All right, so we're ready to go, great. Well, thanks for joining us tonight. This will be the first of what should be six sessions. So we'll meet every other Wednesday night through the summer. So unless something unforeseen happens, I think I scheduled this so it doesn't coincide with VBS. I was gonna start a week early, and then Faith told me that was going to conflict, so I said, okay, let's go a week later. because everything revolves around VBS in the summer. That's the way it should be, I guess. So anyway, so we're going to do every other Wednesday evening, Lord willing, and talk about the biblical covenants. So I'll introduce that concept in just a moment, but let's have a word of prayer and ask the Lord's blessing. Dear Father, as always, we come to your word with expectancy and humility. And we're talking about very important concepts. You have initiated covenant relationships with your people, and we're grateful for that. We who live on this side of the cross and Pentecost and have an understanding of these things that the patriarchs could only imagine, it is our privilege, Lord, to look at your word, and we ask that you'll help us Help us to understand how these covenants work, how they function in biblical revelation, and most importantly, how they secure us to Christ. Because in Him are all the promises, yes and amen. So bless us as we study these things and give us clarity and insight. Help me as I teach to be clear and help those who are here to listen intently and to learn and lead us, Lord, to a greater and deeper worship because of what we learn. For it is in Christ's name that we pray this, amen. Amen. Okay, so how many of you have ever really studied the biblical covenants? Can I see your hands? Yeah, a few of you, good, great. So that's what we're going to talk about, and there's some important reasons as to why we're going to talk about the covenants. Tonight, I'm going to give a kind of overview to explain what they are, how they function, what their role is in biblical revelation, and kind of give us a 30,000-foot view from Genesis to Revelation all of these covenants, and why God communicates to us in this way, why He relates to us in this way. He didn't have to, but He chose to. And so why? Why did He do that? What can we learn from these covenants? In the coming weeks, then, we'll look at each one of these covenants in more detail, and it will have some impact on us. There are, in our world, there are three major hermeneutical approaches to the covenants. Anybody know what they are? Yes. Well, theonomy is a subset of one group, so good guess. All right, so we have, I picked up the wrong one, didn't I? Story of my life, except for Melanie. All right, so there is what's known as covenant theology, dispensationalism, and what you'll come to understand if you don't know it already is my view. New Covenant theology, or what sometimes is now called Progressive Covenantalism. Now, what all three of these approaches have in common is that they all believe in a basic unity of the Scriptures. This is really important. What we have in common with our brothers and sisters who may not agree with us on all of the particulars is that everybody believes that even though we have a collection of 66 books inside this Bible, there is really only one author. There are a lot of human authors. But there is one divine author, and there is really one storyline, which we'll talk about tonight. That storyline begins in the Garden of Eden and it ends in paradise. If you were with us last year when we talked about the theology of the Book of Revelation, that was us kind of going to the end and saying, here's how all of these streams that move throughout the 66 books come to a conclusion in the Book of Revelation. So whatever disagreements they have, There is this one agreement that we're talking about one story told in many different ways over a long period of time by different human authors using several different genre. You have historical narrative, you have poetry, you have epistle, you have gospel, you have apocalypse, like the book of Revelation. So there are a lot of ways in which this story is carried along through the Bible. And because it comes that way, a lot of people get lost in the storyline. You know, they get to the Song of Solomon, and you're going, what's this about? And why is it in our Bible? Come to the book of Esther, where the name God is not even in the book. And you go, okay, why is Esther there? Well, I'm not going to be able to answer all of those questions over six weeks. But what I want to give you is a basic framework that will help you put the pieces together to a greater or lesser extent. So all three of these positions have significant disagreements, but the agreement is that there is one story and that story ultimately leads to Christ. He's the hero of the story. If you're reading the Bible and you keep putting yourself in the heroic role, you're missing the point. The Bible is not Aesop's fables to teach us a whole set of moral lessons so that we become better people. Now, it does teach us lessons. It addresses questions of ethics and morality. There's no doubt about that. But the real point of the story is not us. The real point of the story is God's saving work for us in Christ. And so, what we'll see as we study these covenants, and this is what should get you excited, is that the covenants progressively reveal Christ. Now, this is my attempt at a diagram. It's not very good. I will acknowledge that. But I want you to think of these covenants as one of these old time spy glasses that sailors had, and they extend outward, and the barrel gets larger and larger as it gets outward. This is what the covenants do. The covenants are looking off into the future, anticipating something that's coming. And as the covenants unfold, the vision gets clearer. It gets less foggy until we finally get to the new covenant, which is mediated by whom? that we now have it all come into focus and we go, okay, now I get why in Genesis chapter 21 or 22, God says to Abraham, take your son, your only son, the son that you love, talk about pressing hard on a sore place, your son, your only son, the son that you love, and take him up to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. It's much, much later in the story that we find out where Mount Moriah is. And we find that there is another son, an only son, a son that God loved who is offered as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. Well, you don't know that. You know, what you always have to try to do as you're reading the Bible is forget all of the stuff you already know. To try to pretend that you're coming to it with fresh new eyes for the first time so that as you're moving progressively through it, things are being uncovered. You go, wow, wow. Alright, so that's what this diagram is designed to do. Think of it as that spyglass that's getting extended and the barrel is getting larger so that we ultimately come into focus and the focus is on the cross, the resurrection, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, so let's get going. So tonight, let's talk a little bit about definitions. Here are the elements in a biblical covenant. This is on your first page, that first point up there. Now, I'm thinking in particular about divine human covenants, although there are human human covenants in the Bible. Can you think of one? I mentioned one, I think, not last Sunday, but the Sunday before. Who was it with? See how many of you were snoozing during the sermon? Who was it with, remember? David and Jonathan. Jonathan knows David is going to become the next king, not him. And you would think that would make him jealous because we have a lot of jealousy in the Old Testament, especially with people who are going to become king and they're not. Think about David's son Solomon as opposed to one of the other boys. So they make a covenant together. So this is true of their human covenants, but this I'm thinking in particular of covenants between God and mankind. Here are the elements. Number one, these are elected relationships rather than natural relationships. Now look at that again. Elected relationships rather than natural relationships. God chooses to make a covenant with Abraham as opposed to Abraham's neighbor. He chooses to make a covenant with Israel, his chosen people, rather than the Hittites, or the Egyptians, or the Aztecs, or Americans. It is an elected, chosen relationship. Secondly, it's between two parties that involves obligations, usually on both parties. Okay? So God says to Abraham, Abraham, I'm going to cut a covenant with you. And he has a covenant ceremony in Genesis chapter 15. Do you remember it? It's a really strange story. So he takes Abraham out at night, and he puts him in a vision. And in this vision, he confirms to him the promises. Abraham, I'm going to give you a great seed. I'm going to make your name great. You're going to be a blessing to all of the nations of the earth. I'm going to give you land. All of this I am going to promise you. And then Abraham looks, and there is an aisle. And on either side of this path are dead carcasses. Animals. Animals that have been killed and cut into pieces. And those pieces are lined on either side of the path. And then, as Abraham is watching in this vision, he sees this smoking pot that levitates off the ground. and begins to move toward him. What was all of that about? Well, it was about this. That smoking pot represented God. And God is moving between hacked up pieces of animals. Why? What's the symbolism? Well, if you're a king in the ancient world, And you've got a vassal king, you've conquered their nation, you've taken over their territory. And you are now cutting what we'll see in a moment is called a suzerain, royal suzerain covenant, where you're the big dog, he's the little dog, and you want to impress upon him that you expect him to pay tribute every year. Remember we've been studying in Hosea about Hosea, the last king of Israel, decides, I'm not going to pay the Assyrians anymore. I'm tired of them taxing us. I'll make a coalition with Egypt, and I'll be able to get away from paying my tribute. Well, the Assyrians weren't happy about that. So in these covenant ceremonies, the king would take animals, chop them up, put them on the ground, and then make the vassal walk through. He might also walk with him. What was the symbolism? You pay me or you're going to be chopped up. Right? This was the ancient mob, the mafia in the old world. Right? You're going to pay me for my protection. It was a protection scheme. Now here's the interesting part of the Abrahamic covenant. Who is it that's walking between the cut pieces? It's not Abraham. It's the Lord. And it is the Lord saying to Abraham, if I fail to do all that I have promised you to do, may I be cut up like these animals that are lying on the ground. He does the same thing with Noah. What's the sign that the Lord gives to Noah? It's a bow. What kind of bow is it? Not the kind of bow you put on a birthday present. Yeah, but what's a rainbow? It's a warrior's bow, right? That's what it is. Which direction is the bow pointing? Is it pointing down toward Noah and humanity? Or is it pointing up toward God? And it's God saying, Noah, I am never going to destroy the earth again by water, but if I do, may I be pierced through. So there are obligations invested in these covenants and they are formalized by oaths with penalties for a failure to fulfill the obligations and ratified by a visual ritual. So Aidan and Emma just got married and I made this point in the wedding ceremony. That's what they're doing. Now we don't have chopped up body parts that are out there to warn them about future divorce. This is going to happen to you if you guys don't stay married together. We don't do that. But we formalize the ceremony in front of witnesses where they give pledges to one another. They're not giving rainbows. They're not giving circumcision. They're not giving baptism, the kind of signs that the Lord gives us in His covenant promises. Instead, they give rings to one another. Rings to one another. Okay. So here's some definitions. Here's from Welleman Gentry. A biblical covenant is a relationship involving an oath-bound commitment. I swear, you swear, in a formal ceremony, that's it. It's a relationship involving an oath-bound commitment. Here's another person quoted by Willem and Gentry, a covenant in its normal sense is an elected as opposed to natural relationship of obligations under oath. Williamson puts a little more to this and I think this is a really good definition. It is the solemn ratification of an existing elective relationship involving promises or obligations that are sealed with an oath." Now notice, he says it's the solemn ratification of an existing elective relationship. Now this is important. The biblical covenants seal the promises to those for whom it is given. But the relationship with those people has already begun. So the Lord gives a covenant to Noah. When does that covenant happen? After the flood. But Noah already had a relationship that spanned hundreds of years before that with the Lord. How about Abraham? What's the first time that the Lord gives a covenant, cuts a covenant with Abraham? Genesis chapter 12. But before Genesis chapter 12, the Lord had called Abraham to leave his country, Ur of the Chaldees, and to go to a place that ultimately would show him. The relationship already existed. The covenant simply formalized the relationship. So you go forward, and that's true. David, another example. David is chosen to become king before the Lord ever cuts the Davidic covenant with David. So it's an elective, not natural relationship. You don't become a Christian because of your ethnicity or your nationality or because your parents were Christians. The relationship you have with the Lord is an elective, not natural relationship. More on that coming up. Alright, let's talk about covenant treaties in the ancient Near East. Because the Bible isn't the only place that we find these treaties. We find them among the Hittites, among the Assyrians, among other old nations. The Lord often does this, by the way. He likes to take things that are common to the human experience and lift them up and infuse them with meaning that otherwise we would not understand, right? So, we all know what it's like to get to the end of a very hot, dirty, dusty day when we have been working and we just want to get in a tub of water. and just relax and get rid of all the dirt. Now, I don't do that. I get into a shower. But I'm a Baptist, not a sprinkler, so I'm going to say tub of water, alright? Well, the Lord takes that image and he says, okay, let me give you a sign of my covenant that's also related to water. So that you can understand the significance of this covenant that I'm giving you with this kind of emblem. Same thing with the Lord's table. We know what it's like to break bread and eat it. We know what it's like to pour out wine and drink it. So the Lord says, I'm going to take those common elements and I'm going to infuse them with spiritual meaning related to a covenant that my son is going to cut by the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood. So the Lord does that kind of thing. Well, he also goes into the Old Testament and he finds all of these nations that are engaged in these treaties. So there are basically two types, and I'm simplifying here because I can't You wouldn't be interested in all the variations of this. But there are basically two types of treaties in the ancient Near East. The first I've already mentioned. It's a suzerain-vassal treaty. Now, suzerain just means the king that won the war. The vassal is the king that lost the war. Or maybe there wasn't even a war. But the Assyrians have this massive army and they don't even have to attack a nation because the nation knows they're not going to win. So the smaller nation that's about ready to go into war with the Assyrians send emissaries and say, oh, king of Assyria, you know, Sennacherib or Tiglath-Pelezar or somebody, please, please don't invade our land. What can we do to have a relationship with you? and the Assyrian king doesn't want to shed blood with his own people. So he says, here's what we're going to do. Every year I'm going to send emissaries down here and here's what you will pay me. So the king of the lesser nation doesn't like the idea of paying tribute to the Assyrian king, but it's either pay him or die. So he says, okay, we'll pay you. So the Assyrian king says, great, meet me under the oak tree at three o'clock on Friday, and we're going to have a formal ceremony where we're going to ratify this covenant with one another. That's what this is. It's an interstate covenant between two states, two countries, okay? In these covenant documents, you usually had these kinds of things. First of all, there was a title and preamble, which would include the names of the parties. So here is the suzerain name. Here is the vassal name. And they put them right up top. This is the covenant between these two parties. Then there is a historical prologue. where there is a brief history of the relationships between the two countries. So Dan is the suzerain and I'm the vassal and Dan gets to write the contract because he's the big dog and I'm the little dog. So Dan writes the second paragraph to make himself look really good. This contract is between Dan Sager and Tony Buford. Dan is a glorious king. And he goes into all of this flowery language about how great a king he was. And, oh yeah, there's Tony, right? It's kind of an afterthought in the whole thing. That's the historical preamble. Then there are stipulations. Dan says, I will protect you against any other nations that want to harm you. You, on the other hand, will pay me tribute every year. It's a protection scheme, right? There will be a deposit, Dan. What do you want me to give you to ratify this?" Dan says, I'll take those golden goblets that you've got over there because I really like those. We don't have those back in Assyria. Hand those to me. So I give him the golden goblets just like Emma and Aden gave each other rings during this time. There is a list of witnesses. all the officials that are present who are witnessing this. And then at the end, there are curses if Tony fails to live up to the agreements, or if Dan fails to live up to the agreements. And there are blessings for both of us if we both live up to the stipulations that are inside this. All right. We'll talk about these in a little more detail in a moment. Can you think of one of these that resembles a suzerain vassal treaty? Which one? Starts with Mo and ends with Zaic. Yes, somebody said it, I heard them. It's the Mosaic. You open it up and there's the preamble. I am the Lord your God. I alone am the creator of the universe. I called you out of the land of Egypt, the historical preamble. When you were in slavery, I brought you up out of Egypt, and I have blessed you with all of these things. You, stipulating now the other party, you are my people. The one that I have loved, the one that I've chosen, the one that I've called, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm now ratifying a covenant that I'm making with you. Hear the stipulations. You shall have no other God before me. You shall not make to yourself a graven image. On and on and on. You will love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then you get to the end of Deuteronomy, and Moses says to all the people that are there as they're seeking to ratify this covenant with Yahweh, and Moses says to them, now it's time to make a choice. You will choose life or you will choose death. Which one do you want to choose? Here's what will happen if you obey the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind and strength. Your womb, women, will be fertile and you'll have many children. Then you'll go out into your vineyards and you will plant seeds and these grapes will come up and you'll have this bountiful harvest and on and on and on. You'll stay in the land that I'm giving you. You'll be planted there and we'll drive out all of your enemies away from you." And everybody goes, well, that sounds good. But then Moses says, but here's what happens if you don't do that. This is what it means to choose death. If you do not do all that I have commanded you, But here's what's going to happen. Rather than your womb being fertile, you're going to miscarry. And it won't just be your wives, it'll also be your calves. Your vineyards will dry up. Rain won't come. Now keep this in mind because of the sermon this coming Sunday. So the Lord gives curses and blessings. As you move from the Mosaic covenant into the rest of the revelation, do they choose life or do they choose death? Well, we've been reading in the book of Hosea. This is at the very end of the story. They haven't kept the covenant at all. And God has been patient with her for 200 years. And now it's all coming to an end. It's a suzerain, royal suzerain treaty. The second type is what's known as a royal charter land grant treaty. Okay, so now I'm not a king, I'm just an official who is very loyal to King Dan. And King Dan looks at me one day and he says, you know, official Tony, you've been loyal to me, you do whatever I ask you to do, you do it well, I want to honor you. I'm going to make you, and he gives me a title, okay? And I'm going to give you land. This land is going to be yours. The land is owned by the king. It's all his. So he's going to parcel out a little bit, and he's going to give to me, and that's a great honor. And so he says, now on Friday, let's gather all the officials together, and I'm going to honor you with a ceremony. and I'm going to give you a grant, and I'm going to give you land, and I'm going to commit myself to you." Now, the expectation is that I'm going to remain loyal to Him. Okay? Now, looking at these, which one seems more like a royal grant? The Abrahamic. The Abrahamic. Abraham, look up at the stars in the sky. Look at the sand on the seashore. I'm going to give you a seed of descendants like that. How many did he have when the Lord said, I'm going to give you those kinds of descendants? He had none. Silch, na-na. In fact, he's an old guy. His wife's an old lady. It is an amazing promise that he makes. Furthermore, I'm not just going to do that. I'm going to make your name great. I'm going to give you honor. And it isn't just going to be your descendants that are going to be blessed. You are going to be a blessing to all of the nations of the earth. And look to the north and the south. Look to the east and the west. As far as your eye can see, I'm going to give a land to you and your descendants. That's what a royal charter land-grant treaty was all about. Now, look at the covenants themselves. There's always dispute here as to how many there are. The one that is most disputed is the first. A covenant with creation, Genesis 1 and 2, and kind of 3 as well. The word covenant is not found in that section, but there are many people who believe, and I'm going to assume it, that this is the first of the covenants. I'm going to talk about how how the Bible progresses in its story, but for now, let's just list them. Then you get to the Noahic covenant. The Lord, after the fall, sees the earth, and it is wicked. It is terribly wicked. And so he destroys the world by water. Noah comes off the ark with his family. They're the only ones that are saved. He is elected. It's not a natural covenant. It's an elective covenant. He is saved with his family and the Lord says, Noah, I'm going to give you promises. I'm going to make this covenant with you. Down the road, he makes it with Abraham. And then the covenant with Moses is really not a covenant with Moses, it's a covenant with whom? Israel. Moses is the mediator of the covenant. He's the one who stands between God and the people. God gives him the document, he delivers it, reads it, and communicates it to the people on behalf of the Lord. So he is the mediator of the covenant. We are also told in the book of Hebrews, Dan, you're studying Hebrews in your small group, right? We're told that this covenant is also mediated by whom? Who's actually ministering to Moses on the mountain? Angels. Angels are coming and delivering this message to Moses. Then there is the Davidic, and obviously that's made with David, and finally there is the New Covenant. Much to say about all of these in the coming weeks. Alright, flip the page. Covenants provide the structure of the Bible's big story. This assumes that there is a big story. And a lot of people read the Bible the way they read various anthologies. There's Genesis, and there's Romans, and there are all of these various books, and it's a nice collection, but they don't see that there is a much larger plot that is unfolding in various ways. And again, one of the reasons they don't see it, and it's sometimes hard to see, is because the genre changes, and just in the middle of it, You're thrown in a book like Song of Solomon and you're going, okay, how does this fit into the story, right? There's also a challenge because of the order of our English Bibles in the Old Testament. I'll just say something about this real quick. The Christian Old Testament emphasizes Eschatology. What's eschatology? Study of last things, right? Generally speaking, it is the saving work of God in the last days. And faith, when did the last days begin? With Christ, specifically at Pentecost. Don't hear the words last days and think end times. Last days is a biblical phrase, end times is a non-biblical phrase. I'm not saying it's un-biblical, but when people talk about the end times, they're talking about the events just prior to the Lord's return. The phrase last days is a phrase that Peter uses at Pentecost in quoting Joel. And he says, we're not drunk. This is what Joel the prophet said would happen in the last days. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Hebrews chapter 1. In the former times, God spoke through the prophets at many different times and in many different ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son. So, eschatology is the study of the last days, that is, the saving work that happens when Christ comes into the world, as opposed to the former days, the days prior to His coming, which we would call the Old Testament. Now, our English Old Testament builds to what group in the end of our Old Testament? What do we call them? Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Amos, and Hosea. The prophets, major and minor prophets. Not minor because they're unimportant, minor because they're relatively small compared to the major prophets. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Isaiah are big books. And this builds to the eschatology, which says, okay, in creation, God says, a male child is going to be born. He is going to have a conflict with this serpent that deceived you, Eve. And that serpent is going to strike at the heel of this son, but the son is going to put his heel down and crush the head of that serpent. That was the promise. So we keep waiting for that promise to happen. And as we go forward, you go, well, is it Noah? Well, first of all, is it Abel? And then Abel's killed. Okay, strike him off. Is it Noah? Then Noah comes off the ark, and he gets drunk, and is naked, and he's not the guy. Then is it Abraham? Ah, Abraham takes the concubine of Sarah, Hagar, and has a child, then goes to Egypt and lies about Sarah being his sister, and she kind of is because she's kind of a half-sister, but he was lying. Okay, we can mark him off. How about Moses? Moses kills a guy. Then after 40 years, the Lord calls him back and Moses doesn't want to go. And then finally, reluctantly, he leads the people out, and the people are really a mess, and he gets angry and strikes a rock. And ultimately, he's not allowed to enter into the Promised Land, so it's not Moses. Okay, well, what about David? David, finally, the king is coming, right? The tribe of Judah, the royal tribe, finally, somebody from the tribe of Judah, it's going to be David. Oh, no, David looks over and lusts after Bathsheba and takes her and then kills her husband, and it's not David. Where are we going to find it? The English, our Christian Old Testament, ends with these promises that finally He's going to come. And in a lot of different ways He's communicated. He is going to be the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. He's going to be the true shepherd Unlike those rascals that were taking advantage of the sheep in Israel. All of these ways it's communicated that leads us to Christ. The Jewish Old Testament called the Tanakh. T-N-K stands for Law, Prophets, and Writings. That's why it's called that. The Hebrew words begin with those letters. The Tanakh emphasizes ethics in the way that it's arranged. So in the Christian New Old Testament, what's the last book of the Bible? Malachi. I said Bible, you knew what I meant. You answered correctly, I said it wrong. Yeah, Malachi. What's the last book of the Tanakh? 2 Chronicles. Actually, it's Chronicles because there isn't a first and second, it's just all combined into one. So what you have at the end of the Old Testament book is Judah going off into captivity in Babylon. And you're sitting there going, what about all of these promises? If you didn't have the New Testament, you'd get to the end and go, what happened to all of the promises that God made? Abraham's people are no longer in the land. The Davidic kingdom is gone. There's no heir of David who is sitting on the throne. Abraham's descendants are not a blessing to the nations, they've been swallowed up by the nations. Why has this happened? Because she has fallen under the curses of the Mosaic Covenant. She chose death rather than chose life. So, Nida, you taught literature, right? Okay. So, in classic comedic fashion, a comedy has a U-shaped plot, right? So, here's Ricky and Lucy, and Ethel and Fred, and everybody's happy at the beginning of the 30 minutes. And then Lucy and Ethel concoct some crazy scheme and it descends into chaos. At some point, they're behind a conveyor belt throwing chocolates in their mouth as the conveyor belt is going faster and faster and faster. And before long, Lucy is crying. Everything is so bad. at the bottom of the comedy. And then, before the 30 minutes are out, the plot rises again, and at the end, Lucy is saying, oh, Ricky, and Ricky's saying, oh, Lucy, and you know, everything is great. All right, this is the biblical storyline. It's not a comedy, but it follows the same trajectory. Here's humanity in the Garden of Eden with the Lord and everything's perfect. And then almost immediately the plot descends as humanity descends. And if you're reading the Tanakh, Malachi, I'm sorry, Chronicles is down here. The Davidic throne is empty. The land has been given over to the Babylonians, and 100 years before that to the Assyrians. Israel is scattered among the nations, rather than being a blessing to the nations. Things are in really bad shape. And then you turn the page. And when you turn the page, you read. These are the generations. of Jesus. And in Matthew's genealogy, there are 42 names. 14, 14, and 14. And what is the dominant name, the one that comes up more than any other in Matthew's genealogy? It's David. And if you took the numerical equivalent of David's name, guess what it adds up to? 42. Matthew starts saying over and over and over again in the first three chapters, this is done in order that such and such may be fulfilled, and then he goes back to the Old Testament. and says, here's how this is fulfilled. In another week, we're going to get into Hosea 11, where the Lord says, out of Egypt I have called my son. He's talking about Israel, at the Exodus. But Matthew says, Jesus runs down to Egypt. He doesn't do it, his parents do, because Herod's going to kill him. And then eventually Herod dies, and the Lord comes back with his parents, and Matthew says, this was done. And he quotes Hebrews 11.1, this was done because it is in fulfillment of that passage, out of Egypt I have called my son. All right, so this plot line now begins to ascend, right? And you've got the cross, you've got Pentecost, and then how does it end? Ricky and Lucy are happy again. Except it's not Ricky and Lucy, it's Night and Carla, and it's Dev and Mel. And where are they at the end of the plot line? No. Put another phrase with that. The new heavens and the new earth. Where are they in Revelation 21-22? They're right here. They're back in a garden. They're back where they started. There is a river that flows through it. There is the tree of life that's right over there. Remember, after the fall, there are angels with fiery swords guarding the tree of life. Life is not available to you. You have sinned, and in the day that you sin, you will surely die. You can't come to the tree of life. But here, at the end of the story, after this terrible cataclysm that's happened, after it gets back to here, we're eating from the tree of life, and it's for the healing of the nations. And now, and I'm really getting ahead of myself, All of these promises get fulfilled. And why are they fulfilled? Who was responsible for this? What was his name? Adam. Who was responsible for this? Christ. Paul calls Jesus the last Adam. the last Adam. He reverses the curse. So to use Milton, this is paradise lost, this is paradise regained. So what we're going to see as we move through these covenants is that all along the path God is cutting covenants with imperfect people, and at very critical junctures, they fail. And so you get to the end of the Tanakh, and you go, there's no hope for these people because God said, if you do not love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and if you do not obey everything that's written in this law, you are going to die. You're going to leave the land. You're not going to have children. You're not going to have crops. So there's no hope because we can't find that son who is going to crush the head of the serpent. Can't do it. And then you turn the page. And beginning in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and Acts and Romans and all the rest of the New Testament, through that whole thing, we find finally someone who can restore creation, who can bring about stability to the cosmos, who will be the heir to all of the Abrahamic promises, who will obey everything written in the Mosaic law, who will sit on the throne of David and who will mediate a new covenant that is not like the old covenant. Because in the new covenant, because of his work, we will have the law fulfilled in us. And that's the story and that's how it is pushed along by these covenants. So they are the structure of the Bible's big story. Last point, and with this we'll close, if you don't have any questions. They also carry divine revelation forward in an ever clearer and progressive manner. So the central theme of the Bible after Genesis 3, is the redemptive plan of God. How will the Lord save his people from his own justice? So it looks like here, when God cuts this old Mosaic Covenant with Israel, that he has pushed himself into a corner. It looks like the Lord has made a strategic mistake. because he has made all of the promises contingent upon human effort and ability. You do this and you'll stay in the land that I promised Abraham. You do this and you will flourish in that land like I promised to Abraham. And it looks like the Lord has made a chess move and now he's checked. And you go, okay, how's he going to come out of this? Because these covenants that he's made here are bilateral, where humanity has to obey. And it isn't until we get past this and come to the new covenant that we go, oh, now I get it. God himself will send someone who can fulfill all of these demands, and then bring all of those blessings forward to anyone who is united in Christ. So Paul makes this point in Romans chapter 4. He makes it several places in the book of Galatians. He says it over and over again. Who are the descendants of Abraham who will inherit all of the promises given to him. We read Galatians 3, we read Romans chapter 4, and the answer is those who have the faith that Abraham had. It is not those who were circumcised in the flesh, it's those who were circumcised in the heart. They are the heirs of the Abrahamic promises, and that includes you, if you have come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So with each successive covenant, the plan becomes clearer as we move forward in the biblical storyline until the focus settles on Christ and his redemptive work. He becomes the beneficiary of the covenant promises and the recipient of the covenant curses. This is important. This is kind of the dominant covenant of the Old Testament. And it promises blessings and curses. Like that suzerain covenant we talked about a moment ago. And because we are flawed, sinful people, we're always going to get the curses. Unless someone stands in our place and receives the curse. And the book of Galatians tells us that he became a curse for us. So he receives curses. Did he deserve them? Was he a covenant breaker in any way? No, of course not. He was the perfect God-man, the only one who could fulfill the Mosaic covenant. So he receives the curse. Where does he receive it? Where does he become accursed for us? On the cross. On the cross. But he doesn't just receive the curses, he also receives what? This is the point that I was making Sunday in the book of Hosea. There's only one person I know in history where the curses and the grace meet together. Otherwise, you are going to receive the curse or you're going to receive the blessings. In Jesus, both happen. He receives the curse for covenant breakers, and he also receives the blessings which now flow to those who by faith have become united to him. That's how the covenants push this storyline through. So in two weeks, what we'll do is we'll come back and we'll talk a little bit about these three and how they differ in reading the storyline. And just to give you just a preview, some of the things that are at stake in the way in which we read the storyline are, do you baptize infants or baptize believers? The answer to that question is based upon how you read the story. Does God have one plan for one people? Or does he have two different sets of people, Israel and the church, with different plans for those people? And of course, one of the implications of answering that question is whether or not God will bring Israel back to the land, rebuild a temple, have animal sacrifices in that temple, after the church is raptured away. How you answer this and read this story will answer in part the way you view that. And there are many other implications. We'll talk about that next week as we go forward in this storyline. But hopefully I've whetted your appetite, given you an overview today that you can kind of grasp the big picture, and then we'll kind of settle in and we'll look in more detail at each of these. Any questions tonight? Arthur? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he said that, yeah, okay, yeah, sorry, there are people who are watching. Hi, by the way. He said two things. First of all, that the word oath has lost its meaning today, and I don't think there's any doubt that that's true. Secondly, that in a recent World Magazine article, that there are people who are talking about the fact that part of the curse of the Deuteronomic laws was that you would have miscarriages, and in the United States, we have exacerbated that through abortion. Yeah. There's no doubt that we are guilty of slaughter. I will argue that we're not under the Mosaic Code, but we'll talk about that more coming up. Yes, Lorraine. Yeah, that's right. So Lorraine said that in each and every one of these covenants, it is God taking the initiative. And that's a really important point. I'm glad you said that. That is absolutely true. And that's part of what we said is that these biblical covenants are of an elective, not a natural relationship. And it's God who is doing the election. At every one of these points, he could have chosen somebody else. But he doesn't. At every one of these points, the people that he cuts these covenants with are people that he chose to do that. And Moses will make this point in the book of Deuteronomy when he says, think about your history, Israel. Did God choose you? Did He set His love upon you because you were the most numerous of all the nations? No. When He set His love upon you, you were one guy. And that lasted for a long time. So it wasn't because you were more numerous that God said, well, I want them on my side. There are a lot of those guys out there. By the way, aren't you glad? I mean, we're a relatively small church. I'm glad that the Lord chooses small things to do great things through. So yes, thank you, Lorraine Good. Any other questions or comments? All right, so I look forward to a great summer with you all. We will tape these, and so if there are some Wednesdays that you can't be here, You'll be able to follow it. We'll have the notes. Just email Faith and say, hey, I couldn't be there. Could you send me copies of the notes? And she'll be happy to send that to you, okay? Yes, Dave. An Orthodox Jew would. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so you obviously The number of Orthodox Jews is a relatively small group. I would say most Jews are completely secular. And so there's some wisdom here, the way Aesop's fables give us wisdom. but most of them would not regard themselves as under the Mosaic Code. But the Orthodox would, and I don't know enough about Orthodox Judaism to talk beyond that, really, but I'm sure that they are, that's why they go to the Wailing Wall, and they're praying that one day Messiah will come and lift Israel. Israel has been in a perpetual diaspora, dispersion since Zedekiah was taken away into Babylon and all the others. Even after Ezra comes back, it's a small group of Jews that actually come back. Most of the Jews in the Assyrian diaspora as well as the Babylonian diaspora never return to the land. They don't. They're like Saul who grows up in Tarsus. He's a Hellenist out there. So anyway, I don't know where I was going with all that, but they believe themselves to be in a perpetual diaspora, but one day, one day Messiah is going to come and restore Israel. So they see themselves in the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. It wasn't Jesus. It was the nation that was suffering, that was crushed, that was bruised for iniquities and so on and so forth, right? And so one day the Lord is going to restore her fortunes. All right, great. Thank you, everybody. Good night.