The Unquenchable Lamp of the Covenant. Abraham Park

and they responded, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” (Exod 24:7). This covenant was a promise that God would be their protector as long as they remained under God’s rule and sincerely served Him. After the covenant was established, Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exod 24:8).

      The Sinaitic covenant that was given to the first generation of the Israelites in the early stage of the wilderness journey was reestablished on the first day of the eleventh month in the fortieth year since the Exodus. This covenant is called the “covenant of the Plains of Moab,” distinct from the Sinaitic covenant (Deut 29:1–29).

      However, the people of Israel completely forgot about those covenants after Joshua, who was Moses’ successor, and all of the people from that generation were gathered to their fathers (Judg 2:6–10). They forsook God, committing abominable sins in the sight of the Lord. As a result of not keeping the Sinaitic covenant, they were punished through other nations (Ps 78:10–11, 37). Nevertheless, God, who is faithful to the covenant, restrained His anger many times and did not forsake His people (Ps 78:38). Rather, He guided and held onto them until the end, and He eventually established the Davidic covenant (Ps 78:70–72).

      5. The Davidic Covenant

      God established this covenant with King David after the Israelites’ entry into Canaan, the period of the judges, and the reign of King Saul (2 Sam 7:12–16; 1 Chr 17:10–14). When David expressed the desire to build the temple of God and prayed, God gave this covenant through the prophet Nathan as an answer to that prayer (2 Sam 7:3–4).

      The central message of the Davidic covenant is that the temple of God will be built by a descendant of David and that God will establish the throne of His kingdom forever (2 Sam 7:12–13). This was a promise about David’s son Solomon; moreover, it was about the Messiah, the King of all kings, who would come through the royal line of David and establish the eternal kingdom of God. There are a couple of special characteristics in the covenant that God made with David.

      First, it is a covenant made with an oath. An oath is generally understood as “a formal promise to achieve a goal or purpose.” Also translated as “swear” or “adjure,” the Hebrew word shares the same consonant root as , which means “seven.” Thus, swearing or making an oath implies repeating the promise seven times. As a result, a promise with an oath (swear) is certain to be kept by both parties. Psalm 89:3–4 states, “I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant….” God continues to use this word to make oaths and swear to David: “Once I have sworn by My holiness…” (Ps 89:35) and “…which You swore to David in Your faithfulness” (Ps 89:49).

      An oath is a pledge which is much stronger than a promise. If men have to keep their oaths, how much more certain and steadfast God’s decisions must be if He confirms them with an oath (Ps 110:4)! Things decided by imperfect human beings can always change and be amended, but the things decided by the oath of God, who is the perfect sovereign ruler, are perfect and certainly remain immutable.

      Second, it is a covenant made through faithfulness.

      The word faithfulness means “steadfast or true in affection or allegiance.” Psalm 89:49 affirms, “…which You swore to David in Your faithfulness.”

      Psalm 132:11 The LORD has sworn to David, a truth from which He will not turn back; “Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.”

      The word truth is , which is derived from the word , meaning “to be faithful” or “to be truthful.” God is truthful, and thus it is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18). Therefore, the covenant made through God’s faithfulness is the promise that will surely be fulfilled. No one can break His covenant (Jer 33:20–21). Isaiah 55:3 refers to the covenant that God established with David as “the faithful mercies shown to David.” This is a declaration that the Davidic covenant will certainly be fulfilled, and that no interference—regardless of how strong it may be—can get in the way of its fulfillment.

      6. The New Covenant of Jeremiah

      This was the covenant that God gave to the prophet Jeremiah in the dismal times before Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC (Jer 31:31–34). The giving of a new covenant does not imply that the old covenant was imperfect; rather, it reflects the grace of God, who has compassion upon imperfect mankind and works to grant them perfect salvation. Even though God poured out His grace and renewed the covenant in every generation, the Israelites continued to engage in even greater sins through countless immoral and disobedient acts, eventually facing destruction. The purpose of the new covenant was to keep His people from losing the hope of salvation when taken captive to Babylon (Jer 51:50–53). In this covenant, God expressed His strong will by urging the Israelites to trust firmly in the new covenant and endure the time of the captivity until the end, making it an opportunity to repent, for He would surely save them.

      There were two stipulations to this covenant.

      First, God would write His law on the hearts of His people.

      In Jeremiah 31:33, God declares, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it.” While the old covenant was inscribed on stone tablets, the new covenant is inscribed on tablets of human hearts; thus, we can now become “a letter of Christ” through the gospel (2 Cor 3:1–3). Therefore, His promise that “I will be their God, and they shall be My people,” would eventually be fulfilled (Jer 31:33; cf. Exod 6:7; 19:4–6; Ezek 36:25–28).

      Second, the least to the greatest would know God.

      Jeremiah 31:34 states, “And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them” (cf. Heb 8:8–13). In other words, God will allow people to come to know Him through the work of the Holy Spirit, even without the teaching of men (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13).

      The new covenant that the prophet Jeremiah prophesied was fulfilled at the coming of Jesus Christ, who had the power to fulfill the old covenant (Rom 8:2–4). For that reason, Jesus is described in Hebrews 12:24 as “the mediator of a new covenant” (also Heb 9:15). Jesus also said at the Last Supper, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20; cf. 1 Cor 11:25).

      All of the covenants of the Bible were completed through the new covenant that our Lord Jesus Christ established through His suffering on the cross, which is the only and absolute foundation for the salvation of mankind and the coming of the eternal kingdom of heaven (Matt 26:27–29; Mark 14:24–25; Luke 22:20; Heb 8:10–13; 13:20). Therefore, in Christ all who have become spiritual sons of Abraham are in covenantal relationship with God (Rom 4:11, 16; Gal 3:7–9, 29).

      The central theme of all the covenants is that God will take the covenantal people as His own and He will be their God (Gen 17:7; Exod 6:6–7; 19:4–6; Lev 11:45; 26:11–12; Deut 4:20; 29:13; 2 Kgs 11:17; 2 Chr 23:16; 2 Cor 6:16). Therefore, Greeks, Jews, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythians, slaves, and freemen can all receive salvation through faith in Jesus Christ—the mediator of the new covenant (Heb 8:6)—and they can become God’s covenantal people (Rom 10:11–13; Col 3:11).

      CHAPTER 3

      Jesus Christ, the Fulfiller of the Eternal Covenant

      All of the previously discussed covenants are connected to Jesus Christ: every covenant testified about the coming of Jesus Christ and He came according to the promise. The history of redemption is God’s work of establishing and fulfilling His covenant.