Genesis 2/18/17

GENESIS

February 18, 2017

By Pastor Kim Hickcox

 

(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted.)

 

As promised last week, today we are going to study Covenants. A covenant is a promise or pact between two parties which says Everything I have is yours! Marriage is the most common covenant we still practice today.

 

There are three types of Covenants: Conditional, Unconditional and the third one which actually just reinforces whichever of the other two is already in place and is called a Renewing Covenant.

 

A conditional covenant is one that has been cut; which is to say that both parties must hold up to the conditions that have been set or it can legally be declared null and void. As all of the covenants we are going to look at today are between Almighty God and His people, guess which party needs to do the holding up.

 

 And unconditional covenant is one that has been given or simply established. This of course means that that is no responsibility on our part, but is just a gift from God period.

 

And of course a renewed covenant is just what it says – renewed. Which would imply that it was a conditional one that had somehow lapsed and was now being re-invoked.

 

It is very important for us to understand that the LORD operates through covenants, which is pretty amazing considering the exchange rate! When accepting Y’shua as our Lord and Savior, placing the responsibility of our forgiveness on Him, we give Him everything we have: our pain, guilt, shame, etc. and of course our love to the best of our ability. And HE gives us all His love, power and eternal life! And He never feels gypped! I find that amazing!

 

Each time we take Communion we are renewing our Covenant with our Savior. Luke recorded Y’shua stating that He would not be drinking “from this product of the vine until the Kingdom of God would come.” And then He continued with the lines that we are so familiar with as they are reverently repeated in churches around the world at the time of Communion: “Then having taken the bread, after He gave thanks, He broke it and gave it to them saying, ‘This is My Body which is being given on your behalf: you must continually do this in My remembrance.’ ²⁰Then likewise the cup after they ate, saying, ‘This is the cup of the ReNewed Covenant in My Blood which is being poured out on your behalf.’”   (Luke 22:18-20, bold is in original text)

 

Please note that He said this was a ReNewed Covenant. And it was renewed in His Blood. This was familiar to His Disciples due to Jeremiah 31:30-33 “‘Behold the days are coming,’ says the LORD ‘that I will cut a renewed covenant with the House of Israel, and with the House of Judah, ³¹not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, although I AM husbanding them,’ says the LORD. But this will be the covenant I shall make with the House of Israel. After those days,’ says the LORD, ‘I will out My Torah (Teaching) in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they will be My people. ³³And each person will no longer teach his neighbor and each person his brother saying, “Know the LORD”, for they will all know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ says the LORD, ‘for I shall forgive their iniquity and I shall no longer remember their sin.’” (The 4 word phrase in bold mine for emphasis.)

 

So ours in not a New Covenant, but a ReNewed one! God’s grace and mercy have been from the beginning. Notice that it is conditional. Does that surprise you? It is NOT conditional as far as what we have to do to STAY in covenant, what is conditional is how we come to ACCEPT the covenant in the first place. “Because if you would confess with your mouth the Lord Y’shua and you would believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved: ¹⁰for he believes for himself in his heart into righteousness, and confesses for himself with his mouth into salvation.” Romans 10:9-10

Once we do, it is eternal, as Y’shua Himself assured us. “My sheep know My voice and I know them and they are following Me, ²⁸and I am giving them eternal life, and they would not ever die and no one is able to seize them from My hand. ²⁹My Father Who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to seize them from the hand of the Father. ³⁰We, the Father and I, are One.” John 10:27-30 (Bold is in original text.)

 

So, from last week, we will start with the question Abram left us with last week, which was “Adonai, LORD, how will I know that I shall inherit it?”

 

If you remember last week we talked about promising Abram heirs more numerous than the stars. I find it extremely interesting that he never questioned that – at over 75 years old, but at the end of the conversation just asked how he would know that he would inherit the land. And the answer was this, which seemed to quell all further questions:

 

“And He said to him, ‘Take a heifer for Me, three years old, and a three year old she-goat, and a three year old ram, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.’  ¹⁰And he took all these to Him, and divided them down the middle, and laid each piece one opposite another, by he did not divide the bird.

 

“¹¹And when the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. ¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. ¹³And He said to Abram, ‘Know of a surety that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴And also that I AM will judge that nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. ¹⁵And you will go to your fathers in peace: you will be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶But in the fourth generation they will return here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.’

 

“¹⁷And when the sun went down and it was dark, there was a smoking furnace and a burning flame that passes between those pieces. ¹⁸On the same day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram saying, ‘To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹the Kenite, the Kenizite, the Kadmonite, ²⁰the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Gergashite, and the Jebusite.’” Genesis 15:9-2

 

Note that the Lord waited until Abram was asleep so he would stop interfering as He walked through as “a smoking furnace and a burning flame that passes between those pieces.” Abram didn’t question his inheritance again. The cutting of a covenant was the ancient universal sign of a done deal, which we all need to rest as securely in with ours in Christ Jesus: He everything that was required by us and for us. Believe it, accept it and rest in it – it’s a done deal.

 

Here are all [the other] Covenants listed in Scripture for your interest or study (as they are way too numerous to dissect individually):   

 

1.     Noah – Unconditional

Preservation during the Flood – Genesis 6:18-20

2.     Noah – Unconditional

Never again will all life be cut off by flood – Genesis 9:1-17

3.     Abram – Conditional

Land – Genesis 15:9-21

4.     Abraham – Unconditional

Descendants and Prosperity – Genesis 17:2-21

5.     House of Jacob – Reinforcing

Priesthood for all – Exodus 19:5-6

6.     Israel – Reinforcing

Spiritual Blessings and the Torah – Exodus 24:4-8

7.     Israel – Conditional

Mosiac Covenant – Exodus 34:10-26

8.     Israel – Unconditional

Salt Covenant, the symbol of permanence and reservation –   

                        Leviticus 2:13 and Numbers 18:19

9.     Israel – Conditional

Peace and Deliverance – Leviticus 26:1-13

 

10.                       Phineas – Unconditional

Peace and Everlasting Priesthood – Numbers 25:11-13  

                                    (Reward for Zeal)

11.                        Israel – Conditional

Warning and Reward – Deuteronomy 29:9-14

12.                       Joshua – Conditional

Serve and Obey: Reward of Inheritance – Joshua 24:24-28

13.                       All people – Unconditional

Messiah and Deliverance – Isaiah 42:1-9

14.                       All people – Conditional

God’s Covenant expanded to all people – Isaiah 55:1-6

15.                       Zion – Reinforcing

The Promised Redeemer – Isaiah 59:20-21

16.                       Israel – Conditional

Descendants – Isaiah 61:8-9

17.                       Israel – Conditional  

Renewed Covenant – Jeremiah 31:30-34

18.                       Israel – Conditional

Restoration – Jeremiah 32:40-42

19.                       Israel – Reinforcing

Discipline and Obedience – Ezekiel 20:37-43

(This reinforces the Conditional Covenants)

20.                       Flock of Messiah – Conditional

Messiah, Peace, Blessings, Deliverance, Prosperity –

Ezekiel 34:23-31

21.                       Children of Israel, including us – Conditional

Restoration, Messiah, Peace, Permanence –

Ezekiel 37:21-27

22.                       The Bride – Conditional

Eternal Life – Hosea 2:20-22

                        The Marriage Covenant is of course available to all!

 

SHALOM!