Covenants worksheet
Q1 There are five covenants in the Old Testament. They are conditional (Suzerain-Vassal) or unconditional (Royal Grant). Try to describe in your own words what these two types are about (see https://ibsw.nl/covenants?embed=1)
1. The Noahic Covenant
After having sent a global flood to destroy the wickedness that had become so prevalent on earth after the Fall, God promised Noah (and by extension all humanity) to never again destroy the world with a flood.
Key verse is Genesis 9:11 (NKJV) I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
Q2 What was the sign that God gave us to remember Him of His promise (Genesis 9:8-17)?
This is an example of a Royal Grant (unconditional) covenant; there is nothing that Noah or his descendants (all of us) must do to ensure that this promise is fulfilled. Instead it finds its validity purely in God’s faithfulness.
2. The Abrahamic Covenant
Years after the Flood (Genesis 6:9 through -11), pride leads the people to rebel against God by constructing the tower of Babel. After having dispersed them by confusing their languages, God would eventually choose one man and one nation as the instrument of His blessing to the entire world.
Key passage is Genesis 12:1-3 (NKJV) “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘1Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2I will make you a great nation; 3I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
In this covenant God promised Abraham three specific things:
1. He will be made into a great nation (Genesis 12:2).
2. This nation will be led into the Promised Land (Genesis 12:1).
3. Through him (Abraham) all people of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3).
The Abrahamic Covenant is in part a Suzerain-Vassal condidional covenant, as God required first that Abraham get up, leave his home and his family, and follow God to the land He would show him (Genesis 12:1). However, some aspects of the Abrahamic covenant are also in line with an unconditional Royal Grant. For example, God’s promise to make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation and bless all of the nations through his lineage is an unconditional promise from God.
See also Genesis 22:15-18 (NKJV) 15Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Q3 Thinking of the two passages of Genesis 12 and Genesis 22, what was a conditional promise, what was the condition, and what was unconditional?
Q4 It seems that Genesis 22 repeats Genesis 12. True? Or was the promise extended? What was added and why?
3. The Mosaic Covenant
Key verses are Exodus 19:5-6 (NKJV) 5“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
Exodus chapters 19-24 are key to understanding both redemptive history and the history of Israel as a nation. A conditional promise, the Mosaic Covenant is dependent on the peoples’ response to the law He gives through His servant Moses. God tells Moses that if Israel obeys, they will be His chosen people, His treasured possession. Ultimately, these blessings will be extended to all people. This conditional promise is a Suzerain-Vassal covenant and brings Israel closer to realizing the promises made by God in the Abrahamic Covenant.
Q5 Is this covenant totally conditional? What are the conditions? And what is promised?
Q6 What are the two types of history encapsulated in this covenant? Why is this history so important?
4. The Davidic Covenant
After the people disobeyed the commands made in the Mosaic covenant, God made the Davidic covenant as a means to bring them back into relationship with Himself. The key passage for this promise is 2 Samuel 7:12-17 (NKJV) 12When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” 17Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
Q7 Here God makes a covenant to David and his descendants that his house will rule over Israel forever. Who is speaking here?
Q8 What type of covenant is this?
Although the Davidic covenant is an unconditional covenant, there is a part of it which has a contingency: if the ruler of Israel is obedient, he will be blessed. If not, he will be cursed. As the books of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles show us, Israel had many examples of both disobedient and obedient kings, which eventually lead to the nation’s exile.
Fulfillment
The promise of an eternal kingdom is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, who is of David’s kingly lineage. In the New Testament, Luke 1:30-33 (NKJV) tells us 30But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
5. The New Covenant
As Christians we think that the New Covenant is about Jesus in the New Testament. That’s right. But, this covanant is announced in the Old Testament, through the prophet Jeremiah. Despite the failure of God’s people to live up to the covenants that were made, God graciously made a new one with his people, as Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NKJV) prophesies 31“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
In this passage God makes several distinct promises: He would give them the ability and the desire to follow Him. He would change their hearts and give them a zeal for obedience (vs 34). He will be their God, and they will be His people, and He will forgive the sins of His people (vs 34b).
Fulfillment
This promise finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, as it is through Him we receive forgiveness of our sins and are indwelled by the Holy Spirit who enables us to seek after the things of God. Most clearly we see the fulfillment of the New Covenant through the Scripture passages by the writer of the book of Hebrews, in which we read in hindsight of the Gospels. These key passages are:
Hebrews 8:7-13 (NKJV> 7For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 9It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 10This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” 13By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
Q9 The writer of Hebrews describes what is the consequence of fulfilling the New Covenant (verse 13). What is it? Is it the disappearance of the earlier covenants? Or is it only that the power has been transeferred to the New Covenant?
Hebrews chapter 9 continues to explain the preeminence of the new covenant by focusing on two aspects: First is the superiority of where the sacrifice for sin is applied in the new covenant. Second is the superiority of Christ’s sacrifice, compared to that of the old covenant (BibleRef).
Hebrews 9:28 says so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Q10 An important part of the fulfillment of the New Covenant is yet future. Don’t you see that salvation will be completed in Jesus’ second advent under the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:28)?
Hebrews 10:11-24 (NKJV) 11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. 15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” 17Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Q11 This passage sums it all up. The law of the Old Covenants has another ‘dwelling place’ under the New Covenant. Law and Sacrifices have become obsolete, because the perfect sacrifice has been brought once and for all by our Redeemer. Write your conclusion/summary below.