85: Kingdom Covenants (Kingdom of God 2)

It’s impossible to understand the kingdom of God or Jesus without having a grasp of the history-changing promises God made with Abraham and David.  To Abraham God covenanted the land and to David, a descendant to rule.  Ultimately these two covenants find their fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth–the Messiah.

This is lecture 2 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

defining a covenant

• בְּרִית: agreement, alliance, covenant, pact
  • The brit milah (Hebrew: בְּרִית מִילָה‎‎, pronounced [bʁit miˈla]; Ashkenazi pronunciation: [bʁis ˈmilə], “covenant of circumcision”; Yiddish pronunciation: bris [bʀɪs]) is a Jewish religious male circumcision ceremony performed by a mohel (“circumciser”) on the eighth day of a male infant’s life. (Wikipedia)
• ἡ διαθήκη: a will, covenant, contract
  • Καινή Διαθήκη: new testament
• where do we have covenants in our society?
  • marriage, homeowner associations, airports

Abraham (Land Promise)

Gen 12.1-4: the pre-covenant

• 1 Now 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. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  3 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.”  4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
• move to this land and I will
  • bless you
  • make your name great
  • bless those who bless you and curse those who dishonor you
  • all families of earth will be blessed in you

Gen 12.5-7

• 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
• Abram obeyed: this is the key to everything
• v7 is the first land promise

Gen 17.1-12, 23-27: the blood covenant

• 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”  3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,  4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.  5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
• Abram gets renamed Abraham (a father of a multitude of nations)
  • ironic that the first Hebrew is “the father of many peoples”
• 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
• v7 everlasting covenant!