The Covenant E-Book

Riaan Engelbrecht

• Herausgeber: Riaan Engelbrecht
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

As the children of God we have a covenant in place with God. A covenant is similar to an agreement, or a binding contract. By the Covenant of Grace, we are redeemed and liberated from our sins and former life of carnality. Yet we also have a part to play, even though we may not always think so. Our part is to love God, to obey Him, to follow His Word, to have no other ‘gods’, to lead holy and pure lives and to fulfil the Great Commission. It is in simplicity also to uphold the Ten Commandments. Jesus gave all His Blood for the Covenant, which ensures our eternal life, provision and protection. How often do we truly stand still and contemplate the Covenant? We often think of Jesus’ death and ascension solely in light of redeeming us from sin, yet His Blood was shed to ratify (sign or give formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement, therefore making it officially valid) the Covenant. By our spiritual covenant, we are betrothed unto God, and we will one day celebrate the marriage with the feast in heaven. In this series of works, we look at the importance of the Covenant, and the absolute necessity to honour and uphold it. God is not one to be mocked and trifled with. He is holy, mighty and glorious. As His creation, we need to pay attention to Him, to His order, and to truth. May we worship Him and may we walk in His holiness as Covenant-keeping servants of the Most High. 

Leseprobe

Series of work by the same author:

––––––––

Perilous Times

In Pursuit of God

The Holy Spirit

The Disciple of God

Deliverance

Crossroads to Freedom

The Kingdom of God

The Prophetic

Apologetics

End-Time Remnant

Table of Contents

Title Page

The Covenant (Kingdom of God)

Taking the Covenant seriously again

A Covenant reflecting God’s heart

God of Covenant

Uphold the Covenant, shake the world

New Covenant – the better way

A match made in heaven

Love God above all

Separated unto holiness

A circumcised heart separated unto God

Repent, cleanse the House for the Lord comes

The Covenant of the Kingdom

Called to be Arks of Covenant

Building on the true foundation of divinity

Bow the knee before the true King

Provoking the Bridegroom in jealousy

The purity of Covenant, sin and repentance

Naboth honours the Covenant

Tear down the false altars and covenants

Knowing and learning from God

Also By Riaan Engelbrecht

About the Author

The Covenant

This is a distributed edition from Avishua Ministries.

The author’s intellectual property rights are protected by international Copyright law. You are licensed to use this digital copy strictly for your personal enjoyment only: it must not be redistributed or offered for sale in any form.

Scriptures quotes from the New Kings James Bible, Amplified, and the New International Version.

For more free study material and audio visit http://avishuaministries.wixsite.com/avishua

Table of Contents

Taking the Covenant seriously again

A Covenant reflecting God’s heart

God of Covenant

Uphold the Covenant, shake the world

New Covenant – the better way

A match made in heaven

Love God above all 

Separated unto holiness

A circumcised heart separated unto God

Repent, cleanse the House for the Lord comes

The Covenant of the Kingdom

Called to be Arks of Covenant

Building on the true foundation of divinity

Bow the knee before the true King

Provoking the Bridegroom in jealousy

The purity of Covenant, sin and repentance

Naboth honours the Covenant

Tear down the false altars and covenants

Knowing and learning from God

Taking the Covenant seriously again

It has been a while now that God has spoken about the importance of the Covenant. Remember, we as the children of God have a covenant in place with God. A covenant is similar to an agreement, or a binding contract. By the Covenant of Grace, we are redeemed and liberated from our sins and former life of carnality. Yet we also have a part to play, even though we may not always think so.

Our part is to love God, to obey Him, to follow His Word, to have no other ‘gods’, to lead holy and pure lives and to fulfil the Great Commission. It is in simplicity also to uphold the Ten Commandments. We build on the foundation of Jesus (Matthew 7) when we begin to uphold and honour the Covenant. Jesus gave all His Blood for the Covenant, which ensures our eternal life, provision and protection.

How often do we truly stand still and contemplate the Covenant? We often think of Jesus’ death and ascension solely in light of redeeming us from sin, yet His Blood was shed to ratify (sign or give formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement, therefore making it officially valid) the Covenant. There is the consensus that God did it all and it is now finished so we have nothing to do except bask in the glory of our salvation. This is an erroneous mindset. We are called to serve the Lord as faithful stewards.

Former president of America, John F. Kennedy, once said: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” This same concept applies to our walk with God. For God does His part, yet what we doing for His Kingdom? We live in a time and age where so many are inactive in doing the work of the Lord, just attending church to be blessed and to receive from God. They are constantly asking for God to do something for them. Yet are we prepared to do something for the Kingdom?

Communion of course speaks of the New Covenant, as it deals with the blood shed by Jesus and His body broken for our redemption. The Apostle Paul alluded in 1 Corinthians how the Covenant is not being taken seriously because of how the people were taking communion. Often a “love feast,” or fellowship meal, would accompany communion, meaning communion was more of an “event” than it is in many churches today. 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 indicates that some were gorging themselves at the feast while others were left hungry. Some were even getting drunk. Separation between rich and poor was evident.

As a result of the unfairness and gluttony surrounding communion, Paul says they were not even eating the Lord’s Supper (verse 20). The people were not treating communion as a sacred ordinance instituted by Jesus. Instead of reminding people of Jesus’ sacrifice, communion became a means of self-gratification, furthering the divisions among the Corinthian Christians. After describing the situation and explaining what communion should be, Paul writes, “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves” (1 Corinthians 11:27–29).

Paul is essentially asking the people to do a “heart check” before communion. Are their hearts in the right spot? Are they eating the meal to remember Christ’s sacrifice and to engage in community? Are they divided among themselves or unified in Christ? Are they having communion, or are they just selfishly satisfying their appetites?

What Paul was saying reminds us that it is too precious a thing to treat communion as a meaningless religious ritual. This is because the Covenant is not meaningless. Jesus paid for the Covenant with His blood. He endured suffering so that we may be redeemed and so that we may have a relationship with divinity. It is also important to be up to date with God regarding any unconfessed sins or un-surrendered areas in our lives. In other words, perform a “heart check” on yourself. It is important to note here that being “up to date” does not imply perfection. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:31–32 that we are to judge ourselves appropriately and allow the Lord to discipline and sanctify us. We should have the psalmist’s attitude when he prayed, “Forgive my hidden faults” (Psalm 19:12).

The question is, do we take the Covenant seriously, as reflected in the way we take communion? Are we working out our faith and living in an active relationship with God, allowing Him to do His sanctifying work in our lives? If so, communion should be a sobering celebration of Christ and His church. If not, we make a mockery of the ordinance.

Jesus stressed the importance of upholding the sanctity of earthly marriages and spoke against divorce. The Lord was strict on the matter because marriage also involves a covenant, very similar to the spiritual covenant between God as the Bridegroom and the Church as the Bride. If we cannot even honour our earthly covenant, how can we possibly honour the spiritual one?

Paul wrote in “Ephesians 5: 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

By our spiritual covenant, we are betrothed unto God, and we will one day celebrate the marriage with the feast in heaven. The covenant with God cannot be treated as likely, and if we violate it with our sins and idolatry, it is similar to a spouse being unfaithful in marriage. Violating the covenant is spiritual unfaithfulness. We betray our heavenly Bridegroom. We also anger our Lord.

In Jeremiah 33 we read, “19 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 20 “Thus says the Lord: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, 21 then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. 25 “Thus says the Lord: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, 26 then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’ ”

Consider what the Lord said in Jeremiah 33. He has a covenant (an agreement) in place with creation, speaking of daytime and the seasons! God has made all things, and all things created obey God. By the covenant, all things exist for now by God’s order and all things created within that covenant fulfil its function. There is, therefore, an agreement in place: God has made the sun and the moon and daytime and nighttime functions according to God’s order. Oh yes, the entire creation functions properly in agreement. To Job, the Lord said in chapter 41:  1 “Can you draw out Leviathan[a] with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? 2 Can you put a reed through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3 Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you? 4 Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?” Take note of verse 4. Only God is supreme as the Creator of all. Job 38:22-23 says, “Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” God is in control of all creation, and all creation obeys the covenant God has made with living creatures, even Leviathan.

Shall we not as living creatures created by Him, therefore, also not consider the importance of obedience and submission unto Him? In this series of works, we look at the importance of the Covenant, and the absolute necessity to honour and uphold it. God is not one to be mocked and trifled with. He is holy, mighty and glorious. As His creation, we need to pay attention to Him, to His order, and to truth. May we worship Him and may we walk in His holiness as Covenant-keeping servants of the Most High. 

A Covenant reflecting God’s heart

The Church (the believers who worship in Spirit and Truth) has been called to bring the lost under the Covenant of the Lamb, while the devil is ‘working’ just as hard to destroy, deceive and devour the innocent. The devil wants the world to burn to the ground, but the Holy Spirit was sent so that we can walk in victory and lead others to be victorious.

We have been empowered, equipped and anointed not for self-gain, self-glorification, self-exaltation or even to achieve success, but to lead a broken world back to the Lord, thus to the Covenant and, therefore, to rebuild and restore the altar. To restore the altar calls for us as believers to first commit again to the Covenant of the Lord, to honour it, to stay true to the Covenant and to walk in the reality of the Covenant. And secondly, to honour the Covenant by fulfilling the Great Commission, which calls for evangelising and making disciples of all nations.

We as Gentiles by the sacrifice and ascension of Jesus stand under the New Covenant also referred to as the Covenant of Grace for it is by grace that we have been saved by our faith in the Son of God. We have to remember a Covenant is an agreement. This agreement is taken very seriously by the Lord, for His Son had to die a brutal death in order for the Covenant to be sealed and to be brought into effect. By this Covenant, the Lord is our Saviour, Redeemer and Deliverer and Lord, and by this Covenant, we are His sons and daughters who should faithfully love and follow and serve Him with all our hearts and minds.

This spiritual struggle – if we can call it that since God is Sovereign above all – is over man’s redemption or damnation. And such salvation or damnation is interlocked when a Covenant is made. We can either willingly submit to God or allow Him to make a covenant with us or we can give the devil a foothold and thus legal ground to operate in us. When we give him legal ground, we have a pact or agreement by which the devil can walk through our lives to devour and kill.

James 4 sums up our walk of victory or walk of shame: “7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God and He will come close to you. [Recognize that you are] sinners, get your soiled hands clean; [realize that you have been disloyal] wavering individuals with divided interests, and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery].”

We are either going to draw closer to God, or we are going to allow the devil to draw closer to us. It is that simple. There is no rocket science involved. Either we make a covenant with God, or we dance with the devil. We cannot serve two masters. To uphold the Covenant, therefore to restore the altar, calls for us to serve only one true Master, and none other. We cannot walk in light and darkness. We cannot serve God and Baal. We cannot serve God and this world. And yet this is what is happening in churches – we are violating the Covenant by serving two masters, and thus the altar is being broken down. We need to restore the altar by ridding our lives of all idolatry and apostasy and seek God as our First Love above all.

At times we do not understand the importance and the power of the Covenant. We have a Covenant with the Lord, sealed by the Blood of Jesus. In that Covenant is our deliverance, healing and citizenship in heaven. By the Blood, we are free from the bondages of sin, from the strongholds of the mind and of hell, and we are liberated in the Spirit to abide in a true and real relationship with God.

But just as important as to know what this covenant entails, is also to realise that we should only have one true covenant to a master, and no other covenant. We after all cannot serve two masters, for then we have two covenants. We cannot serve two masters, for this is idolatry.  Matthew 6: 24:  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in).

Satan has been at ‘work’ to get mankind to a point of serving more than one master, therefore ‘signing’ various covenants. If we have a number of covenants then we walk in idolatry, therefore rebellion, therefore we stand a good chance of undergoing a state of spiritual apostasy. Rebellion after all is like the sin of witchcraft [sorcery]. How can we expect the Lord and the devil to have a share of one person? Again, light and dark cannot co-exist.

We cannot serve man and God. We cannot serve the kingdoms of the world and the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do, we bow before two altars. If we do so, we burn with God’s fire and profane fire. This cannot be. It is time again that we return to the Covenant by committing our very lives again to the Lord, so that there is a cry in our hearts we will serve no other God and that He is our First Love and He is our Master and Lord!

There is only the Covenant with one spiritual master that should be in place – and that is with God. The other existing and abiding covenant on earth that has deep spiritual significance is that of the marriage, but marriage deals not with master and servant but it is an agreement of two becoming one. We at times do not realise the power of the Covenant. By that agreement, we walk in victory and we are more than conquerors. Under the Blood of the Lamb, Satan’s power has been disarmed and we walk in the grace not to sin.

The Lord reminds us that indeed life lies in the Blood. Leviticus 17:14 As for the life of all flesh, the blood of it represents the life of it; therefore I said to the Israelites, You shall partake of the blood of no kind of flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats of it shall be cut off. A Covenant sealed by blood has been made since the ancient of days, with Jesus being the last great High Priest who shed His Blood so that we can be free from the yoke of slavery and darkness.

If the power of the covenant lies in the blood, then surely the devil will also try to attack the very blood [our life source] so that we are bound and yoked to unholy and deceptive covenants. And so the world has fallen into all kinds of occult rituals, making a covenant with the devil. People are these days literally “selling their souls” to be rich or famous.

How we need to pray for the Lord to show us if we have any unholy covenants in place! Yes, we can even have unholy covenants with man. God has called us to make a true and everlasting Covenant only with Him. The only other true covenant in the eyes of God is within marriage. Yet we remain yoked to this world because of unholy covenants, and so we open doors through which we can be influenced, and thus we are no longer under the sole influence of God.

It should be noted that in political circles treaties and alliances are often seen as a form of a covenant. This will certainly apply to nations or tribes. Israel was often in the Old Testament in trouble for making a treaty or alliance with another country, as they often sought help from Egypt. After all, their true and only Covenant was with God, who was and still is their only true helper, strength, and redeemer. Still today we as believers must always consider that within a personal capacity, we can have no other pact or agreement or alliance with anyone except with God. Yes, we as believers are one because of the Blood of the Lamb and we are united because of our common alliance with God, but our Covenant remains with God. We are not called to make any other covenant or alliance with man. Yet this happens daily as we for example sign church memberships, and so we come into covenant with the presiding pastor who is head of the congregation, and so we bind ourselves to the regulations, traditions, laws and rules and doctrine of that denomination, except of staying true to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah stood on a mountain after wanting to hide in a cave. He had just confronted the false prophets of Baal upon Mount Carmel, but he was weighed down in his soul by those who wanted to take his life. We read, “13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Let us understand Elijah was both in distress because his own life was in danger but also because his people had no longer stayed true to the covenant of the Lord as forged on the mountain when God gave Moses the Law. As a prophet, this spiritual condition bothered Elijah deeply, for he was seeing how his people had turned away from the Lord and His commandments. Translations use the word “forsaken” or “violated” to describe Israel’s backslidden ways.

In Jeremiah 31 we read of a prophecy regarding a future dispensation, and this prophecy was the fulfilment of the New Covenant. When one however looks at the purpose of the New Covenant, then sadly one also comes to that realisation, as it dawned upon Elijah, that we as God’s people also continually violate and forsake the covenant of the Lord. After all, how faithfully and with what great fervour in love and compassion do we serve the Lord, and how faithful are we staying to the two greatest commandments?

To understand how we so often forsake the Covenant, we take heed of the following in the prophecy by Jeremiah in chapter 31: “33 I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

If we thus read Jeremiah 31, we comprehend the purpose of the New Covenant was for God’s very nature and character and thoughts and attitudes and motives to rule our hearts and mind. This was the true intent of the sacrifice of Jesus, so that we may be adopted into the Kingdom as sons and daughters and so be granted access into God’s presence. And by that access and by the Holy Spirit, the intent is for God’s presence to increase in our lives so that we may become more like Him and know Him in a true and real relationship. The New Covenant comes down to God wanting to put His “heart” so to speak in ours, so that our very lives may function and operate in His love and according to His complete and perfect will.

It says in Colossians 2 (New King James Version): 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Under the Laws of Moses, the covenant between the people and the Lord required males to be physically circumcised. Under the New Covenant, the physical circumcision becomes one of a spiritual nature, where our old ways should be circumcised [cut away] so all that we do and think and feel speaks of love and glory for our Lord. This inner circumcision is what Jeremiah 31 alluded to, for it is a circumcision whereby the Lord says “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.”

How the Lord longs for a people who will push aside their own self-centred ways and the darken nature of the world by moving in His love and light and life, for then truly He is our God and we are His people. When we stay true to the Covenant, then we stay true to His heart of love and we stay true to His truth and ways of holiness. How the Lord longs for a people who will know Him and love Him deeply, so that we may love each other deeply in Spirit. How the Lord longs for a people who will see beyond their own needs to focus on the needs of a broken world, be it spiritual or physical. For has Jesus not Himself said for us to seek first the Kingdom of God?

By the covenant of grace we should be renewed in mind and have our hearts that were once alienated from Him to become circumcised, which means consecrated in love unto Him. The Lord has called us to walk in His love, life, truth and light. We can only do so when we seek Him above all.

How do we violate the covenant? By not allowing God’s will to be done in our lives, and not allowing for our hearts to be conformed to His beauty and love. Indeed, we betray the covenant when we persist in our old ways and live according to the selfish desire and intentions of our hearts. God’s love speaks of a love for all, and it speaks of His Kingdom and of the lost and the physical and spiritual needy. The world is spiritually broken and the fires of discontent, hatred and bitterness are consuming the nations. Where then are the sons and daughters of the Lord to sow love in times of chaos and hope in times of distress? We betray the covenant through our state of idolatry and making covenants with others.

How can we truly know the need of the world when we hold onto our ways of pride and selfishness, instead of allowing God’s love to permeate our souls? We can only move in the Spirit and in love when we have come to that point where our stubborn hearts have been broken and circumcised so that we serve God with all that we have.

Ezekiel 11: 17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”’ 18 And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. 19 Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them,  and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel was also speaking about a future time of a people being reconciled with God, and the prophet speaks of a time where the people will have one heart – a heart of flesh and not of stone - and the Spirit will be in them so that they may follow the Lord’s truths and commandments. Under the New Covenant, this prophecy has also come into fulfilment. By the outpouring of the Spirit, we are filled by the Spirit, and by the sacrifice of Jesus, we can be reconciled unto God. But how the Lord calls for us to put away the detestable things and all its abominations and how the Lord calls for us to walk according to a heart of flesh and not stone. The Lord desires a people who will follow and serve faithfully in love and truth. He wants a people who will serve each other and be like the Good Samaritan who reached out to the helpless.

Indeed, we should take note that the Lord says He will give them one heart. God wants to give His people one heart, meaning that we allow God’s heart of love, grace, mercy, beauty and life to guide and determine our path and ways. Indeed, when we as His sons and daughters allow our stony hearts to be circumcised, then we allow God’s heart to change our old ways. If we do so, then we stay true to the Covenant and we become one as a people under the New Covenant.

In order to undergo such a circumcision, it requires a state of brokenness in His people, where our hearts need to break for Him and His Kingdom and for the needy and the lost and the dying. It is a brokenness of love for we have to be humble and come to the end of our old and selfish ways. In this brokenness will be found humility and in submission, we will come to the feet of the Lord. There at the fountain of life, we may drink and be healed. How we need to be healed from our own selfishness, lawlessness, rebellion, idolatry and wickedness. How we need to be healed from our spiritual apathy, from being idle, from being passive in our zealous love for God’s truth and being hard of heart while the world is dying physically and spiritually.

Only out of such brokenness do we come to the end of ourselves and deny ourselves, and then repentance and a state of turning away from the bareness of this world. God wants to increase in us so that His healing will take hold of us. And then we begin to restore the altar. And we restore when we return to God alone, and when we honour the Covenant of Grace. Ah, praise the Lord! A time has come for the Potter’s touch, and in that touch of brokenness where we abandon ourselves to Him, we shall experience judgement grace – judgement in our sin, yet the grace to come to Him, to seek Him, to know Him and love Him deeply.

Out of that state of brokenness where we die unto ourselves, we shall live for God. In that circumcision, we shall come to an end in ourselves – being the greatest of idols – for we shall truly see and know the heart of God and there we shall find our way. And as we lay down our lives in brokenness, and as we lay down our ways in submission unto His authority, then His life will truly take hold of us. It is time for us to decrease and for Him to increase so that His will and not ours is done.

Truly, those who come to brokenness allow themselves to be broken, allowing the Spirit of truth to lead, to mend and to guide. How we need the Spirit of burning and how we need to have a broken longing for a broken world. Let us submit, let us be obedient, let us follow Him, and let us cast away our idols and our earthly treasures – for there at the foot of the cross God takes His rightful place in our hearts. May we stay true to the Covenant by the Blood of the Lamb.

God of Covenant

Who makes the Covenant when it comes to the Godhead? The Father. How can we say this? John 6:40 says, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 5:19 says, “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” Jesus came to earth to do the will of the Father. And what is the will of the Father? It says “that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life.”

It is God the Father’s intent for us all to be saved, so that we may be adopted as His children. For this to happen, God, the Father set in motion an incredible masterplan of salvation starting from the days of Adam and Eve leading up to the coming and resurrection of Jesus. Our Lord Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane the following (Matthew 26): “39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” The will of Jesus is the will of the Father. Jesus fulfilled the will of the Father to become the sacrificial lamb to atone for our sins. Oh yes, Jesus and the Spirit surely agreed with the Father on the master plan, but the Covenant that God made with man surely was made primarily by the Father, even though Jesus and the Spirit are One.

John 12 says, “23 But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much [d]grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. 27 “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name.”

We are offered a glimpse into the incredible richness of the Father’s heart when we consider the intricate nature of all the covenants. Every covenant was made with an incredible purpose, despite great position and resistance, so that God’s master plan may be driven forward. From the days of Noah to the turbulent times of Moses and David, the Father relentlessly fulfilled His incredible plan of redemption so that Jews and Gentiles may be saved. Oh yes, we serve an incredible and awesome God!

A covenant in the ancient world was similar to what we in the modern world would call a contract, treaty, or will. Each covenant established the basis of a relationship, conditions for that relationship, promises and conditions of the relationship and consequences if those conditions were unmet. One of the most familiar examples of a covenant for us is marriage. Covenant comes from Latin origin (con venire), meaning a coming together. It presupposes two or more parties who come together to make a contract, agreeing on promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities. The biblical words most often translated "covenant" are berit in the Old Testament and diatheke in the New Testament. The preferred meaning of this Old Testament word is bond; a covenant refers to two or more parties bound together. The New Testament word for covenant has usually been translated as covenant, but testimony and testament have also been used.

Why do I think understanding the covenant is so important? It is because the covenants provide the skeletal framework for how the whole biblical story holds together. As the story of the Bible unfolds, we see God is a covenant-making, covenant-keeping, and covenant-fulfilling God. God establishes covenants with certain people and these covenants are the way God unfolds his redemptive plan. The covenants are the structure of the story.

Covenant relationships are found all throughout the Bible. There are personal covenants between two individuals (e.g., David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 23), political covenants between two kings or nations (e.g., King Solomon and King Hiram in 1 Kings 5), legal covenants with a nation (such as the laws about freeing Hebrew slaves), and so forth. Entering into covenants was a major part of what it meant to live in the ancient Near East. So God partnered with humans through a structure they already understood.

The covenantal story that set the ball rolling for our salvation began when God created humans in His image to partner with Him in spreading goodness throughout the world. The word “covenant” (Heb. berit) isn’t explicitly used in Genesis 1, but the details of the relationship are similar to later covenants in the text. God as the Father invites Adam and Eve to be priest kings and represent his generous rule on Earth. They could enjoy and reproduce blessings of eternal life as long as they continued to trust and partner with him. But as God lays out the terms of their relationship, He warns them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it would bring the curse of death on humanity.

And in their first test of covenant faithfulness, humans failed. They ate from the tree, fracturing the human-divine relationship and plunging humanity into corruption and death. We’d still be stuck in the wreckage if God never intervened. But the rest of the Bible is all about how God is repairing this broken partnership with humans. God the Father stepped in because His plan was for a spiritual offspring of people who would love Him.

In about a dozen places in the Bible, the Lord God is referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 50:24; Exodus 3:15; Acts 7:32). This name of God emphasises the covenant that God made with Israel and the Israelites’ special place as God’s chosen people. This is significant, because, through such covenants, God the Father established His family throughout the world, today compromising of both Jews and Gentiles.

God repeated the Abrahamic Covenant to three different generations: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all given the promise of land, many descendants, and blessings. The Lord first calls Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan, establishing a covenant with him (Genesis 12:1–3). God reaffirms the same covenant with Abraham’s son, Isaac (Genesis 21:12; 26:3–4), and later with Isaac’s son, Jacob (Genesis 28:14–15). The Lord who established and ratified this covenant is rightly called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

When God revealed Himself to Moses in preparation for bringing His people out of Egypt, He called Himself “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” in Exodus 3:15. He also instructed Moses to identify the Lord by that name when speaking to the Israelites (verse 16). In this case, the name carries a couple of important implications. First, when God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He clearly distinguishes Himself from the gods of Egypt in whose land the Israelites dwelt. Second, the reference to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob implies a reason for the exodus: the promise of land. God had vowed that the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would inherit a certain geographical area. God’s faithfulness and Israel’s blessing were directly tied to Israel’s possession of the Promised Land, and the name God uses for Himself harkens back to the covenant with Abraham.

Such a title also reminds us that He is a Covenant-making God. Jesus alluded to God’s burning bush appearance to Moses and used God’s name to teach a lesson on the resurrection to the Sadducees: “About the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:31–32). As Jesus points out, the verb am is in the present tense; God did not say, “I was the God of your fathers.” He said, “I am their God,” showing that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still alive (in heaven) in Moses’ day.

In Acts 3, as Peter preaches to the Jews in the temple, he refers to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a name that his hearers would have commonly used in their worship. Peter and John had just healed a lame man, who was now standing before them. Peter attributes the miracle to the power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, working through Jesus. In other words, Peter was careful to link the miracle they had just witnessed to the one and only God of their fathers. The same God who spoke to the patriarchs was at work in their midst, and Jesus should get the glory.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has always had a plan that spans the ages. It involves a Savior who provides forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. That plan was set in motion when God called Abram and blessed him, and that plan was brought to fulfilment when Jesus died and rose again. Through the seed of Abraham, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob blessed all the nations of the world. After all, Jesus came so that the world might be saved through Him. Apart from Him, there is no salvation, only judgment.

The covenant with Abraham is of incredible importance, for it promises to bless his descendants physically and to bless all mankind spiritually through Jesus Christ (Genesis 12:1-3; 22:16-18; Galatians 3:8, 16). Along with such a covenant, the Father’s master plan involved other significant covenants, such as the Noahic Covenant, The Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant. All of them deal with God the Father’s master plan of establishing His family – both physical and spiritual – on the earth.

In Genesis 9 we find a covenant God establishes with Noah after the flood in which he resets and renews the blessings of creation, reaffirming God’s image in humanity and the work of dominion. This covenant promises the preservation of humanity and provides for the restraint of human evil and violence.

In Exodus 19 and 24 we find the covenant God established with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai after he led them out of Egyptian slavery. With it, God supplies the Law that is meant to govern and shape the people of Israel in the Promised Land. This Law was not a means of salvation but would distinguish the people from the surrounding nations as a special kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:1-7). This covenant was conditional and defined blessings and curses based on obedience or disobedience (see Deuteronomy 28-29). Understanding the Mosaic Covenant is foundational to understanding the cycles of blessing and curse in the Old Testament, the exiles of Israel and Judah, the disputes between Jesus and the Pharisees and Paul’s pastoral teachings about law and grace.

In 2 Samuel 7, we find the covenant where God promises a descendant of David to reign on the throne over the people of God. It is a continuation of the earlier covenants in that it promises a Davidic king as the figure through whom God would secure the promises of land, descendants, and blessing. This covenant becomes the basis for the hope of a Messiah and makes sense of the Gospels’ concern to show Jesus was the rightful King of the Jews.

Regarding the New Covenant, see Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Luke 22:14-23. This is a language first used in Jeremiah’s promise of rescue and renewal of the exiled people of God in Babylon. It promises a coming day when God will make a new covenant, unlike the one which Israel had broken. This coming day would bring forgiveness of sin, internal renewal of the heart, and intimate knowledge of God. On the night of Jesus’s Last Supper, Jesus takes the cup and declares that his death would be the inauguration of this new covenant. This is where God the Father’s master plan comes into fulfilment, for the physical family of Israel is extended into a spiritual family.

Deuteronomy 5:29 shows us clearly that God knew human nature would fail. Man might have good intentions, but the ability to fulfil them wasn’t there. God prophesied through the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel that He would create a new heart in us and give us His Spirit and write His laws on our hearts and minds (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:24-28; see “What Is the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31?”). It was always God the Father’s intention to make it possible for all mankind to know Him, and that was through His Son Jesus. The things of the Old Testament were but temporary, yet opened a doorway to the eternal and everlasting promises of redemption.

So from Genesis to the coming of Jesus, we are privy to God the Father’s master plan playing out, which is the redemptive plan to restore humanity to its divine calling. Starting in Genesis, God enters into one formal partnership after another with various humans in order to rescue his world. These divine-human partnerships drive the narrative forward until it reaches its climax in Jesus. To tell the story of God redeeming humanity through Jesus is to tell the whole story of God’s covenantal relationship with humans. It speaks of God’s incredible love, and how the Father longs to be with us, and for us to walk with Him. God initiated all these covenants for one purpose – for us to be a redeemed family.

Do you notice how the covenants progressively build upon one another, forming a complete redemptive storyline? God preserved the world through Noah, initiated redemption through Abraham, established the nation of Israel through Moses, promised an eternal shepherd-king through David, and then fulfilled all of his covenants through Jesus. With each covenant, God’s promises and plans to save the world through the seed of the woman become clearer and clearer until we finally see that redemption can only come through King Jesus.

After all, the New Testament authors present Jesus as the offspring of Abraham who trusted Yahweh, even to the point of death, and became a blessing to all nations. He is the greater Moses, leading us out of bondage, and He is the obedient Israelite who perfectly follows the laws of God. He is the royal son of David who inaugurated God’s Kingdom in his life, death, and resurrection, and who now sits at God’s right hand forever reigning as the one true King. Jesus perfectly succeeded at every point where humanity failed. He is the guarantor and mediator of the new and better covenant (Heb. 7:22, 9:15). Now people from every nation, tribe, and tongue who trust Jesus can become a part of God’s covenant family.

In summary, God created man in His own image and likeness for a purpose—to offer man eternal life as children in His family (Hebrews 2:10). Instead, humans chose disobedience and death. It is only through the promise made to Abraham that salvation can come and man can be saved. People must repent and turn away from sin and accept Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf, and then these eternal offers from God can be theirs. This renewed biblical covenant is based on the same laws but has the benefit of the help of the Holy Spirit and better promises. This New Covenant supersedes the Old Covenant and brings us to a point of evaluating our own lives in the light of God’s law, which is holy, just and good. Only in this way can we receive the promise of eternal life, which God has made possible for all mankind through Jesus Christ.

So considering to what lengths God went to achieve His master plan through the covenant, surely He then deserves all our attention, devotion and love? The Lord reminds us He is always to be our first love. As the Father called Israel to love Him as their First Love, still today He deserves all our honour and praise. He is a jealous God, and when He speaks, we should listen and we should obey. The greatest commandment in Matthew 22 is clear: “37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.” Exodus 20:3 says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” We are called to love God above all else. He is called to be our first love.

Of the greatest commandment, we read in Mark 12 (NIV): “28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

What Jesus said in Mark 12 is what Moses said in “Deuteronomy 6: 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” God doesn’t change. Of Israel under the Old Covenant, He called them to serve and love Him with all their strength. Of the disciples under the New Covenant, the same applies.

Remember, this greatest commandment applies to God as the Trinity, therefore, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some view this as only applicable to the Father, for the commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai by all probability the Father. Yes, all honour goes to the Lord for God is One. We are called not to only worship Jesus or blaspheme the Holy Spirit, but we are called to love the Lord as Father above all as well. The Law of Moses says the following about worshipping God alone: to know that God exists (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6), not to entertain the idea that there is any god but the Eternal (Exodus 20:3), to know that God is One, a complete Unity (Deuteronomy 6:4), to love God (Deuteronomy 6:5), and to fear Him reverently (Deuteronomy 6:13; 10:20). Simple and clear instructions.

So what does it then mean to serve God with all our strength? We can also ask do we really serve and love God with all our strength. For if we do, then we must make every effort, day and night, to obey God, to follow Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. And this applies to the Father as well. We must do so with every ounce of our strength, with every ounce of conviction, and there must be no room, none whatsoever, for the world to steal our love for God, or our devotion, loyalty and faithfulness. To love God with all our strength (might) is to constantly all the time seek His will, His ways and truth. It calls for us to pay attention to God, to be serious about Him above everything else and to love Him as our First Love.