Old Testament: promises made.
New Testament: promises fulfilled.
Our God is a promise making God. Our God is a promise keeping God. We would do well to look at His promises, study His promises and cling to His promises.
Well, let’s dive into the very beginning. When we read the first couple of chapters of the Bible, it is unmistakably obvious who the main character is. The eternal God is the subject of every verse. God is the main character. God created. God spoke. God saw. God formed. God blessed. It’s all about God. The Bible is not primarily about us and what we should do but it is about God and what He has done. Our lives are the same. Our lives are not primarily about us.
From a very young age I have spoken to my children that they were made by God for His glory. I do not want them to think that they are the center of the universe. I do not want them to think that life revolves around them. It is all about God. Living for our own glory is empty and unsatisfying (believe me, I know). We were created to live for His glory and when we do, we will know true joy.
When we look back to our Bibles, we will see in Genesis 1-11, the good, the bad and the ugly. We see a good God who made a good creation. We see a bad choice that led to bad consequences and we see the ugly and destructive results of sin. Our good God made His special people, Adam and Eve, and placed them in His special place, the garden of Eden, with His special blessing, His very presence, peace and protection.
But as we know, this didn’t last for long. Adam and Eve were given one command and they had a choice. They could trust and obey believing God was good and trustworthy and had their best interests at heart or they could take matters into their own hands, define right and wrong for themselves and disobey their Maker.
Let’s look at the temptation for a moment. The snake comes to Eve and speaks: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” We see something interesting here. The snake wants Eve’s attention to come off of God’s goodness and blessing and to ponder in her mind what the Lord is holding back from her. The very tree she was commanded not to eat from was right next to the most beautiful and wonderful tree in the garden: the tree of life. God’s intention was for humanity to experience eternal life in the paradise of the garden. But Eve’s attention was not on the tree of life right now. Her attention was brought onto the one thing she could not have.
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Eve gets part of it right, but she adds to God’s command (God did not say you must not touch it), but we will move on…
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:1-5 There it is. The snake attacks God’s word. He attacks God’s trustworthiness. “You will not surely die” ‘God’s a liar’ the snake says. ‘Don’t listen to Him’. ‘He is holding something back from you’. Eve is deceived. She believes the lie and eats the fruit and Adam blatantly disobeys and eats as well.
And the world has never been the same.
God’s original intention was to have His special people in His special place with His special blessing. Instead they became fallen people separated from life with God cast out of God’s special place, without the blessing of God’s presence and joy and peace. But He had a plan to restore this blessing.
Right after the fall, we read the first promise in Scripture. God speaks directly to the snake: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Genesis 3:15 This is important. This promise sets an agenda for the rest of the Bible; we are now on a search for the serpent crusher. One of Eve’s offspring, A MAN, will be struck by Satan but this man will ultimately destroy him. I encourage you to read the whole Bible to see this story worked out, but even if you were just to read the first 3 chapters of the Bible and the last 3 chapters of the Bible you would see God’s victory of Satan, death and sin, His rescue of humanity and renewal of all creation. It is beautiful.
After Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden, sin spreads. It takes over the human heart like a disease. It is present in every man and woman born after the fall. It is present in our lives, and if we don’t take efforts to put sin to death daily it will grow and choke out all peace and joy and life. We are in a daily war with our sinful flesh and we must take heed to God’s warning to Cain that sin is crouching at our door and desires to have us but we must master it. We must learn to trust and obey. Cain did not take heed to warning and it ended in the first murder.
Sin continued to spread in Noah’s day until everyone’s heart was evil and selfish and violent. God sent his judgment on sinful humanity with a flood, but he had mercy on one man and his family. He did not have mercy on Noah because Noah was a perfect man. He was not. But Noah walked with God. Noah trusted and obeyed. He built the ark, followed God’s instructions and his family was saved.
You would think that after the flood, as Noah’s family repopulated the earth, they would tell their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren about God’s judgment on sin and grace to their family. You would think there would be a great fear and awe of the Lord and His holiness and goodness. Instead, we see the sinful heart burst forth again. People decided that instead of obeying God’s command to fill the earth, they wanted to do things their own way. They didn’t want to live for God’s glory. They wanted to live for their own. They wanted to build a tower that reaches to heaven to make a name for themselves. They did not want to trust and obey. They wanted to do things their own way. God judges their proud rebellion, gives them different languages and scatters them. Genesis 1-11 is a pretty bleak picture. It shows a downward spiral of sin and destruction. But the tide is about to change.
In Genesis 12 we see the beginning of God’s great reversal plan. In Genesis 12, God’s great rescue plan begins. We go from a big picture of all creation in Genesis 1-11 and then zoom into 1 family in Genesis 12-50. God calls a man named Abram and gives him 3 promises: land, seed, and blessing. God would make Abraham into His special people – Israel – and give them a special place – the land of Canaan, and they would have God’s special blessing:” I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”. Worldwide blessing and redemption was going to come through Abram’s family. Let’s cling onto this promise and remember it as we continue.
Abram would have to respond with trust and obedience. We see a doubt creep in Abram’s mind in Genesis 15: ‘How is this going to happen? We’ve never been able to have kids? ‘God chose a barren woman to the bearer of this blessing! So God takes Abram outside and tells him to ‘“look up at the sky and count the stars—So shall your offspring be.” And Abram believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness. This is amazing. Abram trusts in God’s word, His promise and God says “you are righteous”. This righteousness was not based on Abram’s perfect record of obedience but on his belief! In the same way, if we believe in Jesus life, death and resurrection.…if we believe that He has removed ALL of our sins as far as the east is from the west, we are called righteous! Righteousness is a gift from God that comes by faith to all who believe.
Next Abram asks, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of [the Promised Land]?” So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other.” Genesis 15:9-11 I will admit. This seems odd. Cut some animals in half. Put them opposite each other…what is going on? Bob Deffinbaugh does an excellent job explaining this one:
“In the ancient world of Abram, legal and binding agreements were not put on papers written by lawyers and signed by the parties involved. Instead, the two parties would arrive at a mutually acceptable agreement, and then they would formalize it in the form of a covenant. The covenant was sealed by the dividing of an animal (or animals). In fact, the technical term literally means ‘go cut a covenant.’ The animal(s) was cut in half and the two parties would pass between the halves. It seems that in this oath, the men acknowledged that the fate of the animal should be theirs if they broke the terms of their agreement.”
“As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates” Genesis 15:12-18
This is amazing. Abram falls asleep and the Lord tells Him what will happen hundreds of years in the future. God knows that Joseph’s brothers will sell him to slavery in Egypt; God knows that Joseph will be raised to second in command of all Egypt, God knows that Joseph will save his family in a famine and bring them to Egypt to live. God knows a ruler will come into power that will not know Joseph and his family, God knows they will be oppressed for 400 years and God knows He will deliver them into the land He has promised.
In a normal covenant in these times, both parties would walk through the center of the animal halves promising to fulfill their part of the agreement lest the fate of the animals be theirs. But that is not what happens. Abram is asleep! GOD is the only one who passes through the center of the animal pieces and in essence what this action is saying is ‘let it be done to me what is done to these animals if I do not fulfill my promise!’ God WILL fulfill his promise NO MATTER WHAT. This is the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant.
At the end of Genesis, we see Jacob bless his sons in Egypt, and over Judah there is a very special prophecy: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.” Genesis 49:10 Someone would come from the tribe of Judah who would be a ruler over the nations. So remember this as I we continue the story.
Joseph’s family is now in Egypt. In Egypt this small family of 70 people becomes a nation called Israel. A pharaoh comes into power that does not know Joseph or what he did for Egypt and oppresses the Israelites for 400 years. God indeed delivers them out after 400 years of slavery and they receive God’s law, the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai. In Hosea we see this covenant akin to a marriage covenant: God is pictured as a faithful husband who entered into a covenant with His people at Mount Sinai whereby God’s people committed to be faithful to Yahweh alone. This is when the law was given. This covenant was unlike the Abrahamic covenant as it was conditional, and the blessings of the covenant required obedience from the Israelites. If they disobeyed, there would be curses and chastisement. “Only full commitment to Yahweh as the one true God will assure his full blessing in the land”.
There was great importance at taking God at His word. If the Israelites obeyed, things would go better than they could possibly imagine: there would be blessing, peace, prosperity, God’s protection, life, and fruitfulness. If they disobeyed things would turn into their worst nightmare (see Deuteronomy 28). The curse would involve foreign nations invading and destroying their land, and taking them into captivity. It would be terrifying. If there was any time to take God at His word…it WAS NOW. The problem was that the people did not cling to God’s word but instead picked and chose what they wanted to believe about God. Many made a god in their image. What happened is that instead of going to God’s word to learn about God and His judgments they ended up creating something that became known as Zion theology. They thought “we are God’s people in God’s special place. He will protect us! Nothing bad will happen to God’s special city – Zion/Jerusalem”. So they had a false sense of security and peace because of their bad theology! So God had to send prophets. The prophets pleaded with God’s people to believe God’s Word and to repent or disaster would come! God would surely send judgment if there continued to be social injustice, idol worship, sexual immorality, and religious ritualism. He did not want to send judgment, as we learn from Lamentations 3:33. He does not willingly afflict His people from His heart which is why he warned them again and again through the prophets. But God is faithful to His word and His judgments did indeed happen. Foreign nations invaded the holy land and God’s people were taken into exile. God is faithful to His word.
From all of this we learn a pretty profound lesson on human nature. We see a picture of sin and what it does to us. We see this inward inclination to do things our own way regardless of promises offered and regardless of judgments promised.
But let’s back up a bit. God delivers his people out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery and they receive God’s law, the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai. Here we see a theocracy developed. God is ruler. God is King and people would submit to Him and His laws and find there life in Him. Well, the sinful nature is still rooted in the hearts of the people, and it doesn’t matter how many times they say they will obey, their hearts continue to lead them astray. Immediately after giving the law to the Israelites, Moses goes up to the mountain to meet with God for 40 days. He comes down only to find God’s special people, who had just pledged to be faithful to Yahweh alone, worshipping a golden calf! God calls them to obedience and He calls them to trust and this is the very thing they CANNOT DO. They are slaves to sin.
From here we see how God leads His people, provides for them and brings them to the edge of the Promised Land. 12 leaders are sent to check out the land. They come back full of fear and ready to go back to Egypt…back to slavery. Only 2 men trusted God’s word and were ready to take the land: Joshua and Caleb. They were the faithful few. God judges Israel by causing them to wander in the desert for 40 years until their death, but he blesses Joshua and Caleb and they are the only Israelites that ever get to set foot in the Promised Land.
You would think that upon entering the Promised Land things would be pretty good. Wrong again. Let’s read how quickly they forgot about God: “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.” Judges 2:10 Only 1 generation later, people did not know the Lord OR what He had done for Israel. Parents obviously did not disciple their children as Deuteronomy 6:6-9 commanded! From here we see the cycle of judgment that prevailed during the time of the judges.
Eventually, the people cried out for a king. “We want a
king over us! Then we will be like all the other nations!” (read 1 Samuel 8).
This was really a wicked thing. Samuel cries out to God to tell Him and God
says “they have not rejected you, Samuel, but me as their king” 1 Samuel 8:7.
So God gives them a king. The first king of Israel is King Saul. He starts okay
but shows himself to be proud and disobedient. He justifies himself and does
not obey the word of the Lord. God rejects him and seeks a man after his own
heart. God chooses David. David was from the tribe of Judah. Do you remember
anything about the tribe of Judah?
David was not a perfect man. He did some pretty horrible
things (murder and adultery to name a few). But there was something different
about David. He was repentant. He was the one who said ‘against you and only
you have I sinned Lord and done what is evil in your sight!’ I encourage you to
read Psalm 51 to see David’s contrite and broken heart over his sin.
Later in David’s life he realizes that he is sitting in
his palace while God is still dwelling in a tent! He expresses a desire to the
prophet Nathan to build a house for God. Nathan hears from God that night. God
says David will not build a house for Him, but God would build a house for David! Let’s read:
“Now then, tell my servant
David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from
tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone,
and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name
great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place
for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their
own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as
they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders
over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
“‘The Lord declares
to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your
ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and
blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house
for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be
his father, and he will be my son...But my love will never be taken away from
him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house
and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established
forever.’” 2 Samuel 7:8-16
David will not build a house for God, but God would build
a house for David: a royal dynasty. And through this dynasty, God would
establish a King who would rule forever.
This would be the king who would make all things right. This was the Davidic Covenant; an unconditional covenant that God
would bring to pass. This gave Israel & Judah great hope during and after the
exile.
Just as God had promised, David’s son Solomon built the
first temple for God. Solomon passed on the kingship to his son Rehoboam. It
didn’t go so well. The kingdom split into two: northern Israel and southern
Judah (which consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin). The temple resides
in Jerusalem in Judah, so God’s people could only worship Him as they were
commanded if they were in Judah. Israel however sought to establish their own
worship centers in Dan and Bethel: 2 golden calves. You can imagine things did
not go so well there. Israel had 19 evil kings that led the people into idolatry
among other evils. Eventually the Assyrians took over Israel in 722BC. The
Assyrians scattered the Israelites over the empire. The Israelites that intermarried
with gentiles became known as the Samaritans.
Judah was also taken into captivity in Babylon in 586BC.
But God promised it was just for 70 years – and they remained a distinct people
group there – the Jews (short for people of Judah).
During Babylonian captivity, the prophets encouraged
God’s people with a new hope: a new
covenant was promised. The Old Covenant could not continue with their
disobedience; only judgment would result. God would have to enable obedience. God promised a new
heart and a spirit; God Himself would cause them to obey. Let’s look at the
passages.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of
Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that
they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law
within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. And no longer
shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the
Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,
declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34
And I will give you
a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the
heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel
36:26-27
God promised forgiveness of sins and inward
transformation. People would be changed; Human nature itself would be changed.
God would make people new creations.
We see Israel had shown 1000 years+ of disobedience. The
Mosaic Law would never bring life or blessing, only judgment. Where the Mosaic
covenant failed, because the law could never change a person’s heart, the New
Covenant would remedy by ensuring heartfelt obedience. This was truly something
to look forward to with anticipation! How was God going to bring this New
Covenant about?! What would He do?? We end the Old Testament with this
expectation and hope.
In all of these themes, we see the Old Testament pointing
towards a future and a fulfillment. We end the Old Testament in expectation.
Promises await fulfilment. It is clear that there is more to come! In the great
reversal plan of the unconditional Abrahamic covenant we see a promise that the
whole earth will be blessed through the Messiah. In the conditional Mosaic
covenant we see ‘the nation through whom world redemption would come’. The
unconditional Davidic King establishes the line in which the ruling Messiah
would come and points to the reign of God Himself over the earth. The Old
Testament closes with an expectation and hope of this future New Covenant. As
we enter the New Testament, and as we start the book of Luke next week, we get
to see this fulfillment in Jesus. His perfect life lived in our place, death
and resurrection inaugurates the New Covenant with its forgiveness of sin, new
heart and enabling power of the Holy Spirit that is received through faith to
any individual who believes.
We have come to see tonight that the Old Testament is a
rich story of God’s plan of redemption to rescue humanity from the destruction
that sin has caused and bring us to a blessed future in a restored relationship
with the Father, with Jesus as our Messiah and King over a renewed creation in
the New Heavens and New Earth. The prophetic books have an important place in
this story as they continue to call people back to their covenant relationship
with God and encourage us with a reminder of God’s sovereign rule over the
world and His final victory over all evil. As we enter into the New Testament
we will come to see Jesus as the fulfillment of all the covenants announced. He
is Abraham’s seed that will bring blessing to the world. He is the faithful
Israelite that was God’s perfect covenant partner and obeyed every law
fulfilling the Mosaic Covenant. He is the Davidic King who will rule
and reign over the world. And He is the mediator of the New
Covenant who paid the penalty for our sins bringing salvation to all who repent
and believe in Him as Messiah. We are clearly shown that Jesus is the One to
whom all Scripture is pointing: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. I am excited to enter in the book of Luke next week and explore more
fully how Jesus is the fulfillment of all these covenants.
Let’s pray.
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