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God Is Faithful to Keep His Promises

And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

2 Samuel 7:16
God Is Faithful to Keep His Promises Book Cover

For most of us, the word “covenant” isn’t one we hear on a regular basis. It’s not something we think about. It doesn’t play a role in the ins-and-outs of our day-to-day lives. So, even though we might have an idea of what a covenant is, we might understand its textbook definition, or have even heard it talked about in church, it can be hard to wrap our minds around it, to understand what it means when the Bible says God is “the faithful God who keeps covenant”(Deuteronomy 7:9).

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be exploring God’s work of redemption through a study of five covenants we find in Scripture: the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the New Covenant.

Covenants are often framed as contracts. Two parties enter into an agreement under some kind of mutual understanding. The covenant serves as the formal commitment that each party will keep his end of the bargain as well as outline any stipulations or consequences.

This is the way covenants generally functioned in the ancient Near East, and this is the way the biblical covenants we’ll be studying functioned. But there’s an added dimension unique to the biblical covenant. Each of the covenants mentioned above are highly relational in nature. We can think of them as divine DTRs—specific moments in time when God distinctively moved to define the nature of his relationship with specific people, under specific circumstances, for specific purposes.

The covenants we’ll be studying function in one of two ways, as unilateral covenants or bilateral covenants. Unilateral covenants function as covenants of promise. One party commits himself wholly to some action with no obligation on the part of the other party. The Noahic, Abrahamic, Davidic, and new covenants fit under this category. In bilateral covenants, on the other hand, each participant binds himself to specific obligations and both parties are responsible for meeting the stipulations of their agreement. We’ll see how bilateral covenants work as we study the Mosaic covenant.

We’ll begin our study in Genesis 9 with the Noahic covenant. Here, we’ll see a renewal of God’s commitment to all of creation. We’ll then turn to the Abrahamic covenant just a few chapters later in Genesis 12, where we’ll be reminded of God’s great love for all people of the world. Our study of the Mosaic covenant will bring us to Exodus 24. As the only bilateral covenant in our study, this covenant will give us insight not only into God’s nature but into our human nature as well. Next, we’ll turn to the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7 to learn how God’s promises to David would impact the entire cosmos. Finally, we’ll finish our study with the New Covenant. It is here that each covenant finds its ultimate fulfillment.

While each of these covenants are unique in their own way, they all point to the same good news: God is faithful to keep his promises. And it is through the covenants that we are given an unobstructed view of God’s redemptive work in the world and in the lives of his people.

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God's Unbreakable Promises

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The Tragedy and the Hope

Daily Question

How does knowing God enters into covenants with faulty humanity impact the way you understand God?

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Comments (14)

His love and mercy isn’t dependent on me. He knows me with all my faults and failings yet chose to love me continuously through the promise of Jesus ‘ sacrificial death and resurrection.

Knowing that God enters into convents with humans, knowing that there is a good chance we will fail Him and mess up because we are humans, gives me such great love for Him. It shows that He truly wants good for us; He wants the best for each of our lives, even if we aren’t always the best for Him.

I’ve always wondered why the sabbath covent was changed . The Fourth Commandment is the only one upon which a covenant was made. The two Commandments that are the most lengthy and detailed—the Second and the Fourth—are the ones that most churches have altered for their own convenience. (They often combine the Second Commandment with the First, which diminishes its importance.) We have seen that these churches claim the authority to effectively change the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first. This ignores the fact that the Sabbath is a special covenant, as God said, “between Me and you”

I found it interesting that the Bible points out that right after God makes the covenant with both Noah and Abraham, both men mess up. They are definitely examples of faulty humanity. Yet God chose them and worked His will even through their mistakes. We are all faulty, and yet God still chooses us.

This is about the Sabbath covent …
https://rcg.org/books/tsosw.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7ZiE5c6D8wIVlh-tBh2k5wi6EAMYASAAEgJv7fD_BwE

Sent from my iPhone 8

The fact that God even after we screw up and harm each other physically, emotionally and verbally, disobey His commands, walk away from Him…loves us so unconditionally that He wants to covenant with us…unilaterally. It is beyond my comprehension and I am forever grateful His love never fails.

This impacts my understanding about God, because that means He initially gains nothing from us out of entering into covenants with us. Because of our sinful nature + bend, there’s nothing we can do to uphold + fulfill these covenants. Therefore, it truly helps me to view our relationship with God as one that is without strings. He simply accepted us as we were, and doesn’t just leave us there, but presents another option – to be made new + in relation with Him.

I didn’t really realize that we have these covenants with God. But now I understand why He has loved me and my family unconditionally and brought us out of so many difficult seasons. I’m so very thankful for His promises.

It helps me to know that even though I am not perfect, God loves me and wants the best for me anyways. When I became a believer, I instantly entered into a covenant with God. I have left the covenant several times during my life, but God was always there waiting for me with open arms to come back to him. God had a plan for me before I was even born. Although many bad things have happened to me in my life, he has brought me to a good place and a good life. He has made up for all of the bad in so many wonderful ways! I am truly blessed!

It’s not about my performance
it’s about who He says He is
When a perfect God makes a covenant with a total imperfect person like me, makes me feel secure and safe. Because I know that no matter what I do, I can never break His promises to me.
There are no if clauses in His Covenants!

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