GOD’S WORD FOR NOVEMBER 26 ~ ~ Proverbs 30:5 ~ ~ “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”
From the book How to Read the Bible by Dr. Michael Youssef
Chapter 5, The Six Biblical Covenants Jesus Fulfilled
Throughout the Old Testament, God made a series of covenants. Each covenant revealed more details of God’s perfect plan to establish His eternal Kingdom and redeem His people. Jesus the Messiah, whom the prophet Isaiah called Immanuel — which means “God with us”– (Isaiah 7:14), has fulfilled all of God’s covenants with the human race. Let’s explore one in turn.
1.God’s Covenant with Adam:
In Genesis 3:15, after Adam sinned and fell from a state of obedient innocence to a state of sinful depravity, God promised that a Son of Adam’s race would achieve victory over Satan. In the presence of Adam and Eve, He told the serpent – who was Satan – “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.”
In the Garden of Eden, God provided Adam and Eve with a beautiful garden, satisfying work, delicious food, and companionship with each other – and companionship with Himself. Adam and Eve yielded to temptation, rejected God’s plan for their lives, and fell under the curse of sin and death. Despite their unfaithfulness, God promised them the ultimate victory through the coming Savior – a covenant that Jesus fulfilled on the cross.
2. God’s Covenant with Noah:
To fulfill His promise to Adam, God had to sustain and protect mankind from moral corruption and extinction. When wickedness and violence became rampant in the human race, God decided to use a flood to cleanse the earth of human evil. He also chose Noah to be a new Adam on this new earth – a man who, along with his family, would preserve the human race from extinction. After the flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, saying “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1).
In this way, God made sure that the offspring of Eve – Jesus the Messiah – would one day be born to fulfill the covenant He had made with Adam.
3. God’s Covenant with Abraham
In Genesis 12:1-3, God called Abraham (who was then known as Abram) out of the city of Ur in the land of the Chaldeans and promised to make him the father of a great nation. “I will make your name great,” God said, “and you will be a 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.,”
Later, in Genesis 15, when Abraham was old and his wife was childless, God reconfirmed His promise, saying, “Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be,” and the Scriptures tell us that Abraham believed God and that God accounted his faith as righteousness.
In Genesis 17, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and reaffirmed His covenant, saying in Genesis 17:4-8:
“You will be the father of many nations, No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give you as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
Over and over again, God demonstrated that His covenant would not fail, even when Abraham was nearing a century in age. Why? Because it wasn’t up to Abraham to keep the covenant. It was up to God, who promised in sacrificial blood – blood that pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus – that He would keep His promise.
************** **************
Psalm 119:65
You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word.
I Thessalonians 5:24
Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it.
Isaiah 54:9 &10
For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you nor rebuke you.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that has mercy on you.
Genesis 9:16
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
Genesis 28:15
And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places whither you go, and will bring you again into this land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you of.