The Covenant and related topics
We have been looking at the problems caused by evil, Satan and sin and how disruptive these are to man's relationship with his Creator. In this next section we shall be looking and God's desire to draw mankind back to Himself and the provision He has made for man to know Him through a covenant relationship. In doing so we need to recognise that covenant was already in place before the Fall.
What is a covenant?
What do you think the heart of covenant is?
How is the word 'death' used in the Bible?
The following extract captures something of the awareness one can have of the world we live in when we slow down for a minute or two. This world is now vastly different from God's original handiwork, yet there is still hope because God is a covenant keeping God.
"I was sitting on my porch one afternoon. The house was empty and the street was quiet. I could feel myself slipping into that moment, as if the world was water and I was dissolving in it. I don't know how long it lasted, but I remember that while it was happening some cars went down the street, a lawnmower started up at the neighbour's, birds flew in and out of the yard, and there were the noises of children playing.
I know also that there was a breeze that touched my hair and blew leaves across the yard. An airplane went by, and once there was a siren in the distance. All of these things happened, and many more, and they were all part of the wonder - all part of the moment - I was aware of them all, but I had no special response to them. Nothing interrupted anything.
All these things were like instruments in an orchestra, everything happened in concert together.
Once a fly even landed on my hand. It too was part of the moment - nothing special. But then my next-door neighbour came out and started trimming her bushes. It registered somewhere in me that my bushes needed trimming also, and that was the beginning of the end. The moment passed as gently as it had appeared.
The water of the world withdrew, and I was on the shore again, back to business."
Dr G. May, 'Will and Spirit - A Contemplative Psychology", p96;
We were created to know God in an intimate way. Genesis 1:27 speaks of man being made in the image of God, whilst Hosea 6:7 reveals that man was made for covenant relationship:
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. Like Adam, they have broken the covenant- they were unfaithful to me there. Hosea 6:7
Note:
'Ka - Aadaam' is used in the above verse, and not 'Wa-ansheey' (eg Gen 13:13) the most commonly used word to speak of the whole of mankind.
"A proper noun or name used of the first human in some cases. It also occurs as a common noun meaning
humanity, humankind, etc., depending on its content. Here the discussion centres on its use as a proper noun
or name for the first man or humankind."
(The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the O.T. 2003).
So what is a covenant?
A covenant is the deepest form of binding agreement in the universe, and biblically speaking, is God's way of reaching out to those who deserve nothing in order to offer them life. A covenant involves and implies far more than a contract or simple agreement.
The word 'covenant' (first usage in Gen is Gen 6:18 = 'beriyth' - pronounced 'ber-eeth'), means 'treaty', 'alliance,' 'agreement' based on a relationship between two or more parties.
Note Jeremiah 33:25, which speaks of God having 'established his covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth.'
The Covenant made between God and man defines the basis of God's character in the Old Testament - He is merciful, compassionate and stoops low in loving-kindness to reach fallen man, yet is also awesomely holy and so perfect that none could see Him as He really is and live (1 Tim 6:16).
When we sin, we actually destroy the very life we think we are supporting and protecting. As one psychiatrist once stated, "we go against the fabric of the Universe."
Man often chose to forget the covenant. "The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; they did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his law. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers. But they continued to sin against him." Psalm 78:9ff.
Man always was the weaker partner and breaker of covenant (e.g. Jer 34:18). Yet, in His grace and mercy, God still sought to bring about His purposes. On one occasion God told Ezekiel to prophesy against the shepherds of Israel who did not care for the flock. In the same passage, God speaks of what He would do: He would 'search for His sheep and look after them,' 'Rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness' 'tend them in good pasture,' 'bring back the strays and bind up the injured.' God would 'make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts', 'bless them and the places surrounding His hill,' 'send down showers in season,' 'the trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops.'
Covenant shows the strength of His divine promises from Adam to the exile and restoration, and on into the N.T. Note Hebrews 12:24 ".to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." Note also Isaiah 28:14-16 (the rulers of Jerusalem have entered a covenant of death, yet God will 'lay a stone in Zion' and Eph 2:20 (".Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone").
The heart of the covenant is the presence of God's Spirit with His people. Note John 14:15-19; also John 14:23: Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him"
"Modern man particularly needs a sense of hope, protection, guidance, and meaning in a universe that is too
often portrayed as mechanistic, chance, cold, and impersonal. Man also needs an answer to death. Death
overlooks no one and its ever-present shadow on our world forces each person to think beyond this world to
the next".
Dr Paul Cosgrove in 'Mental Health, A Christian Approach.' Page 40.
The breaking of relationship?
Death is a change of place or conditions in which conscious existence continues. This began at the fall with separation from our natural environment (the presence of God), and the full fruition of death is an everlasting lost eternity.
"The lost paradise is.an unrealised possibility that was removed from man by sin. It represents not an idyllic
age at the dawn of history but a state of blessedness or communion with God which has been given to the first
man and all men at their creation but which is irremediably forfeited by sin.we simply cannot restore the
fellowship that our ancestors squandered. Just as we cannot return to any prior era in history, so also we
cannot return to "the beginning."
D.Bloesch in 'Essentials of Evangelical Theology'.
The word death, in the Bible, becomes an all-inclusive word. Death is not annihilation, but separation from God, it is the weaker end of existence, as opposed to the power of life.
Death (separation from God) includes: abortion, euthanasia, murder, manslaughter, wars, famines, plagues, non-prescriptive drugs, adultery, homosexuality, child abuse, hatred, envy, violence, jealousy heresies, occultism, etc. Note Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The world 'exists' in this death, reaping the payment for its sinful ways.
A change of Perspective; a Separation from Love.
In Genesis 3:1-8 we find the first alternative worldview on planet earth being presented to Eve through the words of Satan. His purpose was to get Eve to doubt what God had already clearly stated. The serpent sought to encourage Eve to contemplate and accept a different worldview as a valid alternative.
"The essence of deception is to speak 90% truth and 10% error. If I were trying to deceive a decent-minded
person, I should employ the tactics of Lord Haw-Haw in the Second World Way. By speaking a great amount of truth, I should hope to receive acceptance of vital errors."
Dr J.K. Van Baalen, in 'The Chaos of the Cults,' p 390.
As we have already noted, the serpent calls God by the name of Elohim alone. In this more general and indefinite name the personality of the living God is obscured (note that 'Lord God' speaks of the immanence and transcendence of God, one who desires relationship and fellowship, yet is also far above us). In speaking like this the serpent seeks to put distance between Eve and her heavenly Father. God is just 'that power' and are words from 'that power' really to be trusted?
When man starts to think negatively about God, he finds himself in the beginning of his real trouble. In his bitterness, he no longer feels God's warm sunshine or His gentle rain. The beauty and blessedness of all that is permitted to him gradually turns to the ashes of resentment. He becomes a total cynic."
D. Breeze in ' Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies', p 20-21.
In accepting the words of Satan as a valid alternative Eve was placing herself under a different worldview, one whereby life was not about whose she was (created to benefit from a loving relationship with God), but who she was (one who could possibly do things her own way and so build her own identity).
Gen 3:4-5: From seeking to cause doubt, the serpent moves on to a direct denial of the truth (1) and malicious suspicion of the divine love (2). All too often God is made out to be an unfair and moral tyrant whose laws are unjust and curtail real freedom. It is easy to ignore such a being; it is not so easy to ignore true love.
"Surely die: you shall not" = "tamutuwm mowt Lo." According to the Hebrew scholars Keil and Delitzsch 'Lo' is placed before the infinitive absolute, as in Ps 49:8 and Amos 9:8; for the meaning is not, "he will not die;" but "you will positively not die."' We need to remember that all of God's commands proceed from His love. If we don't, then we deceive ourselves and make God something that He is not. In doubting God's word we doubt His very character and move out of the protective place of relationship - from the environment of love.
As one author puts it:-
"In the temptation the word of God is attacked and the love of God violated ." Dr M Bobgan, writing in 'How To Counsel From Scripture '(p30), has this to say of the serpents words, "They strike at faith in God by undermining His Word; they strike at hope in God by directing it toward self; and they strike at love by replacing God's love with self-love."
Satan is seeking to give Eve a different image of God. In our Christian society many live with their own image of God that has been conditioned by culture and early childhood experiences. God has been 'anthropomorphised' and we see Him through the framework of our own experiences with parents or those in authority.
This can cause some to think they have to earn God's love, vie for His attention, or strive to be noticed. "Unregenerate man may be very religions, millions are, but it is not knowledge of the true God that they desire, but a god or gods fashioned in their own image and likeness, either in one form or another, gods who pander to their pride by making salvation depend wholly on their own merits, or sacrifices which they provide - gods who do nothing to save men."
F.S. Copleston in 'The Witness of the O.T. to Christ', page 139.
For others there are images of an absentee parent, someone who does not really understand them, or someone who is simply there to catch them out. Others build an image of God from their own predisposing inclinations and expect those images to perform in certain prescribed ways. Note for example the health, wealth and prosperity movement.
The view of God which the serpent sought to portray makes it seem as if God were distant and uncaring; whilst at the same time the tree began to look all the more attractive, partly due to the imagined results of partaking of its fruit. The fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and now desirable for gaining wisdom and both her and her husband partook of it. Adam and Eve fell into sin.
Although we are motivated by internal drives and influenced by various external forces, we are ultimately responsible for our behaviour and make decisions to act or not to act in any specific way. A Jewish survivor of the holocaust once spoke of being imprisoned in a concentration camp, having lost his home and all his possessions. There came a time when he was separated from his family, and stood naked before the camp commandant. He said he thought he had lost absolutely everything, and then realised that this was not the case. He could still choose how he lived. He could become like his captors or rise above them.
"Just as a tree that produces fragrant blossoms and delicious fruit cannot be considered virtuous, nor a bush
that produces sharp thorns or toxic berries cannot be considered sinful, neither could a person be considered
virtuous or sinful unless he is free to choose his behaviour."
Dr Twerski in 'I'd Like To Call For Help, But I Don't Know The Number', page 101