Signs of the Everlasting Covenants

I have just completed the text of my fourth book in "The Faith" series. This one, that is now going out for proofreading, and endorsements, is entitled "Living the Faith", and is based on the Letter from James. There is, however, an Appendix on what is referred to as "Replacement Theology" or "Supersessionism". Preparing that, over recent weeks, has made me think a lot about Bible covenants and, in this post, I want to share on four of them.

The first mention of the key word "covenant" is in Genesis 6:18, where God promised to establish a covenant with Noah after the Flood. "I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you." 

This everlasting covenant was made with all the earth's future populations and is still in effect, symbolized continually by the beautiful rainbow arching through the sky after rain. "When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." (Gen. 9:16)

Almighty God also made an everlasting covenant with Abraham and Isaac. "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." (Gen. 17:7-8). This time, the symbol of God's everlasting covenant between them and their descendants, the people of Israel, was that of circumcision, "You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you." (Gen. 17:11).

There is still another everlasting covenant with the Children of Israel. "I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, that they may not turn from Me." (Jeremiah 32:40). These are just some of the covenants that Almighty God has made with the Children of Israel, and that confirm their right to the land that is now the State of Israel.

Finally, God has made this "new covenant" applicable to all of the saved and, this time, the sign of the covenant is nothing less than the precious blood of the Christ, shed on our behalf. "Now may the God of peace, Who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. " (Hebrews 13:20-21). 

Are you in that covenant relationship? If not, why not? If I may be of any assistance, please feel free to contact me at the e-mail address at the top of the page.

Abraham - the father of the faithful.

As we move on in our monthly look at the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures: the Old Testament in the Christian Bible), we come to one of the most significant figures in Biblical history. Over the next three (!) posts, we shall be looking at a man who was named Abram, but had that name changed, by Almighty God (El Shaddai), to Abraham (Avraham).

I am currently reading through the book of Deuteronomy in my personal devotions, and read these words a couple of days ago: "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession." (7:6).  

The Jewish people are  often referred to as "The Chosen People". This has caused many to accuse El Shaddai of favouritism! Indeed, "chosenness"is so strongly associated with favouritism and arrogance that even some modern Jewish people reject the concept. Yet the idea of El Shaddai choosing the Hebrew people runs throughout the Tanakh. For example (emphases added):

"But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Avraham My friend.”  (Isaiah 41:8)

“You His servants, the descendants of Israel, His chosen ones, the children of Jacob.”  (I Chronicles 16:13; see also Psalm 105:6)

“For YHWH has chosen Jacob to Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure.”  (Psalm 135:4)

In fact, contrary to feeling smug and favoured, observant Jews are keenly aware that "chosenness" deflates any sense of significance! Indeed, those words already quoted, from the book of Deuteronomy, continue: "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that YHWH set His love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because YHWH loves you, and is keeping the oath which He swore to your fathers, that YHWH has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (vs.7-8; emphasis added).

Understanding El Shaddai's choosing of the descendants of Avraham, Isaac (Yitzac) , and Jacob (Yacob/Israel) is central to having a firm foundation in His providential plan! And the record starts with Abram.

In Genesis 18, we read these words of YHWH: "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of YHWH by doing righteousness and justice, so that YHWH may bring to Abraham what He has promised him." (vs.18-19).

Only 400 years had passed since the great Flood in the time of Noah, so that the world was not yet populated by a great variety of peoples living in powerful nations. "Nations", at that time, were more like city-states, rife with paganism and polytheism. A mere four centuries after the Flood, mankind was still lost. It was still the case "... that every imagination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually." (Gen.6:5).

El Shaddai called Abram out of one of those city-states - Ur of the Chaldees - and told him to go to a land that He would show him. The people of Ur were Moon-worshippers, but El Shaddai spoke to this one man. "Now YHWH said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 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. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." He didn't know where this land was located, but he trusted the direction, and promise, of this One Whom he recognised as the Almighty God. He believed God, and headed for the Promised Land. Please note that this was millennia before the founding of the very Islam that lays claim to that Promised Land, today!

This,then, was the start of the Chosen People. God chose one man - and that one man chose God! We are not told if God had called any other person before Abram. We are told that Abram chose to accept God's promises, and that he put feet to faith! That, surely, is a salutory lesson to all of us!

More in a couple of nights. Do keep an eye out for the next "instalment"!

Looking for a sign?

It was in Glasgow, this morning, that I was faced with the question in the heading! It was on a large billboard - and was actually advertising said billboard. However, the question set my mind off! I thought of the year that has passed, and the number of "signs" each of which was going to be, we were assured, the sign that heralded the "end of the world"! Of course, as I am here today, typing this, I must assume that all of those signs were, to put it as delicately as possible, "misread"!

People, it would appear, are always "looking for a sign". It may be the special gift that signifies "I love you". It may be the "Well done" that signifies that the boss is pleased with one's efforts. It may be the 'look across a crowded room' that signifies a romantic interest. It may be the handshake that signifies that a deal is acceptable to both sides. There are even those who claim to be experts in body language and who can tell more from the movements of my hands; the way in which I am standing; the look in my eyes; than from the words that I actually speak.

Not surprisingly, the written Word of God - the Bible - mentions signs more than once my online concordance has almost 250 references to "sign" and its associated words!). Right at the beginning we read: "And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, ..." (Gen.1:14). Later on, and after the Flood, God says to Noah: "I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." (Gen.9:13).

Many of us recalled one of those signs just a couple of weeks ago! In Isaiah 7, we read of the word of YHWH to Ahaz, king of Judah (the southern kingdom), when the latter refused to ask for a sign from YHWH. "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Imman′u-el." (v.14). Now I know that the Hebrew word "almaah" may be translated simply as "young woman"./ However, God the Holy Spirit, Who inspired the Biblical writers made the situation crystal clear for even sceptical people in the 21st century AD. When the seventy (or, possibly, seventy-two - six from each of the twelve tribes) translators of the Hebrew text into the more common Greek language in use in the 3rd century BC, came to that verse, they used the Greek word "parthenos" - and that can only mean "virgin".

However, one of the most important references, in terms of what was being claimed over the past year, is found in Paul's second letter to the believers in Thessalonica: "Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet Him, we beg you, brethren, not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and destroy him by His appearing and His coming. The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2:1-12; emphases added).

Whatever 2018 may hold, I will state, with Biblical authority, that the day of the Lord will not take place until the signs that have been prophesied as preceding it have taken place. I would encourage you to read all of Matthew 12, Matthew 16, and Matthew 24, (and the rest of the Bible, for that matter!!) but here are just a few verses from each of those chapters: "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You.” But He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." (12:38-39); "And the Pharisees and Sad′ducees came, and to test Him they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather; for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So He left them and departed." (16:1-4); "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (24:29-31).

May you know the blessing of Almighty God throughout this coming year - and may you be among those who seek "... to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for Himself a people of His own who are zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:12-14).

A blessèd New Year to one and all.