Word Studies

Covenant

I. Understanding the Word:
A. Our English word covenant comes from two Latin words con venire, meaning “to come together”.
1. The word assumes that two parties come together to make an agreement involving promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities.
2. The Hebrew word in the Old Testament is berit and occurs 280 times.
3. The phrase that is translated to “make a covenant” is literally translated “to cut a covenant”.
4. Genesis 15:5-23 reflects the covenant-making practice referred to by that phrase.
5. God made a covenant with Abraham and instructs him to cut in half a heifer, a ram, a turtle dove, and a pigeon.
6. During the night a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the pieces.
7. The act may have been a symbolic way of saying, “May this happen to me if I do not keep my part of the covenant.”
8. In the Ancient Near East, a covenant is handed down by a sovereign to his subjects.
9. The sovereign promises to protect his subjects if they keep their part of the covenant.
10. The laws in the Old Testament are very much Israel’s part of the covenant.
B. The Greek word used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) to translate berit and used in the New Testament is diatheke. [dee-ath-ay'-kay]
1. Interestingly this word can mean either covenant or testament.
2. The word appears 33 times in the New Testament.
3. The author of Hebrews uses the word diatheke first as covenant and then transitions to use it as a testament or will in Hebrews 9:15-22 as can be seen in many English translations.
4. It is likely that the use of the word in Hebrews has led us to call the major divisions in our Bible the Old Testament and the New Testament instead of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
C. It is significant that God made a covenant with Noah after the flood, a covenant with Abraham, a covenant with Israel after the exodus from Egypt, a covenant with David, and a new covenant inaugurated with the blood of Jesus.

II. Reading the Word:
A. Genesis 9:8-17 contains God’s covenant with Noah.
1. Genesis 15:9-20 contains His covenant with Abraham.
2. Deuteronomy 29:1 mentions the covenant with Israel at Mt. Horeb (Sinai) and again confirmed in Moab.
3. 2 Samuel 7:5-16 records Gods covenant with David and the promise that his throne would be forever.
4. Jeremiah predicts the coming of a new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34.
5. In Luke 22:14-22, as He institutes the Lord’s Supper, Jesus tells the disciples that the cup is the new covenant of His blood.
B. The longest discourse regarding the covenant in the New Testament appears in the book of Hebrews.
1. The author uses the word 21 times, more times than all the rest of the New Testament.
2. Hebrews 9:15-28 is though to be most important because the author begins by using our word covenant.
3. He clearly uses it in this way, in chapter 8, where he proclaims, after a discussion of Melchizedek’s high priesthood, that Jesus is the high priest of a better covenant.
4. He cites Jeremiah 31:31-34 in which Jeremiah predicts the New Covenant.
5. In Heb 9:15, the author tells his readers that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant.
6. He discusses the fact that where there is a will (covenant, diatheke), there must be a death.
7. He then comes back to the use of diatheke as covenant when he informs his readers “not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.”
8. Jesus’ blood is offered to bear the sins of many once and for all.

III. Preaching the Word:
A. The covenant that God made with Israel is at the heart of the Bible.
1. He promised His care and protection and required of them obedience.
2. Understanding the similarities and differences between the old covenant and the new covenant under Jesus is vital for proper understanding of the Bible.
B. “It is not too much to say that the covenant conception came to dominate Israel’s thought about her relationship to God.”
C. “The idea of a covenant is fundamental to the Bible’s facts.’
1. At its most basic, the covenant presents God’s desire to enter into a relationship with men and women created in His image.
2. This has been reflected in the repeated covenant refrain, “I will be your God and you will be My people” (Exodus 6:6-8; Leviticus 26:12, et al.).
3. This covenant is all about relationship between the Creator and His creation.
4. The idea may seem simple, however, the implications of covenant and covenant relationship between God and humanity, are vast.
D. In a covenant, negotiation has no place.
1. The greater in grace, offers His help, the initiative is His.
2. “Gift” is descriptive of covenant as “negotiation” of descriptive of contract.
3. Both covenant and contract have obligations, but with this difference.
4. The condition set out in a contract require fulfillment of terms, the obligation of a covenant is one of loyalty.
5. A covenant, commonly, is forever, a contract for a specified time period.
6. A ticking off list of terms, in a checklist fashion, can reveal a broken contract, and the point of brokenness can be clearly identified.
7. A covenant, too, can be broken, but the point at which this transpires is less clear, because, here the focus is not on stipulations, one, two, three, but on a quality of intimacy.
8. Of all the differences between covenant and contract, the place in the covenant of personal loyalty is the most striking.

IV. Ancient Grace in a Covenant Genesis 15:13-21
A. People often, think of grace as being somewhat exclusive to the New Covenant.
1. However, grace is embedded in the Old Covenant, particularly in the Covenant of Promise God establishes with Abraham.
2. So important is this covenant that Paul declares it to be superior to even the Law of Moses (Galatians 3:16-19)
3. This truth would have been considered rather startling to Torah-bound Jews, and therefore it needs some careful unpacking.
B. In the Pivotal moment of Bible history found in Genesis 15, God does an utterly amazing thing!
1. The astonishing nature of this covenant moment is revealed in the “cutting” of the covenant.
2. In Abraham’s day, the two covenant partners were to walk together between the pieces of dead animals, vividly indicating the consequences for the one who might break the agreement,
3. However, in this passage, God walks alone between the dead animals while Abraham sleeps.
4. God takes sole responsibility for ensuring that the ultimate focus of God’s promise, Jesus, would unquestionably be a future reality.
5. Abraham’s great “seed”, Jesus, about whom the promise was ultimately made, would most certainly come. (Galatians 3:16)
C. The Hebrew’s writer later expands on just how certain God’s promise would be.
1. By promise and by oath, neither of which could be violated by the Lord, the redemption found in Christ was assured (Hebrews 6:13-18).
2. A covenant made by God is the strongest basis for hope any person might obtain.
3. In the Covenant of Promise, the most significant covenant prior to Jesus, God made the basis of our hope doubly sure!
D. Now, let us pause to pointedly reflect on the implications of this great covenant moment.
1. The God of all creation so loves me and all those created in His image that He is willing to solidify His promise with a death oath.
2. Our God reaches down to our humble estate in a manner so arresting we are lift to marvel at His amazing grace.
3. Covenant is an astounding word when we pause to consider how our Father obligates Himself to each of us through it (Psalm 8:3-4)
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? (Psalms 8:3-4)
4. We should be mindful of and give special attention to the incredible way in which God has declared His gracious love for us through a covenant; and allow this grace to instill hope and thanksgiving in all we do.

V. The Cost of Covenant Matthew 26:39
A. As we observed in the last lesson, the covenant God made with Abraham is a death covenant in which God assumes full responsibility for providing a Savior.
1. The penalty would be carried by God alone for any breach of this covenant.
2. Therefore, it became necessary for Immanuel (God with us) to suffer the consequences for our covenant failures (1 Peter 2:24)
B. This obligation God swore to assume is one that would be paid on the cross by His Son.
1. We dare not think, therefore, Jesus’ plaintive prayer in the garden is somehow about the physical pain of the cross.
2. Many men have been scourged and crucified, many in defiance of the pain as they spit in the eye of Rome.
3. NO, it is not the pain, great as it would be, that Jesus dreads in the depths of His spirit.
4. In ways we cannot fathom, the Son would suffer being forsaken, because of our sins.
5. This is the agony Jesus finds completely foreign to His nature (Matthew 27:46; Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 12:2).
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" (Matthew 27:46)
6. How much more will we feel forsaken if we are not found faithful after death?
C. God is a Covenant keeper.
1. When He by both promise and oath made sure His covenant commitment to Abraham (Hebrews 6:16-18), He saw the cross at the end (1Peter 1:20).
2. This awareness infuses even greater appreciation into our faith.
3. Knowing the end from the beginning the Father does not hesitate to make covenant obligations to us all.
D. Now, lets revisit the garden.
1. Jesus does not avoid His hour: it is for the hour of His death that He has come to the world (John 12:27).
2. His disciples would not accept this; they have allowed no place for a crucified Messiah (Matthew 16:21-23).
3. Many “messiahs” had come only to die.
4. They only hear the negative; the fact of a resurrection after three days simply does not register.
E. So, there is Jesus praying.
1. His hour has come.
2. His closest friends are asleep while He agonizes alone.
3. His betrayer has hatched his plot.
4. A rough band is coming to arrest, humiliate, torture, and kill Him.
5. Satan will appear to win.
6. Jesus, however, is not deaf to the promise of the resurrection.
7. Beyond the seeming defeat would be a victory over all things opposed to God (Philippians 2:5-11).
8. May we remember God’s covenant, God’s loyalty to even sinners like us, the victory snatched from the jaws of defeat (Revelation 12:3-5), and the hope we have because of the faithfulness of God.

VI. The New Covenant Hebrews 8:6-13
A. The covenant God made with Moses was a parenthesis (Galatians 3:17).
1. It was a “baby sitter” to keep the unruly Jews from completely self-destructing (Galatians 3:24).
2. It was a restrictive bridge to take them from the promise all the way to Jesus, the seed of the promise (Galatians 3:16, 23-25).
B. We now, however have come to the New Covenant.
1. It is foretold by Jeremiah in specific language (Jeremiah 31:28-34)
2. It is preserved in Hebrews 8:6-13 and this revelation is the longest quote of the Old Covenant found in the New Covenant.
3. We are walking here among majestic landscapes as we breathe in this rarified spiritual air.
C. Note especially what the Hebrew writer shares with us.
1. From the moment Jeremiah writes the words “New Covenant”, the Old starts to become “obsolete”.
2. It begins “growing old” and it is “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).
3. There is much history here often lost on a casual reader.
D. Jeremiah writes at the time of the Babylonian captivity, the time when Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed.
1. During this time Ezekiel reveals both the priesthood and the practice of having a king would be irrevocably changed.
2. The two offices would await the coming of the one “to whom judgment belongs”, and He would assume their roles (Ezekiel 21:25-27; Zechariah 6:9-13; Genesis 49:10).
3. Additionally, Ezekiel records the presence of the Lord would depart the temple prior to its destruction (Ezekiel 10-11).
4. It did not return.
E. This is more than just small interest.
1. Jesus, while on earth, could not have served as either a priest or a king (Hebrews 7:14; Jeremiah 22:28-30).
2. Nevertheless, under the New Covenant Jesus would be both a High Priest and the King (Psalm 110:1-4, 29-33; Hebrews 5:1-6).
3. Clearly, the Old Covenant did grow old and vanish away, as was necessary for Jesus to be the great High Priest who is also King.
F. What a remarkable plan God sets in motion as He moves to the time of the New Covenant!
1. God’s Spirit returns, dwelling in the tabernacle of His Son’s flesh (John 1:14) to reign over the New Israel of God (Galatians 6:16) as our perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11-15)
2. We should stand in awe of the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10) as we consider His ways throughout the ages in demonstrating that He is God and there is no other!

VII. The Authority of the New Covenant Hebrews 2:1-3
A. Just as did the Old Covenant, the New Covenant has commandments,
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, (Hebrews 2:1-3)
B. These three verses are quoted not only because of the serious tone they attach to the New Covenant fidelity, but because they are found in the book of Hebrews.
1. If there is a book that puts to rest any notion that one might have of being under the authority of the Law of Moses, that book is Hebrews.
2. The almost exclusive purpose of the book is to both dissuade Jews form returning to Moses’ Law and to persuade them to be loyal to their Priest and King, Jesus.
C. This obviously leads to the question, “What is normative for Christianity?”
1. Since the answer cannot be found in a regression to the Old Covenant, what do we find in the New Covenant, what do we find in the New Covenant to insist that it is the new place to look for things distinctively Christian?
D. The principles relating to God’s nature never change and thus transcend any particular covenant (James 1:17)
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17)
1. For instance, His nature demands He never lies (Hebrews 6:18).
2. However it is equally true that specific matters for the practice of Christianity are found in the New Covenant (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Corinthians 4:6; 10:10-16; Ephesians 4:11-16).
E. A case in point is the Lord’s Supper.
1. This is clearly not found in the Old Covenant.
2. It is in fact a memorial meal commemorating, among other things, the establishing of the New Covenant through the blood of Christ (Luke 22:20).
3. Paul thus references the instructions of Jesus, as revealed by the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant, to give instruction for this memorial (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
F. Therefore in matters relating - to the church, its organization, its worship, and membership, - we have no authority to prescribe anything that is not authorized in the New Covenant.
1. We need to give special consideration to the seriousness of New Covenant authority and seek to follow it so that we “will be found walking in the light of Christ.” (1 John 1:7)

VIII. The Blood of Christ Hebrews 9:11-14
A. Rivers of blood flowed at the temple in Jerusalem.
1. The priestly functions associated with animal sacrifices would have been grotesque in the extreme.
2. Yet for all the blood shed over hundreds of years, not one sin was ever removed by that blood (Hebrews 10:4).
3. Its macabre symbolism, however, pointed to something even more horrible!
B. The blood of bulls and goats is not insignificant: however, it is associated with the prescribed faithful response given in the Old Covenant to obtain God’s gracious forgiveness (Leviticus 2:26; 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 18).
1. But remember, the blood itself provides absolutely no basis for forgiveness.
2. Something more is needed if there is to be an acceptable price paid for our sins.
C. Romans 3:21-26 explains just how true forgiveness at last is obtained.
1. Here we find it is the blood of Jesus that pays the price.
2. This blood is always the true basis of forgiveness from God’s eternal perspective.
3. It has now been brought into our dimension through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord.
D. The Hebrew writer is thus extravagant in his protracted discussion on both the need for the blood of Jesus and the inadequate of animal blood (Hebrews 7-10)
1. As we noted earlier, God accepts the full responsibility for ensuring that the promised Messiah would come.
2. In this He knows He must be personally involved in death for His covenant partner, sinful humanity, to be forgiven their failures.
E. As Job wisely concluded in the long ago, there was a need for someone who could place hands on both man and God, but he knew he was most inadequate for the task (Job 9:30-35).
1. Only Jesus, the God/man, could serve as an adequate mediator and sacrifice (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 1:29).
F. These truths come together in the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
1. Jesus makes it very clear that the New Covenant is going to be a covenant purchased by His blood (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22;20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
2. Atonement is found in Jesus.
3. The New Covenant has been sealed in the blood of Christ.
4. No more do we have an inadequate covenant; the New Covenant contains the blood of Jesus!
5. Let us remember the helplessness we have as a sinner, and magnify the wonderful gift available through the New Covenant, as the covenant bought by the blood of the Lamb!

By Gary D. Murphy

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