read it as the way we have shaped it in order to call for decisions from thoseto whom we preach. In other words, the Gospel we preach, while true, might not be the actualGood News Jesus proclaimed. If one studies the sermons of the Apostles in the Book of Acts,one looks in vain for the usual Gospel proclamation as Evangelicals know it, but there is a lot

about Jesus as the completion of the story of Israel. Go back and read those sermons and askyourself why the Gospel was preached in this way. Acts 2:14 39; Acts 3:12 26; Acts 4:8 12;Acts 10:34 43, with 11:4 18; Acts 13:16 4;1 Acts 14:15 17; Acts 17:22 31. These areclassic examples of first-century evangelism.

This second part of the Bible includes Jesus miraculous birth, his sinless life, sacrificialdeath, resurrection and ascension to heaven with a promise that he will come again at the end ofhistory to establish the fullness of his glorious and gracious reign, a reign that has now begunthrough Jesus ascension to heavens throne. Until then he will send his Spirit to guide this newIsrael into all truth and sustain it under all temptation and persecution. The New Testamentmoves on to describe the growth of the fledgling church through the preaching and leadership of

the Apostles, those appointed by Jesus to represent him and to proclaim the message of salvationthrough Jesus name. The historical period which the Bible reports ends in circa 64 CE. 3 Following this period of time we look to extrabiblical sources to give information concerning thegrowth of the church from a fledgling group of discouraged disciples to becoming the majorreligion of the Roman Empire is the 300s CE.

ONE BOOK: The Bible is a library of sorts, since it contains 66 different books. But because it has one theme and one story with all of its parts in agreement, the 66 writings areconsidered to be one book. (The word Bible simply means book). What can explain thisamazing degree of unity in the midst of all the variety of personalities, cultures, customs,experiences, and times? Simply this: God is its ultimate author. He inspired various writers toso communicate the story of redemption that they faithfully rendered both story and message.Behind and beneath the Bible, above and beyond the Bible, is the God of the Bible. It was

produced by one Mind though written out by many hands. God used the unique personalities,experiences, and gifts of the individual authors, but he so carefully superintended the process thatthe outcome of their writing was an accurate expression of Gods message to us. Jesus himselfexpressed this confidence in the Old Testament, esteeming it to be Gods very word. That is whyChristians often call the Bible the Word of God. Two words characterize the Christian view ofthe Bible: inspired and infallible. As BB Warfield has written, The Bible says equals God says.

ONE PURPOSE. The Bible was written so that Christ, who is its central figure, may beunderstood by you and then believed upon as your Deliverer from sin and its consequences. It isnot primarily a history book, though it is historical. It is not essentially a book of philosophy,though it contains the best and truest of ideas. It is not a book of good advice, though it containsthe highest and holiest of counsels.

The Bibles u ltimate value is personal. It is the story of a personal God, who came to usin a personal way through Christ, to accomplish a personal salvation which he personally offersto you. To read the Bible is to be addressed by the living God who desires that no one should


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perish. It is a living Book. Its words jump from the page and connect with matters of the heart.It is the medicine we must have, the road we must take, the life we must receive.

The Building Blocks:Some Basic Information about the Books of theBible

With the foundation in place, you can begin to construct your understanding of the Biblethrough knowledge of each of its 66 books and their place in the larger story. Though the theme,story and purpose of the Bible are singular, they are recounted in a variety of styles and types ofwriting. A quick overview of the 66 books will frame in the building for you, as it were.

1. The Old Testament contains 39 different books. 4

They are organized in the following way. 5

Books of the Law - 5These are the first five books of the Bible Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, andDeuteronomy. They are called the Law because they contain one of the moresignificant features of the Bible, the giving of the Law (including the TenCommandments) to the Jewish people. Moses is the traditional author of these books,and they cover the creation of the world, the fall of our first parents into sin, Gods

judgment of the entire world through a flood and the confusion of languages, theforming of the nation called Israel as Gods special instrument for preserving trueknowledge of himself, and the rescue of Israel from bondage in Egypt, called TheExodus. At this point it would not hurt to look at Cecil B. DeMilles production, TheTen Commandments . The film is a fairly faithful rendering of the biblical story.

Historical Books - 12These books follow immediately after the Books of the Law and cover the story ofIsrael after their entrance into the land God promised (modern day Palestine) after theExodus from Egypt. This portion includes Israels establishment as a nation, exilefrom that land 800 years later for their disobedience to God, and finally her return tothe land after 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Following Israel s return , the Templeis rebuilt and the land resettled. Then the curtain falls on Old Testament history.

Christ is born 400 years later. There is no book in the Bible that covers this 400hundred year period, though there are many extrabiblical books that do, some of whichare in the section attached to the Roman Catholic Bible, called the Apocrypha. Thehistorical books include (in the order of their appearance in the Bible): Joshua,Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1& 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah andEsther.

Books of the Prophets - 17


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God regularly sent His messengers to Israel to guide them into blessing and to warnthem of the consequences of moving away from true worship and love of the livingGod. These 17 books cover their ministry. They can be grouped in different ways butone of the more common is the following

Prophets who spoke Gods Word before the Exile of Israel to Babylon, warningIsrael of coming judgment if they would not turn to God:

Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Michah, Isaiah, Nahum, Jeremiah,Lamentations, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk

Prophets who spoke Gods Word during the Exile:Ezekiel and Daniel

Prophets who spoke Gods Word after the Exile:Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi

Each book has a message appropriate for Israels time and situation, revealing spiritual principles that still instruct us today.

The Writings - 8

This division of the Old Testament is contained in its own section of the Hebrew Bibleactually titled The Writings. This is an apt description of this section of the Bible

because the books there are not of just one type. There is history, prophecy, and poetry. While we are not sure why these particular books were originally groupedtogether in this way, it seems that they all fit into a category often called wisdomliterature, a common literary form in the Ancient Near East. They are writings that aregeared toward insight, understanding the meaning behind the observable events ofhistory. Here one would think especially of a book like Job, the famous sufferer. This

book takes on the issue of making sense of affliction. Thereafter each book seems tohave its own particular project. For instance, the Song of Solomon explores themystery of love, the Book of Daniel probes the mysteries of what the future holds instore and the Psalms speak of the most mysterious of all phenomena, the relationship

between the human soul and God.

The writings contain the following books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon,Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther.

The Old Testament leads us up to 400 years before the coming of Christ. Israel,formerly a glorious kingdom flowing with milk and honey as the Bible puts it, had

become a small, struggling nation under the domination of foreign powers - firstBabylon, then the Medes and the Persians, followed by Greece and finally Rome. Itwas only a shadow of what it had been before under the kingship of David (circa 1000BC) and his son Solomon. Now a weak nation subject to the will of the superpowersof its day, Israel began to long in a new way for Gods promised Deliverer.


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Unfortunately, some began to lose sight of the spiritual work that was most needed andfocused on a political, economic, and military restoration . When Gods Deliverercame to Israel as the true King, the Bible records that He was overlooked, for, as hetaught, his kingdom was not of this world. (John 18:36) In fact, He even ended up

being crucified as a troublemaker and disturber of the peace. The King had come but

his kingdom of justice and love offered to the humble and the poor in spirit wasrejected. (John 1:11.12)

But some had eyes to see and understood that the Messiah who would come would not be a famous soldier, economist, or political figure. He would come as a humbleservant who would die upon a cross to pay the penalty for sins and bestow. The NewTestament records this story.

2. The New Testament contains 27 books

These are books written by the apostles, the immediate band of disciples appointed byChrist himself to follow him and witness to His life, words, and works. There areseveral exceptions to this Lukes and Marks Gospels, the Book of Hebrews, theBook of James and the Book of Jude. In the case of the Gospel accounts, both Lukeand Mark bore the stamp of apostolic authenticity since they were near associates ofthe Apostles and had direct access to the information they possessed, writing duringthe lifetime of the Apostles themselves, and therefore subject to correction or concernabout irregularity of their work. In the case of Hebrews, there is no certainty of itsauthor. Traditionally it has been attributed to the Apostle Paul, but most conservative

biblical scholars are skeptical of that claim. The suggestions vary. What we do know isthat Hebrews was early on accepted by the church as Holy Scripture even as then therewas some doubt as to its author. The James of the Book of James was not the ApostleJames referred to in the Gospels but the brother of our Lord and leader of theJerusalem church. (James the Apostle and brother of John had become one of the firstmartyrs and was soon off the stage of early church history). Jude was also the brotherof Jesus and of James. So even in the cases where there was not direct apostolicity,there was undoubted nearness to the sources of genuine witness to Christ and anacceptance by the church of their message as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Gospels - 4Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the four Gospels, which are essentially

eyewitness accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the writers believed to be the Messiah. These are not strictly speaking biographies. They containhistorical accounts but their purpose was more than historical. They were written toinform and persuade. In this sense they are what we would call tracts. Why are therefour and not only one? The fact is that Christ can be seen and understood from manydifferent angles and with varying points of interest, all along being in agreement withthe basic outline of his life and the significance of his ministry. While no othereyewitness and authoritative accounts of Jesus are extant today, there are indications of


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many such accounts circulating in the ancient near east. But it is these four that wonthe confidence of the first and second generation Christians and which were ultimatelyaffirmed as authoritative carriers of the story of Jesus. 6

History - 1This is the Book of Acts. It records the history of the church from the time of Christsresurrection to about 30 years later when the Good News of Christ had been preachedand believed upon throughout the Roman Empire, reaching to and going beyond Romeitself.

Epistles - 21The various churches the Apostles had started were the primary recipient of theseletters, with instructions on how to order their life together as Christ-followers andwith further teachings about Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote thirteen of these letters.

The remaining eight are called the General Epistles, because they are written byvarious apostles to Christians everywhere irrespective of the church to which they may

belong.

Pauls letters were probably written in the following order. I use the word probably because in some cases there is no definite way to date the exact time and occasion ofwriting. 1 & 2 Thessalonians , Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans, Ephesians,Colossians, Philemon, Philippians, 1 Timothy, Titus, 2 Timothy.

The order of the General Epistles is: Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 & 2 & 3 John,and Jude

Prophecy - 1This is the final book in the Bible, titled The Revelation, written by John, who alsoauthored the fourth Gospel and three of the General Epistles. Through visions andimagery the work of God in human history is revealed in its true meaning and thecompletion of His work at the end of time is foretold. In style, it is grouped with agenre of writing of that time known as apocalyptic literature. Using images, symbols,numbers, visions, mixed with historical allusions, apocalyptic books spoke of the endof the world in the great cosmic conflict that lies behind all history, the battle betweenGod and the Devil. Some have tried to give to each detail a definite historical reference

point as if in Revelation there is a point by point description of traceable events inhistory as we know it. Such schemes, always tried and always falling short of theirmark, leave the essential point out Gods mysterious ways are beyond humanknowing but what we do know is that God is victor and that his appointed Messiahwill be fully enthroned at the end of human history. There are apocalyptic books in theOld Testament, which compare to Revelation, most notably Ezekiel, Daniel and

portions of Zechariah, and which provide John some of his key imagery. Churchtradition is that Revelation is not only the final book in the collected books of the New


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Testament but also the last written. John, the last of the Apostles, wrote his work in themid-90s. John died in exile, the only Apostle that we know did not die a martyr sdeath, though he did die a prisoner on account of the word of God and the testimonyof Jesus. (Revelations 1:9)

The Mortar: The Covenants

Remember history classes in high school? An unending lists of dates, persons, and events! It all got rather boring and tedious. Ever since just the word historytriggers in many a rather unpleasant sensation and memories of cramming a cascade of numbers

for exams. Unfortunately, that is how some people respond to a study of the Bible. It covers1600 years of history and it, too, has a rather imposing parade of kings, prophets, countries, personalities, and events. That is as you would expect it would be, since the Bible is a study ofGods acts in history. This alone makes the Bible unlike many holy books of other worldreligions, which seem to aloof from history and more focused on ideas rather than Godshistorical interventions. But what is the story line? What is the theme that holds all this together,like mortar holds together the bricks of a building? If you do not get the big picture of the plotand how it develops, then you can easily lose your way.

This is made the more difficult because the books of the Bible as we now have them are not in acompletely chronological order. There is a rough time sequence to the placing of the books. but

from time to time a book will be placed in such a way that the story line is not completely clear.For instance, after the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which tell of the rebuilding of Jerusalem andthe temple after Israel returned from her captivity in Babylon, there follows the Book of Job andthen of Psalms, Proverbs, and the Song of Solomon. These are The Writings, as mentionedabove. They may have history in them but their primary character is that of poetry, song, andmeditative insight. These are then followed by books of the various prophets, which belong todiffering historical periods outlined in the historical books.

I have already noted that the Bible has one theme, develops one story, and that the story comes tous in two parts, the old and new testaments. It is in that word testament tha t we can begin toget a grasp of the story and how it develops.

Testament is another word for covenant. 7 When you read the Bible in large portions and withan eye for basic themes, the concept of covenant begins to loom quite large. The Bible is a storyabout covenants , or agreements, that God made with people. And many Bible students haveseen in covenants the key theme that unlocks the meaning of the biblical story and weaves all ofits varied elements into one story.


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What is a covenant? It is a solemn agreement unto the death that binds two parties to eachother in a permanent relationship, with specific promises, claims, and obligations on both sides.Marriage is a type of covenant, an agreement into which a man and woman enter. It turns a maninto a husband and a woman into a wife. It makes the two one. They belong to each other, in the

best sense of belonging. The marriage covenant is a rather exact picture of what God is about in

the Bible. He created us for himself, that He might be our God and we might be His people. Butin sin our race violated this sacred relationship and chose to go it alone. We chose to say no toGod, with all of the miserable consequences that flow from fleeing from him. Christians do notgloss over the real suffering of the world through glib positive thinking techniques or utopiandreams. Page after page of the Bible explores and plumbs the depths of affliction and despair andnote that when God visited our planet in the person of Jesus he did not float above our pain butsuffered our humiliations and shame, ending up in the painful and shameful death of acrucifixion.

The story of the Bible is the story of Gods faithfulness to His original covenant promiseeven though we have failed. 8 He will be faithful to his design to have a people for his own

possession as well as to be possessed by them, upon whom he could bestow all of his goodnessand from whom he would receive love and worship. Again and again the careful reader will notethe recurring phrase, I will be their God and they will be my people. (Genesis 17:8; Exodus29:45; Jeremiah 31:3; Ezekiel 11:20; Zechariah 8:8; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Hebrews 10:8;Revelations 21:3) This is the Immanuel Principle . Immanuel means God with us. Not Godover us. Not God ruling us. These are undoubtedly true. But God in the midst of us! Personal,

present, available, relational. Indeed, when the Messiah is prophecied, he is called Immanuel.Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a

son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa 7:14) It is in his nature and design to reveal himselfand enter into intimacy. God is not an it, but has the characteristics of personality. It is just atthis point that God as trinity, the three-personed God (not three gods but one God in three

persons), is so essential. God is not a lone, solitary, and unconscious it. If God has theattributes of personality, it would be hard to imagine a God with no one to love, no one to whomto speak, no one to receive love from for an eternity. This would not be a heaven but a hell. Thedoctrine of the trinity turns hell into heaven and shows our God to be a fullness that is inclusiveof loving. The trinity is not a throw away doctrine that has no real essential role to play inChristian theology. Many object that the word trinity is not found in the Bible. True. But, ofcourse, the issue is not whether or not the actual word is used but whether or not the reality thatthe word depicts is there. And so it is! More about that later.

The Bible is the story of God being true to his own character in seeking a relationshipwith us. The Bible is not the story of mans pursuit of God, but of Gods pursuit of us. It is theretelling of all that he has done to reclaim a lost race. It is the story of a patient, wise, and neverdespairing spouse who will restore lost love. That the structure of covenant frames the story ofthe Bible says something about the nature of God. The Apostle John puts it succinctly. God islove. (1 John 4:8) God has the right of universal rule. He has complete authority. All power ishis. He is an unquestioned sovereign who owes to no one an account. And yet the final reality ofthe world, behind all that we see and do not see is that God loves. True, some turn from that loveand refuse him. True, God judges evil and the wicked will not stand on the day when the books


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are opened. True, God has allowed suffering and pain to exist in consequence of our sin. But"God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not

perish but have eternal life. (Joh 3:16) Jesus is the tears of God who in sympathy with thehuman condition enters our night and our cold and drains evil of its final force. His love willmake all things new.

The Bible describes a series of covenants that God made with key people throughouthist ory. Each covenant introduces new elements into Gods relationship with us and contributesits part to the final and complete covenant that God put into effect through Jesus Christ, calledthe New Covenant. Each covenant is organically related to the ones that precede it, building ontheir features and adding new elements that further Gods purposes. The acorn developing intoan oak is certainly a good picture of how the covenants relate to each other.

There are five clear stages in the story of the Bible , five covenants God made with people at distinct points in history that furthered his purposes and prepared people for the finalcovenant through Christ. These five covenants form the background and themes of the Bible.

What follows are the descriptions and divisions of the covenants.

THE COVENANT OF CREATION

The Bible opens up with a Covenant. It is described for us in the first three chapters ofthe f irst book of the Bible, Genesis, a word that simply means beginning. Though the wordcovenant is not used, the elements of a covenant are there, and a covenant is referred to in Hosea6:7. It has often been called the Covenant of Creation . Its focal point is Gods design to bring usinto being by an act of his will and pleasure with the purpose of fellowship with us. We werecreated in his image, the Bible teaches, with the capacity to know God in a conscious way andrespond to him in love and commitment. As images of God, we were given God-like abilities forrule and management of our world, all to be done with a willingness to exercise these capacitiesin dependence on the word and wisdom of God. Note that humans are created in the image ofGod. We are not the product of blind evolutionary forces, though certainly evolutionarydevelopment rightly understood has some explanatory power in understanding our biology. Butwe are not mere bodies raised to a higher form of consciousness. The Bible insists that we exist

by the design and creative act of God, a design that includes not just the physical but also theinvisible but real aspects of human personality, the soul.

The Genesis story reveals that God gave to us in our primordial condition anopportunity to declare our commitment to him in a specific way .9 Having made us in hisimage, after his likeness and bestowing upon us the caretaking of creation (read Genesis 1 and 2),He planted a tree in the middle of the garden and of this tree alone he insisted that our first

parents should not eat its fruit. (And, no, we do not know if it was an apple tree, as folklorewould have it). Of all that we do not understand about the nature of this tree, described as theTree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil, we do know that our parents refused to tie themselvesto the bare word of God but struck out on their own wisdom. They did eat of that tree and broke


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faith with God , because it seemed good in their eyes. And as God had said, in the day thatyou eat of it, you shall die.

In this step away from God, our parents had an ally and more than an ally. The Biblereports that Adam and Eve were tempted of the Devil. Genesis 3:1 introduces us to this original

rebel, howbeit in the guise of a serpent. Evils origin did not begin with a human choice but aspiritual force. For the biblical writers the existence of a primordial spirit being who fell awayfrom the Lord of glory out of pride and with purpose to unseat the very person of the deity is asreal as the existence of God himself. Modern man in his secularism and self-confidence mayquestion the existence of a Devil, but human consciousness constantly gives witness to anawareness of a force, a power set against the good that seems to be beyond human, a powerwhich we can feel knocking on our door asking to be let in. We are witnesses to evils which defya merely human explanation. We look over the field of human history and ask of the sufferings,the turmoils, the pillage and the misery, how can these things be? Can human choice aloneexplain the immensity of this evil beyond imagining? No, declares the Bible. Humans are indeedcomplicit but they are also assisted in doing the unimaginably horrible. It takes a Devil to explain

the black of its blackness. While the person of the Devil makes a cameo appearance at the beginning of history in the Garden of Eden, for most of the rest of the Old Testament he recedesfrom view, while in the New Testament, at the new beginning ignited by Christ, he appearsagain, flushed out as it were from behind the scenery of history to once for all declare himselfunalterably opposed to the good. At the end of the biblical story, the Devil is put away forever.But there is some way to go before then!

The principle and power of sin and death entered into our race at that moment, and wefell away from our original state of nearness to God. This is the Bibles explanation for whatwent wrong and what is wrong in and with the world. Whatever may be true of us, the universalconsensus is that we do not work right. We are broken. Yes, wonderful and beyond explaining isthe phenomenon of humanity the extraordinary landscape of loving, caring, creating, toiling,enduring, imagining, singing, painting, shaping, building. But also dying, hating, forsaking,killing, broken, ever thirsty and never quenched. Made in the image of God but earthy andcapable of great destruction. No one escapes the blight and no one has the cure. Ever since thattime our race has known the power of death. Ever since that moment all who are born are bornwith a nature prone to refuse God. And we live in a world that groans under the power of sin.Do you not see it? Does not your own spirit rise up and ask for a cure? Who of us lives with theconviction that the way we are is the way we should be or is all that we can be?

When our first parents entered into an alliance with the Evil One, the world as theKingdom of God became instead the rule of the prince of the power of the air. (Ephesians 2:2)In John 14:30 the Devil is called the ruler of this world. The whole worl d lies under his power.(1 John 5:19) The great project God undertakes, the project told in the Bible, is to once again

become King of this world. Thus, when Jesus appears, his message, consonant with the story lineof Sacred Scripture is, The time is ful filled, and the kingdom of God is at hand..." (Mar 1:15). InJesus life, ministry, death and resurrection that kingdom which is not of this world begins and isnow becoming to be until the glory of Gods reign covers the earth.


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Creation, let us call this the Covenant of Re-creation. In these words the story restarts, and thesetback becomes the background for the story of love and rescue.

In these verses we find the story line of the Bible . These are Gods words , first, to theDevil, then to the woman and finally to the man, the unholy trinity, if you will, who were allies in

disobedience, seeking to claim for themselves the right to determine what is good and what isevil. This is the very nature of sin independence from God, bringing into question his authorityto define the good, the true and the beautiful. Gods words here are the words that will becometrue and determine the rest of history, its goal and its themes.

To the Evil One God says, I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Yourdescendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head,and you will bite his heel. 10 (translation mine) This covenant in effect covers the rest of theBible, since all covenants that follow carry out its design and purpose - to recover us from the

bondage to sin and death and restore us to fellowship with God.

In this verse God promises to send a single Deliverer who will be powerful enough to win back the love and loyalty Adam and Eve had forsaken. This Deliverer will be one of herdescendants, referring to the woman. In other words, Gods Savior would be born of a woman.God would become one of us - touching us, speaking to us, entering into our condition andidentifying with us. This is no less than a prediction of the coming of Gods special sent one (theanointed one, the meaning of the word Messiah), to face off with the power of sin and to freeus forever from the grip of a fallen world.

Note that Genesis 3:15 also says that you (meaning the Devil) will bite his (theDeliverers) heel. This is a prediction that our rescue would be gained only at the cost of thesuffering of the one who would come and deliver us. Many Bible students see this as a foretellingof the suffering and death of the Christ upon the cross. He would die, but ultimately would live,the wound fatal but not final. What would at first seem like a final defeat would be in the lastanalysis a bite on the heel. Instead, the power of sin and death is forever destroyed.

Reread Genesis 3:15 again. This verse not only predicts the coming of a Deliverer. Italso lets us in on another element that will be very much a part of the human story recorded in theBible. There will be two basic kinds of people that will be on the earth until Gods work iscomplete.

First, there are those who remain allied with the principle of evil, and are, therefore, partof the kingdom of the Great Opponent of God, the Devil. These reject God and count his personand his laws as burdens to be cast off. But there is a second group, those who are described as

belonging to the woman. They are the ones who believe in the promise of Gods help that willcome through the woman, a Savior who will be born into our race. These will choose to believein Gods promise and seek to rely upon God for their life. The rest of the Bible recounts storyafter story of these two groups and the conflict that will surely always be between them. Behindall the war and strife and pain that we find in the Old Testament is this prediction that there can

be no true peace among people until they say yes to God. The true alienation that exists between


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people is not essentially economic, racial, political, social, or any number of other factors or theirabsence. True peace among us is a result of and flows out from a relationship with God. When

people are right with God, believing and obeying him, they are right with each other. When people say no to God, they not only turn away from him but will also turn against others. Thealienation from God spills over into the world of relationships.

This covenant is a covenant made in grace . That is, it is unmerited. This is anothermajor theme in the Bible. Adam and Eve did not deserve this promise of life after theirdisobedience. And neither do we. But God took the initiative and offered a way of restoration.The Bible is the story of grace. It is never the story of people getting better through some

program of moral self-improvement. Left to their own resources, people will always fall short ofGods standard. But God is rich in mercy.

The Covenant of Re-Creation is developed in five distinct phases that cover the rest of biblical history. Remember that each phase develops the design of the Covenant of Re-Creationfound in the basic theme statement in Genesis 3:15.

I have included an illustration 11 that will give a picture of the development of the historyof Gods salvation, or, as it is often called, redemptive history.

There are several points this graph illustrates:

1. Each successive covenant expands on what has come before and is expanded by thosecovenants that follow.


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2. Each covenant makes a unique contribution to the development of Gods plan to saveus. There is something in each covenant that was not there before and is carried forwardinto the new covenantal arrangements to come3. The Covenant of Re-Creation (symbolized by the arc of dotted lines) fulfills theoriginal purposes of the Covenant of Creation (which is symbolized by the solid outside

lines). God completes what he started. In the Covenant of Re-Creation, which was madeafter mans fall into sin, God doesnt switch into plan B , diminishing what he had begun to do . Nor do we now get Gods second best. What God meant to do originally heaccomplishes through his wisdom and power. Indeed, the Bible indicates that God ingrace bestows more than if our race had never fallen into sin and misery. This is thewhole burden of the argument of the Book of Hebrews with its repeated phrase, howmuch more . (See Hebrews 3:3; 6:9; 7:19,22; 8:6; 9:11,14,23; 10:34; 11:16,40; 12:9) 4. Each successive covenant will increasingly and more clearly point to Christ. The

person and work of Christ who establishes a New Covenant intrudes into each previouscovenant administration, pointing to the salvation that is yet to come. This is certainlymore obvious when you look back on the whole Biblical story than would be the case

looking forward in time. But the careful student of the Bible will find more and moreevidence of the coming Christ as the story develops. Jesus himself confirmed that theBible has this as its primary focus in these words to his disciples. You find it hard tobelieve all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasnt it clearly predicte d by the

prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things [a reference to his death by crucifixion] before entering into his time of glory? (Luke 24:25,26) A Messiah whowould come and deliver us at great cost to himself was already predicted in Genesis 3:15.The rest of Scripture simply makes that theme more and more clear. The Christ to come isrevealed in prophecy, promise symbols and types. By types I mean that events, persons,and rituals all image a shadow form of the greater reality which is yet to come. In thissense, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David are types of the true Savior who will somedaycome onto the scene as the real thing. From Christ they draw their meaning and to Christthey point. Israel crossing the Red Sea through water on dry ground was a type of thesalvation Christ offers. The arrival of Israel in the Promised Land was a type of thatheaven to which Christ takes his own. This kind of interpretation of the biblical text ismade possible and not a mere interpretive gimmick based upon the reality that God is thearchitect of history and binds it all into a single plan. With this unity one would expectcontinuity and reciprocity between various episodes that are distanced in time but still onestory because they all are developing one theme. Theologians call this the analogy offaith. Any part of the Bible is analogous, or like, any other part in the sense that there isan overarching unity that relates all the various aspects into one unified whole.

THE COVENANT WITH NOAH

The Covenant of Preservation


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After God initiates his plan of rescue, the Bible tells the dismal story of deepening sin inGenesis 6-11. This is not as one would have expected. It seems that Gods offer of grace andforgiveness would have humbled us. Thankful for another chance, hearts would naturally drawnear to a kind and saving God. But people did not turn around. They grew worse. So worse thatthe Bible says God decided to judge the world and begin all over again.

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that everyintention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORDwas sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Sothe LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of theland, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am

sorry that I have made them." (Gen 6:5-7)

The biblical story indicates that Adam and Eve had received the promise of a new beginning with faith. The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of allliving. (Gen 3:20) Though death would surely come, in the midst of the judgment Adam

believed in the promise that new life that would come through the seed of the woman and so callshis wife Eve. Life and not death would the final outcome. In casting these first parents out of theGarden, God clothed them in animals skins, clothing them with the death of another. This is atype of the death that would one day fully set them free from sin, not the death of an animal butthe sacrificial death of Gods own Son. (John 3:16)

The sin that came into the world had in its nature to increase, for immediately followingthe creation of Adam and Eve and their fall, we have the account of the first murder, thedeathblow given to Abel by his brother Cain. 12 This was not just murder, but murder of a darkerkind, family against family. All indications were that the death that had now entered our racewould itself not die easily. Of human history at that time Moses writes,

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that everyintention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORDwas sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Sothe LORD said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of theland, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am

sorry that I have made them." (Gen 6:5-7)

God had promised a re-creation, a new beginning, but all that was beginning were newwaves of evil. Nothing is better but only grows worse with time. It seems that God must act, forevil can reach a tipping point from where there is no return. The human race moved to that point

but encountered the holiness and judgment of God. He simply stopped it through judgment. Thespiritual law the Apostle Paul recounts in Galatians 6:7 was as true in the Old Testament as in thenew. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)

But stopping sin with judgment is not the end of the story. The way in which God willultimately stop sin is through salvation from judgment. It is the way of love, grace and mercy.


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Moses reports that God, having rebooted his creation with a covenant of re-creation, now takesthat next step to move his purposes further with a new agreement with a man named Noah.Genesis 6:8 says that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He was a righteous man,

blameless in his generation and he walked with God. Gods grace was sufficient to establish inthe life of at least one man a God-loyal love. And that is all that God needed to build a new

world. And he did.

Here is a theme we will find again and again in the story of redemption one man. TheBible is a story of Gods covenants with one man at a time who stood in the gap, a Noah, anAbraham, a Moses, a David and the Christ himself. All of these one man moments take thehistory of redemption to a new height, though all fall short of being that single deliverer God had

promised in Genesis 3:15, all except that final solitary life, Jesus of Nazareth who by his life,death and a resurrection that proved evil had finally been overcome and the kingdom come withirreversible power. But one family he would spare - Noah, his wife, his three sons and theirwives.

Thus we have the famous story of the catastrophic flood that destroyed the earth andwhich Noah escaped by b elieving Gods word and buildin g the ark. On the other side of theflood, God established a covenant with Noah whereby God promised that he never again woulddestroy the earth by water. In other words, God promised that he would preserve the earth untilhis plan of deliverance would be perfectly fulfilled. This covenant promises Gods patience untilfull salvation was completed. In Genesis 8:21-9:17 this new arrangement is laid out in moredetail:

1. Never again would God judge the world through a flood. The seasons would continueto cycle and the earth would produce its harvests and life preserved. Though evil willremain and grow worse, yet God had sent a warning of a final judgment, sufficient tomark upon human consciousness that God is not unmoved by our evil. Still, his merciful

purposes will not be overcome by judgment before salvation has come.2. God gave mankind the flesh of animals for food. On this side of Noah there isindication of a fundamental reordering of our natural life. Rain begins to water the earthfor the first time, and now our food is taken from the animal world.3. Capital punishment is initiated as a principle of justice. Whoever sheds blood will havehis own blood shed. This is the embryonic form of government and its power to establishsufficient justice for human life to continue. Human government is a tool in the hand ofGod to order society and be a check against unrestrained evil that would lead humancivilization back to a state of tooth and claw nature. Some may have fan tasies of areturn to a world without governmental power, a utopian world of unfettered freedom, butthe worldview of the Bible is under no illusion as to the nature of nature. In commongrace God uses governmental authority to check the lower parts of o ur nature. Dont thinkthat lower nature is there? Try to buy milk and eggs at a grocery store before a hurricane!

We see in a clearer way the outlines of a definite kingdom, a sphere in which Godregulates the life of a people, a life that has boundaries, laws, and provisions. Where sin reigns,disorder of every kind grows. But in the midst of evils increase, God acts to halt its unchecked


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growth. Without this gracious intervention, human society would disintegrate and the good thatGod wills to do in his saving works would be impossible. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans13:1-5,

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is noauthority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by

GodTherefore whoever resists t he authorities resists what God has appointed,and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to goodconduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Thendo what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for

your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on thewrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrathbut also for the sake of conscience. (Rom 13:1-5)

The people of God in the Bible have always had a high view of that common grace given byGod, which is government. Paul writes to remind Christians to be submissive to rulers and

authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work(Tit 3:1) Only God is King, but thechurch does not have the power of the sword to restrain evil, a lesson it has sadly forgotten orignored from time to time. It is the role of government to set the boundaries of justice,imperfectly for sure, but even so, anarchy is restrained and the world does not return to awilderness. In this world the church does not replace government but is salt and light.

God sets a covenant sign in the heavens that he will preserve the earth until his plan for thesalvation of the peoples is completed. That sign is a bow set in the heavens. (Genesis 9:12-17)We call this a rainbow. The image, however, is of a bow. Its significance? While we think ofrainbows as a sign of beauty, the true meaning is an instrument of death. Bows were means ofhunting and of war. But this bow set in the sky is not pointed toward us in judgment but towardthe God in heaven. Many students of the Bible see this as a continued sign of the prophecy givenin Genesis 3:15 that the Messiah to come would submit to the pain of a wound in order to fulfillhis mission of redemption. The arrow is aimed at God! And indeed, as will be found out in eachcovenant to come, the re is a symbol of the to the death loyalty of God to his promise, even tothe death of his one and only Son upon the cross who would pay the penalty for the covenant wehave broken. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and liveto righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1Pe 2:24)

The period of time covered by Genesis 1 through 11 is not datable. This age is what may becalled pre-history, the time before any extant human documentation. The oldest historical recordsare approximately 3000 BCE in the land of Sumer, present day Iraq. Beyond this time there noextant literature that reliably constructs historical sequence. There are artifacts that with carbondating and archaeological investigation provide us with some framing of episodes in humancivilization. Of course, there are oral traditions preserved in our earliest writings of such times,

but there are no objective means of verification. Many people have attempted to set a date to theevents of Genesis 1-11, but serious doubts remain as to the validity of any one system of arrivingat specifics. Famously Bishop Ussher of 16 th century England locked down the date of creation to


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Sunday, 23 October 4004 BCE! It is best to remain skeptical of all dating attempts. But sooneverything changes with Gods call of Abraham , a solitary Iraqi figure of around 2000 BCE.

COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM

The Covenant of Promise

With Gods call to Abra ham the history of redemption moves into a second andincreasingly specific covenantal arrangement. There are two unique things about this newcovenant development recorded in Genesis 12. One, it is with Abraham that the story of the Biblefirst connects with datable human history. Abraham lived 2000 years before Christ. Two, up tothe time of Abraham we have the biblical record of Gods dealings with the whole of our race,

but with Abraham Gods dealings narrow down to a single individual and his descendants afterhim, the nation Israel. God does not abandon his purpose of love for the whole world. But he

chooses to work through a specific group of people through whom true knowledge of himselfwould be preserved and through whom the Deliverer would come to save the world.

Gods specific words in establishing a covenant with Abraham are these:The LORD said to Abram , "Go from your country and your kindred and your

father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a greatnation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be ablessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse,and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen 12:1-3)

In the Abraham story the kingdom theme begins to take a more definite shape in time andspace. The Kingdom of God enters human history in such a way that it can be said, right here,right now, God is at work bringing his promises to pass. The fulfillment of these promises of therestored rule of God traced in the Bible to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. These arethe people set apart by the plan of God to bring to the world the full salvation that was promisedto our primordial parents. The rest of the Old Testament is the story of Gods dealings with theJews.

Gods choice o f Abraham and his descendants was not because they were the best and the brightest of all peoples but merely because it pleased the Lord to graciously elect and choosethem for this purpose.

"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God haschosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples whoare on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than anyother people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the

fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oaththat he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mightyhand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king


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of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God whokeeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep hiscommandments, to a thousand generations,(Deu 7:6-9)

God promises to Abraham13

three things:he will give him a place;

he will make of him a nation;

through him all the earth will be blessed.

The place? God was calling Abraham to leave that area of the world now known as Iraqand to go to a country that God would show him, a place we now identify as the land ofPalestine, or Israel, then known as the land of Canaan. What this suggests to us is that Abraham

before the call was a worshiper of pagan gods. He did not belong to a people characterized by

true worship, nor do we have any indication that Abraham was a man of a certain character orreligious quality. All that we know is that God called him and that is when his story began.Time and again this will be a theme in the history of salvation. God graciously reaches down,chooses a man and then disciplines him to be that special messenger through whom the Good

News can be faithfully proclaimed. The reality is that God chooses those whom the world passes by. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolishin the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; Godchose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing thingsthat are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1Co 1:26-29) When Godmuch later in the story chooses David to be King over Israel, he reminds the prophet Samuel whohad been sent to search out Gods chosen King, But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look onhis appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD seesnot as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1Sa16:7) world. Gods Kingdom is not of this world but is of a different kind, not ordered by thestandards of a fallen and needy world but according to truth.

The first step in following the call of God is always a leaving - stepping away from theold and the no longer useful into the new and the eternal. The Bible calls this repentance, turningaround from where we are to head in the direction to which God directs us. It does not meanalways knowing the way that God will lead, but it does always mean following the voice of Godand walking by faith. Abraham is the premier biblical example of one who follows, as MartinLuther put it, the bare, naked and unsupported Word of God.

The nation? To Abraham we trace the beginnings of the Jewish people. While Abrahamwas a single individual called to a specific land in which he was only a pilgrim, eventuallythrough his descendants God would bring into being a nation state in the ancient world to whomhe would reveal his laws, statutes and promises. There God would be worshiped in truth and hisglory exalted among the peoples. Israel would be a great nation, large in number and prosperous.


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Abraham is tested at this point, for he marries a woman who is barren. There could be nodescendants in any way that was humanly impossible. This is the very thing God seeks to teach.

When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not onthe basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so

he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" Abraham didn't focus on his own impotenceand say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child."

Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoearound God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the

promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good onwhat he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God bytrusting God to set him right." Rom 4:18-22 (The Message)

The blessing? God would make of Abraham a blessing. Blessed to be a blessing. Godchose Abraham and covenanted to increase him so that blessings could come to the nations.

Neither Abraham nor Israel were chosen for themselves alone. And what would that blessing be?Through him would come the Deliverer who would be the Savior of the nations, Jesus of

Nazareth, the Christ. Many people either do not know or do not duly consider that Jesus was aJew. This is not a casual ethnic identity. Jesus himself said, You worship what you do not know;we worship what we know, for s alvation is from the Jews. (Joh 4:22)

In this covenant arrangement, we see highlighted one other thing that characterizes theway God will give his salvation. It says in Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed the Lord. And the

Lord accepted Abrahams faith, and that faith made him right with God. Abraham illustratesthe way that people are made right with God. It is through faith alone in Gods promises apartfrom works. In the book of Romans the Apostle Paul highlights the principle of faith that playssuch a prominent role in the story of Abraham as the key to understanding Gods plan for setting

people right with himself.

If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainlyhave taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-

story. What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead oftrying to be right on his own." If you're a hard worker and do a good job, youdeserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is toobig for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it--youcould never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked--well, thattrusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.Rom 4:2-5 (The Message)

What makes the promises a reality is entering into what God does for us, not by astringent program of moral rule keeping. No one gets right with God that way, because we allfall short. When people quit trusting in their own ability, believe God for his provision andcommit their lives to service to him, they will really live. The person who is right with God is


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made right through trust. The Apostle Paul backs this up with a quote from the prophetHabakkuk. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "Therighteous shall live by faith." (Rom 1:17) This certainly has to be one of the most significanttruths developed in the covenant with Abraham, and is subsequently seen as the core of theBiblical teaching about our relationship with God. It certainly was there in Adams renewed

relationship with God as he named his wife Eve, mother of the living, even in the face of thedeath that came as a consequence of sin. And in the story of Noah the story of patient faith comesto the fore as Noah builds an ark on dry ground and waits for a predicted flood while jeered andscorned by the people. But Abraham is offered to us as preeminently the man of faith and in sucha way that he is called the father of faith by the Apostle Paul. (Romans 4:16)

Each of the other covenants has a sign of an oath sworn. So does this covenant, the signof circumcision. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and youroffspring 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. (Gen 17:10-11) Circumcision is an oath signed in blood, a life and death commitment to keep covenant

loyalty. Abrahams very body is marked by the covenant. But God also bears the sign of thecovenant.

But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" He said tohim, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ramthree 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 thebirds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drovethem away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold,dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know

for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs andwill be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I willbring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come outwith great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you

shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passedbetween these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram,

saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the greatriver, the river Euphrates. (Gen 15:8-18)

This making of covenant is rooted in an ancient near eastern practice of loyalty oaths between sovereigns and peoples whom they had conquered. Having stipulated covenantregulations and rewards, the victorious king and the conquered king would divide an animal witha tre nch between the pieces filled with the animals blood. The kings would then walk betweenthe split parts saying, may it be to me as this animal if I do not fulfill the terms of the covenantmade this day. (The Hebrew word for covenant is berit , meaning to cut; therefore, covenantsare said to be cut rather than made). The conquering king promises rewards to the conqueredking if he remains faithful. The conquered king can be assured of fidelity and blessings if hefulfills his part of the agreement. Note, however, in Abrahams vision, that only God (symbolized


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by the flaming torch) passes through the pieces. Surely this means that God himself willguarantee the permanence of the covenant, even to the point of taking upon himself the just

penalty of death o n the occasion of the conquered kings failure to live up to his covenant duties.Does this not point to the Messiah who would die on the cross, not for his own sins but as asacrifice for the sins of the world?

This is why the covenant made with Abraham is characterized as the Covenant of Promise. Itis pure grace, guaranteed at the cost of Gods own life. Abraham could not improve upon it, addto it, or in any way certify it. It was all Gods doing, all Gods loving, all Gods giving. Thekingdom of God would not be a kingdom man could build through his own skill andrighteousness. Sheer gift. It is no wonder that Abraham becomes the model for the NewCovenant realities that Jesus Chris ushers in 2,000 years later.

COVENANT WITH MOSES

The Covenant of Law

The period from Abraham to Moses is called the Patriarchal Period, the time of thefathers. It is the time when the focus is on the immediate descendants of Abraham and theirfamilies: Abrahams son Issac, grandson Jacob (who is renamed Israel by God and after whomthe nation will be named), and Jacobs twelve sons. These twelve sons will form the tribes ofwhat will become the Israelite nation. It is during the time of Abrahams grandson Jacob that afamine strikes the land of Palestine, and Jacob and his twelve sons go to the land of Egypt forfood. In time they end up as slaves to the Egyptians and for 400 years live there in bondage.

Israels history stalemated. Where were the promises of a special land and the special blessing Israel was to be? God moved to establish a covenant with a man named Moses, a Jewishexile who had fled from the land of Egypt and now shepherding flocks in the wilderness of theSinai peninsula. It was through Moses that Israel would be delivered out of Egypt and beestablished as a nation, complete with rulers, a constitution and a homeland, the three essentialsof a nation building. They would be transformed from a loose confederation of clans into akingdom that takes its place among the nations of the world. By the time of Moses, Israelnumbered some two million people. They are on their way to becoming the great nation that God

promised in the covenant made with Abraham.

Moses is THE towering figure in the Older Testament . Moses and Jesus are the twochief figures in the Bible and represent promise made and fulfillment granted. (See Hebrews 3:1-6) Moses was really a type of the Christ who was to come.

Observe these parallels:

Moses, like Jesus, was a lawgiver , delivering to Israel Gods TenCommandments;


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Moses, like Jesus, was a prophet , speaking Gods Word to the people;Moses, like Jesus, was a deliverer, rescuing the people from bondage;Moses, like Jesus, was a mediator, bridging the gap between God and the people;Moses, like Jesus, was a pioneer who led the people to a new land - Moses ledthem to Palestine, but Jesus leads us to heaven.

As Abraham chiefly represented the principle of promise in making people right withGod, Moses illustrated the principle of obedience as the primary character of Gods people .Through Moses God made plain to the people the priority of holiness. You shall be holy for Iam holy, God said to the people through Moses. It is during this covenant arrangement that wefind pointed emphasis on the place of Gods righteous character and the necessary purity ofGods people. To come near God and experience the benefits of his presence meanscommitment to his righteousness. And thus this covenant with Moses is characterized as theCovenant of Law.

It is also during this covenant period with Moses that there is a shift in focus of a sort.

Previous to the time of Moses there was a distinct emphasis on Gods plan for the world and thesalvation of all, even with the Abrahamic narrowing to a specific family, for even then the verycovenant had an eye to the blessings of the nations. But with the Mosaic covenant there is analmost exclusive focus upon one people. This is as we would expect it to be, for the emphasis ofthis period is on holiness, which is separation from the world and being set apart for God. Godsuniversal purpose of salvation is not lost from view. But front and center is his design that the

people whom he would save be holy and consecrated for holy use.

We could say that the development of the history of salvation is like a tree. The rootsystem is the covenants made with Adam, Noah and Abraham with their emphasis on Gods bigand broad purpose of saving all. Then for a time that purpose flows through the narrow channelsof Israel during the time of Moses and King David, until it flowers in the coming of Christ who

brings salvation to the nations.

Time ofChrist

Covenantswith

Moses & David

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Noah

For a time there is a narrowing of Gods saving stream so that the scouring of Gods saving purposes would go deep and run fast and clear.

The covenant that God makes with Moses is recorded in Exodus 3. There God appears toMoses (circa 1500 BCE) through a burning bush while he was tending his flock. God revealedthat he had heard the cry of his people groaning in slavery and in remembrance of the covenantwith Abraham was now choosing to send Moses back to Egypt to lead his people to the land ofCanaan from which they had come 400 years before. It will be Moses task to free the slaves,guide them to Promised Land, and organize the Jews into a nation exclusively set apart for thetrue worship of God. To Moses will be given Gods Law, the framing of ritual worship completewith temple 14, priests and sacrifices and life under the direct guidance of the Lord their God. Intemple worship, complete with its sacrifices, Israel will learn the lesson, without the shedding ofblood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Heb 9:22) Sin incurs a penalty. No man transgressesGods law freely. As the Ezekiel puts it, the soul that sins shall die. (Ezekiel 18:20)

There are several things to note about this covenant arrangement with Moses . First , toMoses God reveals his special covenant name. Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the peopleof Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What ishis name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM." And he said, "Say this to the

people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exo 3:13- 14, my translation) Gods name is inHebrew a single word, the first person singular of the verb to be, I am. God has been

previously designated Elohim, meaning god. This is god in the generic sense of the term. It is ageneral all purpose designation for the deity. But when he cuts a covenant with Moses he revealsthat special name by which he is to be called. Old Testament scholars translate this word asYahweh, what the Hebrew would sound like.

The Jewish people, out of reverence for the name and in obedience to the second command prohibiting taking the name of the Lord in vain, fenced in the law and ruled out pronouncingthe name altogether. When they copied Hebrew manuscripts, they would not write the nameYahweh. Instead they would take the vowel sounds of Yahweh and combine them with theconsonants of the word Adonai, meaning lord. The combination together would yield the newword Jehovah. For some this is a favorite name for God, but, as you can see, it is a constructedname and is not a name for God in the Bible.

The covenant name for God, Yahweh, reveals the deep character of the God whom Israelwas called to worship and who Christians praise . A god-in- general will not do! The true Godof heaven and earth is of a certain nature with specific characteristics. The I AM name pointsto Gods aseity, that God is self -sufficient, needing nothing outside of himself to be who he trulyis and to do what he desires to do. He has no origins and is obligated to no one. This is muchdifferent than eastern religions where the world is a manifestation of a god and in some sensenecessary to its god. The world and god are one, a pantheistic worldview. God is not personal butan it, a life force, a consciousness of some kind. It does not answer prayer, intervene in history,create or extinguish, judge or save. It has no will, desires, words or loves. Salvation in the eastern


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By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would nothave known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing anopportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart

from the law, sin lies dead. (Rom 7:7-8) A serious encounter with the Law will lead the sinnerto Christ as the only true Savior from sin. The Law condemns, not because it is a curse, but

because we encounter it as sinners. The A postle Pauls encounter with the holiness of the Lawled him to groan, Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom7:24)

In the New Covenant, to jump ahead for a moment, the law will be placed within the heart.God will work an inside job. Instead of the Law code standing over us to condemn, it will be aheart desire with strength given to obey. (Jeremiah 31:33) Instead of a heart of stone, we will begiven a heart of flesh. Instead of dread and a sense of condemnation with conscience constantlyaccusing, there will be joy in the law of the Lord. In this life there will be no perfect obedience.We will remain sinners even as we grow in conformity to the image of Christ. But the increase oflight and purity will delight the soul and gain for us a liberty heretofore unknown.

The tragedy of the Judaism of Pauls day is that it failed to realize the transitory character ofthe Mosaic Covenant and that it would someday give way to New Covenant realities. Jesusconstantly confronted the legalism and strict observances of codified holiness that the Jewsdeveloped in order to be right with God. They fenced the law, as it has commonly been referredto. Surrounding each biblical prescriptive, they developed whole other layers of regulations toensure that they would not carelessness transgress. Soon the layers became equal to the core. ByJesus time, the rather brief and focused codes of Mosaic legislation had evolved to a complexsystem of ritual observances that tied burdens on the backs of the religiously sincere and madereligion a damning thing. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrite s! For you travel across

sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twiceas much a child of hell as yourselves. (Mat 23:15)

COVENANT WITH DAVID

The Covenant of the Kingdom

Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and up to the border of the Promised Land.Joshua, Moses successor, brought them into the land of Canaan to settle there as their home.During this period, 12 Judges the led the nation. Their stories are recorded in the Book of Judges.This period of time (circa 1350 BCE.) covered Israels entrance into Canaan to the rise of Samueland Saul (mid-11th century), approximately 300 years.

These were individuals God raised up from time to time to bring Israel out of theirspiritual lethargy and rebellion against God and to deliver them from their enemies who hadgained strength over them by reason of Israels weakening through sin. Without a king orspiritually focused center of leadership such as they had during the times of Moses and Joshua,


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Israel often forgot their loyalty oaths to Yahweh. The theme of Judges is the downward spiral ofIsraels national and spiritual life into chaos and apostasy, showing the need for a godly king tolead it (17:6; 21:25). Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The cycle was predictable:trouble, prayer to God for deliverance, Gods answer to prayer through sending judges to deliverthem, peace, forgetfulness of God, trouble, prayer, etc. This is not a repetition to which we are

totally foreign today. Times of peace and prosperity are every bit of a challenge, even more, thanaffliction. We grow lazy and fail to realize how dependent we are on the daily provision of theLord. Those whom the Devil cannot cause to fall through pain can be ensnared in unbeliefthrough prosperity, like the parable of the rich man who built more barns to contain his wealthand forgot that his very soul was to be called to account

The most famous of the Judges is Samson, the strong man whose power was in the lengthof his hair. And then there is Gideon, whom God taught that deliverance came not through thenumbers of soldiers but the presence of God. Deborah was unique among the Judges, being thelone woman, bringing to mind that the sin of Eve was not the last word in the plan of redemption.Women would continue to be numbered among the faithful who would hear the voice of God and

offer to him all, even as Mary, the mother of our Lord, would one day do.

It is at this time that Israel begins to desire a King. Up to this moment there had never been any king for Israel but God himself. God had spoken immediately to his people through patriarchs and prophets, such as Moses. But in its desire to be like the nations surrounding them,Israel asked of God for a human ruler. (1 Samuel 8) The immediate circumstance was thedisgrace of the prophet Samuels sons. It seems that among those whom God raised up as Judgesa stream of prophetic ministry and responsibility was sometimes bequeathed to their lineage. Thisdid not always lead to happy endings, for it is clear that righteousness is not passed on todescendants but is a matter of each mans heart. In Samuels case his sons took bribes and

perverted justice. The people of Israel came to Samuel and asked him to appoint a king overthem. It seemed preferable to the apparent ruin into which they would fall given the spiritualtemper of the prophetic leadership of Samuels family. This sets the stage for a newdevelopment in the Covenant of Re-creation , a stage that teaches Gods people a veryimportant lesson -- they will find that only God is a true King, able to lead, provide, and guard.This alone is what sets them apart from all the peoples of the earth.

Samuel was displeased, but the Lord instructed him to go ahead and concede to theirrequest. And the LORD said to Samuel, Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you,

for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Accordingto all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day,

forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice;only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign overthem." (1Sa 8:7-9) Samuel does warn them about the ways of earthly kings who will burden the

people with taxation, slave labor and self-enrichment. But the people refused the warning andcontinued to cry out for a king.

God gave them their king. According to human standards, he was all that a nation coulddesire in a sovereign. He was tall, handsome, and of a soldierly bearing. He would do for a first


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king! Yet this king named Saul lacked one thing essential. He proved to have no true heart forGod. Israel was not just another nation state. They were the chosen people, an instrument of theLord, a people through whom a Messiah would come and by whom the true knowledge of God

preserved and proclaimed. The choice of Saul struck at the heart of Israels mission. Though Saulsoon proved to be powerful in war, he was proud before God. His moment of choice is reported

in 1 Samuel 13. In the essential detail of whether or not he would patiently wait upon the Lordand trust in him, Saul chose self-trust and impatience with the ways of God, and God stripped thekingdom from him. Is this not simply just a replay of what had happened in the Garden of Eden?Soon Saul would fall on the field of battle, and this time God would set before the people a truedeliverer and king, his servant David. As God says to Samuel in anointing the new king, The

LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on theheart." (1Sa 16:7)

David was a ma n after Gods own heart who would shepherd Israel faithfully and humblehimself bef

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