THE KEY TO THE BIBLE, STUDENT - 5th SESSION

GET ACQUAINTED – Other half relate the story of your conversion or tell about your family/church background.

 

What insights did you bring to share?

 

THE COVENANTS

·        A covenant describes a relationship in terms of obligations, consequences, and guarantees (promises), much the same as a contract.  Its provisions were divinely imposed and were therefore nonnegotiable and unchangeable.  Human covenants were very common in Old Testament times and therefore were an easily understood concept through which God revealed His plans.  The connection between Christ and the covenants is seen in both the Old and New Testaments.  Isaiah, speaking of the coming Messiah says in Isa.49:8, "I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people."  In Malachi 3:1, God says, "and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple [quoted in Mt.11:10], and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold He is coming…"  In Zechariah's prophecy concerning the Messiah (Lk.1:72-73), His coming is "to show the mercy promised to our fathers; and to remember His holy covenant; the oath that He swore to our father Abraham".  Christ is at the heart of all the covenants because redemption is the unifying theme.

The Covenants are progressive in what they reveal.  The promises become clearer as details are added.  Each covenant has a historical context.

·        Read the following covenants, answer the questions, and find the clues: Adam - Gen.2:16-17 (treated as a covenant); Noah - Gen. 9:8-17; Abraham - Gen.12:2-3; Moses (Israel) - Ex.19:3-6; David - 2 Sam.7:8-16; New Covenant - Jer.31:33-34.

CHRIST IN THE COVENANTS

·        Description of the Seed:  The Offspring that would be the Messiah-Savior

·        Identity of the Seed:  Covenant with Adam [The word covenant is not used, but the elements are there.]

Gen.2:16-17

Who are the two parties?

What are the conditions or duties?

What is the guarantee or consequence?

History: After the Fall, God pronounced a curse on Satan, and immediately we see the grace of God entering to defeat Satan and save men.  He's going to "reverse the curse.

Gen.3:15

Who are the two opposing groups?

What is the significance of the seed being "of a woman"?

What is the significance of her offspring being "he"?

Clue #1 ________________________

History: Mankind's degeneration into sin was so great, and God so grieved, that He issued His just sentence of death on the world (Gen 6:6), "I will blot out man whom I've created".  It looks like Satan is winning.  But God had a promise to keep: The seed of the woman was going to crush Satan.  So in His grace, God singled out Noah to continue the human race.

A.   Covenant with Noah  Gen.9:8-10 - With whom did God make this covenant?

Gen.9:11 - What was the promise?

Gen.9:25-27 - What indicates that the prophecy of God's original intention to reverse the curse would be fulfilled through Shem?

Clue #2 ________________________

History: Humanity multiplied and once again, so did its open and united rebellion against God.  Gen.11:4 says they were going to "make a name for themselves" by building a city and a tower - declaring their own power and sovereignty and glory.  Every time Satan thinks he's gotten the upper hand, God steps in.  He broke up their project by confusing their language, scattering them over the earth.  Immediately after the account of this dispersion in Gen.11, we have the genealogy of Shem, showing that God has not lost track of him and his descendents - the line through whom salvation would come.  So enters his offspring, Abram.  Though mankind’s defiance was great, God had vowed never again to destroy “every living creature” (Gen.8:21-22).  So He made another new beginning by calling a man out - to live unto Him in the world.  “The line of disaster and of the ‘curse,’ from Adam, through Cain, through the Food to Babel, begins to be reversed when God calls Abraham and says, ‘in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’”  The New Testament and the People of God by N.T. Wright

A.   Covenant with Abraham  Gen.12:2-3, 7; 17:4-8 - What are the promises?

 

Who are the three "referents" of the seed?

Jn.8:31-33

Gal.3:16

Gal.3:29

 

Clue #3 ________________________

Clue #4 Gen.17:19 ________________________

Clue #5 Gen.26:3-4 ________________________

 

Clue #6 Gen.49:10 ________________________

History: It would be almost 1000 years before the promise of a kingly line came to pass in King David.  After David's reign in Israel was established and there was peace in the land, he told God he wanted to build a permanent house, a temple, for Him.  But God turned around and made a covenant with David.  At the heart of this covenant, He said, Listen to what I am going to do for you - I'm going to build a house for you!

B.   Covenant with David  2 Sam.7:12-13 - How would God build a house for David?

 

Heb.3:5-6; I Pt.2:5 - Who/what is the house?

 

Clue #7 ________________________

·        The Work of the Seed
Covenant with Israel  Gal.3:24; Rom.5:20 - What was the role of the law?

 

C.   New Covenant

History: The New Covenant was promised in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel during;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0in'>Look at the following verses and describe what they encompass - 1 Cor.8:6; Col.1:15-20; Eph.1:17-23; Rev.1:8 ["beginning and end" can also be translated "originator and culminator"].